Vincent Nightingale – Boss of the Underkeepers

An unwanted babe sold to the Hexhunters in Greypeak as an unspoiled recruit, Vincent Nightingale’s dark and tumultuous past is one closely guarded. For his name now is one adopted on arrival into Baldur almost two decades past, when his Centrali was barely eligible, and his accent so thick that the present Vincent would spit on him for it. For Vincent’s past as a Hexhunter is one he has almost entirely pushed out of his mind, save for times when blood must be spilled and he calls upon the training and powers they bestowed upon him in those formative years. Despite the Hexhunters being the only thing Vincent knew, and his only sense of family, they never gave him a sense of belonging. We did not feel bound to their cause, or to the plights of the Watchers who so desperately needed the Hexhunters to survive the onslaughts of horrors from Oldavor. Soon after his training had completed, and his body was bolstered with the arcane infusions of the order, he left. From Greypeak, the only direction to sail was south, and many vessels later he arrived in the city of Grimgate, capital of Baldur. What Centrali he had learned in his training was nigh-useless for his completely unintelligible accent and no chance to practice it prior to his journey. Though despite this shortcoming, he was given work in a dilapidated fishing warehouse in the Spit. The work wasn’t glamorous, but it beat fighting Colossal warbands, eldritch monstrosities and freezing to death for nine months of the year. In this time he came to grow a love for Baldur, despite his squalid conditions. From the warehouse he began his own fish market, and eventually moved to a modest apartment in Trader’s Respite, rising out of the slums. Yet it was here that misfortune began to befall young Vincent, whose market was now the target of extortion by a local gang from Underkeep Downs that called themselves The Misfits. Whilst he knew in his heart he could easily break their windpipes with his bare hands, he chose to take the path of least resistance, paying them a portion of his earnings in hopes they would leave him alone. All it did was paint a target on his back, word getting out to the other petty gangs of the Underkeep that he was a pushover who gave away coins like it was alms for the poor. Whilst he tried his best to keep his cool, every man has a breaking point. With his coffers nearly empty and an eviction notice signed on his apartment, the unfortunate squad of Misfits that came for the coin that morning only found blood instead. With his filleting knife, Vincent effortlessly cut the throats of all six men before they could scream bloody murder. The other stall owners witnessed this butchering, and screamed for the town guards. Thereafter, Vincent became an outlaw, the incident referred to morbidly as the “Misfit Filet.” While he was wanted by the Grimgate Order Force and abandoned all his possessions in his home, he sought vengeance within the Underkeep instead. From a smith in Trader’s Respite he stole a longsword, and after his crazed questioning of a dozen residents, he tracked down the headquarters of the Misfits. There he slaughtered them all, sparing none and leaving their severed heads at the doorstep of their headquarters, a grisly display even for a district hardened by criminal warfare for years. It was soon after this that Vincent was found by another gang in the Underkeep, rivals of Misfits, the True Sons. A nationalistic gang that had never tried to extort money from Vincent, and only wished to uplift those who struggled in the modern Baldurian society. Agreeing, Vincent quickly climbed the ranks and earned a reputation as a deadly enforcer, a secret weapon held by the True Sons to force others to bend to their will. When the GOF crackdowns began on Underkeep Downs and the local gangs were held with their backs against the wall, it was the True Sons and Vincent who forced unification on them, forming what would become the Underkeepers, with the True Sons ideals being the primary ones held by the gang. During their war against the GOF, the Underkeepers leader would perish, and his named successor, as was anyone’s guess, was Vincent Nightingale. Though by this time, none below Vincent knew of his true nature, both as a Hexhunter, and a man who immigrated to Baldur two decades past. Despite this conflict of ideals, Vincent considers himself a citizen of Baldur, and feels more ties to the people here than he ever had to those of Greypeak. As such, he will gladly give his life for the cause of Underkeepers, in their war against Baldur’s Crown.