An item mentioned with awe and hushed whispers (especially among scholars and sorcerers) is the Spellbook of the Pale Magus. Many tales revolve around the Pale Magus, such as his deeds in banishing an Aspect of Rimfax with just a single word, relocating an entire graveyard by persuading its dead resident to raise as undead, move over to another plot of land and bury themselves again and bringing news of ruin and disaster to loved ones even before messengers would arrive. Fierce debates arise whether the Pale Magus is an agent of evil or of good, but one thing is for sure – if he exists, he is definitely a being of great power.
The Spellbook of the Pale Magus is said to be records of spells unique to this enigmatic magic user alone. The story behind its writing has many versions, but all agree that whoever possesses it would be able would have powers unchallenged by most common sorcerers. The devil is, of course, in the details.
- The Spellbook is actually a living prison of souls and demons trapped by the Pale Magus. When a book is full, he would make a gift to it to anyone – a boorish warrior, a beggar begging for alms or even a nobleman passing by on his horse. While only Sorcerers understand the book straight away, anyone who gaze at the book long enough would learn of an unworldly magic. This power usually leads to aspiration, which causes chaos at the most unlikely places by the hand of the most unlikely person. The catch is that the more the person relies on the spells of the Pale Spellbook, the biggest the likelihood the souls and demons trapped within would escape, causing even more havoc. And the Pale Magus would then return, trapping those escaped souls and demons – and the owner of the spellbook…
- A copy of the Spellbook of the Pale Magus is said to be stored within the private collection of a rich merchant, who has a liking for old books (but not for the reading of it). At a party at his manor (where the adventurers are naturally attending), someone stole the spellbook and sneaked a peek. This is when all hell, literally, broke loose. Demons run unchecked, murdering guests and residents alike. A guest who has some knowledge of demonology quickly create a barrier to keep the survivors safe, but it would not last. It is up to the adventurers to track down the spellbook and find out how to use it to trap the demons once more, before anything else more terrifying escapes.
- Sorcerers, wizards and court mages have gone raving mad recently; all because of the spellbook. To magic users confident and arrogant because of their abilities to work magic, the Pale Magus would present the spellbook to them. Inside are spells which should not work, but yet it works. The more powerful the wizard is, the more absorbed he would be in reading the book, and at one point, he would be driven insane. He would claim to have see the truth of reality, uncover the secret of real evil or foresee a disaster which he must act at once to prevent. The wizard would begin to use spells from the book, spells which no one have ever seem before, or commanding unnatural powers, to reach his deluded objectives. The madness is not sudden; the best way to incorporate this into an adventure is to have an ally NPC wizard acting more and more eccentric before he finally snaps. There are only two ways to save the wizard – one is to find the spellbook and destroy it (which, however, transports the party to a surreal world, where they must locate the spirit of the book and destroyed it) or find a way to summon the Pale Magus and convince him to explain things to the mad wizard. The Pale Magus’ motivation? To keep powerful magic users in check, lest they think they are demi-gods.
All these said, the Spellbook of the Pale Magus makes a perfect ‘gift’ to your party’s wizard. Though it is likely most wizards know of the book by repute and would not dare to read it, save for those really confident ones.
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