The Book of Cylinders was a prophetic, somewhat vague work describing a grippli village endangered by evil yuan-ti.[1]
Description[]
Not a book in the traditional sense, the Book of Cylinders was a roughly book-shaped container made from leather and reinforced with hide. Opening the "book" revealed its contents: three hollow cylinders made from wood carved with protruding writing and images, as well as a linen bag containing dry clay.[1]
Reading the contents of the carved cylinders required mixing the dry clay with water to form a paste, which would then be spread out in a thin layer. Rolling each cylinder across pressed the writing into the clay, making it readable.[1]
Contents[]
The writing on the cylinders was mostly Dethek characters interspersed with pictographs that, when combined, told a story about the plight of a grippli community.[1]
The first cylinder explained how grippli harvested giant crabs and sold these to seagoing vessels. The second showed yuan-ti lurking at the edges of the grippli village before suddenly attacking, killing or capturing the grippli they could get their hands on; the giant crabs of the grippli escaping from their cages in the tumult. The third cylinder showed the aftermath of the assault: the village flattened and devoid of life, the village temple taken over by yuan-ti.[1]
History[]
The Book of Cylinders arrived at Candlekeep in the Year of the Purloined Statue, 1477 DR, as part of a greater collection discovered in the ruins of an old keep in Tethyr. The adventurers who delivered the collection warned the Avowed that the Book of Cylinders prophesied events that would come to pass at some point in the future.[1]
The cylinders contained within the "book".
In the Year of Three Ships Sailing, 1492 DR, a grippli community in the Cloak Wood suffered depredations much like those described in the Book of Cylinders. This village was a trading partner of Candlekeep, providing the fortress library with giant crab meat through intermediary traders. Having been warned of how the grippli village was under attack by "serpent creatures" by the merchant Mitor Jans, the Avowed Pelk put two and two together: the Book of Cylinders must have been describing this exact scenario. She approached a group of visiting adventurers hoping to convince them to aid the ailing grippli.[1]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Adventures
- Candlekeep Mysteries: "Book of Cylinders"
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Graeme Barber, Kim Mohan (March 2021). “Book of Cylinders”. In Kim Mohan ed. Candlekeep Mysteries (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-0-7869-6722-3.