Bowfinger's Spellbook

• Original Author: Archmage Bowfinger (and staff)
• Subsequent Authors: unknown
• School of Magical Emphasis: Conjuration

Creation

The Archmage Bowfinger was known across much of central and northern Emergo for his wide-ranging and frequent travels in search of new spells. He embarked on reckless adventures to acquire new forms of magic, including the plundering of the black dragon Raugnoch's hoard and breaking open the tomb of the Wizard-King.
When he grew old, Bowfinger came to the School of Wonder, founded some years earlier by Myrdon and Salasker, and wrote down his spells for the apprentices there. Upon his death, the school masters ordered a unified tome to be created, documenting Bowfinger's contribution including his original spells, of which Bowfinger's Fleeting Journey yet survives in common practice (in so far as any high-level magic is commonly practiced).

History

The book did not remain long at the School of Wonder, as the initial version of that school was subsequently sacked by fiends, potentially summoned by unprepared students. After the school was destroyed, thieves must have scoured the ruins as Bowfinger's spellbook appeared years later in a cache of goods acquired by the master thief Vaerum in Scornubel and was accurately identified by the sage Laertilus. Laertilus recorded that it appeared several pages had been added while others had been torn out. Vaerum's guild found itself in a "gray war" with another group of thieves and the spellbook vanished. Its whereabouts were unknown as of 15 YR.

Current State

300 YR - The Archive ordered Sister Daraele of Phandever to beseech the banshee Agatha for information on the spellbook's location. Unsuccessful in gaining the information herself, Daraele dispatched a group of adventures via the folkhero Wolfsteen, who in turn learned that Agatha had sold the book to Tsernoth the Necromancer near Iriaebor sometime before 200 YR.
301 YR - Having located what they believed to be Tsernoth's academy, The Archive sent a team of "acquisition specialists" to retrieve the spellbook. Gar Widowgast, Charles Voleur, and the monk known as "Scratch on Wood" were accompanied by a seemingly failed Combined to a sinking tower in the swampe