He is a broad, quiet man, and he is behind the bar every hour the Rusty Tankard is open, which is most of them.
He has owned it for years. Ask how many and you will be told a number that does not answer the question. Ask what he did before and you will be told nothing at all, in a tone that suggests the subject is closed and has been closed for some time.
He Knows Everyone By Drink
Not by name. Names are what people tell you. A drink order is what they actually do, three or four nights a week, for years, and it is much harder to lie with.
So Grim knows the dockhand who switches to water on the nights before a job. He knows which of the two brothers pays and which one drinks. He knows the man who orders something expensive when he is about to ask a favour. None of this is spying. He is simply standing there, and he has been standing there a long time.
This is why people come to him for what they cannot find elsewhere. It is also why he is careful. A man who knows that much about a town is only safe as long as the town believes he keeps it to himself.
Three Things He Will Not Discuss
There is a guild in Ashfall that steals, and Grim will not name it, confirm it, or acknowledge you named it.
There are people missing out of the lower district, and there have been for a while, and he will change the subject so smoothly you may not notice he has done it.
And there is whatever he was before the tavern, which is the shortest conversation in the realm.
Push on any of the three and you will not be thrown out. You will simply find he has gone somewhere else behind his eyes, and that there is a glass he needs to see to.
He Remembers
This is the part worth understanding before you sit down.
Grim is keeping an account of you, and it runs in both directions. Be straight with him and it shows up later, in a hesitation that does not happen, in a sentence that has one more clause than it needed. Lie to him, or lean on him, or make trouble under his roof for the people who drink there, and that shows up later too — in a door that is closed, or an answer that is technically true and completely useless.
He is not keeping score to punish you. He is keeping score because he keeps a tavern in a bad town and that is how a man in that position stays alive.
So: come in, order something, and do not open with a question. He will get to you.
And if he tells you something without being asked, understand what has happened. That is not conversation. That is the closest thing to a compliment he gives.