Session 23: The end of a Neolithid and escaping an Abolith

We are in the library surrounded by giant tentacles and slightly disoriented. Lydia, whom was looking at a library shelf finds a scroll. She throws it to Quill and tells her that there are scrolls everywhere. Maybe we can use them.
 
We fight the creature and we beat it as it tries to escape to the second floor. Callun starts to loot the library and we then have to fight some mimics. WE end up destroying most of the mundane books in this place. All of this.....for nothing it seems......
 
We all research various things. Faenore researches something called Tragedy of Red Pine something about about orcs...and hazels backstory. We looked up books about trapping souls, people found books to help them with their on personal goals. Books on the Runeforge wars, a feywild book for Lufere....Just lots of cool stuff really.
 
Leland finds a magical bookmark in one of his books. We all find our own little magicall items. Quill gets magical sparkles, but we don't know what they did.
 
We notice that there are pieces of ancient ruins down here and spots with Ice stalagmites that are very cold. There is a pool of very deep and very cold water. Stephan scoops some of that water out and poors it on the ground. We all hear a voice in our heads that "What do you seek"
 
Quill does dive into the pool as an octopus, but she doesn't see anything really. It's just vast empty water.
 
We ask the voice who it is and it says "Nursk". We ask where he is and he tells us to seek him and we will find him. He says this is not the true library. The real library is within ourselves and we can go on a journey to connect to it.
 
Also, not all that seek will come back. There was one illithid that left the library. All the others died. Quill gets out of the water at this time.
 
We aren't sure really what to do. CAllun tries to open ANOTHER test and gets stabbed in the face with spikes, BUT Stefan ends up finding a skull with gems on it which is something Lyra was lookin for.
 
Callun also finds a jewelry box with a holy symbol with a purple ring on it. When Calllun picks it up, we hear a loud explosion in the distance, and then there are more distances until all the rooms above have caved in. Now a bunch of spikes are coming down towards us.
 
Lufere creates an air filled device so se can try to hide under water. Stefan leads Blind callun to a sarcophagus where they find a lady elf who looks like she is sleeping. Hazel starts trying to quickly doff her armor. Lyra runs over to try and help her. Leland has Fuzzball fetch the "sleeping" elf lady.
 
Hazel realizes that shes running out of time, so she tells Lyra to get in the water. She says she's going to wait for Stefan and CAllun and then jump in with them.
 
Part of the ceiling calls through creating a mound that will not be hit with Spikes. However, many of the group don't see this and end up in the water. Stefan and Hazel make it to the mound.
 
The spikes hit the ground and most of the group is now trapped under water. Quill, because she is an octopus is able to manuver her self out of the water and up to the mound.
 
The voice of Nursk calls out again and says they can take us to safety. We do see a large creatures swimming down below. We tell it we are going to try and reunite ourselves with our friends before doing anything.
 
Faenore knows what this creature is. It's an Abolith. These creatures once enslaved creatures until the gods stopped them and freed their slaves. They are creatures of who have perfect memory from the beginning of everything.
 
He keeps inviting us to the library. Meanwhile, after what has taken forever, Quill in her Octopus form cralls through the spikes and finds the button that started all of this. She presses it down, and it does nothing.
 
Meanwhile, we ask Nursk about htis place and how it came to be. A civilization known as UR sank in an ocean. Teh survivors moved here and their civilization sank again in the desert. Another civilization built on top, and THAT city sank. That was the city Truthage. This place is a geological anomaly, this place. He tells us that the reason only one ever returns is because it's dangerous, and it's lucky if ANYONE returns at all.
 
There are traps down below and he tells us about the ones he knows. He tells ua there are mechanisms that could undo the floor spikes, but we have to come to the library with him first.
 
Faenore tries to use the wand of wonder and it causes the portable hole with Tempest in it to disappear. Nursk tells us he can help us get there.
 
Lufere starts to pray to Nature. He is able to see Gaia the Tree of Life. This embodiment of this tree walks towards Lufere and it's a furbolg with rainbow hair. She tells Lufere she's been watching over him. He says she can help him. She says she can lead him and only him to the ethereal plane.
 
She says when he is ready to return she will let him come back. Lufere hands the corner of air bubble thing to Leland and then disappears. Gaia tells Lufere she will lead him to the etheral plane, but he will have to make the journey there to find his friend. She gives him an acorn to crack when he is ready to come back.
 
Meanwhile, Faenore is praying to Corellon. Corellon tells him that Nursk is a horrible abomination trying to trick us and enslave us. To very much beware of him.
 
Eventually Stefan and Hazel walk upon a small grove with a black tree with a single albino apple hanging from it. Hazel plucks the apple and puts it into her bag
 
They then find a small pond of frozen water. They are able to break the ice. Hazel decides to dive into it to check it out. It looks like this body of water might connect to the body of water that everyone else is in. It's really far away from us though.
 
Meanwhile, Lufere is floating down into a tree thing...He sees Hazel and Stefan kind of floating along. I guess he's in the ethereal plane now. Everything is muted and blurry a bit.
 
He heads back to where Tempest pops out of existence, and he actually sees a library that IS intact. What is going on?
 
Meanwhile Stefan finds a set of gears that could be used to raise the spiked floor back up. He's able to raise it up about an inch.
 
Meanwhile Lufere can see all of us in the ethereal plane. He is able to go to where Tempest popped out and finds the portable hole. He pops the acorn and Gaia leads him back to the tree.
 
Lufere pops back into existence with the portable hole with Tempest in it. He hears Gaia's voice tell him that they must hurry.
 
Stefan is able to slowly raise the floor, but it's a slow process. Meanwhile the Abolith starts losing patience and starts to try and force folks in the water to go with him.
 
The abolith, try as he may isn't able to charm any of us. The ceiling finally gets raised enough so that we can all get out.
 
However I guess we all start to throw up. It's gross. We figure out the sleeping dead elf lady is actually dead. She just isn't decaying
 
We climb up to the second level. Lufere finds us a really good camping spot. AS we are are starting our reset, WE see Hazel lieing strangely on her side with the white apple having rolled out of her hand a few inches away. There is no bite in it. Her finger tips where she touched it have turned black. She also was reading a book that seemed to have family information about Stefan.