Steady Hand McDuff

Steady Hand McDuff is a character and blacksmith in Dark Souls II.

Description
Steady Hand McDuff is found in The Lost Bastille, behind a wall that can be destroyed with the use of an explosive barrel at the top of a staircase next to a Mummified Undead.

McDuff needs the Dull Ember to begin customising weapons and armour along specific upgrade paths using stones. He also becomes a vendor, selling Titanite and weapons. The Dull Ember can be found in the Iron Keep on a corpse on a broken ledge that must be jumped on to from above.

Lore
McDuff is losing his mind, evident by the swinging of his hammer at nothing except open air, and murmurs about a soft, fading ember, revealed to be the Dull Ember when the player next visits his workshop with the item in their inventory.

This also may be a reference to lighting the torch in his room. By doing this he'll get up and move to his anvil.

McDuff may be a prisoner of The Lost Bastille; whether he is an undead inmate or in self-imposed exile is unknown, though his situation resembles that of Rickert of Vinheim from Dark Souls.