Tome of the Raven

**Forbidden Text Entry #17: Tome of the Raven** was a document found in the Vault of the Forbidden Texts located in the Sutherlands Subdivision of the Athenaeum.

## Description

A thin book that bears no title inside or out. Its covers are cracked, unvarnished thin sheets of black oak covered with bird scratches and little indentations made by pecking beaks. Bound with black wire between these covers are thirty-three pages that have yellowed with age and wrinkled from moisture. Each page bears tiny, blotchy brown script written in an unsteady hand by an unidentified author. Its pages flutter and rustle as though stirred by a silent wind.

## Contents

FORBIDDEN TEXT ENTRY #17 - TOME OF THE RAVEN

ENTRY BY: DAKATH QIRORA, CURATOR

ENTRY DATE: 2357 SC

THIS TEXT IS BEING ENTERED INTO THE VAULT DUE TO THE NATURE OF HOW IT WAS RECEIVED. A FORTNIGHT AGO, A RAVEN WAS FOUND OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF THE SUBDIVISION, PECKING ON THE COVER OF THIS BOOK. AN ACOLYTE INTERVENED, SCARING THE RAVEN AWAY WHILE SALVAGING THE TEXT.

IN MY EXPERIENCE, RAVENS ARE SIGNS OF BAD OMENS COME TRUE, OR A LOSS FULLY REALIZED. IN THESE DARK TIMES OF WAR, SUCH OMENS DO NOTHING BUT FURTHER THE SPREAD OF MISERY, AND SO, I DECIDED IT WAS BEST TO ENTER THIS TEXT INTO THE VAULT.

THERE IS ALSO A STRANGE WAY ABOUT THE BOOK, ONE THAT MAKES THE HAIRS ON THE END OF MY NECK STAND UP. NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OF IT BEING LEFT OUT IN THE OPEN. IT WILL BE SAFER THIS WAY.

## Observations

Examining the text, you find that the Tome of the Raven is the firsthand account (written in Elvish) of an anonymous author who, after falling off her horse and breaking her leg, was rescued and befriended by a group of nomadic travelers who graciously nursed her and her daughter back to health. The two were traveling from their village of Glissvault, en route to the northern reaches of the Dominion, following her husband’s death as a result of war. They were in search of knowledge that could help the woman’s sickly daughter.

The author and her daughter traveled with the nomads for three months, during which the author spent most of her time laid up in a covered wagon, tending to herself and her daughter. To pass the time, she took to writing this book. Although a dozen nomads are colorfully described in the tome, only two are mentioned by name: Drasha, a teenaged girl who applied bandages and poultices to the author's wounded leg, and Darzin, a one-armed boy with a terrible fear of wolves who sang beautiful songs to help the author’s daughter take her mind off the pain.

The book provides a detailed account of the nomads’ way of life, with emphasis on their food and music. Their overland journey is also discussed, albeit from the viewpoint of one who spent most of it inside a covered wagon. The author describes rough roads, days of travel across the western reaches of the Dominion, through impenetrable mist and thick forest, crackling fires on cold nights, wolves howling in the dead of night, and ravens pecking at the roof of the wagon in the wee hours of the morning. The ravens, she notes, was now a common occurrence.

Late in the book, the author writes of being better to the point of being able to hobble about on crutches, while her daughter continued to spiral down her illness. She describes the cheery mood of her benefactors as the nomadic caravan traveled a winding mountain road to the gates of a secluded monastery, located below the mountain’s peak. The book ends with a description of the monastery’s shadowy countenance. The writing abruptly stops on the third-to-last page, suggesting that the book was snatched from the author in mid-sentence.

The last two pages are blank.

The nomads that are described in this book are very similar to the Spirit Commune. Some of the information may be outdated now, but some of the food and dance is commonly seen at some of the celebratory feasts during times of veneration.

The book has necromantic magic surrounding it, along with the gray-colored magic that Trey saw in the subdivision and at the firbolg village.