Anniversary '05
FAMILY TENSIONS DISTURB GALA EVENT; GAMBINO STRIKES BACK WITH TOWER
By Cindy Donovinh
With the Gambino Mansion disgraced and destroyed by the recent Halloween fiasco, the wealthy Von Helson family stepped up to host the gala Gaia Anniversary Ball at the stately Von Helson Mansion. Though the event was suitably lavish, it quickly exploded into inter-family feuding with the arrival of Johnny K. Gambino and his son Gino, with whom he was recently reunited.
The Von Helson sisters, worried that the flamboyant Gambino would steal the limelight, demanded that he and his son leave the party. When Gambino refused to comply, the sisters captured young Gino and threatened to harm him if Gambino did not leave the party. Gambino was allowed to reclaim his son only after promising to leave, and never return to Durem or attend another Gaia event.
Furious, Gambino set to work rebuilding his fortune. Gambino supporters offered him donations of large sums of gold, which he used to build a fabulous new Gambino Mansion on the Isle of Gambino. Not content with a mere mansion, Gambino kept building and building until he had constructed a massive tower, so tall that it cast an imposing shadow over the Von Helson residence in Durem.
Not to be outdone, the Von Helson sisters have begun a public campaign of protest against what they see as Johnny Gamino's insane hubris. Gaians are taking sides; some support Gambino's ambition to reclaim his throne as the most powerful man in Gaia, but others are sympathetic to the Von Helson sisters and their hatred of all that Gambino stands for.
The source of the tensions between the Gambino and Von Helson families is unclear, but a source close to the Gambino family hinted that there is more to the feud than mere business competition.
