Appearance: This tome is truly
resplendent. Its covers are sheets of
polished, iridescent abalone edged and
cornered with beaten gold; its pages are
of burnished electrum, into which
script has been etched and runes,
glyphs, symbols and characters are
embossed or raised from the surface.
The Chambeeleon (pronounced Kam-
BEE-lee-on) is probably worth 4,000 gp
in materials alone. It is worth far more
to a magic-user, however, because of its
contents.

History and Description: The origin
of this tome is unknown, but it is
certainly of great antiquity. Many legends
exist ascribing its authorship to
various sea gods and powerful beings,
but nothing of the book's whereabouts
is verifiable until Alaer, holder of the
Dolphin Throne an age ago, mentions it
in an inventory of the sea elves' court at
Thunderfoam. It was borne away from
that city at some later time, and reappears
in the memoirs of the hero Galadaunt,
who found it on the deck of an
abandoned, drifting "ghost ship" which
he boarded off the Emerald Isles. He
sold it to a magic-user whose name was
not recorded, who we know to have
been the tutor of one called "The Mad
Mage," who in turn was master to the
wizard Arbane. It is likely that the
Chambeeleon came into the Mad Mage?s
possession, but it did not pass into the
hands of Arbane, so we have only
Arbane's recollections to rely on for its
contents. The present location of the
Chambeeleon, or even if it still exists, is
unknown.

Contents: Arbane said that he often
read from the Chambeeleon as he was
trained, but was only allowed to peruse
certain pages. Many he glimpsed were
beyond his understanding, but he
remembers that the demon who guarded
the book told him it had 66 pages in
all and none but Arbane's master had
ever mastered them all.
(Arbane's rather brief description of
the demon suggests that it was a succubus.
There is no mention of a guardian
demon in the legends concerned with
the book, so it is likely that the Mad
Mage bound the demon to guard it, perhaps
only for as long as Arbane was
allowed access to its pages.)
All of the pages Arbane studied con-
tained spells. From his notes, he gives
us this list:
 

"From the Mad mage's casual
comments," writes Arbane, he believes
the book also contains the spells imprisonment
and prismatic sphere, but at
the time lacked any means to verify
this.

If the book is entirely full of spells,
and each stands alone on one page (as
did those Arbane studied), then there
may be as many as fifty spells in the
work not on Arbane's list. One suspects,
however, that there are far fewer, and
most of the unknown pages contain
records or other writing. Only the possessor
of the work knows for sure.

If one may trust the more doubtful
source of religious teachings, it must be
noted that the priesthoods of at least
seven aquatic gods worshipped by various
creatures claim the Chambeeleon
as their own, and assert that the bulk of
its pages contain "the" record of the
Creation associated with their deity. If
this is so, none have proved it.

The sage Elminster has recorded dozens
of powerful spell books and magical documents
of all descriptions; the preceding
are but a sample. He writes teasingly of
scores of new spells, hitherto unknown to
magic users "at large," and now-lost
powers cryptically held within the lost volumes.
Adventurers may bring word of
more any day, he says, puffing contendedly
on his clay pipe...
 
 
 

Magic-User Spellbooks

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Books of the Forgotten Realms