Boyce Vinctus

Boyce Vinctus is a character mentioned in a dread possibility in the Conferences of Victor Gagné IV. He was created by Rock.

Rivalry

Boyce Vinctus was a son of a noble line of Darkon, who was discovered to have a capacity for wizardry at a young age. He had a natural affinity for the school of Illusion. In order to hone his talent, Boyce was enrolled in the University of Il Aluk, where he expected to excel based on his noble lineage, not to mention the money available to a member of his family. He was known to invest his money in additional tutoring, as he seemed to lack creativity.

To Boyce's ever-increasing frustration, he was placed in the same class as a foreign girl known as Imogen Schlosser. Rather than respect him for his lineage, the girl ignored him and quite casually outdid him in all areas. She would not even fear his anger when he expressed it, treating him as wholly insignificant.

Boyce became so determined to somehow one-up his rival, that he developed his first spell; an illusion that completely masked his presence, allowing him to spy on Imogen unobserved. It is possible that this spell was not wholly original, but simply an enhanced version of existing spells of (Greater) Invisibility, or perhaps of Stalking spell. [1] Having discovered that Imogen was secretly studying Necromancy outside of classes, engaging in discourse with undead at the Great Cemetery of Il Aluk, Boyce became determined to master this form of magic as well and somehow surpass Imogen in it. Unfortunately for him, he turned out to have no more affinity for the dark arts than he did for any other form of magic in which Imogen consistently surpassed him.

Excretus ex altitudine

Finally so determined to shine before his peers and teachers that he lost sight of all reason, Boyce used his unique Illusion to steal one of Imogen's notebooks, detailing the building blocks for a new spell. With the aid of his tutors, he painstakingly completed the research and presented the end result before his class. Boyce's moment of smug satisfaction was short, indeed. Rather than seethe in silence or shout frenzied accusations, Imogen calmly demanded he explain the mechanics of the spell, not to mention the process through which it had come to be. As Boyce floundered, she then explained the whole creative process in such a decisive way that it was obvious she, and not Boyce, was the magic's author.

In closing, Imogen cruelly mocked Boyce as being no true arcanist, but "no more than a trained seal, clapping for fish".

Humiliated beyond his ability to tolerate, Boyce fled the classroom, the University, and Il Aluk itself. He was so dominated by his thwarted rage that he forgot his noble lineage and wealth would have protected him from all but a slap on the wrist for his transgressions.

Hermit

Boyce settled in the Boglands some time before the Grim Harvest. He studied magic with more focus than ever before, wholly intent on mastering the aspects of the Art that had eluded him all his life. Faceless voices whispered to him after nightfall, offering knowledge and insight for favors best left undiscussed - and Boyce took and fulfilled every bargain.

Sometime after the Requiem, the arrogant young nobleman had taken in so much knowledge of Necromancy to the point that he was transformed, and he became a member of the Prestige Class known as the Pale Master[2].

Seal

More than a little deranged due to his concourse with the forces of darkness, not to mention his willing transformation into a part-undead monstrosity, Boyce decided that he was ready to confront his old nemesis. He departed the Boglands and went looking for Imogen, but his search was made difficult due to the pall of Death lying upon the land and clouding his vision.

Boyce took to visiting old acquaintances from his University days and torturing them for information on Imogen's whereabouts. Gradually, he picked up Imogen's trail, which led him to a hospital in Leidenheim that was being run by Katia Schlosser. In the space of a single shrieking, blood-soaked night, Boyce murdered all the patients and staff of the hospital, with the exception of Katia Schlosser and her daughter, Victoria. Presenting himself before what he believed to be the sister of his nemesis, Boyce threatened her life, demanding the whereabouts of Imogen Schlosser.

The Red Haunt demonstrated her true nature to Boyce, seizing him fast and carrying him to Katia's operating theater. Boyce blacked out from the pain he was subjected to by Katia Schlosser, only to awaken in a horror from which he has been unable to escape. His undead brain has been grafted into the skull of a bull seal.

Current Sketch

Boyce is still trapped in the form of a seal; whenever one body wears out, his captor transplants him into a fresh animal. He is nominally the head of a pod of seals which lives in the acquarium at the Retreat, the Red Haunt's oubliette lair, but he despises the company of the simple-minded animals and is likely to kill them for even the most minor infractions.

Incapable of casting spells in his animal body, Boyce hangs onto the last shreds of his sanity only by his hatred of Imogen and the other personas of the Red Haunt. If he ever managed to communicate his plight to someone capable of putting his brain in a humanoid body, he might be briefly grateful - until he tried to take control over his savior and enlist them in schemes of gaining vengeance upon the Fiend.