Selm the Forest Healer is a low-rent, local, Dread Pirate Roberts thing.

The original Selm may have been an elf, and locals seem to think Elves are like Gallifreyans and regenerate every so often into different appearances.

The current Selm was born Reynauld Tanner in (east bumfuck village that is the next closest place to home base), became Reynauld Miller at age 7 when apprenticed to Old-Jon the Miller, who was abusive as fuuuuuck. Reynauld-Selm ran away several times, getting better at living off the land each time, but not, exactly good. Finally got all the way over to the local witchwood, where he discovered the attractions and dangers of the local shrooms and nearly died again.

Saved this time by Selm the Forest Healer, an octogenarian hermit whose real name was Henry, but had been Selm-ing for 50 years at this point. Henry-Selm was senile and usually thought Reynauld was his long-dead older brother or an equally long-dead childhood friend.

Henry-Selm was a far better teacher, and Reynauld-Selm liked the subject matter better, became an apothecary and hermit, took up the name when Henry-Selm finally died. Didn't have magic. Never so much as seen magic. Just made medicine and gave physic when people came by, looking for the elf who could heal them.

Really, no one knows anything about elves, so Selm does claim to be one when he thinks it will help and he can get away with it. He doesn't look like an elf. He looks like the Rankin-Bass The Last Unicorn (1983) version of Schmendrick with just a tiny dash of Charles Manson.

The magic is new. He has no idea where he got it or even how. Got sick recently, had a bad nightmare and found the madman's scrawlings and spooky talisman in a corner of his hut. Just sitting there, like it had always been there. Has dreams of some giant beast coming to find him.

The others arrived carrying a dead companion and nearly dead themselves a countable number of hours later. Selm wasn't sure any of them would pull through, but magic.

Selm's not sure he actually does magic, but he'll pretend he does if it helps. Like it almost helped when the raiders showed up at his door looking to finish the job on the mercenaries he'd healed. He had them going for a few, but then they decided elf ears would be a great souvenir and everything got ugly.

Selm's shield is of a kind given to disgraced knights. He took it from a dead raider, who might have been its original owner. Or not. Either way, it is part of a knight's arms and very distinctive.