Equipment Files: The Reaper's Handbook, Part 3

As a Reaper, much is expected of you, but honestly, we don’t actually expect you to have all the information in this book memorized all the time. I mean, let’s be real. You’d have to be the God of memorizing a bunch of stuff (We probably have one of those) to keep it all straight. This is another reason to keep your handbook with you wherever you go: it serves as a handy reference, just in case you forget anything. The PWM (Pretty Weird Magic) can make it a bit difficult to find stuff, so we included a neat trick to get around that! It’s basically a search function that allows you to quickly find information related to a certain topic. Here’s what you do: Hold the book, closed, between your palms, with the spine facing up. Then extend your arms so that they’re parallel to the ground. Then, think about the topic you're searching for. Once you have a clear image of what you’re looking for in your mind’s eye, drop the book. (The book is water-resistant, not water-proof, so be careful around water! Or… whatever it is that flows through The River Styx, for that matter.) If the ritual succeeds, the book will land, face down, opened to the page you’re looking for. If it doesn’t work, it will bounce to the side. Pay attention to which cover is facing up! If the front cover is facing up, then your mental image was registered, but nothing related to it was found in the book. If this happens, your best bet is probably to ask a higher-up about it. But watch out! Death may be patient, but some of the people who make it happen aren’t. They’ll get mad if you waste their time. If the back cover is facing up, then your mental image wasn’t registered. When this happens, all you can do is keep trying ‘til you get it right!  Also, while the book has a lot of cool features, it isn’t indestructible, so repeatedly doing this can lead to wear and tear. For this reason, I recommend using bookmarks to keep track of sections you often visit. Just don’t think about the PWM too hard, and they should work.


Hey, this paragraph is kind of a secret, even from my sisters, so I ORDER you not to tell anyone about it, even them. (An order from Lachesis can only be overturned by one from Atropos. See section: “Bureau Files: Rules of the Reaper” for more details) I managed to hide a fun Easter egg in the book. Try the search ritual while imagining your own face from when you were a mortal. I don’t want to spoil what happens, but you’ll love it. But, for real, DON’T try this until after you’ve made it to The Underworld. If you try it before, you might corrupt the data and, I dunno, break the universe or something.