Mara Vick
Keeper of the Candles at the Leap
Role: Caretaker of the Vigil Stones
Faction: Traditionalist; Mara has little patience for Saltmarsh politics
Race: Female Human
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
NPC Type: Commoner
Appearance
Mara is a weathered woman in her late fifties, with iron-grey hair tied beneath a dark woolen scarf. Her hands are rough from years of mending nets and tending candles in the salt wind.
She wears a heavy fisherman’s coat and carries a covered lantern, fresh candles, polishing cloths, and lamp oil. Two pieces of sea glass hang from a cord around her neck, one for her husband and one for her son.
At the Table
Mara speaks plainly and dislikes idle talk.
She is gentle with mourners, but never sentimental.
She remembers names, dates, ships, and storms with remarkable accuracy.
She shares rumors only when she believes there is good reason.
She has little respect for wealthy merchants who send others to sea while remaining safely ashore.
Mara is quiet, observant, and difficult to deceive. Years spent watching mourners at the Leap have taught her to recognize grief, guilt, fear, and false sorrow.
Overview
Mara visits the Leap each evening at dusk. She clears away spoiled offerings, replaces candles, cleans the Vigil Stones, and polishes the old ship’s bell.
No one appointed or pays her. She began tending the site after her husband and only son were lost in a storm more than a decade ago. Neither body was recovered.
Mara made the Leap for them both. Their candles remained lit until dawn.
Since then, she has tended the stones for others.
Mara knows nearly every name carved into the Vigil Stones. She remembers which sailors truly drowned, which vanished under suspicious circumstances, and which later returned alive. She also knows which families quietly blame Gellan Primewater, the Sea Princes, smugglers, or local shipowners.
Hooks / Use
Mara is an excellent source of rumors about shipwrecks, missing sailors, smugglers, and strange events at sea.
She can identify most names carved into the stones and explain how each person was lost.
She knows of several sailors declared dead who later returned under unusual circumstances.
She can reveal which disappearances may have involved violence rather than storms.
If someone performs the Leap, Mara explains the tradition and quietly arranges for swimmers to wait below.
She may ask the characters to recover a stolen offering or investigate why candles have begun going out before dawn.
Secret
Mara has never fully believed her husband and son died in the storm.
Days after their disappearance, part of their boat washed ashore near the Leap. The wood bore deep cuts, and the netting had been cleanly severed. Mara hid the evidence before the town guard arrived.
She suspects smugglers or agents of the Sea Princes were responsible, but she has never found proof.
Mara keeps a small ledger hidden beneath a loose stone near the Vigil Stones. It records names, ships, weather, rumors, and suspicious disappearances. Taken together, the entries may reveal a pattern others have missed.