Meryl Quiltin

## Background

Meryl Fan Art by CitricKing

*"Ginter bless you, thank you so much!" ~Meryl Quiltin*

Meryl Quiltin is a young woman living in the lower district of Alivast with her family. Her family lives in poor conditions, only making a little more than enough to get by through the year. Meryl sought work to pay for schooling as her social class meant she had no formal education. However, no employers accepted her applications for months, primarily due to her lack of experience.

She met The Unexpectables when applying for a maid position, visually ill at ease. However, after an interview, The Unexpectables agreed to hire her and Task personally set an amount of 500 gold in reserve to help pay for her schooling, much to Meryl's surprise.

Meryl has been attending Eve's Meadow Academy, but has been receiving private lessons from Hassrad during the school's temporary closure.

## Personality

Meryl is a polite and somewhat reserved person, appearing to lack confidence due to her low social status. She desperately wishes to learn to read and write, hoping to one day write novels.

Once she begins her studies, she turns out to be very diligent in her work and eager to learn. When the academy briefly closes, she becomes notably depressed and sullen.

Like any teenager, she's embarrassed by the adults in her life trying to interact with her school friends.

## Relations

### The Unexpectables

The Unexpectables hired Meryl as a maid to help clean their guildhall. Task and Panic have helped her out with her studies (Task gifted her with 500 gold to help her with her studies and Panic helped her figure out how her name was spelled.)

Meryl was pleased at first when the boys showed up to her school to do a presentation on safety, but her delight soon turned to embarrassment when their teaching antics created a bit of commotion. She was in Task's archery class.

### Helga

*"She is struggling like orc man in fight pit."*

Helga is protective of Meryl just like she is protective of other young women around her using implicit and explicit threats of violence to any who don't treat her properly. She notices how Meryl struggles with her studies and cashes in a favor with Panic to enlist his aid tutoring her. Helga has also been sensitive to Meryl's feelings over Cynthia's kidnapping and the temporary closure of her school.

### Cynthia

Cynthia is one of the friends Meryl met at school, and the two often spend time together when not in class. Meryl has been known to play tricks on Cynthia, and recently told her that Greckles couldn't speak common so Cynthia would try to speak to him in awkward, broken Avian.

Meryl and Cynthia not only entered the Winter Sled Race, but were able to come in third place behind only a gnoll team that dominated the race until they were overtaken during the final leg by Remy and Borky's sled.

### Hassrad

Despite Meryl having a fear of snakes and not often communicating with Hassrad previously, for reasons as of yet unknown he began to privately tutor her while Eve's Meadow is closed. The two are shown to sometimes argue over how many times the letter "S" is used in words, but Hassrad seems to be a productive tutor despite this hiccup. Meryl appreciates him enough to even invite him to a sleigh ride outing with her siblings. When a Bheur Hag attacked Hassrad and the children while they were on an outing with The Unexpectables, he used his magic and cunning to protect them. When Lee was frozen solid after being caught in a *Cone of Cold**,* Hassrad used strange magics to revive the boy, but not without a great personal cost. Hassrad appears to value the sibling fidelity of the Quiltin children.

### Family

Meryl really cares for her family, so much so that she would take a job to pay for her schooling and not having the heart to tell them school costs money. They find out anyways, and her mother is very supportive of her schooling and thankful to Task for giving Meryl the opportunity. The family are devout followers of Ginter.

* father (unnamed), works as a chainsmith
* Hanna, mother, a farm worker
* Sam, older brother, 18, with brown hair and very similar features to Meryl. He's a bit quiet and doesn't talk much.
* Lucy, sister, about 12, blonde with her hair pulled back in a ponytail otherwise similar looking to Meryl.
* Lee (sometimes Stanley or Stan), close family friend, 14, tan skinned, messy, curly, black hair. Lee was saved from death by Hassrad through powerful magic, but may soon start experiencing snake-related side effects.

The Quiltin children are all quite capable and comfortable with the out-of-doors and farm work, but also like playing games and taking the family's sleigh for an unauthorized outing when their parents are away.

Meryl's dad is very concerned about Meryl staying out late. He isn't sure if her excuses about getting tutored are legitimate. Meryl is very unhappy that her dad doesn't let her do anything because after all she is 16 and should be able to do whatever she wants. Standard parent/teenager stuff.

### Arlo

Meryl can not stand Arlo. The dragon has antagonized her by calling her "peasant girl", making fun of her hair, and making other snide remarks in addition to refusing to get out of her way when she is trying to sweep up, and generally being an asshole.

### Rufus

Meryl has been getting bullied by a group of boys led by a ginger boy named Rufus who want to "put her in her place". Rufus and his friends keep trying to sneak into the Sweet Dragon.

## Trivia

* Meryl's family owns a sleigh and a massive white and brown dappled horse with feathered hooves to pull it.
* She treats the dryads in the woods around the city with respect and has even talked to one near her family's farm.
* Meryl won 3rd place in the Harvest Festival's giant pumpkin competition with an entry she named "The Big Orange." The prize was a 50gp gift certificate to Dolly's Pastries which she plans on sharing with friends.
* Meryl loves to take care of plants and climb trees with her siblings.
* Meryl did well enough to get a gold stamp on a recent vocabulary test.
* She and her family used to live in Eltmur before the Silver King's rule.
* Helga notes that under the old Eltmur monarchy, Meryl would have been killed for learning to read.
* Meryl used to have long hair at some point in the past.
* In Monty's notes Meryl was originally named Raven.
* One of Meryl's duties is to care for the Sweet Dragon's pseudodragon messengers. She also sometimes gets to light the chandeliers in the common room, but Helga has to lift her up.
* Assuming Skinny's duties are the same as Meryl's, her jobs include sweeping, mopping, watering the plants, cleaning windows, cleaning out the pseudodragon lofts and feeding them, picking up, setting up and cleaning chairs, wiping down tables, occasionally washing dishes, and cleaning gutters.
* When Greckles offered alcohol to Arlo who is roughly equivalent in relative age to Meryl, she was a little disappointed that she wasn't also offered a drink.
* Meryl's favorite food is apple pie with cream.
* The Unexpectables "sold" her dad a cart, five horses, and a pony Panic named DREADMANE that they had nowhere to stable.