Page 222 - Dungeon Master's Guide

Blessings of Moradin. If you are a dwarf attuned to points by this damage disappears in a blinding flash
the axe, you gain the following benefits: is destroyed, leaving its possessions behind.
Benefits granted by the Book of Exalted Deeds last
You have immunity to poison damage.
only as long as you strive to do good. If you fail to
The range of your darkvision increases by 60 feet.
perform at least one act of kindness or generosity wit
• You gain proficiency with artisan's tools related to
the span of 10 days, or if you willingly perform an evil
blacksmithing, brewing, and stonemasonry.
act, you lose all the benefits granted by the book.
Conjure Earth Elemental. If you are holding the axe, Random Properties. The Book of Exalted Deeds h~
you can use your action to cast the conjure elemental the following random properties:
spell from it, summoning an earth elemental. You can't
2 minor beneficial properties
use this property again until the next dawn.
• 2 major beneficial properties
Travel the Depths. You can use an action to touch the
axe to a fixed piece of dwarven stonework and cast the Increased Wisdom. After you spend the requisite
teleport spell from the axe. If your intended destination amount of time reading and studying the book, your
is underground, there is no chance of a mishap or Wisdom score increases by 2, to a maximum of 24. Y -
arriving somewhere unexpected. You can't use this can't gain this benefit from the book more than once.
property again until 3 days have passed. Enlightened Magic. Once you've read and studied
Curse. The axe bears a curse that affects any non- the book, any spell slot you expend to cast a cleric or
dwarf that becomes attuned to it. Even if the attunement paladin spell counts as a spell slot of one level higher.
ends, the curse remains. With each passing day, the Halo. Once you've read and studied the book, you
creature's physical appearance and stature become gain a protective halo. This halo sheds bright light
more dwarflike. After seven days, the creature looks like in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additionallO
a typical dwarf, but the creature neither loses its racial feet. You can dismiss or manifest the halo as a bonus
traits nor gains the racial traits of a dwarf. The physical action. While present, the halo gives you advantage on
changes wrought by the axe aren't considered magical Charisma (Persuasion) checks made to interact with
in nature (and therefore can't be dispelled), but they can good creatures and Charisma (Intimidation) checks
be undone by any effect that removes a curse, such as a made to interact with evil creatures. In addition, fiends
greater restoration or remove curse spell. and undead within the halo's bright light make attack
Destroying the Axe. The only way to destroy the rolls against you with disadvantage.
axe is to melt it down in the Earthheart Forge, where Destroying the Book. It is rumored that the Book 0:
it was created. It must remain in the burning forge for Exalted Deeds can't be destroyed as long as good exi ..
fifty years before it finally succumbs to the fire and in the multiverse. However, drowning the book in the
is consumed. River Styx removes all writing and imagery from its
pages and renders the book powerless for ld100 years
BOOK OF EXALTED DEEDS
Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement by a BOOK OF VILE DARKNESS
creature of good alignment) Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement)
The definitive treatise on all that is good in the The contents of this foul manuscript of ineffable
multiverse, the fabled Book of Exalted Deeds figures wickedness are the meat and drink of those in evil's
prominently in many religions. Rather than being a thrall. No mortal was meant to know the secrets it
scripture devoted to a particular faith, the book's various contains, knowledge so horrid that to even glimpse the
authors filled the pages with their own vision of true scrawled pages invites madness.
virtue, providing guidance for defeating evil. Most believe the lich-god Vecna authored the Book
The Book of Exalted Deeds rarely lingers in one place. Vile Darkness. He recorded in its pages every diseas
As soon as the book is read, it vanishes to some other idea, every unhinged thought, and every example of
corner of the multiverse where its moral guidance can blackest magic he came across or devised. Vecna
bring light to a darkened world. Although attempts covered every vile topic he could, making the book a
have been made to copy the work, efforts to do so fail gruesome catalog of all mortal wrongs.
to capture its magical nature or translate the benefits it Other practitioners of evil have held the book and
offers to those pure of heart and firm of purpose. added their own input to its catalog of vile knowledge.
A heavy clasp, wrought to look like angel wings, . Their additions are clear, for the writers of later works
keeps the book's contents secure. Only a creature of stitched whatever they were writing into the tome or. ·-
good alignment that is attuned to the book can release some cases, made notations and additions to existing
the clasp that holds it shut. Once the book is opened, text. There are places where pages are missing, torn.
the attuned creature must spend 80 hours reading and or covered so completely with ink, blood, and scratches
studying the book to digest its contents and gain its that the original text can't be divined.
benefits. Other creatures that peruse the book's open Nature can't abide the book's presence. Ordinary
pages can read the text but glean no deeper meaning plants wither in its presence, animals are unwilling to
and reap no benefits. An evil creature that tries to read approach it, and the book gradually destroys whatever
from the book takes 24d6 radiant damage. This damage it touches. Even stone cracks and turns to powder if th~
ignores resistance and immunity, and can't be reduced book rests on it long enough.
or avoided by any means. A creature reduced to 0 hit

CHAPTER 7 I TREASURE
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