Coia: 08 - Books and Libraries and Knowledge, Oh My!
General Summary
After almost a full days ride, the party arrives at Candlekeep. Upon attempting to enter, they discover that the traditional entry fee is a book that the library does not already own. Unable to come up with a payment, the party feared we would have to turn back.
But at the gates we met another man Jayson Boothebarrel, who was also attempting to gain entrance. He agreed to pay our way in if they helped him with his task of finding a solution to the raids on his village. We agree and are taken into a waiting chamber where an adjutants Fembris Larlancer and Sprig Summerfoot meet us and ask how they can help.
We explain that we're looking for the book "The Spires That Started a Race". Fembris informs us that while we cannot leave with any of the books, they can make a copy of it for us to take back to Yaldra. It will take a few days to copy, but we are welcome to wait. We agree and decide to help Jayson with his quest. He asks to speak with the sage Matreous who he was told may have answers for what was attacking his village. We are told that Matreous has been researching artifacts left by Fistandria, a powerful mage who had created an interdimensional mansion.
We are directed to the reading room that Matreous was using, and find it empty, save for some warm tea and papers strewn across his desk. It looks like he left in a hurry and recently. The only other item on ths desk is an ancient tome titled “The Joy of Extradimenional Spaces” by Mordenkainen. On the page it's open to is written the single word "SCEPTER". After speaking the word aloud, the group is surprised to see a portal open up. After some discussion the portal closes. We say the word again and the portal opens again. Fearing Matreous may be trapped on the other side, we head through the portal.
We find ourselves in a large mansion, and deduce that it must be Fistandria's. Looking behind us we see the portal doors disappear and we knoe we must find another way out. Exploring the mansion, we head into the kitchen where we meet two homunculi Cumin and Coriander. They tell us that their masters went away a long time ago and warned them not to touch any of the books with single letters on their spine.
Thinking this may be a clue to our escape, we continue to browse the mansion and find a library. After fighting off some books, we find one with the letter "R" on it's spine. Deducing that they may spell a command word like SCEPTER, we continue hunting for others.
We fight some animated brooms in the study and a mimic in the dining room. Out in the arboretum, Retta discovers a pair of driftglobes. Heading up to the second floor, we search a bedroom and discover a laboratory with a map of the stars. The next room beyond contains a planetarium and has five telecopes. Puzzling through the star map, we align the telescopes with the five bright stars on the map and a scret door slide open to reveal a library of books that are chained together. The chained library attacks us, but we find another lettered book and hightail it out of there.
Still needed a few more letters to figure out the command word, we head to the basement. Finding another laboratory filled with chemicals and jars of things, we fight a few more creatures and find the rest of the books. We unscramble the letters to reveal the command word "LIBERTY". Once spoken aloud, we hear an opening sound and run back to the entrance to find the portal open.
After jumping back through the portal, we find Matreoous dead on the floor with an imp that looks like one of the statues standing over him. Nym, who's running low on blood suger, faints from the sight while the rest of the group kills the imp.
The group rests and once the book was copied and bound, the party said our goodbyes to Jayson Boothebarrel, who had agreed to stay to work for Candlekeep in order to get help with the attacks on his village.
We proceded to head back to Tetbury and speak to Yaldra.
Jayson Boothebarrel
Emis Faralei
Retta
Nym Lenore
Moose Knuckle
Report Date
24 Sep 2022