8 replies to this topic

[Feanor]

What is the Twisted Rune, mates ? A criminal organisation, similar to Shadow Thieves or Iron Throne perhaps ?

[BobTokyo]

IIRC, they are the Realms equivelant of a James Bond style evil organization, run out of Tethyr(?) by Liches.

[NiGHTMARE]

Not just Tethyr, but the entire southwestern Forgotten Realms - Amn, Tethyr, Calimshan and Erlkazar. The most important members are all undead (liches, vampires, dracoliches, etc), with most lesser agents being alive but unaware who they're actually working for.

Edited by NiGHTMARE, 17 July 2004 - 10:04 AM.

[BobTokyo]

NiGHTMARE, on Jul 17 2004, 05:53 PM, said:

Not just Tethyr, but the entire southwestern Forgotten Realms - Amn, Tethyr, Calimshan and Erlkazar. The most important members are all undead (liches, vampires, dracoliches, etc), with most lesser agents being alive but unaware who they're actually working for.

As always, I defer to your Realms Lore skills.

[MERLANCE]

From Lands of Intrigue (Which I think you can download from the Wizards of the Coast site for free)...

The Twisted Rune
This consortium of magic-wielders has power beyond many of the evil groups in the Realms, but it has rarely been heard of farther north than Iriaebor. The group’s identifying mark is a rune of several numeral threes twisted together. The Twisted Rune’s power bases are situated around certain remote parts of
the Vilhon Reach, Calimshan, Tethyr, and Amn. While its total numbers are unknown, its ranks allegedly include liches, alhoon, beholders, phaerimm, and other evil magic-using creatures.

While its primary goal seems to be control of the South (specifically Amn, Tethyr, and Calimshan), this group must control or eradicate other power groups before it can make its bid for power. Rival groups include the Cult of the Dragon, the Zhentarim, and the Red Wizards of Thay. Given the intense dislike for Harpers in the South, this good-aligned group and the Twisted Rune have rarely come into conflict.

Past & Current Activities

Founded in the Year of the Broken Branch (864 DR) by theaging mage Rysellan the Dark, the Twisted Rune was intended to be a secret consortium of mages manipulating the real power of the South. After placing contacts within an area, each contact or agent cultivated a web of other lesser agents and contacts,
further spreading the intelligence and control of the Rune member to whom he or she reported. By the Year of the Dracorage (1018 DR), the Twisted Rune was the largest power group in southwestern Faerûn, with agents infiltrating the
power structures of every country and city south of the High Moor and west of the Storm Horn Mountains.

While the Rune attempted to control nations from within, the political stability of this region was never great, making it difficult for the hidden wizards to manipulate any power. The Twisted Rune wormed its way into controlling the lesser powers
of Valashar and Mierittin and the royalty of Tathtar and other smaller realms, only to watch their work crumble from the actions of others. After losing much of their influence on the grand scale, senior Rune members began planning the control
of cities and towns before controlling whole countries.

Just as with the Red Wizards and the Zhentarim, the Twisted Rune became as much an enemy to itself as its opponents for power. Its members actively plotted to undermine or usurp the power and influence of other Rune members, and this of course led to internal strife. For centuries, the Rune could not work agents into the royal power structures of Tethyr until the Year of the Tomb (1182 DR), when Rysellan the Dark gained the contact and confidence of the court vizera Wyvorlaa. For a few short years, the Rune influenced Tethyrian politics and power, and the close work between vizera and senior Runemaster gained Rysellan the jealousy and enmity of the Rune’s more rapacious members. In the Year of the Soft Fogs (1188 DR), Rysellan ’s plan came undone when three other liches accused the
founder of revealing the Rune’s secrets; the spell battles and intrigues then unleashed saw the final death of Rysellan the Dark and the destruction of two of his apprentices (also liches of the Rune). Thanks to three Amnian liches (two of which were destroyed in the battle), the Rune also caused the end of its own
influence in Tethyr, as Wyvorlaa’s alliance was uncovered and she was executed as the last vizera. Similar conspiracies reigned a century later, when Bhagenn the Crimson attempted to slay the other senior members of the Rune and take command; he was betrayed by his own protege, Priamon “Frostrune” Rakesk, and Frostrune became a lesser member under Jhaniloth Puiral

A number of plots and groups have had the touch of the Twisted Rune, though none beyond the Runemasters know the group’s full involvement. In the Year of the Fist (1311 DR), the Shadow Thieves’ vengeance against Waterdeep began with the death of Zelphar Arunsun; unknown to the Lords of Waterdeep even today, a mage of the Rune cast the Bigby’s crushing hand that ended the life of Zelphar, as a favor to a Shadow Thief who claimed the kill. This event still links that thief with the Rune, and his position today as the Shade of Baldur’s Gate affords both the Twisted Rune and the Shadow Thieves major intelligence
sources that neither might have alone.

The fleeting existence of Mulsparkh and its wizard-rulers seems insignificant in Tethyr’s and Calimshan’s histories but for the murder of Rythan the Paladin Prince and the theft of the Sword of Starlight. The Twisted Rune secretly drove the wizards to rebellion and the creation of their realm, and also helped
form the plan (that King Alemander IV secretly endorsed) to kill Prince Rythan. While this seems a lot of work for such a short-lived realm, all the plans were simply in retaliation for Prince Rythan’s destruction of Jhaniloth Puiral in 1330 DR.
Likewise, the long-range plans of a deepspawn to conquer Zazesspur during the Interregnum were far more interesting than its demands for the Rune to summon and control its tanar’ri ally; when both were brought low by Zaranda Star, the Twisted Rune found a new enemy upon whom it could focus its hatred.

---------------

Thats as much of it as I could copy and paste successfully. If you want to read more, visit your local library or download the book. Its a mere 18.5MB

[Arachnos]

That'll be the boy

(and if 1 of the unknown runemasters is an undead phaerimm like is hinted in LOI and LOD then he'l be what's commonly known as 'nails')