Appearance: This untitled volume is
a large, leather-bound folio with
twenty-one wrinkled, dogeared sheets
of parchment sewn in place. It has
received heavy (though careful) handling,
and is obviously a workbook, full
of scribbled notes and thoughts, rather
than a formal compendium of spells.

History and Description: This untitled,
ancient volume has traditionally
been known as Briel's Book of Shadows,
as it is thought to be the work of the
Archmage Briel when he was but an
apprentice under the tutelage of the
great Aumvor the Undying (now
believed to be a lich whose lair is somewhere
in the vast mountain ranges of
the North). The sage Ubergast of Amn
points out that the informal handwriting
found in the Book closely resembles
that preserved in a letter in the archives
of Baldur's Gate, wherein Briel wrote of
his intention to found a school of wizardry
there. Certainly no other claimant
to authorship has declared himself,
nor has been advanced as more than
speculation by sages.

Contents: The book's inscriptions
are rambling, and the pages are much
stained with various liquids and powders
used as ingredients in spells, spell
inks, and in the making of a homonculous.
Its useful contents are as follows:

* Complete descriptions and instructions for the cantrips
 

(all in "standard" form, as described above).

* The complete spells
 

* The magical and medicinal uses of unicorn horns.

* A recipe, copied from another source, for the making of a homonculous (cf. Monster Manual).
 
 
 

Magic-User Spellbooks

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Books of the Forgotten Realms