Adventurer's Recipe Book

This infamous book has become a byword for misleading and confusing advice, particularly when given to new adventurers.

Purpose

In the largest city in the world, there is plenty of scope for chancers and con-artists to ply their trade. The evil genius behind this book, however, is notable for pioneering the exploitation of one specific source of marks. Skyhammer always sees a brisk turnover of new arrivals in the city looking to become adventurers. Even if only a fraction of them actually take up that career, there is still a robust demand for anything that purports to offer guidance in such a difficult life. An established approach is to offer something that looks valuable, and is only revealed as worthless when it's far too late to do anything about it. A book that teaches adventurers how to forage on the road is a perfect example: purchasers will only discover their mistake after they have left the city.

First Editions

The first copies began to appear around 111BJ. The identity of the original author is unknown. The first printed version had the word 'Indispensable' emblazoned on the cover in type larger than the title. The contents are the same collection of twenty-two recipes, repeated six times to fill out the length of the book. Of the recipes:

• Four encourage the reader to eat poisonous plants
• Three have key ingredients that cannot be found in the countryside near Skyhammer
• Two include fictitious plants and/or animals
• Four are impractical to the point of impossibility to prepare on the road due to kitchen requirements
• Three are incomplete
• and the remaining seven are merely unpalatable

The first editions were carefully distressed to make them seem like they had been heavily used by a previous owner. It is difficult to guess how much money the original creator made from their scam, but it is assumed to be considerable. No printer ever owned up to printing them. Ironically, now these first editions are now so sought after by collectors with a twisted sense of humour.

Subsequent Editions

Copies of the first batch appeared almost immediately, and have been a fixture in Skyhammer's less salubrious markets ever since. The copycats often create versions of even lower quality, if you can imagine such a thing, and are regularly arrested by the Adventurers' Guild. It seems that the more recent pretenders never mastered the original author's ability to capitalise on the product and vanish without repercussions.

Type

Manual, Culinary

Medium

Paper

Location

Skyhammer