Brevyn Oakbender

Brevyn Oakbender is a blood hunter in the Order of the Ghostslayer and a member of the Tombtakers.

Description
Brevyn has brown eyes and long, blonde wavy hair that she keeps pinned up with a sharp, gold hairpin. She is very tall (thanks to her half-giant father) and muscular with a large butterfly tattoo on her upper chest.

Her personality is evident in her swaggering walk that has the ability to quiet a room when she enters. She is a heavy drinker and skilled fistfighter, but not so good at ceding control of a situation. Though she is known to have a hair-trigger temper, she is also quite resilient.

In her form of hemocraft, Brevyn uses her hairpin to draw blood from her arm and magically encase her fists in black, molten stone for combat.

Early life
Brevyn is the daughter of Auntie Mama and Lazak Oakbender, a half-giant also known as the "Dark Forge" with a reputation that stretched as far as the coast. She grew up in the North Clover area in Shadycreek Run, itself in the Greying Wildlands. As a child, she loved going with her father to the forge and listen for hours to tales of his exploits. However, she was aware that he was physically abusive towards her mother, and that her mother eventually poisoned his porridge. Brevyn was with him that day when he keeled over into the forge and burned to ash, giving off a smell that haunted her and reminded her of breakfast and bacon. She was then sent away with her siblings.

With Claret Orders
By 822 PD, Brevyn was shipped away to the Marrow Valley in her family's hope that she would avoid a typical Shadycreek Run life of crime, where she apprenticed for a summer with Karem Ferentus in the Claret Orders.

A young Lucien had been squatting in Auntie Mama's basement when he and his best friend Cree were seeking buried loot in Switchback Cave. He opened a booby-trapped box which poisoned and grievously wounded him. When Cree helped him get back to Auntie Mama's, her favorite daughter, Brevyn, was there visiting, whom Lucien had never met but had heard about her "wasting away" in the Marrow Valley. She laughed at the sight of him and used hemocraft to heal him on the table in the middle of dinner, leaving one small scar on his cheekbone. He had believed they were destined for each other.

Between 822 and 829 PD, Cree, Lucien, and Brevyn had helped family friend Everleen Gorbus escape her abusive marriage, while also pilfering a few valuables from their home in the process. But then her husband Gundabol broke into Auntie Mama's home and held her at knifepoint, demanding the whereabouts of his wife. Auntie Mama kicked Brevyn, Lucien, and Cree out of her home as a result. Brevyn was so upset at her mother's betrayal that she lied to the others about going to see Ophelia Mardoon, but actually went off by herself in the forest where she cried and vomited.

Brevyn nevertheless was able to secure passage for them to travel to the Marrow Valley and seek out the Claret Orders where she had apprenticed and vouched for Lucien and Cree. Brevyn was friendly with most of the Claret Orders and introduced Otis to Lucien and Cree. While she was there, she also trained with Elias. They trained together there for a number of years. Lucien's first contract had been with Cree, Brevyn, and Karem in the Silberquel foothills to investigate reports of undead activity.

Mercenary work in Rexxentrum
By 831 PD, Brevyn, Lucien, Cree, and Otis had been in Rexxentrum for a few months. Brevyn had been getting their group mercenary contracts that strayed further and further from the Claret Orders' original mission. This culminated in a contract she personally took from Vess DeRogna at the Soltryce Academy, which involved going to the Clever Copper Inn and extracting a number of books the owners had secretly stashed beneath the tavern with a specific marking. Word got out about this and when they got to the Inn, many other mercenaries were already there and clearly hoping for their chance to take the tavern owners' stash. With Brevyn's coaching to get at least 35 coins, Lucien led the negotiation with the two owners to take out all the other mercenaries in the tavern. Using blood magic, they were able to kill or put to sleep all of the mercenaries, encouraging the owners to flee town and returning to the Academy with a crateful of books.

When they meet with Vess—one of the only people who can make her nervous—Brevyn is shocked to learn that Lucien has already secretly met with Vess as well. She is filled with mistrust, to the point that she has Lucien followed when he slips away to visit his estranged sister.

By this time, Brevyn's relationship with Lucien has grown both emotionally and physically. At one point in the inn, she grabs his thigh under the table, Lucien has started calling her "Brev" and "my dear," and she has already saved his life many times. Lucien already felt particularly close to her and that she could read him even when he attempted to be inscrutable. When Brevyn gifts him beautiful new black scimitars, Lucien kisses her knuckles in thanks and enjoys the familiar warmth of her skin.

Brevyn and Lucien were ready to leave the Claret Orders, who they felt were "clouded" in their path. Brevyn and Lucien decide they are better off in Shadycreek Run than Rexxentrum and decide to go back there, even though Auntie Mama hasn't been answering their letters for years. Brevyn has great faith that with their connections to the Cerberus Assembly, blood hunter skills, and bravery, there is nothing they can't accomplish together.

Forming the Tombtakers
When Cree, Otis, Lucien and Brevyn arrive at Brevyn's childhood home, no one has been there for a long time. Brevyn seems to know instinctively that her mother has been hurt and vows to harm whoever is responsible. They are soon ambushed by a second group of mercenaries, consisting of two elves and a giant (later revealed to be Tyffial, Jurrell, and Zoran]]), who assert their dominion over the house. Before the violence escalates completely out of control, Brevyn recognizes Zoran's tattoos as those of the Profane Soul order of blood hunters and they call a truce.

Jurrell informs Brevyn that Auntie Mama, as punishment for smuggling for the Mardoons, was marched out of her home in chains by Reese Jagentoth and publicly killed. Brevyn is devastated and vows to get revenge. In exchange for getting to live in the upstairs of the house, these other mercenaries help her concoct a plan for retrieving her mother's remains from her tomb on Betrayer's Row. They waste no time and execute the plan that very night, killing several guards in the process. Brevyn puts her mother's remains in a flour sack and finds Auntie Mama's last will and testament sewed into one of her housecoats, bequeathing her the family home.

The group then began working out of the city as mercenaries, performing work ranging from theft to bodyguarding. They were also hired for a number of expeditions into the ruins of Molaesmyr and other locations; on at least one expedition, they encountered hags and made it to the tower of Caes Mosor. This is mostly cut short when Reese Jagentoth determines who killed the guards at Betrayer's Row and attempts to burn down the house with them inside. The fire is magically put out by Vess DeRogna, who bribes Reese to leave them alone. Although he would have deferred to Brevyn, Lucien steps up and coins the name the Tombtakers for their combined mercenary group when working out a new contract to Aeor with Vess DeRogna as well as proclaiming himself their leader.

Journey to Aeor
Vess DeRogna hired the Tombtakers to accompany her on expeditions, and the Tombtakers accompanied her to the ruins of Aeor in Eiselcross During this journey, Brevyn has come to despise DeRogna.

In the Aeorian ruins, Lucien finds a journal that calls to him in his mind and he instinctively takes it with him. When DeRogna leads a ritual in the main chamber that pops a stasis bubble around an Aeorian elf and she takes the amulet from around their neck, she precipitates a total collapse of the cavern. Brevyn helps Lucien get out as they all race toward the exit. As the journal slips out of Lucien's arms as he trips, Brevyn pulls him upright and out to safety. They are almost out but Lucien cries out that he is going to go back after the journal. Brevyn runs back to grab it for him, shouting "this bloody thing better hold the secrets of the universe!" As the entrance itself starts to collapse, Brevyn attempts to dive forward away from it but her legs are crushed under the falling wall and she resigns herself to her fate. As Lucien approaches her and apologizes, she shoves the journal at him. Her final words to him are, with blood streaming from her mouth: "Remember? To venture forth. That is the mandate of the soul."

Lucien blames himself for Brevyn's death. Zoran is unable to dislodge her body from the rubble to give her a proper burial and resorts to covering her with a blanket. Meanwhile, a heartless Vess DeRogna wonders what was so important in the journal that he was willing to risk his "lover's life." Lucien is furious that she knows about their "dalliances."

During their Orders training, Lucien, Cree and Brevyn used to swim together to clean off in a lake near the Labenda Swamp. Lucien stops them at a similar looking lake near Balenpost, wanting to honor their fallen friend. Zoran offers a heartfelt prayer to the Raven Queen.

Notable items

 * Gold hairpin, used to draw blood for hemocraft

Quotations

 * "Every time I lose someone it's like a door or a window shutting in a house. One by one it all goes dark."

Trivia

 * Brevyn is the only member of the Tombtakers to not appear or be mentioned in Campaign 2.