Merriam Steele

**“***This looks like a path I can just stay out of everyone's way.***”**
— **Merriam tempting fate before descending the unmarked slope**

**Merriam Steele** is a playable character and the protagonist of the prologue in *SkiFreak*.

## Description

### Appearance

Merriam is a young Caucasian woman with messy, long brown hair. She wears a purple jacket with orange sleeves and matching purple pants, and green boots. In the first half of the prologue, she rides a pair of red-black skis and uses black ski poles.

### History

Not much is known about Merriam, except that she has an older brother named Johnny. Sometime before the events of *SkiFreak*, Merriam traveled to the resort town of Glacier Peaks on Mount Doubleton for vacation.

## *SkiFreak*

One morning, Merriam, after leaving the bustling main path to be by herself and not be bothered by or bother other skiers, finds an unmarked clear slope near the more popular Russell Trail to use as a practice point. Soon after beginning her descent, Merriam passes by a cave system, an old pillar site, as well as the dark outline of a figure, that disappears as she gets close. Almost immediately after, a loud roar can be heard from behind Merriam, followed by a massive mountain creature charging at her. One ending reveals that she was taken hostage by the mountain creature and saw many more of the same creature during her captivity before she managed to escape.

Hours later, Sheriff Jim begins a one-man search for Merriam in the evening after she was reported missing. The sheriff scours the area for any trace of her, recovering her backpack, before he is rushed by a maimed, but still-living Merriam from a copse of dead trees. Due to being in a state of shock, the sheriff is unable to get information out of her and brings her to the hospital, hoping that she'll recover there to be questioned the next day. The mayor of Glacier Peaks, however, is opposed to making the retrieval of Merriam Steele public knowledge, worrying that her testimony might prove to be bad publicity for the town and reduce tourism, which would negatively impact their main source of income during ski season and endanger his upcoming re-election. Until then, the mayor intends to keep her at the hospital in secret until the heat dies down and pressures the sheriff into silence. In spite of this, her brother Johnny travels to Glacier Peaks a week later to start his own search for Merriam.

In the "Alive" ending for Johnny, Merriam reunites with her brother and reveals that she saw many more of the same creature he encountered in the mountains. Together, the siblings travel the world to find out more about the creature and raise awareness of the species' existence to prevent anyone else from suffering their fate.

In the "Dead" ending, the local newspaper reports that Johnny's body was found by some of the residents. He is assumed to have got lost after going off path and frozen to death over the night, while the mangled state of his body is written off as having been a result of wildlife. Merriam is revealed to still be missing, in spite of her survival, indicating that the mayor is keeping as a permanent resident at the hospital as a Jane Doe.

## Trivia

* Merriam is the only false protagonist not to be killed in the entire records of Puppet Combo games.
* Her outfit mirrors that of her brother Johnny.
* The green backpack found in the sheriff's prologue scene is not actually worn by Merriam in the first act.