Pa Doden

The Pa Doden is a grimoire created by Kleightus using the souls of prophesised heroes. It could be used as both a standard book, or worn on the face as a mask.

## History

Kleightus first theorised the Pa Doden both as a method of empowering Keisara, and as a weapon to destroy her rival, the rogue eternal.

He altered his demiplane, The Plateau, into a giant magic circle designed for collecting these souls. The plateau's magic functioned using principles of duality.

Kleightus created a number of prototypes of the grimoire, with each failed version being recycled into components for the next version. The grimoire itself was made from the physical manifestation of the harvested souls, making it nigh impossible to destroy without destroying those souls in the process.

Through the process of refining his work, Kleightus also created a number of lesser masks that he gave to Jahegso'n and his goblin followers. These masks were the Mask of the Slasher, and many Masks of the Madman. These masks granted great power but came at the cost of the wearer's sanity.

When the party reached the plateau, Kleightus was ready to create the final version of the Pa Doden, requiring seven final souls to do so. Throughout the party's time there, he harvested the souls of Zed and Taz, using them to make this incomplete work. The party then acquired the incomplete grimoire after their fight with Kleightus. They are currently on their way to a Sacred Cavern of Depnar in Nordmarch to try to free the captured souls. Serra is the bearer of the grimoire.

The party made their way to the realm of Depnar, and Serra requested that Depnar release the souls trapped within, which she did, causing the book to become unmade.

## Effects

The grimoire's effects for the most part depend on the process of studying it. It must be studied for 8 hours a day for 1d2 weeks, followed by a successful DC 20 Investigation check to gain the book's power. One must be able to read Giant to study the book. A failure of this check indicates that something unusual has happened in the studying process, which can result in the grimoire gaining new effects for that particular reader. The act of studying it also causes a permanent Sanity reduction, with a DC 18 Sanity saving throw determining the amount of lost sanity.

Once successfully studied, the book can be attuned to. Once attuned to, the book grants a +1 bonus to all checks involving esoteric knowledge. It also allows the person who studied it to treat the book as a spellbook containing the *Clutch of Nyogtha* and *Wither Limb* spells, allowing them to learn these spells if they are on the person's spell list. The grimoire can also be used to cast these spells once per long rest with a spell save DC of 15.

The book also grants 1 minor beneficial and 1 minor detrimental property rolled on the random properties table in the DMG.

## Destroying the Grimoire

The grimoire can only be truly destroyed once it is complete. When in that state, it must be put on the face of a creature before being cut apart with a magical dagger.

Depnar, instead of outright destroying it, instead released the souls from it, causing the book to be disassembled.