Oscar Witherspoon

From AJS.COM

Oscar Witherspoon (AKA Oscar Witherspoon, Scribe of Sanguine Terror as he is formally titled within Ordo Dracul or former U.S. Representative, Mr. Oscar Witherspoon¹ for any formal, but otherwise mundane occasions) is a character in a Vampire: The Requiem game. He is a former CEO and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and a recently embraced vampire of the Ventrue clan.

¹ "Mr." seems to be the appropriate title for a former representative, where "The Honorable" would be appropriate for someone still serving in that capacity.

Contents 1 Attributes 2 Skills 3 Advantages 4 Misc 5 Background 5.1 More detail 6 Retainer 7 Mercurial Industries and politics 8 Timeline 9 Development goals 10 Notes 10.1 Session 1: 2006-06-09 10.2 Session 2: 2006-07-07 10.3 2006-08-18 10.4 2006-09-15

Attributes

Intelligence

●

●

●

O

O

Strength

●

●

O

O

O

Presence

●

●

●

●

O

Wits

●

●

O

O

O

Dexterity

●

●

O

O

O

Manipulation

●

●

●

O

O

Resolve

●

●

●

O

O

Stamina

●

●

O

O

O

Composure

●

●

O

O

O

10 exp in Composure
1 dot in Presence from Ventrue

Figured: Defense: 2

Skills

3 exp in occult

Advantages

4 exp in Retainer

8 exp in Resources

15 exp in Dominate

7 exp in Coil of the Beast

7 exp in Coil of Banes

Misc

Background

I'm still sort of intrigued with the Ventrue / Dracul concept. I was thinking of being a rather old man. Someone who had started a company or gone into politics (I suppose the latter works well for the area) and done very well for himself, but been unsatisfied with where he ended up. He then dabbled in a few religions, but continued to fail to find what he was looking for.

Note: decided on former U.S. Representative, hence the one dot in Fame and two in Status.

That's when he met... let's call her "Tabitha". He met Tabitha at a dinner in D.C., and she sensed his unease immediately (little did he know...)

After a few social meetings that seemed to happen by accident, he was asked if he would like to take part in a business deal that was as important to his country as it could be to him. Intrigued with both Tabitha and the concept that she was involved in something larger, he accepted what was to be the first of several jobs for a shadowy group that claimed to have ties to the DoD's less public intelligence services. Sort of a SD6 kind of thing, if you've watched early seasons of Alias.

So, he started doing these jobs that mostly just involved him showing up somewhere with a case of documents, letting someone look them over, and then taking back another case of documents that he would drop somewhere, but even that was enough to make him feel alive again. The rare job in some African country that involved being around live combat were beyond anything that he thought he would experience since his tour in Viet Nam.

Over the months he did more and more work for Tabitha, all the while hoping that this stunning creature would allow this relationship to become something more than just a business arrangement (he's probably bi, just because I lack imagination ;)

After about a year of this, Tabitha asked him what his thoughts on the morality of their work was. He was frank with her. He'd been in politics, and he knew enough not to assume that the impacts of his actions were obvious or simplistic. She pressed further over the next month, asking more and more questions about his life, his religion, his family history, and on and on. Eventually, he said, "tell me why you want to know. Is this personal or business?"

She smiled and said, "my dear, I engage in business only for personal reasons," with just a wisp of an eastern-European accent that he'd never heard on her lips before.

This is where I need some help. She's a Ventrue, obviously. She's almost certainly Ordo Dracul. However, she's also almost certainly not what she has appeared to be to my character. She's probably arranged most of this as a sort of interview, though some of the work that he has done might relate to the Order in some way. She's probably lying about the DoD connection, but that might be true if you think it makes sense.

How and exactly why she embraces him, I'll let you decide, but she's probably out of the picture now, leaving him to find his own mentors and prove himself before directly associating with her.

I'd imagine he's being forced to start at the bottom, so he would not be surprised to be thrust into a group like the PCs, and would do his best to prove himself in that situation.

Note: This was all about 5 years ago. This gives him time to have learned the two Coils that he has.

He's gone back on some of his military training to take advantage of his new physical features, training at a normal karate dojo in martial arts, and practicing on his own with his less socially acceptable talents. He's a pragmatist first, and ethical second, so he sees no particular problem with feeding on the occasional human, given that it's now his nature as a predator. However, he's smart enough to know that such behavior should not become a habit, as it exposes him to risk.

As far as mechanics go, I see him being mental, social, physical in that order, and having merits which relate to his political ties, slightly above-average combat abilities, possibly a large amount of money, and some detailed knowledge of D.C.'s non-vampiric political landscape.

He might have some trinket or other that Tabitha gave him to get him started, if that's appropriate.

I'll look over the merits and such tonight and try to get more detailed.

Note: done.

Let me know where / how you would like to see this modified or expanded.

More detail

He's been working his way up the food chain, so to speak. Learning the Coils is important, and he's strongly motivated to do whatever will gain him status within the Order.

He's becoming more and more convinced that the older vampires are just decadents who have forgotten what it was that they set out to accomplish in the first place. He's building a network of contacts and supporters, with a goal of eventually moving himself into a position where he could serve the Prince directly... he might even have loftier goals, but he's careful to keep those out of his mind lest the thought be seized by someone capable of such.

To that end, he has studied the Coil of the Beast under Atlan, who has taken a personal interest in his development.

Retainer

Oscar's retainer, Mario, has been with him for about a decade now as his driver. Oscar had assumed that he would have to kill Marrio, but now that he's seen quite a lot, it's clear that he takes a very detached, "it's not my place to concern myself with it," attitude. He is from the Açores, and speaks English sufficiently to get by, but has never become fully fluent. Having no direct family, Mario lives with Oscar in a partially separated apartment which has been sound-proofed so that there is no danger of Mario over-hearing what he should not.

Oscar finally made Mario his ghoul in late 2005, after his distaste for some of Oscar's dealing began to become a concern.

Mario is not capable of moving in the social circles that Oscar moves in, and has never been comfortable with getting directly involved in any of his dealings.

Mercurial Industries and politics

Mercurial is Oscar's company that he founded on returning from Viet Nam in 1970. He's no longer the CEO, but still holds a position on the board which requires that he show up for a vote every month or so.

He took the company from a tiny role in the importing of mercury, the last mineable deposits of which were discovered in Algeria in the mid-1970s. Since mercury is becoming rarer, and harder to extract, his company was able to build substantial political power out of its control over one of the few sources, and the last discovered to date. He provided the element to the drug, electronics and many other industries.

In 1984, he retired in order to run for the United States House of Representatives. He won a seat, representing his home state of Rhode Island for 16 years until he retired in 2000.

He is now 60 years old, having been 24 upon returning from military service in Viet Nam in 1970.

Timeline

• 1946 - Born
• 1966 - Enlisted in U.S. Army, served in Viet Nam, Purple Heart
• 1970 - Founded Mercurial Industries
• 1980 - Mercurial goes public after building control of Algerian mercury supply.
• 1984 - Retired. Runs for and wins Rhode Island 1st district House seat.
• 2000 - Retired. Seeks new interests, meets Tabitha
• 2001 - Embraced
• 2006 - ...

Development goals

Oscar plans to add more coils to his list, increase his blood potency, build status within the Order and take dots in Mentor to represent his development as a student of Atlan.

Notes

Session 1: 2006-06-09

Met up with Carl and the rest of the group. Atlan and I have a bond through his teaching of the coil of the beast, and he directed me to help them out. I brought them information about the police and the web of influence that had moved them away from the wizard's domain while his plans were set in motion. Atlan was surprised that such a network could exist without his knowing about it.

When I met the group they were with a rather rude man who dressed and acted like a common thug, but was clearly one of us. The boy, Tom Hat, suggested that I could be of use to them by finding out more about the murders of the children, if I could.

I followed up with an old capitol police administrator contact of mine, and he told me the following:

• The FBI is coordinating the massive jurisdictional turf battle that this case represents.
• The special unit within the FBI that deals with occult-related crimes has been overseeing this.
• The bodies were carved and various signs and symbols were made on their bodies.
• The victims were drained "dry" of blood.
• The victims were all young girls, blond, and very photogenic.

After the sun sets, I'll be meeting the group at a club called Rayne.

Session 2: 2006-07-07

Went directly to Rayne. Met with Miss Astoria who asked me why I was there. After a bit of back-and-forth, she asked me a "boon": she wants Tom to wear shoes in the club. She has offered him money from the club's cash register to pay for them. She told me that I was welcome in the club, and should "feel free" to come any time. Then Carl arrived and soon after the rest showed up.

After getting some information from a "wizard", the group decided to head out to a warehouse that might have a lead. On the way out of rain we ran into "Syndicate", a pair of vampires that looked almos like twins. They were taken to Miss Astoria who gave them a hard time about not introducing themselves through the appropriate channels.

Mario drove us to the warehouse, and Carl did the recon as a bat. We found out that it was guarded and they were talking about "the children", and decided to call our contacts for instructions. Both the Sherif and Atlan took it very seriously, and we ended up talking to "himself" (the Prince). He told us that a team was being sent and that we should keep an eye out, but wait.

Once the team and Atlan arrived, we headed in with strict instructions to turn our backs to the men wiht the box if kindred are spotted. I'm concerned because Tom Hat wasn't around for that piece of information, so I called to him as we stormed the warehouse. I think he's off reconoitering from the water, but otherwise have no clue what he's up to as we take out the front guards and head into the main building.

2006-08-18

• Oscar needs to meet with syndicate
  • I have an itemized bill for them
• I have a theory about Lillian and the shoes
  • We suspect Lillian because she is the only one that wears high heals and perfume among the elders.
• I want to try to get firmer evidence before the meeting "tomorrow" (it's midnight now)
• Mother katya wanted to tell me that she sees a place for me in the sworn
• Atlan is calling the exminer for me for my testing

2006-09-15

"Joe don't use the blender" -Syndicate