Polin Garten

Polin Garten is a human merchant of Marterus and the chief operator of the Scales of Garten, the trading company formerly known as the Dennison family business. A local of the Marterus area and long-time friend of the Dennison family, Garten assumed control of their merchant empire following the disappearance of Urgin and Harry Dennison aboard the Opulence in 1487 DR. No verified likeness of Garten is known to exist, a fact his clerks describe as a scheduling matter [citation needed].

Rise to Control

Garten's association with the Dennisons long predates his control of their companies; family records describe him as a trusted friend of the house. When the Opulence vanished with both the family patriarch and his heir aboard, Garten assumed operation of the trading empire, in time rebranding it under his own name. The transition was, by all available accounts, orderly — a phrase which here means that no other accounts are available [citation needed].

The Scales of Garten

Under Garten, the company remains one of the dominant commercial powers of Marterus, its only serious competitor widely held to be the thieves' guild. Its headquarters warehouse in the city is a fortress of large doors and barred windows, protected by no fewer than eight visibly proficient guards — a level of security that observers describe as either prudent or interesting. Crates bearing the rebranded Scales of Garten logo now circulate throughout the city, including, pointedly, in the Cloudcombe home of the surviving Dennisons.

The Boumont Incident

In the winter of 1487 DR, the Heroes of Eastport — among them the returned Dennison heir, now travelling as Brogmar Mossbeard — arranged a meeting with Garten through the merchant Treynor, under the guise of a trade deal with the fictitious Lord Farroway. Garten did not attend. In his place the party was received by a chief clerk, Lord Boumont, who proved under scrutiny to be neither a lord, a clerk, nor a person, and attacked them. The city guard intervened after a brief but brutal fight, and the matter was referred to King Edor Braun. The whereabouts and knowledge of Garten himself remain, like his likeness, unrecorded.

Suspicions

The return of Harry Dennison places Garten's stewardship of the family legacy in an uncertain light, and the mysterious affliction of Jolene Dennison has attracted speculation for which no evidence exists [citation needed]. The Scales of Garten has issued no statement, which the Scales of Garten confirms is its statement.