Herid,
I'm all about the trigger event. Sorry, need to keep some things vague lest my players wander across them. The idea is about making a captivating roleplay opportunity for the players. Letting them play up against the local homegrown hero is one thing, but what if that homegrown hero is a former witch hunter in hiding guilty of an unspeakable crime. Now things get interesting. If you've seen the movie, Summersby, you will know the direction I'm leaning with this. I'm not looking to create a variation of the Gray Pilgrim here. Instead, this is more of an instance where the characters may have to decide what sort of punishment is due. Oddly, when I write it that way, it seems pretty timely in a grim sense. Sorry.
Love the idea of an undead connection. I'll definitely have to do something with that.
Tom