Mel'aric "The Devil" Baenre-Cassalanter

Mel'aric Baenre-Cassalanter is the estranged son of the underdark refugee Illona Beanre and the long dead Marvius Cassalanter. A well-trained magician that received gifts from both sides of his prestigious family, he grew bored with endless study and the pressure of his family's history. He joined a group of similar mined travelers and helped form Glory's Edge, with the hopes of creating a name for himself. It was a successful venture, until Glory's Edge ended up on the Lost Isle of Mechanus. There they met a strange woman in white and pledged themselves to her cause of rebuilding Mystra, the goddess of magic and Mel'aric's patron deity. What started as a grand odyssey soon turned tragic, as Mel'aric's friends one by one began to disappear. Sucked into the very vessels they were supposed to place and protect. Every effort he made to save them in vain, Mel'aric did the only thing he could think of to delay the end. He fled to Waterdeep, separating himself from the gate he placed and tried to lose himself in a new identity. He began to call himself Mel'aric Moonweaver, or Mel for short, and started Mel'aric's Marvelous Menagerie a magical goods store in the Trollskull Alley neighborhood of Waterdeep. He kept his presence hidden via magical means in his shop and set to making himself appear frivolous and irreverent to anyone he met, making very few allies or friends. Until the day that he spotted a group of new adventurers attempting to sneak into the sewers. He found himself unwilling to let them out of his sight, lest they experience the same tragedy he did. In the same manner they seemed inexplicably always somewhere nearby, in going so far as to move in across the street from him. They called themselves The Phantom's Chosen, and they were just as strong-willed and broken as he and his own friends were. Before he knew it he was so entwined in their own quest that he had to see it through. That's when he realized that he too, needed to see his quest through. It had followed him this far, and if his new friends had taught him anything it was that destiny would always come calling.   Lore Discovered:

• Mel's mother Illona Baenre, is Jarlaxle's sister and lives in Baldur's Gate where she goes by the title "The Oracle"
• According to Dargas Goldenforge, Mel was given a gate to the Nine Hells, where Mystra's mind was said to be lost
• Dargas also mentioned that Mel made the keys to close the gates and the amulet to travel to them, the Watcher mentioned that these keys can only be wielded by a being of extraordinary power.