Sheriff Markham is a middle-aged man with close-cut mahogany hair, a mustache, and a goatee. Always on duty, he dresses in stipple leather armor and carries a longsword and dagger at his hip, donning a chain shirt only when he expects to be walking into a fight.

History 

Responsible for overseeing the defense of Bryn Shander, Markham Southwell was appointed sheriff by the town’s speaker, Duvessa Shane, and serves at her pleasure. Responsible for training the town’s militia and keeping the peace, Markham is authorized to maintain a standing force of twenty guards, although in times of need he can raise a fighting force of about four hundred townsfolk outfitted with spears and longbows.

Sheriff Markham is also empowered to hire adventurers for missions undertaken in the town’s defense (loosely defined as anything that keeps trade coming through Bryn Shander’s gates). Such expeditions are meant to be underwritten by the town’s exchequer and
therefore require the approval of the speaker. Conniving merchants or other interested parties often ask the sheriff to post a job for which they are willing to provide the funding (along with a small administrative fee for Markham, naturally). In such cases, unknowing adventurers take jobs that they believe to be official town business. This leads them to perform dangerous and unscrupulous work—the benefit of which they might otherwise be inclined to question—all the while unwittingly serving the aims of an unknown employer. But the trade to Bryn Shander keeps flowing, and most times neither the speaker nor the adventurers are the wiser.

Despite his willingness to accept coin on the side, Markham takes his duties seriously, and will not stand for anything he feels would endanger the town or the lives of those under his command. Due to the fact that he commonly has cause to employ sellswords (and that many people in Ten-Towns could be labeled as miscreants of one kind or another), Markham is more tolerant of adventurers and the trouble they sometimes get into than the sheriffs in most other towns would be. However, when troublemakers cross the line, Markham
is swift and uncompromising in dispensing justice.