Thad Butler
Master Thad Butler
Thad Butler is the owner and operator of the Dancing Bear inn located at Greenfield Manor. He is a 58-year-old Human that has been living and working at the Bear for his entire life. His family has run the inn for several generations now, and ownership of the inn has been in Thad's hands for the last 15 years.
Thad is a very popular well-respected member of the Greenfield community. He has twice taken up swords to defend his town against bandits and brigands and he has made himself quite a name as an enforcer of the King's peace.
While on his final campaign march through the border regions of Colo in 216 AF, Thad found two young Colian children huddled around the body of a dead Colian farmer. The dead man was cold and stiff with frost, and the children were very nearly dead themselves of exposure. Despite the jeers and taunts of his fellow soldiers, Thad took the children into his tent and brought them back to Hekmo with him, where he gave them a home and raised them as if they were his own children. When he turned 50 years, he officially had the Duchy's Justiciar recognize the children as his adopted heirs, with all the rights and privileges afforded to them as his children. Both Berend and Bittie still live with Thad at the inn today.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Thad is a large, portly man with reddish-blonde hair quickly going to gray. He has a ruddy complexion and a loud and infectious laugh. His rather large stomach belies the strength of his large hands and very muscular arms, and his four years fighting in the north have given him a familiarity with edged weapons all should respect.
Special abilities
For a man well past prime and carrying an extra 50 lbs, Thad is deadly with a long sword and can hit a hand-sized target with a thrown knife at 30' every single time.
Apparel & Accessories
Displays a tendency to wear very colorful, almost gaudy, clothing that he thinks makes him look important and in-charge.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Thad was born and raised at the Dancing Bear. In his younger years, he tried his hands at other professions, including working as a deck hand on river barges, cutting and hauling timber, freight hauling and handling, and finally soldiering during the Second Northern War with the armies of the Duke and his son. After the war, Thad returned to Greenfield and took up the mantle of operator of his family's inn.
Social
Family Ties
Thad is a widower whose wife died eleven years ago of a painful tumor in her stomach. He has no children of his own and no extended family to speak of. He has adopted a pair of Colian orphans named Berend and Bittie whom he found protecting their dead father after a raid along the border in 216 AF. He loves these young Colians like they were his own flesh and blood, and has made plans that they will inherit the inn when he dies.
Speech
Thad learned to speak Colian after he found and took in the two orphaned children while campaigning in Colo. While perhaps not fluent, he is perfectly able to make himself understood in that tongue, should the need arise.
Wealth & Financial state
Thad makes a decent living running the inn, and he has a small chest of silver and gold coins that constitutes all his savings (about 80 guilders). He keeps this chest in a small hidden recess in the floor of his apartment on the inn's main floor.
