Gorothir's Girdle

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This sacred text is actually a black leather corset made for a small waist, but held together with laces so that it can be worn (albeit in a rumpled, ridiculous fashion) by individuals with much larger torsos. The corset is studded with a 28 faces, of both sexes and all ages, carved out of jet. The visages are about as tall as a small man’s palm, and are carved so skillfully as to appear almost alive. Each one is unique, and readily discernable as distinct from its neighbors. They all have empty eye sockets, and the spells stored in the Girdle are brought forth by placing the correct types of gems in these openings. If an incorrect type of gem is placed into a socket, it vanishes, consumed by the magic of the belt. The enchantments that keep the belt supple are resistant to both deliberate attacks and the ravages of time, so that the entire assembly saves at +3 against all perils as if it were bone or ivory. The belt also exhibits the protections of a permanent ironguard spell. Each of the 28 figures’ eye sockets can accept only one sort of gem to activate it. The gems are of all grades. Sharran lore records only that they are “stones of the most valuable sort,” though individual diaries and holy accounts record a few, sometimes inaccurate, specific stone and face combinations. Finders of the Girdle must experiment to find the correct eye socket matches, which are as follows: • Laughing lady—left eye: jasmal; right eye: ruby • Sad old bearded man—left: emerald; right: sapphire • Jester—left: beljuril (fireflashil right: ruby • Knight—left: rogue stone; right: jasmal • Fat woman—left: amaratha (shieldstone right: emerald • Hook-nosed man—left: rogue stone; right: rogue stone • Cowled man—left: kings’ tear (frozen tear right: ruby • Bearded man in feather cap—left: moonbar; right: sapphire • Girl child—left: red tear (Tempus’ weeping right: jacinth • Weeping lady—left: star sapphire; right: star ruby • Grim scarred warrior—left: jasmal; right: fire opal • Scowling dwarf—left: black opal; right: ruby • Sneering elf—left: sapphire; right: star sapphire • Crying boy—left: diamond; right: kings’ tear (frozen tear) • Baby—left: amaratha (shieldstone right: beljuril (fireflashil) • Idiot man—left: red tear (Tempus’ weeping right: black sapphire • Whistling man—left: emerald; right: fire opal • Tongue-out man—left: red tear (Tempus’ weeping right: diamond • Staring man—left: beljuril (fireflashil right: amaratha (shieldstone) • Bald man—left: jasmal; right: kings’ tear (frozen tear) • Howling man—left: opal; right: fire opal • Man with many tufts of hair—left: emerald; right: star sapphire • Alluring lady—left: moonbar; right: beljuril (fireflashil) • Tongue-out woman—left: sapphire; right: opal • Screaming woman—left: amaratha (shieldstone right: moonbar • Smiling lady—left: black opal; right: red tear (Tempus’ weeping) • Jolly man—left: opal; right: kings’ tear (frozen tear) • Woman with scaly skin—left: ruby; right: black sapphire (Note: Unfamiliar gems in this list are Faerunian varieties described in the Volo’s Guide To All Things Magical sourcebook. Just what precise spells each gem and sockets match present is unknown, the spell roster contained in the Girdle is reproduced below.) When the correct sort of gem is pressed into a socket, it sticks there (regardless of its size compared with the opening), glows slightly, and, when accompanied by the correct gem in the other socket of the same face, projects the spell within the face in midair, in the form of vertical floating letters of green fire. The gem is not consumed by this use, and the spell remains visible until the gem is removed. (It must be deliberately removed. No spell, attack, nor physical movement of the belt or its wearer can cause a stone to fall out of its socket, despite the fact that no glue or setting is holds it in place.) Shar allows priests of all faiths to employ the powers of the Girdle (even directly against Sharran clergy and faithful) without harm, hoping that this will increase her influence and popularity. The Girdle is named for its reputed maker, the priest Gorothir (who may in fact have been given the belt by Shar herself or by one of her servants). What is certain is that in his role as “Dark Prophet of the Night,” Gorothir wore the Girdle for some seven centuries, from the waning of Netheril (in Dalereckoning, around the year -310). The belt is obviously protected by very powerful (some say divine) preservative magic that has survived to this day, and it is probably one of the oldest garments in Faerun. Gorothir was a cunning, energetically evil man, given to sensual excesses and sudden orgies of violence. He was widely feared, even among Sharran clergy, and Shar gave him seem¬ingly endless powers with which to lead her church, hoping to keep it strong and flourishing as the sophisticated might of Netheril was dashed away. Gorothir is known to have had the ability to turn himself at will into a “man-stag” twice as tall as a man and to twist spells hurled against him so that their effects went “wild.” Darkly handsome and a lover of intrigues, Gorothir sired countless children and ruled the faithful of Shar (and the lands they held sway over) like a mad tyrant. In the end, that was his undoing. His descendants hated and feared him. For one thing, he regarded his bloodkin as his personal slaves, and often appeared to snatch lovely young ladies away from their chosen grooms and whisk them afar, into servitudes of his own cruelly whimsical selections, never to be seen again. Ultimately, his own grandchildren plotted to bring Gorothir down. They met with the mages he was fond of forcing to yield up their best magics, the rulers of lands who did not wish to be under the Shadow of Shar forever, and the clergy of rival gods. Together they lured the Dark Prophet to a place of power sacred to Selune. Gorothir hoped to desecrate the place and steal its magics for his own, corrupting its guardian priestess and subverting her best spells to serve him. He was busily carrying out those ends on a hot night in Mirtul of 446 DR when his foes revealed themselves in force, acting in concert against him. The Dark Prophet was destroyed, torn apart and blasted simultaneously in the heart of a massive conflagration of warring magic in which many died. Out of that Night of Dark Fire, the protective magics of Shar preserved Gorothir’s staff, which was angrily seized and broken by an archwizard who paid for the act with his life, and the Girdle, snatched up and hidden away by one of Gorothir’s kin as booty. Shar worked through the garment to corrupt the bold possessor of her belt, and ultimately turned the man, Jurguth Goroth, to her faith. He rose to become Dark Heart of one of her temples, but was kinder (to Shar, weaker) than his famous forebear. And so Shar whispered in dreams to a more ambitious one, a priestess, Klaunauthe Draeyl, telling her to slay Jurguth and take the Girdle for her own. Klaunauthe did so in spectacular fashion, using spells to smash her superior to a blood soaked pulp on the domed ceiling of the temple during a ritual, using his fading life essence to raise herself to longer life and greater mastery of magic. She wore the Girdle from that day (the 11th of Eleint, 469 DR) forward and was still wearing it some 80 years later, on the 3rd day of Hammer, 554 DR, when the adventurer Rulgond drove his sword through one of the gaps in garment’s lacings, ending her life and her dark dreams at the same time. Rulgond was a reckless, energetic, ruthless warrior who spent the lives of most of his fellows in the Fellowship of Athul’s Sash that day, in their treasure-seeking assault on Klaunauthe’s palatial House of Reverence to the Dark Lady. There were over 60 priestesses and three times that number of guards in the walled country estate, but they could not save the Dark Heart of the Faith. They died under the busy swords of the Fellowship before they reached Klaunauthe. Athul, nominal leader of the band, was one of those who fell in the fighting, and Rulgond made sure all of his other comrades died before he got back to the nearest city with a wagon train of temple booty. That left all the wealth for him, and after he tired of buying houses, businesses, and gowns for the ladies he wined and dined, he founded the Black Star Band, a well-equipped band of adventurers deadlier in every way than the Fellowship it replaced. Rulgond led it into battle for another two decades, the Girdle about his waist every day he sallied forth. Then came the morning (in Tarsakh of 576 DR) when Rulgond died with the poisoned blades of three treacherous underlings stuck in his chest. They fought among themselves for possession of the Black Star Band and their master’s wealth. Only two survived that day, one was sorely wounded and thought to be dead. He was the one who came crawling to Rulgond’s body in the darkness and took the Girdle, hoping that it would bring him victory over his rival. And in the fullness of time, it did. Rulgond haunted the belt, whispering to him. (Some say his shade lurks about it still, able to speak in dreams and to send visions.) A feeling that two cold, watching eyes are just out of the wearer’s sight, affects every user, and some, they say, have gone quite mad. A tattered, shambling thing, the thief took to scrambling along after Orgloth, the fat, successful leader of the Black Stars, and during a drunken celebration in a looted mansion he saw his chance and leaped down on his rival from above. The knife in his hand was little more than a rusty stub, but his foot caught on a rail as he struck and brought the whole crumbling construction down on top of him and Orgloth, crushing them together. Out of the bloody ruins, one of Orgloth’s ladies took the belt, scared and sickened, but having heard of its powers. It kept her alive in the vicious struggles that followed, throughout the long, hot summer of 596 DR—long enough for her to sell it to a Sharran underpriest in a distant city who promptly sent agents to have her murdered (they could not find her). The ambitious underpriest put the Girdle on a statue of Shar in his private shrine and worshiped it, hoping the goddess would manifest and reward him. She did, blasting the cleric to a staggering undead thing of shuffling bones, and set it to guard the shrine forever. He stood, unable even to scream, as the goddess sent dream-visions to a young priestess, to summon her to claim the Girdle. That priestess, Lalondra Worul, set about building a sisterhood of the cruel, the capable, and the careful. Thus was born The True Servants of Shar, each of them bound to her with spells so that her health governed their own. That kept her alive for 80 long years as her black-gowned, dark-eyed Servants spread the night rituals of Shar from city to city up and down the Sword Coast. When at last Dark Mother Lalondra sought lichdom, the linkages she had formed brought death to all of her important Servants, sweeping away the power of the Sharran clergy overnight. Undisciplined underlings rioted in the streets, bringing frantic retaliation from authorities in a dozen cities— retaliation that shattered the power of the Sharran in those centers. Uncaring, the lich Lalondra walked her own way in dark places beneath the earth, seeking to conquer a new realm for Shar. Displeased, Shar deserted her, stripping away her spells and leaving her only the Girdle. Alone and defenseless, lost in caverns infested with drow and alhoon, Lalondra did not last long. There have been many tales of the dark belt surfacing in this or that city of Faerun since, usually for sale at a very dear price in gems to buyers who soon find themselves the target of every Sharran priest and agent within reach. Belt and buyer soon vanish, and the Girdle goes elsewhere, to rise again and make more money for the faith from another deluded dupe. Then comes death, and the belt travels on. Senior Sharran clergy insist that there is no curse on the Girdle, and that in fact certain secret combinations of gem placements in the eye sockets of more than one face (not revealed on the list) can bring the shade of Rulgond, the whispering phantom of Klaunauthe, or even the presence of Shar herself to the wearer, to answer all questions truthfully and to give advice about foes to beware of, prizes near and ripe for the taking, and the best tactics for the questioner to pursue in the near future. (The devout insist that these “sacred summoned ones” cleave to the truth and do not try to corrupt Girdle- wearers, or lure them to their dooms by fateful advice.) There are rumors that another spell, perhaps mass resurrec¬tion, can be called forth by placing the correct sort of stone, a single variety of a lesser ornamental grade (though just which one the tales can never agree upon), in all of the sockets. The spells known to be within Gorothir's Girdle are as follows: Animate dead, armor of darkness (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), blade barrier, circle of privacy (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), crawling darkness (a spell detailed below), creature of darkness (Faiths & Avatars), crushing walls (Tome of Magic), dark road (detailed below), darkbolt (Faiths & Avatars), dispel magic, dissension's feast (Tome of Magic), efficacious monster ward (Tome of Magic), greater creature of darkness (detailed below), grounding (Tome of Magic), heal, hovering road (Tome of Magic), imbue with spell ability, invisibility to undead, meld into stone, mind read (Tome of Magic), mindshatter (Tome of Magic), miscast magic (Tome of Magic), mistaken missive (Tome of Magic), modify memory (Tome of Magic), monster mount (Tome of Magic), obscurement, telepathy (Tome of Magic), and whip of Shar (Faiths & Avatars).