Originally posted on the Realms of Evil forums (Womb of Creation), November 5, 2001. The author did not name an edition; it is filed under D&D 3e by its rules. The author later reworked it; his revised concept follows the original. Shown as written, with light spelling and formatting fixes only.

The lyre is a made for a delicate yet sturdy form of rose wood found on the 241st layer of the Abyss. Crafted to exacting detail its surface is covered in intricate carving of males of various races engaging all manner of depraved acts with succubi. It is said the that lyre contains the essence of the very first succubus to seduce a mortal. The truth of the claim is unknown, but the lyre is malevolently intelligent, delighting in causing suffering amongst the mortal races.

The lyre has a special hatred for all of the baatezu race, and will seek to see as many as possible slain. If necessary it will dominate the possessor and use them to convince others to slay baatezu, even forcing the possessor into combat if necessary.

The lyre prefers a bard possess it over any other class. When a character has the opportunity to increase in level, and does not have bard as their highest class, they must succeed at a dominance check (Will save vs. DC ego of the item) of be forced into learning the bardic arts. If forcing the character to gain a level as a bard fail the lyre is capable of manifesting a bard's music related abilities as though it possessed 15 ranks in Perform: Lyre. The instrument is fully capable of playing itself. This has proven to be quite unnerving to several past owners.

In addition the Succubus' Lyre's has the following abilities:

• Int 21, Wis 14, Cha 22, Ego 34, Alignment CE
• Speech: Draconic, Common, Celestial, Infernal, Abyssal, Elvish, Gnomish, Orc, Dwarvish, Kobold, Goblin, Giant, Drow
• The lyre is capable of reading any language, whether it can speak that language or not.
• Telepathy. The lyre is capable of communicating with any mentally.
• Read Magic. The lyre can read magic as the spell (20th level bard)
• Detect Law at will
• Grant the wielder Uncanny Dodge (5th level Barbarian)
• The lyre can Sense Motive (10 Ranks)
• Cat's Grace 1/day
• Clairaudience/Clairvoyance 6/day
• Heal 1/day

The lyre actively seeks to learn new languages, so it can dominate more races. The last string of possessors did not speak any languages that it was unfamiliar with, and it now seeks an owner with new tongues.

The Author's Revised Concept

The lyre is last remnant of a paladin's soul who let himself be seduced by the succubus to trap her. Inside the lyre, much like a Soul Trap spell (only permanent), is the essence of the first succubus. While the succubus is both conscious and highly intelligent the Paladin is just barely to the point of communicating empathically. Every day each personality must pass a Domination test (Will save vs. Ego of personality) or lose control of the instrument.

Thing is the Paladin will have the special purpose of containing the succubus' essence. So powerful she is that if released she could decimate worlds. Of course the Pally will have have crazy high wisdom (25+), and thats the other stats will be very low (Int 3, Cha 3).

The succubus in addition to being a demon of immense power, will also have a few levels of bard (7-10 not sure what looks best just yet). So when the succubus personality is in control of the lyre it will in effect be an incredibly evil bard that can't touch anything. When the Paladin is in control it will try to find a way to contain (although if a way to ultimately destroy the succubus is found it would take that) the succubus. This leaves the Paladin's soul trapped as the lyre forever, never to see the pure goodness of Mount Celestia's seventh layer where he was ultimately destined go upon death.

So we have two problems. Can the soul of the succubus be destroyed without destroying paladin's? And can the soul of the Paladin be released without freeing the succubus?

I'm going to make two moderately powerful Intelligent items, and just use the Domination check each day to determine which is in control.

Notes

• Post 4 (November 6, 2001) is the author's revised concept, based on advice from The RPG Consortium's Planescape boards. It is shown after the original.