Dunkel Spireward
Race / Type: Human (presumed) Role: Captain, Feathergale Spire; wyvern rider; commander of the Feathergale Knights Affiliation: Feathergale Spire / Knights of the Feathergale (independent aerial order) Status (latest): Alive — at Feathergale Spire, managing a depleted garrison and 77 Brookside refugees camped outside the walls First Appearance: Session 055
Description
A weathered knight who has led aerial cavalry for a long time and shows it. Efficient with grief. Speaks directly, does not fill silence. He walks his dead riders himself — every one — and makes decisions about them quietly and without theatrics. His face does not change when hard things happen; this is not coldness, it is the face of someone who has thought hard about what those things mean and has arrived somewhere.
Rides a wyvern — which puts him apart from the vulture and hippogriff riders he commands and marks him as the officer who comes in when the situation requires something bigger.
What the Party Knows
Session 055:
- Descended on his wyvern after the battle, walked the dead, thanked the party with a stern grimace. Declined resurrection for the fallen: they died in glory; the order will honor them with the rites they chose.
- Invited the party and the 77 refugees to Feathergale Spire for rest and food.
Session 056:
- Formally introduced himself; recognized the party as "the Band of the Hand."
- Dessarin Valley intelligence: Gnolls and demons active for ~1 year. Enemy-held strongholds: Red Larch, Ironford, Summit Hall, Bellyard — all blocking ingress to the Sumber Hills. Road to Goldenfields blockaded. Westbridge destroyed ~80 years ago but land still fertile. Sir Titus at Yarder is the last of his order.
- Confirmed Feathergale Spire's garrison: ~30 knights before Session 055. After losing 8 in that battle, now approximately 22 combat-capable riders.
- Agreed to house the 77 refugees outside the tower walls and draw from the Spire's grain stores.
- Revealed that Brick, a level 20 wizard, lives at the Spire but takes no active role in missions.
- Arranged a formal funeral for the two traditions: hippogriff knights to the chapel, vulture riders to the cliff-face ledge.
- Received the party as guests; arranged dinner.