House Tarm

House Tarm

Personages

Patriarch: Zeldeskar Tarm Consort: Marilee Tarm (f) Heir: Maeless Tarm (younger sister) Membership (Nobles): 19 Predominant Faith: Mielikki, Gwaeron Windstrom

Faction Details

Common Descriptors: Hardy, rural, headstrong Primary Classes: Fighter, ranger, druid Alignments: N, CG, 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: Caravan mastering, horse-breeding and -training Holdings: Waterdeep, Amphail

History

Ethnicity: Tethyrian Founded: 1249 DR Previous Eras: 1354 DR

The Tarms are a family with long-standing involvement in caravan routes and the horses that trod them. They are among the Amphail Families (along with the Amcathra, Ilzimmers, Jhansczils, and Roaringhorns), though they haven't the influence to share in custodianship of the Lord Warder position, which rotates between the Amcathra, Ilzimmer, and Roaringhorn families each Shieldmeet. For their part, the Tarms are content to tend to their horse ranches in the area.

The Tarms have a long-standing alliance with the Emerald Enclave, a reclusive order of druids, as well; the family as a whole reveres Mielikki, and many Tarm scions have joined the Enclave, lending their wealth, influence, and individual skill to maintaining the natural order. Though the House as a whole doesn't necessarily adhere to the Enclave's tendencies, they do look on with pride at the members of their family who fight the good fight and earn glory to the House's name through such service. As part of this connection, the Tarms also have a strong alliance with House Phaulkon, a Cormyrean noble house. Thanks to this alliance, the intermarriages between the Houses occur every couple of generations.

Members of the Family

• Lord Zeldeskar Tarm: Patriarch (Renown 10) • 42 years. Newly married, Zeldeskar has more than his fair share of grey in his dark beard. Still, he is clearly a happy newly-wed, with some recently announced impending paternity. Merry and lusty, Zeldeskar used to be quite the raucous drinker and fighter in the social set, a favorite party guest as long as one intended one's party to be loud and drunken. His nuptials to Marilee Phaulkon seems to have tamed him somewhat, although she is clearly more than capable of matching him drink for drink.
• Marilee Tarm: Consort (Renown 4) • 30 years. A sideline cousin of the Phaulkons, Marilee and Zeldeskar met when she was rooming in the Phaulkonmere villa, and he stumbled into it after a hard night of heavy drinking in the South Ward. They woke up abed together, and have been largely inseparable ever since. Marilee is restrained and perceptive, fond of keeping quiet watch in the background while her bear of a husband roars and laughs and draws every eye. Pregnancy seems to suit her well, although she is reportedly sick of the city.
• Maeless Tarm: Heir (Renown 7) • 38 years. The "She-Bear of House Tarm" is ferocious, both in terms of her personality and her fighting ability. In her youth, she led Tarm caravans across the North and Western Heartlands, anxious to see what lay beyond the rise. She settled in Waterdeep only once her brother became lord, and named her the heir. She is uncomfortable in overly-prissy social circumstances, though tends to express that discomfort as contempt. She is still great fun at the sorts of parties that her brother gets invited to, however, and has sported with at least as many of the noble ladies of Waterdeep as her brother has in the aftermath of those parties.

Other Branches

• Hantanus Tarm: Patriarch's cousin (Renown 3) • 36 years. Generously described as a "boorish twit," Hantanus has always been very focused on self-aggrandizement and his prickly pride. Thus, it was seen as a great boon from the Lords of Waterdeep when they appointed this puffed-up poppinjay as the Castellan of the Gatehouse in the Goldenfields. Though he struts altogether self-importantly on his infrequent visits to Waterdeep, his family generally considers it a small price to pay for the months of blissful absence between.
• Orlanna Majarra: Hantanus' younger sister (Renown –) • 22 years. A meek young woman oft bullied by her oldest brother, Orlanna happily fled relative obscurity in House Tarm for the love of her life, Baendin Majarra. She is now expecting a child, and largely wants nothing to do with her birth family.

Holdings

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

Tarmhold (Villa)

Wheelgond Way, North Ward

The wall around Tarmhold is made up of ten foot wide sections of pale blue-grey granite, each carved with a rearing horse atop them (on which bronze braziers are affixed and lit during social gatherings), separated by white-washed sturdy wooden sections twenty feet in width.

• Tarmhold: A grand manor house three stories in height, the Tarmhold boasts massive oak doors inlaid with hunting scenes depicted in lacquered woods and bronze mosaics. A grand ballroom overlooks the gardens and pond outside, with the upper stories boasting household quarters and guest rooms. The basement houses kitchens and servant spaces, as well as household arrangements for less prestigious members of the family.
• Coster's Rest: Traditionally, the opulent apartments of the three-story Rest are given over to the most successful caravaneers of the House and their families. In truth, the best spaces are left for them, to be sure, but others have the more modest living spaces here as well.
• The Old Stable: Though not half so fine as the other buildings in the villa compound, the three-story Old Stable has plenty of room. Its first floor in particular is designed to make living easier for those who age, impairment, or accident has robbed of some degree of mobility. Though the building was indeed a stables on the House grounds originally, the only sign of this is the height of its ceilings today.

Phaulkonmere (Villa)

xxx, South Ward
Jointly owned by House Tarm and the Cormyrean nobles House Phaulkon, Phaulkonmere acts as a space for agents of the Emerald Enclave by mutual agreement of the Tarm and Phaulkon families as part of the support that both families lend to the druids of the Enclave. It is not uncommon for wilder-minded Tarms and Phaulkons to take up short term residence here inbetween their wanderings, but most often, it sees visitors who are part of the Enclave. The compound is cared for by a half-elf groundskeeper named Melannor Fellbranch, a figure of some standing with the Enclave. It is said that the disembodied voice of Jeryth Phaulkon, a Chosen of Mystra in the 1300s can still sometimes speak to visitors, lending them insight and advice.

Known Faction Perks

Scions and agents of House Tarm 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.