Wilhelmina

>Hey Paul
>
>I like the stories and they gave me ideas about my own
>game. Keep them coming! =)
>
>My favorite is Wilhelmina (sp?) and do you have any
>stats, history on her? I think she might be a good NPC
>contact in my game. =)
>
>Ariel Sibal
>steelrealms

Thanks for the kind words!

I don't think there are many secrets here anymore, so I've included
my House Moune  GM notes, which includes a description of Wilhelmina.
I'll also send my write up of the FLOWFISH to the list.

House Moune Notes

House Moune members:
Lady Moune: Tarilia Moune is a retired, swashbuckling adventuress who
founded her own merchant company, House Moune, based on the ownership
of 2 farming astroids (Finagle & Torik's Luck) and a small fleet of
Tradesman class spelljammers. Lady Moune is known to be sympathetic
to the PoTs, and a friend to adventurers.  She's a slim, still
attractive women in her fifties. Lady Moune and her House are first
detailed in SJR5 _Rock of Bral_, pgs 27-28 & 55-58.

Post-Captain Wilhelmina: A large, robust giff female who is captain
of the House Moune Tradesman FLOWFISH.  A stickler for military
discipline, she is a foe of slavers and has the giff love of
smokepowder weapons.  Wilhelmina has a favorite curse, "'Pon my
Soul".  Her crew is devoted to her and she is high in Lady Moune's
favor.  Wilhelmina was charged with evaluating the group as potential
members of an adventuring group Lady Moune hoped to sponsor.
Wilhelmina is seen the most in Chapter 1, Turns 1-14.  Wilhelmina is
loosely based on TSR Trading Card #4 of 60, 1993 Series.

Agent Standish: A thin, balding man in wire rim glasses. Standish is
the same age as Lady Moune but seems much older. He is an excellent
clerk who speaks several languages and understands the markets of
Bral like few others.  Along with Wilhelmina he is one of Lady
Moune's chief advisors. Standish and Wilhelmina were the two
retainers most often asked to help in raising Ferric.  Standish
trained a little in illusionist magic when he was younger, and still
nows a glamour or two.


House Moune tradesmen:
The Flowfish under Post-Captain Wilhelmina
The GOLDFISH under Captain Rafe Willowand (not detailed yet)


Relations with other power players:

Enemies:
The Chainmen:
An organization of slavers who are currently banned from Bral (where
slavery is technically illegal). They are generally suspected to
operate behind the scenes, however, and many known Chainmen vessels
have been known to dock at Bral for resupply.  Lady Moune is a great
foe of slavers and during her adventuring career she clashed with
them many times. Chainmen vessels fly a flag with a pair of shackles
displayed as their colors, and the Chainmen are known to operate one
or more astroid bases within the sphere. Some suspect the Chainmen
are a front and money making arm of the Tenth Pit.

Tenth Pit:
No one is exactly certain what the Tenth Pit is. Most agree it is an
evil organization bent on conquering the Known Spheres.  Why it
wishes to do this, or how are open to question. The organization is
suspected to have agents placed within many local governments. Many
suspect that Bral is a center of Tenth Pit activity. Lady Moune is a
foe of all such groups.

Lord Diadan Cartan and House Cartan:
House Cartan is one of the noble houses of Bral.  the House fortunes
were once based off the importation of food from the larger worlds,
but Lady Moune's farming astroids nearly drove the House to ruin.
When Lord Diadan (then a younger son of the Lord) returned from a
career in "property redistribution" the House was on the verge of
selling its land on the Rock, and losing its noble status. Diadan
reinvigorated the House with his wealth, and when his father died a
few months later Diadan was revealed as his heir.  The other sons
haven't been seen on the Rock since, and many suspect the "trips"
they went on were of the fatal sort. House Cartan's current business
is difficult to pinpoint, though it is obviously one of the richest
Houses on Bral now. The only obvious House business is in
money-lending and speculation, though Lord Cartan does seem to own a
handful of spelljammers. Lady Moune and Lord Cartan passionately hate
each other, for reasons that seem to go deeper then House Moune's
destruction of the food market and the near bankruptcy of House
Cartan.

Today, Lord Cartan is the chief noble advisor of Prince Andru (though
he holds no specific title) and his House's resources dwarf those of
the Merchant House Moune.  Like most of the noble houses Lord Diadan
supports a number of bravos who swagger about the city in House
Cartan colors looking out for the interests of their noble patron.
These young swords use rapiers and main-gauche by preference, and
consider dueling an art form. While House Cartan's bravos may not be
the most numerous (that honor belongs to House Kullek)they are the
most aggressive and cruel of those walking the streets of Bral.  Even
the Theives' Guilds' toughs leave them a wide berth.

Lord Diadan Cartan is a handsome, elegant man with long black hair, a
closely trimmed beard, and a rogue's charming smile. He is always
dressed at the height of fashion, and favors sabre and main-gauche.
Lord Cartan has a reputation as the most dangerous duelist on Bral,
though he has not been challenged in many years.

Friends:
House Mosantas:
This noble house is composed almost entirely of half-elves.
Swashbuckling and fun loving, these half-elven nobles sponsor many
adventuring bands and artists.  Their parties are renowned even in a
city as jaded as Bral. The wealth of House Mosantas is based off the
booty of their pirate forefather, one of Captain Bral's original
crew. They often oppose House Cartan and duels between these two
Houses are not uncommon. The House is a strong supporter of the
Pragmatic Order of Thought, in fact the heir of Lord Mosantas, Tareo,
is the leader of the Bralian chapter of the PoTs.

Lord Mosantas was one of Lady Moune's adventuring companions and
paramours.  Though their romance died long ago they remain close
friends.

Pragmatic Order of Thought (PoT):
This multispheric organization is dedicated to increasing individual
liberties and freedoms. PoT members oppose slavery bitterly, and
fight against the many slavers (be the human, neogi, or worse) of
wildspace.  Though Bral technically does not permit slavery the law
is widely believed to be somewhat porous.  The PoTs run a series of
safehouses on Bral for escaped slaves, and use Bral as a nexus point
for getting groundling slaves back to their homes.

Several priesthoods on Bral support their efforts, especially the
Celestians. PoTs are often considered heroes by the common folk of
the city. The PoTs local leader, Tareo Mosantas, has suffered several
assassination attempts.

The Pantheon of the Olympians:
The priesthoods of two of the deities worshipped at this temple
complex (Hermes and Demeter) are very friendly to Lady Moune, who
tithes to both of these churches and maintains shrines to Demeter on
her farming asteroids.

Others:

The Halflings Guild:
This Thieves' guild is slightly mis-named, as it is open to thieves
from any diminutive race (for example, gnomes, pixies, kender, ect).
Halflings do dominate the guild, however, and guild traditions seem
to favor them.  This guild controls much of the Middle City, where
they extract an "insurance" payment from most of the businesses.
Their payments are never exorbitant, however, and if a non-halfling
thief robs from a store protected by the Halflings' mark, the
shopkeeper's goods will be returned, or an equivalent amount of coin.
The guild also has a hand in common burglary, robbing visitors new to
the city of small amounts of coin.

House Moune pays a protection fee to the Halfling's Guild, money
which Lady Moune considers well spent.
--
"...How shall a man judge what to do in such times?!"
"As he has ever judged," said Aragorn "Good and evil have not changed
since yesteryear..."
J.R.R. Tolkien, _The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers_

Paul Westermeyer,  pwestermeyer@????????.??.com