Taros Hoop

The Taros Hoop was featured in book three of the Icewind Dale Trilogy, "The Halfling's Gem," by R.A. Salvatore. It is an iron device through which the wizard LaValle could both scry on beings of his chosing, such as the Companions of the Hall, and also peer into other planes, as well as travel to them. It is described as, "on stand and rollers, it was taller than [LaValle], with the worked hoop large enough for a man to walk through, fully a foot off the floor...similar to the hoop the trainer of [a] great cat had used." Within the hoop, a "symmetrical spider web" can be seen, and the device is operated with a scepter, featuring a black pearl on its end.

 During the climactic chapters of "The Halfling's Gem," the Companions reached Calimport to rescue Regis from his former guildmaster, Pasha Pook. Guenhyvar, Drizzt's panther, refused to obey commands from Pook, and returned to its home in the Astral Plane, and LaValle showed his master, Pook, an image of the panther through the hoop. LaValle then showed Pook images of the Companions tearing through a small army of wererats guarding the thieves' guild hall, where Pook and LaValle resided in the uppermost floor. Upon the command of Pook, LaValle utters an incantation to use the Taros Hoop to send the Companions to a "dark place," in this case, the Plane of Tarterus. Regis, realizing that his friend's have fought their way through the wererats to save him, tries to escape by stealing Guenhyvar's statue, the command scepter, and jumps through the hoop as LaValle finishes the incantation to banish the rest of the Companions to this plane.

Through much struggle, the Companions manage to recover Regis, the scepter, and Guenhwyvar's statue (who escapes with Regis back to the Astral Plane, and rallies a small army of astral panthers) and return through the gate on the Tarterus side, through the hoop, back into Pook's chambers on the Prime Material Plane. The Barbarian, Wulfgar, attempts to close the gate by bending the metal of the hoop, while fighting off demodands attempting to come through the gate, but he is unable to because of the intense magic of the Hoop itself. As the last of the Companions returns through the portal, Wulfgar releases the Hoop, grabs the scepter from Drizzt, and smashes it at the same time that LaValle casts a spell into the gate, shattering its magic. A brief cloud of darkness filled the room, and when it dissipated, a broken hoop of iron, dripping with "Interplanar Goo" remained. The Astral Plane panthers returned to the guildhall to finish off the wererats, and Pook, and Regis briefly became the master of the thieve's guild in Calimport.