Lag happens here. It's something we all deal with.
And here's the little questionnaire and history of Marcus DuLoup, of Cauldron. Might be subject to change/revision, after more City Guard info comes up.
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Are you a Cauldron Native? If not where are you from?
Yep, born and raised, for better or worse. Mostly worse.
Do you have living family? If so, where do they live and what do they do?
My father’s still alive. Mother died when I was little, taken by sickness. He’s a shoemaker here in Cauldron, though I’m trying to get him enough money to get out of this cesspool.
Where do you currently live?
I still live with my father, in the apartment above his shop.
Which characters do you know?
Possibly Val and Svexyn. I went to the Drunken Morkoth on occasion, when my father and I had enough spare coin for a few drinks. Svexyn I may have met on my own patrols, either on-duty or off. Good folks, those two, despite the looks of the latter.
Do you have a mundane job, a way to pay the rent before your adventuring career takes off?
Well, I did… Former guardsman, no longer at your service. I’d rather not get into the details of why… Let’s just say I wanted to make this city a better place to live and my superiors were more concerned with getting their paychecks (and bribes).
How old are you?
Twenty years since I’ve been born, all lived in the wonderful little hellhole we lovingly call Cauldron.
Background:
Marcus was born to Frederic and Melina DuLoup, of Cauldron. They had (foolishly, Marcus now asserts) moved to Cauldron a few years prior, rented a shop with an apartment over it, and his father had set up his previously-successful shoemaking business once again. Times and money were decent then and the neighborhood was fairly average. But when a nasty sickness spread through the streets during Marcus’s fourth summer, Melina caught ill. Frederic ignores business trying to care for his wife, and soon couldn’t afford a healer. Eventually, she died from it.
Since then, his father was depressed, though he still tried to be attentive to the needs of the growing boy. But the shop suffered from his lack of focus and the little family had to become more and more frugal. At fourteen, Marcus lied about his age and got accepted into the city guard’s training program. The money got a little better as he progressed and finally became a full-fledged city guard, albeit a rookie. But it didn’t matter to him. He’d watched as his neighborhood got more run-down over the years, as the thugs and thieves moved in and took over. Now that he was a guard, he would finally have the power and backing to get rid of them. Except for one problem… Plenty of the other guards were bought and paid for by the scum of the street. They didn’t take too kindly to the youngster trying to put their patrons out of business. Finally, when Marcus was trying to get permission for a raid on a particular den of thieves (run by a foul man going by the name of Haig Falk), his superiors had him kicked out of the guard on the basis of “stirring up trouble.” And more trouble came in the form of a few thugs from Haig’s men, attacking and beating Marcus in the street. He fought back against them, never backing down, like a cornered wolf, but there were six against one. It was only stopped when a patrol of guards, including a couple of Marcus’s friends, came by and joined the fray. Two of the six escaped, but the others were taken into custody. Marcus still has a jagged scar above his right eyebrow from the beating.
In the few months since then, times have gotten harder again for Marcus and his father. The same friends who rescued Marcus from the thugs managed to smuggle his former gear to him, which was then supplemented by a little bit of money Marcus had saved for himself. He’s been trying to find work, but his name has been smeared and prospects are difficult to find for a former guardsman.
