Adventures in Beast World - Session 19 - Into the Library

Session Date: 2024-04-11 6 Saattaa 1365 The crew then goes to collect El before heading up into the restricted sections of the library tower. El has found the basic reference section and is learning some new cantrips like Prestidigitation. He is quite excited to discover that he has some magical talent. The basic reference section is clearly a room that has been set up knowing that folks would come and practice the magic they were learning about. The room bears scorch marks, broken and mended bits, and a bowl of fresh fruit. It is clear that the fruit often gets used as part of the learning process as there are smashed fruits and stains around the room as well. Fynn explains to El that he can check out books from this section to keep studying if he would like, and El picks one to take with. The crew then heads up a floor into the bottom of the restricted section. The restricted section is up in the tower of the library. The room is shaped like a donut around a central core, but there are no windows. Both the inner and outer walls are lined with bookshelves. As the crew starts to go through this room they notice a few very strange things: There are books that are missing from the shelves. Fynn points out that books from the restricted section are not to be removed from the room, hence the study areas set up there. From his experience he explains that there are usually magical wards that prevent both manual or magical means of removing the books. There is a magical residue left in each empty spot where a book used to be. Stacy determines that this was likely some form of teleportation magic. It seems to have taken the entire book and everything around it as there is no scent from the missing books at all. Stacy finds a note, wedged under the corner of one of the book shelves. The note has a list of books and a message written in a cipher. Something about it looks familiar, but she can't place it until Sam looks at it and realizes that it is her mother's handwriting. (Note from Sam's Parents) Sam finds a little book with a red leather cover and gold lettering. The title of the book is: A Really Useful Book. Inside, each page has simple messages, almost like advice, but with no context. The message that same reads is: "Remember what your mother said." Once the crew has gleaned as much information as the could from this level, they head up to next level, a room filled with even more restricted books. The internal dimensions of the donut room is the same, though the exterior wall is closer, making the room feel a lot smaller. On the south side of the room stands a statue, holding a book. The crew finds similar missing books, and near the statue discovers the faint smell of other creatures. Stacy also puts forward a theory on the missing books: what if they somehow haven't actually left the building? As El goes to check out the book the statue is holding, he touches it, which triggers some mechanism that closes the staircase they came up on. They all hear a voice speaking a riddle