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PAGES FROM THE MAGES
THE BURNING TOME
by GEORGE KRASHOS
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand,
Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide,
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copyright William McAusland, used with permission.
©2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by
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THE BURNING TOME
… and so it was that the Red Wizard Salassar perished at the hands of those of his
brethren who opposed the newly formed Council of Zulkirs. Upon his death, much of
his Art passed to that fey conclave and formed the foundation of the thayan School of
Evocation. Included in this legacy were many unique fire magics crafted by Salassar
a dozen winters before Ahghairon became Lord of Waterdeep. These spells were
collected in what was to become known as the “Burning Tome”, a libram of great
value to the zulkirs of Thay and yet lost by them only a handful of years after they had
crushed all opposition to their rule.
Arandir of Candlekeep
Art in the East: the Wizardry of Aglarond, Rashemen and Thay
Year of the Tankard (1370 DR)
The much trodden path of vengeance and retribution is one familiar to all Realmsfolk
who have had acquaintance with the Red Wizards of Thay. The recent attempts of this
magocracy to establish concessions throughout the cities and realms of Faerun has
done little to reduce the suspicion and general ill-feeling felt toward them by the
common folk. Learned scholars and sages of the Realms recognise that the continuing
quest of the infamous Red Wizards to recover the fabled Burning Tome, is but a
single thread in the tapestry of machinations, vile sorcery and subtle ambition through
which they seek to dominate all Faerun.
The sage Ransair of Silverymoon describes the Burning Tome as having covers of
suth wood over which red dragonscale has been stretched and held in place by beaten
copper edging. It contains twenty pages of bleached fire lizard hide sewn into the
spine using dried, fire giant sinew. The first page is blank, presumably to hold any
guardian enchantments, while the remaining 19 contain ten spells as well as lore on
the art of pyromancy. The tome is demonstrably immune to all forms of fire damage
and confers such immunity to all beings in direct physical contact with any part of it.
The Burning Tome’s disappearance from the land of Thay has never been explained,
although it must be noted that many disaffected Red Wizards fled the realm when the
Council of Zulkirs came to power. It is probable that some renegade apprentice or
daring thief made off with the book and somehow eluded detection and pursuit. The
Burning Tome disappeared for a handful of years before the mage Agannazar of the
Covenant destroyed the evil wizard Galthos “Darkspell” in a formal duel at Silveroak
Grove in the fringes of the Neverwinter Wood. Agannazar had challenged Galthos
over his refusal to relinquish the Burning Tome to him, seeking it as a trophy of the
Covenant’s brutal wizardwar against the Red Wizards of Thay.
The Covenant was an alliance of mages formed in 673 DR that sought to enforce a
peace between the many scattered, small human realms of the North that arose in the
wake of the fall of Delimbiyran, the Kingdom of Man. The Covenant was founded on
the ideal of building the collective power and prosperity of the Northlands for the day
when they would be threatened once again by the fecund orcs that had lain waste to
glorious Phalorm and other fabled but lost to the ages realms such as Athalantar and
Elembar. After centuries of manipulation, secret counsel and open displays of naked
spell might, the Covenant withdrew from open involvement in the affairs of the
kingdoms of the North after the disastrous attempt to unite the humans of the North in
what sages and loremasters would label the “March of Fools”.
Scrying Covenant mages had discovered a vast orc horde forming deep within the
northern mountains, and they alerted the rulers of the North to the impending threat
and roused them for battle in the Year of the Telltale Candle (955 DR). An impressive
host of human armies joined together north of present-day Triboar at the invitation of
the Covenant and such armed might had not been arrayed since the time of Phalorm.
As they gazed upon the marshalled ranks of over a score kingdoms, realms and
holdings, the mages of the Covenant preened with satisfaction, confident that they
were witnessing the dawn of a new age of unity and cooperation throughout the
Northlands.
For over a tenday they waited, eager for battle and prepared for the impending
slaughter, but the orcs did not come. At first the warriors jested that they had scared
the orcs back into their mountain caves, but soon rivalries and age-long fears came to
the fore. Who was protecting their homes and farms? Which realm or settlement had
sent only a token force whilst planning to usurp the holdings of their rivals? As
tempers flared and the orcs failed to march, the Covenant saw its dream die. Their
counsel of patience was rebuffed and the leaders of the Covenant were accused of
supporting some human realms in preference to others. The end came all too soon.
Slowly at first, but with increasing swiftness, the humans turned and marched for
home. As they trudged away they heaped curses and insults on the “lackspells” of the
Covenant who had apparently misled and deceived them.
The events of that dark tenday almost tore the Covenant asunder. Baffled by the
failure of the orcish horde to appear, the most powerful wizards of the Covenant
searched for answers and their powerful divinations found them many hundreds of
leagues to the south. A massive army of orcs was laying waste to half a hundred cities
and realms stretching from the Shaar to the plains of Mulhorand in what sages would
soon call the Great Rising of the Orcgates. How the orcs had come so far from their
mountain caverns in the North was soon revealed. Thayan archmages, fearing for the
security of their fledgling nation, had opened a series of portals and lured the orcs
through to ravage the South in a pre-emptive strike against their rivals, both near and
far. Seeing their carefully laid plans in tatters, many members of the Covenant swore
vengeance against the Red Wizards.
Thus began the conflict between the mages of the Covenant and Thay. Secretly at
first, but with ever-increasing boldness, the Covenant hunted and slew a host of Red
Wizards. Those in power in Thay took several winters to discover who or what was
culling their ranks with such single-minded persistence but with the hand of the
Covenant revealed, the Red Wizards quickly marshalled all of their Art and hurled it
at them. Many mages of the Covenant perished in that first, fell assault but in time,
the conflict between the Covenant and the Red Wizards settled into a stalemate of
attrition. The death of Ilyykur of the Covenant in the Year of the Deluded Tyrant
(1063 DR) however saw the balance finally tilt toward the Red Wizards.
As the full fury of the Red Wizards of Thay was brought to bear on the weakened
Covenant, the remaining leaders of the group, the wizards Agannazar, Presper and
Grimwald were hounded into flight from their abodes and refuges, whilst their
apprentices and other less powerful Covenant wizards were swiftly overwhelmed.
With their membership decimated and scattered, these three commanded that the
surviving members go underground and cease all open involvement in the doings of
the folk and realms of the North. In addition, Presper and Grimwald resolved to leave
Faerûn through a series of portals, drawing as many Red Wizards as possible after
them into a series of magical traps and ambushes. Agannazar disagreed with this
strategy believing that showing such dark mages other worlds to despoil only allowed
them to grow in power and bedevil others. His refusal to flee or hide made him the
focus of all Red Wizard assaults and they came for him armed with grim purpose and
mighty Art. In the Year of the Disastrous Bauble (1081 DR) Agannazar is believed to
have gone down fighting in the explosive destruction of the School of Wizardry in
Neverwinter. Ere he was torn apart he sent more than a dozen Red Wizards to their
dooms including Pharazeen, the Zulkir of Evocation.
The vengeance of the Red Wizards did not see them recover the Burning Tome
however, for they were still enquiring as to its whereabouts more than a score or so
winters after Agannazar’s passing. What they did reap was the eternal enmity of the
now-hidden Covenant, which remains a shadowy, ever-constant foe of the Red
Wizards of Thay to the present day. It is suspected that much of the success of
Aglarond in holding back the might of Thay over the years has been due to hidden
mages of the Covenant working to foil the schemes of Thay and prevent them from
succeeding in their many and varied endeavors.
The Burning Tome re-appeared, however briefly, just before the Time of Troubles
when the sage Ragefast of Baldur’s Gate identified it among treasures he appraised
for the rogue Thevlin “Threedaggers” of Elturel. Thevlin had apparently acquired the
book during the Tethyrian civil war and hidden it in some cache for several winters
before he could reclaim it. The Red Wizards caught up with this most elusive of
rogues and recovered their property during the Year of the Sword (1365 DR) in the
caravan city of Scornubel. Thevlin’s charred and all but unrecognizable corpse was
discovered by the City Militia on the northern edges of The Green, Scornubel’s
assembly area for outbound trade caravans.
The Zulkir of Evocation, Aznar Thrul, did not long enjoy possession of the prized
Burning Tome however, for it was stolen from his spell-guarded tower only a scant
two years after the Red Wizards and their agents had recovered it. The mage Faeros of
Milvarune, by means of a rogue stone,
gemjumped
into Aznar’s citadel in the tharch
of Priador and plundered much magic, including the Burning Tome. Faeros had sold
the rogue stone to agents of the Red Wizards and had blindly
gemjumped
to its
location after a short period in the hope that it would gain him much treasure. Faeros
made his escape by means of a
fly
spell and is rumored to have sought sanctuary
within the realm of Rashemen. The Red Wizards are currently engaged in a wide-
ranging search for any hint of his movements or activities.
Ragefast noted that the Burning Tome contained much lore on pyromancy and several
very rare spells, almost never seen outside the ranks of the Red Wizards of Thay. It is
the lore on pyromancy found within the Burning Tome that undoubtedly inspired the
mage Agannazar of the Covenant to formulate the spell colloquially known in the
North as
Agannazar’s Scorcher.
By the kindness of Ragefast, the rare spells held
within the Burning Tome are detailed below:
Hovering Fire
1st-level evocation
Casting Time:
1 action
Range:
Self
Components:
V, S, M (a twig dipped in pitch which is consumed in the casting)
Duration:
1 hour
You create a flickering flame that appears above your head and sheds bright light in a
20-foot radius and dim light for an additional 20 feet. The flame moves with you and
follows you for the duration. The spell ends if you dismiss it as an action or if you
cast it again.
You can also attack with the flame, although doing so ends the spell. When
you cast this spell, or as an action on a later turn, you can have the flame attack a
creature within 40 feet of you. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw. The
creature takes 2d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.
At Higher Levels.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or
higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.
Circle of Flame
2nd-level evocation
Casting Time:
1 action
Range:
Self (10-foot radius)
Components:
V, S, M (a pinch of sulfur)
Duration:
Concentration, up to 1 minute
You create a ring of fire centered on you in a 10-foot radius. The ring of fire is as high
as you desire up to maximum of 20 feet, but cannot be made to close at the top, into a
sphere. A creature takes 4d4 fire damage when it enters the spell’s area for the first
time on a turn or starts its turn there. You can pass through the ring of fire repeatedly
without harm.
At Higher Levels.
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or
higher, the damage increases by 2d4 for each slot level above second.

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