The Book of Bats

Appearance
This gruesome-looking tome is tall and
narrow, being three handwidths across
but nine handwidths top-to-bottom. Its
twenty-two pages are of polished electrum,
stamped and etched with the
symbols and script of spells, one to a
page. The book’s covers are plates of
blackened, sealed oak, bound about
with the tattered, leathery hides and
wings of black bats of large size, claws
still attached.

History and Description
This fell tome is of unknown origin. It
contains spells created by (or at least
attributed to) the long-ago mages Beltyn
and Shaeroon, but may well have been
assembled long after their deaths. It
first appears in recorded Realmslore
among a satrap’s treasures in Calimshan
some two hundred and ten winters
ago, and since then has had a
bewildering variety of owners, being
stolen or seized many times by mages
or minor rulers who slew the previous
owner. Its present location and owner
are unknown; thieves plundered a ship
in Calimport that was to carry the book
to Tashluta last summer, where it is
believed the archmage Malharduu had
arranged to purchase it.

The mage Khondall Sszundar catalogued
the volume’s contents when it
was (briefly) in his hands—he purchased
it from the merchant Chulu
Thall of Ithmong, and lost it when his
tower was destroyed by demons sent
by an unknown foe. The tome reappeared
in Innarlith soon after, but was
stolen again.

Khondall’s catalogue tells
us that the Book contains the following
spells:

  • the rarely-seen clerical prayer censure (described below),

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    and the magic-user spells

  • feign death,
  • protection from good 10’ radius, <do the reversed forms have to be memorized and learnt separately? (AD&D spells in general)>
  • slow,
  • Beltyn’s burning blood (a unique spell, described below),
  • dimension door;
  • fear,
  • polymorph other,
  • wall of fire,
  • animate dead,
  • cloudkill,
  • cone of cold,
  • feeblemind,
  • hold vapor (a unique spell, described below),
  • telekinesis,
  • wall of iron,
  • anti-magic shell,
  • death spell,
  • geas,
  • invisible stalker;
  • project image, and
  • Shaeroon’s scimitar (a unique spell, described below).

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    Magic-User Spellbooks - - - Books of the Forgotten Realms

     
     
     
     
     
     

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