Source Material for Middle-Earth

© Joe Mandala 1999

Clarissa Belroe met her husband-to-be while he and his companions Feando, Aldern, and Aradan were hunting down an amulet for a secretive group known as the Blood Ring. The companions had been paid handsomely for the return of the amulet, which had been sold by a southern merchant in Pelargir. Coincidentally, Clarissa's family (middle-class merchants dealing in antiquities) had bought the amulet at a lot auction, and stored it in the basement of their townhouse in preparation for sale. When the companions came knocking, Clarissa's father told them that if they wanted to buy anything, they would have to come to the shop the next day when the amulet would be added to their items for sale. Aradan (a student of antiquity and a bit of a lore hound) begged to see Amaral Belroe's store of old things, and the companions were permitted, after much convincing, to take a look at what Belroe had in storage. They, of course, quickly located the amulet, and Aradan began to decipher the strange markings on it. Unfortunately, the strange markings were a hold spell put on a fairly powerful malicious spirit which had been trapped inside centuries earlier by Numenorians in the south, and when Aradan read them out loud (for he knew somewhat of ancient Numenorian script), the spirit was released. Clarissa, then a young and tender 16, had been watching these exciting strangers while they studied her father's store of items, was instantly possessed by this spirit, and began chanting in a strange, sonorous voice. The companions became extremely alarmed, and surrounded her. Clarissa's father came running down the stairs and hurried to take his daughter away from the danger, but as soon as he touched her he fell to the ground in a swoon (from which he would never awake). The spirit/Clarissa then turned her attention to the companions, who were preparing for the worst. Feando, however, knowing something about spirits, managed to exorcise the evil presence from Clarissa, blinding her in the process (he was not a particularly accomplished exorcist), and trapping the spirit back in the amulet with much weaker bonds. Clarissa's mother promptly had a nervous breakdown, and Feando decided to take Clarissa under his wing to keep her out of the notorious orphanages (she had no other immediate family). The amulet, though, was soon lost again to strange dark thieves, and the group fled Gondor, fearing their erstwhile employers. On the journey north to Maethelburg, Thuidimer and Clarissa became close, and were married by Feando in a small village in Calenardhon. Feando began teaching Clarissa how to sense the world around her without her sight. After much adventure, and a long excursion east to Rhun, the companions arrived in Maethelburg and there met Aldern, then Taurthalion and embarked on their long road to Cardolan. Shortly after the founding of Bereg Thumalos, Clarissa became with child by Thuidimer, and thence stayed at the fortress during the disastrous foray into Rhudaur. Thuidimer was killed in the Battle of Herubar Gular, as was her surrogate father, Feando. Being near term, Clarissa quickly began to have the baby, and bore her late husband a son, whom she named Feando Isenmundson in honor of her teacher/father and her husband. With the rest of the Crimson Shield in dejection and isolation, Clarissa concentrates now wholly on her son, and forsakes the world around her.

• Born T.A. 1608
• Blinded TA 1624
• Captive in Gundabad T.A. 1627-1628
• Slaying of Thorkung T.A. 1633
• Founding of Bereg Thumalos T.A. 1640
• Death of Thuidimer and Feando, and birth of son T.A. 1644.

• Cloak of Darkness
  • deepens shadow around wearer, conferring +25 S/H where shadows are present
  • Poison Dagger
    • +10 arborang dagger containing a runnel that will hold poison potently for twice its normal lifespan
  • Hood of Hearing
    • black hood that heightens range and sensitivity of hearing by 2x

  Editor's Note

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