[Real quick! I’ve been whitelisted before, but got unwhitelisted for some reason? Old Application here!]
Roan Staisah was born to a pauper human father, Solomon Staisah, and a relatively wealthy elven mother, Alyssa Nepheim. Alyssa’s father didn’t approve of the connection between the two, so Solomon and his newborn son were outcast from Elven society. Solomon quickly settled into a nearby village of halflings called Oakshire, close enough that Alyssa could slip away and stay a part of Roan’s life, but not set her father’s suspicions off. Although Alyssa tried to support them in any way possible, finances were always tight in Roan’s early life, but Solomon’s job at an Inn in town as a bartender paid well.
Roan grew up working under his father at this bar, serving food, scrubbing tables, but mostly enjoyed the craft of brewing beers, spending a lot of his teenage years in the cellar beneath the Inn. Roan and his father, over the course of several years learning how to brew together, made a name for themselves as the creators of the Staisah Stout.
The Staisah Stout attracted all kinds of visitors to their inn, including a wandering troup of bards who were looking to settle down somewhere quiet and start up a proper band job. One of the bards, a human female lute player named Sylvia, caught Roan’s eye. With a bit of smooth talking, and a few hours of drinking, the pair was quickly hooked; Solomon oversaw their wedding the following year, and Roan was genuinely surprised to see his Elvish grandfather in attendance, though he and his father suspected it was only because they finally made a name for themselves, even as a “lowly humans”.
When Olivia was born, Roan thought he was living the life, gazing on as his wife played her lovely music in the corner of the mainroom, his father in the kitchen, cooking up his signature pot roast, and him working at the bar, his daughter beside him doodling some little flowers. She always had a knack for the more artistic skills, a side effect of her Elvish ancestry. This golden age wouldn’t last forever, however.
Unidentified thieves broke into the Inn late one night, well after it had already closed for the evening, and slaughtered Solomon in his sleep. When Roan found out about the murder, he quickly learned after that someone was spreading the rumor that he had killed his father, in an attempt to take over the business and the Staisah Stout for himself. The people of Oakshire believed the lie, and drove Roan and his family out of their town. Roan tried seeking out his mother, Alyssa, but once again Roan’s grandfather shunned him and turned him back out onto the street.
Roan had lost all material possessions in his escape of Oakshire, his legacy of the Staisah Stout was slipping away from him, and his father, the one family member in his life that he felt understood him and cared for him, was dead. This drove Roan to madness, and he threw away his life to drinking and gambling, hoping that some scrap of coin could get his family’s feet back underneath them. The more he gambled, though, the more fruitless his attempts seemed to be, until Roan was several hundred gold pieces in debt.
In a last ditch effort to support his wife and young child, Roan turned towards a loan shark to pay off his debts. Although the money did help for awhile, he still didn’t have a way to pay back the new loan, and eventually, the loan shark came to collect.
Three men showed up to the small, abandoned shack that Roan and his family were staying at. One was the loan shark, who approached the dwelling and signalled the second, much bigger and burlier man to bust down the door. The third man had some innate, arcane abilities which locked down Olivia and Sylvia in their place within the abode. The second had Roan gripped by the front of the shirt in one hand, with a studded club threatening to clobber him in the other. “Wait!” Roan screamed out desperately. “Give me time, I promise I can pay you back!”
“You still honestly believe I want your money?” the loan shark laughed. “No, no, no, Staisah. There is no payment you could give me to save your family.” He turned to the arcane-gifted amongst them. “Do it,” he ordered.
Roan hopelessly watched as the loan shark’s lackey cast some kind of spell, and Sylvia’s and Olivia’s bodies went limp on the ground. “What did you do to them!” Roan yelled back at the loan shark.
“What will happen to you in just a second, Staisah.”
“But...why?”
The loan shark laughed. “Because, Staisah: your father wronged me for the last time, and it’s only right that he pays with his flesh and blood.”
“My father?”
The loan shark lifted a brow. “Did he not tell you? I suppose it doesn’t matter,” he said, ordering the arcane lackey to step forward. “Do me a favor, if you see your father on the other side: tell him The Black Hand sends their regards.”
***
Roan awoke some time later in an alley in Helena, covered in heavy wounds that began to scab over. He turned to look to his side, groaning against the nauseating pain, to find a small girl curled into his side. “Olivia?” he called out. The girl mewled at the sound of her name, but rolled over and fell back asleep. The pounding in Roan’s head kept him from concentrating on any of the millions of questions that bounced around his mind. He scooped his daughter up in his hands, and set out to find some help with two thoughts in mind: Where was Sylvia, and who is The Black Hand?
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