Chapter 3: The Library
"Alright, we will help you return home."
At these words Eris lets out a small cry of what you assume must be joy.
"Excellent, may our partnership prove beneficial to both of usss. Amena, child, see to the needsss of our guestsss."
With a speed that surprises you Eris is off of her throne and slips away down one of the hallways leading from the back of the chamber. Amena directs your party to your rooms in one of the adjoining structures. Seems that for tonight at least you will not have to sleep on the ground.
Of course you take your usual precautions, blocking the door, checking for illusions and secret entrances and setting up noise traps. No reason to trust your new ally any more than you have to after all.
The night is good to you, you even manage to slip out to the courtyard for a few hours to properly learn Firebolt. Quite happy with yourself you return to your room and drift off to sleep, visions of power and great riches drifting through your head.
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A full night's sleep does wonders for your disposition and you hum a short tune to yourself as you dress and head back into the main hall.
A quick survey of the hall reveals that your hostess has not decided to grace your party with her presence, she must still be in her private quarters at the back of the compound. The hall is not completely empty however, Thaïs and Serpent are standing together and arguing over something while Brigit is seated nearby chewing on dried fruit which she deftly plucks from a small sack on her lap. Tyrvard is not present but you can hear the Berserk yelling from the courtyard. No one seems particularly concerned, instead they are both staring at Serpent.
"What in the name of Wyrd is Tyrvard screaming about today?" you ask Thaïs.
"Why don't you ask our resident physician what is wrong with the man," she replies clearly annoyed at Serpent.
The physician speaks up, "Well, I may have slipped a purgative into his alcohol to aid in the healing process. To help him balance his humours you understand..." Serpent breaks off mid-sentence as Thaïs cuts him off.
"Well Tyrvard has been "purging" himself for the better part of forty minutes now, it is all I have been able to do to keep him hydrated."
With a sigh you turn to the physician, "Serpent, I thought we agreed that you would not antagonize the man?"
"Derryth I have hardly said two words to him since our conversation yesterday, I am merely attempting to aid in his recov-"
A piece of dried fruit arcs its way across the room and hits the physician right in the side of the head. Brigit stands up, marches over and begins laying into Serpent, "We all know exactly what you are try'in to do and it won't help things at all, friends should not treat each other like that!"
Serpent, equal parts ashamed and surprised by a fresh assault from this new quarter begins to apologize. As his defenses begin to collapse the two women only increase the scorn they hurl at the man. As enjoyable as it is to see them at work you do have to at least try to get these people working together again.
You clear your throat which gets their attention and assuming your most commanding tone you begin, "Brigit is right what you did has certainly not improved matters but I am certain you were only trying to help. Thankfully Serpent, fate has afforded you a brilliant opportunity to work on your bedside manner. You will stay behind with Tyrvard and the apprentice and you can nurse our Berserk back into proper fighting form. I expect a full recovery by the time I get back or you will both regret it, do you understand?"
Serpent stares at his feet, more ashamed than anything else, but nods his head. You dismiss him and ask Brigit to go round up Gareth and Miosguinn to get this whole experience over with as soon as possible.
Alone with Thaïs you continue; "I guess I need to ask you another favour."
"Let me guess, you need me to stay behind and keep those two idiots from killing each other," the way she says it, it sounds less like a question and more like unassailable fact. You both know that those two will need a proper intervention to sort them out.
"Pretty much, yeah. Think you are up to it?"
"Should not be a problem, the purgative aside they have no real reason to be enemies save for prejudice and their own egos. Give me three, maybe four days with them and they will be fine," her confidence is remarkable and quite reassuring. But will it really be that easy?
"I will also need you to keep an eye on Eris, in case she is up to something."
"Hmmm... sounds like two favours to me. Still I am sure you can find a way to make it up to me... maybe a bigger share of the loot?" she says with a wink and a sly smile.
"Thaïs, if we get out of this I may just make you a partner," you suggest with a slight chuckle.
Assuming an expression of feigned excitement she responds, "Well then hurry up and get that incantation for Eris so we can get to the riches and glory part of this expedition already!"
As she rushes you out into the courtyard you tell her not to get herself killed before you get back. Her smile softens a little at this expression of concern and she warns you not to do anything stupid, well nothing more stupid than normal at least.
You turn towards the front gate, looks like everyone is waiting near the gate. They are all ready for the signal to go ahead. Crossing the courtyard you give the order to move out and your party of six slips out through the gate and into the rubble of the old city moving across hidden rune paths that spring to life at Amena's command.
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You have seen your fair share of libraries and archives in your time. The life of a relic hunter is not all dungeon running, romance and excitement like so many people seem to think. Rather it is large stretches of hard work and boredom interspersed with moments of extreme danger and terror.
In fact much of your time with Henry was spent visiting libraries or local archives. Some were small, a single room over-top of a government outpost. Others were quite large, such as the Royal Institute's holdings in Madrigal or the great palace library of Muirthemne. Some were orderly, but these were the exceptions, most were a mess of papers and tomes which could only truly be navigated by their librarians. Part of you always thought they did it on purpose, a little job security is always useful and it is a great way to humble all those field researchers and mages...
As these memories and concerns lazily drift through your mind you turn a corner and are confronted with the building, larger than any library you have seen. It sits in the dust and gloom of ages, a reminder of just how far humanity has fallen and how far Alric will have to go to make his Empire worthy of the name Cath Bruig. It would take weeks to find the incantation through a general search, so hopefully there will be a map inside to narrow down the search a little.
Your group approaches the building sticking to the shadows and attempting to make as little noise as possible. Miosgunn further covers your approach with visual illusions and a few noise dampening spells.
Outside of the entrance to the library sit a dozen or so crooked creatures babbling in an unknown language. From where you are standing you think they are all blind but you can not be sure. Miosgunn identifies them as the same beasts he saw earlier in the center of the city. The Doctor projects a phantom noise on the other side of the street and the creatures race off in search of its origins. You slip into the building before they return and Amena orders Ithapi to begin fortifying the entrance while you head over to what you assume to be the librarian's office and begin looking for a map.
The office is a mess but a couple quick Sort spells improve the situation a bit and after several more minutes of searching you come across a map.
"Alright, here we go..." you cough a little from the dust as you pull out the blueprints for the building. "Amena, what exactly do we know about this incantation?"
The girl steps forward, looks at the map and replies, "Not much I am afraid, it could be a tome or a scroll or a tablet, the records I have come across do not record such information. It would likely be in a secure location through given its value."
"I am not so sure," interjects Doctor Miosguinn, speaking for the first time since you left Eris' tower, "It seems likely that the importance of the incantation was not known at the time or it would be in the palace library or the vaults. I suspect it will probably be buried in the general stacks, probably in a section dealing with history or theology."
Rubbing your chin, you add, "It is also possible that the librarians did not tell anyone, half of them were also mages and it may be that they simply "forgot" to inform their superiors or "lost" the incantation before it could be sent on. It would not surprise me if the head librarian kept it for personal study."
"What is that?" Brigit asks, pointing at the map.
Written in old Bruig are the words basement and storage so that is what you explain to her, "That is the entrance to the basement, Brigit, it might be down there given how much just gets thrown into storage without close inspection so it is something to consider."
Gareth, and Ithapi have no real ideas to add when it comes to finding the incantation. However, Gareth suggests that someone stays to secure the exit in case a quick escape has to be made. He also suggests that everyone travel at least in pairs to minimize the risks posed by shadows or other threats.
It is already rather late in the day so your group secures the librarian's office in order to get some rest, tomorrow you will have to search the library for the incantation, hopefully it will all go off without a hitch.
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You have a choice on what you will try to accomplish during the evening and on how you want to search the building. Keep in mind that all of your party have the basic literacy skills necessary to find the incantation with the exception of Ithapi, but only you, Miosguinn and Amena really know what you are looking for.
1. How do you want to spend your time in the evening:
a)There is not a lot of room to practice combat skills but Gareth could teach you a thing or two about leading others into battle, tactics, and how to command others.
b)Brigit is playing with a little puzzle box in the corner, when you ask her about it she explains that it helps her focus and improved her finger-work. She offers to let you try it if you want.
c)Despite traveling with the doctor for several days now you have not had an opportunity to talk. You could try to open a proper dialogue with the man and if you are successful may learn a few things about magic or history if you pay attention.
d)You hate being in the dark about Eris' motivations. Perhaps you could try talking to Amena who is currently bossing Ithapi around. Maybe the apprentice will reveal details that her master left out. Given Brigit's fairly high opinion of you and easy way with people she may be willing and able to help you with this.
e)You do not want to bother with these people. You will meditate on the nature of magic. Since you can not go anywhere you may as well practice your magical theory some more in an attempt to gain greater control over your spells.
f)Want to do something else? Name it.
2. Gareth recommends leaving one team at the door to secure it, Gareth and Ithapi are the least useful when it comes to searching so they volunteer. But would you rather have three groups searching instead?
a) Gareth and Ithapi guard the exit
b) No one guards the exit, you form three teams instead.
3. With morning the search begins and for safety sake you stay in pairs. Who do you want to travel with (naturally if 2a is chosen Gareth and Ithapi can not be chosen)?
a)Gareth: muscle and a bit of brains, best of both worlds
b)Brigit: competent, silent and resourceful she would be a definite asset
c)Miosguinn: he knows the most about magic of anyone here, better keep him close.
d)Amena: perhaps you can win the girl over... at any rate an extra set of knowledgeable eyes would help
e)Ithapi: not one for conversation but you may need the muscle
4. You look over the map and spot a number of locations where the incantation may be, where do you want to search.?
a)Rare book room: where all the most valuable tomes are kept
b)Artifact room: if it is a tablet it will probably be here
c)Main Stacks - Ancient History: the incantation would be fairly old so it might be filed here
d)Main Stacks - Theology, Planar: given its connection to Planar theory this may be the resting place of the incantation
e)Head Librarian's Office - Maybe the Head Librarian kept it close to hand
f)Basement - There are always secrets in the basement, they are not always good though...
5. Assign locations for the other team(s). (If you pick 2a then choose one, if you pick 2b then choose two.)
The way this will work is that Derryth's team gets first pick so if 4a wins then 5a is removed as a option and the next highest location is picked.
a)Rare book room: where all the most valuable tomes are kept
b)Artifact room: if it is a tablet it will probably be here
c)Main Stacks - Ancient History: the incantation would be fairly old so it might be filed here
d)Main Stacks - Theology, Planar: given its connection to Planar theory this may be the resting place of the incantation
e)Head Librarian's Office - Maybe the Head Librarian kept it close to hand
f)Basement - There are always secrets in the basement, they are not always good though...
The Circle name vote is still open, I will probably close it with the next update, choices are currently:
a) Graceless Ones/The Graceless: 2 (3) votes
b) Inept Ones/The Inept: 2 (3) votes
c) The Circle of the Lost/The Lost: 8 votes