Brandon Astorio

Brandon "Bran" Astorio is a human valor bard and an NPC. He was part of the Northmarch Party for the Summer's End sub-arc of Heroes of Legend. 
== Appearance and Personality ==
Bran is a tall and charismatic human man with light brown skin and dark hair. He wears a breastplate as armor and fights with a longsword, and he wears a long purple scarf. He tends to be kind of reserved and serious, and in contrast to Olivia he tends towards pragmatism. He is generally pretty responsible. He's been described as "normally fairly talkative" but during the Northmarch arc he was very quiet on account of Olivia's presence. 
== Backstory ==
He was a young sailor/dockhand who worked at the Wayfairer's Rest docks near Tamvrien, until Olivia met him and convinced him to join her at school and become a bard. Bran and Olivia had a series of minor adventures as students at AABA when they were teenagers and were close friends and roomates. At some point, their relationship went very sour, though neither of the two have been willing to talk about it. After that, he somehow fell in with Minerva as an apprentice and started working for the Shimmering Convergence. 
When Bran met up with Olivia in the Northmarch, the two barely spoke to each other except for the occasional snide remark. He repeatedly refused help from Olivia. Olivia also tried to give him a piece of paper she found that said "Trust opens more doors than any key" and he refused it, tucking it into her hat instead. He helped her escape from Tanith after Verde was unmasked, and they parted ways with the acknowledgement that they'd done good work together but that Bran was still mad at Olivia.
== Other Interesting Facts ==
* Bran is cursed and constantly rolls terribly. The better he's supposed to be at something (Perform checks, swinging swords) the worse he seems to do. 
* He really should have been a fighter or a paladin instead of being a bard but a 16 year old Olivia convinced him to go to bard school instead. 
* Can't see in the dark and in general seems to just strugglebus a lot because he's unfortunate. 
* Likes nature and the ocean despite survival being one of his weaker skills because wisdom is his dump stat. 
== Noteable Quotes ==
"Lead the way, I know how you need to be in charge" - Bran said acerbically to Olivia in the Northmarch
"You did really good, I guess, so. Whatever. But I'm still mad at you. Later." - Bran to Olivia at the end of the Northmarch arc