====== Brother-Doctor Oren Vale ======


===== Description =====
Brother-Doctor Oren Vale is a pale, gaunt **male halfling** with **short black hair**, a **clean-shaven face**, and dark, watchful eyes. He dresses in the guise of a **traveling western doctor**, wearing a neat black coat, dark vest, gloves, and a bolo clasp at the throat. His physician’s case is kept meticulously clean, with bottles, tools, and notes arranged with almost ritual precision.

===== Personality =====
Oren is quiet, observant, and unsettlingly composed. He speaks with the calm tone of a practiced healer, but his attention can feel invasive, as if he is always measuring pulse, weakness, and intent. He is not openly cruel, but he possesses a deeply clinical view of suffering and believes sacred things must be kept from ignorant hands.

===== Relationships =====
**Church of Marrow:** Oren serves the church as a discreet operative and trusted recovery agent for forbidden relics.\\
**Local Authorities:** He avoids formal notice whenever possible, preferring to work quietly through taverns, hospice houses, and private rooms.\\
**Adventurers:** Oren is willing to employ outsiders when subtlety, deniability, or speed matters more than doctrine.

===== Role =====
Oren is in the region on a mission to recover a **stolen book of blood magic**. Though the tome contains forbidden rites, it is also considered a relic of his goddess, and the church wishes it secured before it is destroyed, abused, or claimed by a rival power.

===== Secrets =====
**Secret:** Oren does not merely want the book returned—he intends to personally inspect it first, to learn who stole it and whether any pages or rites have already been copied.\\
**Secret:** He believes the relic may contain truths his own superiors have concealed from the faithful.\\
**Secret:** Oren is more devout than he appears, and would risk his own life rather than see the tome fall into profane hands.

===== Notes =====
**Hook:** Oren quietly hires the party to locate or retrieve the stolen tome before another faction reaches it.\\
**Use in Play:** He works well as an uneasy ally, secretive patron, or suspicious “friendly” NPC whose goals overlap with the party’s only temporarily.\\
**First Impression:** A polite doctor who seems too calm around blood, death, and forbidden subjects.