Adventures in Beast World - Session 20 - The Hidden Room

Session Date: 2024-04-16 6 Saattaa 1365 The crew is attacked by a shadowy creature and a pair of creatures that seem to be similar amalgamations of creatures like they had found in previous delves. The shadow is quite intent on defending the space, and some of the friends take some serious damage. Stacy, mishearing Fynn, launches a fire bolt through the shadow which sets part of the room on fire. Bookshelves begin to burn as El an Sam realize that they might actually be doing more damage to this creature than their magic wielding friends. Both Stacy and Sam hang on with a little help from Fynn so that Sam can deliver the final blow. The shadow creature dissipates, leaving the dead bodies of the others behind. The crew also turns to fighting the fires set by Stacy. El tries to make use of the new magic he is learning, but can't cast fast enough to make a dent. Stacy manages to put out the fires with a few icy blasts, but the damage is done. Nearly three shelves of books have been destroyed. The crew takes a moment to recover and then they send for Roderick Thistlemoor, telling him that the room is all clear. When he comes down he is surprised to see this space that shouldn't exist and a bit relieved to see the missing books. Though he is a bit distressed by the fire and ice damage to so many books. Fynn questions Roderick about who the party can talk to about what was going on here. Roderick offers to try to set up a meeting with the head mage and confirms that it might not be a bad idea to talk to the Dramphinians. Stacy discovers a journal that seems to document some of the experiments that were performed putting creatures together. She also manages to covertly start reading through more of the restricted magic books. Fynn takes another look out the windows, based on the landscape he believes that they are somewhere near the border of Allemance and Vinyot Sam takes a moment and flips through the Really Useful Book, landing on a page with a message that reads: "The key is in the Titles." As the crew all put their heads together to think about it, Fynn looks at the titles and realizes that the first letter of each title spells out the name of a cipher, the ROT13 cipher. Fynn starts scratching out the key to the cipher and decodes the message. Fynn and El investigate the desk in the middle of the room. They discover a blank book and writing implements which they give to Stacy to use as a spell book. In another drawer they find a pouch with 200GP. They also find that one of the desk drawers seems to be magically warded in a way that would raise some kind of alarm if opened. The pair have a quick discussion and decide that people already know they are there, so how much could it hurt to set off the alarm? As El gets ready to open the drawer, Roderick comes running back into the room. The old rabbit barely gets out a warning that the crew probably needs to get out as quickly as possible. Upon alerting his colleagues and the arch mage, a huge response was mounted, guards and mages are on their way with the intention of detaining anyone involved. While Roderick is telling Fynn what is going on, El gets the drawer open, which sets off the magical alarm, curtains start snapping shut across the windows. El gets spooked, slamming the drawer shut without looking at what was inside. The rest of the crew also spooked, is ready to follow Roderick and starts piling up the stairs. Roderick leads them to a bookshelf where he finds a book, pulls on it, and the shelf slides aside, revealing a secret staircase. Fynn has a bit of an "I told you so moment" and the crew keeps trooping on. However neither Sam nor Stacy is able to enter the stairwell. Turns out both were carrying restricted books and the wards were actually still working. Sam points this out them, and Stacy sets the book down while Sam just flings the one she has across the room. Now, with nothing to hinder them, the crew is led out a side entrance of the library.