Astonishingly dense arcane runes cover every side of incredibly complex origami structures. In some places, translucent onion-skin has been layered over the paper, creating sections in which the runes are overlaid with each other, forming inscrutable and ever-shifting patterns.

A proper understanding of the origami folds — and the multiple orientations in which they are designed to be read — allows one to begin unraveling a truly innovative method by which glyphs of warding can be interwoven.

INTERWOVEN GLYPHS

Interweaving glyphs of warding requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check (DC 10 + the total level of the interwoven glyphs). Interwoven glyphs of warding are:

• Simultaneously triggered.
• More difficult to find and disable, increasing the DC of the checks to do so by +2 per additional glyph.
• More difficult to identify, requiring an Intelligence (Arcana) check of DC 10 + the total level of the interwoven glyphs of warding.

Each glyph of warding must be cast in sequence and without interruption. If the sequence is interrupted or the Spellcraft check fails, the glyph of warding spells are all lost to no effect.

The total level of glyphs is based on the level of the casting of glyphs of warding for explosive runes, or the level of the stored spell for spell glyphs.

ADVANCED SYMBOLOGY

Among the origami notes describing the interweaving of glyphs of warding, there is also an incomplete treatise analyzing how symbol spells could also be interwoven (both with each other and with glyphs of warding).

If completed, this advanced methodology would also raise the saving throw DC of all interwoven glyphs or symbols to the highest DC among all of the interwoven glyphs and symbols.

However, because the research has never been completed, a PC interested in these techniques would need to finish perfecting them as a downtime research project. (See p. 338 of So You Want To Be a Game Master.)

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

These detailed notes, written in silver ink on black vellum scrolls, constitute the exploration of an alchemical process referred to as azh-thalar, a dark elven word which can be translated as “boneforging.” And, indeed, the text refers to the work as deriving from the “lore of the dark elves” and, elsewhere, “the teachings of Su-Thanaz.” Several excerpts of the original body of work are directly included, without translation, in the text itself.

Once translated in full, however, the text describes a process by which bone is taken from a dead or undead creature and then molded using alchemical processes into a new form. The items so created can be almost limitless in their variety, and part of the alchemical process specifically tempers the bone to be as hard as steel (allowing effective weapons, armor, and the like to be fashioned).

Particularly intriguing, however, are the advanced methods of undead boneforging, in which the powers of the undead creature can be infused into the bone itself after the shaping is completed.

BONEFORGING

Boneforging requires alchemist’s supplies and a successful Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check, the difficulty of which is dependent on the size of the item desired, as shown on the table below.

Obviously, the alchemist must also have the requisite supply of bone. Complex or artistic items may require additional crafting checks at the DM’s discretion.

Boneforging is generally only appropriate for solid, static items (e.g., a chair, knife, bowl), but boneforged components could be combined with other material. Supple material (e.g., a rope) can be forged from cartilage, but this is a more delicate process and the Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check to make the item is made at disadvantage.

ADVANCED BONEFORGING

An alchemist creating a boneforged magic item from an undead creature can attempt to replace one spell required by the item creation with the raw necromantic power of the undead from which the item is being crafted. (Note that these items are not made from the remains of the dead; they are forged from undead still possessed of unlife.)

This process can generally be used to replace a spell with a level equal to 1/3^rd of the undead creature’s challenge rating. (So a CR 9 undead could be used to replace a 3^rd level spell.) A skeleton or zombie, however, can only be used to replace a spell with a level equal to 1/6^th their HD. (The simplistic energy which animates such mindless undead is not particularly useful for the complex matricies of the advanced boneforging.)

Advanced boneforging requires an Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check (DC 15 + the spell level being replaced). If the check fails, the spell is not replaced and must be provided normally or the item creation process will fail.

Boneforging does not reduce the cost of creating the magic item. (The cost of the alchemical supplies normally required by boneforging is included in this cost, however.)

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

Hundreds of parchment pages arranged in thick leather folders record an almost manic obsession with and study of dealing death to humanoids. Minute experimentation in dosage, placement of blows, and the like is exhaustively studied through what appear to be actual trials and experimentation.

Beyond that, the “subjects” of these trials appear to have been revivified through the arts of zombification on a vast scale. Hundreds of corpses were created, reanimated, and then exmorisected for an active study of undead tissue and simulated organ operation in the face of wounds and poisons.

Use of this research grants advantage to Medicine checks made to identify the cause of death for humanoids.

PRIME CORPSE

PRIME CORPSE
4^th level necromancy (Cleric, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 10 feet
Target: Up to four corpses or piles of bones within range
Components: V, S, M (one 100 gp black onyx stone for each corpse)
Duration: Instantaneous

Prime corpse allows you prepare a number of corpses or skeletons for animation using the animate dead spell (or similar method), making them easier for their animator to control. If and when these corpses become undead, each only counts as half an undead for the purposes of their creator commanding or controlling them. (Other characters seeking to command or control them do so normally.) This does not affect the number of undead created by the animate dead spell; only the number controlled.

For example, a normal casting of animate dead can allow the caster to control up to four zombies or skeletons that were previously created. If these undead had been targeted by prime corpse before their creation, their original creator would be able to control up to eight of them for each casting of animate dead (instead of the normal four).

The caster of prime corpse need not be the same caster as the one who animates the undead. Undead who are already animate are not affected by this spell; it must be cast on corpses prior to animation.

At Higher Levels: If cast with a 6^th level spell slot or higher, this spell has a similar effect on the targets of a create undead spell, although it requires 400 gp black onyx stone for each corpse.

Design Note: If the Romans had faced a zombie plague, they might have invented the word exmortuus to describe the undead (“mortuus” being the dead and “ex-” being from or out of; thus those come from or out of death). Much later, the same bloke who invented the word “vivisection” might have also invented “exmorisection.”)

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

These loosely bound pages describe Sagrathea’s efforts to unlock the secrets necessary for brewing potions more powerful than normally possible through magi-alchemical means. Sagrathea was able to get a few of the experimental concoctions reliably effective, but it seems the work was abandoned because he was unable to perfect them. The potency of the brew made it impossible to stabilize the potions, resulting in significant side effects.

Assassin’s Touch (Rare): This oil bestows upon the user the ability to poison all nonmagical creatures they touch with their bare skin. The specific poison inflicted by the assassin’s touch is dependent on the poison used when brewing it. The effect on the drinker normally lasts 1 hour, but each dose applied carries with it a 10% chance that the effect becomes permanent instead.

Draught of the Nightingale (Uncommon): This potion grants the imbiber the ability to sing the magically beguiling melody of the harpy as an action. Every humanoid and giant within 300 feet of the drinker must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed until the song ends. The singer must take a bonus action on subsequent turns to continue singing. The singer can stop singing at any time. The song ends if the singer is incapacitated.

While charmed by the singer, the target is incapacitated. If the charmed target is more than 5 feet away from the singer, the target must move on its turn towards the singer by the most direct route, trying to get within 5 feet. It doesn’t avoid opportunity attacks, but before moving into damaging terrain, such as lava or a pit, and whenever it takes damage from a source other than the singer, the target can repeat the saving throw. A charmed target can also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If the saving throw is successful, the effect ends on the target ends and the target is immune to the singer’s song for the next 24 hours.

The potion lasts for 1 hour. With dose, the imbiber must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw (+2 DC per additional dose). Failure results in the drinker’s gradual but irreversible transformation into a depraved, harpy-like abomination over 1d6+3 days. (Only a wish spell or similarly powerful magic can reverse this curse.)

Eyes of the Medusa (Very Rare): Upon quaffing this poison, the imbiber’s eyes glow red for 1 hour and they gain a petrifying gaze as per a medusa.

Though a powerful elixir, the instability of the eyes of the medusa require the drinker to make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw (+2 DC per additional dose). On a failure, the imbiber is turned to stone (and will do so upon all subsequent attempts to take the potion).

Granite Hide (Uncommon): This grainy, chalk-tasting, orange liquid turns the imbiber’s skin into a pliable yet hard-as-granite substance. (Treat as a stoneskin spell.) The potion lasts 1 hour. After the potion wears off, the drinker suffers from a calcification of their joints, causing them to suffers disadvantage on all Dexterity checks and saving throws. This condition can be removed by a long rest or any effect which would remove a level of exhaustion.

Potion of Absolute Invisibility (Uncommon): The drinker of this potion benefits from a greater invisibility spell for 1 hour. However, they must also succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or suffer the effects of a confusion spell. A new saving throw may be attempted every 10 minutes while under the effects of the potion.

This material is covered by the Open Game License.

This text, written in Ancient Arathian, is difficult to translate even for one familiar with that dead language, as it contains lengthy, erudite passages featuring complex alchemical terminology using what appears to be a heavily modified version of the long-defunct Sarkasian nomenclature.

ELETRO-ALCHEMICAL DISTILLATION OF ARCANO-CEREBRALITE POTIONS

“The arcanists’ mind – both physical and ephemeral – is laced with the highly potent potential of the vast energies they harness and hook through their personal cerebral cortexes. Like all energies of life, these are not instantly dispelled upon death, but instead dissipate lingeringly over time. If the brain can be harvested in due course and before this final dissipation occurs, the occult energies can be salvaged.”

PRESERVATION: Part of this text describes how an arcanist’s brain can be surgically removed without disturbing the nascent arcane energies of their currently prepared spells (requiring a DC 18 Wisdom (Medicine) check) and then preserved through the use of an alchemical bath (25 gp in material costs, DC 12 + highest spell level to be preserved Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check).

PULPING: The rest of the text describes how the brain of a freshly dead arcanist (within 24 hours) or a preserved arcanist’s brain can be pulped using a three-dimensional mortar and pestle in order to create potions from the spells they had previously prepared.

This process is complex, requiring an Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check at DC 15 + spell level for each spell withdrawn from the brain. The alchemical supplies cost as much as it would normally cost to brew a Rare potion, but without the need to expend spell slots or meet other prerequisites. The process also only requires one day of effort.

There is no limit to the highest level of spell that can be turned into a potion using this method.

DETERMINING SPELLS: In order to determine exactly which spells were prepared by the arcanist, an alchemist can use a detect thoughts spell and make a separate Intelligence (alchemist’s supplies) check (DC 10 + spell level) for each spell. On a failure, there’s a 25% chance that the spell energies have been disrupted and lost. On a success, the alchemist identifies the spell (which will then allow them to know exactly what the pulped potion they prepare will do).

POTION EFFECT: Brain pulp potions are distinct from other potions due to their eponymous pulpy texture. Drinking a brain pulp potion will either immediately allow the drinker to benefit from the spell’s effect or allow them to immediately use the spell effect as if they had cast it.

This material is covered by the Open Game License.