Our heroes are three noble souls, battling the forces of evil and oppression across the known world. Representing the philanthropic Aeon Society for Gentlemen, this trio of globe-trotting do-gooders are always ready to answer the call to action.
Li Mi - Mysterious Oriental
Zachariah van Oort - Millionaire Playboy
William Hamilton-Hunter - Pacifist
Inventor
David Lock - Honest Dick
And they don't just fight crime.
She's an unassuming, death-defying martial arts master with a mysterious past.
Li Mi was born into a very large, very poor Chinese family in Jilin Province, Northern China in around 1897. She was the youngest child of nine, with two brothers and six sisters, and the birth of another daughter caused her parents to despair. Unnamed, she was exposed in the fields on the night of her birth, but she survived, and her parents felt obliged to take her in and name her. She was always the last to be fed, and the first to be punished, and so she grew up tough. Her only real friend was her second eldest sister, Li Xia, who was the one who found her in the field after that first night.
When she was ten years old, Li Mi was sold to the wealthy family of a provincial official as a companion for their nine year old daughter, for a bag of rice and a single copper coin. When the official was transferred to another province, Li Mi was taken from her homeland to Shangdong Province. Her time with the family was miserable. Although she was fed better than she had ever been, she was obliged to endure the taunts and beatings of the official's spoiled, spiteful daughter. One day, she snapped, and struck the younger girl, leaving her no option but to flee.
With no real idea of where to go, the thirteen year old Mi was reduced to begging on the streets of Jinan, and there she probably would have died; if not for Master Hu. Master Hu was a Wu Shu monk who lived in a small house in Jinan, and he took Li Mi in and cared for her. At first she resisted his kindness, attempting to rob him and flee, but the old man proved deceptively alert and agile. At length, he won her trust, and she began working as his housekeeper. Then, after about eighteen months, he began to teach her kung fu.
Li Mi proved an adept student of the martial arts, and soon surpassed her Sifu, who was called Master for his wisdom, not for his kung fu. Consequently, Master Hu sent Li Mi to study at the Wu Shu Monastery in the hills near Tai'an. There she found a shaky welcome, for the monks were not used to the presence of women, but Master Hu's martial brother, Master Chu, took the girl under his wing and began training her in Wu Shu kung fu, and the philosophy that surrounded it.
In 1913, an event occurred which changed Li Mi's life forever. While gathering firewood in the countryside surrounding the Wu Shu Monastery, she found a gang of bandits attacking a group of travellers. She intervened, but was too late to save all but one of the travellers, a young white man, named Zachariah van Oort. She took the injured man back to the Monastery, where the healers gave him up for dead, but after fifteen days unconscious, he awoke able to converse with the monks, despite knowing no Chinese.
All this meant little to Li Mi, but it fascinated Master Chu, who began teaching the young man. Li Mi paid him little attention, until, in 1914, the Japanese invaded Shangdong. Master Chu feared that the monastery would soon be attacked, either by the Japanese, or by the retreating Germans, or by opportunistic local officials or bandits. Consequently, he sent Zachariah away, and instructed Li Mi to go with him. Having saved his life, she was now responsible for it, he explained, and she would have to make sure he did not waste the gift she had given him. The two of them found passage on a small boat going to San Francisco, and Li Mi took to posing as Zachariah's servant to avoid suspicion.
Back in America, Li Mi was miserable. Zachariah became frivolous and petty, and she could do nothing to change him. She knew almost no-one, and it was hard for her to meet new people. Finally, two years after their return, something sparked a change in Zachariah, and he began living up to the power he had been granted. In 1921, Zachariah took up residence at his family's place in San Francisco, and the change of location allowed Li Mi to mingle with the residents of Chinatown. Here she met Bai Teng-su, an immigrant herbalist from Shangdong, with some past connections to the Wu Shu. Not long after, Zachariah and William Hamilton-Hunter purchased Mountain Hold Airfield and the three of them established themselves as professional adventures and troubleshooters.
He's a dashing, millionaire playboy with the power to control men's minds.
Zachariah van Oort is an American of Dutch origins, and the eldest son of a wealthy, industrial dynasty. His father, Jeremias van Oort, is - and always has been - an ambitious, dynamic industrialist, with a Puritan work-ethic. The van Oort family have long been big names in the field of industrial infrastructure; mostly trains and the like, but with a strong handle on the emerging field of air travel. Zachariah's mother, the former Miss Elaine Vanderlee, is absolutely devoted to her husband, but ever since his birth, she has doted on and spoiled her eldest son. While Jeremias certainly loves his children, he pushes them harder than their mother does, in particular his sons. He wants them to take an active role in the business; to help it expand to new horizons; and to fill an important role in the economic future of the nation, and so of the world.
The van Oorts have four children. Esther, the eldest, is a skilled antiquarian and something of an adventuress, travelling frequently to far-flung corners of the world in search of unusual artefacts. Always stubbornly independent, she rows often and fiercely with her father over the way she lives her life, but the old man can not deny his pride that she has always managed - through a shrewd eye for a deal - to pay her own way in the world. The second child, Ruth, is her daddy's princess, beautiful and spoiled. Jeremias is very protective of Ruth, and has seen off more than one over-zealous suitor. The third child is Zachariah, eldest son, and his father's greatest disappointment, and the fourth is Isaac. Very much his father's son, Isaac looks down on his older brother, and resents the fact that Zachariah still stands to inherit a greater share in the business than he does when Jeremias retires or passes on.
Zachariah was born in 1895, and from that day forth was the subject of his father's ambitious expectations. He went to the best schools, but he was never academically inclined. He played sports, and did his reading and his homework, but never did anything more than casually. When he was at home he spent most of his time at his mother's society parties, or his father's industry bashes, and so made few close friends out of school. The only person close to his age who shared his social world even slightly was William Hamilton-Hunter, whose father's firm made parts for Jeremias' manufacturing concerns.
His grades were nothing special, and his entry into Yale was facilitated only by his father's sterling reputation there. Despairing, but unwilling to quit on the boy, Jeremias decided to send Zachariah on a world tour, visiting his factories world-wide, before entering him into College. He started out in China in 1913, and as fate would have it, he finished his tour there as well; and almost his life.
Returning from a visit to a remote factory manufacturing machine parts in Shangdong Province, Zachariah and his companions were set upon by bandits. The others were all killed, but Zachariah - although badly wounded - was saved by the timely intervention of the young martial artist, Li Mi. Mi took the unconscious young American back to the monastery, where - to the great surprise of all, he not only survived his experience, but returned from the brink of death...changed.
The first sign of this change came as he woke, and began conversing freely with the Chinese monks, despite not knowing a word of Chinese. Sensing some higher potential in the boy, the old mystic Chu began to teach him, setting him a long series of exercises to test and improve his concentration and focus, at the same time nursing him back to strength. During the course of these exercises, Chu uncovered and unlocked a great psychic power in the dissolute young American; a power which the old man knew could be nurtured and strengthened if only Zachariah could be persuaded to put his full energy into training.
Then, in 1914, the region was overrun by Japanese troops, in the process of seizing German holdings in the province. With China becoming an increasingly volatile and dangerous country, the monks decided that it would be best to send Zachariah home to America. Mi Li was sent with Zachariah, to protect and guide him, because having saved his life, she was now responsible for it. Chu enjoined Zachariah to continue his exercises, to be mindful of his powers and not to use them for selfish or evil purposes.
Zachariah and Mi Li travelled overland to Hong Kong and took ship for San Francisco, where Zachariah was tearfully reunited with his family, and introduced them to his 'servant', Mi Li. He enrolled at Yale, and studied laxly while enjoying the college social life. Despite the continual presence of Mi Li, and to the growing anger of his guardian, he let his training slide, and began to use his powers to casually invade the privacy of others.
Then, one day in 1916, Zachariah accidentally overheard one of his classmates planning a rape. Appalled, he realised that he had to act, and rescued the girl in question. Moreover, this incident made him realise that his abilities were not toys, and that they did not come without a considerable responsibility. He began to actively combat the wrongs he saw around him, and felt a growing pride in himself, despite a drop in his grades. After his graduation, Zachariah toyed with a few ideas - private detective, police work - before deciding to continue in a freelance capacity. Li Mi was a great help to him, her capable strength protecting him from the consequences of his well-meaning actions when his own abilities failed to meet the challenge.
In 1921 he moved into his family's house in San Francisco, and at about the same time became a member of the Aeon Society for Gentlemen. Through the Society, he was reintroduced to William Hamilton-Hunter, and together with Li Mi, they decided to pool their efforts. Zachariah and William jointly purchased Mountain Hold, an abandoned USAF airfield, and had it fully renovated to act as a base of operations. Zachariah also purchased the xxx, a dirigible which William converted into a mobile headquarters, and the three of the were in business.
He's a war-weary, super-genius scientist who wants to make a difference in a violent world.
He's an honest, hard-working ex-cop-turned-PI who has had a bellyful of corruption.
The Adventurers operate from a well-appointed mansion house, built on an abandoned airfield in the mountains of northern California, just a few hours from the City by air. With its hangars and auxiliary buildings adapted to house their equipment and workshops, all protected by the natural shield of the Coastal Mountain Ranges, Mountain Hold is a perfect base of operations for this team of derring-doers.