A Rather Odd Shovel [Judge: Bront]

[Rae ArdGaoth]

The guide thinks as he walks you through the labyrinth, checking copper name plates on the shelves as you go. "Warbrayvia? I cannot say that I have. But there are many tiny fiefdoms and counties all throughout the world. Enworld is massive, if the adventurers and geographers can be believed, 25,000 miles in diameter. Even if Warbrayvia was in the Orussian region, I might not have heard of it. And there are thousands of square miles that I am not familiar with. Why do you ask?"

The history section reveals some useful information. The four families you research all experienced simultaneous good fortune around 200 years ago, half a century before the Catastrophe. Their holdings increased, tenfold in the most extreme case of the Celebrindel family, and then, 150 years ago, the houses fell into disarray. The reasons presented vary, but one consistent fact among the houses is that the leadership and many of the promising young nobles suddenly disappeared without a trace. Though the remainders of the families inherited vast fortunes, they were unable to maintain them and they quickly squandered the money, so much so that the Duermek clan fell apart completely.

The Barnor remnants also squandered the inheritance, but they ran out of cash before they liquidated their property assets. As such, they were involved in several political marriages with dowries involving huge swaths of land on what is now the crater bottom. Some of the human noble families with Barnor blood are Reston, Turket, Hendall, and Killeen.

Of particular note, the Dunn family did not fare quite so poorly. They now own property on many of the lower levels of the crater walls (which your escort informs you are generally very low value, compared to the higher levels and the crater bottom). Their holdings as of last year include the entire 11th level and about half of the 40th.

Your escort is adept at finding information in the history section. It takes only two hours to find all that, bringing your total up to five hours straight in the library. Hunger begins to gnaw at your bellies.

 

[Trouvere]

"Even if Warbrayvia was in the Orussian region, I might not have heard of it. And there are thousands of square miles that I am not familiar with. Why do you ask?"

"What else would one call the homeland of the Warbrays?" Keldar asks. He shrugs a shoulder resignedly. "One day...."

Your escort is adept at finding information in the history section. It takes only two hours to find all that, bringing your total up to five hours straight in the library.

"I knew it! Nothing escapes a Warbray!" says Keldar. "One more thing, then, before we grow so thin we can be used as bookmarks. Does the family of Urton have links to any of these houses, I wonder?"

 

[Boddynock]

OOC: I'm off to the beach for the weekend, so don't wait up for me! See you all Monday.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

"Urton? Is this an Orussian House? Because I have never heard of them. Let's have a look." Your escort does his best to find information on the surname "Urton", even checking with fellow librarians for help, but there is nothing. "There are so many people in the world, and only so many shelves. Urton could be a forgotten noble family, or it could be an inconsequential surname. Either way, we have nothing on them here." The search for the Urton family took another hour.

 

[Trouvere]

Keldar yawns and stretches as the search comes to an unsuccessful conclusion. "My eyes are sore, my fingers are dusty and my mouth tastes of parchment! But no matter, we're wiser than we were this morning, and we thank you for your efforts on our behalf. If you'll escort us to the door, and return our belongings, we'll be off to find something to eat, and see some more of the goings-on. I believe I was invited to attend a lecture or two. But perhaps I'll just look over the magical wares for sale."

"Ah yes, does Tarag owe you six shields in total, or six for each of us?"

 

[covaithe]

Tommy looks up, surprised. "But we can still look at... ah, well, it can wait. Perhaps we've found enough to move on with. It wouldn't hurt to get some nutrition while we think on it, either."

ooc: In the evening, after we've discussed things a bit, Tommy intends to take 20 if possible to decipher the encoded book. Not sure what kind of check that is; straight up int? Decipher script? I was hoping to get a circumstance bonus from the library, but it sounds like we'd have to spend a lot of time there to get that. I suppose if we fail, Tommy can come back later and have another look at those books.

 

[Trouvere]

"Exactly!" says Keldar, with relief. "Now that you mention it, your old trition was looking a bit shabby."

He gives Tarag and Fimble a perplexed shrug.

"And I have a plan!" he whispers. "Not that anyone ever likes my plans."

 

[covaithe]

Tommy chuckles politely at the pun. "So what have we learned? There are four noble families whose insignia seem related to the design on the shovel: Celebrindor, Duermek, Barnor, and Dunn. They all had a suspicious burst of good fortune about 50 years before the Catastrophe, and then right around the time of the Catastrophe, many of the leaders of all four families disappeared. Duermek supposedly fell apart, and only distant relatives remain. Barnor splintered into Reston, Turket, Hendall, and Killeen, through political marriages. The Dunn family came out ahead. I don't think we found much about Celebrindor, but it seems likely that they would be around still, especially since they're elves.

"Does all this help? Well, I suppose if we have to we can go round to each of the families and ask prying questions until we get more information. Or, more likely, until someone tries to kill us. But I think there are more clues to be found before we go that far. That encoded book, for one. Urton's house, for another; we still need to go there.

"But listen to me chattering on, when there's food to be had! Maybe we can find some more of those flipfish, and you can tell us about your plan, Keldar."

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

OOC: Decipher Script, as I understand it, is intended for use on actual languages, not ciphers (as the name might imply). However, I would say it's reasonable that the coded book might be considered "intricate" and "exotic".

Definitely no taking 20, since there's no trying again (and even a potential for misunderstanding, as opposed to simply not understanding).

Being in the library would give some kind of circumstance bonus. Aiding another might also provide some kind of small bonus, within limits. You can try if you go back tomorrow.

 

[Trouvere]

"Does all this help? Well, I suppose if we have to we can go round to each of the families and ask prying questions until we get more information. Or, more likely, until someone tries to kill us."

Keldar's mouth opens in a soundless "Oh", whereafter, if anyone pays attention, he seems to be thinking very quickly.

"But I think there are more clues to be found before we go that far. That encoded book, for one. Urton's house, for another; we still need to go there.

"But listen to me chattering on, when there's food to be had! Maybe we can find some more of those flipfish, and you can tell us about your plan, Keldar."

"A fine summary of our progress," says Keldar.

"Fortunately, my plan is infinitely better than yours. But I think I'll wait to explain it when we're all back together on the ship. It's simple and entirely foolproof, but it does require Galwynn's suit of armor, a sizeable lock of Rapture's hair, two bedrolls, my sack of rocks and 50' of rope. With those, it can't fail."