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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7419200" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 15: AN OVERDUE TRIP TO THE LIBRARYPC Roster: Galen Thorne, human paladin 5             Kaspar Hardstrike, elf monk 5             Syngaard, human fighter 5Game Session Date: 9 May 2018 - - -Arriving at the Enchanted Flagon after a typical summoning via the iron rings all of the conscripts wore, Syngaard noticed there was a horse and wagon parked outside the closed tavern.  Galen's warhorse Seneca was tied up at the hitching post, but Orion's riding dog Carl was conspicuously absent.  Odd, thought the fighter, given that the halfling's quarters were directly above the tavern.  Syngaard usually had to travel across half the city to get to the conscripts' meeting place, whereas everybody else just had to head downstairs.Walking into the tavern, Syngaard noticed the new face right away.  She was a young woman, likely having seen twenty summers, wearing traveling garb.  His scarred face broke into what passed for a smile - although it often looked more like a painful grimace - as the fighter headed to the seat next to her at the table.  Galen and Kaspar were already seated there and Skevros stood beside them; Orion and Daleth were nowhere to be seen."Ah, you're all here," began Skevros as Syngaard took his seat.  "I'd like to introduce you to Anuja.  She will be taking you by wagon to the Azure Glade, the site of your next mission.""Back there again?" asked Galen.  "To what end?""Anuja will take you to the Guilded City - that's with a 'u', as the founders were rather fond of their little puns - specifically, to the Diviners Guild Library there, where you will obtain one of the last remaining copies of 'The Curse of the Mithral Mage.'""Wait a minute," sputtered Syngaard.  "I got a couple of questions about this.""Of course you do," replied Skevros with a sigh."First of all: we okay talkin' about all this in front of her?"  Syngaard pointed a meaty thumb towards Anuja, who looked on expressionlessly."Anuja has my complete trust; we can talk freely."  Syngaard looked over to Galen, who nodded his head slightly; the paladin had already examined her aura for the scourge of evil and found it unblemished."Okay, then, if we're going on a mission to go steal a book from some library, wouldn't it make sense to bring the halfling along with us?"Skevros smiled at that question.  "Why, Syngaard," he teased, "am I actually hearing you wishing for Miss Nightsky's presence?  I do believe that may be a first.  But no, I have assigned Daleth and Orion to other duties.  Why?  Do you doubt your ability to simply steal a book from a library without Orion's assistance?""What?  No--course not.  Just seemed weird not bringing the thief along on a thievin' mission, that's all.""I have full confidence in your abilities," Skevros assured the bald fighter, pulling a blank tome from a satchel at his side.  "This is the--" he began, before Syngaard interrupted him."I got another ques--" the fighter began, before being interrupted right back by the king's adviser.  "Yes, it's a paying job; 1,000 pieces of gold; yes, that's each.  Was that it?"  Skevros raised his eyebrows in query; Syngaard raised both hands in a "that's it" gesture and allowed their leader to continue on uninterrupted."This is the ruined copy of 'The Curse of the Mithral Mage' I was experimenting upon during my 'lost' years," Skevros continued.  "I submerged it into osteovox in an attempt to learn more about it; unfortunately, the procedure removed all writing from the tome, inside and out.  It is now completely useless.""Perhaps not completely," observed Kaspar.  "If it is the same size and shape of the copy we are to obtain, we could leave it in place of the good copy and perhaps delay the discovery of its theft.""A good idea," agreed Skevros, passing the blank tome over to the elf.  He then pulled a small piece of parchment from his satchel.  "This is the address of the library you will be entering.  It is open to the public, so you will not necessarily stand out merely by your presence.  However, only members of the Guild of Diviners are allowed to remove books from the premises.  And I have no way of telling exactly where in the library the book might be located.""Is there a way to tell who's a Diviner?" asked Galen."By the color of their robes," replied Skevros.  "The Council of Guilds members wear robes depicting their specialty: Abjuration is orange; Conjuration, green; Divination, white; Enchantment, purple; Evocation, dark blue; Illusion, yellow; Necromancy, black of course; and Transmutation, red."  He noted the group staring at his own red robes.  "Yes, I was a member of the Council of Transmuters before I was banished from the Azure Glade," he admitted."We supposed to remember all that?" asked Syngaard."I anticipated your question," smirked Skevros, passing along a sheet of parchment containing the names of the various guilds and their respective colors to the fighter.  Syngaard frowned at all of the long words before folding the sheet up and stashing it in a belt pouch."That should do it," announced Skevros, indicating the group was released.  "Return here immediately once you have secured the book."Departing the tavern, Galen asked Anuja if she wished to borrow his bow and arrows for the trip, seeing she carried no weapons but a simple handaxe at her hip.  "I'm just paid to drive the wagon," she replied.  "I'll leave any fighting to you guys."  Kaspar and Syngaard piled into the back of the wagon as Galen mounted Seneca, and the group headed onto the eastern road to the Azure Glade."I don't like this," grumbled Syngaard."What?" asked Kaspar, a slight smile upon his lips.  "Having to go to a library?""Nah," snorted Syngaard, oblivious to the slight.  "I don't mind stealin' from a library.  I just don't like the idea of bein' sent to steal somethin' from wizards, especially not wizards who specialize in seein' the future.  This whole mission seems doomed from the start.""That's...a rather good point," admitted Kaspar, frowning.  "But there's no reason for them to suspect that we might be coming to steal their tome.  There's every possibility that we'll be in and out with the book before they even know we're coming.""Still, I wish we'd have brought the halfling with us.""Really?" asked Kaspar, surprised."Sure," admitted Syngaard.  "Anything goes bust on this mission and she's the obvious suspect.  While they're busy grabbing her, the rest of us can make a break for it with the book."  The elf's frown returned at this remark.The first day of travel was uneventful.  Anuja was not a talkative sort, content just to do her job and keep the horse and wagon aimed east.  When they stopped in the early evening to set up camp for the night along the side of the road, she put her own tent up with no difficulties while Syngaard and Galen struggled to figure out the construction of the larger tent the three men would be sharing.  But trial and error eventually won out and the two men congratulated themselves on a job well (if not quickly) done.  By then, Anuja and Kaspar had a campfire blazing nicely and the wagon driver had a pot of stew cooking for their evening meal."We should establish a watch for the night," suggested Galen.  "I'll take the first shift.""I'll take the last," volunteered Kaspar.  "I don't mind rising early.""Fine," grumbled Syngaard.  "I'll take mid-shift, then."  That was arguably the worst shift, since you only got two smaller chunks of sleep instead of one uninterrupted block.  But after dinner had been finished and the utensils cleaned in a nearby brook, the rest of the group retired to their respective tents while Galen made sure the horses were okay and then assumed his vigil over the camp.All was quiet for several hours.  But when the moon's position indicated it was close to time to wake up Syngaard and let him start the next watch shift, a whiff of scent caught the paladin's attention.  It seemed to be coming from further down the road to the east, and Galen wasn't the only one to notice it: Seneca was skittish, shuffling his feet back and forth nervously.Galen looked down the road and saw nothing.  But then he noticed a group of figures off to the side of the road, shambling slowly in his direction.  In the moonlight, it looked like goblins - or rather, on second glance, slain goblins reanimated as zombies!  And at the back of the small herd stood a taller figure, an orc or possibly hobgoblin.  As they approached the camp, their low moans became audible to the paladin.They became audible to Kaspar as well, sitting upright with his knees crossed, deep in his nightly reverie.  His eyes snapped open and he stood upright in one smooth motion, sliding silently through the tent flap to see what was going on.  His elven eyes caught sight of the undead horde heading their way, and without any thought towards waking Syngaard the elven monk slipped forward to meet the slow-moving zombies.Galen charged forward with a war-whoop that he hoped would be loud enough to awaken Syngaard and Anuja - for there was no time to wake them otherwise, with the zombie horde approaching the camp.  The sword of Zehkar cut a deep gash in the unliving flesh of the closest zombie, before the undead thing fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been severed."Syngaard!" called Kaspar towards the tent before dashing into the horde at full speed, kicking a front-line goblin zombie in the head and practically severing it from the rotting neck.  Inside the tent, Syngaard awoke to the sounds of battle nearby.  Not wanting to waste time with his armor, he grabbed up his morningstar, his javelin of returning, and his shield before racing outside barefoot, otherwise wearing only his undergarments.  He spotted the horde and threw his javelin at one of the front-line zombies.  The weapon buried itself deep into the rotting flesh of the undead goblin's chest, but the wound didn't seem to bother the zombie in the least as the javelin magically teleported back to Syngaard's hand.The horde surged forward, getting right up to the three combatants, but only one set of claws was able to make a swipe at Kaspar and the monk easily dodged the blow.  Then Galen pulled out his holy symbol of Hieroneous, holding it before him as he channeled the might of his god through the medallion.  Positive energy surged forward in a flash, charring the bulk of the zombies to ask.  After the vaporization of undead flesh, only two of the goblin zombies still stood, as well as what was now evident as a hobgoblin zombie in the back ranks.The hobgoblin swung out with a rotting limb, catching Kaspar in the side of the head.  But the monk spun with the blow, building up energy for a retaliation strike powered by his tenryutsume into the hobgoblin zombie's rancid flesh.  As it fell to the ground, Kaspar cleaved to a nearby goblin, crushing its head with a powerful blow from his hardened fist.  Beside him, Syngaard brought his morningstar crashing into the side of the sole remaining goblin zombie's head; the bald fighter noticed the thing's face looked like it had already taken a strike or two from a morningstar or similar weapon.  But the undead thing didn't drop, clawing unsuccessfully at Syngaard, who managed to get his shield in way of the zombie's claws.  It was Galen's sword that took down the last of the undead combatants in a blaze of green fire.Syngaard looked down at the few remaining bodies that hadn't been turned to ash by Galen's successful turning attack.  "Hey," he observed.  "Look at these guys!""What of them?" Galen asked."There was twelve of them, wasn't there?  Twelve plus the hobgoblin?""That sounds about right," remarked Kaspar."I think these are the same twelve we fought on our first mission - the hobgoblin leader, too!"  Syngaard didn't recognize any of them in particular - one goblin looked much like another to the scarred fighter - but he recognized the mark of a morningstar on a foe's face, and the numbers all added up, for there had been twelve goblin bandits led by a hobgoblin holed up in that small stone keep."The bodies had been removed when we returned with the wagon to load up the stolen merchandise," recalled Galen.  "You think these are them?""I'd say so," hazarded Syngaard.  "And that means somebody animated them back to life...""The Necromancers Guild," opined Kaspar."...and somebody knew right where to send them," finished Syngaard."The Diviners," finished Kaspar."Look here," observed Galen.  Each of the zombies wore an iron ring, similar to the ones worn by the conscripts.  There were several others scattered on the ground where Galen's blast of positive energy had turned the others into powder.  "I'll bet the Diviners can scry on them, just like Skevros does with us."That was a disturbing thought, disturbing enough to prompt the group to drag the remaining zombie corpses away from the camp and set them ablaze, while Syngaard dumped each of the rings into a small hole he'd dug and dumped dirt back over them.  "Hopefully they won't see nothin' but dirt if they try scrying on us," he said.The rest of the night passed uneventfully, although Anuja didn't appreciate Syngaard stepping into her tent in his underwear to see if she was okay after all the excitement.  He geared up in his full armor for the rest of his watch, then had Kaspar replace him after three hours.  The elf's shift passed without excitement and the group broke camp and got back on the road.Around midday, an hour past the border of the Azure Glade, the party saw a man in wizard's robes approaching.  His dark blue robes identified him as a member of the Azure Guard, the police force of the small nation.  The Guild of Evokers also wore blue robes, but the Azure Guard were recognizable by the glowing blue runes prominent on their robes, foreheads, and on the large, heavy maces they carried.  The group had run afoul of the Azure Guard when they searched Skevros's house for clues to his past history several weeks back.As the robed figure approached, he held up a hand to halt the two horses and the wagon one of them pulled.  "What is your business in the Azure Glade?" the Guard demanded.Syngaard answered for the group, not trusting the paladin or the too-trusting-for-his-own-good monk to come up with a decent lie on the spot.  "We're traveling merchants," he replied."This man is clearly a paladin of Hieroneous," observed the Azure Guard, pointing to the symbol of the God of Valor painted prominently on Galen's shield."Sure.  Protective escort," answered Syngaard.  "We've never been this way before, figured we'd hire some security in case we ran into trouble on the road."The Azure Guard seemed unconvinced.  "Where are your goods?" he asked, seeing nothing of any value in the wagon beyond travel gear."I'm wearing it," replied Syngaard.  "Armorsmiths.  And we make the occasional weapon."The Azure Guard frowned as he looked between the three adventurers - they fit the descriptions of three of the intruders who had broken into Skevros's house several weeks back.  "Are you by any chance the band who broke into the Wrencrofft Manor?""Never heard of it," Syngaard said.  "Plus, like I said, we've never been to the Azure Glade before.""I don't recall saying the Wrencrofft Manor was in the Azure Glade.""I assumed it, since you're part of the Azure Guard."  Syngaard and the Guard glared at each other as the latter stepped closer, pulling a sheet of parchment from his robes.  He held up a picture of the symbol of the Seekers of Eternity: an overturned hourglass.  "Ever seen this symbol before?" the Guard asked, trying another tactic.Syngaard visibly flinched upon seeing the symbol but tried covering it up.  "Um, nope," he said."I don't believe you," snarled the Azure Guard."We have seen it," admitted Galen.  "Tattooed on the back of the neck of a half-orc who tried to kill us.""But we're not part of that group," offered Kaspar.  "We're fighting against them.""Do you know anything about a group of goblin zombies that have been seen in this area?""Nope," replied Syngaard as Kaspar admitted, "We slew them last night after they had been sent to kill us."  Syngaard immediately switched his answer to, "Oh, those goblin zombies.  Yep."The Azure Guard had come to a conclusion about this group.  "I think it might be best if you turn around now and leave the Azure Glade.  You'd be much safer heading back the way you came.""Can't do that," replied Syngaard.  "We're merchants, looking for new markets to sell our armor and weapons--""You're working for Skevros, who was banished from the Azure Glade years ago," interrupted the Guard.  "You recently broke into his house, likely upon his orders, and slew several members of the Azure Guard in the process.  You're each wearing iron rings that he likely uses to scry upon you, and he is quite possibly watching this scene play out as we speak.  Shall I go on?"  Syngaard looked over at Galen, whose right hand had unconsciously covered the iron ring he wore on his left.  Kaspar looked poised to strike out at the robed figure, his every feature indicating a fear of having been discovered by the enemy."Relax," said the Azure Guard, passing a hand over his face.  Immediately, his form wavered and blurred, melting into a new one - that of an elven woman wearing yellow robes.  "My name is Leornna," she said in a much more pleasant voice.  "I've already cast a divination on you that leads me to believe you're trustworthy, so I'm going to level with you.  I'm the Guildmaster of Illusionists of the Azure Glade, and I'm investigating a suspected cabal hidden within some of the other Guilds.  I believe they have already successfully infiltrated and now control the Divination and Necromancy Guilds and are making headway into running the Azure Guards, through the Guild of Evokers who are responsible for their training.""You speak of the Seekers of Eternity," offered Kaspar."Yes," Leornna replied."Very well," said Galen, looking over at the others.  "We will level with you.  Skevros is also investigating the Seekers of Eternity.  He's having us go to the Library of the Diviners Guild, to steal a book called 'The Curse of the Mithral Mage.'  He believes it will shed light upon the group and their intentions."  The paladin filled in the Guildmaster on the recent assassination attempt by the dwarven crossbowmen and the half-orc who wore the tattoo of the Seekers on the back of his neck."I don't know anything about the book," replied Leornna, "but I can tell you the library is open at all hours.  You'd do best entering at night, when it's apt to be less populated.  As far as defenses go, I'm afraid I can't help you there - to the best of my knowledge, nobody's tried stealing anything from the libraries of the Azure Glade before.  But I wish you luck.""Thank you," called Galen as he spurred Seneca forward.  Anuja cracked the reins to her horse and the wagon moved steadily forward, as Syngaard and Kaspar jumped back on."Bunch of idiots," Leornna said, smiling quietly to herself as she resumed her magical appearance as a male human member of the Azure Guard.The Guilded City was larger than Durnhill's own capitol, or at least it seemed so - but that may have been because many of their buildings tended to be taller.  But Anuja had no trouble finding her way to the Library of the Guild of Diviners.  It was past nightfall when she pulled the wagon alongside the sturdy building."You wait out here," said Galen, leaping down from his warhorse and tying the reins loosely to the side of the wagon.  "But be ready for a speedy departure, should that become necessary."Entering the large library, the trio saw it was mostly deserted; a quartet of students in white robes sat together at two tables but otherwise the place seemed to be empty.  However, the place was much larger than either of the adventurers had expected.  "We'll never find that damned book in a place this size!" Syngaard hissed."Perhaps we can gain some assistance," offered Kaspar, approaching the four white-robed men.  Galen did a quick scan of their auras, detecting no evil among them."Excuse me," said Kaspar, smiling at the students.  "I'm looking for a book about the Mithral Mage.  Would you have any idea where such a book might be located?"  Galen and Syngaard stayed well back, afraid they stood out like sore thumbs in their mithral armor - not the normal library garb."Probably over in the biographies section," replied one of the students, pointing to the far corner.  Kaspar thanked him and headed over to the indicated section, waving the other two over by him.  "Spread out and look for the book," he suggested to the others.  "It has to be here somewhere."  A few minutes of scanning the titles printed on the spines of the books - more books than Syngaard had ever seen together in one place before - led to its inevitable discovery.  "Got it!" Kaspar said, waving the others to him."How we gonna get it out of here?" Syngaard asked."I imagine they'd have some sort of magical detection system," Galen offered.  Kaspar pulled out the bag of holding tucked into his belt and put his hand into it, pulling out the blank tome Skevros had given him.  He put it on the shelf in the spot he'd taken "The Curse of the Mithral Mage," so there wasn't an obvious gap in the shelf of books.  Then he placed the book they'd been sent to steal into the extradimensional space in his magical bag.  "They may not be able to sense it if it's in an extradimensional space," the elf reasoned."Give it here," Galen commanded.  "If anything goes wrong, I can play it up as an honest mistake."  After a moment's thought, Kaspar handed over his bag - it did make sense to let the Hieronean paladin take the fall; he was the most likely of the three of them to be able to bluff his way through an explanation if they got caught.  "Let's go," Galen said, heading back to the front door - the only exit from the building they could see."Wait!" hissed Kaspar suddenly.  He grabbed up a random book from the shelf and gave it to Galen.  "If we get caught the first time, better if we don't single out the book we're trying to steal.  If you make it out with this book, we'll know it's safe to follow with the one we're really after!"  Galen agreed with the plan and returned the bag of holding to Kaspar, before taking the "trial theft" book in his hand and walking straight for the exit.The others stayed back as Galen started walking out the library's exit.  But at the last moment he wasn't there anymore - he'd been teleported to the far side of the library as soon as he crossed the threshold.  Worse yet, books were leaping from the shelves all around him and fluttered around them, their covers and pages flapping like birds.  Another swarm of flying books manifested at the library entrance.  "Uh oh," muttered Syngaard.Galen dropped the book he'd try to steal to the floor and stepped quickly away from the swarm of flying books.  Looking back, he saw the books dive down by the dropped tome, which animated at their touch and flew back to its designated position on the shelf where the paladin had taken it.  Then, that matter settled, the books flew back to their own places on the shelf and the ones fluttering by the door returned to their own shelves."That was weird," Syngaard observed."Indeed," agreed Kaspar.  "But at least we've learned something about the defenses."  They walked over to join Galen.  "We screwed up," admitted the paladin as the others joined him.  "I should have put the book inside a bag of holding - we still don't know if the library can detect it inside an extradimensional space.""Well, let's do it and get out of here," suggested Syngaard.  "This place gives me the creeps."They decided to just go for broke.  The three of them exited the library at roughly the same time, with Galen slightly behind the other two, so the paladin was able to observe the other two get teleported to different parts of the library before stopping short himself.  "What the Hell?" demanded Syngaard as books flew off the shelf to atackt him.  Over in another section of the building, Kaspar was suffering the same fate.  Galen took a rapid step back as a double-thick swarm of books manifested in the library doorway, blocking the sole exit.Kaspar and Syngaard each came to the same solution independently and started fleeing back towards the exit as their respective flying book swarms gave aerial chase.  The books were remarkably fast, diving in and cutting the two adventurers with the sharp edges of their pages.  Syngaard gritted his teeth in pain and was astonished that he was being attacked via paper cuts, of all things!Galen spun away and met Kaspar as he approached.  "Go back!" the paladin urged.  "Put the book back where we got it!"  Kaspar wheeled and raced to comply, with the books darting in and out at him for the whole duration. But once "The Curse of the Mithral Mage" was back in its place on the shelf, the book swarms settled down and returned to their own shelves once again."We need a new approach," suggested Kaspar once the three adventurers converged once again for a strategy session."No kidding!" exploded Syngaard, earning him a "Shhh!" from one of the students.  He and Kaspar each had to drink down a healing potion , for their "paper cut" wounds continued to bleed and showed no signs of letting up until they had done so.  "Nothing good never came from no book!" swore the bald fighter."It seems we can't take a book out of the building without being teleported back in," observed Kaspar."Agreed," said Galen."Why don't we just chuck the damn book out the door?" suggested Syngaard.  "Then we can follow after it and get the Hell out of this stupid place!""I imagine the book would just teleport back into the building, like they've done the last two times," mused Galen.Kaspar was rubbing his chin.  "Apparently we need a member of the Diviners Guild to take the book out for us," he said.  "What color robes were the Diviners again, Syngaard, white?"  Syngaard pulled out his "cheat sheet" and confirmed the elf's guess."There we go, then," said Kaspar, indicating the four students in their white robes.  "We can sneak the book into one of their bags, then get it from them after they've left the building.""What, mug them?" asked Galen, clearly not liking the idea."I got no problem with that," pointed out Syngaard.  "I'll do the mugging, if you don't wanna.""Perhaps there's a more straightforward approach," suggested Galen, walking over to where the students were studying.  "Excuse me, gentlemen," he said, pulling out his own bag of holding from its place at his belt and opening it up.  "Would I be correct in assuming you are students here?""That's right," one of them said, looking up from his own studies."I recall my own days of study at the temple of Hieroneous.  As I recall, coin for the occasional refreshing drink was not always at hand - at least, not as often as I would have liked."  Galen pulled out stacks of coins from his bag.  "Would I be able to interest one of you in earning, shall we say a thousand gold coins for a simple task?""I'm interested!" one of the students exclaimed.  "What's the task?""I wish to remove this book from the library," Galen admitted, placing "The Curse of the Mithral Mage" on the table.  "There are wards in place preventing me from doing so.  However, I believe you could quite easily walk it out of the building.""I certainly could!" the diviner replied, grabbing up the book.  "That's it?  Take the book outside?  And you'll pay me a thousand gold?""Absolutely.""On your word as a paladin of Hieroneous?""May the Gold of Valor strike me dead if I renege on this agreement.""Let's go!" said the student, dashing out the door before the idiot paladin changed his mind.  The three adventurers followed suit, took the book from the student, and started counting out gold coins at the wagon.  The other three students joined their friend, helping him stuff the coins into their individual bags and packs, for none of them had any extradimensional spaces in which to carry the load of coins.  Then the adventurers took off in their wagon and the students decided to spend some of their fortune at the nearest tavern."That was thinking outside the box," remarked Kaspar.  "Well done, Galen."  Syngaard said nothing for awhile, trying to figure out which box the elf was talking about.  Finally he gave it up, declaring, "I don't wanna see another book for a good long time!""I wonder if these things work both ways," Galen mused, holding up his ring to his mouth as he rode Seneca down the road back towards Durnhill.  "Hey Skevros," he said into his ring.  "We got the book, and we're heading home.""Very good," said Skevros's voice from the iron ring, surprising the whole group.  The king's adviser often summoned his team together through a verbal message sent through the rings, but this was the first time he had opted to carry on a long-distance conversation.  Galen quickly filled him in on the events of the past couple of days."I fear your rings may have been compromised," Skevros said.  "You say the zombies were all wearing iron rings as well?""That's right," confirmed Galen."It's possible that the Diviners might have been able to transfer their scrying focuses from the rings on the zombies to your own.  Just to be safe, I suggest you all ditch them immediately - I can have a replacement set waiting for you upon your return.""Very well," agreed Galen.  "Anything else?""Just return home at your best speed.  I am eager to read through the book you have retrieved.""Wizards and their damn books," scoffed Syngaard.  "They'll be the death of me yet.""I paid a thousand gold coins to have the students smuggle the book out," Galen pointed out."You will be reimbursed," Skevros promised the paladin."Uh, yeah, me too!" called out Syngaard.  "I paid out a thousand gold as well!""You forget that I am able to scry upon you with your iron rings," Skevros scolded the greedy fighter.  "You did no such thing.""Stupid rings," Syngaard muttered, pulling his off his finger and flinging it into the gutter. - - -We managed to throw a curve ball at Logan several times during this adventure.  The first time was when we met up with the "Azure Guard" (really Leornna, who Logan later told us was a 20th-level illusionist he had planned to have kick our butts if we started a fight with her, but she'd do nonlethal damage so she could question us) and opted not to attack.  He had fully expected us to attack the Azure Guard and was left scrambling when we instead tried bluffing our way through the encounter.Then, in the library, he was amazed that we ran from the flying book swarms, as he had fully expected (and intended) us to fight them.  In fact, that was the easy way out of the situation, for the book swarms only manifested once for each book that someone tried bringing out of the library.  (So after the first time trying to take "The Curse of the Mithral Mage" out of the library, we could have just walked it out at any point thereafter.  D'oh!)  Of course, by then we were paranoid that there was a 20th-level Diviners Guildmaster waiting there for us somewhere, and the four students might have been Diviners of any level.  Once we saw the books return to their shelves if combat wasn't initiated, that seemed to us like the way to go.Logan used Paizo's "Arcane Library" Flip-Mat for the Diviners Library and a couple of map tiles from the "Road System" Map Pack for the meeting with Leornna.  A Dungeon Tile was used for the campsite, which came with two tents.And throwing a dozen goblins and a hobgoblin at us from our first adventure (only this time in zombie form) has us players wondering just how much of this overarching plot Logan had figured out from the very beginning.  He's doing an awesome job of weaving a fine tapestry out of threads gathered one two-hour session at a time.</blockquote>

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