Grinlief Dartson

Grinlief Dartson is a private detective, currently living in Vila's Watch. Mayor Irwin hired him to solve the murder of Bertram Rhastur.

Appearance
Grinlief is a human man with pale skin and long brown hair. He's quite tall, taller than Erak but still shorter than Slumberjack, and lanky. He wears ill-fitting refined clothes along with a feathery hat and a monocle.

Personality
Grinlief is extremely confident and shares his deductions with absolute conviction that they're correct. Unfortunately for him (and sometimes the people around him), he's usually incorrect, sometimes absurdly so, and doubles down if anyone points out a flaw in his reasoning. He seems to have a flair for the dramatic, framing his observations as grand reveals and having a scripted greeting for people entering his office, although he abandoned this greeting upon recognizing the Pog Champions. He also claims to have his own fan club, although the size and membership of this club is currently unknown. Although Grinlief has a lot of bravado, he tends to freeze and cower in the face of actual danger. He's a sore loser and prone to sulking when he's been outdone. As a result of all of this, Grinlief seems to have a difficult time making friends and is often rejected when attempting to socialize with the guards of Vila's Watch. When Reides suggested that the party could get drinks with him after he helped them clear Drakov's name, he was noticeably excited, although he tried to conceal it.

Background
Although the details of Grinlief's childhood aren't known to the Pog Champions, it can be presumed that he knew someone affected by the Memory Plague judging from his reaction to Slumberjack's beliefs about mercy killing. He attended St. Vashreen's Law Academy in Falas, where he received a diploma, which he carries with him. However, he still claims to be working on a thesis related to the art of detection. At some point, Grinlief's father funded the construction of a new wing of the school, which may explain how he graduated despite his apparent lack of detective skills. Although his family was wealthy at some point in time, Grinlief himself doesn't seem to have access to this wealth at the time he met the Pog Champions, as he was living fairly modestly and very grateful for the share of the reward that they gave him.

Werewolves Arc
A few months after he first arrived in Vila's Watch, Grinlief was hired by Mayor Irwin to investigate the murder of Bertram Rhastur. It was Grinlief's first official case. Irwin, being Bertram's killer, was fully aware of Grinlief's incompetence when he did so and hoped that it would help cover his tracks. When the Pog Champions offered to help discover the killer in exchange for being allowed into Vila's Watch to rest and restock, Irwin insisted that they cooperate with him, referring to him as a trusted confidant. Upon actually meeting Grinlief, he bombarded them with a variety of assumptions based on their appearances, ranging from inaccurate to downright offensive. He also shared his theory of the crime, that Bertram committed self-cannibalism in pursuit of the rarest, most forbidden meats. At this point, the Pog Champions realized that Grinlief would not be very helpful in solving the case, but still followed up on his list of possible suspects and consulted with him to see if they could learn more about the village in general from him. He was fairly unconcerned with the defilement of the Nameless God's shrine, claiming to specialize in murder rather than religious crimes. During the party's stay in Vila's Watch, Grinlief also intercepted both Slumberjack and Jorah as they entered the village (separately) and arrested them as suspects in the murder. Kilwin was able to convince Grinlief to release Slumberjack by subjecting Slumberjack and himself to a Zone of Truth spell and letting Grinlief interrogate them, and one of the guards was convinced to free Jorah from the town's makeshift jail on the sole basis that Grinlief was the one who put him there.

After the party confronted Drakov, leading to Drakov's arrest for the murder, Grinlief became sullen and took to sulking in his office. When the party went there to ask for his help in revealing Irwin as a werewolf and clearing Drakov's name, he initially assumed they came to gloat about solving the murder first. However, he perked up when Kilwin admitted that they had gotten the wrong culprit and asked for his help in fixing their mistake. Although he was skeptical of the mayor being a werewolf and framing Drakov, Grinlief agreed to set up a meeting with Irwin to celebrate the end of the case, where Grinlief would hand him a silver cup, either proving or disproving the party's theory. At this point, Grinlief mentioned that none of the guards had been receptive to his attempts to invite them for drinks, and Reides suggested that he could get drinks with the Pog Champions after the case was solved. When the plan was carried out and Irwin was injured by the silver cup, Grinlief was surprised that the Pog Champions were correct and joined their pursuit of him. During the ensuing fight, Grinlief fired one crossbow bolt at the transformed Irwin, missed, and spent the rest of the fight cowering behind Reides. When Tyrian appeared with some undead followers in the aftermath, the Pog Champions attempted to keep Grinlief safe by encouraging him to escape, essentially shoving him out a broken window.

Vila's Watch, Post-Tyrian
After sealing Tyrian Vordt within the bag of holding, the Pog Champions returned to Vila's Watch to see how the village was doing after the mayor's downfall and Tyrian's arrival. Jorah had heard that Grinlief was attacked by a ghoul and paralyzed, which turned out to be true, but Kilwin healed his injury. The Pog Champions joined Grinlief for tea and he offered them his office as a place to sleep for the night if they were unable to get lodging at the Dark Oak Tavern due to its temporary closure. Because of the closure, the Pog Champions were also unable to follow through on their offer of getting drinks with Grinlief, although they agreed to return to Vila's Watch at a later date. Erak suggested that Grinlief should consider running for mayor with the position vacant, and Grinlief agreed to consider it. After receiving a reward for their work from the Vizinis, the Pog Champions agreed to give Grinlief a share for his assistance in flushing out the mayor, for which he was grateful, and the party parted from Grinlief on good terms.

Goals
Grinlief presumably strives to show that he's a great detective, solving any murders that cross his path. While it is difficult to say he succeeded in the case of Bertram Rhastur, he did assist in bringing the true culprit to justice.

Abilities
Grinlief's investigation skills leave something to be desired, and few of his deductions are accurate to reality. He also owns a hand crossbow, but was unable to utilize it successfully when faced with a werewolf. He claims that his monocle is enchanted and gives him 120 feet of darkvision, but this hasn't been verified by the Pog Champions.

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Quotes

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Trivia

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