The Book of Eibon

The Book of Eibon is an ancient text, reported to have been wrote by the wizard called Eibon.
Rumours abound that it has been copied down & spread throughout some circles of black magic users. At least two different rougher copies have been burned by different groups of demon hunters in the past three years, though the same powers the original has never seemed to be attached to these.

History

An inheritor of a large fortune that lived in Constantinople, Eibon had travelled far & wide around the Mediterranean and the countries bordering it. By doing so, he studied magic all its forms, taking extensive notes on the rituals carried out by many a magic user. Sometime in the Arabic Empty Quarter, he found a set of ritual spells that he was interested in, he travelled to Luxor in Egypt to compare a set of funerary texts with them. By doing so, Eibon had found a group of ancient rituals that could revive the dead, summon demons & devils, and act as a means to open up the way to the underworlds.
Unfortunately others had taken an interest in his works. These were significantly older than most living gods, and seen the chance to use Eibon as a conduit for their will. These 'Elder Gods' added their own ritual spells to the mix through Eibon, providing information to where the legendary Gates to Hell were situated in the world. Although unknown both to him, and the world at large these gods planned on opening these portals & keep them opened permanently. This would allow them to eventually breech the gates and harvest the hells that were behind it. In time the gods who commanded these hells made pacts with these Elder Gods, in which a portion of their power could be leeched off to the Elder Gods themselves for a measure of security. This allowed them to survive, and gain more power in the long run for themselves too.
Again, these gods added more to Eibon's spell range, and infect the lands around the seven Gates to Hell when the book was near one of the gates. All the while Eibon was being driven insane with the amount of knowledge that was pouring through him. He knew now many secrets of the underworlds along with the nature of both Elder God & Hell's keepers. No such knowledge should be known by mortals, and eventually Eibon travelled to Rome to finish his book and ask the Roman Emperor for help personally. The emperor was terrified of what Eibon spoke about and had him thrown out of Rome. From there he was forced north, and he made his way in the direction of Ravenna. Upon travelling near the edge of a mountain he fell sick, and tried to use one of the spells in his book to heal himself. Unfortunately the spell worked only too well, and he would never fall ill again, as his flesh rotted & sloughed of his bones corrupting the local soil further. It turned out the region was cursed by having a Gate of Hell close by and now it is rumoured the wood covered book of loose parchment papers are found somewhere in the same region.

Significance

Highly significant as if it turns out to be real, then it could be tied to the destruction of the world by ancient evils.

"I saw that blasted tome once. Never again. My companion had it open at a page with strange writings, and a drawing of a flayed human, or humanoid, on the same page. Organs were highlighted and strange scrawls were present, I think trying to say what organ can be used for what purpose Allah only knows. Gave me the chills.
My companion was some Imam out of Baghdad, and he had retrieved it in Syria, somewhere in the ports there. He wanted it to examine and try to compare it to certain Babylonian scribblings he had back home.
One night in our trip we had stayed at an inn. I'll never forget it, the rest of us were in the tea room, and a pleasant atmosphere was being had by all. The tea had been imported from the Tang Dynasty far to the east, and exorbitantly expensive as well as delicious. All of a sudden we heard a scream from upstairs and rushed to see what had happened. Bursting into the Imam's room, we found what was left of him. It looked as if his flesh had melted of his bones, and his skeleton lay in a pool of gore that stank like nothing I had smelled before. The guard closest to be shrieked, saying he had seen a large rat-like thing trying to make off with a bone darting under the bed. Also, he shuddered that it was trying to walk on it's hind legs while dragging the tome with it's forepaws. We looked and couldn't see anything, but we did notice the tome was gone, and it looked as if there were an ant-like creature lying dead at the base of the skull. After that there were no more sightings of either the rest of the journey."
As told by Ibrahim al'Sheilk after arriving with his trade caravan to Baghdad, 273 AD.

Item type

Unique Artifact

Creation Date

Presently thought to be a bout 47 AD

Current Location

Italian Peninsula

Rarity

Legendary if not infamous.

Weight

2lb

Dimensions

1.5' by o.75'

Base Price

300000 gps

Raw materials & Components

Wooden covers held together with bronze highlights. Papyrus used as the pages, bound together with string, and written in squid ink and a drop of blood.