The Hasards are a noble line that goes back twenty generations or more, to the very founding of the Eight Kingdoms. A petty noble, second-cousin to the head of the house, Billings Hasard is known as the Black Hasard. It is his dismal sigil which the party discovers in the recovered papers of the late Baron Leopold.
The Black Hasard is no paragon of his House. He resides atop a hill in a remote province, two hundred miles removed from the rest of his faction. Lord of the Vineyard, he is sometimes called, for his manor is surrounded by the brambles and bracken that used to brag a respected vintage. His manor is reputed to be a crumbling and decaying structure.
Black Hasard himself has a paltry income. His lands produce little. His serfs go hungry. But Billings has always married well. A widower twice over, his current wife is the daughter Wylma of Lord Brudenell. She brought a sizeable inheritance to his coffers, but rumors abound that it is all spent. According to the same rumors, the Black Hasard's only known support is the interest on the gambling debts others always seem to owe. One such debtor is the Reeve of Loetus which conducts the party to Hasard's Vineyard, offers them a sack of coins to pay his debt and beats a hasty retreat.
The party climbs the hill alone.
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