About this adventure: Background

Background: History

Steffan Delarosa was cruel long before he met Louis Merrikitt. Steffan and Louis were a stunningly charming pair of rogues who delighted even as you threw them from your daughter’s bedroom.

The Delarosas were an influential family in Crosspoint. It was a great tragedy when Anthony Delarosa and his eldest son Tony died in a freak fire in the family manor. It was even more of a disappointment to the great families that this left younger son Steffan in charge of the estate.

Steffan’s control of the Delarosa estate included the care of his mother, Parnassa Grace Delarosa. Steffan personally supervised the construction of a secluded manor on Crane Hill in the marsh between the villages of King’s Head, Richard’s Cross, and Jacksonville. Lord Delarosa purchased the lumber for the inner walls and roof and had it delivered in the night by unseen men. The red bricks were fired in secret with ingredients only he knew. Legends say the house was built of the forests of nightmare, and mortared with the blood of dragons.

Legends also say that the death of Steffan’s father and brother was not an accident, that the investigation was abruptly ended; and that Steffan personally transferred the old Lord’s body from the family’s crypt in Crosspoint to the new Delarosa Manor.

Whatever the truth of the legends, Steffan, his mother, and his dedicated servant Merrikitt all moved to this remote and secluded new home in the marsh.

Steffan chose his wife from the Mountjoy family south of Fork in West Highland. Crosspoint’s families were both scandalized and relieved.

Steffan carried on a three-year courtship by letter, exchanging courtly poetry, portraits, and finally majordomos to arrange the engagement and marriage. Steffan’s majordomo was Louis Merrikitt. The result was that in 859 Laurel Mountjoy began the two-month journey from Mountjoy Manor to Delarosa Manor. She was accompanied by her mother, her two maids, two coachmen, her brother, Louis Merrikitt, and her dog Violet. Violet was a gift from Steffan.

The caravan was attacked on the Leather Road by Night Trolls. Merrikitt was able to rescue Laurel (and Violet) but not before the rest of the party was killed. Laurel was devastated, and also very impressed by Louis’s resourcefulness and loyalty. Long after her marriage turned sour, Laurel took solace in Louis’s protective guardianship.

Steffan had many visitors to Crane Hill. Laurel found her husband’s guests less and less likable as the years wore on. She initially tried to find friendship with Parnassa, but Steffan’s mother had long slipped into the twilight of her memory. Her husband’s death and the death of her first-born preyed on her. Parnassa even claimed to be visited by her dead husband, sometimes in his court finery and sometimes in his burial sheets. Steffan eventually relegated her to an attic room. Laurel dutifully cared for her mother-in-law despite Parnassa’s ravings and her husband’s exhortations to let the servants deal with the madwoman.

Steffan and Laurel’s first attempt at a child ended in stillbirth; the memory of her cold son haunted her for years. She did not become pregnant again until after Parnassa’s death seven years later. Steffan and Laurel then had two daughters: Ruby, and two years later Mary. Ruby was named after an aunt of Laurel’s, and Mary was a nod of gratitude to Louis. Neither were named after Steffan’s mother, as he had always hated that name.

Ruby died when she was eight. Laurel was devastated. Her health and her sanity deteriorated. Laurel died four years later in the same attic room her mother-in-law had died in. Mary Delarosa was ten years old.

Louis Merrikitt left Delarosa Manor at the turn of the century, leaving Mary and Steffan alone. Steffan became more violent and loud as he aged, demanding immediate obedience from his dwindling staff and his long-suffering daughter. Mary remained in Delarosa Manor for the rest of her life. She was forty when Steffan died. People from Jacksonville and Richard’s Cross provided servants, but none stayed long despite Mary’s generous pay. Mary also had many suitors; none survived Delarosa Manor intact. Either their nerves or their lives were lost.

“Shadows walk in that house,” servants said. “And whisper in the walls. The house has awakened.” Suitors and visitors alike whispered that Lord Delarosa’s house was poorly built. Doors stuck at inopportune times; floor boards loosened, railings broke, and furniture slid when no one was looking.

Mary died at 81, some forty years ago. Her remaining servants boarded up the house and returned to their homes. Whatever walks in that house now, walks alone.

The real backstory

Steffan Delarosa wanted eternal life, power, and riches—in that order. He knew about personal dimensions such as the Vale of the Azure Sun, but he had no desire to study magic his entire life and benefit only in old age cut off from the mewling human herd. He wants to rule that herd.

Delarosa befriended Night Priest Louis Merrikitt, as much as such evil can be friended. He learned to summon an ember of shadows which, in turn, told him the ritual of waking.

Through this ritual, fed by the sacrifice of his wife’s first child, Crane House exists now in slumber and in shadow. But the ritual is not complete. Steffan has eternal life only in the woke house. To venture forth again into the world, he requires a massacre and a legend. Seven people have been murdered so far, including his family. Six more, and he can complete the ritual in shadow, and the indestructible woke house will become his base of power in the light, eternally.

He will be able to leave the house at will, command the demon it harbors, and draw upon its powers to influence, threaten, and surveil the world.

Background: Timeline

Delarosa Manor was populated for a year shy of one hundred years.

These dates (and dates and ages elsewhere in this book) assume that the current year is 996.

Player character knowledge

An easy search on the name Delarosa in Crosspoint will find most of the history. A player character might also be a relative of Laurel Mountjoy or a distant relative of Steffan Delarosa. And the player characters might find Laurel’s diary in her 2nd floor bedroom.

Treasure-hunters have occasionally tried to find the Delarosa treasure, but have returned only with tales of horror—or haven’t returned at all.

Technically, relatives of Steffan Delarosa still live in Crosspoint and one of them owns Delarosa Manor. Nobody wants it. Even without its history, it is in the middle of a marsh in the middle of nowhere. They would certainly like to have any money that is hidden in the house, but they’ve already lost several treasure-hunting family members to the swamp as they fled the manor in the night. The treasure hunting stopped decades ago.