The Bureaucrat's Guide to Heroism: Audio Book
Hannah Keaveney for Marta
Marta Ironweave — Female, adventuring supplies owner, early sixties
Role: Featured — recurring across future books
Marta runs the adventuring supplies shop and has absolutely no illusions about the world or the people in it. She is pragmatic to her core, commercially minded in ways that occasionally skirt the edges of ethics, and possessed of the particular toughness of someone who has seen enough to stop being surprised by anything. She is not unkind — she simply has no patience for nonsense and doesn't bother pretending otherwise.
Beneath the no-nonsense exterior is someone who, when it counts, proves considerably more resilient and capable than her shopkeeper status might suggest. She doesn't need rescuing. She just occasionally accepts it.
Voice: Rough-edged, direct, and warm in the way of someone who would never admit to being warm. Think Kathy Bates — that particular combination of blunt force and unexpected depth.
- english
- female senior
- No-nonsense
- direct
- gruff
- female adult
- Warm Underneath
- Kathy Bates
(Said after the hero has just accidentally damaged some of her merchandise, use whatever tone you think is fitting) "Standard Heroic Overconfidence Damage Deduction Yield assessment. SHODDY form for short. We have different categories – this is SHODDY-A for armour incidents. There's also SHODDY-W for weapon testing mishaps and SHODDY-M for magical item mishandling. Will you be paying for these damages in silver or copper?"
(Guiltily, ruefully)"I was trying to expand my business offerings. Equipment with magical properties sells for three times the price of standard gear. But getting magical components through the proper channels is pricey."
(Hurt, trying to put a brave face on it) "Nothing that won't heal, lad. Just a nasty gash from a particularly aggressive candlestick beast. Bloody thing was made from all my ceremonial displays."
