Bazim-Gorag

Bazim-Gorag was an ascended primordial and one of the five elemental lords of Toril, and formerly a batrachi and a slaad lord.

"The agenda of your Lord Kossuth is not so different from my own. Fire burns in both our hearts, and together we can scatter the armies of your enemies and sow chaos throughout the land. Speak now the rite of unbinding, and you can command power greater than that of any pathetic zulkir. All shall bow before the Order of the Black Flame and tremble before the fury of the Firebringer."

- Bazim-Gorag to a Kossuthan follower.

Description
Bazim-Gorag appeared to be a toad-like humanoid with skin mottled red and gold. He was a hulking creature, lean yet muscular, and larger than an ogre. Two frog-like heads sprouted from his shoulders, each with two eyes like balls of white fire and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. His heads would finish each others' sentences, each head having a different pitch, and one could hear them hissing and murmuring to each other at times.

At will, Bazim-Gorag could also polymorph into a humanoid form, typically using the guise of a tall, handsome human lord in bronze armor. His unkempt hair in this form was a brilliant hue of red and orange, his skin a dark, ruddy shade of bronze, and his eyes almost glowing red. Though one head was magically hidden, the two minds of Bazim-Gorag were still both intact, and a change in pitch could still be heard midsentence.

Personality
Bazim-Gorag was a champion of chaos whose evil and corruption rivaled that of a demon prince; his brand of chaos was spreading death, destruction, and despair wherever he went. His imprisonment had made him grow to despise Faerun, and if freed he would enact burning vengeance in the North to sate his passionate hatred. The sadistic Firebringer created flame and wielded it with the cruel delight of a red dragon. He was only too happy to destroy those who wandered near him, for years of entrapment had made the bloodthirsty lord savor his fights, drawing them out for their mere entertainment value.

However, Bazim-Gorag was also wily and clever, more than capable of deception and diplomacy, and highly knowledgeable about esoteric matters involving the magical and extraplanar. He only attacked those he was certain could not be used to free him, often appearing in a non-threatening guise, and was willing to promise power, wealth, or even future service to those that assisted him, although honoring promises was not his strong suit and nothing stopped him from offering the same thing to everyone else. Though he valued wealth far less than freedom, any decision to make good on his deals would likely be made after his release. He perceived hesitation as the other party not wanting to comply but unwilling to clearly tell him, figured such entities were more likely to betray him than help him, and was suspicious of such beings.

Powers
Bazim-Gorag was incredibly physically powerful, able to rip and rend his foes apart with only his fangs and claws. The baleful flames created by the Firebringer were unusually potent, and he could surround himself in a wreathe of flame that caused anyone within of him to catch fire. Three times each day he could let loose an incinerating strike, a blow of such fiery power that those killed by it were immediately destroyed. The slaad lord naturally healed from injury, was resistant to acid, electricity, the cold, and sonic waves, and couldn't be petrified or harmed by fire or poison.

Bazim-Gorag's two heads didn't just give him a wide field of vision; each brain housed a separate persona and each could direct the body while the other talked (or telepathically communicated), used magic, or performed some other mental task. Like with many two-headed beings, this made it especially difficult to try and use mental magic against him, since incapacitating one mind didn't stop the other from fighting, although this did negate the benefit he had regarding the division of focus. When Bazim-Gorag took on a humanoid form, all that changed was his size and speed, though he also lost his claws and fangs and became much less proficient in melee. His chosen form couldn't be dispelled and he stayed in his form until he chose a new one, although truesight revealed his natural form and he reverted to it upon death.

Bazim-Gorag could cast the spell-like abilities animate objects, cloak of chaos, deeper darkness, detect good, detect law, detect magic, detect thoughts, fear, fire storm, greater dispelling, invisibility, shatter, telekinesis, teleport without error, wall of fire and word of chaos at will. Thrice each day he could cast dispel law, divination, hold monster, meteor swarm, power word stun, and true seeing. Once per day, he could cast geas, power word kill, vision, and weird, and also, assuming he wasn't bound, summon a death slaad or 2-5 blue slaadi.

Combat
Against seemingly weak opponents, Bazim-Gorag didn't bother reverting to normal form if not already in it nor did he use spell-like abilities with limited uses, simply casting fear, fire storm and telekinesis (dumping enemies in lava when the opportunity was present) while wading into battle. Foes that could be a challenge were stalled using wall of fire or deeper darkness while he returned to slaad shape before similarly charging in and letting loose fire storms and meteor swarms. He might temporarily retreat to prepare for a serious battle, invoking his cloak of chaos and true seeing while hidden, but if left with nowhere else to run, held nothing back and used his most devastating powers.

Though a dynamic destroyer when fighting seriously, casting destructive magic even as he hacked his enemies to pieces, he was also a cunning opponent. He stalled for time using his abilities, waiting for his enemies' own enchantments to wear off while he regenerated, liberally used dispel magic against those protected from his fire, and often saved his truly potent incinerating strikes for particularly dangerous or irritating foes.

Possessions
The Firebringer carried a huge glaive of black iron wreathed in dark flames that danced along the shaft. When he changed size, the glaive automatically shrunk of grew to accommodate his new form. It was an unholy weapon that created flaming bursts when it struck.

Bazim-Gorag had received great amounts of treasure since he was imprisoned, some of it as tribute or down payments and others taken from unprepared adventurers that wandered into his lair.

Realm
Bazim-Gorag was known to inhabit the Supreme Throne, but the Pandemonium Stone of the Elemental Chaos, was also said to be his domain. Perhaps a sleeping slaad lord in and of itself or possibly an ancient batrachi artifact, when the Stone stood still for a long enough time, The Firebringer eventually came to it.

However, Bazim-Gorag had been trapped for several centuries under the ruins of an abandoned castle incapable of escaping, his exit barred by an archway inscribed with lawful runes that prevented him or his powers from affecting anyone else beyond it. He kept his treasure in a separate chamber accessible only through a linked portal that he could close for about half a minute.

Relationships
For centuries, the Beast of Nine Flames, a fiendish pyrohydra with nine heads, served as the Firebringer's battle mount. Even though not bound to his prison, it remained with its master waiting for him to be freed. The creature attacked all but Bazim-Gorag's acolytes and their slaadi companions.

The greatest threat to Bazim-Gorag was perhaps other rival slaad lords; Ygorl and Ssendam only tolerated his destructive ways so long as he didn't overtly challenge their "rule" over the slaadi. Ironically, his imprisonment prevented him from entering into a deadly confrontation with them millennia ago.

Worshipers
While locked away in his prison, Bazim-Gorag managed to establish a secret cult of the Hidden Flame. Many members of this cult were just former bandits, others wicked beings drawn to his power, and some were simply drawn to the promises of reward Bazim-Gorag had made; the slaad lord openly displayed his wealth to impress potential recruits. However, there were true faithful among the slaad lord's followers, unbalanced worshipers of chaos and destruction that desired to see him release such devastation. Bazimite priests were called the Lords of Change, and as a being of manifested chance, the Firebringer was invoked by the powerless, gamblers, and those who had hope only in impossible moments of luck. His Acolytes also lavished him with gifts and sometimes brought sacrifices for him to amuse himself with by killing.

Though the small organization he created had only about fifty members, many of which weren't particularly dedicated, the Firebringer did have some powerful servants in his retinue. The leader of the Acolytes was High Conflagration Jendar Tholm, a powerful death slaad that ensured cooperation among Bazim-Gorag's chief officers and tightly controlled group funds. Below him was Flame Lord Moskogg, a half-fiend minotaur that oversaw group raiding and recruitment, and Flame Lord Durzhul, a durzagon wizard who discovered the particulars of freeing Bazim-Gorag, though secretly he only planned to do so once he found a way to enslave the slaad lord to his will.

History
Bazim-Gorag was thought to once have been a lord of the batrachi, one of the ancient creator races of Toril in the latter half of the Days of Thunder. His domain stretched across the entire supercontinent of Merrouroboros, from the Black Sea of the north to the peaks of Lopango in the south. The leader of the batrachi empires was a being known as Zhoukoudien, who despite having led his people to the zenith of their power, had also entered into a conflict with the giants to the north that supposedly decimated the empire.

Not long after was the Tearfall, or seven-turn winter, when scholars believed a rain of meteors or icy moon struck Toril causing a dramatic change in climate. With the lands blanketed by ice, the batrachi civilization on Toril was brought to an end, and the survivors fled to Limbo where they created the Supreme Throne. The batrachi god Ramenos transformed their race for at least the second time in their history to suit his ends.

Imprisonment
In, Ar-magus Ilviroon summoned Bazim-Gorag to save the wizard school called the Tower of the Star from a horde of trolls. Bazim-Gorag scattered the horde but Ilviroon refused to pay him the high price he demanded. So Bazim-Gorag destroyed the tower and slew several of the school's most powerful wizards as well but Ilviroon managed to imprison Bazim-Gorag underneath the tower. The next year, the horde returned, even greater in number. Ilviroon was forced to ask Bazim-Gorag to help once again but this time it was Bazim-Gorag who would refuse and Ilviroon was slain in the ensuing battle. Unfortunately, with Ilviroon, died the only knowledge of how to release Bazim-Gorag from his imprisonment.

In the 14th century DR, Bazim-Gorag's prison was found by the Company of the Riven Orb. Although the adventurers were unable to free him, they weakened Bazim-Gorag's prison enough for him to exert his influence on Toril. He called many evil beings to his service. They founded the Acolytes of the Hidden Flame sect to research a way to free Bazim-Gorag from his prison.

Rumors and Legends
Bazim-Gorag eventually ascended to become an extremely powerful being, although what exactly he was was a point of contention. Though originally a batrachi, he had been tainted by the same malignant energy that transformed gray slaadi into death slaadi. Though he seemingly noted his people as separate from the slaadi, which they were often mistaken for, he did scheme to advance the power of the death slaadi over other members of their kind. Somewhere along the line he became one of the five primary primordials worshiped in the Realms, and it was suggested that he was one of the oldest of living slaadi, possibly responsible for the burning runes on the Spawning Stone.