Gnome's OOTA Story Thread [CLOSED]

As the others wander off, Katryl glances at Lulu. "Am I to understand that without one of those crystals there is no way to uncover information here? Maybe we should seek one of those giants to see if they can help us with a crystal thing?"  

(I believe the goal is to try to find information regarding the location of Jubilex and perhaps Lolth. But first maybe they want to find the Keeper for the section on the Present?) 

It takes a moment for Katryl's words to reach the firbolg, Khessa's deception about the black dragon still at the forefront of her mind. "Mhmm," she mutters distractedly, before shaking her head and processing the words. "Aye. Yes. I s'pose that's our best plan." 

As they walk, she absently remarks, "Ye ken, this is the first library I've ever visited. Not many in the Wilds."

(You can read most of the writings on your own, but they are incomplete and selective. To try and find information not already written down you need the stonespeaker crystal. For example, what the demon lords are doing right now probably isn't written down unless it has had an impact somewhere. Preset archives are written as soon as they can be, but they aren't literal transcriptions as events are happening.)

Katryl chuckles softly as she walks, "You know, I've never rightly been in a library before either. I mean, guess one of the dwarves back home had some books in his home. Ten or twenty maybe. Guess that's a library."  She is quiet a moment or two more before adding. "This isn't quite what I'd expected though for a library."

"Alright then, so we'd like to find the giant that's in charge of the Present section, right? See he has a crystal or can help us. We just have to keep walking until we find him?" she asks. 

(OOC - Think Katryl would be probably HELP if we need to make a WIS check. Or I suppose she could try it if necessary!) 

((Lulu has Enhance Ability on at the moment, so gets advantage! Though she still beefed it LOL))

"We'll go together, then. When this is over," she smiles, hands clasped behind her head as they walk. "See what trouble we can get up to in a regular ol' Material library." 

"And aye, just focus your mind, love. Steer your will where ye wish to go." Or at least, that's how it had worked before. This time, however, her mind continues to catch on the jagged edges of the recent conversation.  


((WIS check at adv: 6+7 13))

Another stone giant meets you all as you start through the archives of the present, "Mm visitors I see. I am Urmas. What brings you to the library?" He is carrying a blank stele and a wedge tool and seems to be looking around for something possibly.

"Hello, Urmas. I am Katryl. And my companion here is Lunaria," she says, gesturing towards the firbolg. "We have been brought here by an unfortunate invasion of demons in the Underdark.  We were hoping to learn here how we might halt this before the demons spill out to all the world." She pauses, glancing to Lulu for support. "We were hoping perhaps you might be able to help us. Perhaps you might know how we can one of those crystals? For gathering information here?" 

The stone giant pauses and fixes his eyes on the pair. "I have heard the reports. Very dire times indeed. But certainly you can borrow one of our crystals, you won't need it to read our writings, the library takes care of that for you." He gestures to a side path where a small rack of crystals are held, takes one down and hands it to you. "Do you know how to use them?" He would explain if necessary. (but I think Khessa's work has already done so)

Lulu's eyes crinkle at Katryl, encouraging the genasi to take the crystal. "Thank ye, Urmas. I do believe we've some understanding, yes. While my companion attunes to it, is there any chance we might peruse those writings ye speak of? Whatever of the most recent Present ye have written. And we'd be more than glad to offer recent accounts of our own if ye'd find them helpful." The firbolg inclines her head respectfully to her giant-kin, though her brow furrows mid-inclination.

"I was wondering as well... our companions have reported running into apparitions of sorts? Are these true images of those they see? Old mages and... black dragons?" 

"The Library is yours to peruse, and if you have more information to share about the current affairs I would be grateful to hear it so it can be recorded." He gestures back to the twisting walkways of the Archives of the Present. "As for apparitions, the library has always echoed those that visit here, across all times."

"Echoes out of time? Yer hallowed walls have a touch similar to the Wilds, then," she says, a curious arch to her white eyebrows as she follows Urmas' gesture. "Time is a bit of a circle there as well. Does it move the same inside the library as without? Will we find we've lost months in the Underdark when it seems only days here?" If it was anything like the Feywild, they could be returning years later. And, under these circumstance, find there is nothing to return to.

Katryl takes the crystal when the giant offers it. "Thank you very much, we will try to put it to good use."  She glances to the firbolg as she asks about apparitions. Once that's done she goes back to the subject of providing information. "I guess we could fill you in on what we know of the demons we encountered. Do we just tell you? Would you like us to write it down somehow?"  

She then glances to Lulu, "I think we have time, right Lunaria. Then you can use the crystal to find the information we seek. Or..."  She stops a moment, eyeing her companion. "Did you intend that I would use the crystal? But I don't really know much about magic and all that." 

Lulu looks fondly down at her companion. “Aye. I did intend,” she replies matter-of-factly, not a single doubt threaded through her words even as it tangles through Katryl’s.

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Khessa responds with all the accuracy that the vision she has had allows her and tries to think through her thoughts together with the artificer to understand which spell or ritual it could be, possibly evaluating the options out aloud with him.

[[ OOC: Khessa is trying to help @Horkas ]]

 (The spell is beyond your current level of comprehension. It is likely some sort of gate spell, but exactly what was involved you don't know and might never know.)

Khessa, despite the vision and discussions with friends who are experts in arcane magic, is unable to determine the exact ritual that Gromph attempted... but during the discussion she extracted her own heavy armored book, the ponderous tome from the metal-bound cover bearing the inscription 'Knowledge must be forged to last' on the front... and now she takes a few moments to write down everything she has discovered about this powerful way of channeling the Weave. Not that she plans to summon Demon Lords in the near (or even distant) future, but everything is connected in the field of magic... fragments of knowledge inherent to this ritual could help her one day understand and master magical effects less dangerous and perhaps more useful.

"...in possible connection with the faerzress" the blonde arcane warrior mutters, as she concludes the last of her notes. "OK, great... Let's see if we can find more about demon summoning and banishment spells and rituals" and she is ready to continue researching this topic (the topic her group had chosen).

If knowledge must be sought in connection with specific facts or people, the tall adventurer will try to look for other demon summoning/banishing rituals performed (perhaps this time without catastrophic outcomes) by Gromph in other circumstances, or perhaps by Lesla Carrowil, the powerful swirfneblin she-archmage whose spellbooks ('Underland Magick' and 'Beyond the Mirror') the party found. Both of these powerful wizards of the Underdark, throughout their history, have certainly, sooner or later, summoned or banished demons.

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

"...in possible connection with the faerzress" the blonde arcane warrior mutters, as she concludes the last of her notes. "OK, great... Let's see if we can find more about demon summoning and banishment spells and rituals" and she is ready to continue researching this topic (the topic her group had chosen).

If knowledge must be sought in connection with specific facts or people, the tall adventurer will try to look for other demon summoning/banishing rituals performed (perhaps this time without catastrophic outcomes) by Gromph in other circumstances, or perhaps by Lesla Carrowil, the powerful swirfneblin she-archmage whose spellbooks ('Underland Magick' and 'Beyond the Mirror') the party found. Both of these powerful wizards of the Underdark, throughout their history, have certainly, sooner or later, summoned or banished demons.

 

 The general magical theory and process for summoning and banishing demons (and many other beings) is well established. There are a few small accounts of minor rituals being done to bind lesser extra-planar beings at times but nothing on the scale that Gromph was attempting by any means. It is also mentioned that there had been a surge of demonic activity in Menzoberranzan shortly (as in within the last year or two) before Gromph's ritual.

"So perhaps Gromph's ritual was intended to be a 'response' to this 'surge of demonic activity'?" Khessa muses aloud, once she discovered the new information. “Perhaps he was trying to summon powerful demons to fight it? And when Lolth made him lose control of the ritual, she made sure that the Demon Lords were summoned in the Underdark, instead?”

"At the very least," the blonde arcane warrior sighs "this would mean that the Demon Lords will be terribly pissed off and itching to get revenge on Lolth once we send them back to the Abyss! But sadly, this information isn't helping us figure out a way to actually banish the Demon Lords, yet".

"Shall we try to find out what Gromph did after he unleashed the disaster?" the tall adventuress proposes "Maybe, if possible, what is he doing now? So, perhaps, when we leave Gravenhollow, we can find him... If he has been tricked or sabotaged, he should be quite willing to banish the Demon Lords, I hope..."

The Archives mention nothing about Gromph after the ritual.

"Oh...  well... sure," Katryl says in response to Lulu's confident response. Without any response from Urmas about providing him with information, she adds, "Lunaria, maybe you can see if providing what we know to him is any help while I work to attune to this."  The genasi then turns to that task, finding a comfortable spot nearby to sit. 

Once that effort is complete, she stands and goes to find the firbolg. She then asks her, "Do you think we should use the crystal to ask to see what Jubliex is up to? I figure each day we could use this to learn about one more demon. And the rest of our time maybe we can use it to find whatever the last information this place has on the demons?"  Katryl shakes her head. "If I'm even on the right path about how all this works." 

He did say this:

"The Library is yours to peruse, and if you have more information to share about the current affairs I would be grateful to hear it so it can be recorded."