Wizard's Blue Book
Copies of this gigantic magical tome, bound in highly decorated blue leather, are extremely rare and highly sought after by magic-users, for it can prove very beneficial in their studies. The text is said to have been assembled long ago by the philosopher-mage Erekomes in the now Sunken Lands from knowledge he gathered in the forgotten cities of the Ancient Builders of the Underworld. More recently, certain correspondence obtained after the disappearance of the wizard Zenopus of Portown suggests that he possessed a copy but its whereabouts remain unaccounted for following the destruction of his tower.
Reading the entire book takes 3 months, and requires daily use of Read Magic and Read Languages to understand it because it is written in a magical script in an archaic language. Any magic-user finishing this course of study may add 10% to their chance of learning spells, or researching new spells - as long as they retain possession of the tome. In addition, the magic-user may make one new attempt to re-learn any spell which they previously failed to learn and still have a copy of. The book is even larger than ordinary magic books and may not be carried into a dungeon.
(Image is of an 1893 Russian Book from here)
Very nice! I really love tomes of magic and forbidden lore that are more than just than sources of new spells. I'm going to have to steal this one.
ReplyDeleteGreat, that's why I post this stuff here.
DeleteGreat homage to the author of the first basic rulebook! And a cool magic item for the Holmes rules as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks, DS!
DeleteAlso suitable for use with Greyhawk Supplement OD&D.