Madarrak

Madarrak
Details
Race	Human
Birthplace	Ravnica
Lifetime	Mending Era
Sources
[1]

Madarrak is an Izzet guildmage and scientist on the plane of Ravnica, responsible for having found the missing chemister Erno Zslod and his ingenious focusing lens. His ultimate fate is unknown.

History

Madarrak was working with his apprentice, the vedalken Castan, when they accidentally caused one of their machines to run amok and break through an old stone wall in their lab. In the rubble, Madarrak found a type of homing beacon, which moved of its own volition towards something in a certain direction.

Madarrak brought the strange device to Niv-Mizzet, who examined it for a very long time. Madarrak was eventually approached by Chamberlain Pelener, who told him that Niv-Mizzet had discerned that the device once had belonged to the chemister Erno Zslod, who vanished more than thirty years earlier. Although Erno had been presumed dead, the fact that the homing beacon was still actively moving, suggested otherwise. Thus, Madarrak was bid to follow the device and locate its target.

Bringing his apprentice Castan and the cyclops retainer Yzaak with him, Madarrak entered the Undercity of Ravnica. The beacon brought them deeper and deeper into the ruins. At one point, Castan fell into a pool of ooze, inhaling some terrible fumes and getting her hand sticky. At another point, they discovered Golgari rot farmers following them, but staying hidden in the dark tunnels.

The homing beacon eventually came to a stop next to a large pile of filthy rubble. Eager, Madarrak dug through the pile and eventually discovered a half-buried mizzium helmet, lit from inside by a red light. Inside the helmet, he saw the still-alive head of none other than Erno Zslod, though his face was marred by a grimace of pain.

After some probing, Madarrak and Castan got Erno to speak of what had happened. He had been working on the hypermana focusing lens and making good strides, but a contagion had struck him - a sickness caused him to cough and vomit mucus and even altered his mind. It was as though he was commanded to make changes to his focusing lens, and when it was activated, it brought him and his attendant Johrum to the Undercity, and at the same time, cured Erno of his disease. Erno said it was a Simic biomancer who was behind the illness, brought on by contact with his biomantic ooze.

Meanwhile, Madarrak kept digging for the focusing lens and found a large mizzium canister lodged under the rubble. Then, a Kraul Warrior stepped out of the darkness, then a second and a third. Castan sent an arcing lighting spell into them, destroying the three kraul, but even more stepped forth to attack.

Madarrak and Castan wedged the canister free, but the dripping of ooze from above revealed a monstrously deformed human who launched itself at Madarrak, pinning him down. Madarrak struggled to free himself, but the mutant's weight was too great. It looked Madarrak in the face and a large translucent blue-green globule slid out of its mouth. The mucus struck Madarrak's face, and on its own, began to move toward his nose and mouth.

Then, suddenly Erno's assistant Johrum, morphed into a strange fire-twisted being, launched itself onto Madarakk's attacker, freeing him from its grasp. Madarrak electrified the mucus on his face, making it curl away and drop off. Madarrak managed to stand back up, noting that Castan was behind a horde of kraul, sending lighting left and right but unable to join back up with Madarrak. The ooze-covered mutant then attacks Erno Zslod, finally ending the mad chemister's life after more than thirty years of being magically preserved under a pile of rubble.

Madarrak then killed the mutant with a steam gun, then ran back to where he had left the Cyclops Yzaak. But something had happened to Yzaak in the meantime, and the cyclops was now in a heavy state of putrefaction, overgrown with rust and moss. There was nobody left but himself, but Madarrak had an ace up his sleeve - the cannister containing the hypermana focusing lens. Activating the machine, Madarrak allowed himself to be teleported away from the Undercity and its endless hordes of kraul.

Thus, Madarrak was able the focusing lens to Niv-Mizzet, who put him in his good graces and scheduled a meeting with Ral Zarek. But something gnawed at him. He had abandoned Castan in the Undercity amid hundreds of kraul, with no means of escape. He resolved to back and get her when he noticed globules of mucus dripping onto his hand. Horrified, he realized it was dripping from his nose, recalling the horrors that had befallen Erno Zslod before his entrapment. He had been infected with the biomancer's ooze, and might now face the same fate as the crazed chemister had.

Story appearances

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References