Tar'Ael Veluuthra

Tar’Ael Veluuthra, or Whetstone of the Blade or Whetstone of the Victorious Blade, was a spellbook containing some spells designed for members of the Eldreth Veluuthra and also allowed crafting humanbane arrows for those with normally insufficient skill.

Description
The entire book had a bend that looked as though it could and was carried around in a scroll tube. The book’s cover was made from a single silverbark tree leaf folded in half along its central vine. The front cover spelled its name. The pages were made from beaten plant mush and were sewn together with vine. The book was written in delicate elven letters and started with the sentence:

May we drive the cursed vermin from our blessed land, may they despoil it no longer with their sweat, axes, and blood.

Contents
The book contained spells, that helped the spellcaster to navigate, spy, hide and relay information, namely:
 * clairaudience/ clairvoyance
 * climb
 * expeditious retreat
 * invisibility
 * jump
 * message

While the content was certainly useful, the book’s true value didn’t lie in the spells it contained but in its back cover. A spellcaster gained the ability to craft humanbane arrows after following through the following steps:

1. kill a human 2. drop the blood from the killed human’s heart before 10 min passed after death 3. the blood formed a magical formula in elven letters 4. the formula described how to create the magical arrows

The formulas magic was useful for 8 hours during which the arrows must be crafted. users needed to provide the material for the crafting process by themselves, the only thing the book’s formula and human blood substituted were the users’ lack of skill to create them by themselves.

The formula couldn’t be copied to be used later because the blood of a human was different from individual to individual.

The crafting formula itself allowed only the crafting of six arrows and interestingly, it only allowed modifying existing mundane arrows into magical arrows. Adding the humanbane characteristics to an existing magical arrow was impossible.

Value
The Tar’Ael Veluuthra could be sold like any other magic book, but its monetary value depended on whether the potential knew about its book cover’s magic. Those who knew and had a need for the grisly magic were even willing to pay about three times the value of the book’s content in spells, those who didn’t have the need or were of morally higher calling didn’t buy it at all or paid to keep the book out of circulation.

History
The Tar’Ael Veluuthra earliest recorded sighting was in 1345 DR, but it wasn’t known when and who did create it. What was known about the creator’s identity was that it was an elven wizard, who was also a member of the Eldreth Veluuthra, and its purpose, teaching other members useful spells in stealth and providing means to kill humans. It was suspected that the book was duplicated several times, but neither had anybody an idea how often nor was anybody able to confirm this information.

The last known owner of the original was the fey'ri Threlya Dlardrageth, last seen shortly before the phaerimms’ attack on Evereska. A rather naive woman, a member of the Eldreth Veluuthra mistook her awkwardness with uneasiness at being around many humans and introduced her to a fellow wizard for tutorship in magic. This wizard borrowed her the Tar'Ael Veluuthra, but misfortune didn’t allow her to give it back.