Barrel is exceptionally large for a dwarf, broad enough that doorframes seem to negotiate with him. His enchanted full plate is a moving thicket of blunt-tipped spikes, hooked blades, and overlapping iron scales, its surface dark as a forge after the fire is banked and polished bright at every point of impact. The armor gives off a low, kettle-like tick as its plates settle. Beneath it, he has a ruddy, weather-beaten face, a square jaw, and a great copper-brown beard braided into three thick ropes that are threaded through small brass rings. He advances with a forward pitch, as if every step is the beginning of a charge. When rattled, he takes quick, shallow breaths that whistle through his nose, and his left thumb repeatedly checks the same brass ring in his beard. Unexpectedly, he carries a tiny folded paper crane tucked inside his breastplate, carefully protected from the armor's spikes.

Barrel is generous with effort but miserly with explanations. He jokes about his own size to put nervous people at ease, yet takes any threat to the vulnerable with frightening seriousness. In a calm camp he is patient, methodical, and easy to tease; under pressure he becomes direct and impulsive, mistaking speed for certainty. He wants people to trust him, but distrusts anyone who offers trust too easily.

Barrel GreatBeard was born to a family of stonecutters and armor-fitters in a dwarf-hold whose name was lost when its lower galleries flooded. He learned early that a good suit of plate must move with its wearer, not merely survive a blow. At thirty-seven, he joined a border company as a shield-bearer and became famous for closing distance before archers could loose a second volley. During the disastrous defense of the Silt Gate, a cave-in trapped his younger brother Dorrim and a dozen wounded soldiers behind a buckling portcullis. Barrel could hear them calling but could not reach them in his ordinary armor. He tore through the jammed mechanism with his bare hands, lost his shield, and dragged survivors out one at a time while the tunnel collapsed around him. His brother did not survive. Afterward, a reclusive smith named Oruña helped him build the enchanted spiked plate he now wears, designed to turn his whole body into a weapon and to let him break through a crush of enemies. Barrel insists he wears it to keep others from being cornered as his brother was. He still sends most of his pay to Dorrim's widower, Tavi, who has never forgiven him for returning alone. Now the border company has been ordered to clear a mountain pass where refugees are hiding, and Barrel is searching for a way to disobey without abandoning the people who still depend on his protection.