Arkham:Tristan Edward Westmoreland Vandervort
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Lord Tristan Morgan Westmoreland Vandervort, Viscount of Morpeth
Caucasian male, 28 years old, 6'1" and 195 lbs
Mystic archetype
Overview
Both parents are still alive. His father, the Earl of Carlisle in England, is from one of the oldest noble families and owns about one third of the land in Cumbria and Northumberland counties.
Tristan was born in Hong Kong in 1901, while his parents were handling business there. He went to boarding school at a young age, and (barely) finished his studies at Cambridge. He is currently living in Arkham, Massachusetts, and was "fortunate" to get a visa despite the restrictive Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act).
He moved to Akham for the following reasons:
- Find a copy of the De Vermis Mysteriis tome, for his family.
- Discover if there is an Elder Thing located around Arkham, and if so offer his services to it...
- ... and then learn if there is any remedy he can use to aid the Elder Thing that his family cares for in England.
- Recruit capable folks who can help fight against the Ancient Ones.
- Look over his younger brother, who just started as a resident doctor at St Mary's Hospital.
Tristan's Viscount of Morpeth title is a courtesy title, since he is the heir to the Earl title.
Character
| Archetype: Mystic | Total XP Earned: 0 |
| Personality: Ambitious | Unused XP: 0 |
| Insight: 1 | Money: $1 |
| Skills | |||
| Agility | 6 | Knowledge | 5+ |
| Athletics: | 6 | Resolve | 5+ |
| Wits | 6 | Melee Combat | 6 |
| Presence | 5+ | Ranged Combat | 6 |
| Intuition | 6 | Lore | 4+ |
| Knacks | |
| Blinding Light | Faith, Spell Complex action using Lore. Blinds all other people within 20'. It does 1 damage and the targets cannot take reactions. If you get 2+ successes then you pick who is blinded. |
| Gear | |
| Lucky foot | Once per session, perform a simple action to recover one Insight. ($0) |
| Stick of gum | Once per session, perform a simple action to remove one Horror. ($1) |
| Cape | When performing a reaction to avoid a ranged attack, the wearer may reroll the result once. ($15) |
| Fine clothes | Acts as heavy clothing. The wearer reduces the damage taken from melee attacks by 1, to a minimum of 1. ($30 + $75) |
| Field Surgeon Kit | Perform a successful complex action to heal damage, and increase the number of successes by two. 3 uses. ($25) |
| Flashlight | Can see up to 40' in one direction. 3 uses. ($25) |
Occult Ties
It was during the late Middle Ages, soon after his ancestor Andrew earned the title of Earl of Carlisle and took over Naworth Castle, that a coterie of ghouls began to plague his lands. It was to be the first major challenge for the newly appointed Earl, and one that almost broke him and the family. Not wanting to appear weak to his liege, nor to scare the common folk, Andrew and his family had to wage a "silent war" against them. The family suffered severe casulaties, and it was only the discovery of an Elder Thing deep in the cave system under Naworth Castle that finally changed the tide of the war. In their exploration and mapping of the cave system they discovered Gallu-Dingir, a severely weakened and ill Elder Thing. While their first instinct was to consider it a ghoul-created abomination, they refrained from trying to kill it when it tried to converse with them. It had much knowledge of Ancient Ones and their minions, and they learned of the ancient war the Elder Things fought against Ancient Ones.
The Elder Thing Dingir-Abba told them of a small group of lycanthropes which might aid them in their fight against the ghouls. Their first encounter did not go well, and Thomas the second-born son of Andrew perished under the terrible claws of a hot-headed lycanthrope. It was only the action of Hludawiga One-Eye, a mystic of their pack, that led to a stop in what was going to be a massacre. She knew of the Elder Thing, whom she called a minion of the Weaver, and convinced their leader that they now owed the familly a grave debt. It was to be later discovered that the pack was also hard-pressed by the ghouls, despite their impressive individual fighting capabilities, and needed allies. The leader agreed only on condition that at least one family member would be able to beat a series of tests, the last being a chilling test of enduring unspeakable horror. It was surprisingly Andrew's daughter, Eleanor, who succeeded where everyone else failed. She was able to join the lycanthropes as an equal, and their joint forces were able to finally repulse the ghouls from their lands.
In short:
- The family has long ties with an Elder Thing they call Gallu-Dingir, which exists in the cave system under their ancestral castle.
- The Elder Thing is ill, though apparently immortal or very long-lived, and no one is quite sure how to heal it.
- It introduced them to a group of lycanthropes, and now at least one family member is always a lycanthrope.
- It was through their alliance with the lycanthropes that they were able to purge the ghouls that had started to ravage their lands.
As for Tristan himself, his first supernatural encounter happened at the age of 10. As part of the family's many arcane rites, all descendants are required to watch as one of their own shifts into a lycanthrope form. It was his mother that he witnessed shifting, and he was not able to handle it... running away screaming. While later on he was able to handle, at least somewhat, his intrinsic fear of seeing a loved one transform into a terrifying and shocking form, he was nonetheless deemed unfit to carry the lycanthrope tradition. Partly as a result of this he further increased his mystic studies, to compensate for his failings.
Family
The Westmoreland Vandervort noble family can show a direct lineage to the founding of the Earl of Carlisle title, back in 1322. More precisely, the ancestor Andrew of Westmoreland came from a knightly family and distinguished himself in the Scottish Wars in 1315. For his actions he earned the title Baron. It was later in 1322 when he defeated the rebel Thomas of Lancaster that he was awared the title of Earl of Carlisle.
Tristan's parents support each other and the family, which means everything to them. They met in 1891 at the University of Cambridge, and a couple of years later they departed for Hong Kong. The family had significant holdings there, and Tristan's father decided to take a hands-on approach during this tumultuous time. In the next few years they conceived Tristan, Alistair, and his sister there.
Naworth Castle, the ancestral seat of the family since 1323, is still privately held by the family.Wealth
The family's assets are mostly in leaseholds, which is a concept that dates back to feudal times. In England, among many other places, freehold is the most comprehensive form of land ownership, granting perpetual ownership of land and buildings, while leasehold involves owning the right to use a property for a limited period of time (such as 99 years), after which ownership of the land reverts to the freeholder. The Westmoreland Vandervort family owns about one third of the land in Cumbria and Northumberland counties.
The family had at one time owned a few companies in Hong Kong, most notably Dent Vandervort & Co. Major British mercantile companies known as "hongs" dominated Hong Kong during the 1800s, especially after the colony was ceded to Britain in 1842. Founded before Hong Kong's establishment, Dent Vandervort & Co. was known as the second largest British trading company in East Asia. The company bought one of the first plots of land at Hong Kong's initial land sale in 1841 and opened its headquarters there soon afterward. Like other "hongs", this company initially focused on the China trade and then from there expanded into finance, shipping, insurance, and real estate. Subsidiary firms were created to manage each of these areas of businesses.
In 1861 William Vandervort and his associates were pushed out of the main business, which was then renamed to Dent & Co or just Dent's, and instead spun off the real estate subsidiary into its own independent business. This later merged into Hongkong Land, with the Vandervort family owning a 20% stake in that business. With that settled Tristan's father returned home to England.