The Balance of Belaros

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Fittingly for the God of Justice, this holy “book” appears as a set of bronze scales that hang forever in empty air. Named for their ancient creator, the great “holy smith” Belaros, Mortal Hammer of Tyr, the Balance consists of two pans floating beneath a balance beam. The beam is not attached to anything, no chains or other apparatuses link it with the pans, but they float beneath it and cannot be separated from it by any known means, including wish spells. The Balance can be freely moved from place to place, however, simply by taking hold of the Balance beam and towing it. The actual alloy from which it is made and the magic that protects it are unknown. Reliable witnesses say it has been immersed in acid without apparent ill effect, and has withstood several punishing, explosive spells that tore apart the buildings in which it was housed. It is known that anyone who delivers a physical blow to the Balance suffers the same injury (equal damage points) that his blow should have dealt to it—the Balance never suffers any apparent damage. It does not seem to weigh anything, either, and has no purpose other than to receive offer¬ings in its pans, making them vanish. In return, if the offerings are deemed fitting (wealth or weapons forcibly taken from miscreants brought to justice by the hand of the offerer are best), the scales produce spell scrolls in the pan opposite the one in which the offerings were placed. Belaros dwelt somewhere on the coast of the Lake of Steam some 4,000 years ago, and saw some 80-odd winters. When he died in battle, he was known as the “Old Lion of Justice.” He created the Balance in his 66th summer, after retreating into seclusion with the mightiest priests of Tyr, on a mountaintop somewhere on the northern border of Turmish, where the mortals met, so believers say, with Grimjaws himself. The Balance was installed in the High Hall of Justice in the now-ruined city of Treshla (which stood due north of where Saelmur is today), where it served the priests of Tyr (known as “the Stalwart”) in their ongoing struggle to bring the rule of law into that region. Their efforts ended in failure in 1101 DR, when Treshla was destroyed by the spells of an aroused colony of beholders who came down out of the Thornwood and destroyed the city, smashing even the stone blocks of its foundations into dust. The Balance of Belaros, of course, survived, floating unnoticed in midair for over a century until a coating of winter ice made it gleam like a low, immobile star as the satrap Ylearyn Glaermauz swooped by on a carpet of flying. Glaermauz took possession of the item and conveyed it to his holdings in eastern Calimshan, but it vanished again after trolls slew the satrap and caused his house of many spired towers to burn to the ground. It next came to the attention of some followers of Tyr in the Masked Marilith, a shop that sold rare and unique treasures in Saerloon, in Sembia. The proprietor of that ill-fated establishment admitted to Tyrran inquisitors that he purchased the Balance from an anony¬mous mage who said he had given up on trying to discover the true powers of the thing. The Masked Marilith and its owner were destroyed by meteor swarms shortly thereafter, probably sent by the same privacy-loving mage. The buyer of the Balance was a notorious merchant rogue named Luuthateel Dree who was driven by a hunger for immortality and sought to buy any magic that might help him achieve his goal. Tyrran priests offered him a choice between magical longevity (the most their powers could grant) and death, but Luuthateel escaped them, reputedly into the Underdark, and the Balance vanished again. It has been seen twice at market fairs in Silverymoon and Berdusk since then, but has never fallen into the hands of the faithful of Tyr. The Tyrrans have gone so far as to accuse the Harpers, brethren who have great influence in both cities, of keeping it from the rightful faith. This accusation has been vigorously denied, and even Lady Cylyria Dragonbreast offered to undergo questioning under detect lie spells cast by Holy Justices—a request that was apparently accepted and performed, in privacy, some time ago. The whereabouts of the “Scales of Tyr” remain a mystery today, but Tyrrans know very well what powers it has. The spells that appear in the Balance (one to a scroll and apparently chosen at random, regardless of the prayers or desires of the offerer or any attending clergy, though the same spell never appears twice in a row) come from an established, known roster of spells: Boon of the god (a spell detailed below), call upon faith (a spell detailed in the Tome of Magic sourcebook), calm chaos (Tome of Magic), combine, detect charm, detect lie, detect magic, detect poison, dispel magic, draw upon holy might (Tome of Magic), emotion read (Tome of Magic), fire of justice (detailed below), hammer of justice (a spell detailed in the Faiths & Avatars sourcebook), make real (detailed below), message mote (detailed below), multiple message mote (detailed below), personal reading (Tome of Magic), remove curse, sacred guardian (Tome of Magic), speak with animals, speak with dead, speak with monsters, stone tell, sword and hammer (Faiths & Avatars), tongues, true seeing, and zone of truth (Tome of Magic).