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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pogre" data-source="post: 2502946" data-attributes="member: 6588">ZandyriumEpisode 60As the group peered cautiously into the smoke-filled room they viewed Thoren with singed hair and burnt clothes gripping a pair of books. “Good thing you had the deathward on me,” Thoren said with a smile and slowly fell forward like a great oak sawed down. Justinius went forward and tended to Thoren while Heinrich inspected the books with the aid of a minor prayer. Justinius paused from his work to ask, “Are they what I think they are?”“Yes,” Heinrich answered grimly, “Criador’s spell books.”“Any other treasures in here?” Wassabe asked.“I’m not sure you understand,” Heinrich began, “These books have numerous enchantments and spells of upper valences I have not even heard of before.”“Yeah, yeah, good for Morguhn and all that,” Wassabe replied.“Wassabe, these books are worth more than the richest merchant fleet in Zandyrium,” Ginny said.“Oh,” Wassabe answered. “That’s a pretty good haul then.”Ginny laughed.A groggy Thoren started coming around, “Any treasure?”“Nope, just a couple of books,” Wassabe replied.“Damn,” Thoren grumbled.Ginny corrected Wassabe for Thoren, but the fighter remained unconvinced. Books did not hold value for him. Uberstahl, gold, platinum, silver, even coppers – these were treasures to the fighter. At his insistence the group re-searched the entire lowest level.<a href="http://www.pogre.com/5607_10thlevel_layout.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.pogre.com/5607_10thlevel_layout_th.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a>The search yielded no further discoveries but allayed the fighter’s fear that they were somehow missing the big treasure.*****“Errr, not back there please,” Silcrass said. The Aranea was looking over the thousands of books that the adventurers were bringing into his lair. His spidery eyes scanned over each cover trying to commit it to memory so that he might remember it later. He was determined to put these books in some sort of order. His fussiness had slowed the process of bringing the books into the caves and Mercutio, Morguhn, and Githraldul were growing frustrated.“Well, we are out of room in that secondary cavern you wanted us to use,” Morguhn stated.“Impossible,” Silcrass muttered. He scrambled quickly over to the cavern’s entrance to look for himself. He saw immediately they were correct. If anything were true they had stuffed far too many books into it. “Just a moment,” he called out. He scurried to another deeper cavern clearing a path through the dense webs that had blocked the cave off. “Use this one next, please.”“That’s a lot farther,” Morguhn grumbled.“Yes, well I need the other cavern for the Ettercaps,” Silcrass explained.“Ettercaps!” Githraldul protested.“Ahhh, yes, though they are nasty creatures in general they are expert at raising young and they are helping my mate, Neolepta, raise our brood.” “I am heading back for the last load of books,” Mercutio announced.“We have not even organized the last three loads,” Silcrass complained.Morguhn and Githraldul moved over to Mercutio and the trio teleported from the cave with the mutterings of Silcrass ringing in their ears.*****Morguhn, Githraldul, and Mercutio found the rest of the adventurers waiting for them in the former library.“Were you successful?” Mercutio asked.“Completely,” Heinrich answered. He was going to wait to reveal the real surprise of Criador’s spellbooks until they were back in Silcrass’s alir.They piled up the remaining books in the room and teleported back to Silcrass’s lair.“Look what we found,” Morguhn announced.“Ah, welcome friends! It’s good to see some men of scholarship that might appreciate the value of organizing resources,” Silcrass said.“That will have to wait,” Heinrich announced. The cleric swept his arm clearing a table stacked with books.Silcrass gasped as the piles of books hit the floor.Heinrich motioned for Thoren to come forward. The fighter thumped the two huge volumes of Criador’s spellbooks down onto the table.“What’s this?” Silcrass asked excitedly as he scrambled over to the table.“Morguhn, you may want to look at these as well,” Justinius said.Silcrass began gently turning the pages. Coos and gasps started coming from the Aranea.“By the gods!’“I have never…”“The power…”“I have never even heard of this…”Silcrass continued on in this way for some time as did an equally delighted Morguhn.“I’ve never seen one of those before,” Wassabe whispered to Ginny.“What? A powerful spellbook?” Ginny responded.“No, a spider-gasm,” Wassabe replied.Ginny just shook her head and smiled.The adventurers then turned the Tome of the Thraegian Covenant’s Rituals over to Silcrass. The work was clearly of great power, but the aranea admitted it was beyond his ability to comprehend as well.“Can you keep it safe?” Heinrich asked.“On my brood, I will make it so,” Silcrass promised.*****The group helped Silcrass organize things further and they departed for Zandyrium. Morguhn immediately purchased a number of writing tools and pages for inscribing pages into his spellbook. The Dwarven wizard teleported back to Silcrass’s lair to begin copying spells. The clerics consulted with their respective temples and made massive tithes. Thoren and Wassabe immediately set to their favorite tasks of drinking and frequenting whores’ beds.Mercutio found a message waiting for him on his return to the city.Mercutio sighed heavily. “I hate politics,” he grumbled. The sorcerer went about the task of gathering his comrades, including a none-too-happy Morguhn, and explaining the message to them.“It’s not our business,” Wassabe protested. “We are not official representatives of Zandyrium.”“Who is these days?” Justinius countered. “At least we have the Lord Protector in our retinue, and no one says we have to be official.”“Good relations is good for our business,” Heinrich reminded Wassabe.The debate continued on for a while longer and Heinrich eventually went to Bishop Polariate for guidance. In the end they all agreed they would go to Thray the following morning.To be continued…</blockquote>

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