Lore Book: The Edict of Deviltry

The lore book below was created to facilitate a church trial in my Ptolus campaign on the fate of the Ghostly Minstrel of the famous inn named after the spirit…

BE IT PUBLISHED THAT THE SECOND COUNCIL OF DOCTRINE DOTH DECLARE THE

EDICT OF DEVILTRY

The corruption of the arcane knows no bounds. Thus the Council of the High Priests of the Nine issues this CONDEMNATION. The believers must eschew and destroy the worshipers of fiends, hiding amongst us. They must cast down the arcane, removing that which the wizard, warlock, and occultist have profaned by their touch. The faithful must DESTROY the undead in all their forms, and loath the worshippers of the restless dead.

The rest of the document expounds on the theological grounds for the edict, and explains the doctrines of the gods.

The Book of Iron

Lore book for my Ptolus campaign...

This book is made of forged iron plates, joined by rings into a spined book. Its symbols glow with a mysterious white light, similar to the light of the moon. It is the writings of a monk named Sister Ilathira. She writes the tragic story of Mima Goldentongue, and of how her husband, Kedar Goldentongue fought the Disciples of Karcius to attempt to save her. The dark cultists kidnapped her from their inn—the Golden Boar. They sought to sacrifice her to summon their dark lord Karcius from the beyond.

Kedar Goldentongue died defending his inn from the cultists, but was unable to save his wife. However, the ritual failed, and Lord Karcius remains in the Hells. Sister Ilathira speculates that the sacrifice of the husband and wife compelled the gods to prevent the return of dread Karcius. She further notes that the cultists of Karcius are pursuing her, and seek to prevent her from recording this history.

This particular lore book was a crucial clue in an arc involving the party preventing an an over zealous order and inquisitor from exorcising the titular Ghostly Minstrel from the inn of the same name in Monte Cook’s Ptolus setting.

The Lament of Karcius

This dark tome tells of the rise and fall of Lord Karcius, said to be one of the "blessed of demons." The book purports to be the visions of those events recorded by a prophet of the "Potentates Abysmal" named Zecharn. 

Zecharn writes: "First a fiend of the tiniest variety came to me, calling itself Farnasoth. This being extracted greater and greater demands from me for the taste of forbidden knowledge." Finally a being called Jakozark, said to be "of terrible visage, horned and trailing chains with the scent of sulfur and brimstone on the air" dictated the words of Karcius after his death. Now blessed as a "dreadknight of the dark potentates" Karcius awaits his faithfuls' efforts to open a way back to the world for him to reap terrible doom against the hated followers of the Nine.

Lore Book: Battle of the Field of Blood

This lore book was written for my ongoing Ptolus game, but also establishes some of the lore regarding the mortal understanding of fiends in my own setting.

This battered, black leather book relates both a series of lists of commanders and troops in a battle said to have been waged “upon the fields of blood in the circle of envy.” The unnamed author’s descriptions decline in clarity until the latter pages which descent into utter gibberish—perhaps the last ravings of a broken mind.

The initial entries praise the “lords of the entropic hosts,” lauding the “great vision and glory” of their commander, the “cambion son of the great ascended Gnasher of Endless Bones,” a balor said to have slain “a thousand devas of the ill-begotten chorus of wailers.” 

The account of the battle lists “a hundred war chiefs of a thousand legions of the blessed hosts of chaos” arrayed against “the ill favored armies of the infernal pit.” The fallen angel, Dalferion, is noted as the head of this force, with the hell knights “Flegthas, Naras, and the dread knight Karcius” as her lieutenants at the head of these “endless, ant like hordes.”

Lore Book: The Ebon Binding

The following lore book was written for the players in my ongoing Ptolus campaign to provide some in-game lore to the players on the cult of the Ebon Hand, one of the chaos cults operating in Ptolus. 

This large tome of battered leather, with metal reinforced corners and spine seems to contain the book of scripture of the “Ebon Prince.” It speaks of an ancient ritual undertaken to “bring the Ebon one into the world that the darkness might blot out the light” and that the “holy tenebrous city might be exalted once more with tithes of blood and skulls.”

The hand of the Ebon Prince is said to have been cut off when the portal to the “realm beyond understanding” was shut by “the Iron Spike.” The only further mention of this person or entity is a reference to them being placed upon a black spike on the walls of the “desolate city thrown down in lasting shame.”

Scrawling in the last few blank pages of the book includes the words “Crimson Coil” and “Tolling Bell.” The rest is indecipherable.

Ptolus Campaign: Shurnas’ Diary

This lore book was written for my Ptolus campaign. It was found in the lair of a cultist who murdered a colleague of his who also worked at the Imperial University as a lecturer.

Shurnas’s Diary

This small notebook contains scribbles and doodles of the symbol of the Ebon Hand and the Tolling Bell. It contains entries by date. Some discuss Shurnas’ visits to the Temple of the Ebon Hand, including a garbled description of a “maze of confusion” where he found the way guided by “faith in the Ebon Hand, until he obtained its blessing.” It is unclear what this references. 

It speaks further of hearing the true word from someone called "Wuntad," and the word sounding like "the call of the Tolling Bell, signaling the passing away of this realm and the rise of the Galchutt."

Other entries complain about work and colleagues, with particular ire for someone named Uvalius. The entire grow darker in their imaginings off various modes of Uvalius' death. The most recent entry simply states "The job is finally finished," with a large stylized bell.

Lore book: Travails of Nithtari

The following lore book was written for the players in my ongoing Ptolus campaign about the story of St. Nithtari, a religious figure for the Church of the Nine in my own setting. This lore book is intended to provide some interesting stakes and information to the life cleric who is a devotee of the saint.

This slim, leather volume is handwritten, with a few sparse illuminated images in the margins of the story of Nithtari. It speaks of the village of Gravnahein in a high valley of the Stonemourn Mountains, outlining the ancestry of its rulers down to Nithtari, “the bane of the fell workings of her forefathers, and mother to rebirth.” 

It notes the parentage of “horned ones,” derived from foul consorting with fiends that led to this family, worshippers of the “Fell King of the Deep and Outer Dark.” Craven and devoted to power, Lord Karcius, uncle of Nithtari, ruled the village with an iron fist from his fortress, Fanghold. It is recounted that Karcius “knew the evil roads and caves to walk the world of devils and swear his soul face to face.” It is implied a great evil, called only “Liar of the Gibbet,” held power over Karcius, making him an evil knight, empowered but damned for eternity.

The legend is unclear on the details, but notes that Nithtari saved her village from the “unholy tide of Karcius’ follies,” and achieved rebirth as an angel under the power of the “Grim Lord of the Nine.”

The book contains an invocation against evil and undeath,  which can be cast as an action, granting advantage on an attack against a fiend or undead. This property may be used once per day when holding the book in one hand.