Appearance: This memoir is a thick
bundle of vellum sheets bound about
with two leather straps and enclosed in
a leather bag. A recent owner, the merchant
Zephrum Nelagul, noted in his
ledgers that "Seven Fingers" had 278
sheets, but also noted that it ended precipitously
and seemed to have gaps in
the narrative, which suggests that some
pages have been lost or deliberately
removed.

History and Description: The book
was written by (or at least under the
supervision of) the adventurer Thorstag
"Seven Fingers" Amareh, a fighting
man who rose to take the lordship of a
tiny northern dale, where he died some
seventy winters ago. Thorstag's nickname
and the main title of this volume
come from his habit of severing the fingers
of important enemies whom he
slew, and storing these in an iron box.
There were seven such enemies, and
Thorstag evidently put the fingers to
some sort of magical use, but their
present location is unknown.

Contents: The volume recounts
Thorstag's reportedly boring and trivial
life ("wearisome pages of dreams,
underhanded schemes, and malicious
violence," Zephrum records), but contains
three passages of special note.

The first is a detailed and exacting
description of the selection of a card,
Void, from a deck of many things, so
complete that anyone who reads this
section could immediately recognize
the same effects if they occurred in his
or her presence.

The second is a recipe or description
of the making of Keoghtom's ointment,
which may or may not be correct. Curiously,
no owner of the memoir has
made any mention of the accuracy of
the recipe, but only of its inclusion; this
hints that they have not attempted the
process because it is obviously incomplete,
or too difficult in execution or the
procurement of the ingredients, or the
writing itself contains some magical
trap or guardian they would prefer not
to disturb.

The third is a detailed inventory of
the dowries of the princesses Elmyra
and Hlassela of Cormyr, which Thorstag
took part in guarding on an overland
journey from Suzail, the capital of
Cormyr, to Arabel, a city some distance
to the north and east. The journey was
safe, the princesses married, and set
out forthwith eastward with their royal
(but not identified by Thorstag) husbands.
Neither Thorstag nor this writer
(the sage Elminster) has heard of their
fate, but in some eastern tomb or treasury
the greater part of these dowries
must now lie. Thorstag's list includes
weights and identifying marks of jewelry
(since he had to guard against forgery
and substitution of the pieces), and
adventurers or historians will surely
find it a source of inspiration, if not a
path to wealth.

The present whereabouts of the
memoir is unknown. It was last seen in
the hands of an unidentified man "with
the clothes and manner of a southern
merchant," according to Zephrum Nelagul,
who sold it to said merchant at a
bazaar in Waterdeep for nine hundred
pieces of gold. Zephrum attests that he
obtained the book from an ignorant bailiff
in Longsaddle, who sold it as part of
the contents of a dead man's house. The
dead man, one Borwyn, was a trader in
hides and leather goods who covered
much of the north in his trade, and had
acquired, in Zephrum's words, "an odd
assortment of keepsakes and valuables."

One can only conjecture that
somehow Borwyn the trader visited the
dale where Thorstag had ruled and was
buried, or got the book from another
person who was given it by Thorstag
for safekeeping, or who took it after
Thorstag's death. If any reports come to
light of the possible missing pages,
more might be said of how Borwyn got
the memoir, and of its original, complete
contents.
 
 
 

Magic-User Spellbooks

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Books of the Forgotten Realms