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Cevan Aru

NPCs
Human · Fighter, Battle Master · Level 5

Cevan Aru

Retired gate sergeant and keeper of the Kest pass
AC19
HP44/44
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

Voice

A dry, rough voice shaped by cold air, shouted orders, and years of speaking through stone embrasures. He projects without seeming loud, giving simple statements the weight of instructions. His humor comes out as a brief, gravelly snort; when speaking about the siege, he sounds less dramatic than a man reciting a watch report.

His voice has a dry rasp from years of shouting through a gatehouse slit and breathing cold air. He clips words cleanly, like giving orders over wind, and uses the measured cadence of someone who learned to be understood amid clanging bells and battle noise. His name, Cevan, is short and blunt when he says it.

Speech patterns

Describes impossible events in plain, almost administrative language.
Uses exact counts for supplies, distances, and casualties, but never embellishes his own deeds.
Answers disbelief with questions about what the listener would have done at the gate.
When discussing Efa or Nerys, lets sentences trail off and changes to a practical subject.

How to play them

Treat Cevan as a practical guard first, not a storyteller. Offer a specific job or ask what he needs for the next watch. He resents being called a liar but responds well to careful questions and to people who take the safety of the village seriously. If the party earns his trust, he shares the details of the repeated battles and asks them to help protect the gate foundation.

Goal

Keep the pass safe, prevent the royal surveyor from disturbing the gate relic, and persuade Nerys to visit before another winter closes the road.

Motivation

Duty to the living village keeps him at the gate; love for his family keeps him trying to find a life beyond it.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

Cevan has a weather-burnished face, the deep creases of someone who spent decades squinting into sleet and smoke. His skin is dry and finely cracked across the knuckles and nose, and his white hair is clipped close with almost fussy precision. He moves with a measured economy, placing each foot as if testing a bridge plank. His armor is carefully maintained but old enough to carry the faint, permanent smell of wet leather. The unexpected detail is a tiny, brightly painted wooden bird he keeps tucked in his breastplate, polished smooth from nervous handling.

Clothing

A serviceable mail shirt beneath a dark, patched surcoat, a weatherproof wool cloak, and boots resoled more than once. His belt is neatly arranged, and every buckle is fastened the same way.

Body language

He stands squarely, shoulders set as if bracing against a shield-bash. His eyes keep returning to thresholds and high ground. When someone doubts him, he does not flare up; he presses his thumb against the painted bird until its little beak creaks.

Height
5 feet 8 inches
Build
Compact and powerfully built, with the dense shoulders and heavy forearms of a lifelong swordsman.
Eyes
Dark brown, with pale flecks that show in strong daylight
Hair
White, kept clipped close
Skin
Weathered olive-brown, roughened by mountain wind and cold
Age
Eighty-three
Gender
Male
Size
Medium

Distinguishing features

His hair is cut with meticulous, almost ceremonial neatness despite his rough surroundings.
The backs of his hands are deeply weathered, with pale lines where old gauntlet straps rubbed for years.
A tiny blue-painted wooden bird is hidden inside his breastplate.

Personality

12 traits and drives

Cevan is blunt about danger but careful with frightened people. In public he is dry and unshowy, unwilling to decorate his account with heroic flourishes. Alone or with someone he trusts, he can be unexpectedly funny and tender. He wants to be believed, yet recoils from the attention that belief would bring.

Alignment
Lawful neutral

Quirks

He turns a cup exactly twice before drinking.
He taps doorframes with two knuckles as he passes, as if checking whether they are solid.
He gives each watch post a private name, but refuses to explain the names unless asked on a quiet night.
He counts a room's occupants under his breath, then starts over if anyone enters or leaves.
He saves the last bite of every meal until he has checked that everyone else has eaten.

Habits

Counts exits and defensive positions before he sits down.
Will interrupt a boast about battle with a precise question about food, water, and the wounded.
At dawn, pauses whatever he is doing to listen for a bell that no longer rings.
Shows unexpected patience with frightened children, but grows rigid when adults dismiss their warnings.

Traits · 3

He is patient with honest confusion but has no patience for careless confidence.
He dislikes praise, yet remembers every person who listened to him without laughing.
He protects others instinctively, then gets angry when they risk themselves for him.

Flaws · 3

He treats disagreement about the siege as a threat to the dead, even when it is merely skepticism.
He is so prepared to sacrifice himself that he sometimes makes decisions for others without asking.
He struggles to distinguish a present danger from the beginning of one of the old repetitions.

Fears · 3

That the relic's destruction only delayed another repetition.
That Nerys will inherit his burden rather than his memories.
Being remembered as a liar after the people who could have confirmed his account are gone.

Wants and needs · 3

He wants the village to remember the dead accurately, even if it never believes his numbers.
He needs someone he trusts to investigate the relic before the surveyor reaches it.
He needs to accept that Nerys can make her own choices about his story.

Combat

AC 19 · HP 44 · 30 ft.

Cevan anchors a narrow approach, protects weaker allies, and refuses to chase enemies into open ground. He uses Parry to blunt a dangerous hit, Precision Attack when a foe must fall immediately, and Rally to keep a wavering ally in the fight. He spends Action Surge when a breach is imminent, not to show off. He retreats only after choosing a defensible fallback point.

Cevan Aru

Medium humanoid (human), lawful neutral
Armor Class19
Hit Points44
Speed30 ft.
Level5
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsStrengthConstitution
SkillsAthleticsInsightPerceptionSurvival
SensesPassive Perception 14
Languages
Common
Fighting Style. Defense. While wearing armor, Cevan gains a bonus to AC.
Second Wind. As a bonus action, Cevan can regain hit points once per short or long rest.
Action Surge. Once per short or long rest, Cevan can take one additional action on his turn.
Extra Attack. Cevan attacks twice whenever he takes the Attack action.
Combat Superiority. Cevan has four d8 superiority dice per short or long rest. His save DC is 15. He knows the Parry, Precision Attack, and Rally maneuvers.
Custom feature, The Long Watch. Cevan's account is true. At the Gate of Kest, a broken siege relic trapped him in a repeating day of battle. He remembers every repetition, but the world remembers only the final one. The attackers came in successive waves across thousands of repetitions, not all at once.

Actions

Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: slashing damage, or if wielded with two hands. Cevan can expend a superiority die to use a maneuver he knows.
Multiattack. Cevan makes two longsword attacks.
Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: piercing damage.
Second Wind (1/Short Rest). Cevan catches his breath and regains hit points. He can use this action once per short or long rest.
Action Surge (1/Short Rest). On his turn, Cevan can take one additional action. He can use this feature once per short or long rest.

Reactions

Parry. When a creature Cevan can see hits him with a melee attack, he can expend one superiority die to reduce the damage by the number rolled + 4, provided he is wielding a melee weapon or shield.

Services they sell

Can guide travelers through the Kest pass.
Can teach basic defensive drills and battlefield discipline.
Can organize a village watch or help prepare a defensible position.

Rewards they can give

A safe route through the Kest pass and a place to shelter during a storm.
Cevan's instruction in defensive fighting, if the characters earn his trust.
A detailed account of the siege that can reveal the gate's hidden construction and the relic beneath it.

Equipment

  • Longsword (martial melee weapon)A well-kept longsword with a plain crossguard and a grip wrapped in dark cord.
  • Longbow and arrows (martial ranged weapon and ammunition)A longbow kept waxed against the mountain rain, with a quiver of twenty arrows.
  • Mail and shield (armor and shield)A mail shirt, shield, and battered but serviceable helmet.
  • Painted bird (keepsake)A small wooden bird painted blue by his daughter when she was a child.
  • Efa's cup (keepsake)A clay cup made by Efa, wrapped in wool to keep it from breaking.

Possessions

A longsword
A longbow and twenty arrows
A shield and mail shirt
A small painted wooden bird
A clay cup wrapped in wool
A pouch of trail rations and a whetstone

Background

Cevan was born in the hill-country village of Kest, where the old north gate guarded the only pass wide enough for an army. He trained as a gate sergeant, married a potter named Efa, and raised their daughter, Nerys, within earshot of the watch bell. During the winter of the Red March, an invading host reached the pass. Cevan ordered the village evacuated, but stayed behind to bar the gate and buy time. A cracked relic embedded in the gate's foundation awakened when the first attackers struck. It caught Cevan in a repeating day: he fought, fell, and woke again at dawn, retaining every memory. The assault stretched across thousands of repetitions, each ending with another wave at the gate. He eventually found the relic's fault and broke the cycle long enough to bring the gate down on the host's vanguard. The invaders withdrew, and the survivors found him alive among the wreckage. No one believes his count of ten thousand foes. Efa died years later, never fully convinced; Nerys, now a magistrate in a distant town, believes he is sincere but fears the story has unmoored him. Cevan currently guards the repaired pass, while a royal surveyor insists the gate's relic be excavated.

Role in the story

A stubborn local defender whose unbelievable claim is true, though not in the way the village imagines. He can become a mentor, a witness to an impossible siege, or an ally against anyone seeking to exploit the relic.

“He trained as a gate sergeant, married a potter named Efa, and raised their daughter, Nerys, within earshot of the watch bell.”
From their background
Faction
Former sergeant of Kest's gate watch; currently serves the village by agreement, not formal enlistment.

Known connections

Efa, his late wife, was a potter whose work still sits in the village homes. Cevan carries one small cup she made.
Nerys, his adult daughter, is a magistrate who wants him to leave the pass and accept help without having to renounce his story.
Tovin, a young gate apprentice, is the only local who asks Cevan to teach the battle as a practical lesson rather than a legend.
The royal surveyor, Meret, intends to excavate the gate foundation and believes the relic may be useful.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

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