Presented for your enjoyment:
Hugh Highdumple, Master Baker, proprietor of Highdumple's Bakery.
Highdumple's Bakery has been a feature of life in the village for three generations. Highdumple's has always boasted the best bread and the finest sticky buns for hundreds of miles around. (Not that many of the villagers have been more than twenty miles from home - but you know what I mean!
) Halfling housewives have lusted after the Highdumple recipe for as long as the Bakery has been in existence. There was even a break-in some forty years ago, when the Highdumple yeast strain was stolen - but the perpetrator, when apprehended, was sitting in her kitchen amidst a pile of baguettes, weeping in frustration because her bread still didn't have that Highdumple texture and lightness.
Ferrix's eyes only![SBLOCK]The Highdumple secret lies in a magical tradition. The Bakers in the family are also Adepts, who make use of the family treasure - a modified prestidigitation cantrip (
Light as Air) which acts as a superior yeast, ensuring that all Highdumple products are light and airy - even those using wholemeal and wholegrain, even the soda bread recipes. Of course, they still use yeast in their baking - it is the combination of magic and mundane which gives the results - and the yeast adds its own distinctive flavour to the product.
This is the reason Hugh always bakes on his own, and has not yet taken on an apprentice, despite many requests from eager parents, some of whom would love to cash in on the Highdumple reputation. Family tradition states that the secret cantrip is taught to the eldest son - since daughters may choose to take up their husband's name and ...[/SBLOCK]
"The lightest bread to grace your table" has been the boast of none but the Highdumples for generations!
Hugh lives on his own, his parents having died about fifteen years ago, and his sister having married and moved far away. He has neither wife nor children - and this at an age (45) when most villagers think he should have both.
Hugh is a bit slow. He is lethargic by nature, and content simply to bake his bread and then sit quietly in the corner of his shop, dozing from time to time, then waking to chat with his customers. Or if the night has been a particularly hard one, he makes his way to his bed, leaving the care of the shop to Alton Highlea's mother, Talia, who works there from early morning until dusk, selling the wares and tidying the premises and even, because she is kindhearted, cooking a meal for the amiable baker.
Whether Hugh is in the shop or not, his cat Squeak (named on a whim at the time that young Bubbles Greenbottle's naming ceremony was the talk of the community) seems a permanent fixture on a pile of sacking in the corner. Squeak is a match for his master - usually comatose and, even when awake, slow-moving and deliberate, unflappable by any intrusion of noisy life into the sanctum of the bakery. He even seems to have trouble finding the energy to clean his fine, long, black fur - so that there's frequently a smear or two of flour marring the darkness of his coat. Some of the youngsters in town have taken to calling him "Streak" - a nickname no doubt originating with the quick wit of young Jerran Kimble. But Hugh doesn't care - and if Squeak does, no-one's ever heard him complain about it.
Ferrix's eyes only![SBLOCK]Squeak is Hugh's familiar, and spends the night hours hunting mice in the bakery - as any good baker's cat would do. While it provides some entertainment, it is not, however, Squeak's favourite pastime - that still remains sleeping! - and Squeak is always encouraging Hugh to develop a new spell to add to his repertoire. "If you can cast
Protection from Evil," goes Squeak's logic, "then why can't you cast
Protection from Mice? That would surely be a sensible spell for a baker to know?" Hugh just agrees. It
is a good idea, after all - but there never seems to be enough time to research it.
Hugh (halfing Expert 3, Adept 2, AL: NG) typically prepares three
Light as Air cantrips when he rises at 3.00am to start the day's baking. His first level spell varies according to need but will usually be either
Protection from Evil or
Cure Light Wounds.[/SBLOCK]
Hugh may be slow but he's certainly not stupid. He has listened carefully to Talia's concerns over the curious behaviour of her son, and from time to time offers words of comfort and encouragement. He knows that there is usually more to a person than meets the eye. He also knows that often, in the difficult years of transition from child to young adult, the best thing is to wait, and to listen, and to accept without judgement or impatience the mercurial changes of mood.
He brings this same calm acceptance to the depredations of young Eddie Mossback on his stock. Indeed, Hugh has long baked extra loaves which he places in the corner near the door, out of sight of the counter. A little smaller than usual, they slip easily under a jerkin. It's only when Eddie gets too greedy - or when he's too hungry to be careful - that Hugh sniffs loudly and mumbles (which is as close as he gets to a reprimand). Eddie's not bad - he's just in a tough situation. Still, the boy will bear watching - just in case he makes the mistake of thinking that shoplifting is a way of life!
