Rune Slate

Rune Slates are Book-like items found on the Nautiloid and in the Mind Flayer Colony. When "read", the Narrator describes the mental images they impart.

Holding this tablet causes a flash of inscrutable images to appear before the eyes before vanishing, leaving a mild headache in their place.

Properties

• Miscellaneous Items
• Rarity: Common
•  Weight: 0.2 kg / 0.4 lb
• Price: 1 gp

Where to find

Found on the east side of the Nursery Room, northeast in the Brain Room (one called 'Eldritch Tablet') and east side of the room with Shadowheart's pod (an 'Illithid Manuscript') aboard the Nautiloid (Prologue). In the Mind Flayer Colony there are two more tablets on the table in the small cubbyhole sideways from the Necrotic Laboratory. However, to read these the player needs to pass DC 14 Arcana check.

Text

• *Visions project into your mind. A nautiloid, hurtling through the planes, resplendent with psionic energy.*
• *A schematic of a nautiloid flashes into your mind. Nerves, sinews, as much living being as ship.*
• *A feeling penetrates your mind. An anomaly. One like ourselves, unconnected from the whole. Caution.
• *Worlds beyond worlds flash before your eyes, empires of a grand design, traversed by ships just like this.*
• *Faint images appear in your mind: a brain, a githyanki warrior, and centuries of darkness…*
• *A series of dots and broken lines - entries in a language you cannot read. And yet, you sense their meaning nonetheless…*
  • A final, mournful entry, carrying with it a vast hollow feeling of grief. The colony in decline. The Elder starving, falling dormant to preserve its strength and lie in wait - for some salvation to come.

Notes

• Reading some of the rune slates in the Nautiloid can provide bonuses to certain Intelligence checks related to their topics later on in the game. For instance, reading the one with a Nautiloid schematic provides advantage on a check made when describing the Nautiloid to Omeluum during the quest Help Omeluum Investigate the Parasite.