Babe Cairn

Babe Cairn, Moneylender

On the street, no one says Cairn. They say Babe, with a fondness that surprises even them, while keeping one eye on the two brutes from his Fighting Circle, the ring where the city lets people settle their scores bare-knuckled. They are watching the wrong men. With Babe, the danger is sitting across from you, and he is listening. He listens so well that you end up telling him things you had not admitted to yourself, and you walk away with his money, his sympathy, and the certainty that you have found a friend. All three are sincere. None of them will save you when the debt comes due.

Describe him

He has weighed you before you have said good morning, with a look that travels slowly down to your boots and comes back up with a cat's smile. He does not inspire the least trust. It has never seemed to bother him. Then he sits down, folds his hands over his belly, and says nothing more, and his silence is so comfortable that you start talking. An embroidered handkerchief always peeks out of his sleeve. Behind him, the two men from the Circle look elsewhere, the way one looks elsewhere in a confessor's presence.

Play him

Greet the players with mischief, like a merchant sizing up goods. Let just one of them show real need, and his face changes all at once: he leans in, listens, nods, and if the handkerchief has to come out, out it comes. Have him advise against the loan, honestly, with reasons the players had not seen. Have him lend anyway, if they insist. The day they cannot pay, take nothing away from his gentleness. It will hurt him to watch the finger fall, and by the next morning, he will have stopped thinking about it.

What he says (rarely)

"Sit down. No, not there, take the good chair. And tell me everything."
"Don't ask me that. I like you, and I make a very bad creditor for people I like."
(holding out his handkerchief, while one of the brutes presses your hand flat on the table) "Here, bite down on this. I'm sorry. I swear to you, I'm sorry."