Part of our prop collection, this book is described in the adventure as “a translation into Common of the unholy book of Zon-Kuthon”, diety of Envy, Pain, Darkness, and Loss. From some basic digging, it supposedly contains all of the worst tortures and torments of the diety, and is covered in what appears to be tanned skin, perhaps human, and a dark doorway symbol.
This is one that we took a bit of a shortcut, and the majority of the content is actually just a published book on medieval torture methods, with a few pages here and there torn out. In truth, humanity can be just as horrific as what fiction can come up with. This was obtained online, then altered and recovered with a basic leather-like cloth. From there, we dyed and stained the cover to provide the pattern and more of a “human” look to the covering. The peeling was more of a quality of the low quality material, than an intended result.
Within the folds of the book, the group found a number of new or altered spells, religion rituals associated with the cult. Those were scattered and hidden in the book itself, but rather easy to locate given the different coloration and paper.
For those interested in the content, the book itself is actually a good treatment of the material – torture and punishment methods of the middle ages. Written by William Andrews, it is titled Medieval Punishments – An Illustrated History of Torture. I am sure it was not written with the intent of being a game prop of an evil diety, but it certainly applied in for our needs.
