This rather thick quarto is of unknown origin. The earliest precursors of the tome, also known as the "Book of Earthly Numbers", "Name of the Myriad Unnameable Things", "Secret Book of Numbers", "Index of Numerological Computation", "Numerical Cyclopædia of the Cosmos", or, most recently, the "Compact Universal Algorhithmic Index". In the most recent, "false" English edition, it explains the history of the text, but only vaguely. 

From said history, we can dettermine as such:

• The first verified version of the text was in Chinese, c. 100 B.C.E. It appeared and vanished from the royal library in a matter of months, perhaps stolen from the royal library.
  

• A similar book was in the Library of Alexandria when it was burned. From the ruins a scholar stole a single page, the babble on which which he recited hastily. Two of the three soldiers that witnessed it were found dead, one with half his body terribly withered and dessicated, aged to dust, the other burnt and smoldering, totally unrecognisable. The survivor, a half-dead madman, claimed he had seen the face of Jupiter.
  

• The next few "editions" appear along the Silk Road, the first around 100 C.E. in north India and Nepal, then Tibet; Persia, Bactria, and Medina by the time of Muhammed; and finally Jerusalem, Byzantium, and Ostia around the eighth century.
  

• At that time, a precise replica of the Coptic edition appeared in an Alexandrian marketplace

• In the year 893, the edition in Judah is destroyed by a deranged student of Kabbalist numerology, who in setting the heavy, strangely marked text burns himself to death. His hysterical dying exclaimations were that he had read the secret language of the text and that it was the will of the Tetragrammaton that none should read it, and that those who did would be "consumed by the Qlippoth", or abyssal darkness before all things.
  

• During the 1100's, a small group of Pythagoreans devote themselves to the book, claiming that it is the direct word of God. They are burnt for heresy.
  

• In 1399, the Latin version in Rome is locked away in the vaults of the Vatican. It vanishes from its tightly locked case between 1420 and 1456.
  

• The Book vanishes for several centuries, then resurfaces in the posession of one Maurice Fitzwallader-James, a philosopher in Edinburgh around 1738, claiming it had an innate connection to time itself. He was found with terrible burn marks on his neck and limbs.
  

• Between 1830 and 1930, fifteen copies in various languages appear and disappear throughout Europe and the U.S.

• An American research team at Berkeley attempts to create a visual representation of the complex algorithms listed in the Living Book in the summer of 1994. The resultant fractals and charts are bizzare to say the least, some defying any "normal" pattern.
  

• Late in 1999, the Czech version is stolen from the Library of Congress. The guards and librarians are found unconscious and upon awakening amnesiac, apparently via use of Rohypnol. The investigators noticed that the Sapienta Maglorum, a lengthy 12th century Sutra, and a few fragments by the mediæval Saturnian Gnostics had also vanished.
  

Keeper-only information

The Living Book of Numbers is extremely unique. To attempt to read the enigmatic markings requires an Occult roll and a Cthulhu Mythos roll to recognise, and an impale on either to fully understand. It is  in various occult tongues, mostly Aklo, Naacal, Xu, and the original language of the Book of Iod. Only one ever  existed, although it can be in multiple places at once. You see, the Book is actually a living entity, a lesser, nameless Outer God, or simply a disgustingly powerful Lloigor. It is the physical manifestation of a multi-dimensional being, and is from the same sphere as Yog-Sothoth. It was probably created by non-human (probably Lloigor, perhaps even heretical Serpent Folk) worshippers of said god.

The Book, due to its connection to higher dimensions, if certain parts are read, may be used to summon or contact (may or may not bind) such entities as Yog-Sothoth, Daoloth, lloigor, Hydra, Hastur, and Hounds of Tindalos. However, the Book is not fond of being used; It may destroy the mind of an unwary magic(k)ian with terrible visions and incomprehensible mathematical memes.

Also, if the stranger mathematical formulæ and geometric diagrams are used in conjunction with the recitation of certain passages, the being may take physical form. It is vast shadowy beast, a creature of many odd, disturbing limbs and strange, half-formed angles. If the spell is continued, half the reader's blood will replace the ink, subtracting 1D8 CON and POW, along with 2D8 Sanity points. The creature will gain solidity for the amount of hours equal to the reader's original (CON+SIZ+POW)/3.

For example, if John has 13 POW, 15 SIZ, and 14 STR, then the book demon will be solid for 21 hours.

When fully formed, the usual chosen form of the Lesser Other God is a gruesome cross between a wasp, a bird, a dragon, a man, and a bat. It has four pairs of Byakhee-like wings which it can use to fly or create devastating winds; a "furry", insectoid torso (in reality small tendrils) with whiplike extentions; many muscular, spidery legs ending in small, scaly, dishlike feet; a long, slender head of sorts, featureless excepting its six-jawed "mouth"; and barrel-like, extendable neck covered in stalked "eyes" and small antennæ. It appears as if black and white, vague in its outline and constucted of peculiar curves and lines, its angles unusually obtuse or sharp. At times it will appear at varying stages of translucence and may glow like a blacklight or heat lamp. More unpleasantly yet, the being may kill and imitate the reader. The likeness is not perfect, but it has the same voice and general appearance as the true person.

Book/Incorporeal/Corporeal
Author: Unknown, c. 1890, possibly much later or earlier
Language: Any language, but frequently, depending on the "copy", either Czech, French, German, English, Russian, or, in its earliest editions, Greek, Chinese, Sanskrit, Latin, and Arabic;
Contains mysterious linguistic fragments Thousands of peculiar recusive routines and algorithms, plus text in whichever language, cryptic binary, and incomprehensible symbols

STR N/A/If -35% on D100, 8/40
SIZ 3/30/32
CON 100/105/150
INT 18*/37*/40
APP 16**/N/A/N/A
POW 45/65/90
DEX N/A/30/50

Move: 0, 25, 45/60 flying H.P.: 56/68/91
Damage Bonus: +1D6/+3D6

Weapons:

• Book: Control Reader 90%, damage 1D2 Sanity per day, Induce Visions 99%, damage 2D10 SAN and +5 C.M.
• Incorporeal: Paw Swipe 20%, damage 1D6+db and 1D3-1 APP, Tendril Whip 20%, damage 2D4+db-1D3 and 1D2 CON, Wind Blast 5%, damage 3D5+db (D5 is in the rulebook, somewhere...).
• Corporeal: Bite 30%, damage 2D8+db on selected area, Paw Swipe 80%, damage 2D6+db and 1D4 APP, Tendril Whip 60%, damage 2D10+db-1D2 and 1D6 CON, Wind Blast 25%, damage 3D10+db.
  

Skills: Human Psychology 99%, Imitate Any Human Language 99%, Shapeshift Into Human Form 75%
Spells: Any Contact spells regarding similar beings, Fist of Yog-Sothoth, and Dread Curse of Azathoth at minimal M.P. loss.

Armor: As volume, none, but only harmed by magic; As incorporeal being, only magic can harm; As corporeal same, but can be affected minimally by impaling weapons.

Sanity Loss: To read the Living Book of Numbers, 1D2/1D4; to decipher, 1D10/2D10; to discover its true nature, 1D6/2D6; to see its physical form, 1D8/3D10.


*Almost unconscious in said states.
**A beautifully bound book; Only works on bibliophiles and antiquarians.