Undercroft: Books and Papers

Grutzner

 

Draw from the Major Arcana to get a book.  

 

Number, title,  

author

language, media, 

description.

I: [image of gauntlet breaking wand].  

Unsigned. 

Wordless. Wood block print on hemp paper. 

Images of sorcerers brandishing ritual components with illustrations of spell effects. Mass produced to teach illiterate soldiers how to identify wizards and spells.

II: A Warning To Seekers Of The Path. 

Barramundi “Barry The Mage” de Hornachos. 

Chivalric. Hand-illustrated codex. 

Sensationalized account of cultic practices from obscure, dangerous religions. Framed as a cautionary tale to evade Church censorship.

III: Do Not Eat These Mushrooms! 

Ged Stomps-On-The-Tombs-Of-Kings. 

Vetus. Colorful cardboard pages. 

A children’s book with pictures of plants and fungi and simple, memorable descriptions of their effects. Doubles as an alphabet learning book for illiterate adventurers.

IV: Political History Of The City. 

Hoborg Heartsbane. 

Chivalric. Dense parchment.

Dry, factual, well-indexed. No pictures except a series of foldout maps depicting the City under different rulers. Often banned, still used as a reference document by government officials.

V: Whip Vine.

Dug Microcline. 

Vetus. Thin sheets of pressed copper. 

Work songs of the underland. The songs marked with triangles scored into the metal serve as a call and response among dungeon explorers to identify friendlies.

VI: Only Your Love. 

Iosefka Hakkapeliitta. 

Vetus. Cheap bark paper with cardboard and cloth binding. 

Reprint of a medical textbook, pornographic stories and illustrations of the Despoina (culture hero of the Lovecult) randomly inserted. A common cultic practice to spread the word.
 

VII: The Scold’s Bridle. Being an Investigation Into Practical Matters of Investigation of Witchcraft. 

Dar Darson. 

Chivalric. Cheap pirate edition of an original illuminated volume. 

A critique of poor forensic techniques of the Republic’s inquisitors, with suggestions for improvement.

Mercati

 

VIII: a compilation of the pracktickal wisdom of the bear tower. 

Harg de Hornachos. 

Vetus. Illuminated manuscript on parchment. 

A beastmaster’s illustrated guide to the care and feeding of exotic monsters, assembled by the City’s lost guild of animal handlers.

IX: a history of fishes. 

Rigoberto Gryphes. 

Vetus. Hemp paper, illustrated in black and white. 

Taxonomic manual of aquatic life beneath the City. Appearance, behavior, lifecycle, culinary and medicinal uses, and how to catch them.

X: I Hate Puzzles. 

Olga. 

Vulgaris. Wooden monotype paperback. 

Hotly anticipated, critically panned autobiography of a locally famous Sea Orc dungeon crawler. Little sex or violence. Most of the book is illustrated descriptions of dungeon puzzles and the author’s struggles to solve them.

XI: [untitled]. 

Unsigned. 

Chivalric. Tiny square of silk paper stained with ink. 

Cribsheet for a bar exam. A useful pocket reference for the laws of the realm with particular emphasis on adventurer/dungeon law.

XII: We will crucify the tailor. 

Caramella Leadcutter. 

Vulgaris. Broadsheets folded and held together with string. 

Popular illustrated broadsides by the city’s preeminent fashion columnist. Past and current trends, sumptuary laws, heraldry, everything you need to know to identify people by their clothes.

XIII: An Image of the Laws of the Dead. 

Pharnaba Mourn. 

Vetus. Leather and parchment. 

Polemical text on undeath. The author conducted numerous medical experiments on death and dying in the dungeon, killing several adventurers to prove rival sorcerer Humayan Ironpax wrong.

XIV: COULD IT HAPPEN TO YOU? 

Narmer Crowell. 

Chivalric. Giant pages folded to make a troll-scale chapbook. 

Reprint of transcripts from the trial of infamous poisoner Parcival “Perry the Mage” de Hornachos. The only section anyone remembers or cares about is the “evidence” glossary with drink recipes, poisons and potions.

 

XV: O Bloodybowels Issue 15.  

Kay. 

Vulgaric. Sheaf of folded pages bound with a wooden clothespin. 

The most popular issue of the Bloodybowels saga, a series of short stories about the eponymous Orc Bloodybowels, Spirit hunter. A demon will die on every page!

XVI: The Big Book of Apocalyptic Prophecies. 

Caravaggio Corpse-Dance. 

Vetus. Elven papyrus laminated with beeswax. 

A Gnome scholar’s literature review of religious stories combined with man-on-the-street interviews about how people believe the world will end.

XVII: The Great Glass Mountain. 

Waff From-These-Dreams-You-Don’t-Wake-Up. 

Tylwyth. Silky smooth unicorn skin scroll. 

Epic poem of the Elves and the Wild Hunt. Repetitive and full of long-winded epithets to aid memorization.

XVIII: Gong Farmer’s Almanac. 

Flesh Pie Press. 

Vulgaris and Cant. Sheaf of weekly pamphlets held together with a cloakpin. 

Astrological forecasts, meteorological observations, short stories, commentary on current events, and practical wisdom for city dwellers.

XIX: Our Hammer. 

Cruciga Porphyry. 

Old Undercommon. Thin but sturdy “shaved basalt” tablet with engraved writing. 

The founding text of the Deep Downer movement. No true Dwarf would allow the sun to fall on his head. The section on stone is a useful reference.

XX: EATEATEATEAT. 

Bledrick Bravebelly. 

Vulgaris. A bunch of scrolls in a cheap wooden tube. 

A Halfling restaurant owner’s book of simple, crowd pleasing foods that can be made quickly with inexpensive ingredients. Just don’t ask what goes into his pies.

XXI: The Dungeon. Again.  

Ogma Cradleclubbed/Gynalea Venom-in-the-Strings. 

Vetus. Good quality print on heavy paper, chopped into squares and numbered for easy assembly. 

A ground penetrating sonar map of the undercity, made by a Dwarf and Elf duo with their “seismic hammer” method.

  

THE MAKING OF

I didn’t put books in the Pile of Blades dungeons because I didn’t like the Bookworm talent. I didn’t use the language rules because the players already had a huge amount of information to read and master without piling on four made up dialects. Here are some treasures that use both, to populate the studies and libraries of the Undercroft.