(Notes taken from a speech given by Elicha Mardek, Seer of
Thilg, at the request of the the Acadamy of the Arcane, located
in Mazorban)
Esteemed colleagues, I am pleased to present to you today the
results of ten long years spent researching the practices of
Magi and magic-weilding Templars with regard to their
spellbooks.
The lesson I have drawn, in particular, was to never assume I
have seen it all. Indeed, although my work has gone far beyond
that gathered by any other in my field, I still doubt if I have
done more than scratch the surface of the topic.
I shall start with a quick examination of the "typical"
spellbooks, the kind most often known throughout our world.
These come in three varieties: the Standard, or Home Book; the
Scroll; and the Travelling Book.
The Standard is usually a weighty tome, and expensive. At 50
GP per page, and requiring from 1 to 14 pages for every spell, a
Standard may cost up to 5000 GP. This is why most Acadamies and
Mentors provide starting Wizards with a Standard as a gift.
Scrolls are often easier to carry, as they take up less
space. However, no scroll tube will hold more than 25 pages (at
a whopping 1250 GP for the full tube.
Travelling books are wonderful things, but even more
expensive than the normal alternatives, costing twice as much
per page, and having a maximum of 50 pages.
Typically, Books are bound in hard leather or hide, or
between hardwood plates. Metal fittings at the corners provide
protection from "drop damage". Wealthier Magi will often bind
the entire work with metal, or even have the pages fashioned as
part of a small steel box.
This latter option provides a natural way to lock the book
away from prying eyes, and many wizards will cast the Wizard
Lock spell to help seal the work.
Scroll tubes are equally varied. I have seen wood, bone,
metal, bamboo and leather tubes used to hold the books of
various magi.
However, these are all well known to my audience. But what
of the Magi of other cultures, particularly those where the very
art of writing and reading is unknown? How do these witch
doctors, skjalds and hermits manage to keep track of their
spells?
The most common alternative that I have found is the
runestone. Here you see a small sample of one of these wondrous
rocks, purchased from a Dwarven Seer in Aerie. You will notice
that the rock is covered with small engravings--these are
actually spells.
Here we come to the first difficulty in recognizing
spellbooks from foriegn cultures: the language barrier. While
the Read Magic spell will enable the Wizard to read this rock as
if it were part of his own collection, she must otherwise learn
to read the Dwarven runes, and then make the usual attemts to
learn the spell. Furthermore, if she does not transcribe the
spell to a language she does know, while the Read Magic is still
in effect, once the spell has worn off, she will need to recast
it.
From another nonliterate culture, I have brought this
runestaff from a forested island off the coast of the Firewall
Mountains. The tribal witch doctor insisted that only a staff
cut from the hardest wood in the forests of the island would
suffice for the project, meaning, of course, that the staff was
easily as hard to acquire as the more typical book. This
sample, which is a full six feet in length, currently holds two
spells--Lightning Bolt and Invisibility. If the Mage inscribing
it is familiar with both the native language and the technique
used to carve the wood (a very sharp blade, finely honed, is
needed for the delicate task), the staff could hold as many
spells as a full scroll tube. In theory, it can make a good
substitute for a Mage with much time and skill, but little cash.
Now this fine item is from the other end of the economic
spectrum, used most frequently by Gnomish Illusionists and
Smathpan's Fools. The shifting panels on this puzzlebox are
carefully designed by master Gnomish craftsmen, and are designed
to form and re-form into different combinations. The device
itself has twelve sides, and each side is used for one spell
level--unlike most such containers, there is not one whit of
randomness in the size of the spell. However, while only twelve
sides are actually visible, the puzzle box actually has twelve
separate configurations, making it capable of holding up to 144
spell levels, while it weighs less than half the weight of a
one-hundred page spellbook! Even when taking into account
the fact that spells may not be "split" between different
configurations, this is a valuable tool. There are, of course
drawbacks.
First of all, only true masters of the the art can
successfully construct the box. As you can imagine, the handful
of Gnomes capable of crafting these items are able to charge a
king's ransom for their efforts: Typically, an uninscribed box
will run at least 30,000 GP, and take up to three months from
the time it is ordered.
Inscribing the box also takes a master's hand. Since the
skill has never been taught to any non-Gnome, the box must be
done by an Illusionist, which, in turn, means that they cannot
be used to store spells from the Schools of Necromancy,
Invocation/Evocation or Abjuration. The cost is also high:
Each spell requested will require an outlay of 500 GP per Spell
Level, and require a number of tendays equal to the spell level.
Thus, a fully inscribed puzzle box would run a little over
100,000 GP and require over three years to finish! Needless to
say, such items are very rare--only a handful have ever been
completed.
Even if one is run across after defeating its owner, it can
be difficult to use properly. While there are twelve valid
configurations, there are thousands of alternatives, all
worthless for the study of the box's contents. If the box was
not made specifically for you, locating the configurations
rquires a great deal of mental ability, especially if you don't
know what the final steps will look like.
Of course, not all spellbooks are designed for ease of
carrying, so much as permanence. Of these, the most famous are
the legendary tomb walls of the Maricheq Dynasty, burried
beneath the sands of the Wasteria Desert. Thus far, only two of
the tombs have been found, and legend lists ten. Each tomb was
that of a different Pharoh of that ancient nation, and the walls
of the chamber at the bottom of the Soul Wells were inscribed
with the contents of the spell books they had in life.
Since each of the ten generations was a master, it is
commonly believed that there should be many unique spells on the
walls of the remaining eight crypts, should they ever be found.
Concealment is also a consideration, especially for a Magi's
principal spell repository. I have, in the course of my
travels, discovered stained glass windows whose tinted frames
contained script, visible only when the light of the sun (or a
light spell) shone from the far side of the glass. This was in
the "meditation room" of Duke Elkaar, who encouraged his
subjects to hunt down all Magi--the Duke doesn't like to have
rivals. Since he was the only one allowed in the room during
the hour after dawn (the only time of day the windows were
naturally illuminated), no one knew of his own practice of the
Art. The adventurers with whom I was travelling exposed
him--you may have heard of the recent civil disturbance in the
Orc Duchies....
The subject of concealing and protecting one's spellbook leads naturally into the topic of enchanted tomes. While every novice worth his apprenticeship papers is aware of the usual means of accomplishing this task, I have for reference's sake listed those spells here:
Reduce: An excellent way to temporarily lighten the load
Wizard Mark: For settling issues of theft
Magic Mouth: A useful alarm system
Misdirection: A quick way to prevent magical detection
of other safeguards
Wizard Lock: Obvious applications
Illusionary Script: Good for passing through magic-hostile
territory
Item: Provided the book itself is non-magical
Non-Detection: As Misdirection
Secret Page: As Illusionary Script
Sepia Snake Sigil: An active guardian
Fire Trap: A nasty little surprise
Avoidance: Can actually create humorous results
Fabricate: Can be used to produce the paper for a book
Leomund's Secret Chest: Useful for storing "backup" copies
or for carrying additional
travelling books
Contingency: Lots of obvious and subtle options here
Enchant an Item: See the following section
Invisible Stalker: Good for retrieving stolen tomes
Drawmij's Instant Summons: Another retrieval method
Sequester: The ultimate hide-the-object spell
Glassteel: Can be used to make an impressive binding/tube
Polymorph Object: Can be useful to sneak a book past a
search
Symbol: One of the nastiest traps availible
I have also seen Mages who used magic in the creation of
their books. In addition to the notes mentioned above, I once
encountered a Necromancer who had Animated the skulls of
hundreds of small mammals. He used two commands to cause them
to assume one of two different arrangements, then carved his
spells on their skulls while they were in arrangement A. Once
he uttered the command for arrangement B, the spells were
scrambled hopelessly, until he reissued the command for
arrangement A. Very effective, until a Priest of Trocept Turned
the entire "book" into a blasted heap of dust....
Of course, the next step up from a magicked spell book is a
magical one. Using the Enchant an Object spell, several
powerful Mages have created magical tomes that have proven quite
useful. All Mages have heard of (and desired) Boccob's Blessed
Book (and its various imitators). Here are some other magical
tomes I have run across:
A set of sticks which, when cast to the earth while a
command word is spoken, fall in the necessary pattern for a
particular spell. These hold as many spells as a typical
scroll.
A brazier which produces smoke when the incense is burned,
which creates the pattern of the spells in the air for study.
Obviously, this is of limited use in windy conditions. Larger
braziers, however, can hold the equivalent of several Standard
spellbooks, making them quite useful for "home base" use. Some
forms of these repositories require a unique mixture of incense
for each spell, while others need command words for operating
them.
Spell bowls contain as much info as the typical travelling
spellbook. However, they must be filled first with a special
fluid, which drains out magically, leaving the inscriptions
highlighted and visible for one turn. Depending on the
alignment and goals of the bowl's creator, any of the following
liquids, or others, might be used: blood, milk, pure spring
water, (un)holy water, poison.
Aesthetics are another factor, one often overlooked by novice
Mages. I have gazed with rapture on the underground rock
gardens of the Kobold Diviners of the Sha Ling Monastery. Each
pattern is a lovingly crafted masterpiece, and studying in the
garden is a wonderful respite for the soul, as well as a
refurbishment of the mind.
Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Cast your
gaze on my valet, Argus. [A human, shrouded in a cloak, steps
forward.] I brought him out of the Drow Doma of Arazek. He is
blind, mute and a eunuch. Argus, please remove your cloak.
[Argus does so, to much gasping by the attendees.]
I see you now have all taken in the significance of his
head-to-toe tattoos. The Arazekite Magi use "living
spellbooks", such as Argus here as objects of status or for
trade. They are called gha'zhul, or "waking memory" in that
language. Argus, typical of his kind, contains as much
information as the average Standard Spellbook on his skin. It
took many months to get him out of the Doma, and I believe his
former owner would still like to reclaim him.
The Arazekite Magi do not treat their slaves well--in one
case, I witnessed a Wizard's duel in which one participant
actually became desperate enough to read the spell directly from
his slave's arm. As I'm sure you all know, using a spellbook as
a spell scroll has serious drawbacks. In this case, the tattoo
was literally burned from the flesh of the poor creature.
Thank you all for coming. I trust I have established that
Spellbooks are as varied as the Magi who use them.
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