House Sultlue

House Sultlue

Personages

Patriarch: Zeldeskar Sultlue Consort: Morilee Sultlue (f) Heir: Maeless Sultlue (younger sister) Membership (Nobles): 19 Predominant Faith: Shaundakul

Faction Details

Common Descriptors: Rustic, wanderlusty, proud Primary Classes: Ranger, fighter, druid, cleric (Shaundakul) Alignments: CG, N, CN

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: Horse-breeding and -training Holdings: Waterdeep

History

Ethnicity: Tashlutan Founded: 1138 DR (605 DR as House Lushpool) Previous Eras: 1354 DR

When it was revealed in the early 1400s that many of the members of House Sultlue bore the blood of yuan-ti, there was something of a city panic, and things grew ugly. A mob formed, made up of common folk but fostered and armed by nobility who despised what they saw as the corruption of one of Waterdeep's noble lineages. Ashelton Heights was partially burned, and many members of the family killed before the Watch and Guard could re-establish order.

Shortly thereafter, the Sultlues engaged in an internal purge of their serpentine relatives. Several died in the conflict, and others simply disappeared (according to some rumors, there are some yuan-ti in the Serpent Kingdom to the southeast who bear the right to the last name Sultlue). Over time, the Sultlues lost their mercenary companies, and became something of a rustic House, focusing on their ranches and breeding fine bloodlines of horses. They also abandoned their old family's worship of the serpent deity Sseth, and eventually came to revere Shaundakul.

It was Lord Dagult Neverember who approached them, first about selling their title. When they refused, however, he offered to officially welcome them back into Waterdeep in exchange for outfitting the Guard with horses for all but free, and the family agreed. They returned to Waterdeep, two generations after being forced from it, and have refurbished Ashelton Heights and re-entered society.

Members of the Family

• Lord Zeldesker Sultlue: Patriarch (Renown 10) • 29 years. Inheriting the head of household when he was twenty-five, Zeldesker seems to have just found his feet, balancing household responsibilities with societal obligations and his own personal life (sufficiently that he and Morilee are trying to have children now). He is shapely from a life of horseback riding, and a favorite at events: handsome, but not debauched, friendly, but not slimy, with enough education to hold his own in conversations without being tedious. His winning of Morilee Sultlue has caused him some friction with Merbar Durinbold, who once drunkenly attacked Zeldesker, who promptly beat the fellow bloody in a stunning display of fisticuffs. The Durinbolds still hold the grudge, but Zeldesker has no regrets.
• Morilee Sultlue: Consort (Renown 6) • 26 years. The first child of any Waterdhavian noble family to marry into House Sultlue since their return to Waterdeep, Morilee is a daughter of House Majarra. Though her parents warned her away from "the snake-bloods," she fell head-over-heels in love with the dashing Zeldesker, and soon the two were inseparable. This caused a bit of friction with House Durinbold, whose son Merbar was wooing the lovely Morilee.
• Maeless Sultlue: Heir, patriarch's younger sister (Rank 4) • 25 years. The "Wild Horsemaid of Waterdeep" is something of a local legend. She is fond of taking to bare horseback in the early, misty mornings to ride the streets of Waterdeep clad only in her own long hair. More than one of the folk in the North and Sea Ward on their way to work in the early fog has been surprised by the madcap ride of the Wild Horsemaid, a great delight to Waterdhavian senses.

Milorlo's Branch

• Milorlo Sultlue: Patriarch's uncle (Renown 8) • 51 years. "Uncle Milo" is the only one Zeldesker trusts to run the Sultlue ranches outside of Waterdeep. Milorlo and his family tend to the various Sultlue holdings throughout the Delimbyr Vale, with himself and his wife Ralee at the main Sultlue holdings, Haven Ranch, and his children either managing holdings themselves, or riding out to check in on those given over to retainers to manage.

Holdings

• Resources Limit: If necessary, House Sultlue could probably generate about 15,000 gp in liquid coin and valuables within a month.

Ashelton Heights

Vondil Street, North Ward

Once, the Heights was surrounded by a low, three-foot wall with elaborately decorative fencework. Unfortunately, the House learned to regret such an indulgence. Today, it is surrounded by an eight-foot stone wall topped by gleaming steel horse-heads whose edges are sharpened. Though the wall has been replaced in its entirety, there are still some scorch-stains on the western cobbles beneath the wall that remind folk of what once occurred here.

• Ashelton House: Two stories in height, with soaring gables and tall windows, Ashelton House has been expertly refurbished, at great cost to the House. The main entrance is always flanked by footmen, day and night (with them bearing arms at night), and the windows outside of the wall are decoratively but strongly barred on both floors. Despite these efforts, the house itself is still a luxurious sanctuary, though most of its first floor has been entirely redone. Gone are the old ballroom and suite of salons for socializing; instead all the room suites of the building have been expanded, giving members of the House positively decadent space.
• Lushpool Hall: An old two-story building that was badly damaged by the ugly riot against the Sultlues, the Lushpool House has not only been refurbished but updated with the running-water garderobes and durthdras (dumbwaiters) that are all the rage now. The Lushpool House is named for the Sultlue's original family name when they were nobility in Tashluta, and once housed a great many pieces of art and historical artifacts from that era of the family's history, but much of it was destroyed or looted. Zeldesker's father made a concentrated effort to find the owners of such goods and recover what could be found, but even so the great two-story gallery that runs down the center of the house is still somewhat empty. The chambers on either side of the gallery are all suites and apartments.
• The Red Barracks: Once an heir's house, the Red Barracks (so named because it used to be a barracks for the house's mercenary company, the Red Serpents), has been remade into the social heart of the House. Although House Sultlue rarely entertains any more, they have ample space to do so without inviting guests into the middle of their living spaces. Most of the north and west of the building is open windows allowing the ballroom to look out onto the gardens, and the rest of the first floor is made up of a kitchen and grand dining hall, and a variety of salons and dens for entertaining on a smaller scale. The upper floor is entirely servant housing for the villa's staff and guard.
• Stables: The Sultlue household stables are a finely-made wooden building, with a virtual army of grooms and stablehands. The ground floor is all stable space, including a veterinary enclosure for ill or injured horses; the second floor is hayloft space, storage loft, and quarters for stablehands and grooms.

Delimbyr Vale Ranches

House Sultlue also maintains a variety of fine, extensive horse-ranches throughout the Delimbyr Vale, overseen by Milorlo Sultlue's branch of the family.

Neverwinter Ranches

House Sultlue also has two ranches – less expansive and extensive than their Delimbyr Vale operations – just outside of Neverwinter. These ranches sell almost exclusively to the city's military and merchant forces, however, ensuring an almost absurd degree of profitability.

Known Faction Perks

Perks

Scions and agents of House Sultlue 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.