Yornar's Trail Companion

Yornar's Trail Companion, or simply the Companion, was a holy spellbook of the Church of Mielikki that had been granted to the legendary ranger Yornar the Tracker by the Lady of the Forest herself, then passed from ranger to priest and priest to ranger down through the centuries in a winding path around the Realms. It was thought Mielikki sent the book out to inspire and encourage her faithful and to strengthen the magic of her priests.

Description
The book had an unusual crescent shape, resembling the lunar phase. For a spine, it had a single, sturdy scrollwork hinge that curved along the middle part of the crescent's outer curve. It had ironwood covers bound in leather, which had been replaced multiple times, with one bearer, Rhighaermon, replacing it no less than four times, and the crescent's horns were sometimes seen with protective metal caps and sometimes without. The whole book appeared well-used and worn by time and the elements. It was roughly tall, as measured straight from horn to horn.

Within the covers, the book had many pages apparently made from the mineral mica. These sheets were cut to the thickness of a hair and polished smooth. There were 93 pages.

Contents
Each page of Yornar's Trail Companion displayed a single divine spell. As documented by Rhighaermon O'Antlers, these spells were known to be:
 * accelerate healing • age creature • age plant • animal friendship • animal growth • animate rock • anti-vermin barrier • anti-animal shell • anti-plant shell • banish blight • barkskin • breath of life • call woodland beings • circle of privacy • clear path • conjure animals • control temperature, 10' radius • control winds • create campsite • create food & water • create treant • create water • cure blindness or deafness • cure disease • detect snares and pits • dispel magic • efficacious monster ward • endure heat/endure cold • entangle • faerie fire • find drinkable water • find the path • fire purge • free action • giant insect • ground trace • hallucinatory forest • heroes' feast • hold animal • hold plant • invisibility purge • invisibility to animals • invisibility to undead • know age • know alignment • know direction • know time • land of stability • liveoak • locate animals or plants • locate object • log of everburning • lower water • monster mount • nap • neutralize poison • part water • pass plant • pass without trace • plant door • plant growth • protection from fire • purify food & drink • reflecting pool • reincarnate • repel insects • resist fire/resist cold • slow poison • snake charm • snare • speak with monsters • speak with plants • spike growth • stalk • tongues • transmute rock to mud • transport via plants • tree healing • tree steed • tree • turn wood • unceasing vigilance of the holy sentinel • undead ward • unicorn steed • wall of thorns • warp wood • water breathing • water walk • weather stasis • weather summoning • wolf spirits • wood sword • zone of sweet air

Powers
In addition, the book itself possessed a number of magical powers and properties. The mica pages were utterly unbreakable, apparently due to a magical treatment. Moreover, the covers bore numerous item enchantments, rendering them invulnerable to fire, physical damage, and all known spells, even dispel magic and disintegrate.

The Companion could also glow faintly, similar to a faerie fire spell, when touched and willed to do so. Its light could be quietly dimmed in the same way. The light was a pale fire, similar to moonlight. Thus, the book could be used as a handy source of light, and was frequently used in just this way by the countless rangers who carried it through the woodlands at night.

In addition, it had the odd property that, when the book contacted any substance that was poisonous or corrosive to humans, elves, and half-elves, it became oddly prickly to the touch of bare skin. This had the practical benefit of allowing the bearer to detect poisons by dipping the book in a liquid or touching it to food, or waving it through the air when toxic gases were feared.

Clerics who possessed the Companion received the understanding that a Mielikkian priest might be permitted to use the Companion a second time after giving it away, but only if the need was great.

Discovery
According to Mielikkian legend, one dark night some time in the 10 century DR, Yornar the Tracker was lost in the forest and harried by bugbears when he glanced up at the crescent moon and muttered "Oh, that the moon itself would come down and light the way for my sword." And to his surprise, it did, with a small glowing crescent descending from the heavens and illuminating the forest. As the bugbears cowered, Yornar could see clearly enough to overcome them. Afterward, he gazed up at the crescent and prayed to Mielikki to give thanks, when it floated down into his hand and was revealed to be a book of spells.

As he could not understand, let alone cast, the spells himself, Yornar prayed ardently to Mielikki for guidance on what to do with it. One night, he was awoken by low, rich voice in his ear and even felt a kiss on his cheek, with a touch of fire yet as cool as spring water. However, when Yornar sat up and look into the forest, he found he was alone. The Lady of the Forest had been with him. Church lore held that Yornar was the first to carry the book, and so it was named for him thereafter—Yornar's Trail Companion.

Eventually, in the, Yornar the Tracker dutifully gave the book to a Mielikkian priestess named Emthreena Gulkryn. She was combating the creeping evil of Hellgate Keep in the eastern High Forest. Emthreena made good use of it for much of a season until Mielikki sent her dream visions telling her it was time to pass it on, and to give it to a passing ranger who seemed worthy.

A Companion on the Trail
Emthreena duly did as she was bid, giving the Companion to a travelling ranger who carried it across Faerûn and gave it up to a Mielikkian priest. This established 'the Rightful Cycle' of the Companion changing hands from priest to ranger, ranger to priest, where the ranger would transport it and the priest would use it. This cycle continued through the centuries without disruption, with the Companion changing hands hundreds of times and moving erratically all around the Realms, with the Mielikkian priests studying it in peace. According to researcher Sambranna Highstar, there was "little of interest to recount of its endless journeys, nor in the studies of the quietly diligent Mielikkian holy folk."

One remarkable ranger was Rhighaermon O'Antlers, a Waterdhavian noble who gave up his wealth, his family, and his surname in order that he might wander the untouched wildernesses of Faerûn. He came to view the book as being like an old friend, as a travelling companion who was quiet but nevertheless attentive, and even spoke to it occasionally. In the, a thief stole the Companion from Rhighaermon and sold it to Lord Lathamp of Elupar in the Vilhon Reach. In response, Rhighaermon assembled some half-dozen other followers of Mielikki and mounted a daring raid to steal it back from Lathamp's palace. The rangers dueled the Eluphan guards along the battlements and in the galleries as they successfully reclaimed the tome from the palace vault.

Later, in the, Rhighaermon married Dathae, and they hung the glowing Companion over their bridal bed. Afterward, while on their honeymoon, Rhighaermon finally delivered the Companion to the priest Klavaeron of Cedarsproke in the Gulthmere Forest.

Lost in the Wilds
The Rightful Cycle was finally broken in the, when the Mielikkian temple of Highluthholt in the High Forest was attacked by a flight of seven wyverns that carried off a number of treasures, including the Companion. The culprit was suspected to be a villainous wizard who used magically controlled wyverns in a number of robberies and raids around the time. The name and fate of this wizard were unknown, and the Companion remained lost for years.

It didn't resurface until the. An adventuring company known as the Talons of Timindar were exploring the monster-haunted ruins of Ilimar when they unexpectedly found the Companion hovering in the air in the middle of a tower-top room. Curiously, the whole room was scorched by flame, with broken windows and broken bodies all around, as if blasted by an explosion, possibly a fireball spell. The Talons went to Khôltar in the Shaar, where they sold the Companion for 90,000 gp and a pair of slippers of spider climbing to a strange dwarf who didn't give them his name.

This nameless dwarf, who was never seen without two ravens perched on each shoulder whom he apparently communicated with and even obeyed, was likely a minion, willingly or unwilling, of the renegade Halruaan sorceresses Halatha and Murbreistra Starnar of Phelzol. They bred monsters and mongrelmen and attracted many enemies and thieves from Halruaa who would raid their walled estate.

But it was a local thief, Andaren Robyth, who used one of these raids and spell-battles in the, as a cover while he scaled the wall and stole a number of magical items from the sisters, including the Companion. But he did not escape unscathed: a partly polymorphed reptilian left arm made him an outcast and forced him to work as a killer-for-hire. Two years later, the mage Hoth of the Six Curses arrived at his cave outside Phannaskul with the intent to kill him, but Andaren purchased his life with the Companion.

Hoth took the Companion hoping it held something that would rid him of at least one of his curses, but nothing in the divine spellbook could help him. Disgusted, he sold it to a merchant in a bazaar in Murghyr in Murghôm. Later that day, that merchant double-crossed another merchant, who was in fact a doppelganger and member of a druuth serving a mind flayer, and died for his treachery.

Back on Track
The mind flayer tried to exchange the tome for a more useful magical item. But, by sheer chance, the man it tried to trade with was none other than the now elderly Rhighaermon O'Antlers. With every trick and tactic he knew and every magical item in his possession, Rhighaermon killed the mind flayer and stole back the Companion, and carried it to the closest temple of Mielikki. However, he was hunted all the way by the mind flayer's druuth.

Mortally wounded and with the doppelgangers close behind, Rhighaermon arrived at last at the Mielikkian temple in Maerlar in Mulhorand. He fell into the priests' arms, holding the Companion out to them though he could not tell them what it was. The priests charged out to heal him and protect him from the doppelgangers, when a mystery lady in green emerged from the trees and caused vines to ensnare, choke, and tear apart the doppelgangers with no more than her finger. She picked up the faithful Rhighaermon O'Antlers with a smile and disappeared, as the stunned priests fell to their knees and wept and praised Mielikki, the Supreme Ranger. A message carved on their altar would be found the next morning, as if it had always been there, encouraging the Mielikkians to continue the Rightful Cycle. Later, his widow Dathae completed the Companion ' s journey, carrying it from Maerlar to the next Mielikkian priest in the Rightful Cycle, which would continue more-or-less intact for some time.

Lost Again
However, the Companion disappeared again, breaking the cycle a second time, when its bearer, treespeaker Elanalue Sharrith of the Border Forest was captured by drow and taken into slavery in the. It's unknown whether Elanalue managed to stash the book before they did, or she lost it in the chase and the fight, or the drow seized it as well.

As of 1368 DR, at least six adventuring companies had gone in search of Elanalue Sharrith, the last being the Dwarves of Destiny in Eleint, the. But none had succeeded, or even returned. With the Companion lost, the church of Mielikki could do naught but keep "an eye out for it" and try to reclaim it they ever learned of it.

Notable Rightful Bearers

 * Yornar the Tracker, ranger and namesake
 * Emthreena Gulkryn, priest
 * Rhighaermon O'Antlers, ranger
 * Elanalue Sharrith, treespeaker and last known bearer