Neezhka seems glad to be finished with this business of opening her door to strangers. Or at least, you think so; her expression never changes from its age-wrinkled scowl as she shuts the door and slams the bolts back into place without a word.
"Ah, you're right of course," says Aldino still somewhat despondently as he responds to Nathan and Sylvain trying to cheer him up.
"But to lock yourself away and be rude to strangers is, well, impolite. I'll be glad when we put this town behind us."
It takes Zelena several applications of
prestidigitation to clean up the book and she wonders how a bookbinder could let a book get into such a state...
The book is a small, leather bound journal: the cover is cracked, worn and stiff with age and fragments break off from the cover in a gritty dust that stains the fingers with a dark orange color. The pages are brittle and fragile. After Zelena uses
prestidigitation to clean the mildew from the pages she discovers that the mold leached away much of the ink leaving large numbers of pages unreadable.
Once safely back at the Lilypad Aldino commandeers a large table, takes the journal from Zelena and gently uses a knife to cut the rotted strings of the binding to disassemble the journal and pass pages around so everyone can more easily examine them. The text, such as remains, is in dwarven and so it is up to Borric, Sylvain, and Aldino to decipher it. After a few hours of eye-straining examination they manage to assemble only the sketchiest of tales:
[size=+1]Sul Gulden Expedition
Common Year 1139, Vadin Ser returned from the Great Chasm with great news… leave Gist and head east into the Sul Gulden in search of the Three Crones.
…bug-eyed little fellow and bald as Barin’s grandsire; I don’t trust him but once we leave the Rakka he’ll lead our expedition into the mountains. Vadin expects him to lead us to the ruins…
…set upon by goblins. Gudrun Keen died of his wounds and that bastard Brillo was mysteriously…
…wants to explore what’s left of Khuldun. Unfortunately, I drew the short straw and am to keep camp and be ready for… heard a great cry and rushed to the staircase. I arrived to see Vadin Ser engulfed in his battle rage and trading blows with a massive… collapsed. Neither Vadin Ser nor the beast… nineteen days…[/size]
It is enough, however, to spur further investigaton...
Sul Gulden/The Three Crones:
[sblock=Knowledge (geography) DC 10] E-SE of the Great Delta rise the tumbled rock mountains and scrublands of the Sul Gulden Mountains. This temperate wilderness is sparsely populated by bands of goblinoids (and worse) and scattered, small but heavily fortified settlements of humanoids.
[sblock=Knowledge (geography) DC 15] Some few days travel into the Sul Gulden Mountains lies a mountain with three rounded peaks that resemble the weathered faces of three old women. This mountain is known as the Three Crones. The people living within the Sul Gulden mountain range are known as the Suli.[sblock=Knowledge (geography) DC 20] The ancient dwarven hall of Khuldun is built on the slopes and dug into the heart of the Three Crones. Near the Three Crones is a small Suli fort known as Rakka.[/sblock][/sblock][/sblock]Khuldun:
[sblock=Knowledge (history) DC 20] Khuldun is a footnote to the loss of the great halls of the Dwarves. Construction began during the Years of Darkness and the partially completed hall fell a relatively short time later.[/sblock][sblock=Knowledge (arcana) (local) DC 20] Legend holds that the noble-smith who founded the settlement was strong in the dwarves ancient lore but that it drove him mad and ultimately caused the fall of Khuldun.[/sblock]Vadin Ser:
[sblock=Knowledge (local) DC 20] A dwarven adventurer who traveled widely seeking the lost lore of the dwarves. His last venture (nearly 200 years ago) vanished into the Sul Gulden Mountains with only one survivor, Neezhka of Hruthrip’s father.[/sblock]
