House Ruldegost

House Ruldegost

Personages

Matriarch: Klentra Ruldegost Consort: Khelve Ruldegost (m) Heir: Sheram Ruldegost (thirdborn son) Membership (Nobles): 26 Predominant Faith: Waukeen, Helm

Faction Details

Common Descriptors: Avaricious, orderly, protective Primary Classes: Fighter, paladin, rogue, cleric (Waukeen or Helm) Alignments: LN, N

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 2. 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 3. You are the acknowledged and legal head of the household.

Interests

Trade & Interests: banking, mercenary fighting, bounty-hunting, caravan-mastering Holdings: Waterdeeep

History

Ethnicity: Illuskan Founded: 1151 DR Previous Eras: 1354 DR

Members of the Family

• Lady Klentra Ruldegost: Matriarch (Renown 10) • 37 years. Jealous of her power and inclined to towering rages, Lady Klentra is a tall, angular woman, beautiful in a severe, sharp way. Though she does not fight herself, she has had fighting men in her command for most of her life, and doesn't hesitate to deal with problems through the threat of – and even sometimes application of – violence. She is a fringe part of Waterdeep's social scene, disinclined to pursue most of what it takes to be truly popular, but the matriarch of a House nonetheless, which means that she receives all the invitations in proper order.
• Khelve Ruldegost: Consort (Renown 5) • 37 years. By and large, most folk who know Khelve agree: he is a useless wastrel, even if he is pretty enough to gaze on. A distant Wands cousin, Khelve is motivated mostly by the need to fulfill his own meager vices, and does that by keeping his ladywife as happy as he can. Klenta seems both perfectly aware of his limitations and perfectly content with them.
• Sheram Ruldegost: Heir and thirdborn son (Renown 0) • 14 years. Sheram's older brother Marek died when he was nineteen, working as part of one of the House's mercenary companies, and his other brother Joram died of an ugly abdominal ailment three years later. Now Sheram is the heir, and chafing at the over-protectiveness his mother displays. He has grown up learning contempt for his father, which his mother not only doesn't discourage, but seems to find wildly amusing.
• Laugredd Ruldegost: Regent and matriarch's younger sister (Renown 6) • 34 years. Laugredd is named the legal regent for House Ruldegost, charged with the responsibility of running the House should aught happen to her elder sister before Sheram is old enough to hold the reins of the House legally. She is a tall and spindly woman, thoroughly birdlike in her demeanor, with all the sternness to her of a school-marm. She has held the position of regent since Sheram's birth, and has raised and taught him all his life.

Holdings

• Resources Limit: If necessary, House Ruldegost could probably generate about 34,000 gp in liquid coin and valuables within a month.

Vouchsafe House (Villa)

Grimwald's Way, Sea Ward

A tall wall of iron-studded black stone, the helm from the House's sigil is replicated in stone busts every twenty feet or so along the height of its ten-foot walls.

• Vouchsafe House: The original Ruldegost hall, Vouchsafe House was also the center of their original burgeoning banking operations, and still is to some degree. Everyone knows that their cellars boast multiple vaults of incredible strength and defensiveness, both in construction and in magical wardings. The lower floor of the house's forward half (facing Grimwald's Way) consists of a series of comfortable offices where Household clerks meet with wealthy clients and tend to their banking business. The back half of the four story structure is a large entertaining hall, with its own entrance off of the Street of Whispers, and a cellars-level complex with kitchen, pantry, wine cellar, and servants quarters completely sequestered from the vaults section. The three stories upstairs are accessible through stairs off of that entrance as well, and house a variety of modest sized apartments for various members of the House.
• Goldenarms Hall: The newest of the Ruldegost villa compound's buildings, Goldenarms Hall's living quarters are more ample and opulent than those of the Vouchsafe. Goldenarms is three stories in height, with a dining hall, ballroom, a gallery of battle trophies, and small theater on the first floor, and an expansive cellars with servant housing, kitchens, bakery, brewery, wine cellars, storage vaults, and many other structures, as well as a tunnel connecting the kitchens to the cellars beneath Osembra's Tower. The upper two floors are divided into multi-room apartment suites for the more prestigious members of the family.
• Osembra's Tower: A tower of four stories in height, Osembra's Tower is set aside for the personal living quarters of the matriarch and her immediate family. A single-story structure on the ground floor contains a carriage-house, allowing those who live here to depart through the alley exit in a carriage without ever stepping foot on the street. The cellars of this tower are limited to select servant quarters and wine cellars, but connect via tunnels to the kitchens under Goldenarms Hall, allowing servants to bring meals to those in the matriarch's family who desire to dine in their quarters rather than join the rest of the family in the dining hall of Goldenarms.
• The Barracks: A modest building, with a Household stables taking up its first floor, and its upper stories dominated by two-man sleeping quarters for household guard.

Known Faction Perks

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

• Living Quarters: Renown 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: Renown 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: Renown 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): Renown 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: Renown 10. The patriarch of the House is in total control of the House's finances and various holdings, established by the laws of Waterdeep.