H Derren

Helen / Herb Derren

A family friend of the Decamerons', one of the early investors in the company

Gender: Female Current Quality: Good

In Game

Bluesheets: Decameron Enterprises, Board and Stock

Character Hint

You are Helen Derren. Roger Cameron was a lifelong friend -- when he first proposed setting up Decameron Enterprises, you backed his play with some of your money, and you've done damned well from it: a few thousand dollars at the start has earned you millions over the years. You've never been terribly involved in the day-to-day affairs of the company, instead keeping to your knitting as a Board member, and often serving as the sensible voice in Roger's ear.

But now Roger is dead, killed this morning by one of his employees, and everything's in chaos. You need to be there for Roger's wife Millie and his daughter Ainsley, but you also need to make sure the company doesn't get completely shot down by this: you still have millions invested in company stock, and you're not going to see that go into the toilet.

Your character is wealthy, so dressing well would be apt, but that might be anything from business casual to a routine polo and slacks -- this has all happened quite suddenly.

Character Sheet

You are Helen Derren, lifelong friend of Millie Cameron and one of the primary investors in Decameron Enterprises. This is a horribly sad day for your friends, and you are grieving for them. The question is, though, is today going to suck for you as well?

You met Millie in college at Violet City University, and the two of you hit it off quickly. You came from fairly similar backgrounds: wealthy but slightly stifling parents down South, giving you a restless urge to get away from there and do something more interesting with your life. You quickly became close friends, and remained so through college; you even had a brief fling as lovers, although you both decided that you were better as friends. She wound up spending much of college with Isaiah Zubin, who you thought was a good person but always too sour for Millie's usually-sunny disposition; she eventually concluded you were right and broke up with him, which was surely one of the most sensible decisions she ever made.

Of course, then she wound up with Roger Cameron, and you realized that you can take the belle out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the belle. Granted, Roger was a local boy, but she fell into the role of dutiful wife so quickly and easily -- well, it kind of disappointed you. You had always expected her to make more of herself than a housewife. But she seemed happy, so good for her.

Roger, on the other hand -- okay, you can see what she saw in him. He was never the most brilliant man in the room, but he was smart enough for business, and had charisma and enthusiasm in spades. You were never precisely jealous of Millie, and heaven knows you could never play the dutiful spouse the way she did, but when his eye started to wander about five years ago, it didn't exactly shock or displease you when he and you fell into bed. You've maintained a sort of low-key on-and-off affair ever since, with him finding some time to sneak over to your place every couple of weeks. (Being rich and single has to have some perks, and privacy is one of them.) Nothing terribly serious, mind: you never fooled yourself into believing you were really in love with him. But the sex -- yeah, the sex was good.

(Damn, it feels shallow even admitting that you're going to miss the sex more than you did Roger as a person. But sparkling conversation wasn't exactly his strong point, and if push came to shove, you've always cared far more about Millie than him. Heck, you care about Ainsley more than him.)

Ainsley -- oh, she must be a terrible mess; she loved her father terribly, and idolized him probably a bit more than he deserved. The Camerons asked you to be her godparent shortly after she was born, and you've been happy to do that. Not that you've taught her much about religion -- you've been to church maybe four times in the past year yourself -- but helping her grow up and learn about the world has been delightful. From the time she was about 12 and starting to get curious about the world, you've enjoyed playing mentor to her: she would ping you with all kinds of questions at all times, IM'ing you to ask about cars one day, getting into deep email conversations about the mechanics of sex the next.

You really started to think of her as a friend, almost a peer, but she's gotten more distant the past couple of months. You're not sure why -- you don't think you've done anything to offend her -- so you've mostly chalked it up to her growing up. She's 17, and will be going off to college soon, so it's natural for her to want to hang out with friends more her own age. You just wish it was with some of the kids from the high school, not these engineers from the company. You've been constantly worried that one of them is going to take advantage of her. Especially this new intern, Jonathan Sheena. You've only met him twice, but there is something about him that is just a little too smooth, too eager to please. Someone like that always has secrets, and you don't want Ainsley caught up in them.

Of course, you need to keep most of your attention on the company today. What a mess.

When Roger came up with the idea for Decameron Enterprises -- god, 30 years ago now -- he approached you to be his first investor. You were skeptical at first -- seriously, a model rocket company? -- but his business plan and market research were actually pretty sound, and it was clear that he had found a good niche for high-quality rocketry for hobbyists. It wasn't going to make you a fortune, but you had the money to play with, and you wanted to see Millie happy, so you invested ten thousand dollars to help things get off the ground, and more in subsequent rounds.

Those were good days. Roger quickly put together a strong core team, pulling F Ronit in as a founding partner -- his skill at sales and marketing were invaluable in those days. And you weren't at all surprised when Millie suggested that he hire Isaiah Zubin as an engineer: she's always been one to look out for the people she cares for, even if she'd broken up with him years ago. You mostly kept to the sidelines as a Board member, keeping an eye on the numbers and making sure the business ran well. And it did run well: your original stock wound up worth a couple million, and you slowly sold most of it onto the market to lock in your winnings. (Which was useful: your parents have always harassed you for not getting married, but demonstrating that you have the family knack for business has kept them decently content.)

Those easy times got knocked sideways by the rise of the Internet, though. Roger was so sure that it was just a fad, and that all those boys would be returning to the outdoors and their rockets before long, but it didn't work out that way -- even with Fred's marketing savvy and clever ideas for new models, it just kept sinking. By 2000, the company's finances were a complete mess, with the stock market sinking and much of the money tied up in a huge warehouse full of toys that nobody was buying any more.

You're not even sure any more which of you who originally suggested that that warehouse was the problem, and insurance was the solution (probably Fred, who has always been a bit dangerously fond of easy answers). You, Roger and Fred spent a month arguing about it before Roger decided it was just plain necessary, and was a sufficiently victimless crime that he was willing to make it happen. He never told you the full details of what he arranged, but a month later, the warehouse conveniently burned down. The insurance company argued, of course, but nobody could ever show any evidence of arson at all, and Regan Archie, the company lawyer, did a good job of keeping the company free of legal trouble.

At that point, Fred swung into action with an idea that he had been nursing for a few years, to re-orient the company towards government work. Some of the employees squawcked at that, but the company needed to lose some headcount anyway, and Fred's talent for sales and networking worked wonders at the Pentagon. Before long, there was a steady trickle of work coming in, working up to the current large contract for Project Sureshot, which is some sort of advanced gun design.

And of course, you made sure to buy up a lot of the now-cheap stock before anyone realized that things were on the upswing. Anyone can get rich off of a company once; doing so twice takes talent, you like to think.

Fred Ronit finally got restless five or six years ago, and decided to go into politics, which surprised you not in the slightest. And to be fair, he has a real knack for the game, and a lot of sincere passion, but you can't deny that you find his politics a bit extreme. You're all for lower taxes, but he doesn't obviously know where to stop. And besides you've been friends with Senator Newbold for many years, and are a major contributor to his campaign.

Company Stock Holdings

You have been Board Secretary for Decameron since the company's founding. In practice, this mostly means that you keep the minutes, and keep track of who has how much stock. As of this morning, the current stock breakdown of Decameron Enterprises, in approximate percentages of the total ten million shares, is:

Roger Cameron: 15
Millicent Cameron: 8
Ainsley Cameron (in trust of her parents): 5
Helen Derren: 20
Fred Ronit: 6
Greyrock Investments (managed by Brian Truman): 20
Carla Lennart: 2
Isaiah Zubin: 1
Samuel Antonino: 1
Jamie Rickie: 2
Various small investors and employees, not here today: 20

The following stock options are currently vested for characters in the game:

Paula Vasilios, Shrivatsa Kiran and Seamus O'Malley: 10,000 options each, at a $3 strike price
Isaiah Zubin, Samuel Antonino and Jamie Rickie: 50,000 options each, at a $1 strike price
Carla Lennart: 30,000 options, at a $2 strike price

Who You Know

Millie Cameron: One of your oldest and dearest friends, who needs your support through this tragedy.
Ainsley Cameron: Millie's daughter, your god-daughter. Help her out -- but maybe also see if she has any insight into what the hell happened. If you recall correctly, the kid who went crazy was one of the ones she's been hanging out with.
Regan Archie: Decameron's legal counsel, not to mention your personal lawyer. You have a feeling that you are going to be relying on her for advice and support today: while she isn't exactly the friendliest person you know, she is usually the cool head when one is needed.
Jeri Ferdinand: The Mayor of Violet City. She is a generally good person -- heck, you supported her previous campaigns -- but not exactly what you look for in a Senator. Just not enough of a head for business: she is good with Main Street, but not so much with Wall Street, as they say.
Reagan Newbold: An old friend by now: you first met him sometime in his first term as Senator, and hit it off rather well. For all that Fred Ronit may call him a "RINO", you find him nicely sensible most of the time. He has a bit of a roving eye (and you've wound up in bed with him a few times over the years -- he isn't half-bad), but that kind of goes with the politician territory.
Aidan O'Malley: The priest down at Lady of Redemption. Seems like a nice guy, although you don't get to church much. Is he related to the shooter?
Fred Ronit: The other founder of Decameron. A good person, if somewhat excitable, but you are having a little trouble imagining him as a Senator. He is a friend, but not a terribly close one at this point.
Jonathan Sheena: One of the young engineers at Decameron. In your opinion, Ainsley has been spending a suspicious amount of time hanging out with him.
Nika Stanimir: Reagan Newbold's campaign manager. He seems to be competent enough, but is a bit more of a political creature than you prefer, and is still very much an NRA flack. (Not that you have any problems with guns -- you are your father's child, after all -- but these people who seriously argue in favor of assault rifles are a bit weird.)
Brian Truman: The representative from Greyrock Investments, Decameron's venture firm. Greyrock owns entirely too much of the company's stock -- you had argued with Roger that he was giving away too much -- but it is what it is. The main thing today is making sure that Greyrock stays sweet on the company: if they were to pull out suddenly, they could sink Decameron entirely.
Isaiah Zubin: Millie's old flame from college, who has just lost his daughter. Poor thing -- you heard that he lost his wife a while back, so this has to be horrible for him.

GM Notes

Suggested by Chad -- friend who helped back the original company. Sie is probably shocked by what has happened, and supporting Millie, but at the same time has a real vested interest in what happens next. Is very hard-nosed and practical, and has always had the most down-to-earth views of the founders. Was one of the core supporters of The Accident scheme, and that says something -- sie doesn't believe in letting sentiment get in the way of making money.

Has always been the quiet investor, and has done well by it: an initial $10k investment decades ago has produced millions of dollars. Is actually wealthier than the Camerons -- mostly because sie gradually sold off a good deal of stock and invested it elsewhere. Had mostly cashed out by 2001, having seen things going south (while the Camerons were too emotionally invested), then re-invested when the stock crashed, so still owns a large chunk.

As a result, though, hir friendship with the Camerons has been strained. Roger always shrugged it all off as simply canny business, but Millie resents the way that sie has gotten rich off of relatively little real work -- basically, the classic Main St versus Wall Street tension.

On the other hand, sie is Ainsley Cameron's godparent, and has long been the person that she comes to when she wants to talk about something to an adult other than her parents. (Which has only made Millie resent hir more.) Lately, though, sie has been noticing Ainsley hanging out with this 20-something crowd from the office, and is rather suspicious of what they have been teaching her. Sie is particularly suspicious of Jonathan Sheena -- sie has lots of rationalization for that, but really it's mostly because of the way Ainsley has been doting on this new interloper.

Sie is a major backer of one of the election campaigns, and stridently something politically. It would make most sense for her to be a long-time backer of Senator Newbold, I think. That would introduce some nice tensions with F Ronit.

Archetypes: Family Friends