-Dramatis Personae-
Mrs Pia Orem is a bounteous creature of red hair and easy smiles, every bit as wholesome as the meals she serves at the Wise Piper, Belhaim’s only inn. You first met her upon being released from the village jail, she promising you a free night with meal to redress your wrongful incarceration. ‘An apology on behalf of Belhaim,’ she called it. She operates the inn with her adult daughters, the exact number of which you are yet to ascertain; they are all their mother’s doppelganger in everything but age. Pia is kindly and talkative, although she seemed initially reticent of ‘stranger’ characters like demon-blooded Star and rat-like Niccan. In contrast, orcish Kalig met no such bias. She also appears curiously critical of the Abadaran church.
Constables Varyl and Sky are all that remains of Belhaim’s town guard for now, a sobering thought given how the two of them don’t look like they have enough years between them to buy a drink in elven society. While Varyl is easygoing and Sky a bit more serious-minded, both are greener than a goblin’s rear. Still, they seem like decent sorts. You first encountered them after the Witch Tower’s collapse ambling outside Hunclay’s gate trying to figure out how best to approach the wizard. Both are just a bit intimidated by the man, frankly.
Lady Origena Devy is mother to the current baron of Belhaim, Arnholde Devy. A white-haired whip of a woman approaching that nebulous ‘middle-age’, she is blessed with a commanding voice and thoughtful eyes. You saw her utilize both in directing her citizenry after the Witch Tower collapse, and calming their fears following your discovery of a dead kobold in the village. There is some cynicism behind the leadership, however; the Lady had no qualms telling half-truths to keep the peace. House Devy has led Belhaim for the last 200 years following their hated predecessors, the Canteclures. Her own past is somewhat more mystifying, though. Origena is widowed, and supposedly disappeared from the aristocratic scene for some years, one rumor even saying that she had died.
Hunclay, Belhaim’s local wizard, is someone you are yet to meet, but there’s been no shortage of accounts about the man, none of them good. According to townsfolk, he is a grouch to rival the hoariest of hags, flying off the handle at the most minor inconvenience on those rare occasions he leaves the manor he has sequestered himself within. Said manor sits on a hill it shares – or rather shared – with the Witch Tower. Apparently, he has demanded permission to topple the ruin from Lady Devy ever since moving to the village, on the grounds that it obscured the view from his telescope. Intensely disliked, no one local is quite sure why he moved there to build a home, Hunclay having no ties to Belhaim. Some doubt whether he has any ties to Taldor as a whole, pegging him as a foreigner to the empire. Conspicuously absent ever since the tower's collapse.
High Enumerator Eupaphos Targas is the leader of the local shrine to Abadar. As robust of build as he is gregarious of spirit, the priest appears fairly popular both among his congregation and the village as a whole. This could be considered a minor achievement in itself as his accent betrays him for an outsider to Belhaim. Unless your ears are very much mistaken, Targas is a born and bred Opparan. He seems a speculative sort, something that marks his leadership and sometimes manifests in pontification, though these sermons only add to the man’s air of a favored uncle. Granted, this is an impression that can feel a little too deliberate to be wholly genuine, especially given his relatively young age. The temple, simply called the House of Abadar, also serves as Belhaim’s courthouse.
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House rules in play:
Background skills
Automatic bonus progression
Elephant in the Room
Fractional base bonuses
