> [!Tip] Profile > ![[Tesca.jpg|300]] > **Tesca** > --- > **Species:** Human > **Role:** Orphanage Second-in-Command > **Affiliation:** Baldrin’s Orphanage ## Profile Tesca is an older orphan who now serves as the de facto second-in-command at Baldrin’s orphanage. She is responsible, capable, and visibly invested in keeping the orphanage functioning day to day. While not a natural leader in the way Baldrin is, Tesca is reliable and attentive, stepping into operational responsibilities whenever he is absent. ## Reputation Known within the orphanage as dependable and level-headed under pressure. Trusted by Baldrin and looked to by the younger children for stability. ## Relationship to the Party An ally through Baldrin. Comfortable speaking candidly with him and willing to relay concerns that affect the orphanage. ## Known Traits - Responsible and organized - Loyal to Baldrin - Slightly anxious around authority - Capable under pressure %% ## DM Notes ### Threads & Hooks - **The deal with the assessor (active, hidden).** To keep the orphanage afloat while Baldrin is away adventuring, Tesca cut a quiet arrangement with the city assessor — the same official who is [[Lhara]]'s leverage over [[Boldran Evans|Boldran]]. She thinks she bought breathing room. She actually deepened the exact hook Lhara already holds. - **What she gives:** information. Low-key "check-ins" on Boldran's movements and the strangers (the party) he runs with. Framed to her as harmless — "just keeping the paperwork honest." She does not understand she's an informant. - **What she gets:** the back-tax pressure quietly eases, plus occasional "gifts" as sweeteners — upper-ward food and **good wine** the orphanage could never afford. - **Why she did it:** out of loyalty to Baldrin and fear of losing the kids. The most loving possible choice, made in the most damaging possible way. Plays directly off her canon traits — anxious around authority, loyal to Baldrin — and an adult leaning on a sixteen-year-old. ### The tell (how it surfaces) - The anomaly is the **wine**, not the food. (NB: the E10 feast was Boldran's own doing — "special food from the upper wards, 5 gold well spent." This is a *separate, later* occasion that Boldran did **not** arrange.) Good wine is beyond anything the lockbox covers, and he didn't buy it. - Surfacing paths: Boldran notices the books don't show the cost; the back-tax notices have gone suspiciously quiet; a PC presses Tesca and she over-explains; the assessor lets something slip. ### The payoff - Boldran's DM notes: he "escalates over threats to children or exploitation disguised as charity." The wine *is* exploitation disguised as charity, routed through a child he trusts. The reveal is a canonical trigger for him, not just a sad scene. - The tragedy beat: Tesca didn't betray the orphanage out of weakness — she did the loyal thing and it was the wrong thing. Handle the reveal as heartbreak, not villainy. ### Key Decisions - **2026-06-15** — Established that Tesca made a secret deal with the assessor (informant arrangement, sweetened with food/wine) to keep the orphanage solvent. Origin: emergent table riff on the "nice food and wine" detail. Ties the orphanage thread into Lhara's existing leverage over Boldran. %%