Mayor Harland Penhal
Harland Penhal is the mayor of Westguard, a civic official who has spent roughly twenty years managing the grinding particulars of a coastal town — grain shipments, dock repairs, and whatever is currently wrong with the town square. Not heroic. Not noble. The sort of man who is reliably there when things go wrong because he anticipated them three problems in advance.
Appearance
Harland is a heavyset human in his mid-fifties with thinning hair, tired eyes, and the slightly rumpled look of a man who spends more time at a desk than he would like. He is rarely seen without his spectacles, which he polishes with a handkerchief whether they need it or not.
Personality
A worrier by profession and by temperament. Every problem becomes three problems in Harland’s head, which paradoxically makes him better at planning than most people who are calmer. He dislikes unnecessary risk, loves documentation, and secretly enjoys the moments when people need him. He is not brave, but he is steady, and in a town still reeling from a raid he is exactly who is needed.
Background
Harland has governed Westguard long enough to have seen it grow from a small road settlement into a proper coastal town. The Blue Dragon Army’s recent raid shook him badly, but he is already focused on the practical work of rebuilding.
When the party arrived after their release from the Blue Dragon Army Camp, he accepted their donation of four horses for the town’s recovery and provided a written receipt — both as acknowledgment and as a paper trail, because Harland always has a paper trail.
Languages
- Common
Character Notes
Ideals
- Stability. A town that keeps records, pays its debts, and maintains its roads will outlast whatever trouble passes through.
Bonds
- Westguard. He has given twenty years to this town and is not prepared to watch it stay broken.
Flaws
- Risk-averse to a fault. Harland would rather wait for certainty than act on a good guess, which means he sometimes waits too long.
Rumors
- He keeps three copies of every document he signs, filed in different locations.
- He sent a rider to Eastguard the morning after the raid, but no one knows what the message said.
- Locals say he polished his spectacles seventeen times during the army’s occupation. He does not confirm or deny this.
- Some people think he is more rattled than he looks. Others think he looks exactly as rattled as he is.