Count Valentine de Wallington the Fourth
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The curse of the de Wallington clan dates back to the current Count's Great-Grandfather,
Count Valentine de Wallington. The eldest Valentine secured the boundaries of the land that his father,
Sir Lafayette de Wallington had fought for and won, and upon them forged a civilized countship whose ekonomic circumstances soon cared for themselves. Valentine intended to leave for his descendants a profitable sinecure overseeing the dailey trade and activities of the port town of
Wahlberg.
On a hill overlooking the town and the bay, and backing up to the great hunting lands kept for his personal use, Valentine began construction of a handsome villa. He began to stay at the home while it was only three quarters of the way finished, to better oversee its construction and to enjoy the privet lands behind.
It was one day while hunting in which he came upon a small tribe of nomadic mystics who had stopped their wagons deep within the forest. A bent old woman asked the Count's permission to remain on his land while they tended to a few of their young who had caught sick while traveling. The Count refused, and ordered his men to chase the mystics away.
It was merely a month later that, while sleeping in his unfinished villa, that the fourth wall, then under construction, came loose of its foundation and fell upon the Count in his sleep.
His widowe, who was with child, was much aggrieved and was little seen amongst the people from thence on. The child, born soon after, was given his father's name in the hope that he might carry on his father's ambitious works.
Count Valentine de Wallington the Second lived his entire tragic life beset by terrible visions and fevers of the mind. It was as though the fabric of reality were constantly coming loose about him. He was drowned in the bay one night, at far too young an age, with the look of one who was fleeing something unseen.
Count Valentine de Wallington the Third quickly became a wastrel and squandered his income on as many vices as he might find. He drank himself into a stupor and spoke very little of his mind to anyone, let alone his son. Some claimed that when he was in a deep drinke, he would confide in those closest at the time that he too saw terrible visions, as his father had. He wasted his family's fortune and died of a poisoned liver.
Many people watched
Count Valentine de Wallington the Fourth closely for signs of his grandfather's madness or his father's vice, but the child disappointed them. He neither grew bitter nor mad. When he came of age and found his inheritance to consist of his great-grandfather's cane, his grandfather's pocket watch and his father's bowler he showed no emotion. He graciously accepted these gifts, and left to find his own fortune.
It is said that for some time he sought the descendants of the gypsies who had cursed Valentine the First. Whether that was his quest, and whether he succeeded is not known for sure. All that is clear is that the Count has returned with a confident look in his face, as though he had seen the underside of reality.
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