Vincent Fleming was born like most of his kind were, in Cheliax to a noble family who were falling from grace and made a pact with a demon to hold on to to their standing till they passed. He of course killed his mother during child birth, the spines and horns covering his body had caused a hard labor and his mother lost too much blood. His father resented him for that fact and much like anyone who made a pact kept him hidden from sight for fear of repercussions from society.
He grew up sheltered from the world, only learning what little he could glean from servants and listening in through the ventilation through the house. When his father passed away he was finally free to move about in life. He threw away his family name and picked one at random from a book he had stolen away with. His childhood had been spent that way, sneaking books from his father's study to learn what he could. He mostly learned languages and a fair bit on anatomy, how to treat the body and of course how do to the most harm.
When he ventured out into the outside world, he noticed how people felt about him. He already had some resentment for people from being kept in a basement most of his life. Being shunned by people even now that he was free, he made his way to where misfits often go, to the slums and the docks. He fell into a crowd of people similar to himself, joining the band of sailors. He himself had no real love of the sea, but the mission they had was interesting to him. They had all come from similar situations where the aristocracy had made slaves of them or caged them and kept them from the world or what they loved.
So it was that the band formed of sailors formed together with their mission of taking slaves. They knew that in order to make a decent amount of money they'd need to take children and nobles. But the question was how were they going to do it in secret and draw the crowd that they wished for. It was Vincent that thought of the idea originally, offering that they do it under the guise of some kind of performance. The group tossed about the idea till they settled on a Circus. The each took on an everyday job on top of being slavers, for Vincent it was the animal tamer. He had found that he had a knack for animals, one in particular was a mongoose he had named Gef.
So it was that they performed and sneaked away children and nobles alike. It worked well for a few attempts but as they made their way towards Talingarde it was unfortunate that apparently word of a circus snatching people up on their way out made it's way to the faithful of Mitra. When the group was just about finished performing and started to pack up, they were set upon by the towns guard. Caught in the act even of throwing one of the children in the cages hidden amongst the tamer animals, Vincent was taken in before he could get to his weapon or manage to escape. He escaped from their clasp twice, taking a guard's life in the process the first time. Each time they searched him for how he had managed it and both times they found nothing on him, adding more manacles before finally tying him up like a trussed up calf at a rodeo.
He growled and spit profanities at them in every language he could think of, cursing them and telling them what terrible things he would do to them if he ever got out. He secretly was scared of what he had heard the guards talking about, it seemed he was set for the chopping block. Of all the ways to die, to be there helpless to do anything as a man with a mask over his face waiting for the axe to fall, waiting and knowing the ending was truly torturous. He waited in his cell, hoping and praying that he can find a moment to turn the situation around and escape. He's swear allegiance to anyone; demon, god, or mortal alike if he could just get free and take revenge upon this cursed region.
