Encyclopedia of Health and Practices

Encyclopedia of Health and Practices is a skill book in Book II and Book III.

Effects

 * Grants the skill Medicine if the player character has not learned it.
 * Grants 2 points in the skill Medicine if the player character has learned it.

Content
This is easily one of the heaviest, and thickest of books you have ever seen. From its size and heft, you surmise that it could easily serve as the anchor to a large ship, or perhaps the cornerstone of a castle. The cover could likely take a blow from an axe and survive, and even the pages seem unnaturally thick and sturdy. It is a book that could last through the toughest of ages; from the numerous adorning bloodstains, it has certainly seen a fair amount of use. Appearances aside, however, it is a book that any practitioner of almost any form of medicine would be burdened to be without.

Hundreds, even thousands of medical terms are listed in this massive tome, each with definitions as complete as could possibly be. Several comprehensive sketches likely obtained from dissected cadavers have been dutifully cataloged; organs, veins, nerves and bones were painstakingly isolated and illustrated. The mere thought of the process required to create such meticulous visuals is enough to give the most hardened adventurer a slight cause of nausea.

Every conceivable ailment that can afflict a person is discussed, as is a full regiment of treatments from blood-letting to skull-tapping to exotic herbal elixirs. While some treatments are likely to cause more harm than good, there are numerous remedies that have been passed down for centuries proven to work small miracles. You also take note of a chapter dedicated to improving the body’s regenerative properties and resistances to poison and diseases; your willingness to consume such items as a salamander’s intestines or maintain a steady diet of insects is questionable at best.

Never before have you seen such a wealth of health and treatment information in a single location. Even the small amount of time you spend reading it serves to significantly increase your own personal knowledge of medicine. In addition, you are able to memorize a number of helpful remedies and herbal concoctions that will surely be invaluable to you during your adventures.

Appearances

 * Eschalon: Book II
 * Eschalon: Book III