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A Candlekeep Mystery (IC)
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<blockquote data-quote="FitzTheRuke" data-source="post: 8272054" data-attributes="member: 59816"><p>With the extra hands sorting through books, Hawthorne found the book he was looking for on the following afternoon. The book, bound in black leather with “A Deep and Creeping Darkness” embossed on the thin spine, showed minimal signs of wear and tear (other than a few pages creased through carelessness and a spot here and there). The work was neat though not flawless and contained notable spelling errors and ink blotches. Ruznami judged that it was not the work of a professional scribe.</p><p></p><p><em>A Deep and Creeping Darkness</em> told the tale of a mountain village whose residents went missing over the course of several months. The book presented a series of vignettes allegedly collected from “those who were there” - survivors, traveling merchants, and (in second-hand accounts) residents of nearby settlements. It was unclear whether it was a fictional tale, folklore, or true history. The contents seemed factual, but the language was extravagantly dramatic.</p><p></p><p>Vermeillon, established after settlers discovered a platinum vein in the mountainside, did a booming business in both the raw ore and the refined metal for about a decade. Due to the rough terrain and the harshness of the climate, the village never grew large. It intermittently hosted a succession of traveling merchants who came to the village for a week or two, sold and traded their wares, then left again. The nearest civilized settlement was three days’ ride on horseback down the mountainside. The inhabitants named in the book included Mayor Lei Duvezin, a kind and talented dwarf smith named Tormun, and his wife, Blenyss.</p><p></p><p>Dated seventy years ago, an explosion rocked the platinum mine, collapsing the tunnels and burying workers under tons of rubble. Sixty miners were underground that day. Over thirty of them died in the initial collapse, and the instability of the tunnels made rescue of the others slow and dangerous. The miners who survived the collapse were trapped for days or weeks before they were rescued—or perished in the deep, alone and terrified. Sixteen came out alive. Eleven were never found.</p><p></p><p>In the wake of the catastrophe, another horror plagued the village as people began to disappear, starting with the survivors—not all at once, however. One or two would vanish in a single night, then a tenday might pass before the next disappearance. These unexplained disappearances terrified the remaining miners. After all the survivors either disappeared or fled, other villagers began to vanish. The villagers tried to protect themselves by sleeping with weapons and taking shifts on watch, but nothing changed. Traveling in groups didn’t help, since a companion might vanish while even briefly out of sight.</p><p></p><p>With no one willing to keep the mine open and the disappearances leading to fears that Vermeillon might be cursed, merchants and other travelers stopped visiting the village. The end of the patchwork story claimed that the village was still there, though whether anyone would still inhabit it was a mystery. The volume’s writer mused over the decline of the village, speculating about the fate of its inhabitants. They wondered whether it would be worth hiring adventurers to see if anything remained of the village—particularly the platinum ore. Sketched on the back of the last page was a rough map of the village’s location, with directions from the closest mountain town, a place called Maerin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FitzTheRuke, post: 8272054, member: 59816"] With the extra hands sorting through books, Hawthorne found the book he was looking for on the following afternoon. The book, bound in black leather with “A Deep and Creeping Darkness” embossed on the thin spine, showed minimal signs of wear and tear (other than a few pages creased through carelessness and a spot here and there). The work was neat though not flawless and contained notable spelling errors and ink blotches. Ruznami judged that it was not the work of a professional scribe. [I]A Deep and Creeping Darkness[/I] told the tale of a mountain village whose residents went missing over the course of several months. The book presented a series of vignettes allegedly collected from “those who were there” - survivors, traveling merchants, and (in second-hand accounts) residents of nearby settlements. It was unclear whether it was a fictional tale, folklore, or true history. The contents seemed factual, but the language was extravagantly dramatic. Vermeillon, established after settlers discovered a platinum vein in the mountainside, did a booming business in both the raw ore and the refined metal for about a decade. Due to the rough terrain and the harshness of the climate, the village never grew large. It intermittently hosted a succession of traveling merchants who came to the village for a week or two, sold and traded their wares, then left again. The nearest civilized settlement was three days’ ride on horseback down the mountainside. The inhabitants named in the book included Mayor Lei Duvezin, a kind and talented dwarf smith named Tormun, and his wife, Blenyss. Dated seventy years ago, an explosion rocked the platinum mine, collapsing the tunnels and burying workers under tons of rubble. Sixty miners were underground that day. Over thirty of them died in the initial collapse, and the instability of the tunnels made rescue of the others slow and dangerous. The miners who survived the collapse were trapped for days or weeks before they were rescued—or perished in the deep, alone and terrified. Sixteen came out alive. Eleven were never found. In the wake of the catastrophe, another horror plagued the village as people began to disappear, starting with the survivors—not all at once, however. One or two would vanish in a single night, then a tenday might pass before the next disappearance. These unexplained disappearances terrified the remaining miners. After all the survivors either disappeared or fled, other villagers began to vanish. The villagers tried to protect themselves by sleeping with weapons and taking shifts on watch, but nothing changed. Traveling in groups didn’t help, since a companion might vanish while even briefly out of sight. With no one willing to keep the mine open and the disappearances leading to fears that Vermeillon might be cursed, merchants and other travelers stopped visiting the village. The end of the patchwork story claimed that the village was still there, though whether anyone would still inhabit it was a mystery. The volume’s writer mused over the decline of the village, speculating about the fate of its inhabitants. They wondered whether it would be worth hiring adventurers to see if anything remained of the village—particularly the platinum ore. Sketched on the back of the last page was a rough map of the village’s location, with directions from the closest mountain town, a place called Maerin. [/QUOTE]
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