How to make a trip to the library interesting?
While working on the version of book 4 of AP, I find myself trying to spice up a visit to the heretical libraries of the Eoxian
The point of the trip is to find information on the Sentinel, a three mile wide orbital defense platform that possibly destroyed the two nearest planets and blasted the surface of Eox sometime in the past. Information to be gained includes likely defenses, occupants, weapon operations, location of valuables, power sources, etc.
This is easily accomplished with some complex knowledge checks or librarian initiated mini quests ("fetch me X and I will tell you where that information is"), but that seems a bit... traditional to me.
Any ideas on how to make this excursion a bit more memorable?
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Aye, I've got the books and very long list of real weird books. I'll look into this "Library of the Lion." Any hints about the contents?
Edit: Just read the reviews. Sounds like a perfect scenario. WalterGM and Duiker just sold me some paizo product.
If you have Mummy's Mask, the third installment of the AP has Research checks, which treats gathering information a bit like combat. Each library has a maximum amount of relevant information it can yield, and multiple Knowledge checks reveal this information piecemeal, drawing connections between ideas until the entirety of the info you want to convey is discovered.
Maybe one book has a book code in it, and the PCs have to find the corresponding key. And then hand them a real world book and have them flip through the pages to figure out what the book code says.
Or maybe the positions of some books traces out the points of a rune they need later on.
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If you have Mummy's Mask, the third installment of the AP has Research checks, which treats gathering information a bit like combat. Each library has a maximum amount of relevant information it can yield, and multiple Knowledge checks reveal this information piecemeal, drawing connections between ideas until the entirety of the info you want to convey is discovered.
This sounds super interesting. Care to elaborate on the exact mechanics just a little more?
I dunno why, I dunno how, but Caulborn
Not sure if this would be helpful or not as it's mostly focused on benefits specific books can provide, not libraries, and a lot of the benefits (retraining, etc.) would not fit what you are looking for, but Mundane No More has ideas for things to do with non-magical books. In addition to providing ideas for effects studying books can have (including but not limited to research bonuses), it has some specific book examples. It also has a page about rules for getting information from "dungeon guides" which sounds like the kind of books you are specifically interested in.
(I'll have to check out the research rules in Mummy's Mask - that sounds interesting.)
It sounds like you've already found an adventure to use. Here are some ideas for descriptive stuff:
#1 - sexy librarian
#2 - terrifying librarian (possibly the same as #1)
#3 - weird books - books written on giant scrolls of purple worm skin or perhaps tattooed on undead giants (maybe they could recite the tattoo upon demand in a creepy or comical voice)
#3 - magical media department - The library at the local university has a bunch of stuff like video discs, microfiche, and computers. There could be magical versions of stuff like this. If it were exceptionally immersive it might even lead to...
#4 - the holodeck - Whether it just contains video lectures by old professors or "interactive history" there could be some illusions the PCs can interact with or maybe even fight
#5 - aboleth in the basement - Aboleths are sometimes described as retaining the memories of all their ancestors, so an aboleth sage could be a useful source of information. Perhaps there are also some weird books which need to be stored in water, like they're big sheets of kelp-like stuff which grows with the words patterned on the leaves or they're written on magic seashells. Maybe the aboleth can emit a special mucus cloud which gives you knowledge or makes you hallucinate stuff so it is like you experienced it firsthand.
If nothing else this gives me a few ideas for future adventures of my own.
#6 - Proper British librarian, drinks tea (or Tasters Choice if he's randy), hands out pointy bits of wood.
#7 - Nerdy natural philosopher of astrological movements, gets reincarnated/possessed by blue b++&~ goddess of entropy.
#8 - Cohen the Librarian.
My DM ran a side quest while our Paladin was going to be absent where the wizard we were working for teleported us into a drow city an couple of blocks from the library. We had to get in an find the book we were looking for without being spotted. Best thing I ever did was have my magus learn invisibility the session before.
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The library is curated by factions that control various sections. You can either play it as a traditional excuse for encounters, where there is a boss that has to be defeated to reach a given book, but that could be boring.
How about making it like a library city where books are currency, and you have to bargain and trade with various defined factions to collect the necessary information. Consider this...
The manual for said space station is split into encyclopedic volumes (or something like that) and assembling the volumes then becomes the goal. Numerous scenarios could be put into play... contests to win one volume, gang wars over another, yet another being the family heirloom to an aristocratic family that lords over the self-help section... the possibilities could be endless.
It could be a machine like in Stargate, like when it downloaded into Daniels brain. To make it in game rules you could a modified Share Memory spell to share information with the target. It could also be a price memory's for memory's.