Chiessa Scaltro

Art by Sara Lang, Cypress\_soomka @ Instagram

Marchiessa Velianna Scaltro is the daughter of Marchisso Lennicco Scaltro, granddaughter Marchisso Kristofanno Scaltro, heads of the Scaltro Guild, primarily a significant merchant guild in Bazar with involvement in a vast criminal empire involved in burglary, smuggling, fencing, assassination, racketeering, as well as legitimate enterprises in tradehouses, shipping, and security. Recently he has allowed her to prove herself by managing the tradehouse and operations for the guild in Thoraniel. She had thought the pirates kidnapping her were from a rival syndicate trying to shut down her operations. When she realized that she had actually been kidnapped (not by her father), Chiessa realized she may need to take extreme measures to recover her agency and freedom.

## Statistics

 Dex
 Con
 Int
 Wis
 Cha

### Training

Chiessa grew up as scion to one of the pre-eminent merchant guilds in Bazar. The Scaltro Guild has a fleet of trade ships and tradehouses in every major city on Aquila (and a couple outside the Continent). Additionally, despite it being considered a bit risque, she had an arcane tutor who taught her the fundamentals of magic including simple spells and conjurations. In her time in Thoraniel and aboard the Dying Silver Light, she has further honed her knowledge of tactics, strategy, and the arcane arts.

### Languages

Chiessa is fluent in Common, Draconic, Elvish, Gnomish, Dwarven, Primordial, and Celestial and is able to speak with a near-native accent in all languages she speaks, switching dialects easily provided she is familiar with the language and dialect in question.

## Personal History

### Childhood

Chiessa's childhood was a fairly happy one. She was the fourth of her generation within the Scaltro family (and the first girl). She was raised, as with all of her siblings, as a potential successor as head of the merchant family. The Great Guilds were quite friendly with one another, exchanging fosterlings and hosing a myriad of social events. The Scaltro family was particularly close with the Vericci (heads of the principal Apothecary's Guild in Bazar).

Chiessa spent most summers at the Vericci plantation a ways inland from Bazar proper. The plantation grew rosemary, lavender, chamomile, and numerous other herbs and medicinal plants essential to the family's enterprise. Early on, the two families agreed informally that Chiessa would marry Luca Vericci. Luca's father, Antonio, was Guildmaster for the Vericci Guild, and interested in improving relations with the Scaltro merchants who supplied so many vital ingredients for his family's various poultices, potions, and other remedies.

### Adolescence

As Chiessa and her siblings grew older, it became more and more clear that the family's enterprises were more complicated than was openly acknowledged. Though they did have a rather large fleet of ships and engaged in a vast volume of trade - moving through the various bureaucratic factors of the cities of Aquila - they also engaged in some more legally grey activities, including smuggling, drug trafficking, fencing stolen goods, and even retrieval (burglary) and wet works (assassination).

Chiessa embraced the family's dark and light sides, playing the one against the other. As a wealthy family of great standing, the Scaltros were in a strong position. Significant evidence would be needed to bring any sort of claim against them, and the volume of legitimate business they did served to mask the various criminal aspects to their operations.

She became close friends with Antonia and Sofia, her unofficial fiance's sisters (Sofia was technically Luca's cousin). Antonia, as it turned out, was rather an alchemical genius and the most promising mind the Vericci had produced in generations. Sofia, on the other hand, was thoroughly suited to the business of business, running the Guild and all of its operations.

### Early Adulthood

It would be unfair to say Chiessa's adolescence was easy. Her father, head of the Scaltro Guild, had a reputation as a ruthless businessman. It was a reputation he had thoroughly earned. Every few months, he would hire bandits, hitmen, or pirates to try to kidnap or assassinate his children (in Bazar, this also included his nieces and nephews) to ensure they were well prepared to take the helm of the family.

### Thoraniel

Chiessa was only in Thoraniel two weeks before being kidnapped by Teek's agents. Initially she had assumed her father had sent the kidnappers and would have her hide for being foolish enough to get caught. Once it was clear that she had been kidnapped by quite independent pirates, she was sure he would have her hide for the amount they would demand in ransom. Fortunately, several of her other prisoners preferred not to remain in Teek's custody as well and together they were able to overcome their captors and assume control of the Dying Silver Light.