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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1480758" data-attributes="member: 9626">Tome Raider“And we are now entering the ancient writings section of the Great Library of Delaspie.  It is said that this entire wing was discovered buried below the surface of the earth centuries ago.  The wing was eventually refurbished into a library, designed to store the very books discovered in it.  The library itself has been built above and around it, though this wing is still separated from the others by hundreds of feet.”  Olivia Neddle, the head librarian, continued her speech in a bored, monotonous voice.  It was obvious she had given it hundreds, if not thousands of times before.  It was the first time that Tal, Quercus, Tsine, Flix, Rudyard, and Raz heard it, however, not to mention the dozens of other scholars who were finally granted entry to the ancient writings section after waiting for weeks.After descending the stairs for a few minutes, Olivia continued her spiel.  “The library itself is five stories high.  It only has one actual floor, but it has a central pillar that has existed since the library was found, and a number of walkways around it and the outer wall, granting access to the higher four levels of books.  The books are arranged alphabetically, and separated by large gems with the letter of that section carved into it.  These gems were donated by an anonymous philanthropist 18 years ago.  We are now entering the library.  If you look to the ceiling, you’ll see a mural by the famous gnome inventor and artist Tepedin, depicting the old gods giving away the world to the new ones.  Now, before we end this tour, I have just one precaution for all of you.  We’ve trapped the mural and many of the decorative suits of armor in the library with alarms.  Interfere with these or other works of art inside the museum, and we will not hesitate to cancel your reserved time in the library, and punish you to the fullest extent of the law.  Which is a lot, trust me.”The group shuffled into the library, and following Olivia’s cue, looked up.  On the left side of the mural, a number of men and women were gathered.  There was a one-eyed orc, a lich of some sort, a drow woman, a mysterious dark-haired woman, a dwarf man, an elf man, a halfling man, a gnome woman, and many others.  The dark-haired woman was handing something that looked a little like a tiny blue and green marble to a dark woman on the right side of the mural, that looked like she was made of space itself.  The party recognized that as a common form given to Bha-Ael, and noticed the ten women around her were obviously representations of the other Sisters.  To Flix, Rudyard, and the other visitors, the mural was just a work of art, but as they looked at it, the other four party members suddenly felt a strange, and incredible headache building.  It was like there was something that was fighting to get out of their heads, or to burrow its way in…After the headache resided, the party finally began to research some of the questions that they had, starting with the whole Lady of Memory thing.  Unfortunately, days later, it looked like their quest was going unfulfilled.  On the other hand, they got some important information.  They learned, for example, that according to some theories, gods possess a physical and spiritual half.  The spiritual half is away in the outer planes, ruling as normal, while the physical half is more or less permanently manifested somewhere on the Material plane as or through an avatar.  Most gods manifest their other half inside a worshipper or other being of a compatible nature.  They also received a list of the old gods, and a description of their traits.  For some reason, Nerull is entirely absent.  The most common theory is that a goddess called Wejiss was the ruler of the old pantheon, and likely was the dark-haired woman of the mural.But none of this was helping the party at all.  Finally, out of desperation, the party tried some of the strange items within the library itself.  They hit pay dirt when Tal started fiddling with the gems that separate the library sections.  Touching “L” caused it to glow for a second.  Shocked at this discovery, he quietly gathered everyone together, and had them touch the other gems.  Nothing happened at first, until Tal tried the “L” again after it went out, and then Raz got to the “A” in time.  It didn’t take a genius to figure this one out, but they couldn’t run around the library touching the gems while there were other people around.  They decided to hide a few of their own inside the library until it got dark, and then try it out when everyone left.  It took forever, though, mostly because Olivia didn’t leave until hours after the last of the other patrons did, and the rest of the group (led by Flix) didn’t even see her leave the library, so never tried to sneak back in.  Meanwhile, Quercus and Rudyard, who were still inside the library, went to work.  They soon spelled out “Lady Memory” in the gems, and were rewarded when a secret passageway appears in the library floor.  Part of the floor turned into a ramp, which led to a door.  Quercus and Rudyard investigated, and discovered a hallway filled with bookshelves.  However, as they got close to it, the books suddenly sprung to life, and flung themselves at the duo!  However, though well outnumbered, Quercus and Rudyard easily slashed the books apart, without suffering anything worse than a bruise or paper cut.  They reached the end of the hall, and found another door.  Inside, there was a chamber about thirty feet long and wide.  Inside, there was a missing chapter of the book they found earlier, about the dual identities of gods.  According to this chapter, Bas does exist, but she was sent to the plane following a war between the goddesses centuries ago.  She became a fallen goddess, with her spiritual half trapped in a new, physical body.  Said body was itself trapped underground, buried as a result of the crater she made upon impact with the ground and the debris that landed around her.  The party also found a second, even older book.  It claimed to be the secret diary of Wee Jas, which the party assumed was another spelling of Wejiss.  According to this book, Wee Jas was inspired to create the Twelve Sisters, which meant that they aren’t eternal like the church taught.  She got the idea from some being that the book describes only as TIE.  There appeared to be more written in both books, but they are extremely old, and much of them are too worn or faded to be legible.  Despite this fact, Quercus and Rudyard decided to find the rest of the party, and lead them here to make some sense of all this.OOC Notes:  This is the first part of what will end up being one of the longest adventures in the campaign.  It took at least three weeks to finish this area alone, which was a record for the time.  It also gets a lot more into puzzles and story moments from here on.  And I do apologize for the title of this session.  I usually use my original title for the adventure as the heading of at least one of the story hour recaps that cover it.  I was just in a punny mood for this one.</blockquote>

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