Simon Forman — Astrologer and Occult Physician

Simon Forman combines medicine, astrology, dream interpretation and private confession in one consulting room. Patients come for illness and leave having revealed marriages, debts, rivalries and fears that may matter more than the original symptoms.

At a Glance

• Name: Simon Forman
• Species: Human
• Base: London
• Role: Astrologer, occult physician and keeper of private casebooks
• Alignment: Neutral
• Campaign status: Alive and active
• Campaign use: Healer, diviner, information broker or morally ambiguous adviser

What Is Simon Forman Doing Right Now?

Forman’s casebooks contain three patients who independently described the same recurring dream of a black door beneath London. None of the patients know one another. One has now disappeared.

Meeting the NPC

Forman asks deeply personal questions in the same tone he uses to ask about fever. He is warm enough to encourage confession and detached enough to write it down immediately afterward.

Encounters

• A noble wants a page removed from Forman’s casebook before anyone else reads it.
• Three unrelated patients report the same impossible dream.
• Forman diagnoses a curse where another physician sees only disease.

Appearance and Manner

Middle-aged, expressive and usually surrounded by papers, Forman dresses respectably but not austerely. His consulting room contains charts, herbs, jars, star tables and shelves of densely written casebooks.

Personality

Curious, ambitious and genuinely interested in helping people, but dangerously willing to treat private lives as data. He can keep a secret for years and then use the pattern formed by several secrets to solve a problem.

Relationships

John Watson: respects Forman’s observations while distrusting his occult conclusions. John Dee: shares interests in astrology and celestial patterns. Patients: include people from many social ranks who would be horrified to discover who else visits him.

Equipment and Resources

• Medical bag and herbal preparations
• Astrological charts and calculating tables
• Private casebooks under lock
• Dream journals and correspondence

Running This NPC at the Table

Forman is an excellent clue junction. His records should connect people who appear unrelated, but accessing those records should create ethical and social consequences.

Adventure Hooks

• The Black Door: Three patients describe the same dream and one disappears.
• The Stolen Casebook: A thief takes a volume containing secrets from several powerful households.
• Watson’s Disagreement: Watson and Forman diagnose the same patient differently, and both may be partly right.
• Dee’s Conjunction: John Dee notices Forman’s strange cases all began under the same sky.

Connected Places and People

• London
• John Dee
• John Watson

Historical and Literary Inspiration

Simon Forman is adapted from the later English astrologer and physician. His casebooks, astrology and unconventional medical practice are translated into fifteenth-century London.

Rules Notes

The game statistics and campaign relationships are original adaptations for the stated rules editions.