S1 E54: Sylvanwroth's Hospitality

General Summary

In which a caterpillar is rescued and a limitless library becomes opened to the scale squad...

• The Scale Squad speaks at length with Sylvanwroth, who is polite though more than a little off-putting in his bone-plate armor and skull face, which might be a skull mask. But he's very roundabout in his speech, perhaps to be expected considering his age and how rarely he gets to talk to actual people. He affirms the basics of their quest and doesn't seem at all to be the sort of myth-level terror he's been described as, at least to Mae who grew up so close to the Haunted Wood but was firmly told never to go there as a child. 
• Rather than threats and violence he explains things like the fact that the dirt in the hill over the tomb comes from the bone-boxes made for the 16,794 corpses collected from the battle of Seki Gahan - Seki Gahan being one of them, as well as the opposing general, but the two of them get their own displays in his trophy room. 
• He also mentions a pair of star-crossed lovers, a Drow woman named Zilvrae and a human bard named Eldon, who in life met surreptitiously in the Haunted Wood, but were killed as traitors by their own people, and Sylvanwroth gave their restless souls sanctuary inside his home as a place to be safe from the world. He lets them tour around his conservatory and then invites them to dinner, departing to take care of his other business. Minchin leaves to prepare the dining room, leaving them alone briefly in the garden. They observe the plants and find that a caterpillar has written 'help' in the dirt.
• Speaking with Animals, Mae discovers that he's the paladin Manduca who has been turned into a caterpillar by the cursefern. This is quickly matched up with the person who ordered the +2 Shield that's being held for two weeks or until he claims it, whichever comes first. She brings him along on her other shoulder, though Gusgus at first regards him as a snack. He claims that he came here on some knightly mission to defeat the evil lich but literally didn't make it out of the entry room.
• After a delicious and well prepared but relatively small meal of perfectly roasted meats and roasted vegetables with wine and hot Dalashai tea, they go with Minchin to the trophy hall Trophy Hall, Lower floor. In addition to the actual trophies, the room is paneled all the way around with swords on end, a combination of swords from the battlefield and the swords of those who have come to fight Sylvanwroth, and died trying.
• After reviewing the items there, they are then led into Sylvanwroth's Library Sylvanwroth's Library. They are admiring the furnishings, including the obsidian desk and the evident Throne of Chaos, which Sylvanwroth uses as an office chair. They also catch a glimpse of the whirling tornado of black smoke and burning sigils which is evidently the librarian, a being Minchin says is called Morvain. Various signs around the library threaten that damaging or stealing books will be met with a lethal response. 
• Minchin also mentions that the Library can't be left using the same door that was used to enter it; It has 5 doors, so 4 options present themselves for the next place to explore, but within the library is surely a lifetime - multiple lifetimes - of knowledge on almost every conceivable subject - perhaps also on things like conjunctions, or Quindarin, or Borem. Minchin also warned them that the children's section held "interesting dangers". And then there's that throne of Chaos...

Missions/Quests Completed

• Find Manduca

Character(s) interacted with

• Minchin
• Sylvanwroth
• Manduca

Notes

• Trophy Room Trophy Hall, Lower floor 
• Library Sylvanwroth's Library 
• Conservatory Sylvanwroth's Conservatory 

Report Date

05 Jun 2023

Primary Location

The Tomb of Sylvanwroth

Secondary Location

The Haunted Wood

Related Characters

• Sylvanwroth