House of Petasum

The House of Petasum was a family living around the Yataran hills in Northwest Faerun in the 18th century DR. The family became infamous for their criminal activities, most notably human trafficking and smugglery.

History
The Petasum family worked their way upward to the status of lesser nobility in the Lord's Alliance, ruling over a small barony in the Yataran Hills. Far away from the central authorities of the Lord's Alliance, the Petasums established a mafia rule over their and surrounding baronies. They ruled from their Petasum Estate. The criminal activities peaked around 1745 DR, and included slave auctioneering, human trafficking, black markets, and a thief's guild. Their activities did not go unnoticed however, and in 1745 DR, the estate was burned to the ground by the Lord's Alliance, while the family members were captured and executed for their crimes.

In 1770 DR, Mage Hans Bimmer remarked that the Petasum threat had been over since then. However, the adventuring party Groep van Droep acquired evidence that a new organisation under the fearful name of the Petasums was operating again out of the same region. The new Petasums had kidnapped their friend Garaele, under the leadership of the Mysterious Man With The Giant Hat. Harper Thistle confirmed the suspicions that a new criminal organisation had taken hold in the Yataran Hills, possibly being a descendent from the Petasum family that escaped persecution. The Adventurers suspect that this new Petasum threat might have connections to the Zhentarim.