Cursed Items

Cestarian's Spellbook

Description: The mage Cestarian is renowned for his unparalleled collection of mystical knowledge. His spell books are sought high and low by wizards of every status. Mage scholars know that Cestarian has one of the most extensive libraries of spells in Scarn and they hunger for any taste of that power. The legendary mage hides a dangerous secret, and that is the fact that the source of much of his purloined magical wisdom is the very tomes which others seek so fervently. Some adventurers so unfortunate as to suffer his special cursed book claim that he is not the only wizard who creates such devious devices.
Powers: This magical book is protected against methods of discovering its powers. Feats and skills used to examine it do not pierce its enchantment. Identify and other similar spells also fail to identify the spellbook as anything other than a normal spellbook.

Roll percentile dice (d100):
01-98 Divide by two to get number of spell levels in book, up to 49 of course
99-00 4 first level spells

The Dungeon Master should select spells representing those Cestarian placed in the tome plus those added by subsequent owners. Each spell level takes up 2 pages and the book contains 100 pages like any normal spellbook. A book that has been around for a while can prove to be quite a trove of knowledge for a wizard. Of course, any wizard can continue to add spells to the book according to the rules for inscribing spells into one's library as normal. A wizard may learn spells from the book as they would from other sources.
Until the last page of the book is filled, the tome continues to act as a normal spellbook. As soon as the book is full, however, an Invisible Stalker is automatically summoned, and it seizes the spellbook and carries it to Cestarian immediately. As this summoning occurs upon the finishing of the tome and the retriever of the book is invisible, this attack is generally a complete surprise to the victim. Once the guardian of the tome has been triggered, the book reverts to being a normal spellbook in all ways; the protective enchantment is a onetime defense, albeit a very effective one. So far everyone who has pursued his missing spellbook back to Cestarian has disappeared. The fate of adventurers against other copycat wizards is not so well documented.

Caster Level: 13th
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, Summon Monster VII, Contingency, Nondetection
Market Price: 400 gp per spell level contained
Cost to Create: 15 gp + 200 gp per spell level initially inscribed + 416 XP
Weight: 3 lb.

Hey, recognize the name Cestarian? He's the wizard name I made up for the Fangsfall chat.