Xortan Throg is a major villain in the role-playing game Advanced Fighting Fantasy. He is a powerful old sorcerer who seeks to restore the kingdom of Carsepolis, as a distant descendant of its royal line. He abducts Princess Sarissa of the kingdom of Salamonis, and the group of heroes is hired to save her, but it appears that his plans run deeper than a simple quest to save his captive. However, defeating him only paves the way to the return of a much direr threat.
Background[]
Xortan Throg is the last descendant of the last king of the ancient kingdom of Carsepolis, based on the Roman Empire. Though his ancestor is a bastard born from a maid, a fact he would rather keep hidden.
Over three hundred years before the start of the story, Carsepolis dominated most of the continent of Allansia, until the nightmarish Chaos Wars in which the Demon Princes of Titan, led the forces of Evil in a world-wide attack, destroying the kingdom and permanently scarring Titan.
The city of Port Blacksand was built over the ruins of the capital, which now lay below its sewers, swarmed by fish-men and forgotten from mortal memory.
Over time, Port Blacksand became the infamous City of Thieves, the worst wretched hive in Titan, filled with the vilest scum and ruled by Lord Varek Azzur. Also, the kingdom of Salamonis rose to prominence and became the leading power of Allansia.
Xortan Throg learnt sorcery from an unspecified master and became an influential sorcerer, dedicating his decades-long life to find a way to destroy both Port Blacksand and Salamonis, to restore his ancestors' kingdgom and make it a global power again.
Appearance[]
Xortan Throg is an ugly old man, crouched, gaunt, lanky and simian-looking. He has sunken eyes, a hooked nose, a goatee, and features twisted by dark magic such as his sharp teeth and long, pointed nails. He wears lavish togas and robes in the Carsepolis fashion.
Powers and Abilities[]
Xortan Throg is a very powerful and accomplished sorcerer. He might lack the domain and armies enabling the many other evil spellcasters of the series to threaten the lands around, but mostly because he refuses to rule over any land but his kingdom. He masters many forms of magic, ranging from simple spells to complex curses, and advanced dark sorcery.
He can tame powerful monsters and make them his familiars, shape a duplicate of himself and animate it from afar, seeing, earing and spell-casting through it, appear as a projection, animate and control undeads, among others.
In battle, he can block or deflect projectiles, turn arrows into large snakes attacking their owners, raises defensive barriers, hurl powerful and nigh-unavoidable Force Bolts of electricity, and minor hindering spells. But he can also cast the powerful Petrify Spell to gradually turn foes to stone, and the Death Spell that ages him by a year and kills the target at contact.
Despite his age and frail constitution, he can also fight with a curved dagger or his long, sharp nails with surprising skills.
Personality[]
Xortan Throg is a cruel, ruthless, and ambitious man, who would stop at nothing to gain the kingdom he feels is owed to him by birth-right. He appears at first glance to be collected and distinguished, but only when he feels in control. The truth is that he is hateful, wrathful, sadistic and unhinged.
He greets his foes with a veneer of courtesy, without even bothering to hide his scorn, yet cannot stand being thwarted. And while he keeps playing high and mighty when it happens, he furiously swears vengeance. He is also cowardly, leaving the fighting to others and avoiding direct confrontation as much as possible.
He is exceedingly entitled, petty, and obsessed with a long gone kingdom, though he only wants to restore it to satiate his lust for power and lord over Allansia. He swore to reduce Salamonis to ruins for "upstaging" his kingdom (that was gone centuries before Salamonis ever rose), and considers Lord Azzur, one of the most formidable figures walking Titan, as a usurping nobody. To cut a long story short, he blames people for things way over their control and seeks disproportionate vengeance for minor slights.
While quite smart and cunning, with a skill for secrecy and strategy in both his plans and war tactics, Throg is enormously arrogant and conceited, with a much too high opinion of himself. He vastly overestimates his admittedly not inconsiderable intellect, and is delusionally persuaded of his superiority, seeing all foes as beneath him no matter their power and the threat they really pose. He loves to gloat and to rub his success and (perceived) superiority to his foes' faces.
In truth, he is way over his head, unable to fathom that he is the upstart compared to Lord Azzur, who swatted aside many pretenders without trying, and to Sargon, who treats him with utmost disdain.
Xortan Throg and Sargon, the real main villain of the game, are both powerful and cunning old spellcasters, clad in rich Carsepolis fashion, who fight quite similarly. However, he is ugly, smug and delusional, while Sargon is noble-looking, courteous and pragmatic. Besides, Sargon is ten times the overlord Throg could only dreamed to be, buiding in a few months an army that could threaten all of Allansia, while he spent his life trying to take over Port Blacksand without hope.
Role in the Story[]
Tower of the Sorcerer[]
Advanced Fighting Fantasy is a tabletop role-playing game, expanding the series' lore with rules, character types and classes, and lots of spells. Casting spells costs life-points, the characters' attack strength can be determined by their special skills and they can launch more than one attack per turn. The Game Master can invent and expand all sorts of quests at their leisure, but the game sets a story in three books: Dungeoneer, Blacksand! and Allansia. Xortan Throg is the central villain of the first book.
The story begins when the group of playable heroes is tasked by the King of Salamonis to save his daughter Princess Sarissa, who has been recently abducted by the evil sorcerer Xortan Throg, who sent his Griffin familiar seize her and bring her to his tower. They travel along with Sarissa's betrothed, Prince Barinjhar of the city-state of Calice.
In the titular sorcerer's tower, Barinjhar sacrifices himself to open the way for the group, who might have to fight Throg's Griffin.
- The monster has 12 in skill (power-level, the normal maximum), 15 in stamina (life-points), and 2 attacks per turn, making it a very powerful and dangerous enemy.
Upon reaching the throne room, the gloating sorcerer reveals that Prince Barinjhar was in fact his accomplice, who staged his sacrifice. Believing that his marriage would submit his city as a vassal of Salamonis, the Prince stroke a bargain with Throg, planning to kill her and stage a failed rescue, then weaken and topple Salamonis from behind. The heroes were supposed to die before reaching them, but they resolve to kill them anyway.
Confronting Xortan Throg[]
The sorcerer casts a Barrier Spell to separate himself from the group, while they deal with Prince Barinjhar. He is content with letting the fighting to his associate, neutralising projectiles and only casting Force Bolts if confronted. Oddly enough, he can spellcast without losing stamina. The Prince is a powerful swordsman with 11 in skill and 14 in stamina, then the barrier must be broken.
The heroes must get close to Xortan Throg to fight him, but each Force Bolt makes their target step back. He has 20 in magic special skill, making most of his spells certain to strike. The best way is to shoot the incense burners on each side of his throne from afar. Destroying one renders him vulnerable and makes his spells harmless. Destroying both forces him to fight at close range. If that happens, he will be forced to fight at close range with his claw-like nails, but he is a pathetically weak foe with only 2 in skill and 6 in stamina, impossible to lose against.
Xortan Throg appears in the fire to taunt the heroes
If the battle is too hard, the Game Master can chose to have Princess Sarissa, held in the next room and alerted by the noise, free herself and sneak behind the sorcerer to knock him out with a chair, winning the fight.
However, it now appears that this was not Xortan Throg, but instead a construct in his likeness animated by magic through which he was acting and spellcasting. His gloating face appears in the chimney fire, taunting the heroes that this was but a setback and promising vengeance.
Revenge of the Sorcerer[]
The heroes return Princess Sarissa to the capital of Salamonis, where King Salamon LVII rewards them handsomely. Still, the wretched sorcerer remains a threat to the kingdom, so he hires the group to find him and put an end to his madness. They can recruit the hero who first destroyed Zanbar Bone.
King Salamon tasks them to go to Port Blacksand, and ask for the help of the Legendary Mage Arakor Nicodemus, who lives there away from adventurers. Nicodemus taught the King when he was a child, so he will listen to them despite his aversion for disturbance. If the victor of Zanbar Bone is with them, the heroes might get in trouble with the city guards who will recognize them, but since Nicodemus helped them in this quest, he will welcome the group without question.
Nicodemus reveals that Xortan Throg is in fact based in Port Blacksand itself, in the ruins of Carsepolis below the sewers. The group tracks him down there, but find themselves overwhelmed and taken prisoners by a horde of fish-men. Fortunately, they are saved by the ghost of the high priest Sargon, who reveals Throg's origins and ambitions, not mincing words about how out of his league he is, going against Lord Azzur himself.
Xortan Throg is taking control of the fish-man population, striking deals with rogue pirates right under Lord Azzur's nose to smuggle weaponry and supplies, and plans to raise every corpse in the ruins as skeletons warriors, starting with the Carsepolis army. With that, he aims to topple Port Blacksand from within and destroy it, raising Carsepolis under the sun once again. With his restored kingdom, he aims to invade and sack Salamonis, to become the leading power in Allansia. Sargon advises the heroes to go to the Temple of the Ocean God Hydana to find a Crystal of Power, that can reflect back Death Spells.
Xortan Throg is found in the ruins of the royal palace, where the heroes might confront a battalion of skeleton warriors, tricky to fight for bladed weapons might lessen the damage unflicted. The most dangerous enemy of the first book is a Skeletal Tyrannosaurus Rex, that protects the wretched sorcerer's inner sanctum.
- The Skeleton T-Rex is a very powerful, resilient and dangerous monster with 12 in skill, 25 in stamina (one point over the normal maximum), and 3 bite attacks per turn that deal greater damage than normal. Bladed weapons might cost it half-damage, and neutralizing spells do not work. Having powerful heroes and blunt weapons is advised.
Ending Xortan Throg[]
Xortan Throg is a powerful, dangerous and considerably resilient foe with skill 10, stamina 28, and magic special skill 21. He deflects back projectiles and uses the Arrow-Snake spell to change arrows into pythons with 8 in skill and 10 in stamina. The heroes need three turns to reach him, but he casts the Petrify Spell to gradually turn the heroes to stone if they get close, and the even worse Death Spell if they get closer. His non-attack spells can be resisted with a test of luck, and spell-casting costs him stamina, but reviving tricks are advised. After exhausting his spell supply, Throg fights at close range with a dagger.
Xortan Throg casts a Death Spell, reflected by the heroes
The surest and easiest way to win is to reflect back his Death Spell with the Crystal of Power.
Gloating as ever, Xortan Throg attacks the heroes, only to fall in battle, ending his plans of conquest. In the canon ending, the heroes hide the Crystal of Power until the last minute and he falls victim of his own Death Spell.
Like Sargon before him, he returns as a ghost, but with the Crystal given to Nicodemus for safe-keeping, there is no way he can touch it to resurrect, doomed to roam the ruins forever, powerless and forgotten, ghost king of a ghost kingdom.
As for the heroes, they get richly rewarded by King Salamon, but with Sargon at large, their troubles have only begun.
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 Villains
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Dark Gods Demon Princes of Titan Allansia Khul Old World Others | ||