Thursday, August 25, 2011

Unorthodox Grimoires

The supernatural is always seething beneath the surface and many find that knowing the lore of these creatures is most useful for survival. Combined with the modern school systems and the ubiquity of the ability of practically anyone to read and write books, journals and articles, this thirst for knowledge has resulted in the creation of a wide variety of makeshift grimoires and unconventional guides to the supernatural.

Random Grimoire Table
Roll a d8
1 - Corrected Good Book This kind of grimoire usually takes the form of a worn and cheaply produced hotel bible (or a similar holy text). Strangely, the book has been "corrected" with many underlinings, added notes on the margins and blacked out or even missing pages.
2 - Research Notes This grimoire is composed of multiple articles and research journals that, while innocent individually, together seem to hint at some unspeakable horror. A version concerning demons might include articles on the anatomy of the brain, theological essays and notes on the research of multiple personality disorders.
3 - Diary/Journal This grimoire is actually the lifestory of one who has seen too much. Policemen, hunters, sewer workers and especially undertakers often see things in their lines of work that they do not dare to speak, but are compelled to put on paper. It usually has a much more practical view of the supernatural.
4 - KUBARK manual This grimoire differs from the others that it's a government-sanctioned secret guide to the supernatural employed by various secret agencies. These types of manuals are very useful for methods of containing and especially killing the creatures, but offer little insight to their nature.
5 - Scrapbook The opposite of the manual, this book is a collection of newspaper clippings and conspiracy theories, devised by some paranoid madman in his cellar. However, the theories often have a hint of truth at their heart, but usually even the most insane theories pale before the true nature of the subjects.
6 - Game guide This grimoire is disguised as a guidebook to a game, such as poker and chess. Upon closer inspection, the book seems weird and out-of-context, with its long descriptions of the White Knight or the Ace of Swords or its strange, cryptic sentence structure.
7 - Art piece Another disguised grimoire, this type is usually written in the form of a play, musical notes or poetry. Often the notes or the words themselves are somehow magical. These grimoires usually contain spells, due to the ease of hiding the secret chantings and melodies.
8 - Stories This type of grimoire is usually a book of fairytales, usually of the old mature type. The stories themselves seem altered; often lacking a moral lesson and describing creatures uncommon to the public with very specific detail.

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