Treasure of the Golden Hills

Treasure of the Golden Hills was a holy book written by a gnome scholar as a mean of introducing gnomish religion to his younger brethren. It contained seven stories and as many spells, all related to the gnomish pantheon.

Description
Treasure of the Golden Hills was a small book, the size of a typical gnome spellbook], whose pages were made of unadorned vellum. The tome was made of 86 pages: 14 pages contained spells and the remaining 72 contained stories. The pages had a pleasant smell of old dry leaves.

The book was bound with sturdy brown leather. The cover presented a gold-inlaid picture, and Dethek runes were similarly inlaid on the cover and on the spine. The picture took the form of small hills dotted with trees, a representation of the Golden Hills. The text on the cover and spine simply indicated the name of the book.

Treasures of the Golden Hills wasn't a unique book: at least four copies existed, most of which were preciously kept and used by gnome communities throughout the Realms.

Contents
"Anecdotes of the Lords of the Golden Hills, and magic pertaining to their stories and worship."

- Inscription penned on the first page.

Each of the seven spells contained in this book was described on two pages, and preceded by a short story about four to five pages long. The writing on the pages was penned in fanciful gnomish script, and the stories were embellished by small illustration of gnomish deities acting out the stories or using the spells described in the book. The stories and associated spells are listed below.
 * "Baervan and Chiktikka Escape the Orc Army" &mdash; lesser tree healing.
 * "Callarduran and the Sneaky Thief" &mdash; stalactite trap.
 * "Gaerdal and the Kobold Spy" &mdash; deafening clang.
 * "Garl and Arumdina Teach Kurtulmak a Lesson" &mdash; weapon of the deity.
 * "How Flandal Invented Smithing" &mdash; steelskin.
 * "How Segojan Helped Mrs. Badger" &mdash; burrow.
 * "Segojan's Clever Defense" &mdash; Segojan's armor.

History
Treasure of the Golden Hills was a very old book, written by a religious scholar in the hopes of inspiring a vocation as a priest to younger gnomes. Highly valued by gnomish communities, the only copy to have been seen in the wild came from a gnomish clan inhabiting the southern Far Hills. During the, this clan was scattered by the attacks of a red dragon. The priest who took a copy of the Treasure was killed by a bugbear ambush, and the book forgotten until the goblinoids were defeated by the Iron Crows mercenaries from Neverwinter. The mercenaries went on to fight new foes in the Troll Hills on the behalf of an agent of the Red Wizards, and were defeated.

During the, the gnome priest Dorgannan Blackwood used divination magic to locate the book. He attempted to retrieve the book alone and succeeded a first&mdash;until he met the path of Valem, a troll cleric of Talona. Dorgannan met a tragic end at the hands of his foe, but fortunately informed some friends of his findings before departing for his last adventure.

Rumors
According to some rumors, a copy of the book made by a cleric of Urdlen contained an additional spell, called blood frenzy, which caused the caster to enter a rage similar to that of barbarians.