Spellbooks and scrolls are a classic way to present information to your players. They're a nice, portable, comprehensible medium that the party can stuff in a sack and make off with. A genre staple. But consider: Wizards are weird. They're weird and secretive and heterodox in the extreme. They might start out recording their findings in books early in their careers, but do you really think an arcane researcher worth their name would keep their true works in that format? If your discoveries are mild enough that they can be contained in a mundane leather-bound tome, are you really even trying as a wizard? Universal truths could be crammed into a book, but they really deserve something more. Obscure formats, materials from elsewhere, monumental canvasses, works of art, or shifting chaotic mediums that can capture a nature that won't rest peacefully on a page.
The information the party found is recorded in/on...
1.1 A Hello Kitty locking diary, limited edition not available outside japan
1.2 College-ruled loose leaf scorched at the edges, 128 unnumbered pages
1.3 Dayglo neon construction paper, 56 pages in 8 different colors written in crayon and precisely indexed
1.4 Composition notebook, black and white marbled cover sealed with powerful Cool S glyphs
1.5 Microfiche, 32 pieces of A6 plastic film stored in individual paper sleeves inside a bakelite box
1.6 A butcher's cleaver, engraved in tiny calligraphic characters along the spine and flats of the blade
1.7 Murderboard, fills an entire room with documents layered inches thick on the walls and a web of multicolored strings obstructing the center
1.8 Ticker tape, 480' cut into 60' lengths and shoved in a garbage bag
2.1 Giant tortoises, 16 individuals each bearing a section of the work painted on their shells
2.2 Cuneiform clay tablets, fired for durability with color-coded glazes on their backs and edges
2.3 Thin lead sheets, pierced with a nail in one corner to bind them into a packet
2.4 A ring, etched on the inside of the band and visible through the magnifying cabochon
2.5 Bronze plaques, 8 2'x3' cast sheets 1/2" thick stored on shelves in a bronze cabinet shaped like the author's head
2.6 The streets and buildings of a planned city, encoded in every detail from street names and numbers to the placement of each brick
2.7 Sidewalk chalk, hidden among a block's worth of hopscotch grids and children's drawings
2.8 Graffiti, covering every inch of a winding back alley in vibrant tags and murals, residents occasionally feel compelled to add new details but can't say why
3.1 Bark, the entire surface of a living beech tree inscribed with scarred glyphs and lines of text
3.2 Veins, the whole circulatory system of a host creature reconfigured into interlocking sigils while still functioning normally
3.3 Tattoos, full-body calligraphic designs inked onto a cadre of trusted acolytes and an index and key on the master's forearms
3.4 3D wire sculpture, a delicate convoluted web of different metals, coatings, and gauges joined and twisted in a form-based code
3.5 Beeswax writing tablet, cyclicly erases and re-inscribes itself
3.6 Virus, text forms in ultra-fine linear pox sores after the incubation period
3.7 Hard drive, dented and scratched, clicks disconcertingly while in use, has 8TB of storage space but holds 1PB of data
3.8 Cassette tape, electric green and black marbled case, A side holds 64 minutes of coded atonal beeping and B side is a sludge metal mixtape
4.1 Snippets of text scattered through unconnected posts and signatures on a dead forum
4.2 Petroglyphs, carved into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the dungeon
4.3 Geoglyphs, combinations of geometric motifs and stylized animals covering several acres
4.4 Effigy mound, earthworks in the shape of a serpent with meaning contained in the twists of its maze of coils
4.5 A runestone, 16' tell with inscriptions winding around bas relief humanoid figures
4.6 The Dungeon itself, encoded in the combined structure of passages and chambers
4.7 A cave system, purposely shaped over millennia with controlled erosion and mineral deposition
4.8 A gem, fist-sized aquamarine bizarrely faceted in significant polygons and angles
5.1 Floor mosaic, exponentially smaller and denser tiles radiating out from the central motif of a leaping frog
5.2 Rawhide, an entire horsehide with mane and tail intact that walks on its own
5.3 Sheet music, the full score of an 8-hour long composition arranged for a 32-piece big band accompanied by air raid siren
5.4 A hymnal, block printed in red ink and dedicated to an unnamed power
5.5 A low quality jpeg of a kitten, encrypted and steganographically hidden in the data
5.6 Floppy disk, royal blue with a label handwritten in sharpie, holds a copy of Lemmings and a hidden 64MB zip file
5.7 Sand painting, multicolored and intricate covering several hundred square feet
5.8 Macrame, a sprawling fractal wall hanging of sculptural knots, mesh, and kitsch owls
6.1 Scent trails, an entire colony of ants ceaselessly tracing a pattern of wheels and spirals
6.2 Blackboard, 16'x32' with a rolling ladder to access the entire surface
6.3 Whiteboards, a stack of lap-sized boards packed full of doodle-punctuated scrawls and graphs, easily smudged
6.4 A silk painting, 24' long with paper backing and rosewood rods at each end, depicts toads and frogs cavorting across a barren countryside
6.5 QR code, takes up an entire wall and nauseating to look at
6.6 Papyrus, a 16' length looped into a mobius strip
6.7 Transparency, multiple sheets that have to be stacked and overlapped in the correct configuration to read
6.8 Red-figure pottery, an oversized krater painted inside and out
7.1 Clouds, an unnatural combination of different types and forms held in stasis
7.2 Reef, encrypted in the shape of the corals and movement of water currents and fauna, loops in a weekly cycle
7.3 Forest grove, branches grown so the light filtering through the canopy forms glyphs that shift from dawn to dusk
7.4 Disreputable thumbdrive, holds 128GB of data mixed in among poorly labeled pirated music and fan-translated manga scans
7.5 A deck of cards, handpainted with extremely detailed portraits and scenes, has 4 additional suits and 5 extra face cards per suit
7.6 Stained glass window, repairs itself if broken, growing at a rate of 24" per year
7.7 Skeleton, shards of etched and scorched mammoth bones from dozens of individuals reconstructed into a single complete articulated specimen
7.8 Tapestry, thick and intricately woven with a different pattern on every side
8.1 Index cards, thousands of cards meticulously organized in an old library catalog cabinet
8.2 Video, hundreds of hours of unedited camcorder footage on aging VHS tapes
8.3 Ostraca, a collection of engraved sherds in heaps and laid out in precise lines
8.4 Confectionery, extremely delicate sculptures of spun, cast, and blown sugar
8.5 A constellation, familiar stars shifted into a new configuration
8.6 Hive, generations of paper wasps directed to build in unpleasant angles and convolutions
8.7 Comic books, an extremely popular series with the significant details hidden in prime-numbered issues
8.8 Nothing, kept in memory with only an oral record
1.4 Composition notebook, black and white marbled cover sealed with powerful Cool S glyphs
1.5 Microfiche, 32 pieces of A6 plastic film stored in individual paper sleeves inside a bakelite box
1.6 A butcher's cleaver, engraved in tiny calligraphic characters along the spine and flats of the blade
1.7 Murderboard, fills an entire room with documents layered inches thick on the walls and a web of multicolored strings obstructing the center
1.8 Ticker tape, 480' cut into 60' lengths and shoved in a garbage bag
2.1 Giant tortoises, 16 individuals each bearing a section of the work painted on their shells
2.2 Cuneiform clay tablets, fired for durability with color-coded glazes on their backs and edges
2.3 Thin lead sheets, pierced with a nail in one corner to bind them into a packet
2.4 A ring, etched on the inside of the band and visible through the magnifying cabochon
2.5 Bronze plaques, 8 2'x3' cast sheets 1/2" thick stored on shelves in a bronze cabinet shaped like the author's head
2.6 The streets and buildings of a planned city, encoded in every detail from street names and numbers to the placement of each brick
2.7 Sidewalk chalk, hidden among a block's worth of hopscotch grids and children's drawings
2.8 Graffiti, covering every inch of a winding back alley in vibrant tags and murals, residents occasionally feel compelled to add new details but can't say why
3.1 Bark, the entire surface of a living beech tree inscribed with scarred glyphs and lines of text
3.2 Veins, the whole circulatory system of a host creature reconfigured into interlocking sigils while still functioning normally
3.3 Tattoos, full-body calligraphic designs inked onto a cadre of trusted acolytes and an index and key on the master's forearms
3.4 3D wire sculpture, a delicate convoluted web of different metals, coatings, and gauges joined and twisted in a form-based code
3.5 Beeswax writing tablet, cyclicly erases and re-inscribes itself
3.6 Virus, text forms in ultra-fine linear pox sores after the incubation period
3.7 Hard drive, dented and scratched, clicks disconcertingly while in use, has 8TB of storage space but holds 1PB of data
3.8 Cassette tape, electric green and black marbled case, A side holds 64 minutes of coded atonal beeping and B side is a sludge metal mixtape
4.1 Snippets of text scattered through unconnected posts and signatures on a dead forum
4.2 Petroglyphs, carved into the walls, floor, and ceiling of the dungeon
4.3 Geoglyphs, combinations of geometric motifs and stylized animals covering several acres
4.4 Effigy mound, earthworks in the shape of a serpent with meaning contained in the twists of its maze of coils
4.5 A runestone, 16' tell with inscriptions winding around bas relief humanoid figures
4.6 The Dungeon itself, encoded in the combined structure of passages and chambers
4.7 A cave system, purposely shaped over millennia with controlled erosion and mineral deposition
4.8 A gem, fist-sized aquamarine bizarrely faceted in significant polygons and angles
5.1 Floor mosaic, exponentially smaller and denser tiles radiating out from the central motif of a leaping frog
5.2 Rawhide, an entire horsehide with mane and tail intact that walks on its own
5.3 Sheet music, the full score of an 8-hour long composition arranged for a 32-piece big band accompanied by air raid siren
5.4 A hymnal, block printed in red ink and dedicated to an unnamed power
5.5 A low quality jpeg of a kitten, encrypted and steganographically hidden in the data
5.6 Floppy disk, royal blue with a label handwritten in sharpie, holds a copy of Lemmings and a hidden 64MB zip file
5.7 Sand painting, multicolored and intricate covering several hundred square feet
5.8 Macrame, a sprawling fractal wall hanging of sculptural knots, mesh, and kitsch owls
6.1 Scent trails, an entire colony of ants ceaselessly tracing a pattern of wheels and spirals
6.2 Blackboard, 16'x32' with a rolling ladder to access the entire surface
6.3 Whiteboards, a stack of lap-sized boards packed full of doodle-punctuated scrawls and graphs, easily smudged
6.4 A silk painting, 24' long with paper backing and rosewood rods at each end, depicts toads and frogs cavorting across a barren countryside
6.5 QR code, takes up an entire wall and nauseating to look at
6.6 Papyrus, a 16' length looped into a mobius strip
6.7 Transparency, multiple sheets that have to be stacked and overlapped in the correct configuration to read
6.8 Red-figure pottery, an oversized krater painted inside and out
7.1 Clouds, an unnatural combination of different types and forms held in stasis
7.2 Reef, encrypted in the shape of the corals and movement of water currents and fauna, loops in a weekly cycle
7.3 Forest grove, branches grown so the light filtering through the canopy forms glyphs that shift from dawn to dusk
7.4 Disreputable thumbdrive, holds 128GB of data mixed in among poorly labeled pirated music and fan-translated manga scans
7.5 A deck of cards, handpainted with extremely detailed portraits and scenes, has 4 additional suits and 5 extra face cards per suit
7.6 Stained glass window, repairs itself if broken, growing at a rate of 24" per year
7.7 Skeleton, shards of etched and scorched mammoth bones from dozens of individuals reconstructed into a single complete articulated specimen
7.8 Tapestry, thick and intricately woven with a different pattern on every side
8.1 Index cards, thousands of cards meticulously organized in an old library catalog cabinet
8.2 Video, hundreds of hours of unedited camcorder footage on aging VHS tapes
8.3 Ostraca, a collection of engraved sherds in heaps and laid out in precise lines
8.4 Confectionery, extremely delicate sculptures of spun, cast, and blown sugar
8.5 A constellation, familiar stars shifted into a new configuration
8.6 Hive, generations of paper wasps directed to build in unpleasant angles and convolutions
8.7 Comic books, an extremely popular series with the significant details hidden in prime-numbered issues
8.8 Nothing, kept in memory with only an oral record