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Mercury Boltblaster

Page history last edited by Dan McGirt 3 years, 1 month ago

 

Mercury BoltblasterMercury Boltblaster: (b. 13 Leafwhistle 956 AH) A wizard of the Eleven Kingdoms. Son of Herm Boltblaster and his wife Lyrabis of Xornos. True love of Queen Raella Shurbenholt of Raelna. Rated an arcane master and would probably qualify as an arcane grandmaster if he bothered to take the exam. Also highly proficient in sword fighting and various other martial arts. High degree of acrobatic ability. Dour disposition.

 

Heavily recruited by both the Dark Magic Society and the League of Benevolent Magic, he has refused to join either. Formerly apprenticed to the mage Pencader. Boltblaster has many enemies, including Isogoras the Xornite, Eufrosinia the Cruel, Natalia Slash, Erimandras the Overmaster, and others.

 

Known to employ a pair of sunshades given to him by Queen Raella. Also frequently wears a magical cloak of holding.

 

Early Life

Mercury was born in the Mage Tower of the Alcazara in Caratha. At the time of his birth, his father was the Court Mage to Prince-Consul Ronaldo. His mother, Lyrabis, was the daughter of Xornos's ambassador to Caratha. A few hours after Mercury's birth, his parents were killed in an attack by the Demon Lord Gabblegorgon and the Demon Lady Sercifex. The infant Mercury was carried away to safety by the owl Conjure and placed in the care of his foster parents Jothan and Marta, who raised him in the Raelnan village of Glymph.

 

Though small for his age, Mercury was an active and athletic boy. He was a star pitcher for the village's Royal Youth League baseball team the Glymph Gryphons, and an active member of the Junior Pup Scouts, earning many Pup Scout honor badges.

 

When Mercury was eleven, his foster parents apprenticed Mercury to the wizard Pencader, who brought him to his home of Penrest. There he joined a household that included Pencader's older apprentice, Isogoras. Mercury became the junior apprentices, responsible for all the basic chores such as cooking, cleaning, mending, and gardening while commencing his preparatory studies.

 

Pencader later became Court Mage to King Raegon of Raelna, and brought his apprentices with him to Rae City. There he continued his magic studies and also learned swordplay from Fulvia Roquetti.

 

At some point during their time in Rae City, Pencader rebuked his senior apprentice Isogoras for practicing forbidden black magic and attempting to conjure demons. In revenge, Isogoras attempted to open a gateway to the Assorted Hells and dispose of Pencader. Mercury intervened, disrupting the attempt and causing Isogoras to fall through his own gate into the Hells.

 

Princess Raella

During his time in Rae City, Mercury fell in love with Princess Raella, King Raegon's daughter and heir. But their love was forbidden, for Mercury was a landless commoner and Raella was of not only royal, but divine birth, being a direct descendent of Blaze Shurben, founder and first king of Raelna and demi-god son of the Goddess Rae. Also, her father had arranged to marry her to Prince Halogen of Orphalia when she reached her majority. Needless to say, this would lead to trouble.

 

When their affair was discovered, King Raegon was exceedingly wroth, and would have had Mercury put do death but for the intervention of Pencader, who begged the king spare his apprentice. Mercury was permanently exiled from Raelna on pain of death. Three years later, with Pencader's secret aid, he returned to Rae City on the day Princess Raella was to wed Prince Halogen. Mercury disrupted the wedding, abducted the bride, and fled to Caratha. Halogen, accompanied by King Raegon's elite Knights of the Sun, gave chase and caught up with the fugitive pair. Surrounded and outnumbered, Mercury was only spared when word arrived that King Raegon was dead--immediately making Raella the new Queen of Raelna and thus able to reverse her father's commands.

 

Tense days followed. Raelnan nobles pressured Raella to go forward with the marriage to Halogen to preserve the peace and unite the kingdoms. Formal objections were raised to her desire to wed Mercury, a commoner. The League of Benevolent Magic meanwhile pressured Mercury to renounce Raella and leave her realm. Pencader argued Mercury's case but was soon expelled from the League on trumped up charges, then found mysteriously dead. By various machinations, Mercury and Raella were driven apart, each believing the other desired an end to the relationship.

 

Exile and Wanderer

Bereft of his love Raella, and no longer wishing to remain in her realm, Mercury wandered throughout the Eleven Kingdoms and beyond. He consistently spurned efforts by both the Dark Magic Society and, eventually, the League of Benevolent Magic, to recruit him.

 

He traveled to Becai to seek advanced martial arts training from the Martial Monks of Mhyrr. To earn his place as a student, he scaled the cliffs to reach their monastery, survived an encounter with one of the Nine Masters, answered the Sacred Riddle, performed Three Impossible Tasks, and entered the Cave of the Hungry Dragon. There was also an essay question. After acceptance, he performed a dangerous quest to pay his tuition. Only then did his formal training begin. Mercury reached the third level of mastery (of forty-two total levels).

 

During this period, he joined Natalia Slash, Dolman Sureblade, Fearless Freya, and other former students to track down and kill Roquetti's murderer, the assassin Arminus Tolwar and may have possibly had something to do with the untimely passing of Tolwar's employer, King Megaron of Cyrilla.

 

At some point during this period he helped the tribes of Malravia resist an invasion from Ganth led by Myrm Ironglove, for which he was made an honorary Malravian (and received a death sentence from Ironglove). He also battled mountain giants and monsters from the Incredibly Dark Forest.

 

Mercury befriended the thief and spy Rifkin Wildrogue during an adventure in Zastria, while seeking to find a stolen alchemical formula before Natalia Slash did. Rifkin was searching for a magic bracelet that Eufrosinia the Cruel also wanted. Thanks to a rogue elephant and a one-eyed werewolf, their paths crossed and they joined forces.

 

At some point in his travels encountered - or at least heard -- a shanbee and a lamia. Not necessarily at the same time. He is also familiar with the stumpthrower.

 

At some point in the late 980s Mercury had another confrontation with Natalia Slash in Xornos, which resulted in him leaving her buried under several tons of Ganthian wheat flour in the hold of a sinking cargo ship.

 

At some point after this encounter, but before meeting Jason Cosmo in 990, Mercury grew a beard.

 

Around 987, Mercury and Raella discovered how they had been manipulated into parting and began a difficult rapprochement. Raella created him the first Count Boltblaster, making Mercury a peer of her realm. He considered the title largely honorary and remained a rootless wanderer, now aggressively pursued by the Dark Magic Society. The Society assigned Isogoras the Xornite to recruit Mercury to the Society, resulting in several confrontations. Isogoras eventually hired Dylan of Ganth and the Black Bolts to capture Mercury. They pursued him across several realms, but failed in every attempt to take him.

 

At some point in this period, Mercury warned Raella that the AMOK system, then under development, was a waste of money.

 

Jason Cosmo

In the early spring of 990, Mercury's wanderings brought him to the town of Whiteswab in Darnk, where he met turnip farmer and woodcutter Jason Cosmo. This changed everything.

 

Mercury bested the Overmaster in a Cards of Power duel, which caused Erimandras to dissolve into nothingness. He rejected the offer of Asmodraxas to grant him knowledge and power in return for his allegiance, instead destroying the Black Mirror that allowed the Archdemon to communicate.

 

In their final confrontation with Erimandras beneath Caratha, Mercury was swallowed by the Jaws of Death. He avoided oblivion by clinging to a tooth until Cosmo rescued him, but the close call shocked his hair and beard white as snow. Soon thereafter, Mercury returned to Rae City with Raella to prepare for their wedding.

 

Royal Wedding

Mercury was set to wed Raella on High Summer Day at the Temple of the Sun in Rae City.

 

Fighting Skills

Mercury is a master swordsman and martial artist. He has an acrobatic unarmed fighting style, often leaping over the heads of opponents to gain advantage. His reflexes are good enough to snatch a thrown axe or knife out of the air. He can clear twenty feet in a standing long jump.

 

Magic

Mercury's control over the power of Telekinesis enables him to divert an arrow mid-flight and even stop multiple arrows (whether shot from bow or crossbow) and redirect their flight. He has mastered numerous spells that involve the discharge or manipulation of bolts of arcane energy in various forms.

 

Languages

 

Spells

As an accomplished wizard, Mercury is well-versed in many styles and schools of magic and has a wide repertoire of spells. True to his name, his specialty is projecting arcane energy in various forms. Spells and powers he has used include:

 

 

 

 

  • Feather Fall (HW:24, RC)
  • Find Hidden Door (HW:21)
  • Finger Fire (HW:10, 21; RD; RC: 13)
  • Flying Carpet Control (HW:13, 15)
  • Form Flying Carpet (HW:13)
  • Golden Flame (HW:23)

 

  • Ice Storm, Small (RC:11)  
  • Illusion, Minor (HW:7)

 

  • Lasso of Light / Lambent Lasso (HW:23)
  • Lemon Peel (RC) 

 

  • Melt (HW:21)
  • Mend Flying Carpet (HW:13)
  • Mystic Darts (RC:11) 
  • Open Door (HW:21)
  • Orange Crush (RC)

 

  • Purple Fireball (RC:11) 

 

  • Ray of Terrific Force (RC:11) 
  • Read Aura  (HW:2)
  • Red Lightning (RC:11) 
  • Ruby Ray of Ruin (RC: 16)

 

  • Safety Pins (counter to Pointed Rebuke) (HW:23)
  • Sense Danger (HW:8)
  • Sense Evil Presence (RD) 
  • Slippery Surface (HW:19)
  • Soil Boil (HW:9)
  • Spectacular Fireball (HW:21)
  • Spectral Hand
  • Spiritual Lightning (HW:9; RC:11)

 

 

  • Updraft (HW:10)

 

  • Wave of Entropy (RC:11) 
  • Wall of Force (HW:23)
  • Witchfire (NC:46) 

 

Martial Arts Moves

  • Open Hand Spear Strike (RC: 13) 

 

Stored in Mercury's Cloak

  • Cards of Power (HW:23)
  • Cloak, extra
  • Cyrillan Goddess:  At least one cask or bottle of this rare and expensive wine, possibly more. (HW:2)
  • Dagger (HW:11) 
  • Firewood -- kindling and split logs (RD)
  • Flares (HW:17, 19)
  • Flying Carpet (NC:46) 
  • Glowsphere on a leather loop (HW:3) aka "flameless lantern"
  • Grappling hook (purchased at Grisham's House of Hooks in Caratha) (HW:4)
  • Kettle (RD) 
  • Rope (HW:4) 
  • Silver goblet: for drinking his wine (HW:2)
  • Soap (HW:6 - implied)
  • Sunshades: typically worn, but presumably stored in cloak when not (HW:2)
  • Sword (HW:8)
  • Tent (HW:6; RD)
  • Towel (RC:3)
  • Travel Rations - powdered soup (cream of pheasant, etc.) (RD)
  • Umbrella of Force (HW:17

 

Titles 

  • Senator (Caratha) -  Hereditary member of the Carathan Senate, due to his father's service as Court Mage to Prince Ronaldo (from his majority)
  • Honorary Malravian tribe member (?)
  • 1st Count Boltblaster (Raelna) - created by Queen Raella. Style: His Arcane Eminence, Mercury, Lord Boltblaster (?)
  • Prince Consort of Raelna (From High Summer Day, 990 AH) Style: His Royal Highness The Prince Consort

 

Personal Emblem

Mercury's personal emblem is a pair of purple power bolts (perhaps lightning?) crossed.

 

Known Aliases

 

Appears in:

Hero Wanted

Rainy Daze

Noble Cause

Royal Crush

Boltblaster:Apprentice

 

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