Testament of Jade was the testimonial journal of Dennison the Jade, a cleric of Lathander, imbued with divine magic and precious historical data.[1]
Description[]
Testament of Jade was a book with square 1 ft. pages. The book was bound in leather and had a fine quality leather cover dyed green and decorated with embedded jade gems. The front of the book bore engraved round disk of rose gold, the holy symbol of Lathander. The spine had a silk bookmark ribbon attached to it, green in color as well.[1]
The book radiated faint magical light and appeared as if brand new, even centuries past the destruction of Myth Drannor.[1]
Contents[]
Testament of Jade was filled with personalized devotions to the Morninglord as well as detailed chronicles of the city annotated and punctuated by Dennison's own thoughts and observations. These chronicles were especially valuable as they covered events up to the final moments of the Weeping War, the citizens' of Myth Drannor relentless final stands.[1]
In addition to the book's historical and scholarly value, the book included direct and cryptic information on the vaults and caches of magic items hidden by the residents of the city before its destruction.[1]
Powers[]
Even though the book was ripped to pieces during the Weeping War, the enchantments kept the binding, cover, and pages, safe and intact through the centuries that followed. It was possible that the same enchantment also attracted the pieces of the book to each-other slowly overtime, repairing them.[1]
When the book was assembled, a good-aligned cleric was able to tap into its magic. The person owning the book gained a boost to their wisdom and charisma and was given the ability to cast the following spells: protection from evil (once a day), cure light wounds (thrice a day), cure moderate wounds (twice a day), cure serious wounds (once a day), heal (once a day), and raise dead (once a day). The use of the raise dead spell costed the user a small portion of their own health, only usable by neutral good creatures.[1]
When an evil creature was in the book's possession, they suffered a loss of power and life energies as long as they had the Testament of Jade. When a truly neutral creature possessed the book, they were almost always affected by a blindness spell.[1]
The Testament of Jade also promoted self sacrifice, philanthropy, and generosity, imposing these values. The owner of the book was unable to tap into its power if the tithing was not paid (at least the half of the person's earnings was to be donated to a good cause). If this condition was not met, the book stopped functioning until the following month and that month's tithe.[1]
The Testament of Jade also influenced its good-aligned owner in subtle ways. This could be manifested in the owner's personality changes, such as preferring jade to any other precious stone, they started following the dogma of the Church of Lathander one trait at the time, eventually resulting in denouncing any and all other faiths and becoming a devotee of Lathander. These personality changes were unreversible by removing the book from their possessions.[1]
History[]
Testament of Jade and its owner Dennison resided in the City of Song, Myth Drannor during the last twenty years that preceded the Weeping War. Once the war swallowed the city, Dennison perished and the Testament of Jade was lost in the ruins of war.[1] It was said that before his death, Dennison ripped the book apart to protect its contents from the hordes of the Army of Darkness at it contained the magic sigils and words of power used by the residents of the city to magically seal the parts of Myth Drannor, especially those of cultural and magical significance. Some of the areas sealed were crypts in Polyandrium[1], Dwarven Dungeons[2], Elven Catacombs[2], and many other locations.[1]
I the years before 1369 DR the existence of the book became known after a group of adventurers found it in a cache of ancient items in the ruins of Myth Drannor, even though only one of the group survived to tell the story of the magic book and creatures "most evil and foul", and the cleric of the party who took the book died in Myth Drannor and book was lost once again.[1]
In 1369 DR, the book's enchantments mended the item together, apart from two missing pages. The book's exitence was eventually discovered by the Cult of the Dragon that occupied Myth Drannor during that time, planning to use the city's mythal and its pool of radiance to take over the Moonsea region. The book was later recovered by one of the groups of adventurers that sough to foil the Cult's plans. The almost-complete book was recovered from possessions of the adventuring cleric whose party was killed inside Lyssic's Crypt, one of the missing pages was in High Priest Ryngoth's possession, and the last page - inside the Crypt of Rothilion.[1]
When the pages were joined with the Testament of Jade, the book mended itself and briefly glowed with divine warm benevolent light. That radiation eased fatigue and stress of any creature it touched. The divine presence was felt by anyone in the vicinity.[1]
Rumors and Legends[]
It was not known how this book gained its magical abilities. Sages had several theories. The first one credited the magic to the mythal imbuing the book with powers during the fall of Myth Drannor and storms of wild magic and high-level spells affecting each other and changing each other's natures and effects. The second theory, especially among the sages who worshiped Lathander, credited the Morninglord himself for the book's enchantments.[1]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
- Adventures
- Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 Sean K. Reynolds (2000). Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor. Edited by Michele Carter. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-7869-1710-5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Stormfront Studios (2001). Designed by Mark Buchignani, Ken Eklund, Sarah W. Stocker. Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. Ubisoft Entertainment.