The Table of Diplomacy

A large, cumbersome magic council table forged by Malifax (his maker's mark is on it) for his band of immortal-thief companions, the Live Long council. Its power: anyone who sits or kneels at it to vote becomes magically bound to honor the votes and agreements they make there. Malifax built it hoping a group of thieves "thick as thieves" might keep their word and stay together forever — though, after however many millennia, it bound them to a tangle of absurd obligations and "ended up just being more trouble than it was worth."

Its trappings are merely ceremonial: the council's Scroll of Truth, Scroll of Lies, and blank Scroll of Nothing are non-magical paper the members simply agreed had meaning. The power is in the table itself (and the people at it), not the scrolls — so a new council could be convened anywhere the table is.

Session 29

• Revealed during the council's dissolution; Valmora correctly senses Malifax made it, and he runs a familiar hand along it.
• Its binding magic is why the party — having voted as council members — cannot simply kill the escaped Cheve or renege on their motions, even after the council disbands (prior votes and agreements remain bound).
• The party covets it as "a mega play" for a future settlement (a table that forcibly binds people to their word). Malifax agrees to hold onto it for them, lifting it with the Prisoner-Moving Staff — and using the same swing to smash the room's walls and door down for the Queen Grabbler's cell.