Marjory "Jory" Ashcroft

Doctor Marjory Lynne Ashcroft (a.k.a. Jory)

This heiress-cum-curator is a striking woman, tall and lean, with brown curls, sharp eyes, and a strong brow. She follows in her father's footsteps; Droggir Ashcroft's obsession with the old gods brought him and his family to Sommersea, much to his wife's dismay. He was able to purchase the temple from the city and intended to restore it to a place of active worship: he deeply believed that the Old Gods were not dead, just dormant, and that they would reward richly the faithful who helped them return to power. Unfortunately, he would not live to see his plans to fruition, as an illness claimed his life partway through restoration of the derelict temple. His daughter took up his mantle - with her mother's reluctant blessing ("it's what he would have wanted"), although both agreed that it would be wise not to attempt to hold ceremonies of active worship lest they anger the Lords and Ladies. Still, Marjory cannot help but find her father's ideas intriguing. One cannot prove a negative, after all; if no traces of the gods can be found, perhaps it's because they simply elude notice. She is always eager to speak to visitors to the temple, partly to educate but largely to be educated - and she takes meticulous notes on every rumor, opinion, and pet theory regarding the subject. She hopes to someday make the discovery that her father could not. Her mother, Athena, on the other hand, is a patron of the arts, a fair hand at fencing, and staunchly refuses to let her daughter personally attend any of her paid expeditions to even nearby lands, for fear of losing her only child and the last human memory of her late husband. Also she has a pet raccoon, Bartholomew, who is shockingly well behaved aside from his obsession with fuzzy things.