d20 Adamant Entertainment The Dread Codex 2 - The Necromancer's Tome.pdf - Adamant Entertainment - R5700

By K. Axel Carlsson

Edited By:

Gareth Michael Skarka

Art:

Maciej Zagorski,

Pawel Dobosz

& JupiterMedia Corp.

Layout:

Gareth Michael Skarka

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Introduction

hatred to him or her was that great.

We were pushed around by the ogre, and then I saw one

of the dreaded masters.

“My name is Falnor.

Falnor of Elderbridge, and these are my ﬁrst words in

this tome.

The necromancers.

To remember a life that once was, far away in a land

named Seven Rivers, is to remember another person. I

call myself, Falnor of Elderbridge, but it is not who I am

anymore. It is but the remnants of time. What should I be

named, then? Slave? Freelander? I know not. I have been

granted another chance, and maybe I should tell you how

this happened.

He wore a black robe and a bone amulet around his

neck, and he bore each of them with great pride. A pride

that I had almost forgotten existed in man. He pierced

the crowd, and when he spoke to the closest ogre, I had

to strain my ears to hear his silent throaty whisper. The

ogre called for the slave pit owner, who nodded to the

necromancer. He would pay a great sum of coins to buy

me. What anyone else would pay, the necromancer would

double. Me. A northerner who knew nothing of the arcane

arts. What was he going to do with me? I became angry,

and the blood rushed to my head. Thoughts of dark and

evil rituals came to me, and the fueled my hatred.

My life was in the hands of some ogre named Gaulkr,

no more than a week ago. Locked away in the ﬁlthy slave

pits of some grand city, which name I didn’t learn until

yesterday, a name which means nothing to me. This may

become my home in time, but for now I will not utter the

name, my hatred is still ﬂaming with desire. I did not care

whether I lived or died, not in those days in the pit. The

only thing I cared about was that no one would learn the

secret I carried and still carry.

He escaped through the crowd, never even seeing the

hatred in my dark eyes.

I was taken roughly by the ogre and bound on my hands

and feet. That night, I saw his tower, the tower I have been

living in for a week now. The necromancer is nothing like

I imagined. How could I. He is nothing like the stories I

heard in the pit. He never truly bought me, and as long as

I stay here, under his roof, I do so by my own will.

I was a ﬁghter then, a true survivor, until my fate

changed. You could say, by a stroke of luck. I decided

to escape long ago, but there have never been a good

time for that. The pits are deep underground, and it is no

easy task to reach the top where the light shines. I would

escape alone, of course. No one was going to hold me

back, and surely none was strong enough to follow me. A

year ago such thoughts would have been unthinkable, but

the slave pits will change a man as well as his fate.

I am no ones slave. Not anymore. “

(Fragment from Falnor’s Tome of Unlife, page 1)

That day, a week ago, the ogre hauled three of us out of

the hole. He gave us something that he thought was clean

clothes, and shackled our hands in black iron manacles.

Escape was going to wait, there was no way I could break

those bonds, but somehow I had the feeling that a better

opportunity would present itself.

The ogre paraded us in front of a large crowd of men

and women. They were fancy and painted, and sometimes

it was difﬁcult to tell the men from the women. I knew

that one of these would own me when the sun broke the

horizon, and for that, I hated every one of them. I

refused to be owned, and they would know it

soon enough. If I had the chance, I would take

my bony hands and strangle that person. He

would have no chance, no chance at all, my

This Tome

...that you hold in your hand, contains much of the actual

writing of Falnor of Elderbridge. Well, it would be more

correct to call him by his true name, Falnor the Ill-fated,

for that is truly what he became in his last years. If you

keep reading, you might ﬁnd out why. This tome contains

the following;

any world that has a strong connection to the World

beyond the Veil. There is the knollmen; broken spirits

bound to an old king’s mound, the vile spawn, zombie

rats; which can be found in the sewers of any grand

city, the dragonman skeleton; which is the remnant of

an ancient race, and the sage whisperer, guardian of lost

libraries. Use them to ﬂavor your necromantic stories, or

just to spark interest for necromancy in your players.

Chapter One , has a description of the Tome of Unlife,

complete with history and features, for easy use in any

campaign. There are speciﬁc names, like Falnor, Master

Ilnioth and references to places like Tâl Vorgath and the

Great Kingdoms, but these could easily be ﬁt into your

group’s own world, or changed if that would ﬁt you better.

After this tome description follows a series of new spells.

They are not all necromancy spells, but could serve some

purpose to the necromancers in your world. Remember

that necromancers not just casts necromancy spells, they

also has other spells in their tomes, and these spells reﬂect

that. There are some spells for the vile necromancer and

some for the more scholarly kind, but all of them has their

uses. Some of them can even be used by other classes, like

the cleric, though these are few.

Last, there are the appendices. These contain the NPCs

referenced throughout this book--Falnor the Ill-fated,

Ilnioth of the Eluan Eye and Ruul Tharox. These NPCs

are fully detailed with history and complete statistics for

easy reference.

Finally, there is the template, the Daerthûl, the creature of

bones. This is what the bonewielder strive to become. In

the second appendix you will ﬁnd the rules for creating

this foul creature.

The Arcane Schools

This is the ﬁrst book in a series of spellbooks, written

by the masters of each school. Many wizards never give

much thought on the schools, and to the other arcane

classes, these are just different powers which fuel their

spells. Yet, to the specialist wizard, the schools are

important. They are am arcane philosophy which must

be followed, and to an extent that they keep the specialist

wizard from casting spells of the other schools.

These spellbooks contain a plethora of knowledge,

but will focus mainly on the spells and the paths of the

specialist, offering new options for the development of

the wizard, for for campaigns which relates to the arcane

schools.

Chapter Two consists of four all new prestige classes,

from the bloodbound necromantic servant, to the vile

bonewielder who will use bones to fuel his necromantic

powers. The last two are the savant of the dead, a

scholarly necromancer who studies the undead and learn

from them, and the unwilling necromantic ﬁghter, the

plaguebearer. They covers many different aspects of

necromancy, and offers ﬂavor for any setting. If they seem

too powerful for your players, use them to create powerful

antagonists that will pose a challenge for the player

characters.

Chapter Three features new items of necromancy,

and has both low-powered magical items as well as

some powerful artifacts. They are fully detailed and can

easily be inserted into existing campaigns. Several have

provided adventure hooks, and can be used as the basis for

an entire campaign, perhaps in the hands of a vile and evil

necromancer who has designs on the world. There is even

a cursed item among them, and though some of them may

not seem to be necromantic, don’t be fooled, they are the

makings of necromancers.

Chapter Four is the monster section, which details four

all new undead monsters, complete with descriptions and

new combat maneuvers. These are creatures that Falnor

experienced on his many journeys, and which can inhabit

The Undead

From the Tome of Unlife, it becomes clear that some

necromancers walk through this path, blind and deaf, this

should be avoided at all cost. A lich may live forever,

but at what cost? His heart darkens and his soul is lost.

Trapped forever outside his body. It is ﬁrst when we

loose something that it becomes clear to us how much we

actually need it. The savants of the dead understands this,

but it is a knowledge that has taken the unholy order many

thousands of years to archieve, and not without a price.

Death contains knowledge, and by summoning the dead,

the savants have learned how to extract this information

from the spirits. They may know more than any other

wizard in the world. Others merely summon the dead

to ﬁll their armies, and from ancient stories we know

that these great armies often win the day. At night, the

necromancers cast their spells, and the skeletons are once

again ﬁlled with unlife and will march anew.

It cannot be argued that most necromancers are vile

and evil, yet there are those who seek to walk this path

without turning towards the darkness. These are often

misunderstood and need to hide their secrets, even from

other necromancers who wants to get this dangerous

knowledge for themselves.

The school of necromancy is one of darkness and death, it

will take away a man’s dignity and blind or deafen him, or

it may drive him insane. It will kill a man, and it will feed

upon his secret lusts, or even strike the fear into his heart.

Beware, the school of necromancy is dangerous beyond

measure!

These creatures could just as well have been called the

Unliving, as they are indeed neither truly living nor

truly dead, but something in between. Their essence

is created from the darkness of the human soul, and

beaten on the anvil of negative energy. These are

not creations of the gods, but that of the mortal soul

striving to be something greater than it is. This has

often been misunderstood, as some believe the dark

gods of death have a hand in the making of the undead.

Though few mortals can comprehend the magnitude

of this negative force and what it can actually do, the

undead is still the creation of man. I have seen many

necromancers in my service to the master, and some

of them choose to wear a blindfold, refusing to see the

great danger.

To summon the unburdened spirit of one of the dead,

is one thing, yet to call forth an army of skeletons,

zombies, wraiths, ghouls, knollmen and the Broken,

that is entirely another matter.

Brothers of the art, stay true to your word, and the

Gate shall be forever closed...

A hastily written note in the Tome of Unlife,

probably written by the author, Falnor the Ill-fated.

The School of

Necromancy

This is the darkest among the arcane schools known to

wizards. It is most often referred to as the school of the

undead and the negative energy, though there is more to

this school than just that.

Necromancy is also a philosophy of life and death.

Necromancers have always been deeply fascinated by

death - and life, and do not see the one without the other.

They are constant seeking to discover new truths about

these. To transcent the borders of these two worlds, and to

conquor one of them, by weakening the other.

Immortality comes in many forms, and most

necromancers wishes nothing more than to live forever.

There is certainly power to be gained from this school of

magic. A power which is unlike any other.

d20 Adamant Entertainment The Dread Codex 2 - The Necromancer's Tome.pdf

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