”Wow, that actually worked,” says Ben. Grabbing a stack of books and penning the rest of the names from the parchment, Ben hands a book to each person to read through.
”Let’s hope we can figure this out working together,” he says.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Ben starts scribing titles into the books and, their texts magically appearing within each, he hands them out.
Pud gets the first book: The Faceless Lord. It seems to be a private account of the author's many dealings with Juiblex, the Demon Prince of Oozes and Slimes.
Horatio gets I, Lyzandred, which turns out to be a lich’s meandering autobiography, which drifts into a lengthy, plodding dissertation about demiplanes and how to construct them.
Matilda skims through Kingdom of the Ghouls – one adventuring party’s exploration of a subterranean kingdom of ghouls on the world of Oerth.
Titaani gets The Many Masques of Mith, a bizarre account of life as a servant to an archwizard named Mith, who hosted masques for honored guests from across the multiverse.
Ringlerun eagerly grabs Nadir of Nessus, all about the politics of the Nine Hells, written by a tiefling named Nadir, who claimed to be the daughter of Asmodeus.
Mercion takes Prophecies of Explictica Defilus, a transcription of various prophecies told by a powerful spirit naga from the world of Oerth.
Strongheart carefully pages through Thingizzard’s Night Balloon – instructions for building a magic vessel that can float safely through the layers of the Abyss.
There are many more empty black books, but Ben runs out of titles to write inside them.
Ben tries to make any sense of this city of Moil described in his book, The City That Waits – a city or demiplane that Orcus the demon prince cast a powerful sleeping enchantment over. It's located in the Ethereal Plane near the Negative Energy Plane, he learns.
Matilda quickly bores of the ponderous Kingdom of the Ghouls, which references demonic forces in some ancient kingdom hidden in the subterranean depths.
Ben looks for any sort of code or pattern or hidden message in his or the other books, or between them, but comes up dry.
"This is quite fascinating," chuckles Ringlerun delightedly, looking up from Nadir of Nessus. "Asmodeus supposedly only has one daughter, Glasya. Nessus is the deepest of the layers of the Hells, the ninth, where Asmodeus resides. I think I may hang on to this one." He puts the book in his pack.
”I had hoped so, but I can see no connection to Zybilina. Maybe we just make a list of names we found in the books that could possibly be hers and just try them all?” Ben suggests, not really sure what to do next.
“I suppose someone could also make up potential book names related to true names or the queen and try writing them out in the book to see if we happen upon a title here,” he adds, hoping someone smarter than he has a better idea.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Matilda scribes "The many names of Iggwilv" in black ink into a blank, black-bound tome. After a short pause, the ink swiftly evaporates from the page.
Pud continues to pore through The Faceless Lord. It takes a minute, but he figures out who the author is – Iggwilv.
“This book is kinda gross. It’s about a bunch of oozes, slimes, ooze people and all sorts of sticky stuff. I don’t like slimy stuff.” Despite being grossed out by the content he’s fascinated by the writings.”ha! Ya know what Iggwilv wrote this book! It’s bout their dealings with a demon ooze prince. Gross.”
Pud proceeds to do a lap or two checking out the shelves looking for anything out of sorts, such as any secret stashes or hiding spots. He’ll also try to move some bookshelves to take a peek behind them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pronouns: he/him/his
Pud - lvl 7 Human Artificer - Alchemist (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight).
Quinn - lvl 3 Human Ranger - Hunter (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
“Maybe there are some names in that Iggwilv book that might be useful—or maybe there is some kind of code or acrostic,” says Ben. He looks in the book and tries to search out something useful.
Investigation: 10
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
"Let me see that!" replies Ringlerun excitedly to Pud. "I bet that's an early draft of the Demonomicon of Iggwilv!May I have that? Demons have attempted to censor the text, they say!"
Titaani finds no mentions of either Zybilna or Titania in her bizarre book, The Many Masques of Mith. Nor of the fey nor anything seemingly relevant to their current situation.
Ben finds neither acrostics nor codes. Pud finds no secret stashes or hiding spots, although the floating candles are kinda cool.
The ebony bookshelves are filled with identical volumes bound in jet-black fabric, all lacking titles on their spines and covers, and all blank except for the thin line scribed on the first page of each – with the exception of the eight whose titles you learned from the hunchbacked librarian downstairs. If there is a log book here, you cannot tell.
Matilda picks up a bunch of books and contemplates dumping them in the water......but she walks extremely slowly so someone can stop her if they choose....
“Don’t worry, Ben! At least you figured out how to make these book appear! We can always come back if we find some other book titles.”
Pud sits down for a bit while the others looks through there books and he rummages through his satchel looking at all the junk he’s acquired throughout his travels since joining the group. He pulls out some old broken chicken bones he found at Bavlorna’s.
”haha, you guys remember when I found this broken wishbone? It was in a jar at Bavlorna’s place. It was in the same room where I got this cool helmet and thst mannequin attacked me.
I remember it had some sorta arcane signature on it. I wonder what happens if I try mending it.”
Pud lays the two broken wishbone pieces together so that they touch and casts the spell mending on it.
Ben:
”Wow, that actually worked,” says Ben. Grabbing a stack of books and penning the rest of the names from the parchment, Ben hands a book to each person to read through.
”Let’s hope we can figure this out working together,” he says.
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Pud leans in close to Matilda as Ringlerun blabbers in about Iggwilv’s exploits.
“Sounds kinda evil to me.” Says Pud in a low whisper.
His interest is piqued as it appears that Ben’s experiment worked.
“Nice job, Sir Dragon Slayer! Hand me one of the books, I’ll skim through it.”
Pronouns: he/him/his
Pud - lvl 7 Human Artificer - Alchemist (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight).
Quinn - lvl 3 Human Ranger - Hunter (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
Ben starts scribing titles into the books and, their texts magically appearing within each, he hands them out.
Pud gets the first book: The Faceless Lord. It seems to be a private account of the author's many dealings with Juiblex, the Demon Prince of Oozes and Slimes.
Horatio gets I, Lyzandred, which turns out to be a lich’s meandering autobiography, which drifts into a lengthy, plodding dissertation about demiplanes and how to construct them.
Matilda skims through Kingdom of the Ghouls – one adventuring party’s exploration of a subterranean kingdom of ghouls on the world of Oerth.
Titaani gets The Many Masques of Mith, a bizarre account of life as a servant to an archwizard named Mith, who hosted masques for honored guests from across the multiverse.
Ringlerun eagerly grabs Nadir of Nessus, all about the politics of the Nine Hells, written by a tiefling named Nadir, who claimed to be the daughter of Asmodeus.
Mercion takes Prophecies of Explictica Defilus, a transcription of various prophecies told by a powerful spirit naga from the world of Oerth.
Strongheart carefully pages through Thingizzard’s Night Balloon – instructions for building a magic vessel that can float safely through the layers of the Abyss.
There are many more empty black books, but Ben runs out of titles to write inside them.
Ben:
Sitting down and looking at his own book, Ben looks for some kind of pattern or hidden message in addition to the standard information in the text.
Investigation: 10
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Matilda is disquieted and the book doesn't really help with that but she figures its all Adult business and not really her problem anyway....
" Um, were these books supposed to tell us something? Cos this ones just full of people being eaten alive......."
Ben tries to make any sense of this city of Moil described in his book, The City That Waits – a city or demiplane that Orcus the demon prince cast a powerful sleeping enchantment over. It's located in the Ethereal Plane near the Negative Energy Plane, he learns.
Matilda quickly bores of the ponderous Kingdom of the Ghouls, which references demonic forces in some ancient kingdom hidden in the subterranean depths.
Ben looks for any sort of code or pattern or hidden message in his or the other books, or between them, but comes up dry.
"This is quite fascinating," chuckles Ringlerun delightedly, looking up from Nadir of Nessus. "Asmodeus supposedly only has one daughter, Glasya. Nessus is the deepest of the layers of the Hells, the ninth, where Asmodeus resides. I think I may hang on to this one." He puts the book in his pack.
Ben:
”I had hoped so, but I can see no connection to Zybilina. Maybe we just make a list of names we found in the books that could possibly be hers and just try them all?” Ben suggests, not really sure what to do next.
“I suppose someone could also make up potential book names related to true names or the queen and try writing them out in the book to see if we happen upon a title here,” he adds, hoping someone smarter than he has a better idea.
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Matilda perks up and grabs the quill and scribes " The many names of Iggwilv."
Though she suspects nothing will happen....
Pud chuckles.
”Haha! Good one Matilda. I suppose we can add Glasya to the list of possible names.”
Pud thumbs through his book looking for anything interesting or possible clues.
investigation check: 15
Pronouns: he/him/his
Pud - lvl 7 Human Artificer - Alchemist (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight).
Quinn - lvl 3 Human Ranger - Hunter (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
Matilda scribes "The many names of Iggwilv" in black ink into a blank, black-bound tome. After a short pause, the ink swiftly evaporates from the page.
Pud continues to pore through The Faceless Lord. It takes a minute, but he figures out who the author is – Iggwilv.
Titaani thumbs through her own book, keeping an eye out for any mention of Zybilna (and Titania, though she doesn't tell the others that).
“This book is kinda gross. It’s about a bunch of oozes, slimes, ooze people and all sorts of sticky stuff. I don’t like slimy stuff.” Despite being grossed out by the content he’s fascinated by the writings.”ha! Ya know what Iggwilv wrote this book! It’s bout their dealings with a demon ooze prince. Gross.”
Pud proceeds to do a lap or two checking out the shelves looking for anything out of sorts, such as any secret stashes or hiding spots. He’ll also try to move some bookshelves to take a peek behind them.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Pud - lvl 7 Human Artificer - Alchemist (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight).
Quinn - lvl 3 Human Ranger - Hunter (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
Ben:
“Maybe there are some names in that Iggwilv book that might be useful—or maybe there is some kind of code or acrostic,” says Ben. He looks in the book and tries to search out something useful.
Investigation: 10
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
"Let me see that!" replies Ringlerun excitedly to Pud. "I bet that's an early draft of the Demonomicon of Iggwilv! May I have that? Demons have attempted to censor the text, they say!"
Titaani finds no mentions of either Zybilna or Titania in her bizarre book, The Many Masques of Mith. Nor of the fey nor anything seemingly relevant to their current situation.
Ben finds neither acrostics nor codes. Pud finds no secret stashes or hiding spots, although the floating candles are kinda cool.
Horatio looks to see if there is a log book for visitors to the library.
The ebony bookshelves are filled with identical volumes bound in jet-black fabric, all lacking titles on their spines and covers, and all blank except for the thin line scribed on the first page of each – with the exception of the eight whose titles you learned from the hunchbacked librarian downstairs. If there is a log book here, you cannot tell.
Ben:
"Well, sorry guys, I thought we might find more," says Ben, taking a book and writing "Index" on the line to see if anything might show up.
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
Matilda picks up a bunch of books and contemplates dumping them in the water......but she walks extremely slowly so someone can stop her if they choose....
“Don’t worry, Ben! At least you figured out how to make these book appear! We can always come back if we find some other book titles.”
Pud sits down for a bit while the others looks through there books and he rummages through his satchel looking at all the junk he’s acquired throughout his travels since joining the group. He pulls out some old broken chicken bones he found at Bavlorna’s.
”haha, you guys remember when I found this broken wishbone? It was in a jar at Bavlorna’s place. It was in the same room where I got this cool helmet and thst mannequin attacked me.
I remember it had some sorta arcane signature on it. I wonder what happens if I try mending it.”
Pud lays the two broken wishbone pieces together so that they touch and casts the spell mending on it.
Pronouns: he/him/his
Pud - lvl 7 Human Artificer - Alchemist (The Wild Beyond the Witchlight).
Quinn - lvl 3 Human Ranger - Hunter (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
Titaani pokes her head over Pud's shoulder, watching him do his magic. "Yeah, I wonder!"
(As she watches, she will try to understand what the wishbone will do if it is mended: Arcana: 20)