It is southwest Poland, 1585. A lone pear tree stands vigil on the border of an estate that is falling to ruin, its lord off on a quest to replenish the family fortunes lost in a lawsuit over said pear tree. The suit has run for decades, longer than the current Pan, Henryk Bogusz, has been alive (that’s a lot of decades).

Trained to hunt with horse, hawk and sword, Henryk left home at eighteen and plied his trade on the inland waterways. Unfortunately he plied it a little too well and he managed to gain the rather unwanted attention of a band of Cossacks. They sank his boat, abducted him and tried to hold him for ransom. Even more unfortunate for him, the ransom came in a single bushel basket of purloined pears.

“Well, y’all know I can fight, right?” he said, doggy-paddling off the portside of their scow until he found a sandbar to stand on, “So, maybe not as well as I should, seeing as how y’all did capsize my boat, but I am big and rather intimidatin’, so why don’t we jus’ call it even and I come work for you?”

Though decidedly not impressed by the filched fruit, the Cossacks were nonetheless taken by his size. They fished him out, dried him off, gave him a horse and sword that were two sizes too small, and taught him their ways. Those ways parted a short time later when there was little money to be had cossacking, and so Pan Henryk went north to break into the amber trade. Saving his rather meager pay, he hired himself out as a RBG (Really Big Guy) for various caravans over the next few years, from amber to spice.

Offices: Hospitaller, Rapier Marshal

Azure, in pale a scimitar fesswise and a horseshoe inverted argent.