Tome of the Unicorn The Tome of the Unicorn is a large book . It is 2 feet broad , 3 feet high and more than 4 inches thick . The pages of the Tome are polished plates of electrum and a casual observer might think that they are blank . If the observer concentrates on the Tome , the contents will show , written in Thorass and they will be visible for some time . History of the Tome . Legends claim that the Tome of the Unicorn was once made by the mage - king of Iltkazar . His Majesty , the most - Mighty Emperor Shoon VII of the Shoon Empire created the book . It is also said that the book contains many unique spells , including means to create a permanent gate between planes of existence , the means to construct golem armies , and necromantic spells that could animate and control whole graveyards of undead soldiers . It gained its name from its gruel construction . To finish it and preserve its final enchantments , Shoon bathed the metal book plates in the blood of 12 slaughtered unicorn s in the Year of Mourning Horns . He had to destroy an elven tribe , who guarded the unicorns , so that both evil acts brought him the eternal enmity of elves and druids across Faerûn . Twelve years later , in the Year of Shying Eyes , Shoon faked his own death . Without distractions of ruling his empire , he achieved lichdom three years later . He planned to rule his empire from behind the throne . To the blessing of the Realms , his attention to his magic and lack of attention to his empire during his lifetime , and his daughter ' s and great - grandson ' s poor management skills , helped usher in the empires collapse only 33 years after his death . But Shoon had still his secrets and safeholds of his empire and kept his Tome with him , to prevent losing it to the Iryklathagra , the blue dragon , who stole his unicorn - horn Staff a century before . It is not much known about the whereabouts of the Tome during the next 700 years . Elven historians assumed that Shoon fled to safeholds in the ruins of Deep Shanatar or his dungeons beneath the Imperial Mount of Shoonach . At some point during that time his form degenerated into a demilich . His skull remained but was now imprisoned within the last page of the Tome of the Unicorn . Whether Shoon was the engineer of this fate or he was confined there by an enemy is unknown . In the Year of the Skulk the Tome was seen in Baldur ' s Gate , where it was in the possession of Bhaernom Khreyt , an expert on the Shoon Empire . But his ship , the Wave Wizardess , sank with the loss of all hands on its way to the Moonshaes later that year . The book turned up in royal hands of Ruathym in the Year of Azure Blood . It remained there , until it was stolen in the Year of the Prince by Shond Tharovin . He managed to speak with the demilich and made a pact with him . In exchange for the souls of seven people to be consumed by Shoon , the lich would tell him where he could find the artifact known as Living Gem . Shond arranged a waylaid for a caravan through the Cloud Peaks and the elf Zallanora Argentresses was with them . Shoon was released from the Tome and began to feed upon the souls . As he advanced on Zallanora , the Time of Troubles began warping magic in mysterious ways . The two beings switched spirits . Shoon got the body of the elf and was freed from imprisonment and Zallanora became the skull . After that the emperor and Tharovin destroyed all traces of that what happened there . Shoon kept his word and told the mage where the Gem was hidden . For the next ten years the now lich - turned elf learned to live in the changed Realms , where there was almost no trace of his old empire . He hid the Tome of the Unicorn in a safehold under the ruins of Shoonach , which he visits once every month to check for its security . The spirit of Zallanora is still within , despairing and going mad . It is unlikely that someone will find the Tome and so the truth about Shoons return to the living because the dungeon is well guarded by monsters and traps a 36th level necromancer can think of . Contents . The Tome of the Unicorn has 23 spells , one to a page : " charm person " , " darkness " 15 ’ radius , ESP , " scare " , " dispel magic " , " charm monster " , " fear " , " fire trap " , " polymorph other " , " wizard eye " , " animate dead " , " death spell " , " duo - dimension " , " phase door " , " statue " , " clone " , " glassteel " , " permanency " , " power word , blind " , " trap the soul " , " gate " , " imprisonment " , " power word , kill " . The remaining pages functions as a manual to create iron golem s and stone golem s . The gate spell on page 21 includes also instructions on how to make it a permanent gate and which components are needed for achieving this . The imprisonment and power word : kill spells on the following pages are part of a curse of the book . Every time one of these pages is perused , there is a 7 % noncumulative chance that the reader will suffer imprisonment as per the spell . Also the inside of the front cover contains some enchantement . It is a protective spell turning magic has been cast upon it . The back cover houses an extradimensional space in which the demilich resides . Each time the book is opened there is a 9 % chance that the lich is summoned and attacks the user . If someone concentrates on the back cover the chance for summoning it is 100 % . The demilich appears as a flying skull over the pages of the book . The lich will also appear if the book takes some amount of damage . If the tome would be destroyed the lich will be freed from it and its physical remains become stationary at the point of the Tome ’ s destruction . At the time when Shoon was still bound to the book he was only interested in draining souls . When he drained it he normally returned to the Tome , but if someone still concentrated on the back cover he would have stayed and continued with his attacks . He never spoke unless he was respectfully addresses as Emperor or if someone used the spell " speak with dead " , ESP or used telepathy on it . Shoon was a cynical , cold - blooded , uncaring creature conversing calmly in a deadpan tone , even while attacking . Now that Zallanora resides in it as a demilich the situation differs . She is nearly gone mad with fear and despair . The skull will move quickly and nervously , her speech is rapid and raw with panic . She does not understand what happened to her and is horrified by her “ new ” body and what it can do . Unless someone talk her to a semblance of calm , she randomly howls or drains souls . She even does not go back to the Tome , once freed , and continues howling until either dead or another force releases her . Shoon in her old body believes she might even be able to drain his soul and this may return their spirits to their proper bodies . Something he wishes not to happen . There are enchantements placed on the book which allow the demiliches to use stealspell to gain spells from the mind of any person who touches the Tome of the Unicorn , no matter how brief a contact was . Stealspell is not hampered by unconsciousness , insanity , anti - magic shell , mind bar , or similar magical or psionic protections . The spell transfer takes place immediately , but the stolen spell is chosen randomly .