Necromantic Lore

Tomes of power, forbidden books, and ancient, long-dead sages can help bring an atmosphere of necromantic tradition to the campaign, a historical perspective that adds another dimension of realism for your players. Among the early writers of the Cthulhu cycle, it was almost mandatory to create a book of necromantic secrets.

H. P. Lovecraft had such success with his fictional Necronomicon, from which he "quoted" so accurately, that many of his readers believed that the book existed, convinced by Lovecraft's stories that it had been penned by the Arab Alhazred before he was driven mad with his own revelations, dark Ashton Smith retorted by creating the Book of Eibon, and Robert Bloch invented Mysteries of the Worm, giving it a Latin title (De Vermis Mysteriis) to further bolster its authenticity. All of these authors heightened the realism of their tales by discussing their tomes in a historical context of known treatises on necromancy, such as the Book of Secrets by Albertus Magnus, or the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

These same techniques work surprisingly well in an AD&DŽ campaign. How often does a party of adventurers stumble across the private study of an evil necromancer and scan the shelves for an interesting title? In my experience, this has happened many times, and the most successful DMs have had a few clever descriptions prepared to intrigue their players. Obviously, we are not suggesting that the DM invent a whole library of necromantic titles and their contents. It is sufficient to make up a few books and refer to these frequently so that the players quickly come to recognize them as symbols of necromantic lore.

Here, then, is a small sample of what a group of adventurers might find on the bookshelves of a powerful necromancer. These books can be used as an item of treasure for a successful raiding party, or the object of a quest by the adventurers, who may seek to recover some of the ancient lore contained therein.

Note that many of these books contain knowledge about evil, extraplanar creatures or black necromancy. Although many of the evil-aligned magical tomes in the DMG carry powerful wardings to prevent their use by good characters, there is no such magical protection for the books mentioned here, unless a trap has been set by the book's current owner as a deterrent to theft. Instead, feel free to use the system of punishments outlined in Chapter Three whenever a good character willingly uses an evil tome mentioned in this section. Of course, all of these books (whether good or evil) will be widely sought after by necromancers, and if one of the tomes happens to be in the party's possession at the time, they could be in store for a nasty encounter or perhaps even a new adventure.