The Bound Grimoire

The Bound Grimoire

The Bound Grimoire

Wondrous Item, legendary

Wielded by: Shade

A small spellbook, no larger than your palm, bound in black leather that is too soft to be cowhide and too fine-grained to be anything you want to name. The cover bears no title, only Zarchelia's sigil burned into the leather above a delicate clasp of infernal silver. The clasp is wrought in the shape of seven small links joined in a row — a token chain rather than a true binding — and each link gleams when the book holds an unspent charge. As charges are used, the links dim and dull one by one, until the last is spent and the whole clasp goes lightless and grey. By dawn, the links have brightened again, ready to be drawn upon.

The clasp opens easily under your hand and closes itself when you set the book down, so studying from it is no trouble at all — Zarchelia is many things, but inconvenient is not among them. The pages within are blank when you open the book, and remain blank until you reach for a spell, at which point the necessary formula writes itself across the page in a hand that is almost, but not exactly, your own. The ink is the deep red-black of clotted blood and smells faintly of iron. When the spell is cast, the writing fades.

The book is a quiet thing, and a patient one, and when you study from it you sometimes feel as though it is studying you in return, taking its own careful notes. Zarchelia placed it in your hands with both of hers and held them there a moment longer than necessary. "Knowledge wants to be kept," she said. "I've found it appreciates a firm binding."

Properties

Charges. The grimoire has 5 charges. While holding it, you can expend charges to cast the following spells:

• Sleep (1 charge)
• Mirror Image (2 charge)
• Slow (3 charges)

Recharge Ritual. The grimoire regains all expended charges when you complete a long rest, but only if you perform the Annotated Page at dawn: open the book to any blank page and write a single sentence of your own — an observation, a question, a private thought. The ink fades by midday, but the clasp brightens by the time the writing is done. If the ritual is not performed, the grimoire remains dormant until the next dawn.

Lore

This grimoire was gifted by Zarchelia, the erinyes, as part of a fiendish pact. The self-writing pages and sentient clasp suggest the book itself is a living contract, documenting not just spells but the wielder's thoughts and choices.

Related

• Pact Items – Complete collection of all pact items and their wielders
• Zarchelia – The erinyes who created and gifted this grimoire
• Fiendish pact feats – Other benefits available through infernal pacts
• Bracers of the Bound Devil – Another pact item from Zarchelia
• Hellhound Whistle – Another pact item from Zarchelia
• The Apostate's Rosary – Another pact item from Zarchelia