Designing an artifact based on the Sibylline Books [3.5]

[hymer]

I'd like to make an artifact based on the Sibylline Books of ancient Rome. For those in doubt, these were said to be books written by an oracle priestess, kept in Rome for hundreds of years and consulted at times of great crisis, to see what could be done to alleviate the problem (this usually being things like certain prayers or building temples - I'd like mine to be a little more conducive to adventures than public displays of piety).
I have a few ideas, but I'd rather not paint yours, except for one thing: I'd rather that the artifact can be genuinely helpful, and could be consulted even by fairly low level characters without hitting the campaign narrative for six (by, say, revealing why the God Emperor died, how the elven lands came to be overrun by undead, or why the black dragon is trying to capture the dwarf stronghold). How would you go about designing such an artifact? Thoughts, ideas, comments, etc. are all very welcome.

[Fouredged Sword]

Well, I would focus on the requirements of the book.

I would make it a powerful intelligent item that can cast powerful divinations and shape reality.

One makes a request to the book, like "How can we stop X army" or "End this plague". It has the power to cast any divination spell, wish, miracle, or reality revision to fulfill your request. It can even cast epic magic, but at great cost.

The problem is that to GET your spell casting answer or request, it requires you to preform some quest or service to it's cause. It looks into the world with it's powers and chooses the best service appropriate to the required spell for the request. A level 1 divination can be paid for with an offering. A 9th level spell requires a serious service or quest. Epic spells require epic adventures to satisfy the book.

[hymer]

That could work. It's also a way to have some considerable magical power in a place, but without that power being directed by a person with an agenda. Someone with too much of an agenda wouldn't get any help. Thanks!

[Duke of Urrel]

I like the idea of a Sibylline Book, but my concern would be how to limit its power.

I think consulting the book should entail risks similar to the Contact Other Plane spell. After all, prophecy comes from the gods, and many gods are short-tempered. When you try to read a Sibylline Book, you might risk something like the Confusion spell, the Feeblemind spell, or even the Insanity spell, at least temporarily. Didn't the Delphic Oracle breathe hazardous subterranean fumes before giving prophecy? Opening up a Sibylline Book might have a similar effect. Of course, the risk of this would vary with the quality of information you were looking for. The deeper you delve into the book, the greater the risk.

Instead of having to make an Intelligence check at a certain DC to read a Sibylline Book, you might have to make a Decipher Script check. After all, the book contains ancient prophecy, maybe written in a dead language, or possibly in a coded language or a tangle of riddles. Misinterpretation might also be possible. Knowledge of Arcana or Knowledge of Religion might also be helpful.

Another good way to avoid making the Sibylline Book too powerful would be to create a whole library of Sibylline books, each on a separate topic. There could be a Sibylline Book of War, Book of Death, Book of Riches, et cetera. Naturally, they wouldn't all be conveniently stored together in one location; they'd be scattered all over the world.

Any one of the Sibylline Books might disappear periodically, though it might also announce on one of its own pages when and where it is due to reappear. Kind of a friendlier version of "This message will self-destruct in five seconds" would be "This book will reappear in the Chamber of Glyptophilus three months from now. I have spoken. Good-bye!"

Needless to say, a Sibylline Book could become a favorite DM tool – if it's not overused. Call it the Sibylline Book of Plot Hooks.

[nedz]

It could function like the old AD&D version of Legend Lore (gods I hated that spell :smallsigh:) where the DM gets to write some ambiguous doggerel (on the spur of the moment of course :smallsigh:) which the players get to interpret. Now this wouldn't be so bad if you could predict the question and prepare some rhyme, but it never seemed to work like that — the party will always ask about something you hadn't thought of, and likely irrelevant. If you have any talent as a poet, forget it, you will hate what you end up writing — your muse will desert you. Strictly for Research purposes grab a copy of Nostradamus, this is the gold standard you are aiming for, but you will miss, badly !

Alternatively link it to some skill, a random bonus to a Knowledge check or Bardic music perhaps. Yes, this will be far saner.

[Slipperychicken]

I'd like to make an artifact based on the Sibylline Books of ancient Rome. For those in doubt, these were said to be books written by an oracle priestess, kept in Rome for hundreds of years and consulted at times of great crisis, to see what could be done to alleviate the problem (this usually being things like certain prayers or building temples - I'd like mine to be a little more conducive to adventures than public displays of piety).

Honestly? It sounds like a bunch of regular old books, full of contingency* plans. As in, the oracle sat down, thought about crises which could befall Rome, and figured out courses of action which she thought would help alleviate them. It's a common managerial practice to do contingency planning, and it can save a lot of crucial time during a crisis, since you have a solution ready to go the moment **** hits the fan, and managers aren't as likely to make mistakes while figuring it out under pressure.

*(not the spell, or the magic item. Real world contingencies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contingency_plan))


If one were to implement it as a magic item, one drawback would be that willingly using it deals a boatload of no-save sanity damage. Another drawback might be that it isn't perfect and is equivalent to a divination spell like Contact Other Plane, only it might give a longer answer if necessary. (Ab)using it outside specific situations (i.e. "Rome is in terrible, immediate danger", "The universe itself is at stake") might risk the book giving wrong answers out of spite, or simply assume that it's fallen into the wrong hands and burn itself. Allternatively, it might have a 365 day cooldown, encouraging users to only use it in the most dire circumstances.

[Jeff the Green]

Honestly? It sounds like a bunch of regular old books, full of contingency* plans. As in, the oracle sat down, thought about crises which could befall Rome, and figured out courses of action which she thought would help alleviate them. It's a common managerial practice to do contingency planning, and it can save a lot of crucial time during a crisis, since you have a solution ready to go the moment **** hits the fan, and managers aren't as likely to make mistakes while figuring it out under pressure.

That's not quite how they worked. They were basically cheat-sheets for prodigia and monstra. Prodigia and monstra were basically signals that the gods were pissed and you needed to do something right away to avert catastrophe (or further catastrophe, in the case of prodigia like floods, earthquakes, and plagues). While the other forms of divination (augury, haruspicy, nekuomancy, necromancy, etc.) interpreted omina and portenta—fairly commonplace occurrences with fairly well-known formulae—interpreting prodigia and monstra was more difficult because they didn't have the same sort of background. So the Sibylline books were created/consulted to help interpret the prodigia and monstra.

(And yes, these are usually translated 'prodigies,' 'monsters,' 'omens,' and 'portents,' but the modern terms have baggage not implied by the Latin words so it's useful to make the distinction.)

Anyway, I like Fouredged Sword's idea. Another thing that could be added is that it can only perform divinations on behalf of the city and often will only suggest courses of action. So for example, if it comes to believe that the PCs don't actually have the city's best interests at heart, it will suggest that they go on a daring raid of the enemy's camp. Alone. Naked. Without weapons. Wearing jingle bells.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Honestly, I'd use this - and I may use this in Homecoming, and even now I'm realizing exactly where it could/would be used - very much like an Intelligent weapon, except for the talking and scheming and flashy powers and ego contests, etc. etc. Think of it in parallel to, say, Tom Riddle's diary - a sentience is contained inside (or for whom it serves as a portal), but that sentience can only control the ink and pages of the book. It has an innate ability to do all these divinations, in whatever manner you care to think about them - heueristic massively-parallel-processing analysis of trends and patterns to forecast likely futures, quasi-omniscience that sees everywhere nigh-simultaneously, incredible intelligence, all of that in combination.

You start by restricting access. The Book of the Sibyllines interacts with a limited number of people - whether that's the sacred cloistered women who keep it, or the priests who perform its rites, or the king who is the only one with both divine right and blessed key to open the lock of the book. It may be 'written' in an obscure language, or a peculiar dialect of a common language; its statements may be couched in metaphor and simile. Perhaps only the Oracle of Dolph can read the words contained within without going stark raving mad, because normally he is stark raving mad, and the words shock him sane. Mix, match, and combine for flavor.

You continue with the idea that the Sentience of the Book (that SoB, cough cough) is, well, sentient. This might be the most important part: the SoB has its own agenda. You, as the GM, get to decide what that agenda is. Maybe it wants to build the perfect society. Maybe it needs to develop magic and technology to the point where a technomystic gateway can be created for it and its armies to step through and conquer the world. Maybe it made a bargain with the first rulers of the city/nation/world and it's doing its best to live up to that bargain and bring their heirs back into power. Whatever its goal happens to be, though, it can only nudge and guide the people who possess it, influencing the world by way of influencing their actions.

Which means that every decision of the book, every suggestion or recommendation given by it, is going to be couched in light of its own agenda. Has the city's society gone stagnant? Then yes, opening up trade with the aggressively-oligarchic Merchant Princes is a good idea. (That will shake up the things that need to be shaken up - or at least get things moving again.) Is the leader of the invading army the rightful heir to the ancient family? Then you should absolutely send the army out to flank him. (Which army is 65% likely to get crushed in the field, paving the way for the surrender of the city and the crowning of the rightful heir.)

In terms of PCs, again, it knows the PC's intentions, whether by performing a review of their past, listening in on their conversations, or whatever. It isn't going to give the 'naked weaponless panty raid' idea if the PCs would be troublesome to it - but it might imply that the approaching horde* could be bought off (resulting in the capture of the party), or that they have distant enemies that the PCs would be the perfect envoys to (getting the party at least temporarily out of the way).

And remember that when it comes to metaphor and implication, a chunk of poetry, even bad doggerel, can mean almost anything.


Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
So in between them both,
They licked the platter clean.

"Clearly, this means that the power of Invader A is the weakness of Invader B, and vice-versa. We need to get the two of them to fight each other!!"



* - Not hoard, folks. Dragons hoard, orcs horde.

[hymer]

@ Duke: Limiting its power (or perhaps rather its use), is my primary concern, too. I’m slightly worried that the bad stuff happening can be sort of shoved on to an NPC, but I agree that Something Must Be Done.
The original books were said to be nine in number, but down to three by the time they were in Roman possession. Having several books, so there’s something to hunt for, is definitely a good idea. Rather than various subjects, I think I’d make it like the Rod of Seven Parts, in that the more pieces you have together, the better it gets.
Thanks for all your thoughts!

@ nedz: I could make consulting the books something you can’t just up and do, allowing me to construct something between sessions rather than being forced to do it on the fly. But I think I’d be perfectly within my rights to say that they find nothing on a given subject, if it is indeed unimportant. Which may be a clue in itself.
Thank you!

@ Slipperychicken: I’m likely to use both the “Don’t press unless you really mean it (http://valdronius.sydlexia.com/projects/sb_tg/Self_Destruct_Button.jpg)” and the cooldown, good ideas! Thanks.

@ Jeff: Thanks for writing all that out. And I like how sarcastic the Sibyl is in your version of the book! :smallbiggrin:

@ Ouroboros: I’m probably not going to go with a sentient book this time around, but it’s a nifty idea. The restricted access is definitely something to consider. I expect the Righful Reader would be quite glad to have (one/some of) the books back, and would be inclined to consult them on behalf of the PCs who brought them, as long as their intentions were honourable.
Thanks for your thoughts!

[Jeff the Green]

The restricted access is definitely something to consider.

That would definitely be in accord with Roman tradition. The Sibylline Books were only available to the duumviri sacris faciundis (roughly, 'the two men for the doing of sacred things'), and then later the decimviri sacris faciundis (ten men) and the quindecimviri sacris faciundis (fifteen men), and they were responsible for making sure no one else saw them. This is why we only have like seventy lines extant; the Books burned in a fire and there weren't copies.

[hymer]

Thanks again! :smallsmile: