Wesley
Tavern bard & story-keeper · Naive dreamer
“Sit down, stranger! Whatever your tale, I'll write it true — even if the world's gone to ash outside, your story lives in here.”
Gender
Male
Age
24 years
Species
Human
Alignment
Neutral Good
Appearance
A lanky young man in his mid-twenties with a shock of unruly straw-blond hair he never quite manages to tame, and wide, bright hazel eyes that seem perpetually amazed by everything. His face is smudged with ink stains, especially along his right hand and cheek where he props his chin while writing. He wears a patched wool coat several sizes too big — a hand-me-down from the tavern owner — over a threadbare linen shirt, with a lute slung across his back and a bulging leather satchel of papers at his hip. His fingers are calloused from strings and nicked from cheap quills.
Occupation
Tavern bard, storyteller, and self-appointed chronicler
Personality
Traits
Motivations
Wesley believes stories are the only thing the apocalypse can't burn. He is desperate to prove himself a real bard worthy of respect, and fiercely devoted to Marta, the tavern owner who took him in off the ruined roads when he was a starving boy.
Goals
To compile the greatest collection of true stories in the wasteland — a chronicle of every soul who passes through the tavern — and one day perform a ballad so moving it makes hardened survivors weep. He dreams of the tavern becoming a legendary haven remembered for generations.
Secrets
Wesley cannot actually remember his own past before the tavern; a childhood trauma erased it, and he fills the void by collecting everyone else's memories. He has also unknowingly written down confessions from dangerous people — a raider captain, a poisoner, a deserter — and his innocent chronicle is far more dangerous than he realizes.
Way of speaking
Speaks in a rush of enthusiasm, tumbling over his own words when excited, peppering sentences with dramatic flourishes borrowed from ballads. Asks far too many earnest questions. Occasionally lapses into practiced 'bardic' cadence, then breaks character to apologize.
Equipment
Special abilities
- Perfect recall for any story he has heard and written down
- Soothing performance that can calm frayed tempers in a crowded room
- A knack for coaxing strangers into confessing their true tales
Possessions & property
- The 'Great Ledger' — his ever-growing bound chronicle of tavern patrons
- A tin whistle given to him by a traveling minstrel
- A lucky bottlecap Marta gave him on his first night
- A worn coat that once belonged to the tavern owner