The Raritais Codex
S
eldom is a famous work from an area such as the
one this codex hails from. The air there seems to
make even the hardiest of parchments decay, and
the perpetual damp is more dangerous even than
fire itself. Mold and worms, soiling and muddying,
the threats to a manuscript are endless in any of
the world's swampiest and marshiest places. Yet
this codex survives, tainted with some foulness of its
birthplace even still.
Unlike with many famous spellbooks, the author of the
Raritais Codex is unknown. No famous wizard or sage has
laid claim to it, and subsequent scholars are utterly lost on
who might have penned it. Not many mages choose to live in
the swamps and marshes, due to their destructive nature
when it comes to the scrolls, tomes, and parchments that are
a wizard's lifeblood. The only sign of an author forms the
tome's name - a worn and faded inscription on the front page
reads "Raritais" and nothing else.
Within the tome lie many foul and unclean things - spells of
making poison, acid, and necrotic energies. The tome is
commonly thought to be the primary spellbook of whoever
penned it, since the spells within are generally arranged by
level and seem to follow consistent trends that surround
many other similar texts, from wizards still in their learning
phase.
In appearance, the codex is obviously hardy. Each cover is
made from solid bog-wood, a remarkably strong material
formed in bogs over thousands of years. The wood is
particularly resistant to damp, and protects the pages within.
Each page is yellowed and worn, with a darker color along
the edge. The book also gives off a faint marshy smell, no
matter how long it's been since it last saw the waters of its
home.
Contents
The book contains several spells, including a few found
nowhere else. When studying the book, the reader slowly
begins to weaken. For each hour spent studying, the reader
temporarily loses 1 point of Strength. If their Strength
reaches zero, the reader is poisoned and incapacitated for 8
hours. Wearing gloves prevents this effect. The following
spells are found in the book.
1st Level: cause fear, corpselight, ray of sickness
2nd Level: blindness/deafness, choke, Melf's acid arrow,
ray of enfeeblement
3rd Level: stinking cloud, vipergout
4th Level: blight, vitrolic sphere
5th Level: cloudkill, undead familiar
New Spells
The following spells are new or modified as they appear in
this book. At your DM's option, new spells can be learned by
other classes as shown in each spell.
Corpselight At
1st-level necromancy level
creat
Casting Time: 1 action halve
Range: 120 feet all at
Components: V, S, M (phosphorus mixed with grave dirt) creat
Duration: 10 minutes
Classes Availble: Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Wizard
With a word, you cause corpses in a 20ft radius within
range begin to glow with light. You may illuminate either
dead corpses or undead within the area, your choice when
you cast the spell.
This light can be white, yellow, green, amber, or red. The
light can vary from a dim outline to 30 feet of bright light and
15 feet of dim light. You can alter the intensity of the light on
your turn, no action required, so long as you can see one of
the affected targets.
The glow is diffuse and does not affect an undead creature
if cast upon it. Affected targets cannot turn invisible by any
means so long as the light remains. Intelligent, free-willed
undead may choose to shake off the effect of the spell by
making a Wisdom saving throw on their turn.
At Higher Levels. For each level of the slot above first, the
radius of area you can affect is increased by 10 feet.
Choke
2nd-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: S
Duration: Concentration, 1 minute
Classes Availble: Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Using magical energy, you attempt to choke the life out of a
creature. As an action, you choose a single Large or smaller
creature you can see within range. That creature makes a
Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature begins to
choke and takes 1d4 necrotic damage. While choking, the
creature cannot take the Dash action and is not breathing.
The creature continues choking until the end of your next
turn.
On each of your turns, you may use your action to maintain
this choking force. When you do so, you extend the duration
of the choking effect to the end of your next turn, causing the
same damage and the same effects. If you choose not to
continue choking the creature, this spell remains active but
causes no effects, and you may re-activate the choking on a
later turn (within the spell's duration).
After the first turn, a creature can make a Constitution
check at the beginning of any turn during which it is choking.
On a success, the creature can breathe normally for the rest
of that turn, but the spell does not end. If a creature is
choking for the entire spell duration without interruption, it
falls unconscious at the end of the spell's duration.
Undead Familiar
5th-level divination
Casting Time: 1 hour
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M (100gp of poisonous dust, mixed with
grave dirt, which is consumed by a fire in a wrought-iron
brazier)
Duration: Instantaneous
Classes Availble: Wizard
You may only cast this spell if you have a familiar from the
find familiar spell. When you do so, you strike the familiar
with dark necrotic energy, infusing it with death. Your
familiar can be an undead version of any of the normal find
familiar forms.
Your undead familiar can now be turned with a cleric's
Turn Undead feature. For the purposes for Destroy Undead,
your undead familiar has a CR equal to your spellcasting
ability modifier. It has advantage on any saving throw against
being turned while within 10 feet of you.
Additionally, your undead familiar may now attack. You can
choose, as a reaction on your familiar's turn, to cause your
familiar to attack. When you do so, the undead familiar
immediately strikes the chosen target, using your spellcasting
ability modifier as its attack bonus. This attack deals 1d8
necrotic damage, and the target has to make a Constitution
save or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.
Otherwise, your undead familiar behaves exactly like a
normal familiar summoned by find familiar. If killed, you
must cast this spell again to re-summon it. You can also cast
this spell again to change the familiar's form - you may no
longer do so by casting the find familiar spell.
Vipergout
3rd-level conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a dried snakeskin, ingested while
casting)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes Availble: Cleric, Druid, Warlock, Wizard
You open your mouth, disgorging poisonous snakes that
slither to attack your enemies. Choose one of the following
options for what appears:
One swarm of poisonous snakes
Two giant poisonous snakes
Four poisonous snakes
Each beast disappears when it reaches 0 hit points or
when the spell ends.
The summoned creatures are friendly to you and your
companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creatures as a
group, which has its own turns. They obey any verbal
commands that you issue to them (no action required by you).
If you don't issue any commands to them, they defend
themselves from hostile creatures but otherwise take no
actions.
The DM has the creatures' statistics.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using certain
higher-level spell slots, you choose one of the summoning
options above, and more creatures appear: twice as many
with a 6th-level slot, and three times as many with a 9th-level
slot.
Location
First found in an abandoned tower inside a swamp, The
Raritais Codex has changed hands many times. The book's
poisonous reputation precedes it, though few realize how
deep-seated that poison is.
The book's first discoverer was an intrepid bard-wizard
named Gerim Silversoul. He found the book in an abandoned
wizard's tower within a great swamp, and assumed the whole
structure had been deposited in the area by horrifically
powerful magic. Hoping the tome might contain some of said
magic, he began to peruse it in his free time.
Slowly, Gerim grew ill. His expedition turned back, to find
help in one of the larger cities. Gerim would never leave the
swamp - he insisted on studying the tome even when ill, and
passed away after a few days of torrential rain. The book was
then sold in the city, the expedition wanting nothing to do
with it.
For many years, the book's location was unknown. It was
briefly known to be in possession of an assassin's guild
named the Serpent's Fork. Their mage-assassins used
several of its spells, most notably vipergout, when
assassinating a minor princeling in his own palace - the
snakes guarded their escape. The guild could not avoid notice
afterwards, however, and was soon eradicated.
Its next owner was a vain nobleman, Lord Richard
Valquois, who collected rare and "dangerous" tomes as a
hobby. He liked to show off his prizes at parties, boasting
about the dark magic contained within that he could neither
read nor understand. Where he came by the book is
uncertain, though it is thought he had a contact with more
magical knowledge than he, who acquired his prizes for him.
Lord Valquois briefly allowed the spellbook scholar,
Felisari Sinclair, to examine the tome. Her analysis
recommended that the nobleman keep the tome in a sealed
case, though he of course ignored this advice. He later died
after falling seriously ill during one of his galas, where he was
known to show off his dark tomes.
As part of his estate, the book was sold to a rich buyer in
foriegn lands. En route, however, the ship it was on was
raided, and the book presumably stolen by the pirates. Tales
of a gruesome pirate ship now spread through taverns in
many port towns. The Wretched Skull sees through all
darkness, they say, its prow lit by a cage of glowing skulls.