A Rather Odd Shovel [Judge: Bront]

Rae ArdGaoth · Jan 18, 2009

The escort's eyes widen with each item that Keldar takes from his person. Finally, he takes the great stack over to a door, dumps the contents (carefully, carefully!) inside, and locks the door behind him. "Very well then. Let's continue, shall we?"

You enter the library. Rows upon rows of books stretch out before you, like a labyrinth. There are several levels, and magical light fills the massive room. Your escort takes a necklace from the wall. It has a small hour glass on it, which he starts now.

"What can I help you find?"

Boddynock · Jan 19, 2009

Tarag stands looking bored through all of Keldar's patter, then hands over his weapons and follows the others into the library.

covaithe · Jan 19, 2009

Tommy cranes his head back, looking happily at the shelves. With an effort he directs his attention back to the guide. "Well, for starters, we're looking for information on some people called the Archaeologists. Then we thought we might look at the history of the heraldic devices of the local nobility. Then perhaps some of your books on deciphering encrypted writings. Do you have De Grancio's work? No, I'm sorry, of course you have, every schoolboy can get his hands on those. Perhaps something by Hildebrandt? Oh, and, uh, you don't by any chance have anything by Barry Lakeward, do you? Contemporary author, probably a pseudonym. It's, ah, something of a specialty item."

Trouvere · Jan 19, 2009

Keldar remarks absent-mindedly, "Three quires foolscap octavo, blue buckram half-binding, Drunken Halfling Publishing of Orussus, 12 shields or three crowns for any three."

"Erk!"

"T-that is to s-say, w-what? Harry Breaksword? Or Barry Lakeward, was it? I've vaguely heard of him. You don't suppose he has anything to do with the Archaeologists, do you, Tommy, surely? He's... he's a respectable deliverer of the downtrodden. And a remarkable lover. So I've, you know, heard."

Rae ArdGaoth · Jan 20, 2009

"Archaeologists? Never heard of them. Nor of Barry Lakeward. What has he written, histories? We do have a vast repository of historical texts. Most of them are rather dry. I can also show you to the heraldic records. This way."

The history section is truly massive. You're going to need more direction if you want to look anything up here.

The heraldic records are not so voluminous, and you are able to flip through the heralds of many great families very quickly. A few you notice are obviously embedded in the sigil on the shovel:

Celebrindel, an elven house, still active in the Bridge City today, was established long ago in pre-catastrophe Fallon.

Duermek, a dwarven noble family, no longer claiming any pure living descendants, was also present in pre-catastrophe Fallon, but they were all killed when the crater was formed and their home was flooded.

Two human noble families: Barnor and Dunn. Neither is as great as it once was, but both are still around.

If there are others embedded in the sigil, they are less obvious.

The search for cryptology books reveals a small few such guides. Cryptology is not a well-known or popular subject, and as such very little research has been done. What few books you find are very dull and possibly not even accurate, but they may hold some useful information upon thorough reading.

Three hours have passed looking through the heraldic books and finding the scattered cryptology references. The escort asks, "History? It's a large category. Can you give me more specifics?"

Boddynock · Jan 20, 2009

"Remind me - how old do we think the Archaeologists are?"

Rae ArdGaoth · Jan 20, 2009

Fimble (who has been tagging along... =P) pipes up: "I remember Volidar said something about them being around before the catastrophe, but he didn't say quite how long. Fallon was around for quite a while before the meteor struck, a few hundred years at least. It's a pretty large period in history."

Trouvere · Jan 20, 2009

"Yes, centuries ago," says Keldar. "That's what Volidar said."

"I'm not sure what use any of this will be. They were a thieves' gang, or at best a group of unscrupulous adventurers. They raided tombs. Surely something is recorded of them... or merely of their activities, if they were careful. An outrage when a family vault was desecrated, perhaps."

"And we were told they may have met their end together, raiding the wrong tomb. I hesitate to cast aspersions on noblemen - we have to stick together! - but if we find nothing else, perhaps we'd find that a number of idle younger scions of certain noble houses went missing all at once. Do we have genealogies of the Houses Barnor and Dunn, and what were the others? Durvinnak and the elven one. I wonder - a elf young back then might still be alive today...."

covaithe · Jan 20, 2009

Tommy jots down the names of the best two or three cryptography books for later reference, though he does not take the time to read them carefully just yet.

In response to the guide's request for clarification on their historical researches, he agrees with Keldar. "Yes, family histories or genealogies would be good, particularly if they cover any sudden rises or falls of the fortunes of the families in question. We should keep an eye out for any black sheep in those families, or accusations made against them by other families."

Trouvere · Jan 21, 2009

"Well, yes. I'll feel a certain satisfaction if we uncover the significance of their sigil, but let's not spend too much time on an ancient puzzle. I want to know who the Archaeologists are, not who they were," Keldar says, idly turning a few pages of a book without reading anything.

"I don't suppose you've heard of a distant land known as Warbrayvia?" he asks of their guide.