Jorin waits for Pascal to hurl the flaming sphere before eagerly moving the heavy desk to the door.

Athletics: 18

OOC > I'm  going to wait to see if Hildi's short bow attack takes S5 down before declaring Quillary's action.

Quote from Mingofaust >>

OOC > I'm  going to wait to see if Hildi's short bow attack takes S5 down before declaring Quillary's action.

All of the skulks inside the library are dead.

Drusk is starting to barricade the front door. If Pascal agrees to send the flaming sphere out the front door (to discourage the skulks outside), then Drusk can close the front door and Jorin will (18) successfully push the heavy desk next to the door.

Seren goes to the Reading Room to push furniture in front of the windows.

Sounds like Hildi is headed to the east side to block the window that was broken.

Quillary, seeing the skulk drop (or at least the arrow thunk into something and drop) will rush to help Hildi block the window with something big, like a bookcase. Unfortunately she is not terribly strong in this shape, and she has used all her Wildshapes. Athletics: 1

Initiative if needed: 13
Extra d20 if needed: 5

Athletics 19 is plenty.

(Assuming that Pascal rolls the flaming sphere outside the front door.) Looking in the mirrors, if is creepy to look at the grey figures outside. Their featureless faces are screaming as they are burned by the sphere, but no sound is made... Drusk slams the door after the sphere passes, and Jorin pushes the heavy desk to bar the door from being forced open.

Hildigrim and Quillary are able to push one of the fallen bookcases against the broken window.

The party can hear the skulks outside trying to beat open the front door, and the occasional pounding against the windows, but the barricades from the tables and bookshelves are keeping them out.

Seren and Drusk will continue moving around furniture and monitoring the barricades on the west side of the library.

Jorin and Quillary will be on the east side, doing the same. They are close enough to Hildigrim to see what he is doing, and be able to talk to him.

With all the creatures inside the library perished, the room fills with silence momentarily. There is a long moment of hesitation before a dull thump sounds from across the room, paired with the rattle of a chain. The sound came behind/underneath the bookshelf with the 4 notches.

(OOC: Quillary's ability Symbiotic Entity normally lasts 10 minutes. If your group is quick to solve the puzzle, she will still have that ability active for the next part of the adventure.)

Since you don't have the handouts in front of you... A reminder that the riddle from Andras' room is in post 1513 ( link ), and the "spoiler" below lists the 4 tomes that you found:

"Hm." Quillary thinks back. "The poem, I suppose it is a riddle now, had a section about four tomes, it went like this," and she recites, or reads, or whatever.

"She sleeps upon the moon at night. Falling stars whisper what is right.
Fire twists and turns on fingertips. A wave of his hand and light shall eclipse.
Life passes to and fro. Death from her soul doth flow.
A word echoes though never spoke. A bird flutters but never work."

"There was more to it, but this seems the relevant bits?" She thinks a moment. "I will admit, I do not make much sense of this in relation to these books," she indicates the books.

Jorin's battle rage fades after he flings the desk against the door.  He takes a few heaving breaths before a calm, satisfied look crosses his face.  His gaze then turns back to the door, and with a forlorn face says, "No ale, then, I suppose."

When the thumping starts, Jorin crosses the room to the bookcase and again checks it to see if it can move.

Pascal puts forth that it’s perhaps: Sight, Arcane, Touch, and Heartbeat, in that order.

Quote from JcAndD >>

Pascal puts forth that it’s perhaps: Sight, Arcane, Touch, and Heartbeat, in that order.

From across the library, you hear Drusk yell out, "Why that order?"

(Jorin is not moving that bookshelf. It seems to be firmly attached to something, unlike the other bookshelves in the library.)

Pascal shrugs, “Seems like it follows what the poem talks ‘bout.”

"Could you elaborate?" Hildigrim asks.

[insert Pascal's explanation]

"Another way to look at it," the halfling offers, "is to look at where the tomes were found. If we do that, 'sleep' could refer to the pillow, 'fire' could refer to the mantelpiece, 'flow' could refer to the water, which would put those three in this order: Heartbeat, Sight and Arcane." He makes a face. "I'm not sure I can match up the final one with Touch, though. A word echoes though never spoke. A bird flutters but never work."

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

"Could you elaborate?" Hildigrim asks.

[insert Pascal's explanation]

"Another way to look at it," the halfling offers, "is to look at where the tomes were found. If we do that, 'sleep' could refer to the pillow, 'fire' could refer to the mantelpiece, 'flow' could refer to the water, which would put those three in this order: Heartbeat, Sight and Arcane." He makes a face. "I'm not sure I can match up the final one with Touch, though. A word echoes though never spoke. A bird flutters but never work."

 Pascal pauses, “Well shoot, that makes a whole bunch more sense. See, that’s why you’re the brains a’ this whole operation, Hildi.”

"Will ought bad happen should we put them in the wrong spots? There are only four books, how many variations can there be?" asks Quillary.

(OOC: I had players point out that there are only 24 combinations, and the adventure didn't mention any penalties. Unfortunately for your group, that means I've had time to think of some bad consequences... At the very least, if you don't get it on the first try, Quillary's "Symbiotic Entity" will expire before the next encounter.)

Besides the chain-rattling noises downstairs, seems like there is a voice, saying something in a rhythmic cadence. A ritual, perhaps? Do you want to take the chance of letting this ritual finish?

Drusk pops his head in briefly. "The riddle mentioned: "Eight schools study here, but only four will help you move ahead." Do any of you understand what that means?" He then rushes back to a window on the west side.

Jorin looks at Drusk, "Aye, I think I do.  Eight phrases in the poem, but only four books." 

She sleeps upon the moon at night.
Falling stars whisper what is right.
Fire twists and turns on fingertips.
A wave of his hand and light shall eclipse.
Life passes to and fro.
Death from her soul doth flow.
A word echoes though never spoke.
A bird flutters but never work.

He thinks for a moment, "A touch of bone, that could be the last one in Hildi's order...

"She sleeps upon the moon at night - pillow - Heartbeats
Fire twists and turns on fingertips  - mantle - Sight of Poem
A wave of his hand and light shall eclipse - the lake, for wave - Arcane Glimpses
A word echoes though never spoke- written word on a desk - A touch of bone"

Jorin then shrugs, "Or maybe not, I have no mind for such things."

"If you are saying that the eight hint phrases are the 'eight schools", the riddle says that only four of them will be helpful... Not a very good riddle, if you throw out half of it, arbitrarily. If you are supposed to toss out the first four phrases, then you are left with only two hints.

"Pascal gave an order, and said 'Seems like it follows what the poem talks ‘bout.' That was what I was hoping for an explanation. If I can understand what Pascal is seeing, I'd have a better idea if I agree with it or not."

"There are eight primary schools of magic," Hildigrim says. He begins reciting as if reading: "Abjuration: magic that blocks, banishes, or protects; conjuration: spells that produce objects and creatures out of thin air; divination: spells of discernment, remote viewing, supernatural knowledge, and foresight; enchantment: magic to entrance and beguile other people and monsters; evocation: magic that creates powerful elemental effects; illusion: magic that dazzles the senses, befuddles the mind, and tricks even the wisest folk; necromancy: spells that manipulate the energy that animates all living things; and transmutation: spells that modify energy and matter." After finishing, he bends down and begins quietly repeating the four lines of the poem that seem the most relevant as he looks at the books. He moves one to the front: Sight of Poem and Prophecy. "'Falling stars whisper what is right.' Sounds a bit like the school of divination." He moves Arcane Glimpses to Simplify Everyday Woes with Frost and More next. "'Fire twists and turns on fingertips' sounds like the school of evocation. This has 'frost and more' in the title." He slides the four together. A Touch of Bone is third and Heartbeats and Other Grand Illusions is fourth. "'Life' and 'death' are mentioned in the third. That is almost assuredly school of necromancy. What is a necromancer's friend? A dead body. The fourth line, 'A word echoes though never spoke. A bird flutters but never work.' is tough, but I think it matches with this book about illusions in the school of illusion. Words sounding that aren't spoken and birds fluttering but not actually working." Without getting up, he looks up at the others. "What do you think?"

PS - I love having a "Look here!" character playing along (Drusk). Another campaign I'm in, the DM is controlling a character, and they often help push the puzzles along by subtly giving hints by their actions or what they say or ask.

Quote from Quasimodal >>

"If you are saying that the eight hint phrases are the 'eight schools", the riddle says that only four of them will be helpful... Not a very good riddle, if you throw out half of it, arbitrarily. If you are supposed to toss out the first four phrases, then you are left with only two hints.

"Pascal gave an order, and said 'Seems like it follows what the poem talks ‘bout.' That was what I was hoping for an explanation. If I can understand what Pascal is seeing, I'd have a better idea if I agree with it or not."

 Pascal scratches a chin, “Well, it seemed like the titles related to the specific parts Quillary was talkin’ ‘bout. Touch of Bone relates to that part ‘bout life starting and stopping.”

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

"There are eight primary schools of magic," Hildigrim says.

Drusk: "I suppose that could work... I consider myself a somewhat bright fellow, but eight schools of magic makes my head spin... My system is a lot simpler. For spell power, there is Lliira, or there are other gods. No fuss, no muss."

Drusk realizes that he is going on a tangent, when the group is trying to hurry to solve the puzzle. He meekly closes his mouth, and waits to see how Quillary and Jorin respond.

(OOC: For those in some of the US states, happy Autumn-mess-up-your-internal-body-clock Day.)

Jorin's eyes glaze over a bit while Hildi is describing the schools of magic but then snap back into place once he's done. "Maybe we need a spell cast from each of the four schools of sorcery?"