Having Fun Isn't Hard When You Have a Library Card - March 20, 2020
- First fully remote game of the pandemic! Thank you Covid-19 for depriving us of each other's company.
- The time is late morning - the party is on the way to the library from the city hall when a forest falcon falls from the sky and hits Sariel on the shoulder and bounces off
- When she picks it up, it speaks to her in an ethereal voice that she almost recognizes, "Where have you gone Sariel Naïlo? Your clan suffers; your forest dies. Act swiftly before the decay is absolute."
- She is very thoughtful until they arrive at the library when Neil asks if her people could help with Barkridge since they are closer than the party at the moment, but they are artisans not warriors
- The library is an old stone building, two stories high, tucked into an out of the way corner of the city near the wall on the opposite side of the city from the barracks
- When they enter the library, it smells of old books, is dimly lit by magic wall sconces, has shelves everywhere with a staircase leading to the second story, and has a magic elevator in the center
- Zaril approaches the desk piled high with books and sees a very little old woman with piercing eyes greets them - She looks positively ancient
- She asks them to "refrain from casting spells inside the library. It could be bad for the books." after Acta casts Detect Magic at her. (She glows with Divination magic.)
- Neil explains that they have been commissioned to help with the defense of the city, so he would like books about the history of the city and how the city has defended itself in the past as well as dragons
- Sariel asks about nature spirits who can grant druidic powers
- Zaril asks about the mechanical birds of Dunithan (Sp?)
- Sariel then asks about titans and get a very piercing look
- Information about titan is deep, deep in the vaults, and as long as she gives them permission to be there nothing down there will injury the party or attempt to injure the party
- She takes Neil to the history of the city on the second floor, Zaril also stays behind to see if she can find anything about Dunithan, and she does find a book about both Shivar and one about Dunithan
- She takes Sariel, Luca, and Acta back to the first floor then to the teleporter and they go to the first level of the archives and she takes Sariel to a section and hands her a book about the Holimion Forest
- Acta asks about necrobotany and the ability to make zombies out of plants, the Temple to Chemosh northwest of here, or a biography of the ancient druidess Ellilune
- Unsurprisingly, there are no books about necrobotany, but there is a book about influential members of the druidic community, which Luca takes
- Acta then asks if she has anything about a creature called Agrexost
- They head back to the teleporter disk, and this time says Archives Level 5.
- Level 5 is deep beneath Level 4 compared to the space between the other levels
- Level 5 has only a few shelves and there are dark, ominous shadows behind the shelves
- Acta starts to sit on the floor to read it, but Ezra says that she should really bring the book back to the first floor to read it because Ezra doesn't plan to stick around, and it wouldn't be safe without her here
- Back the reading room on the ground floor where Cornelius and Zaril have already settled themselves with their finds
- Neil has found a very comprehensive history of the city in twenty-three (or so) volumes each of which is quite hefty - he spends about thirty minutes skimming looking for how the city is defended and discovers the city has no gates and the only way in or out is through a portal
- The city wall is embued with protection spells, but not specifically which kind of spells
- Zaril does not find any new information she didn't already know about Shivar, in fact their information seems to be very out of date. She offers to make notes in the margins to update it, and Ezra asks her not to deface the books, so she does so on separate paper instead
- She then finds out that Dunithan is viewed as a lost city of fable, but it was supposedly a city built by the Aarakocra and the dwarves "in the mountains", so she asks for a books about dwarves
- Acta asks Ezra to have a look at the book she stole from Barkridge, and Ezra says it has a teleportation spell set upon it.
- It would have a keyword trigger to activate the spell, which Acta examines the book closely again and her magical sight seems to pick up the phrase "Get me out of here" on the cover of the book.
- Acta reads about Agrexost and how Alejandro found it and how they are mining its brain matter and they know it regenerates, but they don't know if it could come back to life or if it would just regenerate until the brain is whole again, and there is a lot of speculation about what it would have been like before it was dormant and a lot of ancient legends about the other titans and their war with the gods and how they were banished to a stasis sleep deep within various parts of the world
- Sariel reads about her home and how it contains a very powerful and ancient nature magic that sustains its people, it gives the impression that the nature spirit who lives there is also sustained by the innate magic of the forest, but that she, in turn, cares for the forest and its peoples in a beautiful cycle of giving and care
- Neil asks for books about the culture of dragons and she brings back a book which "several notable dragons have contributed to", Tyron is among them
- Zaril reads about how the dwarves were a race of humanoids who were industrious and mostly from the northern continent, but with a few settlements on the southern continent as well, and were also very interested in mechanical inventions as well and briefly mentions that they were interested in flying machines and worked with the aarakocra to learn about the art of flying but that they were all killed off by a plague (Dwovid-19?)
- Luca's book does mention Ellilune and when the book was compiled she was at least 2,000 years old. It speaks of her very highly of her as a good and caring leader and discusses how she did some experimenting with another druid on using nature magic to build things, like staircases
- Neil discovers that dragons have very large clutches of eggs, but only a few from each clutch survive to adulthood due to extreme competition. Once they are adults, they tend to go their own way and create their own territory and each hoards something that is valuable to that individual. It could be almost anything.
- Dragons tend to be ambitious, but that is also very individual. None would ever want to be obligated to another being. You would never find two dragons whose ambitions overlap even slightly living anywhere near each other or they would end up fighting until one was killed.
- The book mentions Gerard the green, a bookwyrm; Daganth the red, a hoarder of gold and jewels; and Eris the blue, a hoarder of power who all manage to live on the same island.
- Alejandro is a gold dragon. Ezra has never seen Tyron as a dragon, so she doesn't know his color.
- Sariel and Zaril go outside to checks on the bird friend who brought her the message and finds it quite fast asleep.
- Zaril receives a Sending while Sariel is outside from Barkridge, "I am approaching with my gathered forces. Have you located Chemendoro? If so, please provide a signal to your location. I trust you are prepared."
- She responds, "We are not prepared. How did you want us to prepare? It is not safe to enter the city. What are your forces?"
- She tells Sariel and then flies as quickly as possible to city hall and immediately heads to Alejandro's office. No one answers the door when she knocks and she breaks a talon trying to pick the lock.
- She is caught by Councilwoman Luna Manero who she convinces to call the city guard to escort her to Alejandro's home.
- She explains the situation to him, and they begin to plan a trap to lead him and his forces into a trap.
- As the rest of the party leaves the library and heads towards city hall / the guard barracks, a city guard approaches Neil and says, "Have you reconsidered my offer yet?" The guard's eyes are solid glowing orbs.
- Sariel recognizes it as a necrobotany zombie, and cries out, "He's a zombie! Luca tackle him!"
- The guard says, "An unfortunate choice." And several other guards appear ominously out of the shadows.
- 3,000 XP ea for 79,780 XP total ea.
- The time is late morning - the party is on the way to the library from the city hall when a forest falcon falls from the sky and hits Sariel on the shoulder and bounces off
- When she picks it up, it speaks to her in an ethereal voice that she almost recognizes, "Where have you gone Sariel Naïlo? Your clan suffers; your forest dies. Act swiftly before the decay is absolute."
- She is very thoughtful until they arrive at the library when Neil asks if her people could help with Barkridge since they are closer than the party at the moment, but they are artisans not warriors
- The library is an old stone building, two stories high, tucked into an out of the way corner of the city near the wall on the opposite side of the city from the barracks
- When they enter the library, it smells of old books, is dimly lit by magic wall sconces, has shelves everywhere with a staircase leading to the second story, and has a magic elevator in the center
- Zaril approaches the desk piled high with books and sees a very little old woman with piercing eyes greets them - She looks positively ancient
- She asks them to "refrain from casting spells inside the library. It could be bad for the books." after Acta casts Detect Magic at her. (She glows with Divination magic.)
- Neil explains that they have been commissioned to help with the defense of the city, so he would like books about the history of the city and how the city has defended itself in the past as well as dragons
- Sariel asks about nature spirits who can grant druidic powers
- Zaril asks about the mechanical birds of Dunithan (Sp?)
- Sariel then asks about titans and get a very piercing look
- Information about titan is deep, deep in the vaults, and as long as she gives them permission to be there nothing down there will injury the party or attempt to injure the party
- She takes Neil to the history of the city on the second floor, Zaril also stays behind to see if she can find anything about Dunithan, and she does find a book about both Shivar and one about Dunithan
- She takes Sariel, Luca, and Acta back to the first floor then to the teleporter and they go to the first level of the archives and she takes Sariel to a section and hands her a book about the Holimion Forest
- Acta asks about necrobotany and the ability to make zombies out of plants, the Temple to Chemosh northwest of here, or a biography of the ancient druidess Ellilune
- Unsurprisingly, there are no books about necrobotany, but there is a book about influential members of the druidic community, which Luca takes
- Acta then asks if she has anything about a creature called Agrexost
- They head back to the teleporter disk, and this time says Archives Level 5.
- Level 5 is deep beneath Level 4 compared to the space between the other levels
- Level 5 has only a few shelves and there are dark, ominous shadows behind the shelves
- Acta starts to sit on the floor to read it, but Ezra says that she should really bring the book back to the first floor to read it because Ezra doesn't plan to stick around, and it wouldn't be safe without her here
- Back the reading room on the ground floor where Cornelius and Zaril have already settled themselves with their finds
- Neil has found a very comprehensive history of the city in twenty-three (or so) volumes each of which is quite hefty - he spends about thirty minutes skimming looking for how the city is defended and discovers the city has no gates and the only way in or out is through a portal
- The city wall is embued with protection spells, but not specifically which kind of spells
- Zaril does not find any new information she didn't already know about Shivar, in fact their information seems to be very out of date. She offers to make notes in the margins to update it, and Ezra asks her not to deface the books, so she does so on separate paper instead
- She then finds out that Dunithan is viewed as a lost city of fable, but it was supposedly a city built by the Aarakocra and the dwarves "in the mountains", so she asks for a books about dwarves
- Acta asks Ezra to have a look at the book she stole from Barkridge, and Ezra says it has a teleportation spell set upon it.
- It would have a keyword trigger to activate the spell, which Acta examines the book closely again and her magical sight seems to pick up the phrase "Get me out of here" on the cover of the book.
- Acta reads about Agrexost and how Alejandro found it and how they are mining its brain matter and they know it regenerates, but they don't know if it could come back to life or if it would just regenerate until the brain is whole again, and there is a lot of speculation about what it would have been like before it was dormant and a lot of ancient legends about the other titans and their war with the gods and how they were banished to a stasis sleep deep within various parts of the world
- Sariel reads about her home and how it contains a very powerful and ancient nature magic that sustains its people, it gives the impression that the nature spirit who lives there is also sustained by the innate magic of the forest, but that she, in turn, cares for the forest and its peoples in a beautiful cycle of giving and care
- Neil asks for books about the culture of dragons and she brings back a book which "several notable dragons have contributed to", Tyron is among them
- Zaril reads about how the dwarves were a race of humanoids who were industrious and mostly from the northern continent, but with a few settlements on the southern continent as well, and were also very interested in mechanical inventions as well and briefly mentions that they were interested in flying machines and worked with the aarakocra to learn about the art of flying but that they were all killed off by a plague (Dwovid-19?)
- Luca's book does mention Ellilune and when the book was compiled she was at least 2,000 years old. It speaks of her very highly of her as a good and caring leader and discusses how she did some experimenting with another druid on using nature magic to build things, like staircases
- Neil discovers that dragons have very large clutches of eggs, but only a few from each clutch survive to adulthood due to extreme competition. Once they are adults, they tend to go their own way and create their own territory and each hoards something that is valuable to that individual. It could be almost anything.
- Dragons tend to be ambitious, but that is also very individual. None would ever want to be obligated to another being. You would never find two dragons whose ambitions overlap even slightly living anywhere near each other or they would end up fighting until one was killed.
- The book mentions Gerard the green, a bookwyrm; Daganth the red, a hoarder of gold and jewels; and Eris the blue, a hoarder of power who all manage to live on the same island.
- Alejandro is a gold dragon. Ezra has never seen Tyron as a dragon, so she doesn't know his color.
- Sariel and Zaril go outside to checks on the bird friend who brought her the message and finds it quite fast asleep.
- Zaril receives a Sending while Sariel is outside from Barkridge, "I am approaching with my gathered forces. Have you located Chemendoro? If so, please provide a signal to your location. I trust you are prepared."
- She responds, "We are not prepared. How did you want us to prepare? It is not safe to enter the city. What are your forces?"
- She tells Sariel and then flies as quickly as possible to city hall and immediately heads to Alejandro's office. No one answers the door when she knocks and she breaks a talon trying to pick the lock.
- She is caught by Councilwoman Luna Manero who she convinces to call the city guard to escort her to Alejandro's home.
- She explains the situation to him, and they begin to plan a trap to lead him and his forces into a trap.
- As the rest of the party leaves the library and heads towards city hall / the guard barracks, a city guard approaches Neil and says, "Have you reconsidered my offer yet?" The guard's eyes are solid glowing orbs.
- Sariel recognizes it as a necrobotany zombie, and cries out, "He's a zombie! Luca tackle him!"
- The guard says, "An unfortunate choice." And several other guards appear ominously out of the shadows.
- 3,000 XP ea for 79,780 XP total ea.
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