Marcel Beaumont

A Flint native and docker, come to the RHC after drama involving his theater company and family. Crowned king of Risur in Adventure 9.

## Background

Marcel was born Marcellus Langleigh, an unwanted child of a brothel worker. He lived an unhappy childhood until he met Wesley Beaumont, head of an all-male theater company who adopted Marcel thinking he was an orphan (a misconception Marcel never corrected). In his childhood Marcel did stagehand work for the company and developed a crush on Wesley's protege, Gideon Ambrose. Marcel became an actor within the company as time went on, adopting the stage name Marcel Sterling and finding his niche playing women's roles.

Eventually Gideon's politically bold plays drew police attention that ended in a riot, Gideon himself severely injured. To protect him, Marcel cut a deal with the police: he would become the police's mole within the theater group and use his influence as Wesley's son to downplay the politics, and in return the police wouldn't touch the troupe or Gideon. Marcel convinced Wesley to put on *~~Onegin~~* a certain crowd-pleaser, Marcel cast as the female lead to Gideon's male lead. After Marcel had a particularly amazing performance one night, the two had some celebratory drinks that ended in a drunken affair and some mismatched perspectives about their relationship.

Between Marcel's soured relationship with Gideon and floating rumors about him sleeping his way through the ranks, Marcel eventually made the decision to disappear. He left Bosum Strand and joined the RHC, whose attention he'd gotten after the riot, without any notice to those he knew before.

## Zeitgeist 1.0

Marcel became best friends with Daewin before the current campaign, and came to see Mona as a mother figure after a traumatic incident in Adventure 2. He also developed a mutual romantic interest with Dreues, and lived together with him at Daewin's orphanage after her death.

Signed away Axis Island to Lya Jierre in Adventure 1, and nobody ever lets him live it down. Experienced a lot of trauma in Adventure 2 due to a factory explosion killing workers, which brought him closer to Mona and Dreues, and a bad experience with Cillian Creed. He and Daewin agreed to become RHC moles for the Family, but Daewin was killed in Adventure 3. Yay, more trauma!

## Current Campaign

In Adventure 3 for the current campaign, Morgan Cipiano assigned Gatria as his bodyguard. Marcel had a vision at the Ziggurat of Apet in which his father told him that someday he would not be able to return home. Thankfully this would not come to pass; after Borne's victimless appearance in Adventure 5 Marcel reconnected with his father, in the process learning about and paying for treatment of Wesley's illness. He now maintains a good relationship with his father again.

Over the course of the campaign Marcel thoroughly opposed the Obscurati and believed they all deserved death. This led to conflict in Adventure 8, when he discovered Gideon's former role in the Ob as Irwin Romana and doubled down on the death bit. Everyone chewed him out for it, eventually causing him to start rethinking that position.

In Adventure 9 he was crowned king of Risur after the party saved then-king Aodhan, to ensure the fight against the Obscurati would be in capable hands. Extremely stressful, but he was able to save Flint by mobilizing the dockers as well as the rest of the city to use their collective faith as a shield against the onslaught of planar energy barraging the city.

In Adventure 10 Marcel encountered his mother running the town of Favela while caught between two fey titans (and Marcel). Lis was eventually arrested for treason, but Marcel failed to get any closure regarding his mother. He later made an appearance at the Forward Symposium despite a lack of invitation, in order to counteract the Obscurati's narrative regarding Risur and deliver news of Risur's own.

Marcel continued doing his part as king as the party's work shifted to an international scale, although he had some regrets and/or concerns once he realized his official spymaster Gatria was getting married to a Family head. Politics!

He maintained a growing doubt as to whether he was earning his position, however, and looked to Harkover's approval and guidance. In Adventure 12 his Gyre self realized he would never get the chance to prove himself a good king, and talked with Harkover about his hopes when called back from the Gyre. In Adventure 13 he came face-to-face with similar failure in the wake of a two-year timeskip and a worldwide Obscurati takeover. When freeing Flint, he promised to let the people decide whether he should remain king once the Obscurati was dealt with.