Castan

Castan
Details
Race	Vedalken
Birthplace	Ravnica
Lifetime	Mending Era
Sources

Castan is a vedalken Izzet attendant and scientist on the plane of Ravnica, partly responsible for having found the missing chemister Erno Zslod, and recovering his ingenious focusing lens. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

History

Castan was working with her mentor, the guildmage Madarrak, 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.

While Castan remained in the lab to modify their machine and fix its mana intake, Madarrak brought the strange device to Niv-Mizzet. He returned a long time later and told Castan 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.

Bringing his apprentice the cyclops retainer Yzaak with them, Madarrak and Castan 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 sentries 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. Madarrak eagerly dug through the pile, while Castan studied the markings on the walls nearby. They eventually discovered a half-buried mizzium helmet in the rubble, lit from inside by a red light. Inside the helmet, they 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 to him. Erno 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.

Castan was driven further and further away from Madarrak by the hordes of Kraul. Although she held her own with a series of lighting attacks, it was getting impossible for her to reunite with her fallen master. Then, suddenly Erno's assistant Johrum, morphed into a strange fire-twisted being, launched itself onto Madarakk's attacker and freeing the guildmage from its monstrous grasp.

Madarrak electrified the mucus on his face, making it curl away and drop off, and then managed to stand back up. The ooze-covered mutant then sliced through the uncovered head of Erno Zslod, finally ending the mad chemister's life after more than thirty years of being magically preserved under a pile of rubble.

Madarrak ran off, yelling for Yzaak, and Castan was left alone in the Undercity, surrounded by hordes of Kraul. Her mentor would later resolve to go find her, but what became of her in the end is not known.

Story appearances

Title	Author	Publishing date	Set	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Pursuit, Part 1	Ari Levitch	2013-05-01	Dragon's Maze	Ravnica	Madarrak, Castan, Yzaak, Niv-Mizzet, Pelener, Erno Zslod
The Pursuit, Part 2	Ari Levitch	2013-05-14	Dragon's Maze	Ravnica	Madarrak, Castan, Erno Zslod, Johrum, Yzaak

In-game references

Depicted in:

• Scatter Arc