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Kassy Askel

NPCs
Half-elf · Commoner · Level 1

Kassy Askel

Blacksmith clerk and mother
“That promise won”
AC10
HP5/5
Init
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
ConditionsNone

At the table

Voice

Her voice has a dry rasp at the edges from years of smoke and shop dust, with a quick, bright intake of breath before she calls across a room. She projects without shouting and cuts through hammer noise by placing each word firmly, like setting a rivet. When amused, a small snort escapes before the laugh.

She speaks in clear, work-shaped phrases, with clipped endings learned from calling figures over hammer noise. Her questions arrive briskly; her reassurances are slower and more specific. She tends to pronounce measurements precisely and gives people a full beat to answer before repeating herself.

Speech patterns

Uses concrete shop comparisons: 'That promise won't hold a load any better than soft iron.'
Asks for a person's name and purpose before discussing prices or favors.
When she needs time, repeats the last few words of a question while she considers them.
Calls strangers 'friend' only after they have shown they can keep a confidence.

How to play them

Kassy begins with practical questions and a fair price, not charm. Respect for her time and attention to safety earn trust. She responds warmly to honest requests for help, especially when children or working people are involved, but becomes immovable when someone tries to intimidate her or make her sign for something she has not inspected.

Goal

Keep the 6th Measure open long enough to secure a fair handover from Hadrik, identify whoever is selling brittle iron, and make a home where Neri can grow up without being made responsible for the family's worries.

Motivation

Kassy wants work to be dependable: a sound hinge, an honest tally, a roof that does not smoke into a child's bed. That wish comes from grief as much as pride, and she can become stubborn when anyone treats safety as a luxury.

Secret · GM only

Appearance

Kassy Askel is pale, compact, and unmistakably used to standing behind a counter while hot work happens nearby. Her short brown hair falls in loose, soft bends, usually tucked behind one ear on the side facing the shop floor. Soot has settled into the fine creases at her knuckles and along the cuffs of her jacket, while a faint sheen of lamp oil catches at her fingertips. She moves quickly but never hurriedly, setting each foot as if the floor might be carrying something fragile. The unexpected detail is the yellow dress beneath her work jacket: its hem is carefully embroidered with tiny blue moths, each one repaired in a different shade of thread. People often remember the moths before they remember her face.

Clothing

A mustard-yellow dress with a repeatedly mended hem, a dark brown work jacket with polished elbows, a split leather apron for handling hot stock, and sturdy lace-up boots. Her jacket pockets hold chalk, string, a slate pencil, and folded scraps of orders.

Body language

Kassy plants her feet shoulder-width apart when discussing money, but leans forward with open hands when someone brings a child into the shop. She often presses her lips together before answering a question she considers unfair. When worried, she traces the hem of her yellow dress through her jacket pocket, feeling for the embroidered moths.

Height
4 feet 11 inches
Build
Short and sturdy, with the practical strength of someone who carries stock, shifts crates, and spends long hours standing.
Eyes
Hazel brown with a green ring near the pupil
Hair
Short, flowing brown hair
Skin
Pale, with a warm flush across her nose and cheeks after a long shift
Age
Adult, 34 years old
Gender
Female
Size
Medium

Distinguishing features

Short brown hair that bends outward at the ends where it escapes her kerchief.
A yellow dress embroidered at the hem with tiny blue moths in visibly different repair threads.
Soot-darkened creases at her knuckles and lamp-oil shine on the tips of her fingers.
Her dark jacket is carefully brushed clean at the collar but worn shiny at both elbows.

Personality

13 traits and drives

Kassy is welcoming to people who are nervous and sharply skeptical of those who are confident. She enjoys a joke and can be unexpectedly playful with children, yet turns methodical and stern when safety or money is at stake. In private she admits uncertainty; in front of customers she acts as if every problem has a workable measure.

Alignment
Neutral Good

Quirks

Taps a piece of iron twice against the counter before accepting it, even when she is only checking its weight.
Keeps a small blue thread tied around her wrist and reties it whenever she makes a difficult decision.
Counts steps between the shop counter and the back door whenever the floor plan changes.
Leaves a saucer of water on the windowsill for moths, though she insists it is only to keep them from fluttering into the forge.
Writes her shopping list from bottom to top, saving the most important item for the last line.

Habits

Checks the latch on the shop's back door twice before closing, then once more if Neri is sleeping upstairs.
When a customer is frightened, she gives them a practical task, such as holding a lamp or counting nails, to help them regain their footing.
Keeps a scrap of questionable metal in her apron and rubs its edge with her thumb while listening to a difficult explanation.
If she is embarrassed, she becomes briskly helpful and starts tidying whatever is nearest.

Traits · 3

Offers practical kindness before emotional comfort, then remembers to ask how someone is feeling after the immediate trouble is handled.
Distrusts smooth promises but appreciates a person who can laugh at their own mistake.
At home she is patient with Neri's questions; at the counter she has little patience for people who waste other workers' time.

Flaws · 3

Takes responsibility for failures that were shared by others.
Can mistake caution for virtue and dismiss a useful risk too quickly.
Withholds bad news from loved ones until she has a plan, which often makes the eventual truth worse.

Fears · 3

That Neri will be hurt because Kassy trusted the wrong person or material.
That the failing iron supply will ruin the smithy before Hadrik can hand it over.
That Tovin will decide their family is easier to love from a distance.

Wants and needs · 4

A steady, honest supply of iron.
Enough money to keep the shop and upstairs rooms in repair.
A candid conversation with Tovin about whether he is coming home.
For Neri to have a childhood that is not spent worrying over adult debts.

Combat

AC 10 · HP 5 · 30 ft.

Kassy avoids a fair fight. She stays behind a counter, uses a doorway or workbench for cover, and shouts for help or tries to get civilians out. If cornered, she swings her hammer once to make space, then retreats toward a back room or a crowded public area. She will not pursue a fleeing opponent.

Kassy Askel

Medium humanoid (half-elf), neutral good
Armor Class10
Hit Points5
Speed30 ft.
Level1
STR
DEX
CON
INT
WIS
CHA
Saving ThrowsStrengthDexterityConstitutionIntelligenceWisdomCharisma
SkillsInsightPersuasionInvestigationSmith's tools
SensesDarkvision 60 ft.; passive Perception 11
Languages
Common,
Elvish
Half-elf ancestry. Kassy has darkvision out to 60 feet and advantage on saving throws against being charmed; magic cannot put her to sleep.
Custom feature, Shopkeeper's Eye. After handling a weapon or tool for a minute, Kassy can identify obvious damage, poor repairs, or a maker's mark she has seen before. This grants no special combat bonus.

Actions

Smith's Hammer. Melee Weapon Attack: to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 () bludgeoning damage. Kassy uses a small smith's hammer as an improvised weapon.
Thrown Scrap. Ranged Weapon Attack: to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 3 () bludgeoning damage. Kassy throws a fist-sized piece of scrap iron.
A Mother's Warning. Kassy calls for help in a sharp, practiced voice. Any ally within 30 feet who can hear her may use its reaction to move up to 10 feet, provided the movement does not provoke opportunity attacks. Custom action; usable once per short rest.

Reactions

Get Behind Me. When a creature Kassy can see within 5 feet is hit by an attack, she can interpose her apron-wrapped arm and give it a quick shove. The target gains +2 AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. Kassy must be able to move and have a free hand. Custom reaction; once per short rest.

Services they sell

Keeps written records of smithy orders and can check whether a specific tool or fitting was recently commissioned.
Can arrange basic repairs through Hadrik, though she does not forge complex work herself.
Can offer a dry place to wait in the shop's back room when the forge is cold and the family is safe.

Rewards they can give

A fair discount on ordinary smithy goods if the characters have treated her and her workers honestly.
A reliable account of recent metal deliveries and a description of the supplier's stamp.
A small repaired tool or fitting, made by Hadrik with Kassy's measurements.

Equipment

  • Smith's hammer (tool, improvised weapon)A compact iron hammer with a worn ash handle; made for small fittings, not warfare.
  • Split apron (work clothing)A dark leather apron with a scorched edge, useful for carrying scraps and protecting clothing.
  • Clerk's kit (tools)A slate, chalk, and stubby pencil used for orders, measurements, and sums.
  • Shop keys (keys)A small brass key to the shop's front door and a plain iron key to the upstairs rooms.

Possessions

A folded letter from Tovin with a smear of road tar on its corner.
A child's wooden spinning top wrapped in a clean scrap of cloth.
A sample of brittle iron with a supplier's stamped mark, hidden beneath the false bottom of her desk drawer.
A small purse containing a carefully counted household reserve.

Background

Kassy grew up among the back rooms and shop yards of a busy market ward, the daughter of a human washer and a half-elf teamster. She learned letters by copying orders and learned arithmetic by catching mistakes before they cost a day's wages. At seventeen she became clerk to the smith Hadrik, whose business, the 6th Measure, took its name from a boundary marker on an old military survey. The forge is still there, though the marker vanished years ago. Kassy married Tovin, a cartwright, and their daughter Neri was born during a winter when the shop's roof leaked smoke into the upstairs rooms. The formative event came when a badly made wagon brake failed on a steep road. Kassy's younger brother was killed in the resulting crash; she had entered the order for the brake and had trusted a supplier's claim that its iron was sound. Since then, she tests every important piece herself and refuses to let a hurried signature substitute for a careful inspection. Tovin is away repairing a bridge-road and sends money irregularly. Their relationship is affectionate but strained by his wish to leave the ward and Kassy's determination to keep the shop. Hadrik is aging and wants her to take over, while a local buyer keeps pressing him to sell the premises. Kassy is trying to keep the shop solvent, protect Neri from the adults' quarrels, and quietly trace the source of a batch of brittle iron that has begun appearing in town.

Role in the story

A grounded contact and neighborhood anchor who can connect the characters to the local trade network. Her investigation into brittle iron may expose fraud, sabotage, or a dangerous supply problem, while her family and the future of the smithy give the conflict human stakes.

“She learned letters by copying orders and learned arithmetic by catching mistakes before they cost a day's wages.”
From their background
Faction
Employed at the 6th Measure, an independent neighborhood smithy named for an obsolete survey marker. No formal guild allegiance.

Known connections

Hadrik, the aging smith who taught Kassy to judge iron by sound and wants her to inherit the 6th Measure.
Tovin, her husband, a cartwright currently away repairing a road bridge; their letters are tender but increasingly full of disagreement about where to live.
Neri, Kassy's eight-year-old daughter, who sleeps above the shop and has started secretly learning to read order slips.
Bram, a market porter who carries messages for Kassy and knows which suppliers are suddenly changing their prices.
Major secret · GM only
Minor secrets · GM only

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