Character Statistics
Adventure Ideas
Somewhere in the grey areas between right and wrong and night and day stands Lisette Rochambeaux. Lisette was born Lisa Rockman in 1860. Her mother died in 1862 of consumption and her father, a wealthy merchant from Virginia moved them to California. He opened a store in San Francisco selling silks and other goods from the Orient.
Lisette spent her younger years amid high teas and state functions. She had the best tutors and servants to cater to her every whim, fulfill her every need. But something nagged at her. She rebelled against her father's ideas, stole things she could easily afford, and manipulated and cajoled.
Her defiant ways soon landed her in a boarding school in Santa Monica, quickly followed by one in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey and finally back in San Francisco. At thirteen her father went on his last tirade. In a fit of apoplexy upon hearing she had been kicked out of her fifth school in as many years he loudly proclaimed, "I have no daughter!" and fell over stricken.
His attack left him almost completely paralyzed, but not dead. Before he died a week later he completely wrote her out of his will and disowned her. She was left on the streets of San Francisco, penniless.
To survive she began stealing and in a few months became a very accomplished thief. One day in the winter of 1873 she was caught in a saloon by Jean-Luc Rochambeaux, a card sharp from Canada. He hadn't realized what she had done until he tried to sneak a card from his boot and found it missing. A quick check also found his billfold, pocket-watch, and derringer gone as well. Jean-Luc was so impressed that he let her keep the billfold ("Ah, ma fille, I will get another one, n'est-ce pas?") and convinced her to stay a while and talk.
Lisette had met her match. An experienced thief, gambler and con artist, he took her under his wing and showed her the tricks of his trade. For over two years they were inseparable. She started calling herself Lisette Rochambeaux. With a father/daughter act they stole together, conned together and gambled together.
In all the time Jean-Luc and she were together he never laid a hand on her. He took the father mantle seriously and tried to teach her his own particular flavor of morality. Never steal from those who didn't deserve it, and just about everybody deserved it.
In 1876 a part of Jean-Luc's past came back to haunt him. A man by the name of Alistaire Chapman, a captain of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police tracked him down to a saloon in San Francisco and, with a sanction from the S.F.P.D., arrested him. The official story is that Jean-Luc was resisting arrest. In reality Chapman pull out a Webley RIC and shot Jean-Luc in the back. Lisette watched the whole affair in horror from a hiding spot in a back room.
She spent the next week in a daze, stunned and horrified. Slowly she began to come back to herself and when she arrived she had a new purpose in her life. She would find and kill Captain Chapman.
It is not known whether Lisette was successful. Captain Chapman was stationed in San Francisco as a liaison officer from Canada until 1878, after which he retired from his post and headed home as a civilian. No information is available regarding his whereabouts between the time he left San Francisco and the time he was discovered in 1890 frozen in a snowdrift in Alaska. Given the perpetual cold of the area it is conceivable he had been in there for several years.
| Great | Performance | Lisette has been a waif, a rich man's daughter, a saloon girl, a nun and a seller of apples. All in the same day. |
| Good | Gambling | A master of the hindu and overhand shuffles, the french drop and some two hundred different games of chance, Lisette could give Brett Maverick a run for his money. |
| Good | Comeliness | "She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies, And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes." - George Gordon, Lord Byron (as if you didn't know!) |
| Good | Social Graces | Years of boarding school and dealing with nannys have taught her at least something. |
| Good | Charisma | Even after they realize they've been taken people still seem to like her. |
| Poor | Marksmanship | Lisette has used a gun once, but only out of necessity. She missed, but fortunately hit the rope holding the chandelier above the man she was trying to hit. You can guess what happened next. |
| Possessions | Five packs of cards (marked, crimped, normal and two "specially shuffled"), two pairs of dice (one pair normal, the other with all 5s on one and 6s and 2s on the other), two-headed dollar coin, knife, flask of whiskey laced with laudanum (for others, not herself), California Citizen cards for Lisette Rochambeaux, Lisa Rockman, Paulette Leisman, and Sharon Brock. | |
Lisette could show up in several places throughout California. She might be trying to con the PCs or asking for their help. The possibilities are endless.
| Patron |
| Lisette approaches the characters in a saloon in the Barbary Coast area of San Francisco. She's being chased by ruffians, who believe that she has taken something from them. Would the players please help? "Surely ma'am," they reply boldy grabbing their shootin' irons and hoglegs to fend off the attack. But is she telling the truth? |
| Yes, in fact she is telling the truth! Unfortunately so are the ruffians intent on grabbing her and her newfound property, which happens to be a priceless sapphire, called the Star of Padishah, owned by a diplomat from the Imperial Court of China. The "ruffians" are Chinese and California agents bent on retrieving the stone to avoid an international incident. Hope the players have really good connections. |
| Ally |
| Lisette is looking for ways to get at Captain Chapman. If the players goals will get her closer to her own, she will undoubtedly help. |
| Informant |
| In her searches for vulnerabilities in Captain Chapman's armor Lisette has come across some fascinating tidbits of information regarding the San Francisco Police, political intrigues in the Imperial Court and various happenings around the City. |