Dr. Mortimer J. Torque – Tinkerer & Steamologist

(a.k.a. Chris Lee)

Dr. Mortimer J. Torque is the founder of the group. He is a world-renowned inventor and the pre-eminent steamologist in the United States. From his secluded headquarters underneath Washington D.C., he runs a string of factories and mills that produce marvel after marvel of the Steam Age. Steamships, motorized carriages, trains, even an airship: The Centennial  that serves as his personal transport to the far corners of the globe.

His latest creation is a steam-powered automated mule on wheels, dubbed Scrappington Hauley. This device was intended as a labor saving aid for man, but something is not quite right with this new invention. Sometimes it seems to act as if it has a mind of its own. In fact, the highly skeptical Dr. Torque has become convinced that a spirit of some sort has possessed his creation. Since coming to this realization, he has also noticed many strange happenings in his factories and at other sites worldwide. He has come to believe that the rising dead are harbingers of the apocalypse, due to arrive sometime after 1900.