Ghavus Straett

Ghavus is the senior military commander responsible for Rochpont, Geldfray Keep and much of the rugged country surrounding the Geldfray Mountains. Although his rank could comfortably keep him behind stone walls and a desk piled with reports, he has never developed much talent for remaining indoors when there is work to be done elsewhere.

He looks considerably older than he is. Years spent in the cold winds around the keep, riding mountain roads and accompanying patrols through rain, snow and hard winters have weathered his face far more thoroughly than age alone. Ghavus seems largely indifferent to this and is more likely to complain about an officer with pristine boots than another grey hair in his beard.

He has never married, and those who know him well would struggle to imagine where he might have found the time. His work has occupied most of his adult life, not from lack of other opportunities but because duty has always come first. Geldfray Keep, its soldiers and the scattered communities under its protection have become something approaching family to him, although Ghavus would almost certainly find the comparison embarrassingly sentimental if anyone made it aloud.

Unlike commanders who know their territory principally from maps, Ghavus knows the Geldfrays from the ground. He remembers abandoned tracks, troublesome river crossings, exposed passes and isolated farms, and can often identify where something happened simply from the route a messenger took to reach him. He routinely joins patrols himself and has accumulated enough wilderness knowledge over the years that younger soldiers sometimes forget he is technically their regional commander rather than an unusually well-informed ranger.

Ghavus is stern without being needlessly harsh. He expects competence, dislikes excuses and has little patience for people who confuse authority with importance. Soldiers who do their jobs well generally find him fair, while those who endanger others through laziness or vanity discover that his temper is considerably less forgiving.

Away from military matters he is quieter, with a dry humour that usually arrives so straight-faced that strangers are not entirely sure whether he is joking. He is uncomfortable with ceremony, indifferent to fashionable society and happiest around a fire with people who have spent the day doing something useful.

Adventurers operating around Rochpont or the Geldfray Mountains are likely to encounter Ghavus sooner or later. Earn his confidence and they may gain access to intelligence, supplies and local knowledge few outsiders possess. Waste his soldiers’ time, however, and they are unlikely to be invited back.