Nycoptic Manuscripts

The Nycoptic Manuscripts were a pair of papyrus scrolls containing ancient tales and prophecies. The anonymous author was considered to have likely been insane. The scrolls contained lore useful for practitioners of necromancy, as well as cryptic prophecies of doom thought to be comprehensible only by those whose sanity had been eroded by exposure to the manuscripts' contents.

Among these prophecies was one describing the release of the lich Vermissa from her prison beneath the isle of Sahu.

Contents
Among its other contents, the manuscripts contained a legend entitled "Loviatar's Descent into the Netherworld" and a set of ritual instructions for creating crawling claws.

The Nycoptic Manuscripts were also rumored to contain full ritual instructions for casting the spell undead plague, although the spell disappeared from the manuscripts once cast, appearing again only when the scrolls passed to a new owner. Otherwise, the scrolls held no spells, but the lore contained within could greatly reduce the time and expense of necromantic research and were thus considered valuable to necromancers and priests of death.

Behind the Scenes
The Nycoptic Manuscripts bear a close resemblence in name and role to the Pnakotic Manuscripts from Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.