An ancient tome bound in cracked leather the colour of dried blood, its pages yellowed and brittle with age. The cover bears the title “The Butchered Words of Kyoss”. The book is older than kingdoms. An iron latch seals the tome shut.
The knowledge inside is vast, documenting dark secrets, hidden locations and forbidden spells. What sits between the pages, scattered through the passages among illustrations with no clear connection.
Hidden Ritual steps are split across chapters. Pages are jumbled, leaving gaps in the text. The words were butchered on purpose.
The book does not sit quietly. Each time it is opened, it reveals more. The pages themselves decide what the reader is ready to know. The revelations come slowly, building from unsettling to horrifying, each reading peeling back another layer of the terrible truth. This twisted macabre book eats at the very fibres of a soul the stares too long.
Origin
Kyoss, the Keeper of Ancient Knowledge, dwells in The Shadowfell, a dark reflection of the world, a gray and gloomy realm where the sun never shines and time moves strangely. Kyoss has witnessed every age, remembers every forbidden ritual, every lost spell.
Those who seek Kyoss’s knowledge must find a Wayward, an ancient doorway between worlds, most of which were destroyed centuries ago, and make a trade. Kyoss does not give information freely, or in any particular order.
The Progressive Revelations
The book reveals its secrets gradually. Each time someone opens it, they see more. Visions and text that build from mystery to horror. What follows is what the book contains, in the order it reveals itself:
The first page shows an illustration of two worlds: the overworld and the Abyss, layered and shifting against one another like reflections in disturbed water
A page with moving symbols, arcane runes drifting across the parchment, coming together to form a circle
Illustrations of rubies being mined on a vast scale, glowing with inner light
The vision: The reader is pulled briefly into something between a dream and a memory. The sensation of standing between two worlds, watching them move closer together. The weight of stone, the gleam of red gems.
Ram skull with curved horns, massive bat wings, rotting flesh barely clinging to bone
The Wand of Orcus clutched in a skeletal hand
Text in elegant, terrible script: “The Demon Prince of Undeath shall walk the world again”
The vision: The reader feels the weight of death itself. Sees legions of corpses rising from graves, cities burning, the sky turning red. The overwhelming presence of something ancient and evil.
Reading 3: The Five Components
What appears:
A list materializes in shifting, ancient script. The categories of what is required:
“Symbol of demonic power, a circle within a triangle”
“The essence of innocence, flowing red as rivers through sacred paths”
“A weapon of divine thunder, forged in mountain’s heart, to shatter the veil”
“Three relics bound as one: mortality severed, celestial fire extinguished, heroic sacrifice corrupted”
“The words of the Keeper, spoken aloud with authority and intent”
The vision: Five symbols orbit each other in the reader’s mind: a red gem, a river of blood, a hammer wreathed in lightning, a chalice overflowing with fire, and this very book.
The perfect spherical crater illustrated in unsettling detail
Text: “Where he fell by Xaverine’s Trick, so shall he rise again”
“The ground remembers. The stone remembers. He remembers.”
The vision: Standing at the edge of a massive crater, perfectly spherical as if scooped from the earth by a god’s hand. The air feels thin. Reality feels fragile here. Something pulls at you from below.
Thousands of stones arranged in concentric circles and triangles in precise patterns
Measurements indicating a plan hundreds of feet across
Instructions for placement — rubies glow when correctly positioned
Text: “The focus. The demonic circle that draws power from the Abyss itself.”
The vision: Looking down from high above at a massive glowing red circle carved into the crater floor. The rubies pulse like a heartbeat. The pattern is beautiful and wrong.
Reading 6: The River of Innocents
What appears:
Illustrations of channels carved through stone
Text reveals the horrifying truth: “One hundred vessels of purity”
“Golden of hair, innocent of heart, untouched by shadow or sin”
“Their essence must flow freely through the sacred paths”
Detailed drawings of blood flowing in rivers through geometric channels
The vision: The sound of children crying, then sudden silence. Red rivers flowing through carved stone. The smell of iron. The weight of one hundred lives snuffed out. This is the component that makes clear what kind of evil this ritual truly is.
Dwarven runes etched along its massive head, lightning crackling around it
Text: “The breaker of worlds, forged in the deep places by the children of stone”
“The force required to shatter the barrier between realms”
“The final blow that breaks the vessel and tears the veil”
The vision: Thunder echoing through vast stone halls deep beneath mountains. Dwarven smiths hammering metal that sparks with divine power. The sensation of tremendous force — the strike that splits reality itself.
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Effects and Warnings
The book does not sit quietly. Each reading is accompanied by visions that grow more intense and horrifying. Readers report:
Feeling watched while reading
Temperature drops in the immediate area
Shadows lengthening unnaturally
The sensation of standing between worlds
Dreams of the Abyss for nights afterward
An overwhelming sense of dread that builds with each reading
The book seems to choose when to reveal its secrets. Two people opening it simultaneously may see different pages. Someone opening it multiple times in quick succession may be shown nothing new — the book decides when the reader is “ready” for the next revelation.
Arrako the Pure’s Sword — the blade that looks like frozen obsidian flame
Faben the Worthy’s Ring — the eyeball ring that shows demon footsteps, its current whereabouts unknown
The Butchered Words of Kyoss — this book
The book contains the complete knowledge needed to summon Orcus from the Abyss. It also holds fragments of understanding about the relationship between the overworld and the Abyss, and how the barrier between them can be torn open.
More than just instructions, the book itself is required for the ritual — the Words must be spoken aloud from its pages during the summoning. Without the book, the ritual cannot be completed.
The book is no longer held by The Stumblers. Barnaby surrendered it under duress at the well in front of Eldritch College when The Dawnbringer confronted him in person. She telekinesed him back when he tried to flee, then plucked a memory of sunlight from his birth to break him. He yielded the tome rather than lose more.
She walked a dozen paces from the well and stepped out of the world. ~6,000 gp worth of Rubies left with her in the same bag.
Before the loss, the book had been secured as follows:
Aldor the Wizard has had his memory of the party wiped, so he cannot be questioned or coerced into revealing their possession of the book.
Barnaby read it twice before it was taken. The second reading happened inside the Bag of Holding in Session 13, cut short when he felt his life-force begin to drain. He has only seen Reading 1 and (partially) Reading 2 — the Dawnbringer now takes over the progressive readings.
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