Conversing with Dragons: Part I [Session 34]

Current Situation

• Finally inside the library of Drezlin Nandar, the Trollmates peruse some shelves, solve some puzzles, and find more than they may have bargained for within the secrets of the opulent collection of the deceased founder of Nightstone.
  
  

Session Summary

• Barrett's Detect Magic illuminates quite a bit for the Monk and he relays to the group what he can gather from the surroundings. The group has a couple of questions for Mrs Rengar. Z goes back into the lobby to talk to her, and asks if she wouldn't mind coming into the library proper. She does, bringing her lantern with her. Z asks about the sounds and lights in the library, but she doesn't seem to have any idea what he's talking about. She hasn't seen or heard anything, even though people have been asking her all kinds of things about it. She also mentions many people have talked to her about having dreams of accessing the second floor. "As if they could!" She scoffs.
• Mrs Rengar says that Drezlin was technically the last person upstairs, as no one else knows the way. Some have tried going up the stairs, but typically ended up falling down the trapped ones and no one has been able to get to the second floor. She welcomes the group to any of the rooms on the first floor, however. Barrett asks about checking out books and Mrs Rengar explains the checkout policy.
• Z asks the last time Mirt was in the library and Mrs Rengar replies that she doesn't, but it would have been with Velrosa Nandar somewhat recently, as she's also been troubled by the dreams. It was at least several tenday ago. He did not go upstairs. "I don't believe he knows the way, either!" She chuckles.
• She considers the dragon skeleton dreadful and wishes it was gone. It was installed shortly after the library was built. She's never seen it do anything, but she feels like it's always watching. Lord Nandar acquired it somehow and had it installed. As for the two suits of armor on the first floor, she comments that most of the collection has been "Acquired across history, and across Faerun. They were special to Lord Nandar for some reason."
• Dhann asks if there's anything else they can know about the second floor, as they've been tasked by Lady Nandar to gain access, and the Librarian mentions they need to solve a riddle, and it's over in the book on the pedestal. "Stare a little bit longer at the page, and it'll come to you." The group thanks her for this. She also comments that only two other people, ever, have asked for her help to get upstairs. How long ago did these two people look at the book? It was several tenday ago.
• A cursory investigation of the first floor is made: The first room Barrett enters seems to be a basic study, with some bookshelves and maps on a desk, with two chairs. Rather mundane. Another door leads south to a small hallway that joins to the lobby (right), outside (left), and two more doors to the south. There is a map with an outlined sketch of a skeleton, and looks like a dragon. A book that seems to be by the same hand discusses an archeological dig from which the skeleton was taken. Another drawing appears to depict a place in the snowy north of some sort of observatory, but there are no names or locations given on the sketch.
  
• In the southwestern-most room, it's basically empty. It's a messier study and obviously hasn't been cleaned in some time, given the layer of dust over everything. The open book on the desk is appears to be travel journal of some sort. It's not obvious whose it used to be, but they traveled to "The Shining Planes" and seems to be notes on the journey overall (here's water, look out for trolls, etc.). North on the Sword Coast, maybe originating from Neverwinter. There is mention of passing through Waterdeep. It is written in Common. Barrett pockets the journal.
  
• One door over is another study. More books, but one interesting bit. Seems to be a book on medicinal research. Most of it seems to not be research on living subjects, but more so the anatomy of humanoids, and an entire section on trolls. It's rather gruesome and most of the notes seem to have come from studying cadavers. Lots of notes on experimentation, like "How hard does one have to pull to break this tendon," etc. Barrett takes the main book on medicinal research. Even with this odd find, everything in this room seems quite mundane.
• Across the lobby to the eastern rooms. Another matching hallway, with mirrored doors. Furthest room to the southeast, there's a small bookshelf on a desk, no books. There's a set of playing cards on the table and it seems to be a small break room for those having been studying in the library. A long forgotten mug with a murky residue looks gross.
• In the room to the west: a couple pings of magic on a couple of scrolls; low level magic scrolls. Barrett picks up and pockets the five that are illuminated.
• Moving north in the hallway: a storage room of empty crates is really all that this is. There's two books on a crate, illegible from water damage. It looks like trash, mainly.
• Going through the lobby, Barrett asks the Librarian about the scrolls and she already knows he picked up five of them. She gives him permission to keep them.
• In the meantime, Z, Ely, and Dhann have wandered over to the book on tea practices to investigate the middle pages and see if they can find the riddle. "Tea party!" Z comments. One page catches their attention, and Ely points it out first. The teacup illustrations, the longer she looks at them, seem to form into, to her, something else. Dhann, also staring, catches sight of a word hidden within the illustration. "Sadness," and it's situated in one of the teacups. As he points it out, Elyana and Z also are able to see it, as if they can't unsee it. As they keep staring, they start to make out words, all over the page, hidden in the artwork, and a poem forms before their eyes:
  • "I have no part in sadness, but am always first to cry. I am the beginning of the clouds, but am not in the sky. I live in the ocean, but avoid the sea - near the end of this trick, who can name me?"
• Z wonders if the answer may be "salt," and rereads the poem for everyone. Elyana mentions "water" might be a fitting answer. "The letter C," Dhann suggests, and the three refer back to the lines of the poem, and this seems to track. Z applauds the answer, and receives a mental, "Shh!" from Mrs Rengar.
• There's no helpful glossary in the book, no C section in the library, and Dhann laments that there's one main thing that starts with that letter, that none of them like.
• Barrett rejoins the group and they let him know what they've found. "Dhann seems to have cracked the clue from the page, but I'm not sure where that gets us," Z says. Barrett continues to explore and Z says to keep an eye out for anything related to that letter, like catnip, or cups, and Dhann also suggests anything with the number three, as it's the third letter of Common. Barrett lets the group know about the travel journal he's found, as well as the spell scrolls.
• Straight east to the next room: bookshelves and bookshelves. Nothing odd or out of place. The books seem physically larger, but otherwise that seems to be the only unique thing about this room.
• One door up to the north, still on the eastern wall: this room has a number of skeletal specimens, mostly reptilian. Bits and pieces anatomically arranged, others are simple sketches on paper. The books seem to be anatomical structures of creatures.
• Northernmost room: there is a harp on the western wall, playing itself. A piano, not playing, is on the northern wall. A couple of scrolls are on a table in the middle of the room. They are maps, and while one of them is similar to the map of Faerun, similar to the map Erky has, the other is a map of Luskan and some surrounding territories. The harp is playing at a pleasant volume. Nice studying music.
• Z hears the music when Barrett opens the door, and wonders if C relates to a musical note. Dhann follows. There are a couple of sheets of music on the piano. Z examines the harp. Dhann says to Z, "I don't really have a background, whatsoever, in music, but perhaps the middle C key on this keyboard triggers something? The answer to the riddle, C, was in the middle of the book." "My thought exactly, let's try it!" Z replies, "That would be, that would be, that would be..." paw hovering over the keys until he lands on middle C. "This one."
• As he plunks the key, the note that resonates is incredibly loud. Outside of the room, to Barrett and Ely, it is a soft sound. Nothing seems to happen immediately when the key is hit, like anything has unlocked. But this particular note is extraordinarily loud within the room. Dhann suggests to hit it again, and both he and Z - on Z's suggestion - cover their ears while Z's tail hits the key. Everyone in the room, now, hears it as loud, and it's striking how loud it is.
• Examining the piano more closely, it seems that all C keys play loudly in the room, almost as if the note, along with the letter, is a hint of some sort of reminder. Dhann comments that this room is very similar to the crypt of Demiryn Lagustin, with a harp, potentially another piano - based on a dark spot on the floor in the crypt. The harp seems to be very similar but Dhann can't gauge if the piano was what was moved out of the crypt.
• Z works to play the harp's tune on the piano to see if anything happens. He plays it well, and it sounds great, but nothing happens. Ely applauds, and hears a mental, "Shh!" from the Librarian.
  
• The group now decides to investigate the stairs. Barrett pulls a small pouch of sand and stones from his pocket that he carries and tosses it into the void of one of the staircases. Dhann will see if it shows up on the opposite side of the room, coming back down that staircase. And after a few seconds, plunk! The bag comes down the opposite stairs, confirming Barrett's suspicion. Dhann picks it up, "It landed over here." Barrett says, "I have maybe another theory, I don't know, but if we walk through here, maybe I could throw a rope through and see if it comes down as well." Before any real attempts to gain the second floor are made, the Trollmates decide to look at some of the books first, just in case they don't have time later to do so.
• Mrs Rengar's assistance is asked for to help look. Z asks if there are books on music, and the Librarian comments yes, and those would mainly be blue books. Z asks if there are many, and he's told not really - and they're everywhere, but to go ahead and scan for blue. As he hears this, Dhann is able to see a pattern in the originally perceived disarray of the books' colors all over the bookshelves. The library is certainly organized, just not in any way seen before in other libraries. Everything is related to colors, and knowing what color each subject has been given. Then Barrett remembers seeing a little color guide in one of the previous rooms he explored, and goes to pick that paper up before rejoining the group.
• Each singular shelf seems to be organized like every other shelf - and then it's realized each bookcase is organized according to shelf, and the books are suddenly much easier to locate.
• Everyone disperses to look for titles that may interest them:
  • The Sound of Music (proper study of a chapter on an instrument gives proficiency with that instrument)
  • The Music of the World (proper study of this book, and playing any instrument in lieu of a long rest gives advantage on one performance check)
  • The Book of the Bells (proper study teaches the Toll the Dead cantrip)
  • Untitled (proper study will yield...something. The pages are blank, but each one is a subtle colored hue. Given to Z when he asked about weaving and looms)
    
  • Superb Jumping for the Acrobat in You (proper study yields +1 to Acrobatics)
  • Illusory Beginnings (proper study teaches the Minor Illusion cantrip)
  • Grifting (proper study yields a +1 to Deception)
  • Poetry in Motion (proper study grants 1 additional Unarmed Attack once per day)
  • Catch Me if You Can (proper study grants advantage on avoiding OR escaping a grapple once per day)
  • Gone with the Wind (proper study teaches the Gust cantrip and it can be cast once per day)
  • Class Casting (proper study yields 1 additional 1st lvl spell for your respective class, once per day)
  • Historic Crimes of the Century (proper study yields a +1 to Investigation)
  • The Humors (proper study yields +1 to Medicine checks on anything with blood)
  • A Thorough Study on Sparing (proper study teaches the Spare the Dying cantrip as a free action)

• Dhann asks Mrs Rengar if the answer to the riddle is, indeed, C, and she says that she doesn't know the answer, but what she does know is that each staircase relates to a location. As she indicates this, Dhann notices that each stair is named after what seem to be the names of places.
  
  • Upper West Staircase: Icthyll Pass (place)
    
  • Upper East Staircase: Krag Cythen (place)
    
  • West Double Doors: Ren Proll (person)
    
  • East Double Doors: Guise Engert (person)
    
  • Lower West Staircase: Eyre Linge (place)
    
  • Lower East Staircase: Criel Edge (place)
    

• Z returns to the piano to see if playing a C and an E will yield any results, but nothing seems to happen. Barrett rotates the stone roses on the pillars Mirt mentioned, to disable the stair traps on the library stairs, and that trap is disabled successfully. Barrett tries going up the Criel Edge staircase first, and then reappears coming down Krag Cythen, in front of Elyana. Trying two more staircases, he goes up one, and comes down a different one again.
  
• Looking back at the tea book, Z checks to see if the illustration has any more clues. It occurs to him that there's something strange about the negative spaces in the illustrations on the teacups. The "not there" space. He's not sure what it means, but the shapes are striking, and there are patterns in the things that "aren't on the page" as well. He alerts the group to what he's mused over. "Sometimes it's not so important as to what's there, as to what's not."
• Dhann tries walking up the Criel Edge staircase backwards, but comes down the Krag Cythen stair, slipping but catching himself thanks to the Ring of Evasion. Barrett looks at the tea book and realizes there might be a pattern between the place names and the connection between what Z's makes him realize only one of the place names does not contain the letter C, Eyre Linge.
• The number of letters many of these places have in common has stood out to everyone. Ely glances over at Dhann, remarking, "You've been to school - you do it," when the two of them examine the plaques again to see if any more hints can be gained. As he looks over the book, and the names, Dhann senses a bit of unease and realizes that there's indeed a pattern to the letters, and he has the same slight dread he had earlier when remarking that there's one other thing that starts with C that none of them like.
• He pitches to the group that they might have to go up the stairs in the order that spells out Cyric's name, but then pauses as Z's discovery of what's not on the pages is also important. Drezlin seems to have rejected Cyric, so...perhaps they have to avoid spelling the deity's name. This would track as, there seems to be hints that while associated with Cyric, Drezlin is not necessarily in league with Cyric. But maybe not. In any case, the group decides to try this stair pattern and see if they gain access to the second floor.
• Starting with Eyre Linger, the Trollmates begin the climbing sequence. It feels odd, seems to take some time, but on the fifth pass, find themselves climbing the stairs to reach the second floor, above the lobby. They can even look down, and see the staircase and lobby below. From this vantage point, it looks like a straight shot down. There are four bookshelves in this room, and everything is still beautifully opulent.
• There is a door to the east, one to the west, and double doors to the north. The books here in this room look rather mundane and akin to the books on the first floor. Barrett looks at three random titles to gauge if these really are as mundane as they seem at a glance.
  • The Origin of Magical Species (large tome on the origins of things like unicorns, other creatures, a basic bestiary with some good history on the creatures)
  • A travel journal (fairly substantial, mostly on cliffs and pretty vistas - literally a traveler's "should see" journal)
  • Beginner Swordsmanship (a basic beginner's manual on training knights in the art of swordplay)
• Looking down the stairs, Barrett yells for Mrs Rengar to see if she hears him. Her lantern lights up slightly, showing her hand, but then it fades back off and she doesn't seem to make any motion to come upstairs. It's like she didn't hear him at all. Ely comments on this. Barrett wonders if she has to be directly summoned, but because she doesn't have access to the second floor, she can't be summoned properly to this landing. Dhann says this would explain why she hasn't heard or seen anything on the second floor, and Barrett agrees. The Monk tosses a little handful of sand down the stairs and it does indeed fall to the second floor, and while Mrs Rengar notices, just seems to sigh and then ignores the sand. Dhann notices there are plaques on the second floor that match the first, but this time, no names are engraved on them.
  
• The gang ventures through the double doors into the main landing. This space seems much less about the books - although there are shelves - and more about showcasing the massive dracon's skeleton. Mostly white, it has a few spots that are tinged green. Chains bind it to the ceiling and the floor, holding the dragon in the middle. The glass ceiling between the first and second floor shimmers ever so slightly. The bookcases are much more sparse than the first floor. There are two stained glass windows depicting two different dragons, one door on the eastern wall, three on the west, and bookcases and armor on the north. There is also a large, open tome on display in front of the dragon, nearest to its head.
  
• This book is the one Z goes to first, and it becomes clear this is the skeleton of a dragon named Deldreg, and he primarily lived in the deserts to the east, and supposedly traveled to the north. Defeated by giants in the southeast of Faerun, this book gives his history, the span of his reign, his evil, greater deeds as a green dragon, and his eventual demise and that the giants left him to rot where he fell.
• Ely flips through a couple of pages, wondering if this book holds any secrets like the tea book on display on the first floor, but nothing readily jumps out. It just seems to be a pretty thorough history. Ely recognizes the name of the dragon based on legends back home, and Z remembers one legend of the dragon decimating an entire town of halflings. He's heard it in a song, or a rhyme somewhere, and the dragon's name definitely rings this bell. He and the Warlock both know the dragon died a long, long time ago, and this is the first confirmation for them he was any more than a legend. The skeleton overall seems to be a perfect recovery of the remains.
• Z then trots over to one of the bookcases to get a longer peruse of the "special books" on this floor. As he looks through some of them, he sees they are, simply, disturbing. Many relate to necromancy, the subject throughout history, tales, etc. "Ew." So far, there's nothing about the Nightstone.
• Interestingly enough, the second floor is spotless. No dust, nothing out of place. Perhaps no access to this floor at all to the outside, keeps it clean.
• Dhann moves to the door in the southwestern corner. A bookshelf, a few scrolls, and he slips in a little further. He sees another door, and tapestries on the walls depicting horrors of black magic and ancient evil. One has a red dragon burning a city, and it's graphic. The two to the north are a diptych of a dark forest, with silhouettes of trees and within the trees are additional monsters and creatures coming to the foreground. The desk holds a much more detailed map of where Deldreg's remains were found, as well as a drawing of details of the skeleton itself and how to assemble it. It looks like an expedition was made to recover the skeleton and bring it to the library.The room itself is dusty, showing that the contents have been untouched for a bit.
  
• Barrett moves to the east, and finds a dusty storage room full of travel and preparation for archeological digs. Everything seems old and forgotten. This room is as dirty as the one Dhann is exploring, confirming that the central room, as the showcase room, is specifically clean. Nothing in this room seems to have any importance. More of a castoff room for books decided unfitting for the darker collection.
• The Monk leaves that room, and crosses the foyer to enter the southwestern room through the foyer - this room feels more like a supply room, with large rolls of paper for maps or transcription. The shelves are full of stored papers and vellum sheeting.
• Taking the door to the north from that room, he enters a storage closet with similar rolls of paper, all dusty. Poking back into the central room, Barrett tells the group he's just checking the rooms out. He moves to the eastern side of the central chamber again to continue his checks. Re-entering the lowest southeastern room, he seems two bookcases with some labeled shelving. The labeling on them says "Magical," "Nonmagical," "Unknown," and "Further Research Required." This looks like a sorting area indeed. He finds one book that catches his attention on the "Magical" shelf:
  • Religions and Gods (proper study yields +1 to Religion. Book on deities, but none that are a part of the normal pantheon - perhaps from a different world? It's only about 3/4 finished, as if someone was transcribing from another source.)
    
• Moving through the storage/sorting room to the interior door on that side, he finds a tiny study or office of some kind. It seems it's a research room with a little desk and single bookshelf.
  
• The upper room of the lower southeastern rooms is another storage/research area, and the books don't seem too important. There's a good amount of blank journals in here as well.
• Z hangs out, watching the dragon from a distance, disturbed by the contents of the second floor. As he studies the dragon, for just a moment, he sees the smallest glint of green, or a flash, in the left eye socket of the dragon.
  
  

  Next time on...

  It's alive! Is it?!