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Marrec

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Marrec was a cleric of Lurue in 1373 DR.[1] A half-medusa,[2][note 1] he fled the village where he was born after his petrifying gaze made him a pariah,[4] and then the same trait slew his mentor in outdoorsmanship, Thanial Selwander.[5] When his connection with his goddess, Lurue, began to slip away, he followed an omen to the Unapproachable East,[1] where he helped restore her aspect, Araluen, to full power[6] on Mirtul 7 of 1373 DR.[7]

Description[]

Marrec's hairline hid several scars,[8] where hair-snakes had grown as an infant.[9] He wore full plate armor everywhere, even while walking cross-country.[10] His voice was normally a smooth baritone.[11]

Personality[]

Marrec was not that much of a talker, rarely getting in a word edgewise when talking about life with someone else.[12] He also liked to joke just after heading off of dire straits, but he could lapse into grandiloquence when he found the situation dire.[13] He was also sensitive to the situation of foundlings like him,[14] and on the lookout for those who could grant redemption to vile creatures.[15]

Abilities[]

Marrec was more than competent in the use of the spear; this, combined with his unique spear, Justlance, made him a frightful combatant.[16] Like many clerics, he could repel undead and cast spells, though both abilities were thinned by Lurue's fading light.[1] Unaffected by the fading of Lurue's light, however, was his ability to petrify those on whom he fixed his gaze when he so desired, thanks to his medusa inheritance: his petrifying gaze was powerful enough to afflict even the normal immunities of oozing blightlords like Anammelech,[17] swarming insects,[18] and even anathematic, ungodly abominations.[19]

Possessions[]

Marrec was the wielder of Justlance,[16] and he wore a set of plate armor.[10] He received, from the Nentyarch, a pair of thin gauntlets, made of smooth-grained deerskin, lined with white linen, which were embroidered with emerald threads in an oak leaf design;[20] those gauntlets provided a varying strength boost on demand,[21] though they eventually depleted.[22] Marrec was also provided a unique potion from the Nentyarch, probably owl's wisdom, which allowed him to access a fraction of his priestly power despite the weakened connection, and also enlightened him as to how to restore Araluen's power.[23]

Relationships[]

Marrec's aunts by blood were Sthenno and Euryale, almost certainly medusae.[2] He was adopted at a young age by Harmon and Celia, two villagers, and lived amongst their natural born children, including Emmon, who became his closest friend;[3] the village as a whole forsook him on learning of his medusa heritage.[4] He was then taken in as an apprentice woodsman by Thanial Selwander, who became his mentor, confidante, and new best friend,[24] up until Marrec accidentally petrified him during an ogre raid on the village.[5]

He became friends with Gunggari Ulmarra sometime before 1373 DR; they were so close that Gunggari accompanied him in his quest to regain his connection to Lurue by finding the Child of Light.[1] During the quest, he bonded with Elowen, Ususi Manaallin, and Araluen.[25] He also bonded with a demon, The Victorious Slayer of Compassion, whom he nicknamed Victoricus, and said demon's queen, the Queen Abiding, with whom he gained a very literal bond, though a short-lived one.[26]

History[]

At some point before 1373 DR, Marrec became lost in the woods while playing with his aunt Sthenno,[2] at the age of one and a half years old. He was found by Thanial Selwander, who cut off his hair snakes without incident,[27] and then gave him to the cobbler Harmon, who raised the young boy. Marrec and his brother Emmon both loved the wild. Once, when they were eleven and trekking, they took refuge from a freezing downpour in a cave, coming across a bear. Marrec improvised a spear from a stick on the spot, and managed to keep the bear at bay, though Emmon was injured. This incident later encouraged Marrec to join the local militia.[3]

At the age of sixteen, the village where Marrec and Emmon resided was attacked by the Durang ogres; after Emmon was slain, Marrec discovered his power to focus his gaze into a petrifying attack. However, the display of this power made no one want more to do with him in the village.[4] He fled into the wild, only for Thanial Selwander to find him again; the outdoorsman took him in, teaching him the ways of the wild. More than that, Thanial finally told him of his heritage;[24] the two agreed to try and use it for good. However, when Marrec attempted to slay the Durang leader with it, the power backfired, catching Thanial Selwander together with the ogre. Marrec swore never to call upon his petrifying power again after this incident.[5]

By 1373 DR, Marrec was a cleric of Lurue. He had also discovered that his communion with his goddess had thinned, taking away his powers; he also received an omen, calling on him to "Seek out the Child of Light in Hemish's charge", which led him to Fullpoint in Thesk, after using more divination spells to decrypt the vision. Together with his friend Gunggari Ulmarra, he crossed Faerûn, heading for Fullpoint, the connection thinning all the way, attempting to fulfill the goddess' mandate. In the last leg of their voyage, they arrived by ship on Telflamm, and took the Golden Way towards Fullpoint.[1] Once in Fullpoint, he saved the village from a band of rampaging volodni,[28] and rescued a girl named Ash, whom he took to be the one in his omen.[29] After persuading her father Hemish to let her come with him, he accompanied the Nentyar hunter Elowen to Two Stars, where they consulted with Ususi Manaallin.[30] She joined their party, and the five of them headed for the Mucklestones,[31] where they battled the Talontar blightlord Gameliel in order to rescue Briartan.[32]

Ususi then took them to Yeshelmaar so that Marrec and Elowen could confer directly with the Nentyarch, the leader of the Circle of Leth to which both Elowen and Briartan belonged. The Nentyarch bade Elowen and Marrec escort Ash, who was actually Araluen, to Dun-Tharos, where the Rotting Man was stealing her power.[33] However, the Nentyar hunter Fallon betrayed the Nentyarch and kidnapped Ash.[34] Marrec's party followed quickly, into an ambush by the blightlord Anammelech, Fallon's paymaster.[35] Just as Anammelech was about to execute Marrec, he broke his vow and struck back with his petrifying gaze, quickly turning the tables on the blightlord.[17]

The four of them followed Fallon's trail to Under-Tharos, where they were soon pressed into the service of a demon, the Queen Abiding.[36] Marrec managed to recover her controlling token from her rival, Eschar, and released her, barely managing to wrest one single service from her in the process, and even then only if she felt it furthered her own ends.[26] The party soon caught up to a third blightlord, the vampire Damanda, who was holding Fallon and Araluen. Though Fallon saved Elowen's life in the fight, he was mortally wounded.[37]

When the party came towards The Close, Marrec was forced to call upon the deal with the Queen Abiding to eliminate the Rotting Man's soldiers blocking their way into the fortress.[38] Once inside they met the Rotting Man; he set the Step-Daughter of Talona upon them.[39] His petrifying gaze was of limited use against her.[19] Thanks to the insight provided by a potion the Nentyarch gave him, Marrec regained some of his priestly power, and came to understand that he could disable the Step-Daughter by convincing Araluen to forgive herself for having been captured and twisted by the Rotting Man. He quickly helped her, and once the Step-Daughter devoured Ash, the two became a restored Araluen[6] and imparted upon Marrec the knowledge of how to restore to flesh his mentor, Thanial Selwander.[25]

By Tarsakh of the Year of Lightning Storms, 1374 DR, he had departed on a different quest.[40]

Appendix[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Though Marrec is consistently referred to as a man in the text, his aunts claim that his father is not of their kind; medusae mating with humanoids other than maedar can only produce fully medusa female offspring. Though Marrec is written as clearly male, he displayed medusa-like secondary sexual characteristics, such as hair snakes at birth. The text strongly implies that Marrec's father was not immune to petrifying gaze, and thusly, should've produced female offspring. While maedar can produce male offspring and can inherit petrifying gazes as Marrec did, they also lack hair snakes. Thanial Selwander claims to have cut off his snakes without protest. While it could be argued that Marrec is a first-generation maedar with vestigial hair snakes and possessing a mutation for petrifying gaze, much like the alien conqueror Vulkaran, the text describes him as having at least one human parent, per Thanial Selwander; the article thus proceeds as though Marrec is best described as a unique half-medusa, an interpretation the text seems to favor.

External Links[]

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Appearances[]

Novels
Lady of Poison

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 10, pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 3, pp. 24–26. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 4, pp. 37–40. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 12, pp. 113–116. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 30, pp. 293–297. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  7. ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 154. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
  8. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 8. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  9. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7, p. 62. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 9. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  11. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 18. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  12. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 12, p. 111. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  13. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 15, p. 151. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  14. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 12, p. 112. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  15. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 21, p. 209. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 13. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 15, p. 158. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  18. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 27, p. 257. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 30, pp. 291–292. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  20. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 13, p. 127. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  21. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 15, pp. 147–148. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  22. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 15, p. 157. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  23. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 30, p. 284. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7, pp. 58–62. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. Epilogue, pp. 305–306. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 25, p. 239. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  27. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7, p. 61. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  28. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 17. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  29. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 3, p. 23. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  30. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 4, p. 34. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  31. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 6, pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  32. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 9, pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  33. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 13, p. 125. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  34. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 14, p. 133. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  35. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 14, p. 145. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  36. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 18, p. 187. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  37. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 27, pp. 258–259. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  38. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 29, pp. 275–276. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  39. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (July 2004). Lady of Poison. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 30, p. 288. ISBN 978-0786931613.
  40. ↑ Bruce R. Cordell (2006). Darkvision. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 2, p. 10. ISBN 0-7869-4017-4.
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