Character Record
ActiveRoric MacGruder
Eldest of the MacGruder children, fieldhand and roadworker, and the family's reluctant expert on the caves of Scalloped Gulch.
Roric MacGruder
Roric MacGruder is the eldest of Drugal MacGruder's three children and the homestead's principal fieldhand. Where his father measures the world in heat and hammer strokes, Roric measures it in rows planted and miles walked. He maintains the road between the homestead and Savanna Villa and works a seasonal rotation at the Spruce Logging Camp, where he has proven unexpectedly formidable with an axe.
Known Role
Roric handles the homestead's heavy labor: plowing, harvesting, fencing, and the endless small repairs a working farm generates. He is also the family's designated traveler, making the supply runs his father considers beneath discussion and his younger siblings are not yet trusted with.
The Gulch Survey
Roric volunteered for the second survey of Scalloped Gulch, assisting with chain measurements along the canyon floor. He completed the work, reported accurately, and then stated that he would not be returning, citing sounds from the lower caves that he has consistently declined to describe further. The Archives note that Roric is not given to imagination, which is precisely why the report is taken seriously.
Character
Roric is steady, literal, and quietly competitive, particularly regarding the logging camp's daily cut tallies, which he tracks in a personal ledger no one is supposed to know about.
Field Notes
He has asked twice, casually, when the rail line will reach the homestead, and whether someone will be needed to run the halt. The Archives suspect a third asking is coming.