“You were studying in Gravenhollow when you found it. 

The library’s collection turned out to be larger than you expected, even larger than Bruenor had described. Several of the rarer titles missing at Candlekeep weren’t merely available—they sat out, unguarded, in the Stacks. You slipped each one into your Bag of Holding before continuing into the next aisle. A quiet part of you wondered whether Ulthar would even notice if you never put them back.

The only problem was the ghosts. Veldyskar warned that the spirits of past visitors would retrace the library sections they visited in life—but you’d assumed even the echoes of a less civilized age would’ve had the courtesy to keep their damn voices down. Your assumption proved a touch optimistic. After a brief attempt at reading, you sighed, gave up, and went looking for a study room. 

When you found one, the Book sat alone on the desk inside:

A gold cage bound it along the edges, reinforcing the corners and the spine. The leather underneath the cage was light maroon and so perfectly smooth to the touch that it made your skin crawl. A thumb-sized gem stared at you from the cover’s center, and little gray ribbons bookmarked several pages before winding around the cover and tying the old tome shut.

Some of the pages were written in Common, others in Elvish, Primordial, and even Abyssal. Many were scratched up with diagrams and spell circles so complex they must’ve been 6th or 7th echelon, at least.

The book had no title, no author credited. Not so much as a colophon. It could’ve been some ancient mage’s forgotten spellbook or a warlock’s forbidden grimoire. Something unique, certainly. Something arcane.”