Xortan Throg

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Xortan Throg is an antagonist in the Advanced Fighting Fantasy rules supplement Dungeoneer.

The Early Years

Origins

Xortan Throg was an Evil practitioner of magic descended from the rulers of ancient Carsepolis - albeit solely through a chance encounter with a serving maid by the last Prince. He is a very old man who dresses in rich robes and wears a skull cap. Believing leadership of the ancient region to be his, he began preparing to conquer Port Blacksand, which had been built on the ruins of the ancient city.

He would also begin a lifetime hobby of collecting Carsepolis pottery and other relics, which presumably served as a comforting reminder to his delusion of royal grandeur.

The Initial Plot: The Abduction of Princess Sarissa

Raising a tower in the southernmost reaches of Darkwood Forest to begin his planning, he started by dominating the Goblins living in the crag beneath his tower, building a small army from them. Seeking leaders for his force, he hired a band of Orcs led by the strong but aged Ogre, Grudthak.

There was little to distract him here and he kept very much to himself, although there was the odd complaint of his Goblins raiding farms and suchlike. At some stage, he managed to acquire both a Giant Lizard and a Griffin, although the origins of these monsters were unknown. Whilst the Giant Lizard was kept well-fed and had been trained as a mount, Throg preferred to use the Griffin - which was obedient to him alone.

Throg was not a stupid man: he knew that greater forces than his army had failed to overthrow Blacksand and the other Allansian cities. So he plotted to "regain" his rightful position using methods other than brute force. His scheme was singularly successful and said much about his ability to read people.

At this time, a political marriage was being arranged between Princess Sarissa of Salamonis and Prince Barinjhar of Chalice, the latter of whom was unfortunately a bit too keen to see his town keep its independence, believing that this marriage would result in Chalice's total subservience to Salamonis. Throg first promised the Prince that Salamonis would fall, thereby acquiring his service, and then personally led the Goblins in an ambush to capture the Princess.

Unaware of the treachery of his son, King Pindar of Chalice hired a group of adventurers to retrieve the Princess and, if necessary, slay the wizard. Not knowing of the challenges that lay ahead, they accepted the mission and began the journey to Throg's tower, accompanied by Barinjhar. The plan they devised was this: the prince would distract the wizard by engaging in ransom negotiations whilst they infiltrated his tower by means of a tunnel system beneath it. What they did not know was that these tunnels were infested with Throg's Goblins.

However, they managed to get past them and various other traps laid for them by the wizard - including a vicious portcullis, the illusion of a gigantic fireball and his Griffin - and encountered his more trusted guards. It was here that Grudthak, in typical Ogre fashion, let the heroes realise that their arrival was no surprise ... but that they had actually been expected!

Having killed Grudthak and the Orcs, the heroes entered Throg's chambers, finding the wizard completely unperturbed by their presence. Then Prince Barinjhar walked in and the Evil pair gloated over the success of their plan ... but were unprepared for the ferocious response by the outraged heroes, who cut them both down and made good their escape with the Princess, who had been tied up in an adjacent chamber.

Throg in Blacksand

This victory was a hollow one - quite literally. The wizard killed by the heroes had been nothing but a simulacrum of Throg, who was safe in his hideout beneath Port Blacksand. He had returned to "his city", dwelling in the sewers which had once been the streets of Carsepolis, raising the corpses of the former city guard as Skeletons and utilising the local Fish Man population and the numberless pirates to provide him with weapons and armour ...but he was unprepared for the swift response of the heroes he had, in some sense, thwarted earlier. Now in the service of King Salamon, they journeyed directly to Blacksand and spoke to Arakor Nicodemus, who provided rough directions for them to find Throg.

However, it was the ghost of Sargon, a deceased priest from the the era of the War of the Wizards still wandering the "streets" of Carsepolis where he met his end three centuries earlier, who told them exactly where Throg was. In exchange, he had demanded the Crystal of Power, kept in the Fish Man-occupied temple to Hydana. Whilst the heroes acquired this and returned it to him, they were not expecting him to return to life upon touching it!

In an oddly honourable gesture for one so corrupted by the ways of Elim, Sargon told them where to find Throg and then cast a Teleport spell, vanishing to prepare for the return to power of the Elimites. He left the Crystal of Power with the heroes, informing them that the safest way to defeat Throg was to have him cast a Death Spell at them whilst they held the Crystal - it would reflect the spell back at Throg and force his spirit to wander the sewers forever.

The Death of Throg

Xortan Throg had not expected the heroes to find him so quickly, or for them to evade the full force of the undead legions that he had raised - or for that matter, the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that had presumably been found in the old Carsepolis museum!

Consequently, he was more than a little unprepared for their challenge to his power, although his magical abilities were more than capable of holding them at bay should they have attacked directly. But his arrogance and pride brought on his downfall and he cast the Death Spell at that. Exactly as Sargon had predicted, the Crystal of Power reflected it back at him, and he perished. However, due to the special nature of the Crystal (since the use of a Death Spell against it would turn the caster into an undead ghost), it remains to be seen whether Throg will remain defeated for good.

See Also

• Sargon

References