Marigold Fretwell - Luthier of the Artisans' Ward
Meet Marigold Fretwell, the gnome luthier whose Artisans' Ward workshop keeps Brightcrown's musicians playing -- a warm, grounded NPC for patronage, repair errands, and the Ward's cultural heartbeat.
"Every lute's got a voice trapped in the wood, same as every fiddle's got a sigh caught in the strings. My whole trade is just coaxing it back out — and maybe telling the wood to hush a little, if it's gotten too loud for its own good."
West of Brightcrown's palace bells and the Market Ward's haggling, the Artisans' Ward keeps its own rhythm — hammers on one street, lutes tuning on the next, and somewhere between them, a gnome's workshop with the door always propped open so the sawdust can breathe. Marigold Fretwell has been mending Brightcrown's music, one cracked soundboard at a time, longer than most of her customers have been playing.
Profile
- Name: Marigold Fretwell
- Race: Gnome (Rock Gnome)
- Gender: Female
- Alignment: Neutral Good
- Role/Class: Luthier & Instrument-maker of the Artisans' Ward
- CR: 1
Appearance: Marigold is small gnome, wiry from decades of carving and string-tensioning work, with calloused fingertips stained the deep amber of the varnish she mixes herself. Her hair is a wild frizz of copper-gray, perpetually pushed back with a pencil or a spare tuning peg. She wears a thick leather apron over sawdust-dulled clothes, its pockets lined with tiny files, wax, and coils of spare gut and wire string. A pair of brass spectacles, one lens slightly thicker than the other from an old workshop mishap, sits low on her nose. She hums constantly and often mid-conversation, usually without noticing.
