Vernon Cleave

Ankley's one resident sellsword — a human of about 20, prim and proper, Arathi-militia-trained, veteran of two expeditions beyond the wall. Advertises on the village bounty board: minor pest clearance, body disposal, cleanup included, 5 gold/day. Lives armored with a shield on his arm at all times ("this kid lives ready to go") and sits exactly on the cusp between commoner and adventurer. His grandmother lives down by the beach.

Session 9

• Took a delivery from Thalia, theorized that Laewendas burned the island's mailboxes early in her rule to keep the villages isolated, and paid 4 silver for a return letter — the extra silver "towards your first box."
• When the party terrorized the top inn, he armed up and pace-marched 1,100 steps to stand alone between them and his village — voice trembling, sword never fully drawn.
• Took the party's Reclamation Signet numbers for his report to Fort Foothold; Lash refused hers (Thalia covertly relayed it).
• Blocked the Thousand Steps until terms were struck, then personally escorted the blind Lash down to the Sand Gets In, shield arm offered for balance the whole way.

Session 10

• Babysat Lash all night at the Sand Gets In after her Kiss of the Sun fire-eyes "warning" ("even I could tear out your throat... so do better") — hand on sword hilt, no sleep, watching the bunk-room door from the bar.
• Escorted her up the Thousand Steps at pre-dawn as promised; then, when Lash and a jogging Fenric ran back toward his gate, his will broke — he threw his sword to the ground and ran for his life. "You've terrorized the last of the villagers willing to turn."
• The party learned from Devlin that Roger Payton's crew brutalized and killed Vernon's father — and agreed never to tell him. His sword still lies at the gate, a smiley face and question mark drawn in the dirt beside it.

Session 11

• Absent, but further details surfaced via Thalia's delivery to his mother (the frail, pink-curlered old woman living east of Fort Foothold, past the graveyard): she resents Vernon as "a patricidal maniac" for killing her husband — his father — who "beat both of us," and she misses being beaten ("I learned to love it"). She refused the prepaid letter and signed a declining-receipt. Vernon also has a daughter (her granddaughter) whom she has been barred from seeing; while signing, she accidentally endorsed a document ending her own visitation rights permanently. Thalia left "the winner of worst mum of all time" mildly traumatized, with a 2-copper tip.