The Book of Thoth

The Book of Thoth

A book containing powerful spells and knowledge The reader of the book will know the language of the animals, be able to cast great spells, be able to enchant the sky and the earth itself. Anyone who reads the book is punished by the gods.(usually by having loved ones die unless the book is returned)

From D&D Wiki

This book is truly a great scroll, penned by Thoth himself, a personal spellbook hidden away in the world of mortals. The Book of Thoth is protected by a series of wards and illusions.

Upon first encountering the book, it will appear as a series of locked chests.

• The first chest appears to be a nondescript, locked (DC 25) iron chest due to a mirage arcana spell (DC 35). If the lock is picked or the illusion dispelled or disbeleived, the iron chest will dissolve into sand.
• Within the iron chest is a (normal) bronze chest, covered in ancient glyph, locked with a good (DC 30) lock. If the lock is picked, the bronze chest too will dissolve into sand.
• Within the bronze chest is a chest of wood with an average (DC 25) lock, protected by a phantom trap spell (DC 25). The wood itself is impervious to any magic or mundane means, and only the lock can be affected, by picking. If the lock is picked, the box immediately melts into sand.
• Within the wood box is a box of inlaid ebony and ivory, twisted and weaved in intricate patterns to form the face of a sacred ibis. This box is perfectly mundane ebony, and is locked with a simple (DC 20) lock.
• Within the ebony and ivory box is a box of pure silver. It has no lock, but is protected by a powerful glyph of warding, a spell glyph of inflict serious wounds. Touching or opening the box deals 3d8+15 damage to the person touching or opening the box. Once the box is opened, it dissolved into a fine mist of sand.
• Within the pure silver box is a box of pure gold. Anyone touching or attempting to open the box is immediately turned to stone as per the flesh to stone spell (DC 35). When the gold box is opened, it will also melt into a fine mist of sand.

Upon opening the final box, The Book of Thoth takes its normal shape, that of a large, ornate scroll. The scroll has spells written on both sides. On the first side of the scroll is whirlwind, earthquake, lesser planar ally, stone shape, control water, and speak with animals. One the second side of the scroll is sunbeam, astral projection, contact other plane, and true seeing. A caster can copy these spells into his spellbook, or memorize or scribe them regardless of whether or not they are normally available to his class or not (for example a sorcerer could learn the druid spell speak with animals from this book as he would learn any new spell).

Spells can also be cast from The Book of Thoth as if it was a scroll, even if the wielder of the book is not normally able to cast spells. The book is not used up, and the spells can be cast at will, as if they were cast by a a level 9 caster. However, this comes at great personal cost to the wielder. Whenever a spell is cast this way, someone close to the wielder, a friend, is immediately slain in a horrible fashion. The wielder of the Book does not know this is going to happen, unless he has divined it previous. When the wielder has no more friends or people close to him, he is immediately affected by a permanent Hold Person spell that cannot be ended or avoided outside of direct divine intervention

DM Notes

Any mortal in possession of The Book of Thoth can seek divination on the nature of the book, and be forewarned about the punishment of using it to cast spells spontaneously. Successful divination should inform the wielder that if they decide to cast spells spontaneously using the book, and they are then subject to a Hold Person spell, a god or powerful cosmic being will dispatch an emissary of terrible power to retrieve the book and store it somewhere safe. It is up to the DM to decide how this is going to play out if it ever occurs.