Full Item Description
Bound in leather taken from an elf maiden and inked with the blood of a tempter demon, the Hexakosioihexekontahexacron is a dook of damnation. The book contains 6 spells, and additional notes concerning the nature of fear, death, and destruction. The book radiates moderate magic, and has a Fear Effect on it. Average humans (read - stock NPCs) will feel dread in the presence of the book and will have to make a willpower check to remain in close proximity to it. The average PC should notice the fear effect, but unless very low level should not be overly affected by it.
History
The Hexakosioihexekontahexacron was originally penned almost six centuries ago drawing upon ancient and obscured lore gained through use of the Minions' Murmers spell. It is almost certain that the original copy of this book has long since been destroyed by secular powers or ecclesiastic authorities, the book continues to appear from time to time. The book itself has no special curse drawing back to the land of the free and living. Rather it has a patron spirit, a demon of dark magic, that continually inspires new infernal magi to pen the dark works of the book. Thus the book continues, and the black spells it contains though often forgotten for generations, are never really lost.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The Hexakosioihexekontahexacron is protected by a charm of basic Preservation to limit the effects of time and rough handling on the book. It also has absorbed a bit of the evil essence of the spells penned within, and thus radiates Fear, causing most animals and humans to avoid the book on a subconscious level. This also functions as a weak beacon for necromancers and other evil magi and spirits who want to find the book.
The Six Spells
Planar Phthisis
Many wizards and druids rely on the power of creatures summoned from the planar realms to fight battles for them. These creatures are strong, resilient and even when defeated they can be recalled at a later date after their essence reforms. This noxious spell ignites, wrapping an extra-planar creature in crackling bands of black lightning that jags deep into the plasmic 'flesh' of the summoned beast, destroying it and consuming it's power. The violence of this destruction is felt by the wizard who summoned the planar beast so destroyed, often manifesting as flash burns, ruptured blood vessels in the eyes and other injuries. A weakened wizard cna be slain by this spell if the summoned creature was especially large and powerful, or if the wizard's familiar is destroyed with this brutal spell.
This spell was more common some centuries ago when summoned beasts were a common sight in duels between wizards and in battles. Though expensive in terms of casting materials and difficulty, the introduction of the Phthisis spell curtailed excessive use of such summoned monstrosities and horrors.
Sudden Death
This spell was outlawed by the councils of magi almost immediatly after it was discovered. While many spells that claim to cause death actually snuff out the life force of a creature or person, Sudden Death is a physical and spiritual flaying spell. Faster than a bolt of lightning, the subject of the spell suffers injuries and soul lacerations equivalent to being dropped unprotected into the thrid ring of hell. The corpses of said victims are bloody and completely devoid of skin and hair. Those who survive this awful spell weep blood for days or even weeks afterwards and wear scars from the ordeal both in their souls and their flesh.
Created by an exotic combination of portal and temporal magics, this spell was the product of a laham, a half demon, who used it viciously against other mages until he himself was slain with a stolen copy of his own spell.
Extirpate
Few things are as precious to a mage as his spells and spellbook, and few spells are as hated as the arcane spell of Extirpate. While not a counterspell in it's own right, it is from the rare school of magic spells that target not other creatures, but target other spells. This spell eradicates all vestiges of a spell from another mage, erasing it from his memory and turning those pages of his spell book blank. Unlike most evil spells, this spell was created by the enemies of necromancers and diabolists who wished to deprive their foes of their most potent magics. THe problem was that not being a counterspell, most who knew this spell originally were slain and the secrets of Extirpate were gained by those that were supposed to be the victims of it.
Calling upon the void should not be done lightly, and that is the ultimate source of this spell's power. Spells consumed by Extirpate are lost utterly and in the case of unique spells are gone forever and cannot be researched again. However, this destruction of magic is confined to the victim of the spell, and his possessions. It does not destroy all incarnations of said spell in creation, just on the mage in question.
Damnation
One of the most powerful of black spells, Damnation opens a portal to the void hundreds of feet wide. This gaping hole in creation sucks the life essence, the very soul from everything in it's vicinity destroying even the wicked soul that cast the spell. Created as a counterpoint to the cold and remorseless powers of Judgement and Celestial Law, the introduction of this spell left tore swaths through entire populations, exterminated cities and left entire nations living in mortal terror of mages. Eventually attrition and a stronger sense of self-preservation saw this spell vanish out of circulation.
For many years the authoritarian and puritanical regimes had ruled the entire land, and when they faced stiff opposition, that opposition and some of their own fighting it were wiped out by a Celestial Spell of Judgement that killed everyone in it's blast radius. Unlike Damnation, this power caused those souls so removed from their mortal coil to move on to their judgement, reward, punishment or reincarnation as the case would be.
Minions' Murmurs
The dead are always willing to speak to the quick, as they call the living. A taxing spell to cast, the benefits often outweigh the casting cost of this spell. Spilling his own blood to summon the shades of necromancers and long dead wizards the magus who cast this spell is able to trade his own vitality in exchange for sorcerous knowledge.
It is known that the Hexakosioihexekontahexacron itself was penned through the use of this spell, as many of the spells it contains have been long since lost or actively erased from magical knowledge. Mages who learn this spell are often walking masses of pale scar tissue with eyes stained black by the endless whispers of the dead and the damned.
Summon Keeper of the Pit
The only spell of summoning in the book, this spell calls upon a dark planar entity, a guardian and wayfarer of souls. Those souls that have been lost or trafficked to the void or to the depths of Hell can be called forth by the Keeper of the Pit, effectively restoring the dead to life, even if their body was completely destroyed. There is a price to pay of course, and that is the Lex Talionis, the law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So that one may live, another must die. Another must take the place of the one being brought back to life.
The Brotherhood of the Unsheathed Dagger lasted far longer than any other diabolic cult, mostly because it's four founding members effectively survived over 400 years be constant use of this spell. When one would perish, they others would summon the Keeper of the Pit and secure their fellow's release with an offering of blood. The Cult was finally ended when the four founders were all captured and executed simultaniously and their remains buried in salt.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is the fear of the number 666.
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? Responses (15)
I think if I had this spellbook I would not cast from it unless I really needed to.
Makes sense in a D&Dish game, otherwise I see no use for it.
I liked the Minion's Murmurs though.
How is that Manfred? Extirpate might be too D&Dish in its mechanics,
but what is wrong with an evil book of spells?
My biggest problem with some of them is the power level, though one can easily tone these down. I like the tone and the mechanics, but the power level is a little over the top.
Nothing bad about 'evil' spellbooks, unless they just contain bad and badder spells. For a powerful evil necromancer, I would look more for useful spells than just cruel and vicious (okay, true, those are fun too :) ).
Reconsidering Moon's note, the sponsor demon isn't a bad thing. But then there should be probably more spells, or more important ones... or is it because it provides access to even darker knowledge?
Good solid Evil Book. The spells are not 100% to my taste, but I can see their use. I like the book itself and the guardian demonic spirit of the book. Thus the book is eternal because most people don't know the demonic spirit will make sure there are always copies out there.
I'll tell you the real reason I wrote out this book.
There isn't a format for submitting spells in the Citadel. They are a vital part of magic and the fantasy genre, but I've never pushed for any sort of spell submission category since my experience on other sights generally plays out that the spell category is generally filled with munchkin garbage.
Hmm, this sounds like a good idea for a Scroll to me. What makes more sense then recording spells on Scrolls? :)
Munchkin spells can be pummelled via the 'remove XP' votes until they are removed :)
Is it necessary to pound on Munchkinesque spells? I think that some of the worst items that this site has seen have inspired the most interesting discussions about how to 'rehabilitate' them.
Of course, before you pick up the book, you'll need to recite the mystic phrase...
'Klaatu, Varada... Ni... Nick... Um...'
Not a bad little book of damnation, but the spells within are awfully potent. I'd like to see more of the little 'cantrips of evil'.
Now that sounds more like it. Will you make a Scroll?
(Oh, and on the matter of spell lists... we have quite a few already, and Scrolls seem to be the right format for them.)
Scrolls aren't a bad idea, but no, I'll not be making this a scroll. The six spells are somewhat intrinsic to the name of the book.
Beware the coming of the scrolls!
Actually, I was asking about the Cantrips of Evil idea... that sounded neat. :)
666 eh? I like it. Its not revolutionary, as has been mentioned, but you cant have enough detailed examples of eldritch, evil tomes imo.
I like the idea of cantrips of evil.
Good book here Scras, likes it lots.
Well. That's rather...interesting. Methinks I'd like to see counter-spells to some of those, such as the Sudden Death spell. The first one would definitely have a 'Light' version of it, because as every paladin knows, summoned minions are a staple of the evil magi's army.
In a side-note relating to the subject of the 'true reason' for this submission, I was thinking about a certain spell and how to incorporate it into a submission by itself, but wasn't sure how to go about it.
Nice work. I can see an instant inclusion hook involving an evil magi reading the book and the people of a certain town suddenly being flayed alive. How wonderfully good v. evil of a scenario.