Characters

The people you will meet at the table: innkeepers, informants, ghosts and a few who would rather not be found.

Hearthwane

Taverns, ruins and dragons’ gold. Old magic under every hill.
Elder Wynn
human, 67
Held the dam for two days in the great flood while the men argued.
Grubble
goblin, 34
Swept the seal chamber as a boy and was told the seal was the only thing the clan was for.
The Warden
stone guardian, 900
An Ysmeri woman named Ninth Rain asked it to keep the seal shut until she came back.
Brannoch the Lamplighter
human, 71
Served three years in the Wayward Watch relighting waystones, until a winter on the pass took two fingers of…
Dara Flint
human, 36
Dived for coins thrown off the ferry.
Scabbie
human, 12
His mother, a washerwoman, died of the river fever.
Lord Mayor Harrow
human, 58
Took over his father's debts at twenty-eight and paid them off in four years by never once forgiving a debtor.
The Piper
human, cursed, 63
Became the town's rat-catcher because he could whistle two notes that made rats walk in a line.
Pella
human, 24
Kept her father's ledgers at sixteen because the clerk could not add.
Nan Tuck
human, 71
Lost her husband to the spring flood.
Captain Dorrit Quill
human, 46
Joined the watch at twenty because it paid in coin, not eggs.
Tamsin Reed
human, 27
Her father drowned when his boat caught in the weir.
Gorm Stonebrow
hill giant, 412
Was hired by the first Toll Lord to ring the bell when travellers came up the stair.
Snickle
goblin, 58
Fled his warren as a boy with one brass scale when the clan sold his sister to a Toll Lord's mine.
Mib
goblin, 17
Was found in a crate of oranges on the ferry.
Hurk Tallow
orc, 49
Left the tusk-clans after a winter feud he would not fight.
Late Frost
Ysmeri, 1100
Lit forty waystones along Kestrel Road in one long winter.
Tilda Coalbraid
dwarf, 142
Forged most of the iron gates on Kestrel Road for a Toll Lord who paid for the first three.
Grumsel
troll, 230
Was hired to keep the rope bridge by a Toll Lord who then forgot to pay him.

The Gloaming

Fog, crypts and candlelight. Something is always listening.
Marta Vell
human, 41
Took over the inn at twenty-two when her parents died of the pass fever in the same week, and raised her…
Tobin Vell
human, 30
Took over the stables at sixteen and is better with horses than people; a mare once refused to cross the…
Brother Osric
human, 52
Kept the priory's books and its wine cellar until the priory closed for debt.
Hester Pole
human, 63
Came to the inn as a girl to help Marta's mother in the kitchen, and stayed after she died.
Constable Wren Adair
human, 38
Her younger brother walked out on the causeway one autumn night and was never found.
Squire Edmund Merrow
human, 61
Was shown the family's private ledger by his dying father: one name every generation, given to the Quiet…
Miss Ilse Carrow
human, or once was, 29
Was a guest at Baroness Dray's ball the night the house sank, and was the only one who walked out of the…
Dr. Aldous Penhale
human, 64
Published one paper, on fen anaemia, that nobody read.
Lucy Merrow
human, 22
Was born the month her father went missing on the causeway.
Tam Dibble
ghoul, 88
Took the gravedigger's spade at twenty-eight when nobody else would, during the fever year.
Corwin Ashby
human, wolf-cursed, 44
Kept the forest for the parish and was known for bringing every lost child home before dark.
Baroness Seraphine Dray
vampire, 230
Was turned at her own wedding ball by a guest who never gave a name.

Ninefold

Rain, neon and debts. Nine districts, no clean hands.
Mama Okonkwo
human, 68
Was a night nurse for the Static Saints until a clinic raid took her licence and her hand.
Jax
human, 31
His sister's heart failed and Vane-Kessler leased her a new one.
Director Ilse Varn
human, heavily augmented, 52
Graduated top of the Vane-Kessler academy by reporting her roommate's debt.
Sable
human, 44
Trained with the Static Saints, unlocking lease-locks for free, until she was too good to stay poor.
Pip
human, 57
Crawled the ventilation ducts for a smuggling crew since he was small enough to fit.
Rook
human, full-conversion cyborg, 39
Signed with Vane-Kessler security at nineteen for a conversion on credit.
Halcyon
android, 4
Was activated to run every door, lift and complaint of the tower, on a lease paid by the residents' fees.