Appearance: A large, russet-colored
volume constructed of metal plates covered
with burlap or hessian, tied
together with a spine of waxed, intricately
interwoven leather thongs ("like
the lacings on a lady's high leather riding
boots," according to the sage Nornagrym).
To the weavings are sewn
forty-six pages of the finest thick parchment,
each containing a simple magical
spell or cantrip--except the last, which
bears a curious rune, thus:

and in Common, the word "Kuhoralminthannas" written in a circle around it.
The outer covers bear only the inscription
"The Alcaister" burned in small, fine flowing
letters in Common, picked out in
paints of silver. The book shows only light
weathering, but its appearance gives the
impression of some age.

History and Description: T h e
Alcaister is of great antiquity but
unknown origin; it was written somewhere
in the North by a mage of good
penmanship and some powers at least
six hundred years ago, when it appears
in a merchant's catalogue-of-cargo as
declared before the plague-masters
(quarantine officers) of the time, of
Waterdeep. It was passed into the city,
and presumably sold, but does not surface
again until brought to the sage
Ardagundus in Baldur's Gate by an
adventurer, named Wilund, in payment
for information as to the whereabouts
and uses of the Magical Chessmen of
Ultham-Urre. Argandus gave the book
to his apprentice Nornagrym for cataloguing
and study, and it is from Nornagrym's exacting catalogue that precise
details of The Alcaister come.

Nornagrym is believed to have
brought the book with him to Waterdeep upon his master's death, where it
reposed in his library until his own
death, whereupon it vanished again. It
was observed by the sorcerer Zemloth
of Amn to be in the library of his onetime
tutor, Orgoth the Tainted (the same
who was later destroyed by three
demons he had summoned), but was
not found when the party of the adventurer
Malahuke searched the hidden,
untouched tunnels of Orgoth?s ruined
fortress. Its present whereabouts are a
complete mystery, but Zemloth asserts
that it must still exist, because he
encountered a prestidigitator in a tavern
in Zazesspur who employed a sting
cantrip (set forth only, as far as Zemloth
knows, in The Alcaister). The prestidigitator,
one Mavrhune, was involved in a
tavern brawl at the time and did not
survive it, so Zemloth was unable to
inquire where and from whom the cantrip
had been learned.

The Alcaister has a tradition of slaying
those who read it; as more and
more of the book is perused, the reader
grows weaker and weaker, and finally
slips into slumber from which he or she
does not wake. Nornagrym found the
cause of this regrettable side-effect; the
edges of The Alcaister's metal pages are
coated with a colorless, transparent
gummy substance of unknown origin?
a contact poison as yet unidentified and
seemingly unique. This substance
works through skin (a cut is not necessary)
and it numbs the senses subtly, so
that the victim is not likely to notice its
effects. Each contact with (or turning
of) a page drains 1 hp; the body recovers
from such damage at normal healing
rate. There is also a temporary (2-5
turns) loss of one point of strength (18/
percentage to 18, 18 to 17, and so on)
for every 5 hp of damage so suffered.
This substance retains its efficacy after
many years and resists attempts to
remove it, but Nornagrym found that
its efforts can be simply avoided by
wearing gloves or by turning the pages
with a knife or other aid.

Contents: The Alcaister's forty-six
pages contain the following inscriptions,
one to a page: the unique cantrips

and the spells

The "gate page"
This last page of The Alcaister (that
which bears the rune shown earlier) is
a gate that will shift any creature standing
on the rune (or at least touching it),
with the book open, while the word
written around the rune is spoken
aloud by the creature touching the
rune or another. This plane shifting
occurs regardless of the wishes of the
creature touching the rune, and will
transport only one living creature (plus
all items worn or carried by that creature)
at a time to one of the following
destinations:

01-48     Prime Material Plane (if used while on the Prime Material, the destination will be an alternate Prime Material Plane)
49-66    Avernus (uppermost layer of the Nine Hells)
67-76    Concordant Opposition
77-88    Nirvana
89-92     The demi-plane of Shadow
93-98     Any one of the five planes of Limbo
99-00     Other (DM's choice)

The creature being gated must be
holding The Alcaister with his or her
bare hand as the word of activation is
intoned to bring the tome along; otherwise
it remains behind on the Prime
Material Plane. (If the gate is used on a
plane other than the Prime Material,
the book will always accompany the
creature back.)