I absolutely love the hydrus designs but I’m afraid I don’t exactly understand how to find Merana to start the quest? Maybe I’m overthinking it but I can’t really find much on when or where she appears. Am I missing something here? Does she appear on the map or is it a random site event or??

This should help: Merana ping group ()

It's randomly on the site map. Someone in the group should ping - or you can - when she appears.

Thank you! I didn’t realize there was a ping group for it, that really helps!