Phalse

Phalse was a unique hordling fiend from Carceri who hid his monstrous beholder-like form disguising as a halfling. He was one of the creators of the human construct Alias in 1357 DR.

"A small form, dressed in shades of red and brown was seated on the stones. He smiled a smile wider than any human or halfling could manage, and his blue-on-blue-on-blue eyes glinted wickedly. In his hands, he passed back and forth Cassana's slender, blue wand. "Welcome home, One," Phalse said. "I take it you have met Two through Thirteen.""

- Phalse greeting Alias.

Description
Phalse's true shape was that of a beholder-like creature, except that his tentacles ended in mouths. Other beholders found this disgusting.

Phalse moved about Toril in a guise of a halfling, though the disguise was somewhat unnerving. His innocent hin face housed uncannily blue eyes, and his smile was much bigger and more sinister than it was physically possible for a halfling to have.

Personality
Phalse was a highly intelligent creature that planned his actions and words with immaculate detail many steps ahead of his adversaries and allies. He had resources, money, and powers. In his halfling form, he possessed high charisma, often reinforced with the help of money.

Abilities
Phalse possessed knowledge of magic and was quite proficient in the arcane arts. He was able to polymorph himself along with a construct body into a single shape and maintain it indefinitely.

The construct body Phalse used was only one of many. Its skin was shiny obsidian black, and it's arms ended in monstrous pincers. Phalse was able to control these body constructs remotely.

He was able to replicate the complex process of creating copies of Alias on his own.

Possessions
Phalse took over the Citadel of White Exile after it's inhabitant, the Nameless Bard was captured by Cassana. There, the hordling was working on his army of constructs in peace away from his allies' prying eyes.

Phalse's sigil, he marked his copies of Alias, was a blue-upon-blue circle, presumably representing a beholder's central eye.

Relationships
Phalse's ancient enemy and the adversary was the god of rot Moander, and he was a part of Cassana's alliance to pursue his own end goals.

He showed sadistic interest in keeping Olive Ruskettle as his plaything, and he did not think Alias to be an individual, calling her only as "The One", or "One", as the clone's creation number.

History
Not much was known about Phalse's past, prior to him joining Cassana's alliance. He was a powerful creature of lower planes, likely of great age. At some point in the past, Phalse and the god of rot Moander developed a bitter rivalry.

The beholder-like hordling pretended to be a servant of a greater being of the Abyss, so he would have greater freedom to act. He disguised himself as a halfling, and that was the guise he assumed when dealing with his new allies.

Cassana's alliance served a very specific purpose, creating a perfect tool, a weapon, a construct, later named Alias. Each member of the alliance had their own, secret, and duplicitous ends and reasons to join, and each had a part in creating the construct. Phalse joined Cassana's alliance when she reached out across the planes to find the exiled Harper Finder Wyvernspur who possessed the core knowledge and experience of creating the construct. Phalse's job was to travel the planes and to find a pure soul needed to complete the construct.

Unlike his allies, he had long-reaching plans regarding Alias. After he learned of the constructs' creation process, he secretly used his magic abilities to replicate Alias, excluding her memories and personality created by Finder, her "father". He aimed at creating an army of sentient perfect weapons. He created at least 12 echoes and outfitted them with skills, gear, and personalities, missing only the spark of life. He kept these echoes at the Citadel of White Exile, his secret base.

The final part of Phalse's plan materialized when he came across a saurial paladin Dragonbait in Carceri. The saurial was wandering the plane in service of his god. The saurial's pure soul called to the fiend and Phalse easily captured Dragonbait and brought it to the alliance's base in Westgate, Cassana's mansion.

Something that no one expected happened, Alias awakened before the saurial's sacrifice and showed signs of sentience and a kind soul. Seeing that what he created was not a tool, but a person, Finder Wyvernspur freed Dagonbait and begged him to take Alias as far from West gate as possible.

Phalse and Cassana's alliance eventually were able to track their construct after Alias unwittingly triggered magic hidden within her Azure Bonds. Phalse himself decided to use Alias' new companion, a greedy halfling "bard" Olive Ruskettle, to be able to keep an eye on the One's whereabouts. Phalse waited for Olive in her room in Shadowdale and convinced the bard, with the help of a heaping stack of platinum coins, of Alias' malicious intentions. The only thing Olive needed to do was to carry a ring that Phalse was able to magically track.

Subsequently, Alias and her companions awakened the Abomination of Moander, the god's prime material plane avatar, and to Phalse' evil delight, destroyed the creature, severing Alias' connection to one of her masters. Soon after, Cassana and her alliance ambushed the heroes and imprisoned them within her mansion with the intent of finishing the ritual and turning Alias into their perfect weapon. Phalse was able to use his halfling money and charisma to seemingly recruiting Olive into the villains' group. In reality, Olive was striving to prove herself infiltrating the alliance, quickly realizing she was way over her head.

Recruiting Olive was the beginning of the alliance's downfall. Freed from supervision by the alliance's in-fighting schemes, Olive was able to sneak into the prison and freed Akabar Bel Akash, Alias' wizard companion, and Finder Wyvernspur. Together, the three heroes were able to interfere with the sacrifice freeing both Alias and Dragonbait. Together they killed all the members of the villainous organization, as Phalse fled into the gate that led back to the Citadel of White Exile. The heroes followed the creature to finish freeing Alias from her masters' influence and inside the Citadel they discovered echoes of Alias that Phalse created in secret from his allies. The halfling confronted the swordswoman and tried to exert his influence over her to use her as a weapon to be sent to the Abyss to assassinate Moander's true self. Alias' spirit grew too strong to be controlled, and Phalse, after Cassana's wand used to control her exploded, revealed his monstrous beholder-like shape. Following a fierce battle, he was slain by Alias, who impaled him with the sword of Dragonbait, Hill Cleaver, and used it to throw him upwards from the top of the Citadel of White Exile into the Positive Energy Plane, where for all intents and purposes he became an exploding star.

Appearances

 * Novels:
 * Azure Bonds


 * Song of the Saurials