Codex of the Infinite Planes (Major Artifact)

Aura overwhelming transmutation; CL 30th; Slot none; Weight 300 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

Thick slabs of obsidian bind pages of fine lead, creating a massive tome riddled with pocks and scars suggestive of fantastic antiquity.

The Codex of the Infinite Planes is an enormous tome, usually requiring two people to lift it. No matter how many pages are turned, another always remains. Anyone opening the codex for the first time must succeed at a DC 30 Fortitude save or be affected as per the spell destruction. Those who survive can peruse the book’s pages and learn its powers, though not without risk. Each day spent studying the codex allows the reader to make a DC 50 Spellcraft check to learn one random power. The reader gains a +1 circumstance bonus on this check per day spent reading until a power is learned. However, each day of study also forces the reader to make a successful Will save (DC 30 + 1 per day of study) to avoid being affected as if by the spell insanity. The Will save DC resets to 30 once a power is learned.

The powers of the Codex of the Infinite Planes are as follows:

Astral projection, banishment, elemental swarm, gate, greater create demiplane, greater planar ally, greater planar binding, plane shift, and soul bind.

The saving throw to resist any effect created by one of these powers has a DC equal to 20 + the power’s spell level. Each of these spell-like abilities is usable at will by the owner of the codex once she learns it, but requires a successful Spellcraft check (DC 40 + twice the spell level of the power) to activate. A character cannot take 10 on this check. Failing this check indicates that a catastrophe befalls the user, determined randomly by rolling on the Codex Catastrophes chart below. A character can only incur one catastrophe per power use.

DESTRUCTION

The Codex of the Infinite Planes is only destroyed if one page is torn out and left on each plane in existence, but tearing out a page immediately triggers a random catastrophe.

Table: Codex Catastrophes

d% Catastrophe
01–05 Planar Relocation: The reader and a 5-mile-diameter area centered on her are teleported to a random plane.
06–10 Natural Fury: A storm of vengeance spell centered on the reader begins and follows the reader. Additionally, an earthquake spell centered on the reader strikes every round for 1 minute.
11–15 Fiendish Vengeance: 1d3+1 balors, olethrodaemons, or pit fiends appear and attempt to destroy the book’s reader.
16–19 Ultimate Imprisonment: The reader’s soul is captured as per the spell trap the soul (no save allowed) in a random gem somewhere on the plane while her body is entombed as per the spell imprisonment.
20–23 Formless: The reader is affected as by the spell reincarnation. Every dawn she is affected again.
24–27 Clone: An evil clone of the reader from a parallel dimension appears 1d100 miles away (see the spell clone). Another evil clone appears at the same distance 1d4 days later. This repeats for as long as the reader lives.
28–31 Shinagami Swarm: A flight of 444 shinagami appears and scatters, each one seeking to kill a different sentient creature.
32–35 Eternal Unlife: The reader’s soul becomes shackled to her body, cut off from the planes and the natural progression of souls into the afterlife. If she is slain, her consciousness remains and her body refuses to rot, but is no longer usable.
36–39 Colossus: The reader permanently grows to be 65 feet tall, making her Colossal in size. She grows an additional 5 feet every day.
40–43 Expurgation: The reader is affected by the spell energy drain every day at midnight. This effect never drains the reader below 1st level, but afflicts her again if ever she advances beyond that level.
44–47 Antimagic: Anytime the reader touches or uses a magic item, effect, or ability, she and the object or effect are targeted by mage’s disjunction.
48–51 Divine Enmity: The reader garners the hatred of a good deity. 1d4 brijidines, draconals, solars, star archons, or similar powerful divine servants appear and attempt to kill the reader. Mortal worshipers of the deity actively oppose the reader as well.
52–55 Dead Magic: All magic permanently ceases to function in the area within 1d4 miles of the reader. See dead magic areas.
56–59 Wild Magic: Magic permanently becomes erratic in the area within 1d4 miles of the reader. See GameMastery Guide for details on wild magic areas.
60–64 Darkness: The land within 1d10 miles of the reader is cast into permanent darkness, as per the spell deeper darkness. The sun rises over the area, but it provides no significant illumination. The average temperature of the area decreases by 30 degrees.
65–69 Sun Sear: The effect of this catastrophe is not immediately obvious, but the next time the sun reaches its zenith, it halts. This catastrophe only affects a region within 1d10 miles of the reader’s location at the time the catastrophe occurred—the sun continues to travel normally in lands beyond this area. The affected land is always illuminated and the average temperature increases by 40 degrees.
70–75 Zombie Apocalypse: All creatures within 1d12 miles of the reader must succeed at a DC 20 Fortitude save or be slain. Those killed by this effect immediately rise as ravenous undead of a type determined by their number of Hit Dice (1-5: zombie; 6-10: ghoul; 11-15: wight; 16+: mohrg). These undead are uncontrolled and ravenous for living flesh.
76–80 Titanic Brawl: Two titans—one elysian titan and one thanatotic titan—appear and immediately begin fighting.
81–84 Meteor Shower: Every square within 25 feet of the reader is targeted by a meteor, as per those created by the spell meteor swarm.
85–88 Reversed Gravity: The area within 1/2 mile of the reader in all directions is permanently affected as if by the spell reverse gravity, but with no uppermost limit. Those unable to impede their skyward fall eventually tumble all the way into the freezing vacuum of space.
89–92 Friends Become Enemies: With the exception of the reader, every creature within 5 miles of the codex must succeed at a DC 20 Will save or immediately and permanently switch to an alignment opposite its current one.
93–96 Trading Places: The reader immediately switches bodies with his or her greatest enemy of the same creature type. Both reader and enemy retain all of their original knowledge and abilities and do not gain any new ones, but appear as the new characters in all ways.
97–99 Voice of the Gods: Anytime the reader speaks (even in a whisper), all creatures within 50 feet must succeed at a DC 20 Fortitude save or take 10d6 points of sonic damage and be permanently deafened.
100 Death: The reader utters a wail of the banshee and then is subject to a destruction spell. This repeats every round until the reader is dead.

HISTORY

Few entities, even among the eldest deities, recollect the origins of the Codex of the Infinite Planes, as its creation dates back to the rebellion of the titans against their godly creators. Realizing their race lacked the fundamental connection to the multiverse that granted the gods limitless power, a sect of titans sought to create such a link for themselves, rudely twisting the planes to their will, but at a terrible cost. The result was the creation of the Codex of the Infinite Planes, an ultimately failed but fantastically dangerous key to vast planar power. The ensuing divine reprisal for attempting to intrude upon the providence of the gods proved swift and harsh, an outrage that led to planes-spanning revolution.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Artifacts & Legends © 2012, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: F. Wesley Schneider.

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