Villains' Lorebook.pdf - Department of Political Science

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The occupant cannot leave by any means, so long as
at least one rune is in existence, although an outside
agency can destroy the Runes and set the prisoner
free.
History: When the baatezu lord Orlex ruled the
ancient kingdom of Yhalvia (which may have been
located on another world altogether), a band of renegade
wizards, led by the archmage Thakorsil, created
this item to imprison and enslave the creature. Unfortunately
for them, the device required extensive
acts of evil magic (the sacrifice of good-aligned individuals,
for example) in order to function, and after
imprisoning Orlex and enslaving him with the Runes
of Chaos, the council of wizards created a regime
every bit as cruel and evil as Yhalvia’s former rule,
until they themselves were displaced. Orlex was
banished back to the planes while Thakorsil’s Seat
was lost and presumed destroyed.
The seat finally came to rest in the hoard of the
sorcerer-king Larloch, who never actually used it. In
his fateful meeting with Szass Tam, Larloch decided
that the seat might serve the zulkir well. Tam returned
to Thay and freed Eltab, compelling him to
take the seat and reimprisoning him by creating the
first Rune of Chaos. Since then, Tam has created
seven more Runes and is close to completing the
spell, permanently enslaving Eltab.
Campaign Use: Thakorsil’s Seat is a truly terrible
item which should never be allowed to fall into the
wrong hands. Unfortunately, Szass Tam is about as
“wrong” as one can get in Faerûn, and he intends to
use its fell powers to his advantage.
Unless destroyed or sent to another place, the seat
may well find its way into the hands of another evil
power such as Zhentil Keep, and the horror of the
twin burnings ritual and the enslavement of powerful
beings will begin once more. As this could lead to a
continent-wide conflagration that might rival the
Tuigan invasions or the Time of Troubles, DMs
should think very carefully about letting the seat
loose in their campaigns.
Powers: The seat was created as an instrument of
enslavement. Originally intended for good-the imprisonment
of evil beings-it ended with the exact
opposite effect, allowing the permanent enslavement
of beings of virtually infinite power, and the
corruption which accompanies it.
Fortunately, the seat has a number of limitations
that make it difficult to use. First, the being to be enslaved
must be compelled to sit on the throne. If the
creature is held involuntarily or tricked into sitting,
it receives a single saving throw vs. spell when the
ritual of twin burnings begins and is magically bound
to the throne and unable to move if the roll is a failure.
Creatures magically compelled to sit (such as
those controlled by the Death Moon Orb) receive no
saving throw. Victims with a natural magic resis-
tance are also allowed to roll to avoid the effects.
Once the creature is bound by the creation of the
first rune of chaos, it must remain in the seat but receives
a saving throw each time the ritual of twin
burnings is performed and another rune created. Each
of these subsequent saving throws is at a cumulative
penalty of -1 (-4 for the fifth rune, for example).
When the ninth rune is created, the creature’s
spirit is permanently bound to the seat. It may physically
leave the seat, but it is completely enslaved to
the seat’s owner. No further saving throws are allowed;
the creature can be freed only by the use of
multiple wishes, the intervention of the gods, the destruction
of the seat itself, or another extreme cir-
cumstance.
The throne’s other drawback is that the ritual of
twin burnings is long and involved, and requires the
sacrifice of successively more powerful victims. The
first rune requires the sacrifice of a good-aligned
human or humanoid of 1st level or higher, the second
rune requires the sacrifice of a good individual of
2nd level or higher, and so on. The seat’s creators rationalized
this evil as being the means to the end of
a greater good. But they were corrupted by the
wickedness they had created.
Prior to the creation of the last rune of chaos, the
other runes are vulnerable to destruction or removal.
Any damage or disfigurement destroys a rune, and
destroyed runes must be replaced using the ritual of
twin burnings. If all the runes are destroyed prior to
the creation of the last one, the throne’s occupant is
freed. After all nine runes have been created, they
can be removed only with the destruction of the
chair.
While the seat is active, it has an additional effect
that also works to Szass Tam’s advantage. The seat
sends out magical “interference” which prevents the
use of any divination spells (clairvoyance, ESP, detect
evil, etc.) within 200 miles. Magical items which duplicate
such effects, such as crystal balls, amulets of
ESP, and so on, are also rendered useless. This magical-dampening
field has effectively blinded the Simbul’s
magical observation, forcing her to send agents