The Eight Grimoires

of Ancient Magic

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 The Eight Grimoires of Ancient Magic
A
topic of speculation and rumor among scholars
and magic practitioners, each of these eight
tomes are said to have great knowledge on one
of the eight schools of magic, each written by
one people. They were written so long ago that
even the reason for their creation has been lost,
but it is rumored among scholars that think the
books might actually exist that each race which created a
grimoire did so by order of a dark god under threat of total
genocide — and even that there were once other schools of
magic that were wiped out along with their races!
Regardless of such speculation by scholars, the reality is
that each book is an indestructible grimoire written by a
different people: The Dwarves wrote the Grimoire of
Abjuration, the spawn of fiends the Grimoire of Conjuration,
the descendents of Celestials the Grimoire of Divination, the
Wood Elves the Grimoire of Enchantment, the descendents
of dragons the Grimoire of Evocation, the Gnomes the
Grimoire of Illusion, the High Elves the Grimoire of
Necromancy, and the Humans the Grimoire of
Transmutation.
All eight books contain text that is magical. When read, the
writing and diagrams in this text always appear to be in the
native language of any one reader, even when being viewed by
multiple readers concurrently; the reader must only know
how to read at least one language.
When read, one of the eight grimoires displays magical
knowledge that the reader seeks as long as it is pertaining to
that school of magic, or in the absence of such, appears
blank. For example, if one wishes to know how to break a
simple Curse spell, the knowledge of how to do so would be
displayed if one read the Grimoire of Abjuration, but it could
also be found if one read the Grimoire of Necromancy.
Though it contains a list of all known spells from near the
dawn of ancient humanoid civilization (therefore lacking any
spell that starts with the name of a person, such as
Mordenkainen, Drawmij, or Aganazzar), each book's greatest
power is their knowledge of one great, ancient, secret spell
from its school.
Though some of these spells have been duplicated or
leaked through great effort since these books' creation, their
power is greater than that of typical spells, as are the great
costs of performing them. Though there are spells hidden
away in these books, they are not technically spell books;
these eight spells only appear if one seeks it. All require a
great sacrifice or a massive toll to perform, and are
performed with magic which seems to defy modern
understanding of magic. Any of these eight spells can be
performed as a ritual by any caster that fulfills the spell’s
required components, which use only a trace amount of one's
own magical power, but instead feed on other sources
instead. However, they cannot be cast as anything but a ritual,
and the casting time is different for each, some even cast over
a shorter time than typical rituals.
2
Gathering All the Books
When all the books have been gathered together and opened
(with the exception of the Grimoire of Illusion, which does
not open), a reader can spend eight hours reading from the
eight grimoires to gain access to primordial magic.
Primordial magic is typically only under the possession of
gods, greater fey, and the mightiest of fiends, but can briefly
be accessed through the magical knowledge of ancient races.
Spells cast with primordial magic function identically to
spells cast by most mortals, but often look slightly different,
and bypass the advantages granted by godhood, such as being
unable to bleed, and is what allows gods to harm and or even
permanently slay one another just as mortals can.
Primordial magic can also be applied to its users' attacks,
making them magically able to bypass resistances in the
same way as with spell, in the same manner as some
creature's attacks always count as being magical.
The Grimoire of Abjuration
Forged by Dwarves, this grimoire is made of sheets of a
bizarre, impermeable, inflexible metal, bound by inflexible
rings. When read, its writing appears chiseled into its pages.
The Grimoire of Abjuration contains knowledge of all
known abjuration from ancient times, as well as the long lost
ritual for Invincibility.
While holding the Grimoire of Abjuration, a creature gains
+2 Constitution, to a maximum of 22.
Invincibility
abjuration ritual
Casting Time: 1 round
Range: Self
Components: M, V, S (a scrap of hide from a tarrasque, a
piece of a dragon turtle's shell, a diamond worth at least
5,000 gp, and the hardest part of a meteor smelted into a
metal harder than diamond, all of which the spell
consumes)
Duration: 1 hour
You succeed on all saving throws for the duration of the
spell, and become completely immune to all damage,
conditions, and any other effect caused by a creature or
object unless you choose to be affected by them, such as a
strong wind pushing you back, a boulder crashing into you, or
someone casting Haste upon you. At the end of the spell's
duration, any damage, saving throw or other or effect that
would have been taken occurs immediately and
simultaneously.
If you received more damage than twice your hit point
maximum and were without any temporary hit points at the
time of casting. For example, if you had 20 maximum hit
points when you cast this spell and received 20 attacks that
would deal 1 point of damage each during the duration of the
spell, you would die at the end of the spell's duration. The
same would also be true if you were hit by a Disintegrate
during the spell's time, or if you had 5 successful reductions
to your exhaustion level that would have normally occurred
during the spell's duration.
The Grimoire of Conjuration
Created by the descendants of demons and devils, this
grimoire's cover absorbs absolutely all light, while its
translucent sheets seem as though they are made from
solidified shadow. The writing appears as if holes through the
pages, and small fingers may at times even slip straight
through a wide enough letter or picture.
This grimoire contains knowledge of all known conjuration
from ancient times, as well as the long lost ritual for Conjure
Creature.
While holding the Grimoire of Conjuration, a creature
gains +2 Conjuration, to a maximum of 22.
Conjure Creature
conjuration ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: 90 feet
Components: M, V, S (a bit of nails, hair, or personal
possession from the summoned creature; a priceless
diamond; and an item or act the being truly desires or is
otherwise very pleased by)
Duration: Instantaneous
Summons any one creature that the requirements fulfill,
including vestiges of fiends, celestials, or gods. (The creature
may to react as if kidnapped, unless they are being
summoned for purpose of their rescue.) Furthermore, if the
creature is a vestige, it becomes conscious, has truesight,
blindsight and telepathy to 120 feet, even if it is otherwise
completely incapacitated.
The Grimoire of Divination
Blessed by the hands of celestial descendants, the grimoire of
divination is made from sheets of the barely-visible crystal,
bound with silk. Its words and diagrams within appearing as
if were etched into it.
The Grimoire of Divination contains knowledge of all
known divination from ancient times, as well as the long lost
spell, Divination.
While holding to the Grimoire of Divination, a creature
gains +2 Wisdom, to a maximum of 22.
Allsight
divination ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: 30 feet
Components: M, V, S (a perfect, priceless crystal orb at least
10 feet in diameter; the direct blessing of a god of a
Knowledge or Divination domain or an artifact created by
one)
Duration: Instantaneous
This spell allows the target of this spell to permanently see,
smell, and hear all that occurs within a range 10 miles as if
they were within 5 feet. The caster and the target of this spell
must both be within the spell's range for the duration of the
casting time. At the end of the spell's casting time, the crystal
orb cracks into several pieces, and the artifact, if used,
shatters.
Whenever the target of this spell finishes the sleep or
meditation as part of a rest, they must succeed on a DC 20
Intelligence saving throw or take 5d12 psychic damage from
the massive surge of incoming sensation and information. If
the target of this spell takes more than half of their hit points
in psychic damage from this spell, it also suffers from
indefinite madness. If the affected creature is already
suffering from indefinite madness, the nature of its madness
changes instead.
Furthermore, if you take more than 50 damage from this
spell, you suffer from one permanent level of exhaustion that
can only be removed by a Wish spell.
The Grimoire of Enchantment
Wood elves wove of the flat leaves of a long-extinct plant into
a the pages of this book, its cover a white wood that has no
apparent grain to it. Its words and diagrams within appearing
as if they are are part of the leaves' texture.
The Grimoire of Enchantment contains knowledge of all
known enchantment from ancient times, as well as the long
lost spell, Omen.
While holding the Grimoire of Enchantment, a creature
gains +5 feet to their walking speed.
Omen
enchantment ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: a single plane
Components: M, V, S (a 5-foot cube of blood drained from
one or more living ancient dragons collected within the
past year, a small vial of the tears of a demigod, and an
onyx worth at least 100 gp, all of which are consumed)
Duration: Instantaneous
All humanoids your choice of a single race (excluding any
specific creatures or groups you choose at the time of
casting) with an Intelligence of at least 5 on your current
plane of existence feel an overwhelming sense of ominous
fear or awe (your choice). Anything being held by an affected
creature is immediately dropped, and each affected creature
spends 1d4 minutes in fear or awe while in a state of
conscious incapacitation. An affected creature cannot walk,
speak, or take any other actions during this time, and can
sense only a sense of great omen. All affected creatures
continue to perform automatic bodily functions (such as
breathing or sweating), but cannot sense even the most
obvious dangers in the face of the omen.
Whenever an affected creature takes damage, and at the
end of the fear or awe from this spell, a creature can make a
DC Wisdom saving throw to shrug off the effect. This saving
throw is also repeated at end of each day after the spell is
cast until the creature succeeds its saving throw. This effect
cannot be dispelled by any magic short of a Wish spell.
3
 The Grimoire of Evocation
Two-legged descendants of dragons worked together made
the cover and pages of this book made from a a variety of
precious metals, each page made of a different metal with
different levels of flexibility, yet impervious to harm. Any
images or words in the book appear as though they are made
from perfectly inlaid metals, and feel flush to each of the
pages.
The Grimoire of Evocation contains knowledge of all
known evocation from ancient times, as well as the long lost
spell, Create Disaster.
While holding to the Grimoire of Evocation, a creature
gains resistance to acid, cold, and fire damage.
Create Disaster
evocation ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: 1 mile
Components: M, V, S (a flame taken from the Plane of Fire, a
jar of lightning from the Plane of Wind, rain water from the
Plane of Water, and a gem from the Plane of Earth, all
gathered within the past day; and a sacrifice of the one
thing most precious to the caster)
Duration: 1 day
One natural disaster of the user's choice, springs forth
from a point within range and rapidly spreads to cover up to a
10 mile radius, depending on the severity of the event. The
effects may include those of the most extreme effects of
Control Weather, Earthquake, Storm of Vengeance, or
Volcanic Fissure (see The Lost Tome), or any similar spell.
Any effect or damage dealt by this spell is done at its
maximum.
The caster of this spell is driven to indefinite madness at
the time of casting, which cannot be cured short of a Wish
spell. Furthermore, the spell's ecological impacts can be felt
for d100 years.
4
The Grimoire of Illusion
Gnomes made this unusual grimoire with ancient, lost
technology. The book appears to be a flat metal block with a
black glass top that cannot be opened by any means. Instead,
the information that the book contains are displayed under
the sheet of glass as if printed in ink on sheet of glowing
white paper, while its images are shown in magnificent,
colorful detail, often even animated.
The Grimoire of Illusion contains knowledge of all known
illusion spells from ancient times, as well as the long lost
spell, False Reality.
While holding to the Grimoire of Illusion, a creature gains
+2 Intelligence, to a maximum of 22.
False Reality
illusion ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: 1 mile
Components: M, V, S (the eye of a living demigod, a dream
stolen from a pegasus, and a nightmare stolen from a
nightmare nightmare; all of which are consumed)
Duration: 1 day
To cast this spell, a living nightmare and a living pegasus
must both be sleeping within 30 feet of the caster, and the eye
of a living demigod in hand.
Upon casting, the reality for all creatures in a 10 mile
radius instantly changes to fit the caster’s choice during the 8
hour casting of this spell. All buildings, plants, animals,
people, and other living and nonliving creatures and objects
can take on any appearance or other senses to fit the caster's
imaginary reality, and all memories that conflict with these
new projections are forgotten for the duration of the spell. If a
creature determines the nature of their reality is false, they
take 1d4 psychic damage, and collapse, unconscious, for 2d4
- 1 days, unable to be awoken by any means short of a Wish
spell.
The Grimoire of Necromancy
High Elves made this book's cover of the black hide of some
unknown creature, its pages of a white parchment. The
writing and pictures within appear to be written and drawn in
the finest of script regardless of what language is displayed,
all in a perfectly black ink.
The Grimoire of Necromancy also contains knowledge of
all known necromancy spells from ancient times, as well as
the long lost ritual for the particularly complex ritual to turn
oneself into a lich.
While holding to the Grimoire of Necromancy, a creature
learns one cantrip of their choice, which can be swapped out
for another cantrip at the end of a long rest.
Becoming A Lich: The Ritual
The candidate (as the person trying to become a lich is called
henceforth) must make a sparkling black potion that gleams
with a bluish radiance including the following ingredients
mixed in the order given, by the light of a full moon, and
drunk within 7 days after they finish it:
Arsenic (2 drops of the purest distillate).
Belladonna (1 drop of the purest distillate).
Blood (1 quart of blood from a dead pegasus foal, killed by
wyvern stinger poison).
Blood (1 quart from a non-human person slain by a phase
spider).
Blood (1 quart from a vampire or a being infected with
vampirism).
Heart (the intact heart of a humanoid killed by poisoning
by a mixture of arsenic and belladonna).
Reproductive glands (from seven giant moths, dead for
less than 10 days, ground together).
Venom (1 pint or more, drawn from a phase spider less
than 30 days prior).
Venom (1 pint or more, drawn from a wyvern less than 60
days prior).
All of the potion must be drunk by the candidate. Within a
minute, this produces an observable effect as follows from a
d100 roll:
1-30: Candidate falls into a coma for up to a week, is
physically helpless and immobile, mentally unreachable.
Upon waking, potion works; the candidate knows this.
31-60: Potion works, but candidate is feebleminded. Failed
attempts to cure the candidate's condition sometimes slays
the candidate.
60-79: Potion works, but candidate is paralyzed for several
or even over dozen days. There is a common chance for
permanent loss of candidate’s agility.
80-90: All body hair falls out, but potion is ineffective (the
candidate can feel there is no other change). Another potion
must be prepared if lichdom is desired.
91-95: Potion works, but candidate is permanently
Deafened, Blinded, or mad. (The lost sense can only be
regained by a Wish.)
96-100: Death of the candidate. Potion does not work.
Successful Candidates
A successfully prepared candidate for lichdom can live for an
indefinite number of years before becoming a lich, lichdom is
not achieved at death unless preparation of his or her
phylactery is complete. A successfully prepared candidate
may appear somewhat paler of skin than before imbibing the
potion, but cannot be mentally or magically detected by
others as ready for lichdom. The candidate, however, is
always aware of readiness for lichdom, even if charmed, mad,
or if memory loss occurs. A charmed candidate who has
successfully gained the effects of the potion can never be
made to reveal the location of the phylactery — although he
or she could be compelled to identify what the phylactery is, if
it is shown to them.
Crafting a Potential Phylactery
The phylactery may take any form — it may be a pendant,
gauntlet, scepter, helm, crown, ring, or even a lump of stone.
It must be of inorganic material, should be solid and of high-
quality of workmanship if made to avoid deific complications,
and cannot be an item having other spells or magical
properties in it. It may be decorated or carved in any fashion.
The candidate must undergo a process to charge the
selected mundane item until teeming with an undirected,
uncommon magic (almost any process using at least a few
hundred gold, as long as no magical instructions have
previously been imprinted into the item) and then attune
themselves to the potential phylactery. If made, its creation
and attunement must be completed within nine days or risk
failure. However, there is a small chance that an item which
fulfills all known requirements of a potential phylactery will
fail to attune, and thus lose its magical potential. Items of this
sort have been shown to be unable to ever become a potential
phylactery for the candidate, but it is not known why some
items can and some cannot do this.
Imbuing a Phylactery
Required materials and spells:
the potential phylactery itself
use of the Magic Jar spell
a small amount of blood from a creature of the same race
a moonstone worth at least 50 gp
When the potential phylactery is ready receiving the
candidate’s soul, they must begin casting Magic Jar, using the
potential phylactery in place of the valuable gem the spell
normally requires. Magic Jar has a chance of failing equal to
50% minus 3 times the user's level. If it successful, the
phylactery becomes receptive to the candidate's essence as
the phylactery glows with a flickering, blue-green Faerie Fire
for several seconds. However, if it fails, the candidate
becomes a boneclaw (MToF 121). The candidate must then
immediately use sprinkle the blood of another creature of the
same race over the head, neck, torso and joints, and then
sprinkle the moonstone dust over both the whole body and
on the phylactery. Within a moment of doing so, the
candidate must cast Magic Jar on the phylactery and enter it
with his or her life force. No other person besides the
candidate is required for this use of the Magic Jar spell, as it
is cast on oneself.
5
 Becoming a Lichnee
Upon entering the phylactery, their essence, soul, and sense
of health remain in the phylactery, for a short time while their
body lives on. The candidate is thereafter referred to as a
“lichnee”, and it must return to his or her own body to rest for
up to 7 days in order to proceed to lichdom, at which time the
candidate is in a greatly weakened, torturous state. The
ordeal of becoming a lichnee is traumatic. The candidate,
puzzlingly, usually forgets any of their most complex spells
during this time of trauma and yet usually regain their
memory of those spells after a few weeks or upon becoming a
lich.
Transforming from Lichnee to Lich
The next time the lichnee dies, despite the manner or planar
location of death, or barriers of any sort between corpse and
phylactery, the candidate's life force goes into the phylactery.
For it to emerge again, there must be a recently dead (less
than 30 days) corpse within 50 paces or so of the phylactery.
The corpse may be that of any creature, yet, mysteriously, the
reigns of death itself seem to prevent the lichnee from
entering the body about half of the time if it is not their own
body, and their attempt will fail every time thereafter once
they have failed to possess a corpse, with only one exception:
if the candidate's own corpse is attempted to be possessed by
the lichnee within about 50 paces, it may attempt to enter its
own corpse once per week until it succeeds. Furthermore,
using one’s own body allows a lichnee’s body to have been
dead for any length of time, for reasons we have yet to
discover. Therefore, using one’s own body is the preferred
method for most candidates, even though it means
committing suicide while in lichnee form first. When the
lichnee enters its own corpse, it rises after a moment as a full
lich with all the spells it had ever known in life memorized, as
if etched into their very soul.
The Lich then gains the traits of a lich, as seen on MM 202-
203.
The Grimoire of Transmutation
Humans worked together to produce grimoire of
transmutation, a rather understated green tome with simple
parchment for pages. The words and diagrams that appear
within look as if they were written in a variety of inks by
different writers, and the book always smells musty.
This grimoire contains knowledge of all known
transmutation from ancient times, as well as the ancient, lost
spell, Create Philosopher's Stone.
While holding to the Grimoire of Transmutation, a creature
gains +1 to all ability scores, to a maximum of 21.
Create Philosopher's Stone
transmutation ritual
Casting Time: 8 hours
Range: 5 feet
Components: M, V, S (a total of one 10-foot cube of
elemental chaos taken from the plane of Elemental Chaos)
Duration: Instantaneous
Forming the primordial chaos into a stone over the course
of 8 uninterrupted hours of concentration, the caster rolls a
d6. On odds, the stone is a solid white stone with no obvious
cleavage. If even, the stone is a translucent reddish crystal.
The size of the stone is determined by the amount of
primordial chaos gathered and condensed.
A philosopher's stone turns any one contiguous metal into
any either silver (if a solid white stone) or gold (if a
translucent reddish crystal) on touch.
If attuned to, the stone also grants its user an endless
lifespan, immunity to disease, all while it slowly makes them
younger until they are in their prime unless already that age
or younger.
The white philosopher's stone can also turn common clay
to cast the clone spell, while the red stone can turn common
clay into a homunculus See MM 188. Only one clone or
homunculus can be exist that has been created by a single
philosopher's stone user. Lastly, the stone can be ground into
powder, dissolves in almost any liquid, and is flammable.