Brennan

The Council judged it cheaper to pay him than to hunt him down. Brennan — onetime leader of the bandit Claws, now Marshedge's marshal — is the coercive peace that decision bought.

He has no vote on the Council but pushes its members around. He runs The Guard through a mix of ex-Claws loyalists, old-timers, and new recruits — tensions he exploits. He consults the miller's wife (a necromancer) in secret and takes a cut from the thieves' guild that nominally doesn't exist.

• Identify and exploit a weakness
• Choose the best person for the job
• Hide his true strength or position
• Out-think and out-maneuver

• A loyalist of the old Guard has gone missing; his granddaughter blames Brennan
• Brennan offers the PCs a job that would put them on the wrong side of an Old Family
• An ambitious ex-Claw moves against him and the town teeters

Appearance: A rangy man in his mid-forties with a bandit's posture — weight on the back foot, head slightly tilted, eyes that catalogue exits before they look at faces. A scar runs along his jaw from somewhere behind his left ear. He wears a marshal's iron-tipped staff like he is still deciding what it is for.

HP 12 · Armor 3 · Damage steel sword d8+1 (close, 3 piercing)

Instinct: To maintain or increase his power

• Identify and exploit a weakness
• Choose the best person for the job
• Hide his true strength or position
• Out-think and out-maneuver