Kiercress was likely the only town in history built around a tavern. Barlow’s Keep was an inn and pub that sat at the town’s center, built 140 years ago in the middle of the mountains for weary travelers. Its owner was a rough, intimidating man. A bear of a human, he stood a full head taller than anyone in the town, and his frame was twice as wide. His dark hide was covered in scars and strange symbols that looked as though they had been branded into his flesh. From beneath a jet-black mane of hair, two violet eyes peered out. It was said that his grandfather built this place, each generation handing it down to the next. Each one making the same bad decision to pass down the awful name Barlow.