Lords of RPG

The Family History

The Tsachadavich family had lived in Garmond since before the Great Cataclysm when it was still called Lower Bassot. Known to be the best rope and sail makers in the region, their warehouse, factory and offices took up an entire block in the port area.

Felicity Tsachadavich was the first to see Bassot return. She sprinted to the family headquarters, a prominent stone building anchoring the rest of their properties on the block, and bellowed out that Oth had returned, just as the family legend contended it would.

Paola Tsachadavich Berrera had led the family in the time during and just after the Great Cataclysm. She died without an heir, but left a prediction…Bassot would return, as would the Kingdom of Oth. She had advocated keeping the family’s farmland, even though it would have to be redeveloped. The farmland had been sold shortly after her death. It was deemed better to put more money into their fishing fleet. First by building more ships for themselves, then by building ships for others.

Desmond Unther Tsachadavich was a name rarely spoken in family circles. It was under his watch that the shipyard was destroyed. Over three hundred years ago, Desmond saw fit to leverage most of the family’s wealth to produce three large ships at once. Known to be a heavy drinker with a temper, the legend is upon finding the shipyard’s guards asleep at their post, he threw his torch on the ground as he grabbed the guard, yanking him up to his feet, still partially asleep.

Yelling at the first  guard that something terrible could happen, woke the other guard, who loudly cursed and pointed. The torch Desmond had thrown down had ignited some pitch…fire swept forward, following the pitch on the street towards its destination…all the new ships being built. It was a total loss.

After paying all their debts, and almost losing his head, Desmond Tsachadavich retired from public view. The family still had several buildings, a family home, a couple offices and large warehouse. No longer able to create entire ships, they focused on sub-contracting the jobs they could do.

Alfonse Tsachadavich, Desomond’s great grandson, was the first in several generations with any intelligence or ambition. A genius when it came to ropemaking, sewing and tying knots, he created a program of training and quality control that the family still carries on today. Currently known as the best sailmakers  in the area, the family continues it’s traditions.

The Bastard Daughter

Felicity was a petite, sandy haired, blue eyed, wiry girl of no more than twelve years of age. Her quick wit and sense of humor had helped her survive the precarious situation she was born into. Felicity was a bastard. The child of Desmond Berrera Tsachadavich the Third and his favorite whore. Felicity’s mom died during childbirth leaving Desmond the Third as the only relative she had.

At first, he refused to raise her and she went to the Rukin Academy, an orphanage and boarding school for wayward youth, run by a sect of priests associated with the Grey Order. But she escaped…many times.

Eventually, on one of her escapes, she hid in an office inside a warehouse…she had instinctively known how to open the puzzle lock that gave access to the underground stone cellar…and in her gut she knew who the man was when she saw him…and he, her. 

That first meeting between Desmond the Third and Felicty remained ensconced in their memories for the rest of their lives. Felicity had a place in the family, but it was never official. She would never inherit anything and once Desmond 3 was gone, she would most likely be the target of assassins, if not worse.

She had had the best of trainers, instructors and teachers. She enjoyed a royal education…but she knew, they all knew, she would be a pariah as soon as her father passed.

Felicity had never told anyone. Not her father, not her best friend, not the gods she talked to inside her own head when she needed something or felt obliged to give thanks. She could move things with her mind. Not heavy things, and sometimes a ghostly image of a hand seemed to lift the item and move it, but she did not know if anyone else could see the hand…she never did it in front of others. It was her secret and it kept her lonely.

The Return of Bassot

She saw it first…it was just there. It hadn’t been the moment prior. She knew the legend, and the central spire from Oth’s capital, from Upper Basot, was in the painting in her fathers grand library. She ran faster than ever to the family home and yelled at the top of her lungs towards the open window of her father’s office. Oth has returned!

Message delivered, she turned and ran east. Several blocks later, Felicity came to the ancient stair…the staircase that went to nowhere, or to a cliff with a steep hundred meter drop. Climbing the stairs at a full sprint still would take fifteen minutes and she had already been running…no one else would think of this, she smiled.

Twenty minutes later her suspicion was confirmed…there was no drop off. Where the stairs used to end, they now continued up into the old city, or Upper Bassot, or whatever name it had now. She had been forced to study heraldry and she clearly recognized the flags flying from the newly appeared city's towers. They were the flags of Oth...and of Zuc Swain.

A satisfied grin slowly grew as she ascended the last few steps. Her family would be debating this and that, and her voice carried no weight there. This was her chance. Her chance to be the first, to "maximize her opportinuties" as her father was always suggesting. She drew her cloak around her and raised her hood to cover her face. She would scout the new city just a bit. Discover if anyone up here knew about this ancient staircase that "led to nowhere".

<Just a story about a family that has been in Garmond/Bassot for a long time. Sailmakers, ropemakers and knotting experts. The family's glory days are in the past, but they are still powerful and influential in the area. Not directly related to the PCs or campaign, just a flavor story, but I plan on having some fun with Felicity and her dad and they and the rest of the family handle the drastic changes.>