Human (LN), Female, Late 30s

Description
Dark-haired and strong-featured, Kiorna carries herself with confidence of someone who has worked hard all her life. Her hands are calloused and her sharp brown eyes miss nothing, whether weighing a hide, reading a customer’s bluff, or noticing the quality of leather goods. She dresses plainly in work leathers, her hair tied back with a strip of dyed hide, and carries the faint, permanent scent of salt and oil from her trade.

Role
Kiorna runs Kester’s Leather Goods, the main supplier of leather armor, saddles, belts, and harnesses in Saltmarsh. Since her brother’s disappearance, she has taken on the business alone, while her uncle Osric oversees the tannery and her mother Hesta, helps in the small shop. Kiorna negotiates with hunters, sailors, and the Keoland garrison, making her one of the most respected and practical business owners in town.

Background
Born and raised in Saltmarsh, Kiorna grew up between the marsh and the markets. As a girl, she hunted alongside her father and brother, learning how to skin and cure before she learned her letters. After her father’s death and her mother’s decline, she took over the family trade, turning it from a local shop into a steady supplier for the garrison and town guard. Though she inherited her mother’s deft hands and craftsmanship, she never grew fond of the tannery’s stench and prefers to keep her work in the leather workshop. She likes to go to the Wicker Goat with her uncle for a strong ale and food.

Personality
Kiorna is no-nonsense, sharp-tongued, and tough as old leather. She has little patience for fools or dreamers but a soft spot for anyone who works hard or hunts clean. Known as one of the best hagglers in Saltmarsh, she’s fair but firm, a woman who expects honesty and pays it back in kind. Beneath her hard exterior lies quiet loyalty and a grief she keeps tightly bound, refusing to give up hope that her brother’s fate will one day be known. She is a Loyalist, despite her mother and family history of traditionalist. She thinks Traditionalist are not thinking about the future.

Human (NG), Female, Late 70s

Description
Hesta is a small, silver-haired woman with a long white braid. Though blind, she always has a gentle smile. Her hands move with certainty, tracing the counters, tools, and racks of leather goods she’s known for decades. There’s a calm warmth about her.

Role
Hesta remains the quiet matriarch of the Kester family. She spends her days in the front of Kester’s Leather Goods, greeting customers and offering soft advice while her daughter, Kiorna, manages the business. Each morning she visits her brother Osric at the tannery to “count hides,” a ritual more about conversation than numbers. Though her sight is gone, she somehow knows where everything is and everyone treats her word with respect.

Background
Born and raised in Saltmarsh, Hesta comes from generations of hunters and leatherworkers. She learned the trade from her own father, passing it down through her children. A steadfast Traditionalist, she often debates with her daughter and brother, Osric, both Loyalist, though the disagreements remain friendly. She is a longtime friend of Eda Oweland, who visits weekly for tea and talk about old Saltmarsh and the stubbornness of youth.

Personality
Hesta is kind, hopeful, and endlessly patient. Her memory drifts, some days she forgets that her son Taron is missing, and when reminded, the sadness hits her hard. She still loves to work leather, guiding her hands by touch alone, though her pace is slow and her cuts imperfect. Despite fading sight and memory, her optimism endures, and she remains a gentle anchor for both family and town.

Human (LN), Male, Early 70s

Description
Osric is a tall, lean man. His arms are crisscrossed with scars, his hands rough and calloused from decades of tanning hides. A wooden peg replaces his left leg, lost to a giant crocodile on the Dunwater River long ago. His hair and cropped beard are white, his voice gravelly from years of smoke and brine.

Role
Osric has run the Kester Tannery for more than three decades, ever since the injury that ended his hunting days. He spends his time supervising the tanning vats, scraping and stretching hides, and keeping a small crew of day laborers in line. While Kiorna handles trade and customers, Osric ensures the tannery turns out the finest leather in Saltmarsh, a role he performs with pride and precision.

Background
Once one of Saltmarsh’s most daring hunters, Osric was known for venturing deep into the Hool Marsh and Drowned Forest. In his forties, he lost his leg battling a giant crocodile on the Dunwater River. He became local legend: though maimed, he killed the beast, and with his brother’s help, dragged it back to town. Its skull still hangs from the tannery ceiling, a grim reminder of the day he barely survived. Children sneak into the tannery to glimpse the skull.

Osric became the town’s informal expert on the wildlife of the Hool Marsh and Drowned Forest, often consulted when strange tracks or killings occur.

Personality
Gruff, blunt, Osric is a man of few words but firm convictions. Beneath the hard exterior lies the grief for his missing nephew, Taron, whom he considered a son. Age and his missing leg leave him frustrated, he longs to search the Drowned Forest himself.

Once a Traditionalist, Osric turned Loyalist after meeting Captain Eliander Fireborn, whose efforts to protect Saltmarsh from the dangers of the Hool Marsh earned his respect. Fireborn visits him from time to time to discuss local beasts and rumored monsters.