Big Finn
The craftsman of the Northern Trading Company's Ponterford branch — a very large northern man (big receding hairline, bushy beard, no chest or arm hair), gentle and proud, who paints the eyes on wind-up children's dolls with the same care he gives a weapon. The company "owns his labour" (he's repaying the house and workshop they bought him); his commission rate is a flat 5 gold a day, "whatever I do in it is up to you." His maker's mark is a big F followed by a tiny F. He is not really a smith but a woodworker who will craft (and "+1") nearly anything — his specialty is handles, crossguards, and balance, not metalwork. He'd rather teach an apprentice than do the work himself ("the path of learning is the honourable one").
(Name heard as "Big Finn" / "Big Fin" — and the town's actual smith is a separate man, Yuko. See Canon Questions.)
Session 32
- Praised Lash's masterwork hammer and offered to teach her his woodworking — she agrees to apprentice in the evenings for a week or two while adventuring by day.
- Revealed his granddaughter was taken by The Snatcher (she was 12 when taken, would be ~15 now, bald like him); he has nearly saved enough to pay for her resurrection and asks the party to return her body if they find her — they promise to look for free.
- Talked Thalia in circles over whether to embellish her thorn whip (1 day "better," 2 days "good," a week "as good as I can make it"); she keeps changing her mind.
Session 44
- Stumped by a small, slick client. Lash consults him on barding for Salamandine; the frost-northerner has armored mammoths, rams and (once) a saber-tooth, but never anything so small or so wet — "this is where I'd begin, but I don't really know what I'm doing" — and points her to the otter-smith Yuko for the underwater fastenings.