The Wondrous Travels of Indricus Jans
This front cover of this elaborately decorated tome has an engraving of a man wearing leather armour, a hat, and a whip. The entire book is written in the first person, and addressed directly to the reader.
"You're obviously reading this book because you want to get stinking rich, right? Well, it just so happens that Indricus Jans is the greatest treasure hunter the world has ever seen, and if you read carefully, you might just learn how to get as rich as me!"
After this grating introduction, he dives into a number of increasingly outlandish and fantastical tales.
"When I was exploring the lost tomb of Rhac, a giant boulder nearly flattened me like a hot cake. Fortunately, I was able to outrun it with the aid of my superior dexterity. After fighting a group of mummies, I found the cursed Chalice of Grale and sold it to an unsuspecting knight for a mountain of silver."
"...and that is how I stole the Ancestor Stone from right under the nose of the King of Tznchundel."
The book goes on like this for nearly a hundred pages. At the very end of the book is an interesting entry.
"Just about the only place I haven't gone is Barovia. Why? Well, a Vistani once told me that once you go there, you can't come out. I personally prefer to wander the wide open world myself. But if any wannabe treasure hunter wants to check the place out, there's three hoards of coin that are worth talking about.
First, the werewolf coven there is supposed to have a giant stash of cursed gold. Secondly, a place called "The Amber Temple" supposedly has six enormous heaps of coin laying about in a treasure room, though they're guarded by a golem of some sort. And of course, Castle Ravenloft is supposed to have a gigantic coin pile in an adamantine tower. But only an absolute rube would go to any of those places."
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