This morning, I came across Red Harvald in my Bluesky feed. According to the Forgotten Realms wiki, in the early 14th century DR, Harvald was a hero, adventurer, and resident of Glen, a village in Mistledale of the Dalelands. “A local hero, he had a reputation as a tough, but good man.“

He wasn’t a constable or a local leader. Presumably, he was just the local badass with a good heart:

“He hunted down highwaymen, scattered brigands and bandits, warded Glen from more orc and ogre-raids than I could care to count, and even faced stranger and more deadly monsters when they emerged from the depths of the forest to harrow our town. And when true tomb-plunderers and over-eager freebooters drifted through the Dale and risked stirring up real trouble, well, he’d run them off with nothing but a hard look and a few quiet words. I owed him my life at least twice over. Many Glen-folk did.”
— Vada of Mistledale, 1374 DR

Red Harvald resided in a village that had problems with brigands, bandits, orcs, ogres, and murder hobos. Does that sound like any place on the Sword Coast you might have heard of? Hmmm?

So that got me thinking: who is Phandalin’s local hero? Their very own Red Harvald?

It seems the game designers assumed it would be the player characters.

Which begs the question: have game designers ever met player characters?!

Game Designers: Of course, we have. Duh! (Points) They’re right over there. Murdering the Townmaster.

Right. So who would be Phandalin’s local hero?

Daran Edermath comes to mind. But he has not bestirred himself to organize any resistance to the Redbrands. Instead, he quietly tends his orchard and gathers information, ready to assist when younger, more capable, and more altruistic types step up.

Edermath was once an adventurer, as was Red Harvald. But being an adventure and being a hero are not necessarily the same thing.

In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is the hero. He wants to save the princess from captivity in the depths of the Death Star, regardless of the risk. Meanwhile, Han Solo, an adventurer, gets drawn into the rescue only after the hero appeals to his enlightened self-interest (greed) after his job of smuggling a space wizard and his apprentice to Alderan goes sideways.

Han Solo eventually enters the ranks of the hero, but not without being dragged there. Not everyone wants to be a hero, and that’s how I see Daran Edermath being a former adventurer – but not necessarily a hero in the way Red Harvald was both.

After Daran Edermath, we’re out of martial NPC options. So why not turn another one of the premade characters from the adventure into a sidekick? Vandross Ephrates has the folk hero background, and ties to the general area.

Below is a modified version of Vandross Ephrates for use as a sidekick. For a party without much muscle, he might come in handy as a party sidekick, or serve as aid unlooked for in a combat encounter death spiraling toward a TPK. As a sidekick, his background traits have tendrils into Thundertree, and he’d be sympathetic to the plight of the Dendrar family.

This sidekick uses the Warrior stat block that comes with Dragon of Icepire Peak.

Don’t have a copy of Doype on hand? Just use the homebrew city guard stat block from dndbeyond.com, which is similar.

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