Liber Os Portatus

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Description

a black-leather-bound vellum book.

The writing is in Anglic, and reads:
   Liber Os Portatus

    This is a small volume of vellum bound in black leather.  A title is etched upon the front
cover.  It is open to page one of four.  It is open to page one of four.  You appraise it at
forty-one gold.  
    It looks about a quarter of a dimin long, one and seventeen twentieths dimins wide, and two and
nine twentieths dimins tall.  It weighs about seven tenths of a dekan.

    The commands 'open <item>', 'close <item>', and 'turn page [in <item>] [to <number>]' may be
used with it.  Keeping the black-leather-bound vellum book costs five keep points.  The
black-leather-bound vellum book was created by Chaos; the source code was last updated Tue Mar 15
02:42:38 2016.  The material leather was created by Lost Souls; the source code was last updated
Tue Mar 15 02:18:23 2016.  The material vellum was created by Lost Souls; the source code was last
updated Tue Mar 15 02:18:27 2016.

Spoiler warning: information below includes details, such as solutions to puzzles or quest procedures, that you may prefer to discover on your own.

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Text

    The writing is in Caladan, and reads:

                          LIBER OS PORTATUS

                            SUB FIGURA CC

                    
                        Frater Puri Sermonis
                        Ordo Signis Crocinus

                                  A
                                 /o\
                           ----</---\>----

                      AD MAIOREM MAGIA GLORIAM


                  Dulcinus et Lector Illuminators
                              Corinium
                        Provincia Celaedonia
                              A.A. 393

    The techniques of seeing at a distance rely on the abstraction of
one's sight through a focus which holds one's attention in a particular
fashion while distorting vision in a way that facilitates the superment
of perceptual limitations.  Experience has shown the best results to be
obtained using a perfect sphere of clear, polished beryl, or failing that,
quartz crystal, but techniques of gazing into water, fire, and mirrors
also work adequately, and may be far more readily available in adverse
circumstances.

    Having selected the physical focus for your scrying, simply stare at
it intently.  Do this for a sufficient time, and you will feel yourself
beginning to slip into a trance.  Do not be alarmed; this is harmless.  A
significant element of skill and judgment on the scryer's part now comes
into play: the trance should not be allowed to grow too deep, or one may
momentarily lose consciousness, requiring one to begin the entire process
again, but proceeding to the next step while in too shallow a trance both
reduces the likelihood of success and has other, longer-term consequences,
which will be discussed later.

    The next and final step, then, to be taken when the scryer judges the
trance deep enough, is to mentally visualize the subject of inquiry.  The
success or failure of the working will be immediately apparent, with the

former resulting in a momentary vision of the subject and its surroundings,
along with the ending of the trance, and the latter simply terminating the
trance.

    This is the fundamental technique of scrying, then; would that it were
so simple a matter that its practitioners need only be concerned with the
effectiveness of their technique.  Alas, there are broader considerations
at work, and I must raise a vital cautionary note.  In my researches into
these techniques, I have investigated many accounts and spoken with many
venerable diviners, and the consensus is clear: scrying has become quite
perceptibly more difficult with the passage of years.

    In explaining this, I concur with those scholars of the arcane who have
concluded that the blame for this phenomenon lies with those scryers who,
ignorantly or irresponsibly, make use of shallow trances.  As you will
perceive, there is a certain flow of spiritual energy that occurs in the
course of scrying, and completing a course of scrying while the trance
remains shallow breaks this flow before it has truly matured.  To the
evidence, this seemingly innocuous practice in fact does some small injury
to the very forces that empower scrying -- a tiny effect from any particular
iteration, but accumulating over time into a terrible toll.

    It is, therefore, imperative that scryers prolong their trances and
allow them to mature, and that this necessity be communicated to those who
know it not.  Otherwise, it is all too easy to envision a day when even the
keenest mind cannot scry at all, and this invaluable art becomes lost to the
ages.

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