Sabirine's Specular

Sabirine's Specular

Appearance: A large, heavy tome
(five handwidths across by ten
handwidths high, two fingers thick) of
twenty-eight fine vellum pages with
stamped brass corner-pieces, and covers of thin black marble affixed to the
thinnest of suth-wood sheets by large
brass corner caps.

History and Description: Sabirine
was a mage of long ago, instrumental in
the exploration of the North; her adventures
are a part of the fireside lore of
traders and travelers there yet. She
compiled and concealed spellbooks in
various caches and favorite haunts
about the wilderlands, and the one
known as The Specular has survived,
for it is known to have been in the
library of the sage Eiron the Old in
Neverwinter until his death--and the
subsequent pillaging of his house by
thieves of the Red Hand guild--only
four winters ago.

Sabirine learned the secrets of lichdom
but chose to die a natural death
instead. She was a mage with an especial
interest in cantrips, and was an
enthusiastic advocate of the continued
use and refinement of cantrips by
magic-users of long career and high
level. The Specular, for instance, contains
three unique cantrips developed
by Sabirine: catfeet, snatch, and spark.

Contents: Each cantrip and spell in
the Specular is set forth alone on a
page, and there are two additional pages
at either end of the book; that at the
beginning being an inscription identifying
the tome as belonging to Sabirine,
with her rune (an "S" depicted as a
swan), and that at the end bearing a
curious piece of black felt in the shape
of a vial. The frontispiece page is actually
a unique spell, spell engine (detailed
hereafter) of unknown authorship,
which has been concealed by use of a
secret page spell. The command word
of the secret page is not known. The
last page is thought to be an unused
magical useful item (see robe of useful items description in the DMG) -- a potion of extra healing,
Elminster believes.