Session 24: The Great Library

We see Hazel lying on the ground. She is barely breathing. We figure out that she is poisoned. Lufere and Faenore look into the books they have to see if they can find anything about this tree and apple. Lufere, does know it's called Gulthias tree. It produces a red and white apple, but he doesn't know what the apples do.
 
I guess now we know the apple is poisonous. Leland puts the apple in a jar. Faenore is able to cure Hazels poison, but she is still unconscious.
 
Stefan tells us that there was a grove with this tree where Hazel go the apple. It's about 10 minutes from where we are resting.
 
We go examine this tree, and it is completely black and no leaves. However there are apples being produced. Lufere does find in one of his books that the red apples heal diseases and poison and the white apples cause poison. This tree is located in a little grotto with small bushes and this single tree.
 
Lufere is able to talk to this true. We learn that this tree has been through a lot of trauma. It was once a nice little tree in a grove that got cut down, it was shaved down into a single steak that was then used to kill a vampire. That stake then became another tree, and an evil wizard took a branch from it and grew another tree.
 
Now this tree is thirsty for blood. Lufere offers it a bag of dragons blood for a branch. some needle blights poured the blood on the roots, and the tree presented Lufere with one of it's evil staves.
 
We talk about getting to the REAL library that Lufere saw when he was in the ethereal plane. We study the tuning forks that we found with a couple of spell scrolls we have. We actually have a fork that goes to the ethereal plane, and we think that might be the easiest way to get to the REAL library. Travel through the ethereal plane bypassing the abolith, and then coming back to the material plane.
 
We then decide to retune the tuning fork that we have that goes to the fey wild to the material plane so we can get back home.
 
Lyra confronts hazel about reading a book about Stefan's family.
 
We take a long rest, and when we wake up the whole ground is really slimy.
 
The bard that we ran into before is here. He survived the cave ins apparently.
 
The bard drops a book and we find that it is blank. We then learn that he had to read a card from teh card catalogue to be able to read this book. Otherwise it shows up as blank.
 
Stefan casts a spell to summon a weasel familiar to try and steal the book Hazel was reading. He got the book, but Hazel squashed Gunner causing it to disappear....because it's a spell....
 
Lufere finishes reading his tome that increases his wisdom.
 
At this moment, the abolyth shows up next to us. Lufere propositions it to go back to the Far Plane. Faenore is able to convince it to go back home to brag about the empire it has built here.
 
The abolith wants us all to go to the Far Plane with him. We decide to try and trick him by agreeing, but then sending just him to the far plane. The abolith then disappears and says "find me in the water"
 
We decide to cast Speak with Dead on the dead elf with us to try and find some information.
 
What do you know about the library below us?
Give us a 2 minute history of your life and death
 
she is queen Afaria Quelthalone. This used to be her city. She ruled with her husband. It was a great city of knowlege. It was a beautiful place until 4 different brothers came along. Her people defeated one of the brothers, and put his soul into The Greatspear.
 
They were in charge of seeing their people moving on/out/to the other side (translation), but she was struck down by the other races that were lead by these brothers. One being humans, the other being dwarvish, the other orcs.
 
We know that the name Quelthalone almost translates to "Prime Elf"
 
We ask about the library below us. If it is her library, it is the complete collective knowledge of their history and everything they learned up until the sundering. (approximately 1083 years ago.)
 
We ask what she knows about a dragon named Woe. She looks fearful.
 
She calls him by another name- E'moncitriem -- she knows he was a blue dragon. He controlled Orcs and he controlled blue dragons and the rode the dragons, and he fought in the war with the brothers. He defeated EVERYONE. After they thought they had one, Woe rose up. He made a deal with Babba Yaga.
 
We talk about possibly having her resurrected eventually, but we don't know if that is a good idea or not. or if it is even possible because of their reincarnation shit.
 
We ask what weakness Woe may have. We learn there were 2 different brothers. one of them rose up and lead the humans against Woe. the borther's name was So'urgrapit. This brother knew exactly how to kill Woe. So'urgrapit
 
She has a pendant around her neck. We ask her what it is and she does'nt know. We suspect it's casting Gentle Repose on her, But we cannot confirm this. We notice the symbol on the necklace is the same symbol that was on the crest that caused the cave in of this place.
 
It's a symbol of Shar, the goddess of loss.
 
Quill and Leland are like man the Raven Queen hate that bitch.
 
Lufere decides to ask the Abolith if he knows what spell is on the necklace and if it is gentle repose? The abolith tells us that there were a few elves that worshipped Shar a long time ago. The elves didn't appreciate Shar. We learn Opheria's soul is in the medallion. She has in fact not reincarnated. The elves that came here, after the Eladrin had fought back the Abyss, came to this plane to make a home. Opheria's group of elves wanted to go back to the fey wild, and that sentiment was not appreciated, so they trapped her soul into this locket, so that she would be punished forever.
 
Lufere asks if we can bring Opheria and get her raised after searching the library, then we could bring her back as a trophy. We discuss how we could raise her, because her soul is trapped, and we don't think this will work. He says we will discuss it later. He offers to let us sit in the library for as long as we wish, and then we can talk about it. The abolith tells Leland that his family might know something about freeing souls from items.
 
Lufere decides to try and go into the water with the abolith to go to the library. Lyra and Faenore convince him not to do it.
 
We decide to teleport to the library using plane shift. We leave Hazel, Lydia and Callun behind.
 
Hazel starts to look for the journal she was reading and can't find it. She asks for someone to cast Locate Object. Quill casts the spell and is immediately able to tell that Stefan has it.
 
Quill reveals that Sefan has the book. Stefan says its a book about his family and he has no intention of giving it back. Hazel says it's probably better if he reads it any way and concedes.
 
Lufere finally planeshifts us to The Library. He realizes we MUST leave this plane to get there. He teleports us to the Ethereal plane but where the library is.
 
WE are able to see a secret door in the basement of the library that seems to go out to what would have been a courtyard that can go up and out and then somewhere else? I"m not sure.
 
we decide to check it out and it looks like it has a long tunnel tat ends up going deeper under ground. WE travel for quite a while. After an hour or so, we see that the tunnel is still going down. We start to see bioluminescent lichen on the wall. There are some strange creatures here. It looks like the tunnel leads to the underdark.
 
There is also a prison down here built into the tunnel. There 3 people chained up. ONe is a human in a loin cloth. He looks like he is some kind of warrior or barbarian. Another dude, a human lady that is slumped over, and a drow.
 
There are a couple of drow guards and a candle lit with purple faerie fire. Quill determines that the female human has expired.
 
We hear another guard approach and speak to the other drow in undercommon so we don't know what they are saying.
 
we hear the human whisper to the drow chained up. The human says if he can help get them out of the chains, he can get them to the surface. The drow would rather be in prison, because on the surface the elves eat drow and children.
 
We decide to to back to the library and plane shift there, and when we get ready to retreat, use the tunnels to get away.
 
Lufere is able to plane shift us to the library.
 
We research Babba Yaga, So'urgrapit, Woe, spells scrolls, The Great Spear,
 
There are no books on So'urgrapit specifically, but there is some stuff on the 4 brothers.
Babba Yaga is the hag of all hags. She has a hut that can come to life. Anyone that has made a deal with her has suffered terribly for it
The book about Woe is talking about a war. It's the same book with the 4 brothers. All of this stuff in these books ended a few years after the sundering.
 
Quill finds some books on Shar, the lady of loss. She's at odds with the Raven Queen. She's a sister to Selune, children from the elvish pantheon with Corelon. Shar is a destroyer. Her followers value loss and pain.
 
Leland finds a book on cold iron. It is specifically on how difficult it is to make and how nobody has ever been able to make it. It is a lost craft. There are notes of dwarves working on it. some guy named Duran Stoneforge. There are instructions for how to craft and make a special steele. It's called Stormforged steele. Duran and his people made it. When you look at it, it has a watery affect to it. It's a strong as adamantine. It's made out of a few specific kinds of metals, but it's the technique that makes it as strong as Adamantine.
 
Lufere grabs a book on Demogorogon.
 
Faenore finds a book about mythials and we think the moon pools where Callun is from may have worked with mithals.
 
We learn The Great Spear was crafted a long time ago with the soul of one of the 4 brothers. There was a blue dragon called asuzaraine. His name was Mangosten as well as Bolttongue. There were 4 different dragons that wanted to take rulership overtop of the dragons in the desert. The 4 dragons challenged Mangosten, who was over 4000 years old. He agreed to let them bring a group to fight. The 4 dragons decided to take on humanoid forms and build armies. They made deals with Babba Yagga to do this.
 
One became a dwarf, another a elf, another a human, and the last an orc. They went to their respective groups. The dragon that went to the elves was almost immediately captured by the elves, put in a mithilar, and his soul was pulled into "The Great Spear" This spear was made by the runeforge dwarves
 
The Great Spear ended up in the first king of GreatSpear and named the city after it.
 
We presume Woe is one of the four brothers, and was the orc. He betrayed his brothers at the end. So, he wouldn't be looking to free his siblings.
 
The other two brothers, Kurith lead the dwarves, So'urgrapit lead the humans. Woe convinced dragons to fight against Asuzarine. The humans were taught by So'urgrapit how to kill blue dragons. The people on the mesa must be part of this lineage. The dwarves were the Runeforged dwarves. The orcs are the orcs serving Woe now.
 
The dwarves and the humans decided not to work with the orcs and first fought and defeated Woe.
 
Somehow Woe came back as a blue dragon, and with the help of the orcs and other blue dragons, he was able to defeat the Asuzarine as well as his brothers and peoples.
 
The human married an elf named Orpheria. I guess she is Woe's sister in law.
 
We are able to find a scroll of teleport and a scroll of planeshift.
 
We get some extra books for ourselves.
 
We decide to go through the secret Tunnel. We realize we actually have calun with us. Lyra sends a message using her sending scroll to hazel, lydia and the bard telling them.
 
"We are not coming back. Please get to the surface. We will find you again one day. Headed to Underdark. Good Luck"
 
We get to the prison we saw before in the tunnel. Looks like the prisoners escaped as the guards are dead. The dead lady prisoner is gone also.
 
Leland finds a piece of cold iron on the dead drow. We cast speak with dead on the drow to try and find out how he obtained it. We learn he killed elves for it. He says he killed them on the surface We find out he actually murdered a deep gnome for it. He was lying. We know this because Faenore cast zone of truth on the drow.
 
we ask where we can find more cold iron, and he says we'd have to ask a Duregar. He gives us directions to the duregar.
 
Just around the corner we hear fighting. It's the prisoners fighting some kind of brain creature. Quill kills it and we help them recover some health.
 
We find out that he was with a group of his friends came down from the mesa, and were captured. His wife is with him and didn't make it. He's taking her body back. His name is Osiris. WE cast Gentle Repose on his wife
 
He notices that Callun is wearing their regalia, but Osiris says he sees nothing. He is a warrior of his people. They had come down to give a hard time to some of the kids that had been sent into the wild. However, they got ambushed by drow. His friends were killed, and he's the only survivor.
 
We ask if he wants to accompany us. We are looking for the Duregar and once we get information from them, we are going to teleport out. We can take them with us. He agrees to accompany us.
 
We end here about to head towards the Duregar.