The Tomes of Bittermaw are part of the belongings of Bittermaw – Agent of the Lich Lords. Most are written with a cipher to varying degrees of complexity.
The Blue wall: [Book {+2}] Written in archaic Dundarian, it is a basic book about the physical characteristics of the Blue Wall, and a few of the frozen settlements near its base on the south side.
> i20 > DC 14 Cipher
Finding Ancient Battle Standards: [Journal] Written in archaic Dundarian, it describes his long search through battlefields in the north, the finding of the lost standard of the Lich Lords (Deadiron) and hiding their acquisition from his masters. He had to create animations that could excavate, and tools to do it with in secret. He had to travel into the lands of the living, masquerade himself, and purchase from the Necromancers of Ados items which he could trigger powers to animate dead – his own would have made the animations controlled by the Lich Lords.
> i20 > DC 12 Cipher
Creating Soul Leeches: [Book; Aura taint of evil / bound demon flesh] Written in archaic Dundarian (using a cypher in addition); Created by Bittermaw, these are the skulls of a sacrificed human or elf, placed inside the maw (a full skull) of a fiend from hell made of bone, also sacrificed (they came at the summons of the initial sacrifice, eaten alive from the feet up). This, in turn, is placed, on a pole made from Deadiron. They radiate the memories of those killed and the tortures of outer darkness engaged in by the fiend. They are placed as ‘watchers’ and whatever they watch they lay bare, stripping the ‘flesh’ of whatever their gaze is set on and preventing it from healing or wounds from closing. Their construction was formulated by Bittermaw who has not shared this culmination of hundreds of years of research and trial. He has only been able to construct two due to the difficulty in finding Deadiron and not having it be noticed.
> i20 > DC 12 Cipher
The Taking of Falaca: [Book] Written in archaic Dundarian; Falaca is Bittermaws conjurer apprentice. She was bought from the Necromancers of Ados. Bittermaw stole materials from the Fields of Blood in the north in order to make her quasi-undead and without the Lich Lords controlling her, but able to survive the perils of the cold north. He promised her true immortality eventually. A piece of her back skin was used to re-skin his spell book tome.
> i20 > DC 20 Cipher
Bittermaw’s Sketches: [Journal] – self portraits and sketches of himself as he remembers from his childhood on – so he does not forget! A few sketches exist of Falaca as well.
Finding the “sundered section”; searching for and finding the tome of the Formulaes of the Cloud
> i20 > DC 20 Cipher
Journals of Bittermaw and the Book that connected him to what he referes to as “The Eye”; Normal Difficulty ciphered text in Dundarian; it can be translated using all the remaining ink and quills in Bittermaw’s writing kit (x2 to x3 because of stream of consciousness style) – These are a collections of journals about his discovery of and work with an ancient tome he refers to as the an Outer Key. Through it he made contact with an entity that manifests as a great unblinking eye.
DANGER: It has violent urges and sanity pulling thoughts annotating it, reflective of a hungry and violent undead mind denied sustenance and driving forward on sheer will and hate alone.
Contents: The ritual that is presented in the first section of the book calls a voice that talks to Bittermaw in a strange language at first. It takes a while before he can understand, he tries all the languages he knows and eventually finds a common tongue in a form of Draconic. The presence it contacts manifests in visions as a clear eye, but has no translatable name. He refers to it just as The Eye. It claims it is a being from a vast distance, beyond all the stars he can see. It claims to be searching for something, again something that cannot seem to be translated but The Eye describes as the ‘search for the lost soul’. It is seeking to reunite with a lost part of itself. It senses that there is something special in the world Bittermaw is on and asks to bond with him. This is all over a long period of time, with many fumbled and finally refined interactions. In exchange for the bond The Eye is seeking, Bittermaw agrees if the creature will teach him a ritual for the Cauldron of Blood, and a spirit that would tell him how to destroy the bond to the Lich Lords and survive. The Eye manages to convince him that instead of serving the greater evil of his master’s, that he should seek to elevate himself as a higher power – to become alive once more, immortal and powerful by taking and draining the power of the living Blue Wall himself!
Voice of The Eye: [Journal; ramblings] The Eye must cover it’s mission. “I am transiting”, “I need an anchor point”. “I heed a point of light, perspective from a light particle.” Travel to your planet, drop unto you. I must feel warmth. Then back to cold emptiness in the night sky to a far point of light.
Pact? Best understanding is a warlock’s pact was made with the entity. Bittermaw thinks that this compact was made by others at least once in the past history of Helca before – just from hints and obscure words and places mentioned by The Eye. This is Barrule.
This is a partially burned spell book from the wizard of Kaald, Monkleeth. She was brutally sacrificed by Bittermaw after a long bout of torture. He used a form of the Cauldron of Blood to gain spell knowledge from her Essence. Bittermaw was able to trigger the powers of the spell like a Warlock – 1/day each withut a spell slot to be used.
3rd: Bestow Curse (1/day @ Bonus Action; Disadv attacks)
4th: Spirit of Death (1/day @ Bonus Action)
This does not detail how to make the Cauldron of Blood, but he had it by the time this journal references it. It is a record of collecting sacrifices, and invoking the ritual over time. A blood spirit from the beyond also whispered to Bittermaw and drained sacrifices of essence and blood. There was a cauldron the spirit dwelled in. It seemed trapped. The spirits kept asking to be rescued and relieved – Bittermaw had no empathy to play upon though.