House Tesper

House Tesper

Personages

Matriarch: Zestyl Tesper Consort: Brarbron Tesper (m) Heir: Lharra Tesper (younger sister) Membership (Nobles): 21 Predominant Faith: None

Faction Details

Common Descriptors: Courageous, protective, adventurous Primary Classes: Fighter, rogue, paladin, bard Alignments: LG, NG, CG

Faction Ranks

• Favored: Rank 1. You are a favored member of the House. If you are a scion of the House, you have pleased the patriarch sufficiently to gain his notice. If you are an agent or retainer of the House, your efforts to aid the House have gone well-noted. • Lynchpin: Rank 3. You are given a position of some responsibility in the House's operations. If you are a scion of the House, the patriarch considers you one of the favored scions of the House, and consults with you on matters of House importance. If you are an agent or retainer, your contributions and skills in service of the House have won you a position of no small regard and respect in the patriarch's eyes - although that may earn you the jealousy of his blood kin who are less favored than you. • Matriarch/Patriarch: Rank 10. You are the acknowledged and legal head of the household.

Interests

Trade & Interests: Guardianship, skill-at-arms Holdings: Waterdeep

History

Ethnicity: Illuskan Founded: 1235 DR Previous Eras: 1354 DR

One of the Waterdhavian Houses native the area around Waterdeep, the Tespers are an old military family. Though, per the laws of the city, they do not maintain a force within its walls larger than a basic household guard, the Tesper lands in the Lower Dessarin Vale have not only a couple of small garrisons, but also a training grounds. They do not themselves field mercenaries; the Tespers make a good deal of their coin teaching mercenaries, however, as well as militias and civic defense forces around the North. The Tespers also sponsor one of the biggest fencing schools in Waterdeep, and are among those nobles pushing for the re-legalization of dueling laws once more it the City of Splendors.

Members of the Family

• Zestyl "Maidenblade" Tesper: Matriarch (Rank 10) • 24 years. Lissome and young, thin like a swordblade and very deadly when wielding same, Zestyl has caught all of Waterdeep's imagination for unlikely heroines. She has only recently inherited the seat of House Tesper after the sudden death of her mother and father - both Harpers - at the hands of Cultists of the Dragons. She and her siblings grew up learning the blade, and now she is not just a beautiful, high-spirited swordswoman of noble blood (which would be enough to make her loved in Waterdeep); she is the full Lady of a noble house. No less than two broadsheets writers seem to have taken delight in regaling readers with her (undoubtedly exaggerated) exploits in festhall and countryside, but she seems in no hurry to put those stories aright.
• Brarbron Tesper: Consort (Rank 6) • 25 years. The son of Hardym Tlee, the captain of the Tesper guard, Brar and Zestyl have been intimates since they were just discovering their own (and one anothers') bodies. A shy but intense young man, Brarbron has always led where Zestyl followed, save once: when he achieved his legal majority, he left Tespergates to be part of the Tesper garrison in Maiden's Tomb. Ten months later, the day after her birthday, Zestyl rode out to the garrison, accompanied only by the priest Denthe Swordgleam, and insisted that he marry her. They have been inseparable ever since.
• Lharra Tesper: Heir, matriarch's younger sister (Rank 9) • 22 years. The practical, level-headed one, Lharra is her sister's right hand. Zestyl has good reason to be grateful for her presence, too, as Lharra has a head for numbers and is a quick study, having quickly learned the business of the house and its holdings since the death of their parents. Fortunately, she also has older kin who've been involved in running such things for decades, but they are quickly finding her outpacing even them in her understanding of household affairs.
• Laundeld Tesper: Matriarch's younger brother (Rank xx) • 20 years. Rakish and inclined toward violence, Laundeld doesn't have his either the skill at arms or the sense of his older sisters. What he does have is a sense of loyal ferocity and the willingness to get his hands dirty if the situation calls for it. Though young, he has served with Tesper forces since he was fifteen, and continued to do so even after his parents' deaths. He has sworn bloody vengeance against the Cult of the Dragon, however, and keep an eye out for any signs of their return.

Holdings

• Resources Limit: If necessary, House Tesper could probably generate about xx,000 gp in liquid coin and valuables within a month.

Tespergate (Villa)

Delzorin Street, Sea Ward

The wall around Tespergate is an imposing edifice some twelve feet in height, with sword blades stuck up through the top of the construction. One of the buildings – Newsalle Hall – stands outside the wall proper, on Mendever Street. The front edifice of the Greatsalle is where the villa gets its name from: a pair of massive twenty-foot-tall wood-and-iron gates, painted deep blue and set with gleaming brass heraldry plaques.

• The Greatsalle: Behind the impressive gate is a great passageway that cuts through the center of the Greatsalle and then Ts off into two branches, which open up onto openings on either side of the great structure. This passageway is some twenty feet in height, cutting through both first and second floors, with most of the rest of the house divided up on either side of the passageway. The third floor forms a covering over the passage. With the addition of Morind's Gate, however, there is no need to actually permit horses through this passage any longer, and so it often serves as an entertainment venue for parties and the like.
• The Armory: From the days when House Tesper made their own gear, the Armory was a forge and armory storage space. Today, however, it is home to additional space for the large House, and its many members.
• Morind's Gate: A combination gate, stables, barracks, and servant quaters, Morind's Gate isn't made as lavishly as the other buildings of Tespergates.
• Newsalle Hall: The Newsalle is where members of House Tesper both learn and teach the arts of warfare. It boasts opulent rooms on its second floor, intended for the best sword instructors in the House, with ground floor salles and other training spaces set aside for teaching sessions.

Dessarin Vale

The Tespers also hold lands between the Dessarin River and the Westwood, in the Dessarin Vale northeast of Waterdeep. In particular, around the Maiden's Tomb Tor village.

Known Faction Perks

Scions and agents of House Tesper in good standing might receive the following benefits:

• Living Quarters: Rank 1+. Those in good standing with the House are given quarters within the House's Waterdhavian villa appropriate to their role in the House.
• Living Expenses/Salaries: Rank 1+. Those in good standing with the House also receive a stipend of 1gp plus 5sp per day per point of Rank. This is not actual cash, but simply familial credit towards payment of Lifestyle costs. This stacks with the same kind of familial credit received from the Waterdhavian Noble Background (see Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide).
• Business Opportunities: Rank 3+. Lynchpins to the House's operations receive access to a variety of business opportunities within the House's money-making endeavors. This is handled as "Running a Business" in downtime months. This does not incur a business expense, but if too many of the character rolls results that end in a loss of money, he can and will find his Rank in the House reduced.
• Heir or Consort (Title): Rank 3+. The holder of one of the legal titles Heir of House and Consort of House, as recorded with the city of Waterdeep, is entitled to an additional 2gp per day in familial credit, per the "Living Expenses/Salaries" entry above. The heir is also accorded certain privileges within the legal system of Waterdeep, including the ability to speak on behalf of his House in some legal proceedings and the like.
• Wealth of the House: Rank 10. The patriarch of the House is in total control of the House's finances and various holdings, established by the laws of Waterdeep.