Brent Pallwath

Foreman of the Menagoles mine. Sergeant of Laewendas' Army.
Born of Lambert's Crossing. The man who murdered Vara'nak Gar-Galdar.

Named for the first time in Vara'nak's own hidden journal page (Mine Journal 5/8) — written by
a dying man specifically so that someone, someday, would read the name.

"Foreman Brent Pallwath, Sergeant of Laewendas' Army, Born of Lambert's Crossing, of Pallid
Complexion and Tiny Cock is a fucking idiot beyond understanding. He has murdered me for
saving us all."

What he did

When the deep dig woke something that "screamed an unholy noise," Vara'nak broke the lift
behind himself and burned the bridges — sealing the deep to contain it. Pallwath's response was
not to evacuate. He put Vara'nak and his fellow orcs in the pit at the bottom of the mine
and lit a fire of his own, killing the workforce sealed below.

Then the story went out that an orc with 45 years in those mines had burned it down. That story
held for a decade, was carried by Laewendas's guards and the local news alike (Session 48),
and got Vara'nak "executed" in the records with no how, where or why given (Session 49).

The scapegoating was not a misreading of events. It was cover for a murder, by an officer of
the Queen's army.

Why he matters now

• He is a soldier, not a civilian foreman. "Sergeant of Laewendas' Army" makes the mine
  disaster a military cover-up, not an industrial one — consistent with the crown-sent
  digging machines and the Queen's personal bounty on finding "something of note"
  (Menagoles Mine Journal, BAWMU).
• He was born in Lambert's Crossing — the city Knucklebones currently holds for
  Laewendas, and the target of the strike Eldrich the Elder has the party queued up for
  (Session 44, Session 49). Whether Pallwath is there, and whether he is still alive
  at all, is unknown and worth asking before that raid.
• Magra carries the accusation. She has held Vara'nak's journal since Session 50 and
  went into the pit with Orcish rites of mourning. The name in it is now the party's to act on.

Open

• Is he alive? He survived the fire he set — nothing says he died in it. Roughly a decade has
  passed.
• Where is he? Lambert's Crossing is the obvious lead; so is wherever Laewendas posts an
  officer who successfully buried a massacre.
• Who ordered it? Pallwath lit the fire, but the dig, the machines and the bounty were the
  Queen's. Whether he acted on orders or on panic is unstated.
• Did anyone else survive to corroborate? The burnt survivors of Session 48 remain
  unplaced.