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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3611309" data-attributes="member: 11760">Bufer's chair creaks as he leans back and strokes his chin in consideration. He stares at the table for a moment before glancing back up at the acolyte and favoring him with a smile."Well, at least you're honest. I appreciate that, lad," he says. "Listen, I ain't never had the patience for book learnin' -- I always been more of a 'learn by doing' kind of gnome, much to my master's chagrin."He gestures to the various books, scrolls and maps strewn across the table."Any way ye can sum up the more relevant parts of this for me? And maybe give me a clue as to what you might know that's not in here?"The young acolyte sputters in horror at the notion that someone would eschew book-learning, but after a moment, he composes himself and begins grabbing various books and flipping through them rapidly, opening them to select pages and turning them around toward Bufer."The Sisters of the New Dawn were an order of nuns established by a grant by a pious merchant's wife living in Grail Keep who feared the decline of learning and knowledge. The order's founder felt the same way, and claimed to have received an apocalyptic prophecy from Lothian himself."The acolyte unrolls a scroll and reads it aloud."Night sweeps across the land,And you cannot stop it.Shadows grow,And you cannot beat them back.The sun is setting,And you cannot raise it up again.Darkness is coming,And all you can doIs light a candleAnd pray for a new dawn."The Cat & The Fiddle has grown silent, with Milos Fordham listening with arms crossed and brow furrowed by the bar."Ahem, well." The acolyte flushes a little with embarrassment. "The abbey was intended as a place where the sisters would collect the knowledge of the present age and store it away in advance of the coming time when learning and reason would vanish from the world. Even before the abbey was finished, books and scrolls and works of art were being brought to the abbey, and the sisters spent a great deal of time summarizing them, creating archives of knowledge that would let the people of a future time reconstruct the learning of today."The acolyte stops, considering what to say next."Some in the church felt the sisters were not particularly discriminating in what sorts of books they brought beneath holy walls for study and preservation. At the time of the ... incident, the Holy Emperor had called for the abbess to appear before him in the Holy Palace in Tarsis to defend some of her more questionable decisions, but before the messenger arrived in Midwood, she and her sisters were already dead."He spreads out the drawing of the abbey."In its heyday, the abbey was a two-story building of timber and stone, but it has fallen into disrepair. Parts of the second floor have collapsed and black vines choke much of the rest of the building. The perimeter buildings have all but vanished at this point."The acolyte puts a watertight scroll tube on the table but does not open it."The bishop also had me bring this series of scrolls along for you. If you succeed in ... whatever is necessary, reading this spell will sanctify the ruins, and should keep whatever it is from coming back again. But it's not of any real use until then."He goes back to his soup, slurping noisily.Bufer nods, steepling his fingers against his chin as he absorbs all this."Good, that's what the books say," he says. "Now: rumors, supposition, wild speculation, whatever it is you all whisper to each other in the dead of night at Scripture Camp, I want to hear all of it. What is it y'all think killed them all?"The acolyte looks at Bufer as though speaking to a very slow child."It was the abbess, Mister Gnome, the abbess."Bufer cocks a bushy eyebrow and throws the acolyte's patronizing tone right back at him."I mean what drove her to it?" he asks. "Can't tell me you've got all this, and ain't nobody never made a guess. Or has it just never occurred to you to wonder?"At this moment, Emmerson opens the front door and stomps inside, soaking wet."Ella, a hot cider, please." He reoccupies his seat, dripping on the floor. "I left the sign for Emus. Lothian willing, he'll see it by tomorrow."He looks between Bufer and the acolyte, the mutual irritation palpable."What did I miss?"The acolyte blinks in frustration, blushing with embarrassment and anger, his eyes tearing up a bit."I'm just a librarian, Mister Gnome. If anyone knows what caused the abbess to go mad in the first place, they never wrote it down and they certainly never told me. I rather thought that's what the bishop wanted you to take care of.""No need to get flustered," Emmerson says mildly. "We will take care of it.""Thank you, sir." The acolyte gets up and walks to the bar, speaking quietly with Milos, and exchanging coins for a key to a room upstairs."Panty-waisted academic," Bufer scoffs, rolling his eyes. He glances at Emmerson, who glares at him disapprovingly. "I got a bad feelin' about this, beanpole."</blockquote>

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