| Relatives | unknown |
|---|---|
| Languages | Common, Draconic |
| Affiliations | Cherry Blossom Cafe |
| Aliases | unknown |
| Marital Status | unknown |
| Date of Birth | ~850 |
| Place of Birth | Seawell |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Height | 6'0" |
| Weight | 175 |
| Eye Color | dark brown |
Saul Cherrywood is the owner of the Cherry Blossom Cafe, just a few blocks from the Tempest Brothers' HQ. He is an NPC who occasionally gives quests to find rare ingredients for his coffee and curry that he serves at the cafe.
Physical Appearance
Saul is a tall, skinny human with black hair, a short beard, and glasses. He usually dresses sharply, often with a pink shirt, khaki pants, white shoes, a white hat, and either a black apron or a white jacket.
Personality
Saul generally acts neutrally and aloof so as not to disturb his customers in conversation. He usually overhears what people discuss in his small cafe, not because he is necessarily trying to, but because it is a small space and people are relaxed in cafes.
To those he knows well, he acts quite warmly. He often gives advice to people on how to cook, and what ingredients to mix in to coffee and curry.
For some reason, he seems to have something on his mind a lot of the time, but does not let on as to what that is. He seems very protective of his curry recipe, and not just for business reasons.
At closing time, he goes home exactly when advertised, seeming to be in a rush to get back home, though nobody knows who or what is waiting at home for him.
History
Saul is in his 40s and grew up in Seawell. He worked as a civil servant for the local nobility for several years, though he doesn't talk about this very much. After saving up some money from his salary, he opened the original Cherry Blossom Cafe, which made a small profit for a few years, until Stonebucks opened up and quickly undercut him. Between increased rents under the Bluths, and lower prices that Stonebucks could offer in their first few years to corner the market, he had few other choices.
But then a choice was made for him. About a decade before the start of Wicked Wilds, Saul realized he was no longer welcome in Seawell due to some business incident with the Stone family that he doesn't seem to like to talk about. He packed up the store and boarded a ship to Galik, where he eventually opened a new location.
Finding that real estate was a bit more expensive in Galik than in Seawell, Saul set up shop in a mostly industrial neighborhood in town between a few blacksmiths, potters, and dairy farms. He became popular with the local merchants and workers by serving reliable, delicious coffee, and filling, flavorful curry. The rich aroma of coffee and spices from the curry could overpower the fumes from each shop and the manure from the farms.
Soon, customers patronizing nearby shops began to add the cafe to their routines, and the store took off, becoming a staple of the neighborhood. Eventually, most other business owners had saved enough to retire, so while it was great for all of them, there were fewer stores in the area, leading to fewer customers, and so on.
Eventually though, a much larger business moved into the area now that the land was cheap again, bringing a lot more customers. About a decade after he set up shop, the Tempest Brothers bought up a lot of the land in the area and opened their headquarters a few blocks away from the shop. Over the past year, he's sold coffee to more and more adventurers. Ren Atherton is one of his most frequent customers among company members.
Lately he's expressed interest in hiring some of the company to join him to gather ingredients.
Languages
Like most people from Seawell, he speaks Common. He also befriended a few dragonborn who shipwrecked while he was living there, so he learned Draconic as well. He seems to know enough of some other languages to trade with merchants from many backgrounds - possibly some Elvish? - but most customers report him only speaking Common or Draconic.
Powers and Abilities
He isn't known to be violent. That being said, he is rather charismatic and constantly heats things up while cooking, so some speculate he may be a sorcerer, or maybe an artificer who made some items for cooking. He doesn't seem to like to discuss magic much.
Given the richness of his ingredients, some customers suspect he's skilled at travelling through the woods to gather the finest mushrooms. In addition to those who think he's a sorcerer or artificer, others assume he is a ranger who specializes in gathering and cooking, or that he's a bard who's picked up a lot of skills along the way.
Attacks and Weapons
While he prefers peace, he's occasionally rumored to splash unruly customers with a hot kettle as a last resort, though nobody has registered complaints about this with the Lyreguard. Either these have been justified burns, or simply untrue rumors. A few customers say they've seen a sword or polearm somewhere behind the counter, but that's not too unusual for small business owners in much of Galik.
