D&D 5E Heretical books

[Blue]

So, the characters of two of my players were searching for specific knowledge and found that it would be at this church of a sect of one of the gods called The Light of Understanding that posits that all knowledge is worth having, even about evil rites and such because the better you can understand your foe the better you can combat it.

Anyway, there's a lot of pressure elsewhere to destroy evil and heretical works, but they have a vault with a number of of them that they keep hidden. So everything in the vault is the type to be destroyed by other churches, including the main faith that they belong to.

To make a long story short, they ran a successful heist on the vault in last night's session. They got two works they were expected to be there, and one other bonus one that they remembered to look for once they figured out the magical indexing (unseen-servent-ish). One of the other PCs who was helping look has a backstory that he "sourced" hard to get material for wizards. Rare material components, things that were shady under the law, etc. While he was searching he was also keeping an eye out for "books that I think will sell particularly well" and based on his roll he found three.

So I'm looking to flesh them out a little bit, maybe even use them for a few hooks but at least make them feel real and give clues towards what type of person he should seek out to get the best price.

So, and suggestions for titles? These should all be heretical books that a very quick look would make them stand out. And they can't be possessed or animate - the church would have taken care of that.

(Links to book generators also would be of help, I've been playing with Great Knowledge Books (http://www.enworld.org/forum/dnd_view_block.php?id=433) here, but I figure you folks can have some awesome ideas.)

 

[jaelis]

I'd go with the classics. I assume you want to stay away from the specific dnd book (Book of Vile Darkness, Demonomicon). But there are plenty in other fiction.

Necronomicon: necromnatic rites associated with alien Far Realm powers.
Pnakotic Manuscripts: history of demonic cults, demon summoning spells.
Naturom Demonto: trap book that summons uncontrolled undead.
Octavo: deity level spells that drive a mortal insane (but the book itself is intelligent)

Or check out
http://www.blastr.com/2016-9-27/necronomicon-vishanti-11-most-evil-or-cursed-books-pop-culture

 

[LordEntrails]

Don't forget to make appropriate book descriptions. i.e. covers made of humanoid skin, pages written in blood, clasps made from finger bones should be your starting points. You can get more gruesome as appropriate for your tastes and your group.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A Necromancer's Guide to Practical Undead Army Logistics

To Serve Man, along with other books in the series, To Serve Elf, To Serve Dwarf, etc.

101 Uses for a Dead Paladin

 

[jaelis]

Ooh, you could go meta: Player's Handbook, 4th edition

 

[ccs]

FATAL, the RPG

 

[MonkeyWrench]

To borrow from other games:

Book of Ebon Bindings: covers demon summoning, true names of demons, sacrificial rituals

 

[Unwise]

I'd have a different take on it.

An erotic diary said to be written by the queen herself, or her handmaiden, that gives very graphic details of her affair with the pope of the main local religion. He is into some really weird stuff. It includes a lot of mentions to other verifiable details. One of these is a hidden 'love dungeon' behind a chapel in the main cathedral, where they kept their secret stash of loot if ever they had to run away. This is verifiable thing that PCs will see as actionable intelligence.

A book by a famous explorer to the Astral Sea who found no evidence that gods X and Y even exist. He could not find their realms at all and the angels had never heard of them. This has some good actionable intel on where cross-over points to other realms are. The churches will kill to stop this publication spreading.

A book detailing how to mix certain common compounds together to make explosive powder. The main ingredients are from manure and other agrarian things. The social implications of this are terrifying, it would put powerful weapons in the hands of the common folk and disrupt the international balance of power. The churches don't care so much, but the secret police of nearly every nation will hunt whoever has this book. Explosives are known, but the fact that making them is so simple is the forbidden knowledge.

 

[AnimeSniper]

Well as modest veteran of my local gaming group we would often come up with both mundane and mystical books, scrolls, tomes, and etcetera to use in campaign and can aid the party just as well as going to eavesdrop on local chatter at the nearest tavern...

One recurring book was for capital cities that existed for x-centuries we would discover a book that gave clues to a forgotten labyrinth underneath the city where either treasure, a skeleton army or other nasty was located... also worked for ancient ruins of a bygone civilization.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

If the typical depiction of drow appear in your setting there could be books that detail the rituals involved in the worship of Lolth and political theory explaining the strengths of a society run by power hungry, backstabbing families.

Essays written by historical figures that have fallen out of favour. You can decide if their ideas are rejected because they are legitimately evil and tyranical or are good willed opposition that questions authority (Note: this line is sometimes extremely blurry).

And just for fun: books detailing weaknesses of various monsters. Banned for encouraging metagaming.