Brannic Thornbow — Pumpkin-Monger & Seed-Reader
“Sleep inside the circle and let the seeds keep watch.”
Name: Brannic Thornbow
Race: Lightfoot Halfling
Role: Pumpkin farmer, ward-maker
Appearance: Brannic is a broad-cheeked halfling in his late fifties with sun-creased eyes and a thatch of straw-brown curls poking from under a felt cap. He wears a patched corduroy vest over a linen shirt, rolled to scarred forearms. A bone-handled seed knife and twine-spool ride his belt beside a sling pouch stuffed with roasted pumpkin seeds. His boots are stained with loam and crushed vine. He smells faintly of nutmeg, smoke, and green stems.
Backstory
The Thornbows have farmed the same riverside acres since Verdure Meadows was first fenced. Brannic learned the field’s moods by watching how seeds fell from his father’s palm: the way they pointed before a storm, the way a neat circle could coax children to dream without fright. Years ago, his wife took ill; to keep one sacred patch warm for the last harvest she wished to see, he “whispered” a handful of his own years to the soil. The pumpkins swelled sweet—and Brannic’s hair went suddenly gray. Now he trades gourds at market, lays seed-wards for neighbors, and reads omens in the scatter from a tin cup.
