The Book of Sorrows

The book is bound in the leathery hide of a giant bat. Its pages are written in an ancient form of Elvish and annotated in Deep Speech. The author of the book is unknown, but it is traditionally credited to the legendary Mind-Flayer sorcerer and scientist Kalatoth. The book tells the tale of first great plague called the "Hateful Death." This plague originated in Beldam over a 1000 years ago, and resulted in the first known hordes of undead. By the end of the plague, the undead had been found across the world, even in the undiscovered realms.   The book claims that the plague was created by a Beholder necromancer named Vuul-Shaggot. The text chronicles the introduction of the plague and how Vuul-Shaggot had performed many magical experiments before discovering a way of reanimating the dead as servile and disposable fighters. Once he had unlocked the secret, he expropriated the cemetery at the Hollow Hills Asylum and Mad Persons Home. He reanimated the remains and created an army of zombies and skeletons that raged and plundered the continent of Beldam. Vuul-Shaggot was particularly proud of his ability to allow the undead to infect the living, creating an undead army that automatically recruited new soldiers exponentially.   The book contains handwritten notes, often attributed to Kalatoth, most of which have yet to be translated. It is expected that the text may contain methods for combating and eliminating the undead or even reversing the curse and "curing" the zombie, returning it's original consciousness; an idea disavowed by most wizards and sorcerers and "unwise and especially cruel." At one time, three copies, handwritten, existed of the tome. One was known to have been destroyed by a dragon attack on the Grand Library of Illuminas. The second known copy was destroyed at sea, having sunk to the bottom of the Traceless Sea during the wreck of the sailing ship "The Poorman's Fortune." The only known copy, is privately owned and rumored to be in the collection of a polymorphed dragoness, living as a half-elf, though no one knows where it as and who this collector truly is.   The Book of Sorrows is estimated to be worth approximately 500,000 Platinum pieces or the equivalent of an average county capital cities entire coffers. Many of the wealthiest collectors as well as wizards, sorcerers, and necromancers have sought this tome, often exhausting their fortunes and withering away their very sanity.