Jarek
Jarek Clayton is the head of the Adventurer's Guild in Vesuva. Jarek was born to Isabella Clayton, Bill Clayton's youngest sister by a winsome traveler she took a liking to just after her 16th birthday. She died from cholera when Jarek was 5, and without any godparents to care for him, he was turned over to Madam Zhooîl's Academy until he reached adulthood. He was raised there and eventually began discovering he was both clever and attractive, two traits he capitalized on to learn his skills at confidence, legerdemain, and athletics. Madam Zhooîl herself took quite a liking to Jarek, and invited him to stay on as staff when he turned 16, the age of manhood for Humans in Vesuva. He continued to practice his less savory skills at night while sharpening his leadership skills in the day, teaching the children there at the Academy until a boy named Eramor came as a baby, and they needed a nanny as a teacher more than they needed Jarek, which was fine by him, as he had just been caught by a Gnome from Kîmet named Sven Sargaf whom he tried to pickpocket. Sven showed up as Jarek was just caught by Madam Zhooîl, and Sven thanked Jarek for making that donation for him since he didn't know if he could catch the staff after hours. Jarek left with Sven, who taught Jarek his first lesson in judgement of foreigners. Jarek lived effectively homeless, but without every having to pay for a meal, or a bed (as long as he didn't mind sharing it).
Jarek tried to contact the Tavern on the Wharf that his uncle Bill Clayton owned, looking for a job, but Bill knew what Jarek did for money and didn't want anything to do with his estranged nephew born to the "black sheep" of the family. This angered Jarek, who went into a sort of downward spiral, seeing how depraved he could really be, eventually ending up in a Thieves' Guild in Vesuva. Their leader, Virius Mercer, wanted to take the Guild to new profitability by serving predominantly wealthy political clients and serving as assassins for their political interests. This crossed a line Jarek wasn't willing to, so he gathered up a handful of his friends in the Thieves' Guild and offered Mercer a clean split of the organization with each part going its own way and without any animosity between, sealed by mutual respect, enforced by each on the other through constant watches on each other's activities.
Jarek expanded the core members to include an adventuring party who was in need of a rogue and confidence man, along with Sven as a wizard and enchanter. With the donations from Sven and Cathartic, and the team of adventurers plus his group of loyal friends from the Thieves' Guild, he approached his uncle again to buy the Taven with their gold. Bill accepted the offer, surprised at how many folk fo good values and high quality were willing to associate with Jarek, and he rescinded his distant ways with his nephew, and apologized, offering use of the Tavern, Smokehouse next door, the Inn, and the secret sluiceways and catacombs that were built underneath when Vesuva was first quarried, all for a very reasonable rate of rent to keep the paperwork honest and official for tax purposes.
