Biography and character sheet
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BiographyMortal Days: Profit By Any Means

There are a lot of secret things in this world, some of them beyond the ken of mortals and some not. The Ministry’s vampires are well-versed in the corruption of the soul, but Marcel had already seen plenty of that before he ever heard of the truths harbored by the undead.

The son of a Ghanaian sailor living in Marseilles and an Algerian mother working in the city as a domestic servant, Marcel was exiled from the daylight world from the moment of his birth. He followed in his father’s footsteps and started working at the docks from a young age. He never made a decision to become a smuggler, a fence, and a drug trafficker. It just happened as he followed the best opportunities available.

When he turned 18, Marcel became involved in smuggling weapons to the Algerian National Liberation Front. Although the war ended with Algerian independence in 1962, by the end Marcel had been identified by the French secret services. His war-profiteering-funded lavish lifestyle almost led to his death, and Marcel took the lesson for the rest of his life and unlife.

In the winter of 1962, Marcel lay naked on the wet, concrete floor of a secret prison in the south of France. As the interrogators beat him, he fully expected to die. Instead, he was tortured within an inch of his life and left in the care of a mysterious Haitian man who gave him relief from his pain in the form of blood. As Marcel sucked on the wound on the man’s wrist, he was vaguely aware he’d discovered yet another layer of the secret world.

The Haitian Minister didn’t Embrace Marcel immediately. They used his experience with smuggling and the sea to work in the clan’s heroin trade, transporting drugs mostly to the U.S. market.

It was during this time Marcel understood his previous operations had been mere dabbling, small-time hustles compared to the global vision of the Ministry. Faced with the challenge of transforming himself from a beaten-down wreck into a useful asset in the Ministry’s clandestine war against the other clans, Marcel succeeded and flourished.

The Embrace in 1974 was almost an afterthought, a natural step up in a promising career. As a vampire, he quickly decided to move away from the competitive Ministry scene in Haiti and try his luck in the States. After all, he was already familiar with the territory via his drug-running operations. Settling in Chicago in the wake of the reported death of Prince Lodin, he muscled in on the cocaine trade to provide the financial backing for his goal of increased power in the Camarilla.

A short, compact black man in his early 30s. As a mortal, Marcel used to be strong because of physical labor in the docks, but he softened a little in the years before his Embrace. His strong eyebrows make him look older if he adopts a fatherly pose.

When he’s feeling comfortable, Marcel wears the kind of dashiki he feels would suit the Ghanaian ancestry of his father. He wants to feel connected to the peoples the Ministry is seeking to liberate. That would be all the peoples, but Marcel doesn’t think it wrong to feel sentimental about those to whom he’s personally connected. Otherwise, Marcel likes to dress to set himself apart and play on the outsider status his clan gives him. He’s very good at the physical simulation of being a mortal and makes a special point of keeping it up in his home neighborhood. Among his drug-trade contacts, he often forgets.

Marcel
Sire: Goolooboo
Embraced: 1974 (Born 1943)
Ambition: Acquire a major boon from the Prince and another from the Primogen Council
Convictions: Never debase the undeserving
Touchstones: Deon Adams — a neighborhood kid to whom Marcel has taken a sentimental liking
Humanity: 6
Generation: 11th
Blood Potency: 2
Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4; Charisma 3, Manipulation 5, Composure 3; Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 3
Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 6
Skills: Athletics 1, Drive 1, Firearms 2, Larceny 3, Stealth 3, Survival 2; Etiquette 1, Insight (Secret Needs) 4, Intimidation (Mysterious) 4, Leadership 2, Performance 1, Persuasion 4, Streetwise (Dealers) 4, Subterfuge 3; Awareness 1, Finance 1, Investigation 1, Medicine 1, Occult 1, Politics 2
Disciplines: Obfuscate 1, Presence 2, Protean 3

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