Rob Tealeaf is a former member of the Gilded Purse, now traveling with a band of adventurers while researching new methods of cultivating tea.
Rob was the third of four children born to Rufus and Lilly Tealeaf in Brier Glen. His mother died when he was young, but between Rufus and the extended Tealeaf family, Rob never wanted for parental figures or companionship as a child.
When Rob was 10, he was working in a remote region of the farm when he came across a wild boar rooting through the tea plants for grubs. Worried about destruction of the plants, Rob was able to kill the boar, but ended up losing an eye in the process. He typically hides the empty eye socket with a black eyepatch or a baby blue glass eye. The incident gave him a lifelong fear of animals with tusks and horns.
At an early age, Rob showed a fascination with the growing and brewing of tea. He took every opportunity to talk with the merchants who visited [Tealeaf Estate](../../tealeaf-estate/(), comparing notes on their processing and steeping methods. His family took a dim view of his interest in distant realms, and did their best to isolate him on the farm when such merchants visited. This only caused Rob to steal away at night and hang out at local pubs in Brier Glen where traveling merchants would often stay. Such outside influences exposed him to the world of organized crime, and it was in these educational outings that he began to practice his pickpocketing skills and establish connections with the criminal underbelly of Brier Glen.
Rob soon developed a desire to revamp and modernize his family's tea cultivation techniques, trying to convince them to experiment with higher-quality and lower-yield processes with small test batches, but their general response was to prioritize quantity over quality to meet growing demands for their product across Lenya. His frustration at being discouraged from such experimentation eventually led to him leaving the family farm to pursue his dreams out in the world.
After turning 17, Rob moved from the farm to the city of Leving and sought employment to earn enough money to fund his travel overseas, such that he might find new cultivars of tea to experiment with before returning home to start his own tea trade. He found the Gilded Purse, which coincidentally was running tea smuggling operations stealing from his family's own reserves and shipments. Despite the conflict of interest, Rob hoped he could establish himself well enough with the Purse to eventually move onto more prestigious organizations.
Rob and the rest of the Gilded Purse attempted to jump The Commune as they traveled from Edgewood to Leving via the Road of Commerce. During the altercation, Rob felt guilt over his involvement in the escalated cycle of violence perpetuated by the gang leader Baldwin Marshbluff and opted to side with the adventurers instead.