New Villa Backstory

Here is the backstory on the villa behind the original party villa. We have now expanded into it.

It would give the party 4 times more land (now about 2.4 acres), and although there is no longer a main house, there is a 5 story tower in the front corner [The Tower of Vines/ Lawndons Tower][1], a few small cottages, a small grove with a pond, a small vineyard and a servants dorm. The extensive stables have fallen into disrepair, only 4 stalls (of 30) are still usable, as has the training area.

The family that owned the land (the Lloyds) died off when the main house burned to the ground, killing everyone inside 8 months ago. Everyone in this case include an aged couple Geddy and Gerta Lloyd (man & wife in their late 60), her uncle (also in his 60s) and a feebleminded daughter (in her 20s & heir).

The man and wife did have four children, but the oldest son died 10 years ago (along with his entire family and a few cousins) from a deadly sickness at their estate (named Moss Lake) two days north of town; the next oldest died in childbirth 20 years ago, both babies died too; the next oldest son was an adventurer and went missing 13 years ago on the southern continent, only 2 of 6 in his party survived and returned to Tul D'neir [they made the mistake of splitting the party and only these two survived, no body has been recovered]; the youngest and only surviving child is feebleminded probably due to the fact that the mom was in her 40s when her daughter was born. The family tree was significantly pruned when the deadly sickness wiped out everyone at Moss Lake, then extinguished in the fire.

The Lloyds had been an old and prosperous house for hundreds of years in the city (not quite a founding family, but 50 years after the founding), but had slowly been sliding into non importance. The family had been uber uber wealthy at one point and had given lots of money to the city and the land is long paid off, the remaining funds reverted to the city due to lack heirs and more than enough to pay back the city for renting the space at such an amazing discount.

They made the majority of their money from the expansive vineyards attached to their estate north of the city and exporting their wine, as well as importing luxury goods from the places they sold their wines.

For over 250 years Moss Lake Wine was the pre-eminent wine of the region and was exported all over the world. Their last world-famous vintage was 414AF (84 years ago), then a series of misfortunes struck the vines, first a blight took 30% of the vines, then a fire wiped out half of what was left. With capacity reduced to 1/3, they were no longer able to produce such high-quality wines, as well as aggressive marketing campaigns by other houses, claiming the blight was still affecting the taste of Moss Lake Wine. The last wine they produced was in 443AF (55 years ago), after that they sold the vines & lands furthest from the estate and burned the rest. The few remaining good vines were transplanted to the villa in Tul D'Neir and it took 10 years of constant tending and care by the current vineyard worker (Mr Pickard) for them to start producing grapes again.

The city will offer the land to the party and allow it to annex the space for double what they are paying now per month [I have upped it from the first email because of the amount of land and other amenities it adds to the parties holdings]. The only caveat is that the party is NOT allowed to sell either parcel of land because they are renting (and do not own) the land at 1/10 of the value of the properties because they work for the city.

The reason the party is offered such a great deal is that another family who's villa also bordered  this one wanted the land, but they are not really liked by the leaders of the town, and there have been rumors that the other family (the Garmadons) were responsible for the burning of the main house, but there is no proof, only conjecture.

The villa grounds comes with a few servants, like a gardener (named Ableford), a vineyard caretaker (named Mr Pickard), and some others.

The tower is the high point of the grounds and one of the most unique buildings in town. On any list of top 25 Architectural Highlights of Tul D’Neir, The Tower of Vines makes the list.

It was built by Lawndon Lloyd 245 years ago at the very height of the Lloyds power in Tul D'Neir. His father had been on the high council, but Lawndon (as the third son) was not made for civil servitude. He was a born wanderer & salesman and traveled the world in his 20s-30s as a representative of Moss Lake Wine, getting the families vintages into cities far and wide. He traveled far to the west to the Makarite subcontinent, extensively on the southern continent and was part of the initial trade delegation that was finally able to get into the markets of the far northeast continent of Klatch. Moss Lake Wine exports, especially the high-end Golden Reserve, became 'The Wine of Kings & Sultans' and brought the gold flowing into the Lloyd family coffers.

When he returned home at the age of 38 (in 250AF) to start a family, he was the most eligible bachelor in town, as well as one of the richest men in the world. The family's power expanded, his older brother, Kochran[2], got his father’s seat on the high council and would remain there until his 80s. His older sister, Sansha, held the most prestigious parties in town and was a major trend setter, socialite and (probably) The Queen of Night & Shadows[3].

In 252AF, they held the grandest of all parties and Lawndon finally chose his bride to be, a girl of 24, named Bressa Brighthandle, second daughter of one of the five original Tul D'Neir families.

Lawndon used his considerable wealth to build a tower for his bride in the corner of his family’s estate. The height of the tower would allow his bride to see her family’s villa across the city, and was actually 5 feet taller than the Brighthandle Tower.

The five-story tower is constructed of basic stone, but it’s the shape and the design of the tower that make it remarkable. Since it was built it has almost become completely covered in vines, about 80% of the surface is now covered with flowering vines. It reaches the top of the tower on the eastern side, but tapers away down to the third floor on the north and west sides. There are two basements, the top one is the kitchen, the sub basement was the larder and storage. The first floor has tall 14 ft ceilings and was the major reception area for Lawndon and Bessa; the second floor (standard ceilings) was their private reception area for later in the evening, only for their closest friends. Floor three contained only their bedroom and a small balcony. The fourth floor was split between an extravigant bathroom with a large tub, a large closet for her and a small extra room. The top floor was his study, complete with things that he brought back from his travels as well as a decent sized library containing the history of the family. There is a trap door that leads to the roof, which had a covered gazebo (now rotted away) and small sturdily built storage, in which he kept his telescope, a rare gift from the city of Klatch.

One of the more famous ancestors was Lerxst Lloyd [hm, SOR13, hm], The Winter Mage. Geddy's great-great-uncle, he live from 347AF to 399AF? and never returned from the far north and reported MIA in 399AF.

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[1] [The Tower of Vines/ Lawndon’s Tower] A five story tower that reaches almost 80ft into the sky, 50'x50' square tower on the bottom floor, but it slowly tapers up and twists into a mostly 40'round tower on the top floor, one of the sides of the bottom tower faces east at the base, but as it spins the flat side ends up facing nw by n (about 125 degree turn). It is supposed to resemble a growing grape plant.

[2] Kochran Lloyd - The longest tenured Tul D'Neir High Council Member, 55 years (from 31yo to 86yo), he was responsible for many intelligent decisions they did and was the main reason why the docks and trading facilities are world class. He understood the importance of trade and made sure that no expense was spared to create/upgrade the docks. Also beloved by the lower class of the city as he was very progressive in social programs, ofter using the families own immense wealth to help them. He personally built the dozen public libraries that are still maintained in the city as he was an avid reader of all kinds of books, the majority of his personal collection was donated to the cities university and the Kochran Library is one of the most renown on the continent.

It is his statue that stands outside of the family villa in Tul D'Neir, it is of him in his 50s holding an open book in one hand.

Sadly he was terrified of primates and was the leading force in having them banned from the zoo. He had frequent nightmares about a planet run by monkeys and would often wake from nightterrors by screaming 'Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!'

[3] Queen of Night & Shadows - One of the most famous rogues in Tul D'Neir history, for nearly two generations (during the 230s-270s AF) no secret remained hidden long in the top social circles of Tul D'Neir. Blackmail was her?? main weapon. Most people believe that Sansha Lloyd was the Queen of Night & Shadows, but that was never proved. Those who whispered their suspicions too loudly were often ruined, some quickly, some after years, and one took two decades.