Finding Nulgath’s Secret: Citadel and Murry

Citadel: Murry and the persecutors of magic

Murry greeted the Hero as a long-awaited rescuer. He said he had escaped the Grand Inquisitor, whose followers persecuted anyone who used magic. The leader seldom left the Citadel, sending crusaders and Inquisitors to purge the land instead. Murry accused them of presenting themselves as good men while turning villagers, mayors, and kings against magic.

His first requests were also acts of revenge. He described years of torment at the hands of guards and crusaders, including humiliation with fish, purple slimes, and Horc sweat. Eight guard pauldrons, four crusader gauntlets, and two captains’ insignia would prove that the Hero had struck back at both the abusers and those who gave their orders. Murry welcomed the results, while carefully leaving the fighting to the Hero.

Citadel: stolen magic

The campaign involved more than Murry’s grievance. He asked the Hero to rescue seven endangered witches and thanked the Hero for saving them. The Grand Inquisitor’s own words made the breadth of the persecution clear: witches, mages, and wizards were all guilty in his eyes. The beast he meant to summon would feed on magical energy and hunt them without regard for those distinctions.

Murry suspected that confiscated magic was being saved rather than destroyed. During captivity he had seen devices he called Mana Vacuums draining power from prisoners. He wanted ten removed from the Inquisitors’ hands. Taking one apart, he found what he described as small orbs that held and compressed the collected magic. Five Mana Amplifiers would let him pursue the suspicion. He offered one of his staves for success and marveled that Warlic was reputed to perform a similar feat with his mind.

Citadel: Belrot answers the summoning

Once the summoning was finished, Murry urged the Hero into the Citadel. The creature named in his assignment was Belrot the Fiend. The Grand Inquisitor had called a destructive, magic-hunting beast into the land; Murry wanted it stopped before magic could be hunted down and drained away. Belrot’s head was the proof he requested.

The answer to that request was grisly enough to earn Murry’s rueful acknowledgment that he had asked for it. Belrot’s defeat left the Grand Inquisitor himself to be faced. Murry argued that stopping the leader was necessary to stop the Inquisitors, and asked for his Ring of Evil Intent as evidence that he had been bested. His thanks closed the task; it did not establish that every follower had abandoned the persecution.

The archived community quest account also describes a challenge called “Grand Inquisitor’s Surprise Visitor.” After the magic-devouring beast was destroyed, it urged the Hero to punish the leader’s hypocrisy: he had condemned magic while stealing it for his own purposes. Its requested trophy was his fine silken gloves, distinct from the ring requested for “Grand Inquisitor’s Penance.” This preserves an additional offered challenge without making it a second decisive confrontation.

Citadel: an invitation from nine years away

The archived community account identifies the later visitor as a hologram of Polish, a Servant of the Light. In the native greeting, the projection says it is speaking from a future nine years after the Citadel events. The speaker had not known how to find the Hero and needed help; Murry, it emphasized, needed help more than ever.

Polish offered to take the Hero to that time and place when ready. The invitation opened the way toward the ruined Citadel, without explaining Murry’s new danger in the greeting itself. It is a later branch of the encounter, rather than proof that the Hero immediately left the original campaign for the future.