Root of the Tongue

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

This book was written little more than a century ago by a sage named Whenan Roual, a man who possessed an almost supernatural gift for language. After mastering more than three dozen languages of the various peoples and races of the world, Whenan gave himself over to creating his own languages. Strangely, his driven study and passion for language attracted disciples to Whenan, a group which endured even after the sage’s death, and which now calls itself the Word. While he lived, Whenan wrote what is considered to be the definitive work on the nature and evolution of language, detailing the points of commonality and divergence he had noted in his lifelong study of so many different tongues. After Whenan’s death, the first copies of Root of the Tongue began to appear, a development that horrified the members of the Word, who sought to find and reclaim all copies of the master’s work. They were unsuccessful, of course, but they continue to hunt for copies of this thick tome, making it an extremely rare item, one that most people are loathe to admit is in their possession, due to the rumours of some of the means by which the members of the Word have reclaimed what they consider to be their own property.

The writing style of Root of the Tongue is quite dense, incorporating a vast amount of Whenan’s skill with language and enormous vocabulary. Reading the entire volume takes a full month, during which time the reader must make two Intelligence ability checks, one at the halfway mark and one after finishing the book, to determine whether or not he understood the contents of the tome well enough to make use of them. These checks are made against DC 15 for the first and DC 20 for the second, and must be made each time the book is used. Root of the Tongue lays out for the reader the basic building blocks of each language Whenan spoke, making the task of learning a new tongue a much simpler process. A character who reads Root of the Tongue in preparation for learning a new language by taking the Speak Language skill, and who is successful with both Intelligence checks, may learn the new language at a cost of only one skill point, as opposed to the two skill points required for all characters other than bards. Bards already have a partial understanding of Whenan’s principles, and Root of the Tongue offers them no assistance in learning a new language. Additionally, a reader may use Root of the Tongue as a training resource for the Decipher Script skill. Anyone who studies Root of the Tongue may use the information in the book to train his Decipher Script skill up to ten ranks. The book does not grant the reader any skill points, he must spend his own points if he wishes to increase his skill, but it does effectively take the place of a trainer. The reader must still succeed with both Intelligence ability checks in order to learn the Decipher Script skill from this book.

Root of the Tongue: 1,200 gp; 15 lb.