After your recent travels from the Far East, a few of you meet one of the Grand Lodge’s outbuildings in Absalom.
“I have no love of puns,” announces a peeved Kreighton Shaine, the Master of Scrolls in the Grand Lodge, “Yet it cannot go unremarked that the Overflow Archives have begun living up to their name.”
The pale elf gestures across the library’s stone lobby toward a pair of shut double doors from beneath which water steadily seeps. He is only one of the midnight visitors bearing witness to this disaster.
Next to Shaine, Paracountess Zarta Dralneen stands with folded arms, glaring at an initiate whose hair and clothes are utterly drenched. All three speak at once, but Shaine’s shrill voice rises above the din.
“Magical shenanigans in the archives are prohibited, especially this soon before the Grand Convocation!”
“Let us prioritize,” Dralneen suggests.
“Are the artifacts within the vaults in danger?” “How should I know?” Shaine barks back.
“This delinquent initiate— what was the name? Wormell?”
“Virml, sir,” replies the sodden Pathfinder.
“Virml says he sneaked into the archives on a dare,” summarizes Shaine, painfully emphasizing the initiate’s name with scolding disdain.
“Presumably, he thought the holdings would be harmless. Instead, in his naivete, Virml triggered some dormant curse or other. So, yes, thanks to Virml here, the archives and the vaults below continue to flood, threatening all the books therein.”
Miserably, Virml holds up an armload of soggy manuscripts. “I salvaged a few, sir.”
Sighing, Shaine leads Virml towards the stairs. “Take them up to the scriptorium. Start making dry copies.”
Then, turning to survey the rest of the room, he continues issuing orders. “The remainder of you should wade in there and plumb the origins of this deluge. Stop it, if you can. I must report this debacle to my colleagues and begin organizing the cleanup.”
Abruptly, he seems to notice the paracountess for the first time. “What are you doing here, Dralneen?”
Zarta smirks and shrugs. “Unlike you, Shaine, I love a good pun.”
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For the time being, at least, Nesting Swallow was safe. Goldur puts down his quill and sits back in his chair, satisfied. His latest chronicle, which he had titled "Defenders of Nesting Swallow," was now complete. He rolls up the papers and stores them safely in a drawer, where he keeps the others. One of these days I'm going to take one to the Society's archives, he promises himself again.
No sooner had he done this than a Society errand-boy appears at his door, informing him of another mission. "Busy times, it seems," he says with a smile. The old dwarf dons his leather armor and his well-used twin hammers and heads to the Lodge.
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"Ah, well, let's not be too hard on the lad. You were young once too, Shaine. We all do things rather hastily when we're young." He winks at the boy leaving. "But it looks like he's managed quite a mess here, no doubt about that."
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Shaine replies to Saldoc's question first as to the cause. “Our delinquent initiate here is vague on the details. But clearly, some unclassified item in there must have borne a well-concealed curse.”
To which Virml sheepishly relates, “But I…I merely picked up a wee scroll, read part of it aloud for fun— some kind of riddle about birds and fish? And then it flew to bits in my hand, and I caught the quickest glimpse of a handsome man…and then ker-sploosh! I washed out here!”
Meanwhile Zarta Dralneen answers Ruth's question, “Inventory? Oh, they are merely an annex of Master Shaine’s vast libraries. Specifically, this is where he stows the oddities he doesn’t know what else to do with.”
Kreighton Shaine frowns at the blunt admission and begins to relate that the building was once a temple dedicated to Desna before it collapsed and the Pathfinders built the Grand Lodge, but Dralneen chides him after a sentence or two, claiming this is no time for a longwinded history lesson.
Kreighton Shaine quickly reviews the titles Virml has saved. “Let’s see…various accounts of the First World and the fey that inhabit it. Nothing here is priceless, but it is worth recopying, thanks to the severe water damage.”
Vriml speaks nervously as he shakes his head at the question.
The man? I am not sure who it was. I did not get a good look at him after the splash. It happened so fast. But at least I saved a few of the items.
Virml feebly volunteers that he rescued a few texts and holds them up before Shaine interrupts him.
“NO! Don’t waste your time with the individual pieces. You must arrest the flood at its source—or reverse it, if possible.”
He turns to your group.
Well, what are you waiting for?
As you turn to go, Zarta Dralneen interrupts with a smile, “Oh, and Shaine, I am sure there’s no reason to compensate capable people for their risk and hard work, especially when they came of their own accord to help at this late hour.”
Kreighton Shaine verbally declares Fine. If you succeed, you are allowed to keep some of the treasure you rescue. Now go and solve this...quickly!"
Zarta smiles again and gives you a wink as she departs to her chambers.
Shaine leaves the building through the west doors, and Virml heads upstairs to the scriptorium to copy the soaked tomes.
Once he is gone you notice a waterlogged scrap of parchment that was once part of a scroll accidentally dropped near where he was standing.
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Goldur frowns at the soggy paper. "Hm. If this note is any indication, much if not most of what we find down there will not be written in the common tongue." He flicks a dash of salt in his face-- after shutting his eyes tight-- then blinks it away. "Much better. One of the more annoying spells I'm familiar with, but it gets the job done. It says here..."
Goldur reads the note to the others while you are left to proceed into the archives.
The room is mostly unaffected by flooding, with only a trickle of seawater seeping out beneath the eastern double doors.
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Ruth listens to Goldur translate the note with keen interest. "Well is sounds like the whelp released some kind of sea monster into the archive by reciting a spell or saying a magical command word." Ruth draws her blade and locks it into her gauntlet. "Well shall we see what it is?" Ruth marches thru the doorway into the vault.
Ruth moves to the double doors and opens them revealing a shocking scene.
This spacious library is a damp catastrophe. A lake of dark water clogged with books, scroll cases, and a few overturned shelves obscures the floor. Steps descend into the brine from the western doors, while at the east end of the room a spiral staircase rises from the water to a mezzanine above. The same metal staircase must descend into a basement below as well, for the water there burbles downward in a dark, lazy whirlpool.
Within, you see a pair of strange looking creatures. (see map)
These two birdlike gathlains—one owl-faced, the other resembling an albatross—have converted a mahogany bookshelf into a fishing boat.
The pair are casting their crude fishing rods near the spiral staircase, where the Owl recently retrieved a scroll fragment, causing the ornery pair to bicker over whose prize it ought to be.
Mine! Mine! - No! It's mine! I caught it! No! Mine!
Once they spy you, they call out.
HEY! Stop encroaching on our “bestest fishin’ spot. We were here first! Go AWAY!”
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Meredith chuckles to herself. In the end, the flood takes it all. She stows her shield away so it doesn't interfere with her swimming.
Meredith tries to understand what the creatures are, and if they can be reasoned with.
"Cross was the owl at the albatross..." She thinks and looks at the two fishermen. "Awaking a sleeper who made of both feathers one dish-"
"Oh! Why don't you two share your gains and stop fighting, eh? The there may be something bigger than you down there."
Meredith makes them to be a fey race known as Gathlains. But does not remember much else.
The two look at Meredith then Goldur and back.
Owl - Hey we know how to read! What are you calling us?
Albatross How about you give us your scroll and we give you ours?
The owl kicks the other.
Shhh! Don't tell them we have a note too! Let me do the talking.
They go back to bickering, seeming to be indifferent to you, but not overly helpful.
They seem to be bickering, and only half paying attention.
Why did you have to mention OUR scroll?
OUR scroll? You mean MY scroll! I found it.
Ignore them and maybe they will go away.
The two bird-men agree to Meredith's proposal.
Come closer and we can swap scrolls...but no tricks!
Assuming Meredith does, they hand her the second part of the scroll.
(see update on map link)
“some smarty-pants dogcat, splashed down into the fishin’ hole, scarin’ away the bestest fish.”
"Yeah. But shhhh. Watch out for the big sleeper, in case she’s listening—I don’t want to get eaten!”
All but Saldoc spot a few scrolls floating in the water. Assuming you fish them out...
Scroll of bull’s strength and
a scroll of comprehend languages.
The gathlains bicker over who own's your scroll after they handed theirs to Meredith. They once again seem to be ignoring you and the other flotsam for the moment.
Its mine! says the owl Don't be silly, it is mine! replies the albatross.
You see nothing much else salvageable in the room. The water sloshing down the stairwell seems to be the only other exit.
Ruth stows the 2 scrolls for later as she follows Meredith to the door (stairs)?
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"Ah yes, I can see why. It's trickier because it's more potent magic. This scroll contains a strength spell."
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The spiral stair goes up to a mezzanine, which appears to be the source of the water gushing down. The spiral stair also continues down into a lower library, which sounds to be largely full of water (more so than than this floor).
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"It sounds like downstairs is where the work is. Although," Goldur adds with a chuckle, "dwarves and water have never mixed well."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Your group sloshes down the stairs into the darkness below (any light sources?)
Flooding from the library above has turned this storage chamber into a treacherous bog. Rising above the black lake, the flat tops of many rows of shelves create a makeshift maze of causeways. A spiral staircase descends from above, a deluge of water cascading down the steps. Four narrow corridors channel rivers of seawater off into the darkness.
The floor of this room is flooded to the point of being a deep bog, and the ceiling is 15 feet high. The shelves here are broad enough to act as walkways.
Meredith's light will illuminate the oval room and the handful of exits seen.
Ruth taps herself and Meredith with a wand, expending a couple more charges from her favorite stick.
Meredith is able to walk atop one of the bookshelves with ease.
Heading around to the right, your illumination reveals another, smaller chamber, likewise filled with soggy books and deep water.
The door to this room is open, making the room a deep bog like the corridors outside. This chamber mostly contains volumes of obscure and tedious genealogy.
Meredith spots another piece of parchment looking similar to the other two you had found (see map).
Additionally there is a strange globe of darkness in the SE part of the room which your light does not penetrate. Goldur is able to see through it and spots a tome on a table.