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224: Zizzo's First tome
Credited to Zircadeusio the Whimsical and lovingly dedicated to the author's grandson Zizzo, this appears to be a children's book written for the sole purpose of presenting to a younger relative as a gift. The book is 100 pages long, but is written in very large script and contains several crude illustrations. The story itself is a childish, rambling tale about Zizzo's future accomplishments as a wizard, and describes in great detail how proud the author is of him and how much he loves him. Anyone reading the book will see that Zircadeusio clearly had more grandfatherly love that artistic talent.
The final page in an arcane script. A Read Magic spell reveals it as the Secret Page spell. In fact, the entire book is under the effects of a Secret Page spell, and is actually a wizard's spellbook containing all wizard cantrips plus the following spells: Blink, Cat's Grace, Chill Touch, Comprehend Languages, Dispel Magic, Enlarge Person, Fox's Cunning, Grease, Haste, Lightning Bolt, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Scorching Ray, Secret Page, Shocking Grasp, Shrink Item, Spider Climb, and Web.
GMs are encouraged to allow the PCs a Knowledge[Local] check to determine what became of Zizzo.
226. An in depth guide to kobold husbandry
For the discerning task master trying to create a better servant
dot.
227. The first science.
A fascinating read about how a caveman figured out how to kill a woolly mammoth. It mentions the cave paintings and fossles that led the author to his theories. The caveman probably watched the beasts gathering research, then formed theories, then made spear throwing wooden levers, then tried them out in hunts. If this book is in your library, you get an extra point of research a day.
228. The Final Science.
This tome contains a long complex scientific formula, the final pages are charred black and illegible. Any attempts at following the formula results in a 100d6 500 foot radius explosion (no save) when the last legible portions of the formula are reached.
230. The Sayings of Sarethaniux is a book written entirely in Draconic with a recognizable kobold dialect (DC15 Linguistics). The cover seems to be a highly dressed Bullette hide, covered with highly refined and pure rubies. The text within begins with a prayer to the Red Dragon Sarethaniux, asking for her blessings and strength. What follows switches from a complete transcription of all Sarethaniux utters (from her dealings with a hobgoblin war chief to her thought-to-be private musings) and a detailed dissection and interpretation of the lessons to be learned from the dragon's words. While most of the book is over zealous and obsessive nonsense, it is a near-perfect record of all dealings the dragon has had with others and would be be useful to certain parties of adventurers.
228. The Final Science.
This tome contains a long complex scientific formula, the final pages are charred black and illegible. Any attempts at following the formula results in a 100d6 500 foot radius explosion (no save) when the last legible portions of the formula are reached.
Using mending on each charred page, or just one make whole, gives you a bomb that can destroy a planet or demiplane. Make sure you leave behind a clone or a resurrect-able lock of hair. :)
231. A Rhyming Dictionary for Impossible to Rhyme Words. This book is exactly what it says on the cover, a collection of lists of apparently non-sense 'words' which are supposed to rhyme with impossible to rhyme words. No explanations or definitions of the 'words' is given, just lists of them. This rhyming dictionary will always deal with words from the reader's native language, and changes language depending on the reader. In English impossible to rhyme words include but are not limited to orange, silver, purple, olive, month, almond & scalp and the English version is noteworthy for having 17 pages of rhymes for 'iron'.
This "book" brought the purple nurple into the world. I toss an orange door hinge at you. :)
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232. Decrees and Proclamations. This ancient leather-bound tome is cracked and worn, and it's brittle parchment pages are mostly bare, with a few still containing written decrees in a dead language, mostly barely legible, and those that can be read and translated being mostly boring local laws and postings. The book has a lingering enchantment, as it was designed so that whenever an office posting went up in the capitol of a long dead nation-state, a page in this book would be filled with the text of that posting, so that residents of nearby towns and cities would immediately become aware of them, and could copy those documents and post them in their own town squares. With most of the postings in the long-ruined capitol dust, most of the pages are blank now, but a few of the original decrees must still remain, barely legible, somewhere in that ancient ruin, as you can still make out a few of them in this surviving book.
One of the decrees will turn out to be a useful adventure hook, or provide interesting information (all gold trade bars are to be moved to the imperial treasury at blah-de-blah, which, one wonders if might still have a stockpile of such, all these centuries later...) or relate in some way to the current adventure (such as a sentence of death upon some legendary traitor and his entire family for crimes of surrendering their entire bloodline to infernal powers in perpetuity, in exchange for sorcerous power, which, it turns out, fits the description of a sorcerer you may have met recently...).
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233. Tales of War and the Loot from said Wars: A plain book, nothing out of the ordinary. It chronicles the battles of a well-known war from several centuries ago. Scribbled in the margins are a few strange lines and the occasional letters. If the book is disassembled and the pages lined up with the margins adjacent, this reveals a map to a treasure detailed in the tome.
Using mending on each charred page, or just one make whole, gives you a bomb that can destroy a planet or demiplane. Make sure you leave behind a clone or a resurrect-able lock of hair. :)228. The Final Science.
This tome contains a long complex scientific formula, the final pages are charred black and illegible. Any attempts at following the formula results in a 100d6 500 foot radius explosion (no save) when the last legible portions of the formula are reached.
Nope, because all the charred pages are blank, the author blew up at that point.
234. The Cost of a Mithral Dagger by Pathfinder Design Team Text
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232. Decrees and Proclamations. This ancient leather-bound tome is cracked and worn, and it's brittle parchment pages are mostly bare, with a few still containing written decrees in a dead language, mostly barely legible, and those that can be read and translated being mostly boring local laws and postings. The book has a lingering enchantment, as it was designed so that whenever an office posting went up in the capitol of a long dead nation-state, a page in this book would be filled with the text of that posting, so that residents of nearby towns and cities would immediately become aware of them, and could copy those documents and post them in their own town squares. With most of the postings in the long-ruined capitol dust, most of the pages are blank now, but a few of the original decrees must still remain, barely legible, somewhere in that ancient ruin, as you can still make out a few of them in this surviving book.
One of the decrees will turn out to be a useful adventure hook, or provide interesting information (all gold trade bars are to be moved to the imperial treasury at blah-de-blah, which, one wonders if might still have a stockpile of such, all these centuries later...) or relate in some way to the current adventure (such as a sentence of death upon some legendary traitor and his entire family for crimes of surrendering their entire bloodline to infernal powers in perpetuity, in exchange for sorcerous power, which, it turns out, fits the description of a sorcerer you may have met recently...).
Another adventure hook might be that the PCs find it, inspect it and figure out what it is and where it's from. "Just an old book from a city that's dead as dreams..." the researcher PC says. JUST as they're realizing that a fresh, new decree goes up in the back of the book. The decree can be whatever ominous stuff fits your game but it means that someone/something now sits on the Doomfallen Throne in the lost city and governs there.
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236. The Jaguar, the Librarian, and the Cupboard.
This horror tale of children that pass through a magical cupboard into a world of "horseless carriages," giant stone and glass buildings, and great flying machines. The children are captured by the evil government and sent to school where they are forced to become Accountants, Bankers, and Coders.
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245. The Holy Way By Sir Vara
A small brown book no more than 40 pages long written by well respected Paladin Sir Vara. Written as guide on proper paladin conduct the book focuses on moral quandaries Sir Vara encountered in his many years and most of the book is common knowledge that Sir Vara noted many of his fellow Paladins often forgot. When asked why he wrote the book Sir Vara replied "Too many young Paladins go off into the world full of self righteous arrogance and end up dead or worse, fallen. I'm just trying to pass on my wisdom to the next generation."
The foreword written by Sir Vara is widely regarded as the standard to which a paladin of any creed is to live up to. "Forever we serve in peace and in war. It is our duty to shield the meek, and our privilege to be their guide. Remember fellow bearer of the light, our position is more than just as our deities hand of wrath, we are the Shepherds of all that is good in this world. With one hand we strike with righteous furry at those who would threaten our flock and with the other we embrace with compassion the broken and lost."
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251. The Age of Arcana. This tome appears as a well organized treatise of ethical practices of arcane magic and how a ruler can advance civilization through encouraging the public magical education and regulation thereof so that a city-state can sufficiently support itself without a patron deity. However, the word "Librarian" printed in a different handwriting style seems to replace every mention of the author's name.
252. Life Within Pages by Lord San Guine. The book details the usage of blood in everyday rituals and arcane spells. The practices seem surprising benign, if a bit morbid at times. However, whenever the book is opened to page 74, the book oozes a steady stream of crimson fluid that does not damage the volume.
253. Rylai's Golem Kit is actually a wooden box taking the shape of a large green tome. When opened, the box immediately dispenses several runic carved stones that levitate to assemble into a vaguely humanoid form with a missing arm. The small golem stares intently at the one opening the box for one minute before falling apart lifelessly. A small pamphlet included in the box appears stained with an ale, rendering it unreadable.
254. Idle Musings of the Free Spirit by Sees-With-Emptiness. This lovely ornate book consists entirely of blank pages with exception to pages 23 and 47 carrying bawdy graffiti. When one clears their mind of all thoughts, text appears on pages for one hour, each page having a sweet poem of nature and the daily life of a sorcerer living in the wilderness.
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255. A Matter of Some Urgency This obscurely titled treatise is a scholarly body of work that cites numerous archaeological discoveries, linguistic anomalies, historical precedents and even some anatomical dissections of cadavers to lay out a surprisingly cogent case that an unpopular human ethnicity are descended from fiends, or have aberrant blood from infiltration by dopplegangers, or something similar. The text repeats occasionally that members of this ethnicity are not doomed to be evil, or necessarily inclined to betray more pure-blooded humans, but that they are more susceptible to the machinations of their sinister ancestors, and that some are indeed fully in league with them, seeking to undermine human society, to turn it to the service of their secret 'fathers.'
While quite persuasive, the author was possessed by a fiend, and penned the text merely to justify and inflame racial prejudice in his target audience, and there's nothing more than coincidence made to sound more sinister (such as comparisons of various words in the ethnic dialect with similar sounding words in Aklo, 'proving' that the ethnic tongue is a derivative of some aberrant language).
Follow up volumes exist, but are rant-filled screed, likely to turn off anyone not already a total racist, and lacking any of the reasonable sounding prose of the original work (written by the same author, *after* his time of possession ended, he was in fact converted to screaming racism after reading 'his own' original book, and convinced that, since he doesn't remember writing a word of it, that it must have been divinely inspired, with himself the chosen vessel of the gods to warn humanity of this hidden threat, and the need to purge anyone with their blood for the good of mankind).
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270. The Ladysmith Guide to Etiquette is guide to manners, etiquette, and proper behavior and attitudes for the up and coming young lady. When read by or to a young miss, the subjects finds its advice on fashion and makeup to be so entirely engrossing they hardly notice that they are being shaped into a promising young lady that any parent would be proud to introduce into proper society. It has proven to be a universal curative for inappropriate attitudes and interests, rebellious behavior, and unfortunate romantic attachments.
271. An unnamed red, leather-bound tome. Inside the tome are pages upon pages of drawings of mouths. When the pages are rapidly flipped, the drawings of the mouths appear to move as if speaking (through the magic of flip-book animation) and the character that is flipping the pages can hear a voice whispering a secret to them. Each time they flip the pages, they will hear a different secret.
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272. The Medieval Prometheus
This book tells the story of an alchemist and the flesh golem he created.
273. Monster Hunting by Hansel and Gretal Van Helsing
Tricks of the trade for the professional monster hunter.
274. The Tear-Away Scroll Book
A spellbook whose pages can be torn out to be used as scrolls. They lose their power 1 turn after being torn from the book and cannot be put back in.
275. The Eldritch Picture Book
A book that does not have writing but very simple child-like pictures and diagrams that still somehow seem to convey detailed information. Only the first few pages have drawings, which explain how to use the book. Users can draw in the other pages but not write; any words that are written in the book simply flow off the page. This book allows illiterate characters to use the book as a spellbook or formulae book.
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276.Maia's Very Special Coloring Book This book is a coloring book filled out with crayons and glitter by a ten year old girl named Maia (the name is written in the corner in crayon and on the inside of the first page). Each page has a drawing that depicts an episode in the actions leading to the end of the world. Of course the pages are put together in random order and with no written commentary explaining the specifics.
277. Zuddiger's Picnic
The little grey book of Phrenology. Contains dozens of pages on analyzing the bumps on/shape of a persons head in order to determine their personality/propensities. Claims to be able to infalibly determine an individuals alignment through examination.
279: The adventures of Hoyle: Turns out it's a deck of many things in book form.
280. The Style of Adventure
This average-sized catalog is bound in finely tanned elk's hide that has been dyed a tasteful green. Inside the content is art and commentary on the fashion of clothing paired with any adventurer's gear, armaments and lifestyle. There are chapters devoted to each individual class and then broken down by Male and Female, outerwear and underwear, and by season.
The only drawback to this tome is that it only includes humans. It was penned and inked by one Madame Elvira Teska, a famous clothier and notorious racist who uses the text to prove the superiority of human physique and body type to all other common races. If the tome is studied and emulated however by a human or a PC disguised as a human they receive a +2 to Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate checks when dealing with other humans. This requires the procurement of clothing of at least 20 GP worth and 1 hour of study with this book.
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281. The Book That Reads You!
This book is empty (apart from a short introduction), but fills up with the surface thoughts of whoever starts to read it.
281. The Book That Reads You!
This book is empty (apart from a short introduction), but fills up with the surface thoughts of whoever starts to read it.
In Soviet Golarion, book reads you?
In Soviet Golarion, book reads you?281. The Book That Reads You!
This book is empty (apart from a short introduction), but fills up with the surface thoughts of whoever starts to read it.
In Discworld Golarion, book reads you!
.... and vampire pumpkin sucks you!
282. The long awaited sequel. Zuddiger's Summer Vacation Zuddiger's summer vacation doesn't quite go as planned, as he ends up on the Elemental Plane of Fire.
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283. On the Nature of Dwarves... by Jeb Surleygut. Details the controversial theory that dwarves, aka "tall gnomes," are really the descendants of a particularly careful mating between a stone giant and a gnome. Covers physiology of the tall gnome, as well as their attraction to human women and their obsession with being droll. Currently a #1 All-Time Best Seller from Bombardier Beetle Press. Get it today!
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284. A fantasy, discrediting Jeb Surlygut's On the nature of his research credentials A collaborative study and chapter by chapter debunking by the Dwarven High Council and Gnome Annual Parliament (members listed in separately published addendum).
A rather interesting read, far more than Jeb's effort to shoehorn his belief with logical fallacies. The dwarves' straight forward debunking mixed in with an occasional rant regarding Jeb's personal family tree, interspersed with the gnomes' overly technical explanation of impossibilities but if it were true then the... followed by a digressing regret of not being invited to these parties reference.
Folded just inside the jacket cover is a flyer: Request for information regarding the break-in and vandalism of Bombardier Beetle Press.
The footnotes alone read like a
285. Whose Who of Important Blowhards. Movers, shakers and money-makers of Golarion. An annual publication.
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286. An Easy Guide to Dwarven Familial Relationships
This 1000 page book explains the relationships between family members in Dwarven clans. Everything from father to first adult male child; to father's third daughter's husband's mother's brother's father's sister's daughter's...
290. Introduction to the Principles of Metamagic Theory: A Mathemagical Approach
This appears to be a particularly thick textbook of the type used by wizards the world over as they learn their art. However unlike most textbooks on this subject this one teaches a method of describing spells and metamagic feats as mathematical functions and operators which can be combined and cast. While containing much tedious calculation this method is ultimately a better way to commit spells to parchment. Using this book as a reference while making across allows a spellcaster to add a metamagic feat to a scroll, increasing the spell level by one less than usual.
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294. Of Mice and Men Transmuter's guide to polymorphed psychology. A collaboration of two transmuter wizards who were sick and tired of the debauchery, graft and corruptness of the seaside city and immediate vicinity they lived. The writing tells how the offenders were selected, what they became and if their animus subsided with their new animal type.
While the city remains unnamed, there are enough clues to point to a local area undergoing a renaissance of sorts.
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296. Fresh off the Bombadier Beetle Presses comes the thrilling follow-up to On the Nature of Dwarves..., Why I'm Better than You. Jeb Surleygut's rousing autobiography follows him from his early adventuring days, through his famed ransacking of a temple of Norgorber, and into his career as a celebrity mage and scholar. Critics rave on its subtle critiques of the Human industrial complex and the Tall-Gnome new world order conspiracy. Get your copy today! ISBN #123456-789-1011. MSRP 1 silver 6 copper.