One hundred of the most vile, evil books in existence. Adventurers can only find these horrid tomes within the darkest depths of your fantasy world.
| d100 | Entry |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Writings Of Theon Ganderson': A small black journal kept by a man who claimed to have spotted a 'thing' living under his farm house. This 'thing' turned out to be a small elder being that began eating Theon's livestock. The journal ends abruptly during a passage where Theon is describing hearing something underneath his floorboards. |
| 2 | Dark Heart: The Lore of Life': The ultimate tome to teach budding necromancers their first incantations to bring the dead back to life. The book starts off small, such as bringing small rodents back to life, and ultimately works up to bringing back dead family members. |
| 3 | Under The Silver Moon': This book contains information on lycanthropy and the effects that it may bestow upon you. The author of this book makes lycanthropy sound like a REALLY good idea. |
| 4 | Final Dawn': A long-forgotten cult leader's teachings on beginning and maintaining your own cult. This book was actually written by an arch-devil who is using hidden tactics to get an unsuspecting reader to summon him into the material plane. |
| 5 | GLORIOUS OOZE': A leather-bound book that is covered in a green, sticky ooze. If you can get the pages unstuck, they describe the teachings and tenants of Uur'glaz-lop, the Sinister God of Slime. |
| 6 | The Koraktor': A heavy tome bound in unfamiliar leather. It describes a dark ritual that allows the sacrifice of an intelligent being to have its remaining lifespan transferred to you. The catch is, that with each use, the effect is halved (second sacrifice gives half its lifespan, 3rd gives a quarter and so on). |
| 7 | The Swarm': The tome is a binding for a bug elemental. The holder controls how a plague-like swarm of beatles/locust/hornets move and are bound to his command. |
| 8 | A Deal with the Devil': A tome detailing various historical contracts that have been made with devils. Goes to great lengths to make it sound as if it were actually very easy to find loopholes in devil contracts. |
| 9 | Cooking with Grandma': This seemingly pleasant sounding book is actually a book written by hags, and goes into great detail explaining how the flesh and bones of older humans can be used to make delicious food. |
| 10 | Spreading Joy': A religious tome made by a god of disease and plagues. Contains various rituals and spells for inflicting diseases of various levels of lethality and infectiousness. |
| 11 | Call of the Void': A strange tome written in an unknown language. Attempting to read it causes headaches and dizziness. If magically translated, it describes an elder god that lives in the void between stars, and methods to worship and communicate with it. |
| 12 | Nature's Wrath': This tome was written by a powerful ancient druid that was angered by civilization and its disrespect of nature. It contains dozens of powerful rituals for summoning deadly natural disasters, including plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. |
| 13 | The All Knowing Tome': This strange tome seemingly knows information about almost any topic. Whenever it is opened it displays everything it knows about a topic the reader is looking for. However, every minute it is being read, the reader must make a WIS save (DC 15 +1 per minute reading past the first minute). On a failed save, their soul is ripped from their body and stored in the book, along with all of their knowledge. To release their soul, someone must spend 5 minutes finding information on them and ripping out those pages, before burning them, releasing the soul to be judged. |
| 14 | Fall of Revelation': Bound in the skin of the author, Hazeomeel (an angel), it describes the angels' fall from the celestial realm because it used prophecy to try and sort which humans could be killed to prevent evil from occurring. |
| 15 | The Writings of Sindrii Jequinn': Though written in the guise of a contemplative journal about life, it slowly fills the reader with a violent knowledge of how to benefit from other people's mortality. |
| 16 | Demozain': A book written by a dozen ur-priests. It makes no attempt to hide the ritual that would summon a sentient black hole to consume a world, but between the obvious it reveals secrets of where the gods get their power. |
| 17 | The Journal of Kurt Constant': an assuming book that covers a variety of alchemical and metallurgy experiments, one of the final chapters explains how to create a weapon that can tear through planes. |
| 18 | Honors of the L'vat': A thin book describing the 6 energy avatars and their connection to the cosmos. Why this book is banned is because in describing the language of the god-kings it can teach anyone the secret of planeswalking without error. |
| 19 | A Mind is a Terrible thing to Waste': A tome dedicated to using Brains in various magical applications, mainly detailing Golemancy and Alchemy. It details using various necromancy spells to resurrect just the brain, and incorporating it into creating Golems. Depending on the spells used the Golem could be smarter and more autonomous, even in some cases having the capacity to grow a personality. Or you can create a Golem that acts just like a feral undead, killing any living thing it comes across. |
| 20 | Nightwalkers': a well used guidebook of general information on creatures that hunt humans such as Vampires, Werewolves and Hags. |
| 21 | The Ilyea'n Grimoire': A strange compendium of lore, poetry and incantations. The pages, which are of a parchment that is rough and unsettling to the touch, appear to its reader to be entirely blank. It is only when the reader cuts themselves and drips blood on the pages that the words are revealed; and much blood is required to read the whole thing. Many are the foolish who have expired from self exsanguination or cumulative trauma in order to 'read just one more page' ... |
| 22 | Anatomy of the Sunsweaters': Roughly translated from Undercommon, this book is a biological and highly racist work depicting the anatomy of humans through the lens of a dark elf who has an ever-specific repulsion against all life that willfully exposes itself to the sun. The book has been translated by an aspiring doctor, who has taken the liberty to add his own lecture notes and oddly enough defend the dark elf biologist's profane hostility. He keeps reminding the reader that cultural differences are not to be judged, that he wished that he had been there and that he quite likely enjoys the fantasy to be dissected alive by a dark elf. |
| 23 | Mnemotical Magic': This tome has moving pictures of funny situations and animals. Which seems like a humorous pass-time soon reveals that the magically animated graphics are powered by the souls of those that are depicted. Directing an open page to a person will also make them repeat the depicted action, that is if the page shows a dog wagging its tail, people whom the owner of the book shows the picture will feel urged to go on all fours jumping. Seeing an image of an orc who slips and falls into their own ax will make people want to hold their weapon out awkwardly and fall over to also be injured in that way. |
| 24 | A Treaty on Flesh: The Collected Works of Ab'Dharr': The dark green leather bound tome of vellum paper, this book is the fanatical collecting and redistribution of the work of Amnu Ad'Dharr; the Perverter of Form. The book is a collection of recovered, reclaimed and recreated copies of the numerous experiments carried out by Ab'Dharr. The author; an uncredited fanatic of the material, interlaces the original work with handwritten historical accounts of applications and results of the work. The original material takes the form of scientific essays or experiment logs, where a problem will be proposed and a full catalog of the steps taken to try to create a workable solution. The problems presented as such as 'Can the deficit in cognitive function of necromantic flesh constructs be circumnavigated?'. To which the paper goes onto outline creating a 'spiritual hivemind' which links the limited functions of all individuals; including 'properly fashioned intellectual stock'. Other such problems proposed are 'Lycan vulnerability to Silver', 'Can a brain be shaped physically to prevent mind-reading or similar arcane effects?' or 'The optimal method to create liquid suffering from limited breeding stock'. |
| 25 | The Howling': Bound in skin of a deer, the yellowed parchment pages contain page upon page of handwritten unintelligible script. The book is said to have been in the position of a Wendigo for several decades before coming to rest in Blackoak Restorative Manor for the Mental Infirm. The only legible content within the book is a series of signatures on the back page; believed to have been former owners of the volume. To date, every owner of the book has either died of starvation regardless of financial means or physical health. Or has descended into the depths of animal savagery and cannibalism. Some anecdotal records at Blackoak from patient interviews suggest the book contains the last rational thoughts of all its previous owners. However, as these testimonies come from individuals who would go on to own the volume themselves or succumb to the harsh nature of their treatments; they are discredited among learned individuals. |
| 26 | The Convergent Truth': The Convergent Truth is a detailed explanation about why the plane you are in right now is a demi-plane, an exact copy of the material plane, used to lure something called The Devourer away from the true material plane. In the back of the book are commendations to this reality, each from a different volume of this book. This one is Volume VIIICMVII. |
| 27 | Alchemy of the Flesh': A dark green tome describing how to use a plethora of humanoid viscera and organs to enhance your potions. |
| 28 | The Trials of the Forsaken, by Bertram Wondles': This unique ornate and gilded tome bound in some sort of tanned and scraped hide begins as a treatise on the depredations of the criminals known as the Forsaken. As the author writes the heavily researched stories, it becomes clear that with each new revelation described within, the author's madness and envy of the Forsaken grows. Quickly, the documentary writing shifts into more of a manual of praise and worship, detailing the dark rites of the path that the Forsaken walked. At the conclusion of the book, it is revealed that the binding of the book is none other than the flayed skin of Bertram Wondles himself. This book radiates a subtle but insidious evil that corrupts readers and holders alike. |
| 29 | The Perfect Crime': This tome contains a detailed list of physical and mental training exercises, all of which are designed to condition a person to become the perfect emotionless criminal mastermind. Anyone practicing the exercises in the book for a year will have their DEX and INT increase by 2, and will have their alignment shift to Neutral Evil. They also gain a +4 bonus to all skill checks related to criminal activities. |
| 30 | Killing the Unseen': This tome contains detailed information on killing powerful and hard to find creatures. While most of the book is generally helpful, it is prohibited by all major religious groups because the final chapter goes into detail explaining all the possible ways for a god to be permanently killed. |
| 31 | Death Eternal': This book was written by an ancient dwarven smith famous for making cursed blades. It describes rituals needed to create blades that trap the souls of those killed by them, with the blades growing in strength as the number of souls trapped within grows. |
| 32 | The Death of a Nation': This cursed book seems like a perfectly normal political drama, however, if the ruler of a country ever sees this book they will feel compelled to read it. When read, they will discover the book describes themselves in the near future, and the closer to the end they get, the worse the version of them in the book does at managing the country. The book ends with the country destroyed and the ruler dead. If the ruler gets to the end, they will find themselves compelled to behave exactly as written in the book. |
| 33 | The Material Era': A book that, starting from explaining in excruciating detail the mechanism behind spells like Dispel Magic and Antimagic Field, starts studying in what way magic can be stopped from interfering with the world, like stripping a caster from its power, creating zones of dead magic and finally showing how one could stop all magic from existing in the whole Material Plane, forever, enjoying in the hypothetical consequences of this actions. |
| 34 | Tale of the Soul': This book, which seems always colder to the touch than the surrounding ambient, studies the ways souls can be extracted, used and consumed for magical power; it explains how to extract a soul from a living being and making it act as if nothing happened, how to keep siphoning one's soul, how liches's phylacteries can be made more efficient, and how to make an un unwilling soul come back to life. It has a whole chapter detailing the unique qualities of a newborn's soul. |
| 35 | The Endless Litany': Every single page of this thick tome is filled with the same phrase repeated over and over again 'The end is never the end is never the end is never the end' but despite this monotony, when a creature starts reading from the first page, they can not stop of their own volition, nor will they ever reach the end no matter how long they spend reading it as the book has an infinite number of pages. |
| 36 | The Hedge Witch's Pestle: Being a Treatise on the Peculiar Mischiefs of Hezibiah Chopwits, by Lady Althenea Von Blecher': An annotated spellbook, compiled by an educated lady wizard, cataloging the malevolent magics of an infamous hedge witch. Early entries include counterfeit love potions, minor curses, and surprisingly effective remedies for women's troubles; later entries include spells that will turn a man inside out or transform all his blood into acid. Each spell is powered through the sacrifice of a bit of the caster's sanity. |
| 37 | Codex of the Anointed, author unknown': This manuscript is not so much written as tattooed on a thin, fine parchment of undetermined origin. Written in an (as-yet) undecipherable language, it is decorated with images that sometimes squiggle between the lines and sometimes stretch over a two-page spread. The images depict vile scenes of mutilation, murder, and ritual sacrifice. Examining it for more than an hour at a time provokes severe headaches with strange sensory effects, including coronas of burning light, flittering shadows of many-limbed creatures, and the pervasive smell of burning flesh. |
| 38 | Inglenook's Inglebook, by 'Inglenook' (presumed pseudonym)': A much-dreaded thing, location presently unknown. It takes the form of a colorful children's picture book, telling the tale of a young child who travels to a beautiful kingdom under a tree-topped hill. Sightings over the last two centuries describe it as appearing unexpectedly in a child's play-room or bookshelf. It seems to change itself slightly for each child who reads it, reflecting that child's particular appearance and interests in its illustrations. Any child under the age of puberty who reads it to the end disappears before the next sunrise, even if well-guarded in a locked and warded room. Any child who starts but does not finish it is haunted by dreams of it their whole life. |
| 39 | Bargains of the Underworld': A mysterious memoir recording the author's descent into madness after murdering his family and his journey into the plane of the dead to plead their forgiveness. It contains locations of planar portals, and describes ways to communicate with the dead. Its crimson cover is unnaturally cold. |
| 40 | The Dollmaker': A diary of a woman who's stalking a dollmaker. The book often convinces people to become stalkers themselves; and teaches people various magics that could help them stalk people. |
| 41 | Kreon Dellok and the Midnight Breeze': An adventure novel that appeals to children. In it, the main characters do a ritual in a forest at night that gives them powers. If a child tries to do this themselves, it blinds them and alerts monsters of their location. |
| 42 | Alzin's Guide to an Obedient Child': A parenting book that teaches abusive parenting methods. It centers around a magical goblet that the parent builds, which collects dark energy for an unknown entity. The book's ultimate goal is to get the child to kill the parent; so the goblet can collect their soul. |
| 43 | Abomination': A book that appeals to nihilistic, entitled people who think the world is rigged. It promotes becoming a demigod monster called an Abomination. Everyone who has done this ritual has vanished without a trace. |
| 44 | Lowstride': A biography about the serial killer Lowstride, written by the killer herself. She explains how she sacrificed people to a dark God for magic. The God sometimes lets her become a new person, and so she has lived for hundreds of years with many different identities. |
| 45 | Lucid Dreaming - A Better Awakening': A book on learning to Lucid dream through a Magic ritual, secretly written by a devil. When you successfully do this, the devil steals your good memories and holds them for ransom unless you do their bidding. |
| 46 | Book of The Spirits': Written by Diwar Malficum, the book provides details on various kinds of spirits along with how to make a spirit. While the guide to various kinds of spirits is considered helpful, it is banned due to the instructions on how to create undead. |
| 47 | Covenants of Blood': Written by Xutos the Vivisector, the tome is written with instructions on blood magic, including making blood pacts with archdevils and live sacrifices to demons. Those who read the book will have their hands permanently stained red. |
| 48 | Knowledge of Oblivion': Written by Studan Bloodcall, the book is a manifesto detailing how one should embrace the teachings of a being known as Hoy-Dheen-Cha, The Opaque Certainty. Those that have followed the book's teachings are known to have committed suicide shortly afterwards. |
| 49 | Rules of Death': Written by Goxor the Soulkeeper, the book instructs readers on the basics of Necromancy. While it was originally used as a textbook for the Kaudia School of Magics, it was swifty banned after a student had killed several people using an experiment from the book. |
| 50 | Orders of the Underworld': This book was written by Craushis the Nightmare, a priest of an ancient cult known as Creed of the Night. The text provides commandments that the cult followed to ensure that they may become death Gods. |
| 51 | Paradoxomicon': Collected works of a plane-shifter wizard who has dedicated his life to finding loopholes in magic and testing them in parallel planes of existence, collapsing each one of them in doing so. |
| 52 | Pillars of the World': A heavy tome, bound in rough leather, that begins as an academic discourse on various creation myths of the 'insert Settings world'. As the book goes on, the author stops documenting myths and starts writing about their own theories on how the world came to be. From a flat earth carried by a turtle to everything being a reflection of a true reality, this tome is filled with heretical ideas. |
| 53 | Dreams': A long single page scroll, made of papyrus and kept in a golden case, introduces the reader to the concept of ascension through meditation and study. The author believed that all of existence is a dream and that the gods are simply individuals that, like lucid dreamers, can manipulate the dream. Some say this scroll was written by an evil god to lure people in their grasp. Others believe these teachings were banned by the church because the gods want no further competition. |
| 54 | Zahhak': This journal was written by the famous explorer Zhelim Alasam, documenting his experiences of his last journey. It starts off as all of his journals, but quickly escalates as Zhelims ship sinks in a storm and he is stranded on an unknown island. Through his writings, the reader learns how Zhelim found strange ruins on this island and his curiosity takes over. For several days, he wanders these strange alien halls, describing murals, architecture and an unknown language chiseled into the walls. The last page documents Zhelims growing fear of the darkness and voices in his head that tell him to go deeper into the ruins. |
| 55 | Jerbe Kendalcanthe's 'Love Elixers': This tome details how to make a highly addictive potion that possesses no benefits other than addiction. Small villages have been wiped out as every resource is pooled into acquiring the materials needed to produce more. |
| 56 | In the Guts of the Earth': An epic work of fiction that follows an amateur explorer as they delve deeper and deeper into a cave. Each reader reports a different story, tailored to their specific fears and traumas. The account always ends with the protagonist crawling into a narrow vertical tunnel and finding themselves unable to escape. |
| 57 | Convergence of the Seventeen Orbs': A guide to an esoteric, and by all accounts fictitious, method of astrology. All known owners have died of asphyxiation. |
| 58 | On the Thaumaturgic Applications of the Lesser Vital Humors: A Methodical Account': A wizard's attempt to deduce the sorcerous properties of bile, pus, and other bodily fluids through experimentation on living human subjects. Notably, blood is never mentioned or implied. |
| 59 | The Underworld Bartender': A recipe book of dangerous, distasteful, and downright disgusting cocktails. From the Beholder Blood Bellini to a hot rum toddy served in a human skull, this has it all. Recipes are interspersed with edgy, and questionably plausible, tales of high crime. |
| 60 | Ghost in the Cage': The memoir of Kelvin Litwick, former most-wanted elf and prolific burglar of all things sorcerous. Intended to be a manifesto on why magical knowledge should be publicly accessible, but Litwick's detailed accounts make this a how-to-break-out-of-prison guide. |
| 61 | Der Abenteurer': A highly controversial exploration of power and hierarchy, heavy with economics and philosophy. The book posits that the contemporary societal structure of roving adventurers questing for artifacts, slaying everything in their path, is a degenerate state that perpetuates an unfair system of oppression. It urges monsters, brigands, and all creators of loot to rise up, move beyond boundaries of species, and present a unified front against those that wish to plunder their lairs. |
| 62 | 195 Easy Projects with Human Skin': Notorious for its gruesome, yet imaginatively intricate, woodblock illustrations. |
| 63 | When the Dawning Light Strips the Fat From Beneath My Arms, the Gate That is Not a Gate is Eroded Open for One-Who-Is-Now-None to Seep Through Eyes Within Eyes': A rambling, incoherent string of word salad that is nonetheless a practical guide to interplanar travel. By strictly following the bizarre sequences of meaningless actions and chanting the meandering chapters-long verses, the reader will find themselves on another plane. The technique fails to transport the book itself, stranding the reader unless they've committed the entire text to memory. |
| 64 | The Assassin's Textbook': A book filled with firsthand accounts of successful high profile assassinations. Each entry places heavy focus on preparation and planning, and was written by the assassin who did the deed. There are numerous blank pages at the end of the book, and a note on the inside cover demands that the reader must write down their own story if they succeed in killing someone, then hide the book in a public location at night. The first several entries were written by the same person using the pen name 'Splattershrike.' It is speculated that Splattershrike collects and reads any used copies of the book and makes new editions of it to include his favorite additions. |
| 65 | Three Steps to Godhood': This book details an alleged path to apotheosis by performing three tasks. At first glance, only the first section of the book is legible while the middle and ending sections of the book appear to be blank black pages, but a person who completes the first task will be granted the ability to read the second task, and so on. The first task is to build a flesh golem from pieces of people you have murdered in a specific fashion. Only a handful of people have completed the first task, but they were all stopped before they could complete the second. All of them died without disclosing the second task's nature. Some speculate that there actually is no third task and the book was made as a sick joke by some evil being to trick people into committing atrocities. |
| 66 | Chimaeramancy by Damo Krail': The author is an evil mage obsessed with creating the ultimate beast. A book that describes how to create chimeras via a clearly outlined and easy to master system of magic and genetics. It describes how to combine any two animals, up to five animals, and which animals combine best, culminating in her masterpiece: the fabled Eldritch Chimaeras, a beast powerful enough to take down parties of heroes, armies, dragons, krakens, and even lesser gods. With this book, the available resources, and the will, could make (potentially) unlimited monsters of all sorts of power. |
| 67 | Gaistà Bhforaoisà by Eoin Kennirse': The author is a half elven ranger known for having survived being kidnapped by evil fey. The book describes the Domain of Dying Stone and its ruler, the archfey Carraig Bhan. The entire demesne is darkened, and somehow the very earth is beset by what Eoin describes as 'rock rot'. The ground crumbles as you walk, and standing in one place is a death sentence. Lord Bhan eventually died at Eoin's hand, but Eoin left before he looted the living wood castle of Brisa'cloiche. He ends the book with a warning that the Domain of Dying Stone is sealed, and should never be opened lest the rock rot or whatever survivors are left escape. If you have the book, a high enough intelligence or skill check will reveal the location and trick to unsealing the Domain of Dying Stone, should you wish to loot an Archfey's hoard . . . |
| 68 | The Canted Buried Tails by Chauzer the Wandering Bard': In this tome are a series of fable-esque tales about a dozen or so devils that all lose their tales (and thus their ability to reform and resurrect themselves on death) to various holy men and adventurers, and is full of many memorable characters and clever escapades that Chauzer witnessed while traveling the prime material plane. It's a mostly forgotten book, but scholars have proven that most of the events described actually happened, although no concrete proof of the devil's tails exists. In the text, there are several sections where Chauzer seems to rant about seemingly nonsense or politics or theories or something, but in reality is a cipher that translates to the location of the devil tails, where they are buried, and how to resurrect the devils should you so desire. |
| 69 | Atlas Drugged by Old Rain': The story is about a conspiracy in a land ravaged by an apocalypse where the land is being reseeded and is a controversial book that most people take to mean as a warning about trusting nature too much cuz she's a fickle bitch. The story is banned because in addition to not being clear about its message it also includes theoretical ideas about how to end vegetation in continent sized swathes. |
| 70 | Gringus Jabeens by Farleeaeen the Warforged': A book of perfectly metered jibberish, written by a warforged who wanted to prove that language itself is unnecessary, as sound and voice are enough to convey beauty. Supposedly, any voice, including a monotone warforge's voice, that reads this tome aloud unlocks a secret about speech that surpasses language. In reality, Farleeaeen discovered a way to turn any who read his book into sleep agents for his plan to 'civilize' civilization. |
| 71 | Unhinged by Drahssuss Silsissisius': A book about a Yuan-Ti that was always hungry. At first it seems like a children's book about a silly snake guy who eats too much, but he starts to eat less children friendly things, gets around to pets, then people, and eventually eats an island and then a black hole and becomes a warning about gluttony as well as a mythical monster to unleash, or a treasure hoard within it to loot for untold wealth. |
| 72 | Shameful Swordplay': How to Fake Being a Martial Archetype with any Style of Magic by The Wizeruidicard (a mage who knew wizardry, sorcerer, druidic magic, clerical spells, and was a bard). In it he describes how to use illusion and trickery to boost AC, mimic physical weapons with magic and magic use, and most importantly: how to win and NOT get caught when using 'magical' techniques. It was banned because the author raised a small army of mages, paraded them into a nearby kingdom and successfully tricked them into thinking they had no mages, and then destroyed and looted the entire metropolis with brutality. |
| 73 | The Ones That Lives Inside The Walls': A innocent looking book containing a well written story of a man slowly going crazy by reading a book, and starts to think there are monsters with no eyes and fingers like long needles living inside the walls, until he takes his own life to avoid those beings. Who ever read this book slowly went mad thinking that they're persecuted by the same monsters, and if they don't kill themselves, are usually found dead with their body covered in punctures and scratches |
| 74 | The Nefarious Index': An unfinished but pretty much updated list of apocalyptic prophecies made during history with detailed plans on how to make them come true. It seems like many different evil minds during the time have added to this list, maybe recommending improved ways to destroy the world, or took inspiration from it. It feels like reading a lab report from the most evil people in history for the most nefarious experiments. |
| 75 | The Void Journal': Bound in a rich ebony cover, this book is full of blank pages. Anything written into the book bleeds into the pages, and becomes forgotten to all. |
| 76 | The Forbidden Harkness Symphony': this yellowed vellum binding contains the last-known work of acclaimed composer Johan Harkness. Harkness was commissioned by an unknown benefactor to create his masterwork. He fell into a deep despair and locked himself away to work. After months of silence, his sisters had to force their way into his house. They found blots and notes scratched across the walls, and Johan, emaciated and huddling in a corner, trying to carve more Tiny notes into a corner. He was committed to an asylum, dying shortly after. While clearing out his house, the sisters found this binding full of notes, blots, and scribbles. The binding was sold shortly after, though neither sister would remember agreeing to sell it or who bought it. The binding was thought lost for decades until the Duke of North Venacia held a summer gala for 300 guests. Officials later found all attendees and staff in the ballroom dead, torn apart by one another. The binding was left open on the stage. Opening or reading the book has no effect, but playing any of the music causes madness for everyone in range. |
| 77 | Roumerol and Julle'ta': The tragic story about the love between a Mind Flayer and a Githyanki set during the gith uprising. It's banned by the githyanki for its humanizing depiction of lithids and by everyone else, for its explicit 'love' scenes. |
| 78 | The Ballad of the Laughing King': Similar to Dreams, This nihilistic tome is the personal account of an eccentric former adventurer calling themselves the Ebon Jester. Other than this book, there is no record of him existing. The book claims that the world and all those within it are simply constructs formed from the thought of a single all-powerful individual: the Laughing King. In the final chapters it alludes to the possibility of several creatures who may be free of the King’s direct influence, and the descriptions given eerily match the descriptions of the party’s PCs. The Laughing King is you, the GM. |
| 79 | Loving Return': Written by Pepeq Gufgord, a necromancer of some renown. This book is pale green with black lettering and an embossed cartoonish skull in the center of the cover. Inside this book is a tale in the style of a children's story about losing a loved one and how to bring them back from beyond the grave. Disturbingly the book gives a fully functional process of ritually summoning an undead with such ease that a child may perform it with little difficulty. |
| 80 | The Origin of': Seemingly an unfinished book by an unnamed author. It is written as a journal that describes the author's thoughts, steps and achievements to create souls out of thin air. While they seem to be magical capable, the methods described later in the book would even make a non-magical adept person able to create souls. While the author seemed to be able to create individual souls in waste quantities, binding them to simple objects and even complex dolls or golems, do these souls seem to decay rather quickly. On the last pages of the journal the author describes methods to bind these souls to flesh. The results of these methods are missing. |
| 81 | Moving Stars': Written by Thinia Egotis, astronomer. Her detailed descriptions of real stars - not planets - that seem to move in various and random ways, with written and drawn details, seem to be a lifelong collection of astronomical observations. While the book is mostly filled with entries of those stars, the end of the book is an analysis of those movements with a detailed theory that these movements are not random, but ways of communication. Just not with us involved. it is banned because of some of the 'results' this book contains to decipher this celestial communications. |
| 82 | Omnigas': This book seems to contain any other book ever written, magical or non-magical. Opening the book means to open a random book on a random page. While open this book is an identical copy of the random book, from beginning to end, with the same effects of the original book. Only the book cover stays the same. Also, there is no way to control which book it contains next. |
| 83 | Compendium of Unreality': This book in cover that depicts constellations is a weird one. On each page's corner there is an Elder Seal. Letters and illustrations emanate otherworldly light and dance before readers eyes, trying to share more secrets of the Far Realm than they should. Studying the book allows the reader to gain basic information on any aberrations, Great Old Ones, nature of the Far Realms (which is unimaginable, but makes sense, when you tilt your logic a bit to the left). Studying the book for 1d8 hours allows to gain basic theory of psionics and Far Realm magic, or detailed knowledge of specific aberration or Great Old One and requires a Wisdom Saving Throw (DC 20), on failure you gain one short term madness. Studying the book for 1d8 days allows to gain knowledge about a single forbidden ritual, knowledge on how to gain connection to a Great Old One and character gains one indefinite madness. |
| 84 | The Interviewer's Handbook (Unabridged Edition)': A manual for government officials tapped to act as judges and prosecutors, the version most receive is highly redacted, only containing the first 5 chapters and stripping out most of the text, and even then Chapter 5 can only be described as a torture manual. The original, written by a then-famous judge as their final work, is 10 chapters and three times longer. Chapters 6-10 describe progressively more atrocious means of finding the truth of a case, up to and including rites for negotiating with extra-planar entities and interrogating the souls of the unwilling dead. Most damningly, it is not just a manual on how to do these things, but an expertly written treatise on why doing these things is necessary; anyone reading this book through to completion shifts alignment towards Lawful Evil. |
| 85 | The Journal of the Arch-Paladin': The logbook of a very famous paladin of a major faith, copies of this journal are kept under extreme security and only shown to the most trusted acolytes of the faith. The titular Arch-Paladin was one of the most accomplished monster hunters in the land, and their recorded notes are one of the finest primary sources on how to identify and terminate things that go bump in the night. But the writer suffered an extreme crisis of faith less than halfway through their career; they never lost the drive to protect the innocent, but they did lose their faith in their god. Maintaining the pretext of serving the church so they could continue their work, the evidence of their crisis and eventual abandonment of their faith is written all over the pages. Any paladin or cleric of the same faith who reads this book in unredacted form is in danger of either losing their faith or turning oathbreaker/blackguard. |
| 86 | The Traitor's Recipe Book, Annotated Edition (aka the Redline Edition)': Originally part of a cunning ploy by a king to root out a conspiracy in the academic community, the Recipe Book was created as bait for would be rebels and usurpers, full of what looks like legitimate instructions for an insurrection. Anyone found owning or copying the Book was arrested, and anyone trying to use the instructions inside was in more danger of killing themselves than anyone else; all the ciphers were already cracked, directions for making explosives and poisons included the wrong ratios and missed critical safety precautions, and so on. But someone who knows what they were doing got their hands on a copy, and went through it with a red pen and an eye for mayhem. Anyone reading out of the red-lined copy has everything they need to be a king's worst nightmare. Speculation abounds about the hand holding the red pen; anyone caught with a Redline copy is tortured merciless in an attempt to find a clue to the editor's identity. |
| 87 | To Behold a Dream': On its face, the book is a manual on improving one's quality of sleep, with instructions for ways to construct finer bedding out of commonly available materials, how to heat/ventilate a sleeping area for maximum comfort, ways to improve quality of sleep in rough/field conditions and meditations to ease the transition to sleep. If followed, practitioners have an easier time getting to sleep, suffer fewer penalties if sleep is interrupted... and have dreams which would be disturbing to an outside observer, but strike them as normal. Dreams of ever growing malice towards mankind, which grow more detailed, more specific, until eventually the practitioner dreams a Beholder into existence, which typically kills the dreamer first before moving on to a life of destruction and chaos. |
| 88 | The Tome of Fiends': an ancient tome written by the now dead god Creator of the fiends. It contains the real name of every Demon Lord and Archdevil that exists, allowing its owner to summon them. All of them are bound to obey by the power of the tome. Thus making its owner the Lord of Fiends. Its language can only be understood by archfeys, celestial, demon lords and archdevils, and each faction has been fighting over it for centuries as gaining control of all fiends, even for fiends themselves, is a huge power. Fortunately it has stayed on the Material Plane and has always belonged to a mortal guardian. |
| 89 | How to Butcher A Child': A small pocket sized book bound in black velvet. The short manual describes effective butchery methods of a human child, with grotesquely life-like illustrations. Several copies of the book have been found, disturbingly each one has its own illustrations unique to other copies. |
| 90 | Le Petit Livre Du Calm': A tiny book in an unknown, likely fictitious language that one noble who came into possession of it spent their entire fortune trying to discern the contents and origin of but to no success. The book was seized from the nobles estate once they became bankrupt as the local authorities deemed it to be 'A source of derangement and fanaticism'. Seems untranslatable even through magic. Printed on the yellow cover is an image of a cloud. |
| 91 | The Child's Adventure, by Mama Micopolis': When read by an adult, the book is a sweet adventure about a child going on a magical journey. When read by a child, they are encouraged by the book to go into dangerous areas or to fight dangerous monsters. The book detail's their successes. Reality is rarely so kind. The main character is always that of the child, or a child of similar look. |
| 92 | The Cursed Play, or the Tale of the Seven Songbirds': A wonderful play about seven women who were transformed into horrid beasts, but rescued a dashing hero. If the play is performed, and a single detail is off, then the play begins to mess with the reality of the theater. This typically results in several injuries, as well as a few casualties or fates worse than death. The more errors, the stranger the play gets. |
| 93 | Humanity's Right': A book which encourages family life, good living, and the extermination of all sentient beings. Aside from humans. It's not magical, but areas where it's printed typically find an increase in non-human racism. (Every race seems to have at least one book of a similar nature, typically written by some bored noble or an artist who got rejected from art school). |
| 94 | The Torturer's Apprentice - Vol I: Humans': A practitioner's guide to inflicting pain on humans. Techniques and discussions on torture-based interrogations with illustrated guide to equipment and anatomy. Volume II to IX vary by location. Copies are usually stained. |
| 95 | The Oneness': Appearing to be written as a treatise on achieving one-ness with the universe, it is in fact a grim joke by a jealous god. Following the meditation path in the book by 'clearing the mind' leads to the person eradicating all conscious thought. Permanently. |
| 96 | Vile!': A scrawled, angry diatribe against a seemingly innocuous merchant named Ko'yu Curfdee. This cursed journal slowly corrupts the reader to find every day, ordinary occurrences as disgusting and repulsive. |
| 97 | The Infinite Diary': A mysterious diary that never runs out of blank pages, and compels its current owner to write everything they do each day of their life from the day they come across the book and up until their very last moments. The identities of the people whose lives are recorded in the diary, as well as whether any of their diary entries contains any information relevant to the player characters, is entirely up to the DM's discretion. Also, strangely enough, the book already comes with the name of the player character who has picked it up written on the index, almost as if it somehow knew they'd be its next owner... |
| 98 | Food for the Soul': A book that explains how to harvest the souls of recently deceased creatures and use them as raw ingredients for cooking food. According to the book, eating a whole dish infused with a creature's soul allows you to peer into its memories, but at the risk of having your body temporarily taken over by the restless soul, who will attempt to act the same way they would if they were alive for 1d4 hours before passing on to the afterlife and returning control of your body back to you. |
| 99 | The Dark Secrets of Tarokka': A lengthy treaty written by a very hands-on researcher about the occult origins and uses of tarokka decks. It details the many cults and sects the author infiltrated over time in order to learn about unholy rituals they enacted, and how they used the cards in order to commune with dark forces and gain their favor. As the book goes on, the author slowly begins to piece together bits of information that apparently lead to something truly horrific, and right as he's about to detail the last piece of the puzzle that he had just found, his writing turns into unintelligible ramblings. The afterword found right after that is a dire warning to all those who dare to try and follow in the author's footsteps, and is allegedly signed by an archdemon, ancient one or some other kind of sufficiently powerful embodiment of evil and/or chaos. |
| 100 | The Halfling in the Sun': The third book in a very popular series by author Vel'ethan Moore. Unbeknownst to the public, Vel'ethan was a powerful warlock who'd spent centuries capturing changeling souls and binding twenty each into the eighth page of the first edition. He'd sent them on a cart to nobles throughout the land, intent on creating a massive empire, but the cart was robbed and the books lost. Many people enjoyed the second edition but tales began to spread of the copies that would imprison your soul and switch it with an evil version of yourself. In response, Vel'ethan was killed and all copies that are found are burnt. Collectors will spend thousands of gold to acquire them. The cursed copies remain, however, and no difference can be found between the editions - until the eighth page... |