Thassilonian Inscriptions in Thistletop (and elsewhere)

[Random221B]

I noticed that there are mentions of Thassilonian writing or inscriptions in various places. For instance, in area D15 (Research Room) in Thistletop, it says "A large wooden worktable sits i n the middle of this room, its surface cluttered with scrolls, books, stone tablets covered with dense, spiky runes, and fragments of carvings that appear to have been chipped off of statues or bas-reliefs." That sounds like Thassilonian writing, but gives no indication of what any of it might say, even in vague, general terms. Given that one of the RotRL campaign traits--Scholar of the Ancients--gives the player the ability to read Thassilonian (and one of my players has that trait) one could assume there would be players asking what those kinds of things say, and I have no idea what to tell them. What kind of thing would make sense?

On a related note, if anybody has used this journal for Lyrie, that was posted in the Community Created Stuff thread, any idea what the Thassilonian writing on page 6 is supposed to say? I found a chart that maps a Thassilonian font someone made to the corresponding keyboard keys, but trying a straight translation of the runes to the corresponding Latin Alphabet letters didn't yield anything that made sense to me. Any thoughts?

[Askar Avari]

Hi there Random,

My players are extremely interested in Thassilon, and I had 1 player take the trait ("Scholar of the Ancients"), and another study under Brodert Quink to learn Thassilonian, so in each instance where Thassilonian has come up, I've had to come up with at least a vague translation.

- For Lyrie's journal, I explained that the PC struggled to get an effective translation because the style was archaic and formal - not what they were acquainted with. However, with enough time, Linguistics, and Kn: History research, they were able to glean from Lyrie's notes that the literal immortality of Shalast was a goal shared among the Runelords of Greed, but the notes didn't include how they intended to do this (as that is information I'm saving for Runeforge).

- As for the stone tablets, books, and scrolls, a casual look at these things isn't going to tell you about their contents. My players didn't get around to researching Lyrie's notes in full until halfway through Book 2, and all they managed to accomplish was catalog things by topic. The most valuable find was a fictionalized account of how Malfeshnekor the Barghest was once an Osirian King who was turned into a demon by the gods for his hubris - I think that Malfeshnekor Codex can also be found in Community Created Stuff.

If you want to give your players a translation for Lyrie's few lines of notes, I'd give them something like:

Lyrie wrote:

For the prosperity of our families,

For the glory of our homelands,
For the lives of Shalast to stretch into eternity,
All hail the Lord of Wealth! (Karzoug's personal rune)

When trying to come up with flavorful text for Thistletop (and the Catacombs of Wrath), remember that these are both wartime facilities. If something is written into the building itself, chances are it is propaganda. If it is more temporary (say, something stone shaped, it may be an official notice or a statement of policy.

[Mudfoot]

You can fill in a lot of it with things like
NO SMOKING
AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY
CAUTION - SUMMONING
JUNIOR OFFICERS MESS ROOM

and some poetry, hymns, dedications to various divine or infernal entities, memorials to heroes and battles, old magic runes for binding, protection and so on.