Books, 3 (d100)

An eclectic library of dusty tomes, fictional textbooks, pocketbooks, paperbacks, hardcovers, booklets, leaflets and magical manuals. Paper leaves and the binding surrounding them can help define a character, kick off a subplot, fuel a fetch quest or simply serve as a generic macguffin. Commonly seen in video games such as Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, World of Warcraft and Skyrim, book items are a way to subtly world build while still handing out sellable loot . A wizard has a spellbook, a cleric has a holy text and now you have a trinket list.

d100 Result

1

A thin handbook bound in feline leather entitled “Cat’s Got Your Tongue: A guide to vocal-less spellcasting by Salem”.

2

A popular novel entitled “Eat Pray Cast” written by Spintax The Green. It centers on a middle aged cleric who finds herself newly divorced and travels the planes in search of new foods, ways to commune with her God and channel that energy into her magic.

3

A 300-page rulebook for rock-parchment-scissors.

4

A small handbook about common errors regarding summoning magic titled “So You Accidentally Conjured a Horse” written by Esidor the Blue.

5

A sturdy wood-bound travel cookbook labeled “How to Season a Manticore and Other Monstrous Meals” written by Allen Beige.

6

A sturdy wood-bound picture book, featuring few actual words titled “Controlling your Emotions and Slaying your Enemies: The philosophy of a Barbarian”.

7

A paper-bound harlequin romance titled “When the Love Potion Expires” written by Abigail Vanburen.

8

A nonfictional historical account of the journey of “The Odyssey” as recorded by Homer

9

A rough first draft of the Demonomicon which contains no usable magic, incantations or true names of demons but does contains fragments of demon summoning circles.

10

A heavily ear marked copy of “Socially Acceptable Times to Tell Puns and Jokes”. There are many notes written down along the margins, and some passages are scratched out with the words “ NOT ACCEPTABLE” written above them.

11

A cheap pulp visual novel called “Bronan the Quarterback”

12

A dusty mage’s tome and cookbook titled “Bone Dry: A Culinary Guide to Necromancy”.

13

A twine-bound book called “Much Ado About Knotting: The Many Practical Applications of Rope and Knots”.

14

A strangely warm, leathery tome, entitled “How to Spot a Mimic”. The large book is itself a mimic in disguise and attacks first PC who tries to read it.

15

A book of hideously impractical inventions that would never be used by a sane creature. Chief among the pages is a parachute made of lead, a scalpel made only of rust and a teakettle made of rice paper.

16

A book of smut that has some of its pages stuck together. It’s recommended that this book not be shown to humans under the age of 18, or to gnomes, dwarfs and elves under 100.

17

A small worn book that details etiquette for acolytes of a major religion.

18

A book of myths legends and fairy tales made for children.

19

An elven noble’s journal, detailing his love affair with a goblin barmaid.

20

A flip book that depicts a cartoonish spine devil operating a river boat.

21

A farmer’s almanac with a mysterious bloody stain on the back cover.

22

A cookbook that only holds the phrase “Don’t cook fairies.”, scrawled in blood over and over.

23

An erotic novel that’s written backwards.

24

A book full of jokes about dragons. There are only a handful of good jokes about dragons and dragonkind so the majority of the humor is quite poor taste.

25

A palm sized, canvas bound book filled cover to cover with sketches and paintings of wildflowers, all of which are entirely unfamiliar but entrancingly beautiful.

26

A travel journal with three dried, pressed, daisies on the front that cannot be removed by any means. The journal is otherwise empty and unmarked.

27

A large book containing nothing but lewd sketchings of various humanoid creatures. They are not particularly well done, but the reader can tell that the artist put effort into drawing them.

28

A dirt smudged book outlining the proper first aid procedures for common woodland creatures.

29

A ragged notebook that contains nothing but the same soup recipe, over and over. Every single page is completely filled.

30

A large tome, written in a long-dead language. Some of the pages are stained with a deep red.

31

A dog eared novel about the adventures of a child cast out on their own to take on the world.

32

A wrinkled and mud stained copy of “Clay Vs. Mud; An In Depth Analysis”.

33

A leather handbook with maps and information on famous treasure hordes. Every second page has been ripped out and replaced with drawings of kittens sitting inside of teacups.

34

A ranger’s guide on how to navigate magical forests without falling victim to supernatural traps and lures.

35

A book on magical theory written by a young witch. This book is very easy to comprehend and has useful pictures where applicable but regularly gets off track and covers very little of magical theory.

36

A seemingly untouched booklet on how to avoid quicksand.

37

A large and imposing tome covered in immaculate black leather. The written dedication at the beginning of the book says “For Master. I couldn’t have done it without you.”. When flipping through, the bearer will find that the book is mostly just about proper worship methods with one particularly gruesome section on how to preform blood sacrifice.

38

A large, filthy book with no discernible title on the front. From what can be made out on the pages, (In additional to the horrendous smell) the bearer can deduce that this book has something to do with the proper cleaning and management of livestock pens.

39

A very new looking book with a flawless portrait of a stunning human woman on the front. The book details a man’s lusting and fruitless endeavors on trying to win her affection. A piece of folded paper tucked in the back is written in a woman’s hand, and is addressed to the author. The letter asks that he stays away and stops stalking her, or her husband will have him killed.

40

A detective novel entitled “The 12 Foot Chase”. It is the first of two books.

41

A detective novel entitled “The 12 Hands That Caught the Man”. It is the sequel to “The 12 Foot Chase”.

42

A well worn manuscript for a play in which the villain wins and the hero is made to suffer for eternity.

43

A booklet on how women can be appealing to the male sex. It mostly has diet tricks that consist of eating very little and beauty tips that are supposed to enhance and draw attention to cleavage.

44

A large and very plain looking book with a wolf on the cover. The book is about a man that tried to domesticate a pack of wolves and use them as his body guards. It works out extraordinarily well for him, until one night when they end up eating him instead.

45

A small novel written by a cautious man. The novel tells of an “adventurer” that avoids conflict whenever and however possible, yet somehow ends up winning a large battle when those on his side think he is utilizing a flanking technique, when in reality he is running away.

46

A small and dusty book bound in red leather. It is a bard’s guide on how to cry on queue to get attention from the opposite sex.

47

A book about a compulsive liar that has grand adventures. He claims to be part dragon, but looks human in order to blend in. One of his adventures is how he claimed to be a Duke to sneak into a castle to steal a legendary sword. It turned out to be an ordinary great sword. He would still claim it to be legendary to get free drinks at taverns.

48

A large grey tome covered in a thick layer of dust. The book is nearly incomprehensible due to grammatical errors and no clear line of thought written out. Upon further inspection, the bearer can deduce that the book is written in some sort of code. The code itself is relatively easy however it takes some time to decode the entire book, which when fully deciphered simply says “Fooled you!”.

49

A wood bound book on the hierarchy of ancient gnomish society.

50

A book with a royal blue cover with the title “Behold”. The book contains gruesomely detailed pictures and descriptions on a Beholder dissection.

51

A large and old tome with a grey and battered cover. The book shows a family tree of an ancient elvish household. About halfway through the book a portrait is partially scratched out. There was a marriage between a dwarf and an elf.

52

A book called “Grandma’s Knitting Tricks” The instructions are very hard to follow and the resulting craft will never look how it’s supposed to.

53

A beaten up and tattered journal of an old crone with the words “And Another Thing” written on the front. Every page has a different complaint or controversial point of view written in a very shaky hand.

54

A children’s picture book about a fantastical world in which the grass is orange and the sky is pink.

55

A booklet of horse hoof polishing techniques.

56

An incompetently written, incorrect, and incomplete summary of a kingdom’s judicial system.

57

A haphazardly bound novella about a dwarven spy riddled with grammatical errors. It’s oddly charming.

58

A large tome of misquoted dragon facts and poorly written statements trying to support them.

59

A walkthrough guide on how to cut down a sacred tree in a magic forest without angering the forest spirits.

60

A heavy and perpetually dusty tome that contains the unholy text for a forbidden religion.

61

A gnome size pocket book in immaculate condition. It contains step-by-step instructions, including sketches, on how to make a clockwork fish.

62

An old and worn book wrapped in dark purple leather. It has no title, and the pages are out of order. When held, the bearer’s mind is filled with dark thoughts of curses and causing harm to innocents.

63

A book with a hand painted, pink and flowery cover. It’s in great condition and smells like a meadow. It holds information on how to raise a gentle and kind child. There is a whole chapter on how to lull them to sleep, including soft and beautiful lullabies.

64

An old shop ledger filled with inventory lists. In the back, it has entire descriptions of the regular patrons of the shop, as well as if they were liked and what rumors were going around about them. One particular patron has three pages of rumors about them.

65

A copy of a book that was supposed to have been banned and burned. It describes in fine detail how to embezzle money from a temple of a vengeful war god.

66

A rare book that describes the proper birthing rites, rituals and procedures for orcs. The pages on the delivery are stained with afterbirth.

67

A handy manual written by a dwarf on how to craft the perfect ale that will have the drinker drunk in one pint.

68

A plain dark book filled with black pages that appears to have nothing written on them. When held in the last rays of a setting sun, text appears on the pages and provides instructions on how to perform a ritual burning to an unfamiliar sun goddess.

69

An old, beaten up book filled with hand written text of calligraphy quality penmanship. It holds a story of a husband and wife that did not want children, and if she happened to get pregnant, they would leave the baby in the woods to be eaten by predators. From the tone of the book it appears to have meant to be a heartwarming tale.

70

A book titled “101 Tips and Tricks To Better Organize Your Life”. Most tips are variations of throwing things out and having a mother organize stuff for you.

71

A gruesome journal of a poacher that enjoyed watching the animals he killed suffer. Every hunting story in the journal ends with a page covered in the blood of the animal or being that he killed.

72

A book on the steps needed to filter the water out of blood. The book smells terrible and appears to have dried vomit on it.

73

A how-to book on the correct way to pick several species and subspecies of flowers to keep from hurting the plant.

74

A book depicting a short and a tall humanoid standing side by side on the cover. Inside is a sort of self help manual to make halflings more confident in their size and abilities when around those who are taller.

75

A small flip book showing a cartoon man firing an arrow straight up into the air and impaling an oblivious stander by behind him.

76

An old book showing how to translate an ancient Elvish dialect into modern the Elvish grammar and syntax without losing the nuanced meaning.

77

A partially decomposed and mildewy book. It’s hard to make out what it says for sure, but once the bearer has held it fore more than a few seconds, small mushrooms begin to sprout from any exposed skin that made contact with the book. The fall off naturally after 1d10 minutes or can be removed sooner by magical means. They never cause injury or allergic reaction.

78

A red book of romantic love stories with sketches of half naked men and women dotting the pages. The last five pages of the last story are missing.

79

A cookbook on traditional drow cuisine. There is a poorly written and fairly offensive recipe for “Spider salad” glued into the back.

80

A small handbook in pristine condition entitled “101 Ways to Cook an Ooze”. It contains interesting recipes including gelatinous cube cocktail, ochre apple jelly, and salted pudding

81

A thick book bound in griffon fur entitled “Physiologies of Magical Creatures”. It is filled with diagrams and contains information on the biology of Beholders, Dragons, Unicorns, and more.

82

A bound series of short stories entitled “The Prophecies: Tales of Great Adventures”. Partway through the book, all the pages become blank

83

A small book entitled “How to Spot a Mimic” that provides tips such as listen for breathing, and see if it responds to being touched. A perceptive PC will notice that the book seems to occasionally take the slightest of breaths and shudders ever so slightly when touched.

84

A thin book entitled, “The Intrepid Travels of a Wholly Unqualified Cleric Across Many Oceans to Defeat the Slumbering Dragon: The Expurgated Edition”.

85

A dogeared copy of “Eighteen Practical Ways to Pick a Pocket.”

86

An aged book of the local kingdom’s history. Characters who study the text will find references to a king who has apparently been excised from the modern records.

87

A book that details a list of embarrassing childhood moments. The anecdotes were collected from dozens of different families and are separated into chapters based on type of embarrassment.

88

A guidebook to living with a house full of talking objects.

89

A blue logbook authored by the skipper of a cargo vessel. The various entries detail day to day events the ship encountered and it seems to be fairly mundane until the last few entries wherein several of the crew begin to vanish in the night, without any trace. The last day’s entry skips the usual preamble of date, weather conditions and personal well being, The author’s normally steady handwriting is hurried and sloppy and wrote the following as if he knew he didn’t have long to live: “I have experienced the greatest terror. I see his eyes when I close mine. They are hollow. Black. They saw me and pierced me. His wet hand. I will not sleep. His voice (unintelligible text).”

90

An adventure novel entitled “The Imp’s Prison” which tells the story of a group of children who band together to lure in and trap an imp that has been harassing their small farming village. The children use their charm, wits and bravery to trap the imp rather than arcane magic or divine prayers.

91

A bound set of written texts recording the beliefs of a famous lone wanderer and philosopher. The individual is well-known throughout the world for his beliefs and exploits but it was previously unknown that he had committed any of these things down on writing.

92

A manifesto of a burgeoning religion that worshiped the demons as gods. Although this religious movement was thought to have died out long ago, this appears to be a freshly printed copy of their beliefs with information referencing recent events in history.

93

A translation manual that teaches the basics for a long lost language. The guide assists the reader in translating basic words and phrases from the lost language into a commonly known language. This manual has significant values in archaeological and research circles.

94

A hand-written guide by a purportedly self-taught mage on how to manifest and nurture magical powers. Although the information is not grounded in traditional mage principals, anyone with knowledge of the magic will recognize some validity to the methods being discussed. The author is not named

95

A set of tomes chronicling the mage wars of a time long forgotten. It includes specific information on major battles from the point of view of both sides. It also records the names of famous individuals on both sides of the war as well as their exploits and tactics. There is a significant amount of historical and military information contained within these tomes.

96

A sizable tome entitled “The Book of Shadows” containing 35 pop-up images of various monsters, along with facts about them. The shadows that the pop-up pictures cast will act and move as if the creature was really there. Despite it’s grim content the book seems to have been made for children.

97

A gigantic white tome with gold edging and insets, whose cover depicts a winged angelic being. When opened, the bearer feels a sense of calm and ease wash over them. When they close the book they cannot remember what was written inside.

98

A mage’s guidebook on how to take care of you’re newly acquired magical companion entitled “It’s Familiar, But Not Too Familiar”.

99

A large tome, bound in leather and clasped with gold. A closer inspection of this volume will reveal that each page is a perfectly preserved dragon scale, which has been inscribed with the black blood of a fiend. The book describes the four spirits (quicksilver, orpiment, sal ammoniac, sulfur) and seven bodies (gold, silver, iron, quicksilver, lead, tin, copper) of traditional alchemy.

100

An unremarkable black leather notebook entitled “Rainfall Over Time”, which is filled with sprawling misspelled words and tallied numbers. The book is plainly a homemade record of the amount of local precipitation over the past 13 years of the author’s life. According to the tallied numbers at the back, the amount of rain has gone up slightly over the past decade. When held by a creature capable of magical spells, the book’s illusionary glamour falls away and it reveals itself to be a witch’s spellbook containing dozens of incantations, rituals and potion recipes written in precise compact script. Many pages of the back of the book have been crossed out and covered with notes and changes. Knowledgeable PC’s will understand that the witch was attempting to create a new spell capable of binding a powerful demon that would be able to break free from ordinary chaining magic. According to the last page, the witch solved the problem by introducing a new element to the spell which momentarily cuts the demon off from the mortals who provide it the vast majority of its power. The fiend is then bound in that split second instance and the magical cage prevents the spiritual energy of mortals from penetrating the barrier. If the book is ceases being held by a creature capable of casting magical spells for more than a minute, the glamour reasserts itself.