Amelio Cassalanter

> *With a sigh, Amelio leaned back in his plush armchair, the peeling purple velvet enveloping him. He loosened his collar a little, and with his other hand, traced a circle around the rim of a crystalline tumbler glass. The golden light of the flickering lamp on his desk cast long shadows over the disarray of papers on the large, polished mahogany table. A single, solitary ice cube bobbed in his glass of whiskey, in the shadow of the half-empty square glass bottle. Jarren, 1518 blend, aged 2 years in oak casks, with a hint of anise.*
>
>

> *He brushed a stray strand of pale blonde hair out of his eyes, and sighed again. Slowly, his eyes made their way over to the portrait on his desk. A laughing young blonde boy on the shoulders of a kind-eyed, smiling woman with long brown braided hair, standing in an orchard. To her side stood a tall, grinning man, his own hair greying slightly, his fine suit embellished with golden trim, a strong arm around the woman’s shoulders. Amelio’s eyes misted up a little. Would Father be proud of what has become of his legacy? he muttered to himself forlornly. It was a feeling that was blunted by the ever-dwindling glass of Jarren, and he raised it to his lips and slugged a sip back, he winced, coughing deep within his chest. As he grimaced, he laid the tumbler back down, leaving watermarks on the poster he was using as a coaster.*
>
>

> *Amelio sniffed at the wrinkled page. In blazing letters, the damp poster decried ‘VOTE AMELIO CASSALANTER FOR LORD OF WATERDEEP’. A year ago, he had been so confident he would be re-elected, but weeks before the election, everything went wrong. He had hired a private investigator to look into one of his competitors, the enigmatic native Warad Makótly, but the detective had disappeared, with no trace. No links to Warad, either. He watched the tiny ice cube float in his drink, thinking about the next thing that went wrong. The Spear. His pride and joy, a Thayan-made frigate with beautiful golden sails like butterfly wings. She had sailed as if the wind was always behind her. But the ship had been taken from Amelio’s private docks, commandeered in the middle of the day with no clues as to who, or where it went.*
>
>

> *With a clenched, angry fist, he slammed his glass down before it had met his lips, splashing the stained mahogany. The new Lord of Waterdeep was a young man named Lord Smytt. An inexperienced and young man rumoured to have been an adventurer in his lean years. Amelio seethed at the thought of one of the kinds of people he promised he would control, now in his place.*
>
>

> *With a slight cough, he reached for another crumpled piece of newspaper to mop it up. It read in faded black print, ‘Cassalanter: Lord and Saviour or Laughing Stock?’. He soaked up the spill and tossed it weakly toward the wastepaper basket, just as a knock at the door made him sit up.*
>
>

- Amelio, deep in thought just before Luca Calinezzi would arrive.

**Captain Amelio Bonassio Cassalanter** was a nobleman from House Cassalanter, the son of Vittoro Cassalanter. He was a blonde elven man, with quite a charismatic demeanour, and was very fond of Jarren whiskey. He had served in the Carmogan garrison as a Captain in his younger days for a few years.

He married a Saemhl woman named Mhára MacKilghraimh in the 1460s, with whom he had two children, Lyra MacKilghraimh-Cassalanter and Berto MacKilghraimh-Cassalanter.

He was very-well liked, and had lots of connections. In 1492, he exacted the services of his good friend, Sir Jason Greysword, and got him to clear out a village of changelings near Aomodos - he sent Lyslen MacEoin and Jara Kheriþe to do this. As it turned out, one survived. Only Lyslen, Jara, Taf, Jason and Amelio knew of this, and after the events of 1514, only Taf and Amelio were alive.

His father Vittoro Cassalanter died in 1504, and he took over as head of Cassalanter Industries.

He was Open Lord of Waterdeep from 1507-1514, a well-liked leader who led Waterdeep to independence, forming the state of Scarossar.

He ran again for election in 1519 as an industrialist promising to allow Scarossar to prosper. He was also having his rival Warad investigated. However, his fine frigate, the Cassalanter's Spear, was stolen by the West Marchers (helped by Warad). The ensuing fallout and disaster meant he lost out to Renaer Smytt, and was considered a failure, retiring from the public eye.

In 1520, he was approached by Luca Calinezzi and forced to sign over the entirety of Cassalanter Industries to become a subsidiary of Calinezzi Company Limited.