Vincent
Player Character in the Voyager campaign. Cousin to Aramil.
The identity of his father was revealed to Roderick by The Fates. For more information, see the writeup about Farmer Teir.
The original backstory writeup from Ken (1 August 2004):
Vincent is the bastard son of a “noble” taken in by his Baron grandfather and nursed back to health by his mother. The Baron found the poor fellow, dressed as a noble, wounded and near death at the borders of his estate. The sonuvabitch talked a good game and in no time at all he had a private room and the Baron's virgin daughter as a private nurse. He gave a name and a lineage just distant enough that we didn't have time to verify it before it was too late. He pumped up Vincent's mother with stories of “revealing their love, and engagement, in a grand public gesture.” Which left her very publicly humiliated when he took off with their best horse and family heirloom sword in the opposite direction on the appointed day. Doubly so when it was discovered that she was pregnant and therefore, among other things, unsuitable for a proper marriage.
Well, you can't take an insult like that out on your own daughter. But her shiftless bastard son - now that's something else.
Growing up, Vincent couldn't get a single break from his Grandfather the Baron. Nothing was ever good enough for the curmudgeon. Vincent didn't study hard enough. He didn't show enough respect. He wasn't strong enough. He wasn't honest enough. And when Vincent started turning to the local merchants and lesser commoners for companionship, even his friends weren't good enough to suit the Baron.
Vincent took to deceit and manipulation like a duck to water. He ran little cons and swindles and, when the duplicity was eventually revealed, always had his noble birth to shield him from real consequences. He may have been unwanted in the castle, but it was understood in the village that anyone spilling the blood of the Baron's kin would face the Baron's wrath most terribly. To Vincent, it only seemed fair that if he wasn't going to be given anything in this life that he see to his own needs.
What was, to Vincent, the greatest insult the Baron ever visited upon him was actually the greatest honor. The Baron tasked Vincent, on more than one occasion, with negotiating with the barbarian tribes that always threatened the Barony's borders. With a sack of “tribute” in one hand and a loaded crossbow in the other, the young Vincent waged peace with the steely nerve of a seasoned veteran. The Baron understood that the boy's deceitful ways could be used to serve the Barony and redeem the lad's personal honor. Entrusting him with such a crucial mission was a signal of respect, albeit a grudging one, from the Baron. Vincent, however saw this duty as nothing more than his grandfather's unsuccessful attempt to get rid of him once and for all through a series of thinly-disguised suicide missions.
When the Baron began receiving hints that Vincent was plotting his murder, he decided that it was best that he and the boy have a “cooling off period”. And so it was that Vincent was gifted with a stay at the resort.
In a year's time, when the Hippogriff is mature, Vincent plans to head home to pay his respects to his Mother. On some level he still longs for affection and affirmation from his grandfather. He is unlikely to receive it.
Vincent's back-story is rife with hooks. Who was his father, really? A Noble from a distant land, as he claimed, torn away from his one true love by the urgent needs of his family's honor? A simple con man? An *extraordinary* con man? Have the treaties Vincent negotiated remained intact? Is all peaceful with the neighboring baronies?
I am personally very satisfied with Vincent's growth as a character and as a person. In the end, he was willing to lay down his life for a friend (his horse) motivated only by personal loyalty, and in quiet, guileless defiance of Roget and Dhersion, the two men whose wills have dominated his world for these past six months. Even while negotiating over the soul gem, he stood up for himself and made a very noble, not greedy, choice, in the hippogriff. I'm naming him Silver, by the way.
Unless destiny intervenes, Vincent will pursue the life of a wandering noble. His charm, riding and training skills, fascinating stories, and unique mount will make him a much-sought-after house guest for years to come. And if someone wants to offer him better compensation than simple hospitality, this lifestyle would also make him an excellent spy. If he knows what is good for him he will stay out of dungeons. He can neither locate nor disarm traps, nor can he pick locks. Of course, if someone were to offer him some lands to call his own, he could be talked into anything. No man can truly call himself a noble until he has deed to a proper manor and lands.