Harbin Wester

Phandalin’s townmaster and the party’s main quest-giver. Unlocks his door through a comical series of bolts, scans the sky for wings, and hurries visitors inside.

• Paid 135 gold (19 each) for the Gnomengarde job and returned the wand (Session 4).
• Posted the Umbrage Hill (25 gp) and Dwarven Excavation (50 gp) contracts (Session 4).
• Keeps private notes on Guildmaster Thornton — which Bean lifted during an unauthorized return visit. He doesn’t know (Session 4).
• Adabra Gwynn knows him well; Sage carries her note back to him confirming she’s staying at her windmill (Session 5).

Paying up (Session 7)

Delighted to see the party, delighted to see Adabra home, and satisfied by a two-word report on the dwarves — “They left.” — which he took for a job well done. He paid out 35 gp for the midwife and 70 gp for the dwarves, both above the posted rates, and refused to add anything for actually bringing Adabra back: he had already paid them more than he would have paid another group. It was pointed out, in front of her, that this made Adabra’s life worth thirty-five gold.

He does not know Dazlyn Grayshard is dead. The body was in a bush outside his front door while he counted out the coin.

On the way out he mentioned he is compiling some concerning reports, and that there is unfortunate work to be taken care of — part of the job. He expects the party back the next day. Then he stood in the doorway, sniffed the air, and decided it was probably nothing.

The night the town found out (Session 8)

He opened the door on four of them and started explaining that he had said the morning. Then they told him about Umbrage Hill, and it was news — his eyes went wide, and the thought behind them was that Adabra Gwynn was sitting in his town instead of in that windmill.

I guess Adabra got out of there in the nick of time, huh.

What came out of him after that was more than he has ever given the party at once:

• He kept the dragon quiet to avoid a panic and an emptying town. He now has to get the townspeople ready instead.
• Phandalin cannot defend itself and he knows it. He has been planning for a dragon and the planning has produced nothing.
• Every job he has given the party has been a search for a weapon that would kill the thing — the gnomes, the midwife, the dwarves, all of it. It has found nothing. He still has field reports to finish and expects them the next day.
• He believes Guildmaster Thornton is angling for his position, and wondered aloud whether the rumor had been hers to spread. He is banker as well as townmaster, so the money and the influence would move with the office.

He asked the party to spend the night guarding his house from angry townspeople. Bean turned him down and mentioned that a fee might help. Then he offered 90 gold for anything about what Thornton is planning and was told he was not in a position to negotiate, and the price settled at 100. Nothing has been brought to him and nothing has been paid.

He does not know that Thornton has already said out loud that he will be out and she will have his job. Two of the people he is paying were standing in the room when she said it.