The Alcaister (Magic Book)

The Alcaister is a large, russet-colored volume constructed of metal plates covered with burlap or Hessian, tied together with a spine of waxed, intricately interwoven leather thongs (“like the lacings on a lady's high leather riding boot,” according to the sage Nornagrym). To the weaving are sewn 46 pages of the finest thick parchment, each containing a simple magic spell or cantrips-except the last, which bear a curious rune, thus:
and in Common, the word “Kuhoralmintriannas” written in a circle around it. The outer covers bear only the inscription “The Alcaister” burned in small, fine flowing letters in Common, picked out in paints of silver. The book shows only light weathering, but its appearance gives the impression of some age.
The Alcaister is of great antiquity but unknown origin: it was written somewhere in the North by a wizard of good penmanship and some powers at least 600 years ago, when it appears on a merchant's declared “catalogue-of-cargo” before the plague-masters (quarantine officers) of the time, in Waterdeep. It was passed into the city, and presumably sold, Inn does not surface again until brought to the sage Argandus in Baldur's Gate by an adventurer, named Wilund in payment for information as to the whereabouts and uses of the Magical Chessmen of Ultham-Urre. Argandus gave the book to his apprentice Nornagrym for cataloguing and study, and it is from Nornagrym's exacting catalogue that precise details of The Alcaister come.
Nornagrym is believed to have brought the book with him to Waterdeep upon his master's death, where it reposed in his library until his own death, when it vanished again. It was observed by the sorcerer Zemloth of Amn to be in the library of his one-time tutor, Orgoth the Tainted (the same who was later destroyed by three fiend- he had summoned), but was not found when the party of the adventurer Malahuke searched the hidden, untouched tunnels of Orgoth's ruined fortress. Its present whereabouts are a complete mystery, but Zemloth asserts that it must still exist, because he encountered a prestidigitator in a tavern in Zazesspur who employed a sting cantrip (set forth only, as far as Zemloth knows, in The Alcaister). The prestidigitator, one Mavrhune, was involved in a tavern brawl at the time and did not survive it, so Zemloth was unable to inquire where and from whom the cantrip had been learned.
The Alcaister has a tradition of slaying those who read it: as more of the book is studied, the reader grows weaker and weaker, and finally slips into slumber from which he or she does not wake. Nornagrym found the cause of this regrettable side-effect: the edges of The Alcaister's metal pages are coated with a colorless, transparent gummy substance of unknown origin-a contact poison as yet unidentified and seemingly unique. This substance works through skin (a cut is not necessary) and it numbs the senses subtly, so that the victim is not likely to notice its effects. Each contact with (or turning of) a page drains 1 hit point: the body recovers from such damage at normal healing rate. There is also a temporary (1d4-1 turns) loss of 1 point of Strength (18/percentage to 18, 18 to 17, and soon): for every 5 points of damage so suffered. This substance retains its efficacy after many years and resists attempts to remove it, but Nornagrym found that its efforts (assuming one is aware of its presence) can be simply avoided by wearing gloves or by turning the pages with a knife or other aid.
The Alcaister's 46 pages contain the following inscriptions, one to a page: the unique spells Cut, Gallop, and Sting, Affect Normal Fires, Charm Person, Dancing Lights, Erase, Hold Portal, Identify, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil, Read Magic, Spider Climb, Audible Glamer, ESP, Fools' Gold, Locate Object, Magic Mouth, Mirror Image, Rope Trick, Wizard Lock, Clairaudience, Dispel Magic, Flame Arrow, Gust of Wind, Haste, Hold Person, Infravision, Slow, Water Breathing, Charm Monster, Dimension Door, Ice Storm, Remove Curse, Wizard Eye, Bigby's Interposing Hand, Cone of Cold, Feeblemind, Anti-Magic Shell, Death Spell, Geas, Reconstruction (unique spell), Reverse Gravity, Simulacrum, and Body Sympathy (unique spell, commonly known as Death Link in modern times).
: Note: 1e Version of The Alcaister has the cantrip version of Cut (Cantrip), Gallop (Cantrip) & Sting (Cantrip). The Encyclopedia Magica has level 1 versions of these spells.
==The Gate Page==
The last page of The Alcaister (that which bears the rune shown above) is a gate that will shift any creature standing on the rune (or at least touching it), with the book open, while the word written around the rune is spoken aloud by the creature touching the rune or another. This plane shifting occurs regardless of the wishes of the creature touching the rune, and will transport only one living creature (plus all items worn or carried by that creature) at a time to one of the following destinations. The creature being gated must be holding The Alcaister with his or her bare hand as the word of activation is intoned to bring the tome along: otherwise, it remains behind on the Prime Material Plane. (If the gate is used on a plane other than the Prime Material Plane the book will always accompany the creature back.)
Roll 	Resulting Plane
01-48	Prime Material Plane (if used while on the Prime Material Plane, the destination will be an alternate Crystal Sphere).
49-66	Avernus (uppermost layer of the Baator)
67-76	The Outlands
77-88	Mechanus
89-92	The Demiplane of Shadow
93-98	Any one of the five planes of Limbo
99-00	Other (DM's choice)
Category:Spellbooks
Category:Encyclopedia Magica Items