"So you want to know about the Brines, eh? Only so much to tell, really. They've been fishermen in Darkmist for generations. Probably since the founding. Or at least that's what they say. They're not nobles or anything. No one was keeping track.

There's something about them. Inbred, they say. Kids come out wrong, with odd narrow heads with flat noses and bulgy, starey eyes that never seem to shut, and their skin ain?t quite right. Rough and scabby, and the sides of their necks are all shrivelled or creased up. Get bald, too, very young.

Oliver, well, he got it worse than most in that family. They say he's so ugly they nearly burned him as a monster when he was born. But, well...the Brines are an old family, and everyone knows there's something a bit peculiar about them, so, in the end, they decided to let it go.

Most days you can find him in South Gate, peddling his fish. The Brines always did seem to have an edge at fishing. And Oliver, well, he knows lots of tales. The kind old fishermen tell, mostly...except they're not about the sea. If you want to know what's going on in Darkmist...the things most people don't want to talk about, he's the man to talk to."