Marcus Blackwall grew up in a farming village two days' ride from the Keep, the kind of settlement that existed only because the garrison kept the wilderness at bay. When a goblin raiding party struck the village and burned his family's homestead, the Keep's soldiers drove the attackers off — but arrived too late to save Marcus's father. The twelve-year-old boy followed the soldiers back to the Keep and begged the Castellan to take him on as a page. He trained for six years, rising through the ranks to become a dependable member of the gate watch. When his patrol partner was killed in an ambush near the Caves of Chaos, Marcus petitioned the Castellan for permission to join the adventuring parties the Keep was hiring to deal with the growing threat. The Castellan agreed, recognizing that Marcus's knowledge of the surrounding terrain and military training would be valuable. Marcus fights not for glory or gold, but to ensure no other child loses a parent to the monsters lurking in those caves.