Mad Bertram

Mad Bertram is something of a fixture in The Bottoms. A homeless beggar, no one is quite sure where he sleeps at night, but he spends his days near the Priest's Gate on Blackbriar Road (as far from the Court of Miracles as can be in The Bottoms) with his bowl. On a good day, he will sing, or recite well known passages from famous dramas, and earn enough from travelers to keep him in food and drink (especially drink). On a bad day, he'll lie in his own filth and mumble incoherently about the rats trying to eat his soul.

When he is coherent, he sounds educated, despite his Ionian accent, and can converse intelligently on nearly any subject, and some of the local children see him as a learned teacher. But even at his best, there is a certain madness in his eyes that keeps even the toughs from The Maze from troubling him.