Brandoby Quietstreams

Brandoby “Brandy” Quietstreams is a Halfling who is part owner and proprietor of the Sword and Spell, an Inn and Tavern in the Garden District of Estwald. Before running this fine establishment, he was an Adventurer who served with the Gold Dragon Company. After their final mission, raiding the Fortress of Grandor, he and his friend, the Half-Orc Drog, paid their fallen companions’ shares to the widows and orphans, then decided to open a tavern of their own, specifically for Adventurers. A freelance Wizard who had worked with them, Illias the Blue, offered some capital as their silent partner, and the Sword and Spell soon became a reality.
Brandy doesn’t offer much word on his life before being an Adventurer. He was born in Dalenshire, he admits, but he generally shrugs off questions about his family. Given that Clan Quietstreams was all but destroyed in an attack by the terrible swamp-monster Limba, it may be that the truth is too painful to speak of. He came to Estwald when he was quite young and fell in with the Roof Owls guild of thieves, supposedly being apprenticed to Owlfeathers herself. Mastering the skills of a Rogue, he found himself unchallenged by the robberies his colleagues were planning, and his awakening Pneuma, along with a heavy dose of Halfling wanderlust, drove him to a life of Adventure.
Brandy is a cheerful, impish fellow who enjoys good drink, good food, and a good smoke in good company. He has blond hair, which is very unusual for a Halfling, and he wears it longish, with impressive sideburns that don’t quite meet under his chin. He almost always has one of his extensive collection of pipes on his person, and he’s quite a connoisseur of Pipeweed, always having several blends on hand. He’s generous to fellow partakers, happily sharing a pipe with them.
Brandy acts as the chief bartender of the Sword and Spell, and his cousin, Mickelmas Quietstreams, runs a cookhouse on the premises as well. Brandy is an experimental brewer, and he likes to try ingredients from different lands when he is making a new brew. He jokes that it’s a good thing the tavern is on a bridge – the good stuff gets served to customers, and the bad stuff goes into the canal below. He is responsible for the tavern’s signature brews – a mead called Golden Treasure, a sour ale called the Beholder's Kiss, and a whiskey named the Orcish Head-Butt, in honor of Drog.
Brandy is a deft hand with a knife, often aiding his cousin in preparing food in the kitchen. There’s a long-standing tradition at the Sword and Spell that you can claim a free drink from him if you can beat him in a knife-throwing contest. It’s fairly rare that he ever has to pay up on this wager. He is also skilled with the tangat, and his enchanted sword Fang hangs on the wall of the tavern in retirement.
Speculation about Drog and Brandy’s relationship runs rampant. Some think they’re lovers. Others assume that they are bound by the kind of brotherhood that only comes about when two people trust each other with their lives. It’s true that they have separate rooms on the top floor of the Inn, but it’s also true that there’s an adjoining door that connects those two rooms. When questioned directly about these matters, Drog just grins and shrugs, while Brandy is more likely to advise the asker that it’s truly none of their business, while simultaneously polishing one of his daggers.
In the last few years, Brandy and Drog have taken in the orphaned lad Rinton Whitehall, who they caught stealing bread that was cooling on the windowsill of the tavern. Touched by his sad tale, Brandy offered him a job and a place to sleep, and he’s been with them ever since. He and Drog consider the boy something of a foster son, and they’re very protective of him.