#### Astral Codex Wondrous item, artifact (requires attunement) --- Written by Archasteron Xille Xelviani of the Court of the Electress of the Karnala Catacombs in the Age of Death, the astral codex is one of only two reliable sources of information on the astral celestials, the star elves who once served as the hidden hand of Val. For millennia, sages assumed Archasteron Xelviani was an astral celestial, but philosophers in the Age of Enlightenment concluded he or she was a human, one of the Hlan who voluntarily accompanied the dark elves into the World Below, the Dark Under All. Modern thought from wizards of the Imperial College in Capital holds that the banishment of the astrals created the World Below, though this opinion has not become widely accepted, cannot be proven, and may never be proven. The astral codex is written in Elvish. A creature that attunes to the astral codex and understands its secrets gains the following abilities. ***Master of a Fallen World.*** Attuning to the astral codex gives you many abilities of the star elves, including their mastery over the World Below. As an action, you can create a gate to or from the World Below, per the *gate* spell. You can travel to a random location within the plane, or a specific location that you name, such as the Palace of Varnal or the gates of Xanaxarite. This feature doesn't allow you to travel into Godblinds. In addition, once per week, you can use your action to muster a special unit of drow: the Gloaming Fang. The unit remains under your command for 24 hours, then disappears.  ***Gaze of the Star Elves.*** When you attune to the astral codex, your eyes become flickering pools of swirling light and inky darkness. You gain the mind mastery technique of the star elves and can communicate telepathically with creatures you can see within 120 feet of you. As a bonus action, when you gaze upon a creature, you know what their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores are. You can cast the *detect thoughts* spell at will. Saving throws made against this spell automatically fail. You are also considered to be permanently under the effect of the *mind blank* spell, but you can choose to pause any or all of its effects at will. If a creature you can see targets you with a spell or ability that is blocked by this power, you can use a reaction to cause that creature's head to explode. If the creature has no head, wherever its brain is located explodes instead. If the creature has no brain, nothing happens. ***Wormwood.*** As Val's hidden hand, the star elves watched the enemies of the true elves closely, manipulating them when needed with strange alchemy. The codex suggests that the star elves' first misstep was in deploying these elixirs against the adamant elementals. Once per intrigue, you can use a domain bonus action to make a DC 12 Lore test, replicating an elixir from the astral codex on a success. These elixirs allow you to poison and control enemy operatives, creating suggestible double agents, extracting confessions, and derailing operations. On a success, roll a pool of d6s equal to your domain size. Until the end of the intrigue, you can spend a die from the pool to change the outcome of any Espionage test made by you or another domain, by either adding or subtracting the result of the spent die plus your Espionage modifier. You can spend the die after the test is made and the result is known, possibly changing a success into a failure and vice versa, but you must do so before the end of the domain turn. ***Void between the Stars.*** The astral codex allows you to access the star elves' pocket manifold, known as the void between the stars. Unique among the manifolds of the timescape, the starvoid sequesters knowledge away from the mundane world, removing it from memory. Up to three objects, creatures, or ideas can be stored within the void between the stars at any time. While something is within the void, it does not exist in the timescape. No one but you remembers anything about it, and all traces of it vanish completely. Creatures in the timescape are not affected by anything stored in the void. For instance, if a lich dies outside the void while its phylactery is stored in it, the undead can't rejuvenate. Below are some things that could already be hidden in the void between the stars when you first find the codex: - A creature's true name - The phylactery of a lich - Another codex - The knowledge of a forgotten god - A cache of rovion, the starmetal - A lost city - The tarrasque If you store the knowledge of the astral codex within the void, the void rends itself apart, the codex vanishes from your possession, and you and everything stored inside the void are forever destroyed. ***Starmetal Mastery.*** The astral codex is the single greatest repository of knowledge regarding the working of starmetal—also known as rovion—the metal which the star elves brought with them when they were banished. Sometimes, pieces of it still fall from the heavens. While attuned to the codex, you are proficient with weapons and armor made of starmetal, and you gain the ability to create starmetal items with unique properties. Studying the codex for an extended period of time is the only way to replicate the star elves' methods and access the starmetal's hidden properties, and the GM can decide how many different items the astral codex contains. Some ideas are below. Almost any weapon or armor with legendary rarity from the core rules makes an appropriate starmetal item (at the GM's discretion, of course). Creating a starmetal item requires you to spend 90 days working without interruption with the codex at hand and resting no more than 8 hours per day. You also need access to a supply of starmetal and must pay 50,000 gp to obtain the necessary tools and equipment, which are no longer useful after crafting the item. ***Starmetal Armor.*** The codex describes *suits of sable black armor* made by the star elves, which let them vanish from all senses. ***Starmetal Blades.*** Mundane weapons made from starmetal can cleave through solid rock, but *those created with the help of the astral codex* can cleave through any barrier at all, physical or magical. ---