Muragh Brilstagg

Muragh Brilstagg was a cleric of Lathander turned talking skull.

Description
Muragh was a human skull that once belonged to a cleric of Lathander in life.

Personality
Muragh was talkative, touchy, opinionated, and quite cynical. He had good mental health, which prevented him from going mad after being cursed into being a skull after his death. He was a person who sought the company of other people with a cynical streak and good-looking women. All in all, he was a person whose company people suffered through instead of enjoyed. This was due to the aforementioned traits that made him constantly point out things like mistakes that other people would be silent about. By 1371 DR, he was lonely and quite bored of the room he was put in.

Abilities
In life, Muragh was a cleric of Lathander and even as a skull he still possessed knowledge about how to cast spells, but could not do so, because he had no limbs. He had a functional knowledge of Lathander's faith like rituals and theology. When Lathander was replaced by Amaunator, Muragh stayed with his old faith and hence lost his clerical powers.

He was indestructible in the face of fire, cold, and turning, and when it came to electricity, he was invigorated from it instead of being harmed. When he fell, he fell as though under the effect of feather fall. He saw the world as though constantly using detect magic and true seeing, which made him very useful for explorers. Despite these detection abilities, his personality was a serious reason against having his company.

Muragh was unable to move from the spot he was put on except for turning around, but he could speak. When he spoke, the lower jaw caused him to jump on the spot. Provided the object was light, his jaw could carry things by biting on them.

Activities
By 1371 DR, Muragh did nothing but sit on the spot he was put on by the thieves who'd stolen him. He wanted to leave.

By 1479 DR, Muragh did nothing but sit on the same spot he was put on in 1371 DR. He was retrieved in the interim but unknown circumstances caused him to be put back in the same room.

Relationships
As a general rule, Muragh was quite a unique creature and people were willing to pay money for his acquisition, namely something between 15 and 20 gp. A cleric from the church of Lathander was a different matter. These people, provided Muragh could make them aware of his knowledge and devotion to the Morninglord, were willing to pay 40 gp.

History
In life, Muragh was a talkative cleric of Lathander. He was considered a touchy and opinionated individual. These traits, combined with his aforementioned talkativeness, got on a certain wizard's nerves so much, and in a repeated fashion, that the wizard cursed Muragh. He was later killed in a bar fight.

The curse made it impossible for the priest's consciousness to move on, and instead it remained on Toril inside his skull, attached to his increasingly rotting body. This rotting corpse was later found by a soldier or a sailor, depending on the story-teller, possibly a naval infantryman. He got scared of the talking corpse, so he cut the head off and kicked him into the harbor water. There, two things happened: first, fishes ate his remaining flesh and Muragh became a clean skull. Second, the resident merfolk population was freaked out by the talking skull and brought him back onto land to the authorities, namely a wizard employed by the City Watch of Waterdeep called Thandalon Holmeir.

This wizard came to the conclusion that Muragh was ultimately harmless and started to use him as ornamentation for his table in the spell library of Piergeiron's Palace. There he worked as a watch-skull, a duty he was quite successful at. Some thieves broke into said library and misjudged Muragh for a powerful magic item, because he talked to them. Said thieves brought him to Undermountain, then left him on a table in a room that lay south of the Entry Well, where he still remained in 1371 DR.

Over the years, he was brought out of the room. However, by 1479 DR, he ended up in the same room due to unknown circumstances. By that point in time, Lathander was replaced by Amaunator. Muragh was unwilling to accept this change and lost his clerical powers due to his refusal.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Escape from Undermountain