Jemima Chisolm

Jemima Chisolm was a baker and proprietor of the family-run Downunda Patisserie in Ravens Bluff in the Vast in the mid-to-late 14 century DR.

Relationships
She was the widow of Arvend Chisolm and the mother of Derek, Allison, and Karl.

Personality
Jemima was friendly and cheerful and spoke kindly to everyone—apart from adventurers, whom she did not like, and people who rudely probed into her background. She would not speak about her husband or her past. If it wasn't baking, it wasn't anyone's business.

Naturally she adored her children and did anything to look after them. She tried to protect them from "undesirable types" and keep them from wanting to leave for a life of adventure, usually by keeping Derek and Allison busy in the bakery and sending Karl to school and hoping he would become a cloistered cleric. She rationed them to only three of the bakery's smaller cakes a week to prevent them putting on weight.

Description
At age 39, Jemima stood and weighed. She had slightly graying strawberry-blonde hair and bright blue eyes that were forever twinkling with her good mood.

Activities
Jemima's only interest was cooking and she was becoming renowned for her culinary talents. By closing time, the shelves were bare, leading some to affectionately call Jemima "Mother Hubbard" after a nursery rhyme from another world.

Many of the wealthier citizens of Ravens Bluff preferred to have Jemima Chisolm prepare grand cakes for their special occasions instead of relying their own kitchen staff. They paid handsomely for her cakes, enough for her to put Karl through school and supply her with magical enhancements to her business.

It was rumored that Jemima regularly baked extra batches of cakes and delivered them to poorer parts of Ravens Bluff; true or not, she was well known there, despite the fact that her wares were too expensive for poor folk.

With folk from all around Ravens Bluff visiting the Downunda Patisserie, Jemima learned much of affairs in the city. However, she was no gossip and would not yield information easily.

History
Jemima's husband Arvend was a mercenary with a habit of getting drunk, until finally this led him to inadvertently kill a noble. For his crime, he was executed and all the family's belongings seized. Jemima managed to hide only a single gem. Destitute and ashamed, Jemima left with her family to build a new life. They arrived in Ravens Bluff in the late 1350s DR and purchased the bakery. The unusual name of the shop was supposedly suggested to Jemima by a bearded old mage from Shadowdale, who claimed to have travelled to "far places indeed" where there were bakeries like hers that were occasionally called "patisseries".

Jemima was once commissioned by a great wizard to bake an anniversary cake the likes of which had never before been seen in Ravens Bluff, and would never be seen there again. She did so with expert skill and the wizard gave her a magical oven, on the provision that she never make that cake again.

On another occasion, a friendly cleric asked Jemima to bake a birthday cake for her bishop. In place of payment, the cleric cast a glyph of warding to protect the bakery's storage room; only Jemima and Derek knew the key to bypassing it.

By 1370 DR, Jemima had recently hired members of the neighboring Lontle family to run errands buying and fetching ingredients such as flour, fruits, nuts, and sundry seasonings.