Travis Roland

Travis Roland convinces a local to buy Roland Brand cigars

Travis Roland (Born April 16th, 1974) is a former US Army Cavalryman, cattleman, the Sheriff of the New Elizabeth Sheriff's Office and Owner and Proprietor of Roland Premium Tobacco LLC. He currently lives and operates his cigar business in the State of New Elizabeth.

## Personality

Travis is an easygoing and jovial man who tends to spend most of his time in town chatting and hanging with friends. Sometimes, however, he likes to venture off into the wild on his own and get away from people, preferring the solitude to the bustle of town. When asked how he sees himself, he replied that he tends to want to look out for "the little guy" and often finds himself helping newcomers to the State of New Elizabeth. However, his time in the military can sometimes lead him into a depressive state which often is brought down by either alcohol or burying himself in work. In rare cases, he has been known to burst into tirades about the various problems with the county, often from the position of how things could be improved. Travis is no stranger to violence and is known to have shot several men in county, the majority of which were (at least to him) morally justified or in self defense.

## Early Life and Education

Born in Monterey Bay, California, to a destitute prospector and a lumber mill clerk, Travis lived much of his early life on the verge of abject poverty. He was raised mostly by his father, Richard Roland, who ambled from one odd job to another to make ends meet when his gold pan inevitably came up empty once again. His mother, Gabriela Roland, helped the family make ends meet when times were tough. Eventually though, the mill she clerked for went under and was bought up by a local ranching baron. With most of the state still chasing the promise of gold dust (little of which was left in the ground by 1881) she struggled to find reliable work that fit her skillset.

### New Home and Devastation

With the writing clearly on the wall for the Roland family, they pulled up roots and moved north with the notion of possibly settling down in the Oregon territory where land was plentiful, and many men still made a good living on trapping. By 1882, the Roland family had built a quaint home in prime trapping territory in eastern Oregon. There, they lived together comfortably for four years. Eventually however, their luck soured once again. Travis’ father, while out checking his traps, stumbled upon a group of men who were trekking the wilder nearby. Assuming them to be trappers themselves, he approached them and informed the men they were on his land. Unknown to him however, the men were hardened killers, members of a local highwayman group who often preyed on travelers and miners alike. After a quick exchange of gunfire, Richard was left dead in the woods, his old breech loader shot in half.

Roland’s mother, worried for her husband, went out in search of him, leaving Travis alone. The highwaymen hadn’t gone far though. While his mother was gone, the men set upon their home and torched it to the ground. Travis, trapped and unable to escape, called for help. His mother eventually returned, seeing the glow of the fire, and did what any loving mother would. She charged into the flames and wrapped a wet blanket around Travis to shield him from the inferno. While the young Travis had survived unscathed, his mother had suffered serious burns and was unable to walk out of the woods. Kissing Travis on the head and pointing him in the direction of town, she sent him off to get help.

### Life After Loss

When a filthy, hypothermic, and devastated Travis arrived in town, the local law deputies formed a posse and went out to rescue Gabriela and apprehend her attackers. After two days of searching, neither her nor the highwaymen could be located. After a month of fruitlessly combing the valley, the law ceased their search and placed Travis under the guardianship of a blacksmith named Hyde. He was a harsh man with a stern temperament. While Travis never was allowed to fully learn the tools of the trade, he was put to work keeping the books, shipping merchandise around down by horse and crying the services of the blacksmith to patrons in town. There, he learned the invaluable tools needed to become a savvy businessman and a proficient horse rider.

## Military Service

### Unit

 7th Cavalry Regiment, 8th Troop

Upon turning 16, a Cavalry troop clopped into town to water and rest their horses. Roland, enamored with their fancy white hats and fierce bravado, bid farewell to Hyde and joined up with the US Army at Ft. Sill. He requested service in a cavalry regiment and received training, gear and, most importantly, a horse. Most of the late 1880’s was spent patrolling the frontier and keeping the dwindling Indian resistance in check.

### Earning His Stars and Bars

During a routine patrol in the Montana territory, Travis’ troop came under ambush by a local group of Indian braves. This small patrol, consisting of fourteen men, fled into the underbrush, and desperately attempted to reorganize. With their paths forward and back blocked, they had no choice but to shoot their war out. Their first casualty was the senior NCO, killed outright as the fighting began. In disarray and leaderless, the troop fired blindly into the woods at anything that moved. Two more troopers were picked off from afar and their ammunition was getting low. Eventually, Travis spotted a hidden path down a slope and into a thicket which traveled along the river. Sensing the end was near and desperate for a break, he grabbed two senior troopers and told them to rally the men.

Together, with their seniority on his side, he directed the troop through the thicket and away from the ambush. With immediate doom postponed, they were able to navigate to a piece of high ground overlooking their path of pursuit. Emboldened by their early victories, the braves gave rabid chase and flooded into the thicket after them, unaware of the changing tide. Wounded and exhausted, the Troopers set up for a last stand atop their humble perch, trapdoor rifles trained on the thicket. One by one and then all at once, the braves burst into a clearing, out of the thicket.

The staccato of rifle and revolver rifle crescendo into a mind-boggling cacophony as the troopers and braves exchanged fire. A dozen braves went to their knees as the troopers fell back on their marksmanship and renewed confidence. With the advantage of surprise clearly gone, the braves retreated and carried off their wounded. For Travis’ initiative that day, he earned himself a bronze star. He could now count himself among the old salts of the troop. He welled with pride and gumption and received a hero’s welcome back at Fort Sill.

### Dark Tides Turn

However, the Indian wars were now swinging into their dog days. At the tail end of 1890, the 7th Cavalry was called up to put and end to the so-called Ghost Dances of the Indian people. Their first stop was that of the little muddy creek settlement of Wounded Knee. To this day, most are uncertain who fired the first shot following the arrival of the 7th, but all know of the massacre that ensued. The troops, spurred on by nervous orders to subdue any and all Indians resisting within the camp, charged in and laid waste.

### The Dog Days

Travis did as told but by now no longer felt the pride of his early service. Following the demolishing of the Wounded Knee encampment, the 7th did battle with rebel Indians at Drexel Mission, a Catholic missionary nearby. By this time, the service had soured Travis. No longer was this a war about taming the wild west. This was dirty work. By 1895, the regiment had been relocated to Fort Bayard in New Mexico where they fought various border conflicts and policed against bandits. While his time spent here had been less burdensome, still, Travis had grown tired and bitter of the fighting. In July of the same year, he was honorably discharged after reaching the rank of Sergeant.

## Civilian Life

Following his discharge, Travis found himself drifting from job to job. First through Nevada, Colorado, Mississippi and then Florida. While his skillset was somewhat robust, his strongest skills were that of riding and shooting.

### A Cattleman's Job

Word came to him one day that Texan cattlemen were looking for riders and blockers to take steer cattle north, into the Montana territory. Eager to avoid his father's bad luck and listlessness, he signed up and was given a generous sign-on bonus. He rode for two years with the cattlemen, braving the wilder and Indians alike. Eventually, he had felt that the trail was wearing him down. Being in the saddle almost continuously since sixteen had started to take its toll. By 1897, he had concluded his fourteenth drive and closed his contract with the head cattleman. Though the job had paid well, it had been tough work and his time on the trail had sapped his funds considerably. With what was left of his cattle fortune, he moved briefly back to California to try and repurchase his family's old plot but instead found that a fish cannery had been propped up in it's place by an industrial tycoon. Unperturbed, he moved again out to the State of New Elizabeth in search of more work and a place to call home.

### Back on The Frontier

Doubt at once consumed Travis as he now found himself floundering in a land he was unaccustomed to. Though his father had been an accomplished trapper towards his end, Travis had learned little of the trade. Furthermore, there were few solid job opportunities in the county fitted to his skill set. Immediately, he realized he needed to move fast lest his funds run dry. Desperate for work but still spry in his step, he began accepting bounty contracts from the local Sherriff. The pay was poor and the work was dangerous but eventually he felt he had learned the swing of things. Always shoot them, don't let them shoot you. Easy enough, he wrote in his journal. With so much of the county, which he now called home, unknown to him, he figured this was at least steady work. Eventually though, after he had taken the lives of dozens of men, he realized his career was once again grinding down on his psyche. He needed to expand his horizons, start learning new skills and break into a real trade.

### The Birth of a Tycoon

With a fist full of blood dollars, he purchased a ferry ticket to a nearby tropical island named Guarma. There, he enjoyed the sights and people, basking in the exotic landscape and culture. But what he was really after were cigars. The full bodied, sweet and firm tobacco of Guarma made excellent cigars. Then it hit him: start a line of cigars to merchandize back in New Elizabeth. The exotic flavor of Guarman tobacco would make a killing. With the remainder of his money, he bought up a small tract of land on the island from a floundering estate and hired a pair of workers to grow and harvest his tobacco. When it had been collected and dried, he set to work to hand roll every single cigar he could muster out of his first harvest. While they were initially crude looking, he quickly got the hang of rolling them smoothly and finely. Upon Travis' return to New Elizabeth, the cigars appeared to be an immediate success. Coupled with a pair of expertly designed ads, he captured the markets of Valentine and Blackwater immediately. He even signed a massive shipment deal with the New Elizabeth Sheriff's Office. With business booming, he immediately set to work expanding the business.

## Government Employee

### Rank

 Sheriff

Though the tobacco business was ripe for opportunity to make a fortune, Travis soon found that life in the county carried with it many dangers. Bandits of all shapes and colors lurked in the woods and at the edges of towns, preying upon good folk. He himself had already had a number of run-ins with gang members known as The Cartel. While Travis had never considered himself a narrow devotee of the law, he knew where to draw the line.

One day in the town of Valentine, a couple of ruffians of no import made trouble for themselves when the off-duty deputies Cora Rivers and Leroy Hayes marched up to them and struck up conversation. The pair, being lawmen, were always on the lookout for individuals who fit the description of those who had bounties on their head. Cora mistakenly took one of the men as a bounty and asked his name. When the men asked her why she wanted to know, she was honest with them. Upon realizing that they in fact did not have bounties, she apologized and bid the men fairwell. The men, irked by her suggestion that they, themselves ruffians, might indeed be wanted criminals, drew pistols and leveled them at the pair. Cora informed the men that she was pregnant and did not want to have a gunfight, insisting she had simply made a mistake in identity. Clearly disinterested in a peaceful conclusion, the men opened fire. Cora was hit and sent to the ground while Leroy expertly dispatched all three of the gunmen with a double barrel. Thankfully, Cora and her child made a full recovery.

Upon witnessing this grotesque act, something snapped in Travis. Even though he had just begun laying the groundwork for the makings of a Tycoon Man, he threw it all away. Hours later, he marched up to sherrif's office and requested a position as a lawman. After some paperwork had been filed, he was processed and placed in a training position. After only four days of shadowing deputies and assisting in carrying out their duties, he was promoted to Assistant Deputy. Travis continued his service to the New Elizabeth Sheriff's Office and served well, protecting the citizens of Valentine and the State of New Elizabeth at large. However, the habits of a bounty hunter and soldier die hard.

### The Undoing of a Lawman

Due to some quirks in the structure of the department, Travis was restricted from duty unless a fully fledged Deputy was present to oversee him as an Assistant Deputy. At the time, Deputies were hard to come by and for whatever reason, sometimes none were availiable. This ment that even though Travis was ready and willing to protect his town and his friends, he sometimes had to put down his badge and watch helplessly while the criminal element ran amok. One major example is when The Cartel rode into town in the early hours of the morning one day and began torching buildings and goading citizens into gunfights. Travis indeed watched helplessly and was openly mocked by the gang members as they made a mockery of Valentine. While the gang eventually went on their way and thankfully hadn't harmed anyone seriously, other similar events didn't pan out so fortunately.

In the early morning hours of a day in October, three ruffians had rode into town and were openly robbing and even shooting people. Travis' blood boiled as news from friends and colleagues came to him about the unjustice rife around them. However, he was duty-bound to let the criminals run free as there were no other Deputies in town to oversee Travis. As they continued to loot and accost people, Travis finally gave in. Three of his friends had already agreed that something had to be done. Travis agreed to join them in their vigilantism. Donning a hood and a drop gun, the four vigilantes rode up to the saloon where two of the vandals were in the middle of a robbery. After ordering them to surrender, the four tied them up and placed them on horses. A gunfight ensued with a third but he was quickly shot down. As soon as they had come, the vigilantes left, headed for the hills. The trio were dealt with in a most violent manner and were dumped into the river.

Upon the return of the posse, Travis basked in the peace of the town. No longer were the vagrant bandits robbing or shooting. Giddy with their minor victory, the four shared drink. However, Travis unknowingly had sealed his fate. Later that day, leadership within the department had caught wind of Travis' actions. After a short confrontation about the events, Travis replied plainly that he had done it. He voiced that what he had done was not corrupt and left it at that. Upon review, he was fired from the department. A great shame suddenly befell Travis. While he knew what he had done was indeed corruption of the highest order, he had done it anyway. Clearly, he had broken the law. He struggled with the moral question of whether it was wrong though. After all, he had made the town safer and restored order, as is the job of any deputy. However, he had broken the law, a cardinal sin among law keepers. For this, Travis languished.

### A Return to Roots

Following his discharge from the department, Travis returned to his cigars. He completed dozens more sales and burried himself in his work to escape the lingering guilt of his actions on the force. At the time, the department needed deputies desperately and in his quest to bring order to chaos, he had robbed the town of another law keeper. Despite his inner struggle, Travis presented outwardly as unperturbed. The cigars were selling well and he was financially comfortable for the first time in his life. With another and maybe final chapter of struggle behind him, Travis snuggled into the county and began searching for land to purchase. It was time to call something here home once again.