Post by Xaos on Feb 23, 2006 2:40:24 GMT -5
Six hundred years ago, the Spellseer family stood as one of the richest and most powerful clans in all of Amn's southeastern frontier. They dealt in cattle, horses, and land, and seemed to have no end to their wealth and luck. Of course, the Spellseers had a secret to their luck: A talent for magic and divination ran through the family's bloodline, affecting one or two children each generation. These special youth were singled out by the family and taught the fine arts of magic and the shrewd skills of trade and negotiation.
Becoming wizards, priests, or diviners, they underwent extensive training concealed from the prying eyes of the Amnians. Usually, promising students were sent away to study, but occasionally mage instructors were hired to tutor the young adepts at home. Education in the crafty arts of trading, finance, and sales fell within the province of the family patriarch. As the years passed, the Spellseers grew in power, money, and land holdings. They built their first family manor in Riatavin and helped to finance the growth of that city. They also expanded their holdings in both Amn and Tethyr and developed a reputation as horse breeders.
In the Year of the Enigma (755 DR), Tregas Spellseer began building the castle that was to become the family's noblest treasure, and greatest curse. He situated the castle a few miles south of Tethir Road, on the route to Riatavin. Though Tregas died in 783, the structure was completed in the Year of the Firehawk (795). Farkas Spellseer, his heir, moved his family into the castle.
For the next 35 years, Castle Spellseer was a renowned and favorite stopping place for caravans and wealthy travelers on the road to Toralth, Riatavin, and points south. Farkas's hospitality was second to none. He regularly held events to amuse weary travelers, juggling exhibitions, theatrical performances, games of chance, and once even an entire circus. His entertainments were surpassed only by the quality of Castle Spellseer's ale. The fortunes of the family continued to climb, and lives as country gentlemen suited most of the family. But the idyllic, pastoral lifestyle of the Spellseers did not last.
While travelers and caravan masters thought highly of the family, the envy of those less skilled and fortunate culminated in grisly rumors and serious accusations. In the Year of the Whistling Wind (830 DR), envious merchants turned the ruling family of Amn against the Spellseers. Using forged documents and false testimony, they purported to show that House Spellseer used magic, charms, and curses to gain the advantage over their trading partners.
However, the family soon faced even more serious and devastating charges. Kartak Spellseer, self-de-
scribed as the "All-Seeing," was arrested at the castle and charged with kidnapping and killing 14 young men and women. Kartak was but a distant cousin of the primary branch of the family, but he bore the Spellseer name, and that was enough for the sheriff. Kartak was accused of slaughtering the children of Amn during unspeakable acts of evil, while executing heinous rites of necromantic magic. And the royal sheriff had documents and witnesses to "prove" it. (Ironically, though the evidence was manufactured to injure the Spellseers, Kartak was in fact guilty.) He was tried, convicted on all counts, and sentenced to hang.
Kartak was not without friends, or at least like-minded companions. At midnight on the eve of his execution, Rysellan (the wizard who was Kartak's mentor) and a company of associates used three charges from Rysellan's ring of the ram to break into the dank stone room in which the necromancer was being held. The magical force blasted an enormous hole in the back wall, freeing Kartak and 15 other miscreants who were held on a variety of charges. Kartak mounted the horse left waiting for him and escaped to the Kuldin Peaks.
In the Year of Twelve Bells (836 DR), Farkas died, leaving Castle Spellseer to his son, Tregas the Younger. While this Tregas had but 20 summers, he possessed a shrewdness and diplomatic ability far beyond his years. In 838 he changed the family name to Spulzeer, a corruption close enough to the original to satisfy the family, but singular enough that the connections (he hoped) with Kartak and the family's earlier reputation would be broken. At the same time he quietly started to rebuild the family fortunes, using divination but making sure he was on the raw end of business deals often enough to throw off suspicion. He also went out of his way to cultivate a friendship with the royal family, even to the extent of loaning them capital without interest. And his plan was successful: By 900 DR the Spulzeer clan had once again joined the ranks of the mighty.
Meanwhile, in the Year of Thorns (856 DR), Kartak died by his own hand, drinking a potion that would turn him into a lich. No one in the family knew of his transformation at the time; they learned only later, through rumors, gossip, and the tales of servants.
Tregas the Younger had three sons. The eldest son, Tregas III, joined a monastery about the same time his
father changed the family name, renouncing all claims. So, when Tregas the Younger died at the age of 82, he was unexpectedly succeeded by his youngest son, Karaine Spulzeer, who had not foreseen his inheritance.
But prepared or not, Karaine exceeded expectations. A wastrel fond of wine, women, and song, he set aside
his debaucheries when the weight of his responsibilities fell upon him. He was never a brilliant negotiator, but he did well enough to maintain the improvements effected by his father and even made his own contribution to the family's wealth.
After the death of Karaine the Wise (as later generations called him), there followed a succession of competent patriarchs, some extremely talented. The Spulzeers enjoyed a new and healthy reputation, and a prominence so high that Castle Spulzeer was a stop not to be missed by southern travelers of the Sword Coast from the Year of Great Riches (920 DR) until the unfortunate rise of Kelamar in the Year of the Cold Soul ( 1281 DR).
But if things went well for the family during this time, the young nation of Amn did not enjoy such fortune. In the Year of Slaughter (1090 DR), King Imnel IV of Amn was forced into a treaty with King Alemander of Tethyr. Amn was suffering from an overpopulation of monsters and was in such financial straits that it could not afford to rid itself of the plague. Amn ceded all lands south of the Tethir Road to Tethyr in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money and enough military aid to drive away the infestation of monsters. Castle Spulzeer was now in Tethyr.
The treaty had enormous impact on the family and castle of Spulzeer. The political situation became an unknown quantity. Until this point in time, Amn was a peaceful and prosperous nation, blessed with good and noble monarchs. The nation had not yet developed into the great trade state it is today, although the seeds existed. Tethyr, on the other hand, was a bureaucratic kingdom whose laws sprung from royal whims. Still, the Spulzeers tried to maintain the same loosely decorous Amnian lifestyle they had always practiced. In the Year of the Broken Blade (1260 DR), Marinessa the Cross-Eyed became matriarch of the Spulzeers. Trained in divination, Marinessa took to her lessons in trade and negotiations like a young eagle takes to flight - she soared.
Over a period of two years, as she dealt with the bureaucracy in Tethyr, Marinessa negotiated a series of agreements with King Haedrak II of Tethyr. She gave up very little, agreeing to pay one bushel of fresh apples per annum, host a royal hunt each fall, and maintain a watch and spy network that reported to Tethyr all mercantile and military activity in Amn. In exchange, she received a decree proclaiming Castle Spulzeer a Royal Dependency "permitted its own laws and customs in perpetuity," and guaranteeing military assistance upon demand
Freed from political constraints, business flourished. In the Year of the Shattered Altar (1264 DR), Marinessa decided to expand the castle by adding another story. The third floor of Castle Spulzeer, ever after called the "New Level," was completed four years later. For a time, Spulzeer was the second largest castle in all of Tethyr.
Under Marinessa's leadership, Castle Spulzeer remained a welcome attraction for travelers, and life in the enlarged structure was comfortable and profitable. But Marinessa died suddenly in the Year of the Cold Soul (1281 DR), of causes still debated by the tellers of tales.
Marinessa had two children. The elder, a daughter named Tamar, ran away with a circus high-wire artist. The younger, a son, she named Kelamar. Unfortunately, Kelamar had an eye for the ladies and the glint of gold, and was even more of a wastrel than his ancestor Karaine had once been. He also was becoming well known in those places where men wager money on the fall of a wren or the survival of a rooster.
Kelamar was motivated by profit and pleasure, and not necessarily in that order. When he became the patriarch, he became bold. Kelamar sought to raise Castle Spulzeer once more to its ancient glory, to feed his own need for risk and to line his pockets by reintroducing the entertainment policies of Farkas. But Farkas never imagined the "entertainment" of Kelamar.
Rumors started to circulate: tales of mismatched fights-to-the-death that pitted half-giants against dwarves or unarmed elves, stories of orcs and maidens armed only with kitchen utensils. As the years went by, the rumors became even darker. There was even a report of a serving wench tied to a wheel and spun while drunken sports threw knives at the wheel and placed bets on her remaining lifespan. The stories reached a climax in the Year of Spilled Blood (13 15 DR) when the daughter of Riatavin's mayor was found in a ditch near the castle; her body pierced with slashes made by what the constable swore were the razor-edged blades of throwing knives.
This time, no one bothered with a trial. Kelamar Spulzeer (who actually knew nothing of the crime, but wouldn't have stopped it if he had) was captured on the Tethir Road, bound to a tree, and used for crossbow target practice. He lived as long as the healer estimated the mayor's daughter survived.
At the same time Kelamar died without legitimate issue, Tamar's daughter Kaisha arrived at Castle Spulzeer with an infant son and daughter in tow. Kaisha simply assumed the position of Lady Spulzeer without bothering to consult with the rest of the clan. Worse, she had no intention of cleaning up her late uncle's excesses.
Repulsed by Kaisha's actions, the rest of the family (cousins descended from Marinessa's siblings) held a council in Riatavin on the 15th of Nightal. They decided to abandon Castle Spulzeer as a liability they could no longer afford. After the council, the family's focus and money would shift away from the castle, some of it later being used to found the Spellseer Inn on Tethir Road in the Year of the Gulagoar (1316 DR). From that inn emerged the town of Trailstone. The castle was allowed to fall into neglect under Kaisha's poor management.
Still, the castle was home to Kaisha, her son, Chardath, and a deaf-mute daughter she never named. Without the Spulzeer money, however, the castle's entertainments became smaller (and some say more evil) affairs. Kaisha and Chardath eked out a living by catering to the bizarre tastes of the jaded until Kaisha died of natural causes in the Year of the Spur (1348 DR).
Chardath became Lord of Castle Spulzeer. His nameless, silent sister, meanwhile, had grown into a beautiful if speechless woman locked away on the top floor of the castle. Chardath called her "Marble"
because of her pale skin, raven hair, and inability to speak. Most of Chardath's acquaintances were unaware of her existence, and he kept it that way. Though he allowed Marble to move freely about the castle, her years of captivity had made her afraid of anyone but her brother. She stayed mainly in the family quarters on the new level, away from guests, though she took pleasure in visiting the rose garden every afternoon.
Chardath respected her reclusive nature and protected her from discovery. She was the one bright spot in his life. From a young age, Chardath had resented the way their mother hid her away, refusing to acknowledge her existence as if doing so would reveal a flaw in Kaisha. When Chardath ascended as the new lord, he hoped the event presaged a new life for them both.
It was not to be. All this time, Kartak had been living his unlife in the Kuldin Peaks and advancing his powers as a lich. He fed his anger over the centuries until it developed into a glowing hatred for the Spulzeers. His formal expulsion from the family, conducted as one of Farkas's last acts, fueled his hatred. Kartak cursed the castle, the land, and the family of Spulzeer.
Becoming wizards, priests, or diviners, they underwent extensive training concealed from the prying eyes of the Amnians. Usually, promising students were sent away to study, but occasionally mage instructors were hired to tutor the young adepts at home. Education in the crafty arts of trading, finance, and sales fell within the province of the family patriarch. As the years passed, the Spellseers grew in power, money, and land holdings. They built their first family manor in Riatavin and helped to finance the growth of that city. They also expanded their holdings in both Amn and Tethyr and developed a reputation as horse breeders.
In the Year of the Enigma (755 DR), Tregas Spellseer began building the castle that was to become the family's noblest treasure, and greatest curse. He situated the castle a few miles south of Tethir Road, on the route to Riatavin. Though Tregas died in 783, the structure was completed in the Year of the Firehawk (795). Farkas Spellseer, his heir, moved his family into the castle.
For the next 35 years, Castle Spellseer was a renowned and favorite stopping place for caravans and wealthy travelers on the road to Toralth, Riatavin, and points south. Farkas's hospitality was second to none. He regularly held events to amuse weary travelers, juggling exhibitions, theatrical performances, games of chance, and once even an entire circus. His entertainments were surpassed only by the quality of Castle Spellseer's ale. The fortunes of the family continued to climb, and lives as country gentlemen suited most of the family. But the idyllic, pastoral lifestyle of the Spellseers did not last.
While travelers and caravan masters thought highly of the family, the envy of those less skilled and fortunate culminated in grisly rumors and serious accusations. In the Year of the Whistling Wind (830 DR), envious merchants turned the ruling family of Amn against the Spellseers. Using forged documents and false testimony, they purported to show that House Spellseer used magic, charms, and curses to gain the advantage over their trading partners.
However, the family soon faced even more serious and devastating charges. Kartak Spellseer, self-de-
scribed as the "All-Seeing," was arrested at the castle and charged with kidnapping and killing 14 young men and women. Kartak was but a distant cousin of the primary branch of the family, but he bore the Spellseer name, and that was enough for the sheriff. Kartak was accused of slaughtering the children of Amn during unspeakable acts of evil, while executing heinous rites of necromantic magic. And the royal sheriff had documents and witnesses to "prove" it. (Ironically, though the evidence was manufactured to injure the Spellseers, Kartak was in fact guilty.) He was tried, convicted on all counts, and sentenced to hang.
Kartak was not without friends, or at least like-minded companions. At midnight on the eve of his execution, Rysellan (the wizard who was Kartak's mentor) and a company of associates used three charges from Rysellan's ring of the ram to break into the dank stone room in which the necromancer was being held. The magical force blasted an enormous hole in the back wall, freeing Kartak and 15 other miscreants who were held on a variety of charges. Kartak mounted the horse left waiting for him and escaped to the Kuldin Peaks.
In the Year of Twelve Bells (836 DR), Farkas died, leaving Castle Spellseer to his son, Tregas the Younger. While this Tregas had but 20 summers, he possessed a shrewdness and diplomatic ability far beyond his years. In 838 he changed the family name to Spulzeer, a corruption close enough to the original to satisfy the family, but singular enough that the connections (he hoped) with Kartak and the family's earlier reputation would be broken. At the same time he quietly started to rebuild the family fortunes, using divination but making sure he was on the raw end of business deals often enough to throw off suspicion. He also went out of his way to cultivate a friendship with the royal family, even to the extent of loaning them capital without interest. And his plan was successful: By 900 DR the Spulzeer clan had once again joined the ranks of the mighty.
Meanwhile, in the Year of Thorns (856 DR), Kartak died by his own hand, drinking a potion that would turn him into a lich. No one in the family knew of his transformation at the time; they learned only later, through rumors, gossip, and the tales of servants.
Tregas the Younger had three sons. The eldest son, Tregas III, joined a monastery about the same time his
father changed the family name, renouncing all claims. So, when Tregas the Younger died at the age of 82, he was unexpectedly succeeded by his youngest son, Karaine Spulzeer, who had not foreseen his inheritance.
But prepared or not, Karaine exceeded expectations. A wastrel fond of wine, women, and song, he set aside
his debaucheries when the weight of his responsibilities fell upon him. He was never a brilliant negotiator, but he did well enough to maintain the improvements effected by his father and even made his own contribution to the family's wealth.
After the death of Karaine the Wise (as later generations called him), there followed a succession of competent patriarchs, some extremely talented. The Spulzeers enjoyed a new and healthy reputation, and a prominence so high that Castle Spulzeer was a stop not to be missed by southern travelers of the Sword Coast from the Year of Great Riches (920 DR) until the unfortunate rise of Kelamar in the Year of the Cold Soul ( 1281 DR).
But if things went well for the family during this time, the young nation of Amn did not enjoy such fortune. In the Year of Slaughter (1090 DR), King Imnel IV of Amn was forced into a treaty with King Alemander of Tethyr. Amn was suffering from an overpopulation of monsters and was in such financial straits that it could not afford to rid itself of the plague. Amn ceded all lands south of the Tethir Road to Tethyr in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money and enough military aid to drive away the infestation of monsters. Castle Spulzeer was now in Tethyr.
The treaty had enormous impact on the family and castle of Spulzeer. The political situation became an unknown quantity. Until this point in time, Amn was a peaceful and prosperous nation, blessed with good and noble monarchs. The nation had not yet developed into the great trade state it is today, although the seeds existed. Tethyr, on the other hand, was a bureaucratic kingdom whose laws sprung from royal whims. Still, the Spulzeers tried to maintain the same loosely decorous Amnian lifestyle they had always practiced. In the Year of the Broken Blade (1260 DR), Marinessa the Cross-Eyed became matriarch of the Spulzeers. Trained in divination, Marinessa took to her lessons in trade and negotiations like a young eagle takes to flight - she soared.
Over a period of two years, as she dealt with the bureaucracy in Tethyr, Marinessa negotiated a series of agreements with King Haedrak II of Tethyr. She gave up very little, agreeing to pay one bushel of fresh apples per annum, host a royal hunt each fall, and maintain a watch and spy network that reported to Tethyr all mercantile and military activity in Amn. In exchange, she received a decree proclaiming Castle Spulzeer a Royal Dependency "permitted its own laws and customs in perpetuity," and guaranteeing military assistance upon demand
Freed from political constraints, business flourished. In the Year of the Shattered Altar (1264 DR), Marinessa decided to expand the castle by adding another story. The third floor of Castle Spulzeer, ever after called the "New Level," was completed four years later. For a time, Spulzeer was the second largest castle in all of Tethyr.
Under Marinessa's leadership, Castle Spulzeer remained a welcome attraction for travelers, and life in the enlarged structure was comfortable and profitable. But Marinessa died suddenly in the Year of the Cold Soul (1281 DR), of causes still debated by the tellers of tales.
Marinessa had two children. The elder, a daughter named Tamar, ran away with a circus high-wire artist. The younger, a son, she named Kelamar. Unfortunately, Kelamar had an eye for the ladies and the glint of gold, and was even more of a wastrel than his ancestor Karaine had once been. He also was becoming well known in those places where men wager money on the fall of a wren or the survival of a rooster.
Kelamar was motivated by profit and pleasure, and not necessarily in that order. When he became the patriarch, he became bold. Kelamar sought to raise Castle Spulzeer once more to its ancient glory, to feed his own need for risk and to line his pockets by reintroducing the entertainment policies of Farkas. But Farkas never imagined the "entertainment" of Kelamar.
Rumors started to circulate: tales of mismatched fights-to-the-death that pitted half-giants against dwarves or unarmed elves, stories of orcs and maidens armed only with kitchen utensils. As the years went by, the rumors became even darker. There was even a report of a serving wench tied to a wheel and spun while drunken sports threw knives at the wheel and placed bets on her remaining lifespan. The stories reached a climax in the Year of Spilled Blood (13 15 DR) when the daughter of Riatavin's mayor was found in a ditch near the castle; her body pierced with slashes made by what the constable swore were the razor-edged blades of throwing knives.
This time, no one bothered with a trial. Kelamar Spulzeer (who actually knew nothing of the crime, but wouldn't have stopped it if he had) was captured on the Tethir Road, bound to a tree, and used for crossbow target practice. He lived as long as the healer estimated the mayor's daughter survived.
At the same time Kelamar died without legitimate issue, Tamar's daughter Kaisha arrived at Castle Spulzeer with an infant son and daughter in tow. Kaisha simply assumed the position of Lady Spulzeer without bothering to consult with the rest of the clan. Worse, she had no intention of cleaning up her late uncle's excesses.
Repulsed by Kaisha's actions, the rest of the family (cousins descended from Marinessa's siblings) held a council in Riatavin on the 15th of Nightal. They decided to abandon Castle Spulzeer as a liability they could no longer afford. After the council, the family's focus and money would shift away from the castle, some of it later being used to found the Spellseer Inn on Tethir Road in the Year of the Gulagoar (1316 DR). From that inn emerged the town of Trailstone. The castle was allowed to fall into neglect under Kaisha's poor management.
Still, the castle was home to Kaisha, her son, Chardath, and a deaf-mute daughter she never named. Without the Spulzeer money, however, the castle's entertainments became smaller (and some say more evil) affairs. Kaisha and Chardath eked out a living by catering to the bizarre tastes of the jaded until Kaisha died of natural causes in the Year of the Spur (1348 DR).
Chardath became Lord of Castle Spulzeer. His nameless, silent sister, meanwhile, had grown into a beautiful if speechless woman locked away on the top floor of the castle. Chardath called her "Marble"
because of her pale skin, raven hair, and inability to speak. Most of Chardath's acquaintances were unaware of her existence, and he kept it that way. Though he allowed Marble to move freely about the castle, her years of captivity had made her afraid of anyone but her brother. She stayed mainly in the family quarters on the new level, away from guests, though she took pleasure in visiting the rose garden every afternoon.
Chardath respected her reclusive nature and protected her from discovery. She was the one bright spot in his life. From a young age, Chardath had resented the way their mother hid her away, refusing to acknowledge her existence as if doing so would reveal a flaw in Kaisha. When Chardath ascended as the new lord, he hoped the event presaged a new life for them both.
It was not to be. All this time, Kartak had been living his unlife in the Kuldin Peaks and advancing his powers as a lich. He fed his anger over the centuries until it developed into a glowing hatred for the Spulzeers. His formal expulsion from the family, conducted as one of Farkas's last acts, fueled his hatred. Kartak cursed the castle, the land, and the family of Spulzeer.