Victor Gagné

Victor Gagné is the protagonist of the Conferences of Victor Gagné, a series of articles in Quoth the Raven. He was created by Benjamin Bauml.

History and Education

Victor was born (719 BC) and raised in Mordent. He was educated at the University of Dementlieu, but also participated in an exchange program to Paridon in the Zherisia Cluster. Victor was present at the time that the Zherisian countryside disappeared, and had to take refuge in the Mordentish Embassy there until he could be evacuated back to the Core.

Although he was allowed to graduate on its merits, Victor's graduation project, the Exudate, was suppressed by the University council. This formula would enable anyone who drank a potion augmented with it to transfer the potion's effects to the people around them, rather than themselves. Although Victor did not agree with the council's concerns, given damaging area of effect-spells were a well-established phenomenon, he decided not to contest their decision and accepted his degree. This may have been a deliberate attempt to suppress advances in the study of alchemy by the Fraternity of Shadows. The Fraternity is well-entrenched in the leadership of the University of Dementlieu. It is also heavily prejudiced against alchemy as an arcane study focused on the physical universe, rather than the abstract and purely intellectual.

In due time, Victor became a member of the professorial staff at the University of Mordent, where he taught alchemy. He fancied that his students would have been shocked to learn he knew any swearwords, indicating he made an effort to present himself in a dignified manner.

Adventures and Misadventures

Victor suffered his first loss during his education, as his dear friend Nikolai Kazić disappeared, and it fell to him to breach the news to Nikolai's devastated parents. Witnessing their grief convinced Victor not to have a family of his own, as he dreaded suffering similar hurt.

Conference I

Victor's life took a grim turn when he accepted an invitation from a reclusive alchemist who dwelt in Falkovnia. Rather than simply being a hermit, Victor's host turned out to be a Psionic Lich by name of Qualensturm, who wished to demonstrate a series of High Alchemy formulas capable of reanimating dead tissue.

Conference II

Although he managed to escape Qualensturm, Victor had an unfortunate encounter with a tsochar, sequestered in the body of a traveller. The parasite transferred into Victor during his sleep, revealing its influence on - and tentacle in - the disappearance of Nikolai Kazić. Only by cunning did Victor manage to get rid of the parasite, as he summoned a shadow demon that the aberration had mentioned forcing into a transposition with a spell of sending.

Conference III

Still Victor's fates had not reversed themselves; the shadow demon Pauthrael abducted him into the Shadow Rift, where it delivered him into the hands of its Veidrava Vampire 'ally', Delthirius Valtyn II. During a brief moment he was left alone, Victor unknowingly managed to repeat his tactic of contacting a demon to secure aid, as he used one of Delthirius' magic items to speak with Harmony Schlosser, persona of the Red Haunt, who promised to send help. Help did arrive, but not before Victor had been turned into a Veidrava Vampire and forced to feed. His first victim, a mother of young twins, died due to his feeding. Ciphramir was part persuaded, part deceived by the demoness to extract Victor, which he did. At this point, the Red Haunt's guises Mother and Charissa Schlosser extracted Victor from Ciphramir's grasp.

Conference IV

To his dismay, Victor was brought not back to life but to half-life as a dhampir by the power of Brightwell as provided by Lillian Schlosser. He misunderstood an explanation by Genevieve Schlosser that some foul entity had been watching and waiting to 'twist' his resurrection, obliging the Red Haunt to preemptively warp his existence to prevent this greater evil from doing so. He assumed this to mean that Qualensturm, Zaxxott Ssentroi or Delthirius had been somehow keeping an eye on him, when the Red Haunt actually detected the interest of the Dark Powers for his plight.

Victor unintentionally shared information on his misadventures with the Red Haunt. He managed to escape the fiend's Oubliette lair with the help of Paloma and the World Engine, but not before learning of the Centurions of the Night and their intention to launch a world war.

Conference V

Separated from Paloma, Victor found himself a guest of Ciphramir. He remains unaware that the rakshasa has extracted a record of his full history from him, and also that the Margrave wished to weaponize him against the Red Haunt. He was released from Ciphramir's care in part due to that monster's own intentions, and in part due to what may have been an intervention by Brightwell, who gave Victor a series of cryptic warnings, including what may be a prophecy that "All words fade, and either meaning remains, or else nothing remains".

Current Sketch

Now free to travel the Core again, Victor seeks to confront the parasite that ruined his dear friend's life and is itself plotting the destruction of the Demiplane of Dread by summoning abominations from the Far Realm.

He is currently unaware - willfully, as he refused to accept a warning from Brightwell - that he has become a father, his child born from the dark womb of the Red Haunt. He is also unaware that he has been weaponized, as he has started drinking blood tainted with a disease especially dangerous to Evil Outsiders.

Statistics

(D&D 3.5) True Neutral Mordentish male Dhampir Wizard 9 / Alchemical Philosopher 3