Timeline of Charles Mercer

While driving home from an excellent day where we were treated to +Chris Morrison 's food, I started to come up with a little timeline for Mercer.  It is a long drive from LA to Pismo Beach, and at first I came up with the reason he came to LA.  I came up with Nora Wells in which you can read Mercer's story in listed in the previous post.  I came up with it on the rush and I may redo later.

Timeline: this is by no means a complete timeline.  But it helps out by keeping everything straight as I parcel out Mercer's time.  Hope you can use it +Jim Sandoval !  Might be something there you can use.  More will be added later.

• 1891 he was born.
• 1900 we was rescued by Bartholomew Critchett and taken in as an apprentice.
• 1912 he joins the British Military under the Order of Alchemists when his apprenticeship ended.
• 1914 was the start of the Great War.  Lasts until 1919.
• 1918, he takes the elixir and becomes immortal.  He is not sure of what happened to Major Carter.
• Meets Nora Wells in 1925 and they have their one night stand.  Charles pines for her.
• He was in India form 1928-1935.
• World War II started in 1939 and lasted until 1945.
• 1944 he receives word from Nora about CJ.  He agrees to help her by watching him as they go into D-Day.
• In December 1944, Charles and CJ have it out.  Charles figures out that CJ is his son.
• 1947 in promoted to Major and finally Colonel in 1949.
• Is in Hong Kong from 1951 to 1958.
• In Hong Kong, 1956 he meet Ley Fun, Guardian of the Egg, while on a mission that ended being the Hong Kong Riots that were between the Nationalist and the Communists.  
• 1961, Charles ends up going to LA to meet Nora.  Finds out she is dying of cancer.
• 1962 Nora dies.  CJ's son Johnathon has is first kid and names her Nora for his grandmother.  Charles retires and moves to LA to be near his family.  Opens the Lewd Toad and is the center for British ex-pats and the supernatural in LA.
• 1965 Hugh from MI6 comes and gets help from Charles.  This will go on continuously from MI6, the FBI, Agents of the White Council and LA Sheriffs Department, just to make a few.  Hugh is always the name of the person that they send from MI6 and as of 1984, they has been four Hughs that have come to him.
• In 1971, he helped Ley Fun escape due to the increased Tong activity in the area.  He took the then hatched dragonling to LA and has been part of the “family” ever since that day.
• 1980 Nora goes to UCLA with help from a mysterious benefactor (Charles) and goes to Medical School to become a doctor.
• 1984 we begin the story...

 Known Languages: English, French, German, Indian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, some Bantu and Swahili

Charles Mercer: The real reason he is in LA

The real reason why he is in LA…

Charles has been alive for a long time and of course he has had many loves, but the first still burns in his heart.  It was after the Great War and while he was in England he met a young woman by the name of Nora Wells.  He was quite smitten with her since the first time he saw her.  Unfortunately the same could not be said of her, but gentle coaxing (adamant badgering) had finally breached her stonewall.  It had gone on a little too well and in the morning she was gone. 

He pined for her for many years, looking for her in a futile attempt.  It was in the waning days of the Second World War that from her he had received a letter.  It seemed that her son, CJ had joined the war for the Americans and if he could watch over him.  CJ Chambers was in England for a time and Charles agreed.  Anything for Nora.  Charles knew why he was in England for in a couple of days, D-Day was about to begin.

He would have tried to get him reassigned but it was too far along in the planning stages.  There was one thing that he could do however.  He led his unit of SAS soldiers and covered the young CJ through D-Day and beyond, secretly watching the young man, intervening only when needed.  It was during the Battle of the Bulge that CJ noticed that a British SAS squad was following his squad.  He had noticed them during D-Day and points in between, but at the Battle of the Bulge, he cornered the then Captain Mercer.  After a little scuffle they ended up talking and Charles admitted that he knew his mother and that he agreed to look in after him.  He did not know how to take that, but Charles assured him that all he had done, was him.  That he had to only intervene three times to save his life. 

CJ got up to leave, having much to think about.  “What does CJ stand for young man?” he asked as his neurosis about proper name was killing him.

He smiled.  “Charles Johnathon.  I was named for two important members of my mother’s family.”

Charles nodded as he left.  CJ was his son.

After the war Charles kept tabs on Nora and her family.  It seemed that she was married to a Roy Chambers for a month before he met her.  An American with the Expeditionary Force that came to England for the Great War.  She had moved to Los Angeles and started to raise a family there.  Nora had written him again in 1961 and begged him to come out and see her.  He relented and agreed.  When he entered the hospital room that she was in, she recognized him for except for some additional crow’s feet, he looked exactly the same as he did some forty years before.  She shooed her children and grandchildren out of the room and cried.  She was so sorry for everything she had put him through, but he had just put his fingers over her lips.  He knew.  He knew it all, for that was his job.  They talked for hours until the nurse came to chase him away.  That is when he left he ran into CJ, in his forties and about to have his first grand-child.  He stopped and stared at the man he knew.  He merely stood at attention and saluted.

CJ got married and had only a single child, a son.  His son, Johnathon had a daughter in the next year, Nora.  That is when he retired.  It was something that his mentor Bartholomew had said was Charles was introduced as his new apprentice to his daughters.  “Family.  It is the best thing in have in this world.”

Dersden Files, Charles Mercer

Charles Mercer 

• Focused Practitioner, Alchemist
• Wears glasses, has a trimmed beard and mustache, salt and pepper hair. Five-nine and one hundred seventy pounds.  Looks to be in his forties.  
• Charles is a man who has been alive since the early 1900’s because he has drank an elixir he got which acts like Wizard’s Constitution.  He has taken part in the Great War and World War II.
• Channeling -2 (water), Rituals -2, Wizard’s Constitution, Refinement -1, Refinement -1, Conviction (reliant self image).  1 refresh left
• Has a familiar, a large toad named Augustus that lays about in an extra-large terrarium above the bar.
• It is Charles, not Chuck.  He is proper when it comes to names, because names are powerful and constitute proper binding in contracts.
• Dual citizenship with England and the US.
• Keeps an ear out for the Elixir for it is dangerous if it fell into general use.
• He has made many allies and enemies over the years.
• Colonel in the British Army.  Very few people know about it.

+4 Discipline, Lore, Contacts

+3 Resources, Deceit, Rapport

+2 Conviction, Presence, Empathy

+1 Alertness, Scholarship, Investigation

Concept: Bartending Alchemist

Trouble: The Man Who Knew Too Much

Aspect 1: [who] From Humble Beginnings. Charles was born sometime before the turn of the twentieth century.  An English orphan who ended up working for anyone who would hire him.  He was lucky for a man named Bartholomew Critchett, a simple alchemist who took the boy in.  Critchett saw in the boy a quick wit and a desire to learm.

Aspect 2: [what] The First Secret of Many More to Come. Charles came into prominence during the Great War.  He was part of a special unit that was made up of alchemists, making and distributing the gasses and cures from them.  While in the trenches on day, he found out that his superior had uncovered a secret elixir that granted immortality.  Major Adam Carter however was working for the Prussians as they have offered him an insane amount of money and titles if they got it.  In the ensuing fight, he got Major Carter but had to imbibe the liquor.  [That is how he gained Wizard’s Constitution].  The Immortality elixir worked he spent years working with The Section of the British Government to try to uncover its secrets.  In actuality, he knows the secret, but has been sabotaging the experiments.  He deemed it was too much to allow the populace (the rich and powerful) access to such a power.  That is his first and greatest secret.

Aspect 3: [first story] Still in the Service to Queen and Country.  He took part in what was known as World War II and worked with The Section, MI-5 and MI-6 with the rank of Colonel.  He worked with them until the 60’s. After spending some fifty years in the British intelligence community, he decided to retire.  At first, the JIC did not want him to go, but when you know where the bodies are buried and who put them there, he got to travel.  He moved to Los Angeles in 1962.  He set up a large British bar and opened it to all, supernatural or not.  A mere three years later, he was approached by a man named Hugh.  He was a member of MI-6 and wanted Charles' help and invoked Charles' reservist clause in his contract.  Charles relented.  He was still in the service and was called up due to the contract he had signed.  Every once in a while, MI-5 or 6 will come to him for help.  As of late, the FBI has come to him as well as Agents of the White Council all in accordance to helping the Services.  He has in turn, as per his contract contacted people for help and has received it in kind.  He knows a lot that some people are very wary of him.

Aspect 4: [who crossed; another player]

Aspect 5: [who crossed; another player]

The Lewd Toad Pub and Brewery

Welcome to the Lewd Toad Pub and Brewery.  Mind your manners!

• Small microbrewery, bar and café
• Pasadena where the 210 and the 134 meet
• The mascot is a toad kissing a princess bent over like that Life picture of the sailor and the girl.
• The Lewd Toad is a neutral ground.  It is a magnet for supernatural creatures because of this and the good beer.
• It has a large alchemical lab.
• At any time there are 6 barmaid, 3 bartenders, 3 cooks, 2 busboys, a dishwasher and 3 apprentice brewers on staff.  It is a fair mix of the supernatural and mortal.

Potions that he carries.

• Coming Soon!

Notes

• Seeing as how I haven't read any of the novels, I hope that I have captured it well.  Odds are I haven't!  hehe
• I never said that Major Carter was killed or if he himself took the elixir.