Ebeneezer Fitzgerald

Ebeneezer Fitzgerald is an old human woodsman living in a snug log cottage deep in a sparsely settled forest of the continent’s Midwest. Bundles of split firewood line the porch, and deer hides hang beneath the eaves to dry. He walks with a crooked ash staff and keeps a well-used hunting knife at his belt. His home is plain but carefully maintained, with spare beds, a stone hearth, and enough smoked meat and root vegetables to feed unexpected guests.

Ebeneezer spent most of his life cutting timber, trapping game, and guiding lost travelers through the forest. His wife, Maribel, kept a locked workroom beneath the cottage where she brewed medicines, distilled strange-smelling oils, and copied symbols from books he could not read. One autumn morning, Ebeneezer returned from a three-day hunt to find the cottage door open, the kettle boiling dry, and Maribel gone. Her boots, cloak, and traveling satchel were still inside. Only a ring of white ash marked the floor beneath the workroom window. Years later, he still prepares two cups of tea each night and watches the tree line for her return.

Ebeneezer speaks softly and leaves long pauses between thoughts, as though listening to the forest before answering. He offers food before asking a traveler’s name and insists that boots stay by the hearth until morning. He keeps his wife’s chipped blue teacup on the mantel, washes it every evening, and turns toward the door whenever the wind rattles the shutters. He rarely discusses her disappearance, but never calls her dead.

The party reaches Ebeneezer’s cottage during a hard rain and receives shelter, but strange blue lights begin moving between the trees after midnight. Ebeneezer believes they may be a sign from Maribel and asks the party to follow them only as far as the old quarry.

A hunter disappears near the cottage, leaving behind a pouch of alchemical reagents bearing Maribel’s mark. Ebeneezer wants the pouch returned to its owner, though he fears the owner may no longer be human.

A traveling peddler recognizes Maribel’s description and claims to have seen her in a distant town recently. Ebeneezer asks the party to verify the story, offering his best hunting bow and a map of the forest in return.