Hesk Longcount - Shell-Listener of the Singing Tidepools

Introduction

Kindlestrand Shore never sounds the same way twice. The waves roll in warm off vents nobody can see, the fog comes and goes on its own schedule, and the black sand hides more glass than footprints. Most people who walk this coast just listen to the quiet. Hesk Longcount has spent decades listening to the difference. He can tell you, from the far side of a dune, exactly which tidepool just caught a wave at the wrong angle, and whether that particular note has ever come out of that particular pool before. Lately, he's been hearing something new, and for the first time in a very long life of careful notes, he isn't sure yet what page it belongs on.

Profile

Name: Hesk Longcount
Race: Tortle
Gender: Male
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Role/Class: Shell-listener of the Singing Tidepools
Challenge Rating: 2

"I don't tell you what's coming. I tell you what the pool said the last time it sounded like this. What you do with that part is yours."

Appearance: Hesk is a broad, unhurried tortle whose shell has gone the color of wet slate, smoothed at every high point by decades of sitting still against rock. He carves nothing into the shell itself. Instead, a long braided cord of small tide-worn stones hangs looped several times around his neck and shoulder, each one notched with a private shorthand only he can read. A satchel of dried kelp-parchment rides at his hip, and a tide-worn walking staff, more listening tool than weapon, is never far from his hand. Along the rear rim of his shell, easy to miss unless he shows you, is a single row of small, plain notches, one for every decade he's walked this stretch of coast.