Scout-Captain Merren Vask
| Title | Scout-Captain (formerly of the Ashen Vigil) |
| Location | Hollowdeep periphery, The Pale Wastes |
| Faction | The Ashen Vigil (formerly) |
| Status | Undead (Remnant) |
Appearance. Merren was a lean, sharp-featured woman in her thirties with close-cropped auburn hair and Vigil tattoos on her forearms. In death, her skin has gone grey-white, her eyes the flat silver of frozen water. The wounds that killed her, claw marks across her torso, have not healed and never will. She still wears her Vigil armor, battered and stained with old blood. She is dead, and she carries herself like a soldier.
Personality. Before death, Merren was the Vigil’s best scout, sharp, decisive, brave to the point of recklessness. In death she retains her intelligence and her mission focus, but she is more cautious now. Death taught her patience. She is frightened (Remnants can feel fear), exhausted in the psychological sense, and carrying intelligence that could save the Wastes.
What She Wants. To deliver her warning to Bjorn Ashken and Thessa Ironveil. To be accepted as herself, not as a monster. To find out whether any of her scouts survived.
GM Only
Background. Merren’s scouting party was overwhelmed by organized undead in the Hollowdeep. She died, rose as a Remnant, and has spent eighteen months hiding in the crater’s periphery, observing. She knows the undead are being organized into military formations, that structures are being built from bone and frozen earth, that the skull’s energy has changed to something rhythmic and purposeful. She carved a warning into divine bone and sent it toward Greyhold. She cannot leave the crater because organized patrols guard the rim. She is waiting for someone to come in and find her.
Moral Dilemma. Merren was a Vigil officer who swore to destroy the undead. She is undead. Some Holds would destroy her on sight. Her information could save thousands, but delivering it requires the living to trust a dead woman.
Campaign Role. Intelligence source in Act IV. If the party reaches the Hollowdeep periphery, Merren is the first friendly contact they find. She provides critical tactical information about the undead army’s organization and the changes inside the crater.
Roleplay Notes. Speaks in a low, careful voice, the habit of someone who has spent eighteen months avoiding detection. Holds herself at a distance from the living, not out of hostility, but because she knows what she looks like. Will not remove her armor. If asked about her wounds, she changes the subject. Still uses Vigil hand signals instinctively.