Tablets of Pharyssolnyth

Two of the Tablets of Pharyssolnyth.
Tablets of Pharyssolnyth
Basic Information
Other names	Pharyssolnyth Tablets
Type	Tablets
Rules Information
3rd Edition Statistics
Aura	Strong transmutation
Caster level	20
Value	Minor artifact
Weight	18 lb (8.2 kg)

The Tablets of Pharyssolnyth, or the Pharyssolnyth Tablets, were a collection of writings by the silver dragon Pharyssolnyth of Yrlaphon. They detailed the secrets of dragon magic and were considered the definitive treatise on the subject.

Description

The Tablets consisted of thirty-seven large slates, obsidian black, with one side polished smooth and the other rough and natural. They seemed strange in appearance and strange to feel. They were in fact the permanently enlarged scales of a black dragon. Altogether, they weighed 18 pounds (8.2 kilograms). They were kept in a long strip of soft leather bearing thirty-seven pockets, each holding one scale.

Appearing blank, the polished sides were actually covered with minute, invisible etchings and scrawls, in a form of tactile writing unknown to any race that once inhabited Myth Drannor, but eventually considered to be a form of Draconic. Either way, it was extremely difficult to notice and read, needing close examination and a sensitive touch. On the raw sides, meanwhile, the elven examiners recorded their translations, notes, and theories in ancient moon elvish, and these were almost as hard to read.

History

Pharyssolnyth dwelt in the elven city of Yrlaphon, among the eastern woodlands of Cormanthor, in the first century after its founding in −1535 DR. There she recorded the tablets that were named for her.

Following the fall of Yrlaphon in −722 DR, the Srinshee took the Tablets with her to Srinshinnar. When Srinshinnar also fell, the Srinshee and the survivors carried the tablets with them to Cormanthor.

The Tablets of Pharyssolnyth then came into the possession of Windsong Tower in Myth Drannor when the Srinshee accepted a place among the Tower Elders there. For centuries, they were hidden and locked away, examined only by permission of the Tower Elders or the Tower Master. There they remained as late as 650 DR.

They were still at Windsong Tower in the mid–14^th century DR. They were kept in the libraries of Windsong Aerie, but after being threatened by the Shadovar, the tower's custodian and guardian Darcassan relocated them to the vault of Shadowsong Tree, but he would allow heroes battling the Shadovar to examine them.

Research

In their time, the Tablets of Pharyssolnyth had been kept hidden for centuries. The Srinshee and other researchers also spent long ages examining them. It took several centuries just to determine that the Tablets were fashioned from enlarged black-dragon scales, and many years after to find the carvings. Examiners spent nearly four centuries studying and interpreting them, inscribing their translations and notes on the backs of the scales, as they were by the mid–7^th century DR. Referring to them on any matter required the skill to read both the draconic and elvish scripts, and took some ten minutes, while it took a full tenday of study to examine them all.

Contents

The Tablets were a treatise on how dragons understood, learned, and practiced magic, whether as spells or in magic items. All in all, it was a trove of lore on dragonkind, knowledge precious in its own right.

Any non-dragon who managed to read all the Tablets gained great insights into the powers of dragons, their attitudes towards magic and its casting, and an enhanced ability to resist magic used by dragons. They could grant this last benefit but once a century.