The Mad Book of Mog Copyright (c) 1996 by Damien A Wellman The Mad Book of Mog is a spellbook created by an insane wizard. While the original has long since been destroyed, several copies of the Book have been made over time. Some wizards have attempted to make a more functional version of the Book, but all such attempts have wound up with a version even more dysfunctional than the original. The Book itself is a thick, large volume bound in plain leather. Childish or unintellegable designs are often branded on the cover. The interior pages have nonsense scribbles written on them in ordinary ink. A Read Magic(or other translating-type spell) will only reveal random portions of the text, and even these will be gibberish except for the first page, which will have the book's command word on it. The word will not stand out from the rest of the page, so it might be overlooked. A Detect Magic will randomly show the book to be radiating: 1d10 Result 1-3 No magic. 4-6 Weak magic of an unknown type. 7-9 Very strong magic of a single type, randomly chosen. 10 The book explodes, doing 1d6 damage to everyone in a 3-foot radius of the book. The book itself will have 3d6 spells inscribed in it. These spells cannot be copied, but each time the command word of the book is spoken, a randomly chosen spell will be cast by the book at a random target. The spell is always successful. The book is treated as if it had a ST 20 dedicated Powerstone powering it, although it does not actually have such a Powerstone - the book itself is charged. After careful study of the book, a wizard may be able to control the book's actions to an extent. A successful IQ roll when using the book will allow the user to choose one of three randomly chosen spells for the book to cast. A successful Will roll will allow the wizard to choose a target when the spell is cast. It is rumored that some (5% chance) of the copies of the Mad Book are sentient. If a sentient book is found, it will have an IQ equal to the number of spells it has, along with other mental advantages and disadvantages equaling about 40 points. A sentient book can cast spells of its own volition, and can control what spell it will be and what will be the target. It can still be forced to cast a spell by its command word, but the spell and target will be random in the usual manner. Wizards cannot control the actions of a sentient book by making IQ or Will rolls. A sentient book cannot speak, but can communicate by rearranging the writing on its pages into readable writing. A sentient book also has limited flying ability, with a move of 6, and a flight ceiling of 50 feet. Such books will always have a chaotic, cryptic personality, and will frequently spew babbling, nonsense riddles when someone tries to get it to communicate.