The Lovelace Family

Race. Human.

Human. Source of Power. The Shadowfell.

The Shadowfell. Featured Subclass. Shadow Sorcerer.

The Lovelace family lives in a mansion (called Shadowmend) on a hill above a sparkling lake, an idyllic plot of land that flourishes and thrives in the day but becomes hard with frost at night. Starting at dusk, howling winds cause shutters to slam periodically. The glow of the moon turns threateningly green in the reflection of the water. A thick black fog creeps up the side of the hill, pawing at the slats of the mansion's supports, threatening to bring the whole thing crashing down into the lake until finally the first rays of the sun in the morning push back the darkness. Once the light of dawn strikes the house, the terrors of the night are over.

These terrors come from the troubled dreams of the family's patriarch, once a powerful noble who funded, with considerable expense, several expeditions into the Shadowfell in the hopes that what the adventurers he had hired brought back with them would be enough to off-set the cost and propel him into a more venerable position at his university. On the last expedition, only one survivor returned, and once the patriarch had welcomed him back, that survivor evaporated into black fog and pressed itself into the screaming professor's skin.

While no side effects were observed at the time, the professor's wife soon had a baby that undoubtedly carried with it the taint of the Shadowfell. And thus that shadow's bloodline was passed down with the professor's. More than half a century later and the entire family is consumed with the taint of the Shadowfell, still somehow obsessed with retaining their family's venerable position as nobility.

Professor Ellison Lovelace Ninety-five years old and barely mobile, the professor is the patriarch of the Lovelace family, and despite his age he still believes he has his mind. He is represented by the patriarch sorcerer statblock with Darkness Incarnate granted from his shadowy influence. His speed is 5 feet and he requires support from an ally to prevent falling prone. He has an Intelligence of 18 (+4) and skill in Arcana (+9) and History (+9). He almost always uses Subtle Spell as his metamagic option because his voice is shaky with age and his hands are always curled up painfully from arthritis. He can cast spells without this metamagic option, but it's difficult for him to do. Despite being physically fragile, his huge pool of hit points is justified by the protection of his shadowy interloper who has remained with him all this time. Professor Lovelace has a fierceness to his gaze, his voice, and his actions that has remained with him despite his age. He is strongly opinionated about political concerns and still thinks that the academy should have recognised him for his contributions to the world's understanding of the Shadowfell. He expects his children and his grandchildren to continue his academic pursuits. Often a crafty "investor" will attempt to siphon some of his family's money for a fruitless undertaking, but the professor will have none of it. He can sense scammers from a mile away, he claims. Instead, he has invested a considerable amount of his family's money in property and renovations for a few different academies. It's what his late wife Batilda would have wanted.

Isaiah Lovelace and Amelia Norwood-Lovelace Professor Ellison Lovelace's eldest son became a renowned architect, contributing to several important buildings in Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate, mainly theatres (for he loved the theatre). He built the family's mansion Shadowmend for everyone to stay when his father's painful arthritis flared up. At the time work started on the mansion, he was engaged to a theatre actress named Amelia Norwood with whom he now has three young girls. Amelia was known for her work portraying bombastic villains in plays and was entranced by Isaiah's "inner darkness" while they were young. The novelty of a tortured inner soul wore thin, but by then she traded her love of his darkness for a love of his thoughtfulness. Despite his shadowy powers, she sensed that he was a man who put a lot of effort into making life better for those he cared about. Which is why she has been trying to tear him away from his father. Isaiah is represented by a shadow sorcerer statblock with an Intelligence of 18 (+4). He has proficiency in Carpenter's Tools (+7) and Mason's Tools (+7). Amelia is represented by a commoner statblock with a Charisma of 17 (+3) and proficiency and expertise in Performance (+7).