Klaus Bauer

Overview

Klaus Bauer is one of twin brothers serving the Brotherhood as hired muscle and grave-robber. He and his brother Werner procure bodies from morgues and cemeteries for use in Engine component acquisition. They are not ideological members of the Brotherhood — they are mercenaries willing to perform illegal and morally reprehensible work for payment (approximately 50 gulden per delivery).

Quick Facts

• Role: Grave-robbing, body procurement, intimidation
• Cost: 50 gulden per corpse delivery
• Motivation: Money, not ideology
• Morality: None; will do anything for adequate payment
• Weakness: Money is his only real loyalty — better payment elsewhere can turn him

To Develop

Full stat block, detailed personality, combat capabilities, interaction guidance, appearance details.

Session 8 Update — Location Confirmed (August 8, 1814)

In the morning of 8 August 1814, Dr. Fischbein delivered confirmed intelligence to Freddy_Cavendish establishing the Bauer brothers’ current location and the documentary chain that put them there:

• Klaus and Werner are quartered at the Black Bear Tavern on Taborstrasse, second floor.
• They were released from Geheimpolizei custody on a release order personally signed by Captain Vogel. Fischbein has the signature confirmed against three other Vogel signatures from prior cases. The paper trail is intact and verifiable, and remains in Fischbein’s possession.

This is the first time the party has had a hard, current address for the Bauer brothers. They are now actionable — locatable for surveillance, confrontation, extraction, or interrogation.

Tactical Profile (Session 9 Encounter Notes)

• Quartered together on the second floor of an active inn. Any operation against them must contend with civilian witnesses on the ground floor and in adjacent rooms.
• Mercenary, not ideological. Klaus has no commitment to the Brotherhood beyond the 50 gulden per body. Better money, or a credible threat, can flip him.
• Brother bond is real. Threatening Werner is the fastest way to get Klaus to talk; threatening Klaus is the fastest way to get Werner to fight.
• Knows the Brotherhood’s body-procurement chain. This makes him a potential intelligence source on where the Engine has been getting its raw material — graveyards, morgues, hospitals, possibly the Polizeidirektion’s own evidence stores.

Status (top of Session 9)

• Physically: Alive, at the Black Bear Tavern, Taborstrasse, second floor
• Operationally: Compromised — the party has his location and the proof of his Vogel connection
• Politically: Vogel does not yet know the party has identified him; the Bauer brothers themselves have no reason to expect a move against them

[!info] Keeper Only The Bauer brothers are designed to be a tractable encounter — the kind of operation the party can win without losing anyone, the kind where the right tactical approach yields intelligence that opens the next stage of the investigation. They are also a useful pressure release between the masquerade catastrophe and whatever the party decides to do about the University. If the party needs a win in early Session 9, the Bauer brothers are the win that is sitting on a plate.

Session 11 Update — Killed at the Black Bear (Evening, 10 August 1814)

Freddy, Adrien, and Thomas raided the Bauer brothers’ room at the Black Bear, Taborstraße, second floor. The landlady was bribed into revealing the room’s location.

Thomas kicked the door in. Klaus drew a knife. Adrien shot him, wounding him severely and throwing him back onto a cot. Klaus staggered back up with his knife while the others fought Werner. Thomas ran Klaus through with his saber. Klaus died on the floor of the Black Bear.

Final Status

• Status: Dead
• Killed by: Thomas_Wyndham (saber)
• Location of death: Black Bear, Taborstraße, second floor
• Date: Evening, 10 August 1814
• Also wounded by: Adrien (pistol shot) earlier in the same fight

Items Found

The party recovered from the Bauer brothers’ room:

• A severed woman’s arm preserved in salt, wrapped in waxed cloth, in a canvas bag smelling of lye
• A morgue receipt from the Allgemeines Krankenhaus
• A crude hand-drawn map of the University basement showing corridors, doors, and a service entrance marked with an X
• A lockbox containing 80 Austrian golden

Relationships

• Brother of Werner Bauer — Twin brother; works alongside Klaus
• Serves Albin Herzfeld — Hired muscle; no ideological commitment