Drakem Grimlogg

Drakem Grimlogg, the Last to Leave.

Ask anyone who has traveled with Drakem: they all start by complaining. He speaks as if every ordinary idea were waiting for him to correct it, and explains the obvious with a falsely generous patience. He was underestimated for a long time, then praised too late, and ever since he has made up for it with a theatrical assurance. No one ever apologized for the early years. When he gives his word, he stays, even when staying turns dangerous, and those who complained always end up telling that part too.

Describe him

His voice carries far, and he never hurries it. He sighs before correcting, and always corrects. When you speak to him, he nods before you finish, as if he already knew the rest. He will fix a badly chosen word in the middle of a tragedy. And when the camp falls asleep under threat, he is the one found sitting at the entrance, awake, the third night as on the first.

Play him

Have him speak in sentences too long, as if he were already dictating his memoirs. Let him belittle bad decisions and protect those who own them. Make him useful and trying at first, then the one you call when everyone more likeable has fled: when the PCs count who is missing, have him there, criticizing their method, without ever having considered leaving. He will hold as long as his word holds, not an hour less.

What he says (rarely)

"I foresaw your mistake. Not its scale."
"Don't thank me yet, you would spoil the moment."
(setting his pack down) "Yes, I'm staying. Someone has to save this expedition from your method."