Price (Item Level): 37,500 gp (17th)
Body Slot: —
Caster Level: 17th
Aura: Strong; (DC 23) divination
Activation: See text
Weight: 5 lb.
This infamous book was written by the wizard Iphegor of the Ebon Mirror. It has been copied on rare occasions since. It records terrible knowledge of distant times, alien worlds, and various aberrations. If anyone reads this book (a minimum of 48 hours over at least six days), she gains an inherent bonus of +2 to her Intelligence score, but loses 2 points from her Wisdom score. In addition, she gains 5 ranks of Knowledge (dungeoneering), 2 ranks of Knowledge (arcana), and 2 ranks of Knowledge (the planes). Once the book is read, the magic disappears from its pages and it becomes a normal book—still filled with disturbing and frightful images, but no longer capable of granting its reader any bonuses or penalties.
Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, foresight, vision, creator must have read another Codex Anathema (magical or discharged).
Cost to Create: 18,750 gp, 1,500 XP, 38 days.
Source: Lords of Madness, page 214.