To be fair Baba Yaga is from Earth and not in a adapted from folktales manner she's literally from Earth and there's at least one AP and Scenario you visit Russia in. So books from at least the 1920's and earlier are fair game for someone to have brought them over. Add in the scepter of ages and you could have books that are yet to be printed in our world.
To be pedantic, she very much is adapted from folktales, and is 'literally from Earth' in the sense that the folktales she's adapted from are literally from the real world Earth or she is from a fantasy version of Earth.
Golarion's history and APs have no impact on the Thunder Rift's history (most probably set in Mystara) history, so how Earth books might get to Golarion is irrelevant to the books found in the 'library' on the Flying Dutchman in "In the Phantom's Wake".
682. Fifty Shades of Green. This foul tome contains the only known example of troll smut. A Suggestion trap forces whoever touches the tome and fails their will save starts to read it until either the spell expires or until they finish reading the book.
To be fair Baba Yaga is from Earth and not in a adapted from folktales manner she's literally from Earth and there's at least one AP and Scenario you visit Russia in. So books from at least the 1920's and earlier are fair game for someone to have brought them over. Add in the scepter of ages and you could have books that are yet to be printed in our world.
To be pedantic, she very much is adapted from folktales, and is 'literally from Earth' in the sense that the folktales she's adapted from are literally from the real world Earth or she is from a fantasy version of Earth.
Golarion's history and APs have no impact on the Thunder Rift's history (most probably set in Mystara) history, so how Earth books might get to Golarion is irrelevant to the books found in the 'library' on the Flying Dutchman in "In the Phantom's Wake".
/bored-at-work response
No I mean in the pathfinder game that specific version of Baba Yaga is from Earth, its even a destination on her hut. My point being that in the pathfinder world Earth is a real planet in another system and there are multiple beings who have been there or come from there so books from earth history are perfectly valid. As for DnD I do know there's at least one occasion that Elminster and I think Kelben met in a London cafe to discuss things in relative privacy.
683. Marta Druid's Beginner's Guide to Gardening. On the cover is the author, a middle-aged smiling blonde human woman, working in the garden. Penned by an urban druid, this book gives all sorts of tips and tricks for the beginning gardener. It covers everything from seasons, watering the garden, potted plants all the way to herb storage. The main benefit of the book is that an untrained gardener, with this book, can gain a +4 bonus on Profession (herbalist) checks for the purposes of growing and storing herbs and vegetables, as well as checks to make money every week if selling their beautiful plants.
To be fair Baba Yaga is from Earth and not in a adapted from folktales manner she's literally from Earth and there's at least one AP and Scenario you visit Russia in. So books from at least the 1920's and earlier are fair game for someone to have brought them over. Add in the scepter of ages and you could have books that are yet to be printed in our world.
To be pedantic, she very much is adapted from folktales, and is 'literally from Earth' in the sense that the folktales she's adapted from are literally from the real world Earth or she is from a fantasy version of Earth.
Golarion's history and APs have no impact on the Thunder Rift's history (most probably set in Mystara) history, so how Earth books might get to Golarion is irrelevant to the books found in the 'library' on the Flying Dutchman in "In the Phantom's Wake".
/bored-at-work response
No I mean in the pathfinder game that specific version of Baba Yaga is from Earth, its even a destination on her hut. My point being that in the pathfinder world Earth is a real planet in another system and there are multiple beings who have been there or come from there so books from earth history are perfectly valid. As for DnD I do know there's at least one occasion that Elminster and I think Kelben met in a London cafe to discuss things in relative privacy.
Indeed. Like the retrieval of the Mace of St. Cuthbert from the British Museum, the Flying Dutchman being trapped in the Thunder Rift, Elminster, Raistlin/Dalamr and Mordenkainen regularly visiting Ed Greenwood, Immortals visiting New York for some nebulous reason, the people Imaskar kidnapped to be slaves in the Realms, etc.
684. 10 Shades of Grey
This innocuous grey, leather-bound tome contains only 15 pages. The first five pages contain a treatise and foreword about the powers of neutrality and the balancing of the cosmic scales and other such neutral philosophy and pontification.
The next 9 pages are all summon monster spells (I thru IX). These spells can only be used to summon Neutral creatures. Even feats or other effects that would change a summon to an aligned creature cannot alter this.
This book functions and identifies as a book of infinite spells, though the first 5 pages can always be opened and read, regardless of the last spell page turned to.
The Curse:
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The book is cursed. Within 12 hours of casting a spell from this tome, typically around noon, midnight, dusk, or dawn, a number of shadows (CR 3) are called to the area near the caster and move unerringly towards them and attack. Typically arriving within one minute, they can always sense the caster's direction in the way that a familiar senses its master, though there is no such sensation in the other direction. The number of shadows equals the number of creatures summoned by the caster with the book since the last calling. This means using a summon monster IV to call 1d4+1 lesser creatures might result in a larger number than expected for the spell. In the case of summon monster VIII or IX, a greater shadow will accompany the others.
These shadows will have a grey, smoky coloration, rather than a dark or black coloration. This might be the only hint as to the book's connection, since there is no other obvious link to the attacks.
If summon lesser psychopomp was used, such creatures (esobok or nosoi, depending on what was summoned earlier) will appear alongside any shadows. Their goal will be to acquire the tome, attacking the caster if needed, and then immediately flip through the final page, causing the tome to vanish, along with themselves. Since these psychopomps do not like undead, it's likely that they may become distracted, though, since they can't easily harm the shadows directly, this will likely only buy some time for the caster.
If such creatures cannot affect or attack the caster, ie. they teleport away, have deathward against the shadows, etc., they will attack the caster's allies or other creatures nearby.
All such called creatures exist for 3 hours before vanishing unless reduced to 0 hit points or lower, at which point they vanish despite being called.
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685. Planet of the Broken Banner
This leather-bound journal is a treatise on an unnamed planar traveler's visit to the planet Voumia.
Voumia:
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Voumia is a desert planet in a vast solar system with twenty-eight other planets. It's about one-and-a-half times bigger than Golarion and its gravity is about 0.70 times that of Golarion. It has a breathable atmosphere with little climatic or atmospheric activity, with clear, cloudless skies and scarce winds that hardly rustle the gray desert sands or ruins scattering the landscape.
A single day lasts 24 hours and a year lasts 112 days. The planet is made up of 10 continents, which make up 20% of the planet's landmass. The rest is vast salt oceans of intense salinity. There is a small polar cap at the planet's southern pole, though the writer did not visit it or describe how they were aware of it.
Four moons orbit the planet and Voumia orbits a red sun in a circular orbit.
It offers a uniquely breathtaking view in the night sky of nearby planets. The numbers and proximity of the other twenty-eight planets and Voumia's four moons lights the night up with colors, especially the other planets with atmospheres and the ones composed of different color rock.
While life is scarce, there's ample evidence that this planet was home to or colonized by a civilization the writer calls, the Blaamrott. While the scattered ruins of cities were made of stone, they were made of smooth, flowing construction, rather than blocks or bricks. The remains of alloyed metal implements, tools, and machine parts survived and were noted.
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The Broken Banner:
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The writer describes one monument that they discovered, which they based the name of this journal on. In a large, central plaza of a ruined city, surrounded by hollowed walls of buildings and empty sand streets stands what they termed, 'The Broken Banner'.
Described as an immense, 30-storey metal pylon the width of a keep's tower with a similarly thick T-section crossbar at the top, it once rose into the clear sky above. A massive, 20-storey high banner (approx. 220 feet), hung from it like a great sail that shone silver in the night and gleamed with pearlescent reflection in the day.
The banner support was snapped at about two-storeys up and had fallen sideways, with one of the support driving into the surrounding desert sand like a pickaxe and leaving the banner draped over at an angle.
The writer also sketched an illustration, detailing the appearance of the monument and described a sense of impending duty, determination, and pride while within a mile of the banner.
They described touching the banner where they could reach and noting a sleek, metallic feeling and that it resisted tearing and cutting and detected of indeterminate magic.
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After reading this book, attempts to [planetary] teleport or plane shift (depending on where it is) to the vicinity of the Broken Banner are greatly improved and much more likely to be on target or closer than normal for such magics.
686. The Great Gnomish Book of Bindings and Cordage by Jenjafog Tesempest
This copper-bound book is written in Gnomish and the pages are a thick, durable construction.
The book has over 100 pages containing descriptions and pages of notes on various methods for creating, weaving, binding, or working with numerous forms of yarn, string, rope, and cordage. There are sketches and drawings of various knots, loops, and wrappings, as well as the differences between cord and string and how to splice or repair each.
Anyone able to reference this book, gains a +2 competence bonus to Craft checks to make rope, cord, string, or yarn, as well as a +2 competence bonus to Use Rope checks to splice, tie or untie knots.
The final five pages (except for the very last blank page describing what they are ) are actually made from a linen-cloth construction and seem to be coated with a waxy, alchemical concoction with wax paper inserts between them to prevent sticking or soaking through.
Alchemical treatment:
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If someone runs a length of rope or cord across one of the coated pages, typically by uncoiling or stretching it out and closing the book around it and drawing or rubbing it down the length, that material gains 1 hardness, makes saves as a magic item, and gains 5 hit points. Additionally, the coating is slightly stickier, granting a +1 equipment bonus to Climb checks while using it. This treatment lasts up to one month unless the rope is stored in a preservative or sealed location. For unknown reasons, this has no effect on other objects, like clothing or bags, even those made from hemp or yarn.
Each of the pages can treat up to 50 feet of rope at a time. It need not be a single length, it could be five 10-foot lengths, but once the wax sheet is peeled away and the page used, all the alchemical solution on the page must be used within a short time before it becomes inert. A page can be retreated with a solution by a knowledgeable alchemist (DC 20 Alchemy check and 100 gp in materials; one day of work per page).
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687: The secret testament of Clover the Clever.
It's in Old Ponish. It's a very old scroll. If you can read it, it describes a ritual for summoning a deity, specifically the 3 sisters. Further encoded is the true names of Celestia, Luna, and Opaline. It continues with Clover's instructions for altering the ritual to banish a deity or artifact to other planes of existence. It ends with Clover's admonishment, that the scroll will be banished for the good of Equestria. This item is based on head cannon and the true names will vary from game worlds to game worlds.
It's in Old Ponish. It's a very old scroll. If you can read it, it describes a ritual for summoning a deity, specifically the 3 sisters. Further encoded is the true names of Celestia, Luna, and Opaline. It continues with Clover's instructions for altering the ritual to banish a deity or artifact to other planes of existence. It ends with Clover's admonishment, that the scroll will be banished for the good of Equestria. This item is based on head cannon and the true names will vary from game worlds to game worlds.
I was wondering about Opaline till the last line.
688: The book of truth.
Despised by many as a cursed tome the book of truth unlike the more commonly known and used true seeing spells that strip away illusions from the world around the caster instead strips away illusions in the casters mind. Many a reader has been broken as the countless lies and self-deceptions people create around their actions are stripped away and they are forced to confront the cold harsh reality of who they are from the perspective of a remorselessly objective and unbiased observer who will not allow such things as "It was for the greater good" or "I choose the lesser evil" or even "It wasn't my fault" to alter their judgement. Few beings are able to look back over a lifetime and not feel . . . shame at all the petty, self serving and hypocritical actions they took when it was easier.
689. The Clever Confessions of Cleaver the Kobold.
Written in Venerable Ponish on a very, very old scroll. If you can read it, it describes the experiences of a clever kobold with a cleaver. It has recipes for making cornbread and mulligan stew. It also talks about the secret life of chefs and the secret society in which they gather, utilizing cabalistic powers that let them access the 'Great Banquet Hall' through portals they create in their stoves and fireplaces when no one's around.
It contains a ritual that will open a portal in a fireplace or stove. If the first person entering isn't a chef or baker (Profession: Chef, cook, or baker of 4 or higher or Skill Focus in one of those), they end up inside an extradimensional, giant oven with heated iron sides. If they can break through a wall (hardness 10, 25 hit points) or kick open the door (Str DC 18) they return to their starting point. Otherwise, they cook or eventually starve. Chefs and bakers end up in the Great Banquet Hall, but most prove their worth by creating a masterful work of culinary excellence before the representatives assembled therein.
670. Cleaver the Kobold. This book has a scaly leather cover and detect magic reveal an aura of transmutation. It begins with the kobold protagonist hatching from an egg, their apprenticeship under a chef, their very first cleaver, from which they were named, and their entire life, ending with their death due to a horrible cooking mishap on the last page. An Intelligence check notices that this last page is written in a different hand, and the narrative seems to conflict what was going on on the penultimate page, where Cleaver was serving a fine meal of breaded shrimp to an irritable Arclord.
A Dispel Magic (CL 17) causes the book to transform back into Cleaver the Kobold, who has been trapped in book form, victim of a polymorph spell cast by the displeased Arclord, who turned out to be allergic to shellfish...
Depending on if the Arclord wrote the last page, he probably didn't describe it as 'a fine meal of breaded shrimp'. More like... 'Cleaver tried to make a meal from shellfish... but slipped and fell on a pile of chef's knives and rolled into the fire and died. Don't cook with shellfish.'
Possibly a final entry in that hand about a proposed recipe for how to cook a book, not in reference to accounting.
691. Hatred Without Glory
A war journal and treatise of a half-orc mercenary, Jormung Heavyfist, about the mercenary company, The Gory-filled Tusks, he was a soldier in and the 1 year contract they entered into to serve as soldiers and fight in the war between Hell and the Abyss. He doesn't specify for whom or which side. There's stories of towns on border planes and battles with imps, lemures, and other countless hordes of of creatures and others pressed into service on one side or the other. He talks of the rewards and the horrors and the companions lost. Ultimately he talks about surviving and the nightmares that he's trying to come to terms with by sharing them in writing.
