Bell looks to her companions as they trickle toward the door of the Hearth to go to the Pillars of Pedagogy to search Matreus’ study room. She was already trying to thinking ahead to what obstacles they might face since the study rooms were supposed to be kept private and protected by tradition and magic. With a huge sigh (from such a little body) she stood and followed the others; jaw set and mind awhirl.
As Rogi stands to join the two women, Erudisia beckons to Bell. "Come with we three. Let's go find out together. If the guards knew, then Matreus' fellow avowed would have, also. No use staying here and talking up a feywild season. Or are we not seekers?"
Meredith ... had a soft spot for old Matreus and when he went missing she began asking around trying to discover when any of the guards or menials of Greater Candlekeep had seen him last. Finally resorting to searching his room.
Insight:- 13
Investigation- 5
(There are no guards per se, however, asking Shadi, Bibi, the Keeper of the Emerald Door, and any of the priests of Deneir who might pass results in variations on the same answer: no one has seen Matreus in two days, but he does have a habit of losing track of time while deep in his studies. “He’s certain to return shortly.” That was yesterday.)
It is now the night of the seventh day. You are all at the Hearth, having finished your evening meal, and with nothing to do since you have no new books. This is the problem you are discussing.
(OK, Meredith is leaving the Hearth to go to the Pillars of Pedagogy to search Matreus’ study room, yes? Is anyone going with her?)
Rogi follows Meredith with a shrug, not really seeing what the big deal is.
Bell looks to her companions as they trickle toward the door of the Hearth to go to the Pillars of Pedagogy to search Matreus’ study room. She was already trying to thinking ahead to what obstacles they might face since the study rooms were supposed to be kept private and protected by tradition and magic. With a huge sigh (from such a little body) she stood and followed the others; jaw set and mind awhirl.
As Rogi stands to join the two women, Erudisia beckons to Bell. "Come with we three. Let's go find out together. If the guards knew, then Matreus' fellow avowed would have, also. No use staying here and talking up a feywild season. Or are we not seekers?"
Meredith, Erudisia, Bell, and Rogi cross the Court of Air, stars twinkling overhead, the ocean roaring distantly below, and enter the Pillars of Pedagogy. It is customary to offer a silent prayer to Deneir upon entrance, for a small fountain dedicated to the God of Scholars splashes melodically just within the first courtyard. Then you find your way through the pillars toward the one in the back in which Matreus’ study room is situated a few floors above. You pass several Seekers, noses in books, lamps flickering.
The door to Matreus’ room is at the end of a hallway atop a curling stairway of stone, and the door has a small window in it. Looking within, little has changed since earlier in the day:
… just this afternoon, one or more of you decided to look in on him, or to try to look in on him. But Matreus’ room was empty save for several books lying open. Beside one, a cup of tea, steam rising from it, and a plate of cookies beside it. You waited for him to return, since he had certainly only been gone a few minutes. But you waited in vain, and eventually gave up when the tea had gone cold…
Whoever it was that peeked earlier (OOC: you can decide) notices a change. The previously full tea cup is now empty, while only a few crumbs remain on the plate of cookies. There, and a few crumbs can be spotted on the page of the open book next to the plate, the one closest to the creaky-looking wooden reading chair.
“Well, whatever has happened to him, it has not caused him to lose his appetite.” Erudisia peers in through the little glass. Almost without thinking she tries the door handle, to see if it opens.
She has always been meticulous in ensuring her study room is locked when she is not in residence, but perhaps a true avowed does not need to be quite so cautious and observant of the rules.
The handle, fashioned in the shape of a round-edged quill, turns downward in Erudisia’s hand, and with a soft click the door comes unlatched. But the quiet is then torn by the door groaning loudly on its hinges when Erudisia gently opens it into the study room. You know that permanent silence spells enchant each of the study rooms in the Pillars of Pedagogy. But each enchantment only functions when that room’s door is locked from within.
Rogi looks right and left to make sure no one else is there, then pulls out a trinket from his pocket, shaped like a tube with a wooden hand at one end. He points it at the tome and presses a button. It extends, telescoping out until it reaches the book, grabs it and brings it back to them.
Rogi sees no one in the room to either side. His magic hand extends into the lamp-lit chamber, as shadows dance up the walls when a slight draft from the hallway disturbs the previously calm air and the lamp's flame. I suppose Rogi stands just outside the doorway with the others peeking over his shoulder while maneuvering the wooden appendage to "grab" the surprisingly heavy tome. Heavy: its thick covers made of ornately tooled leather decorated with gold filigree, its pages of dense parchment. Surprisingly, for when the hand grabs the book off the table, it falls due to the unexpected weight, almost to the floor, before Rogi is able to pull it back up again in the nick of time, then succeeds easily in reeling in his catch.
The book now floats sideways at eye level, the left half held vertically by the magic wooden hand, the right half drooping down, its pages loosely fanning. A few telltale crumbs slipping off the parchment and onto your toes show that it remains open to the same page as before. I imagine Meredith, Erudisia and Bell are all looking over Rogi's shoulder, four heads turned sideways to read the sideways pages. All four can attempt to examine the book in the almost-minute before Rogi's spell ends.
If possible, Bell will attempt to view the displayed pages to see if she might know what Matreus was reading about. If there is the time and space, Bell could do the ritual she has used many times this past 7 day - Comprehend Languages
If possible, Bell will attempt to view that pages to see if she might know what Matreus was reading about. If there is the time and space, Bell could do the ritual she has used many times this past 7 day - Comprehend Languages
Bell sees that the tome is written in the common tongue, and that a comprehend languages spell will not be needed.
Cheek to cheek with Meredith, Erudisia skims the page that Matreus last read.
“Show us the cover,” she whispers. “What is the title of this book?”
The book’s cover shows the title, The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, and the name and an embossed bust of, presumably, the author: an imposing spellcaster whom you four recognize as one of the most important wizards of the current age, Mordenkainen.
Mordenkainen, you know, is a prolific archmage from another world who is responsible for having invented many powerful and useful spells. Legend has it that he was the leader and sole survivor of the Oerthian group of wizards known as the Circle of Eight, which included other major spell inventors whose names are familiar: Bigby, Drawmij, Nystul, Otiluke, Otto, Rary, and Tenser. Legend further has it that they all perished – except for Mordenkainen – battling the evil lich Vecna in its first attempt to ascend to godhood.
The open pages are rather dense prose recounting arcana in excruciating detail relating to pocket dimensions, whose real point you cannot make out unless you were to start from the beginning of the chapter, 20 pages back. However, there are some handwritten notes in the margins of the open pages, written in some kind of shorthand in a different script from the rest of the text.
(OOC: Please make an Arcana check, DC13, if you wish to decipher the shorthand. Also, Rogi's spell is now ending and the book will drop or Rogi's magic hand may place it on the floor before disappearing, or someone may take it in hand, or...)
(Kol: please tell us how it is that Bell is able to decipher the shorthand and read the following: “works nicely… commodious… collection… shut the door to open the door… unlock the door to unlock it… don’t forget scepter…”)
Bell pushes her glasses up on her button nose as she squints at the open book and the scribbled notes in the margins. After moments tilting her head one way and another she lets out a tiny noise as she pulls off her backpack and digs around for her notebook. Quickly flipping pages, she talks to herself "... no, not that... perhaps.. wait.. wasn't that in the other book ... perhaps it IS part of .... oh my..."
Bell will turn to her companions and slowly translate what she can of the notations. She looks about to laugh or cry...
"Shut the door to open the door" "Unlock the door to unlock it" "Don't forget the scepter.."
What scepter? Which door? Unlock to unlock?
If it wasn't in a book about magic talking about magic, I'd say it is pure gibberish. She throws up her hands in frustration.
Erudisia listens in consternation. This was an avowed, what shoddy note taking! How unnecessarily cryptic!
Still, she places her nose to the little window to look and see if there a scepter she can spot.
If not, she says. “We need some oil for this door and …” she pauses. But clearly, the man has abandoned his duty, or fled by means of some spell. “We should search his room in the Hall of Rest.”
Still, she places her nose to the little window to look and see if there a scepter she can spot.
If not, she says. “We need some oil for this door and …” she pauses. But clearly, the man has abandoned his duty, or fled by means of some spell. “We should search his room in the Hall of Rest.”
Erudisia sees nothing approximating a scepter in the room. She does, however, see an old key on a ring looped over the top rung of the high-backed wooden chair at the study table. The key looks just like the ones you each have which unlock the doors to your personal study rooms. You also use them to lock your doors from the inside, which engages the silence enchantment imbuing each room.
(OOC: The door to Matreus’ study chamber is now open, so to look through the window would require stepping into the room and peering to the left, to where the door has opened on its hinges. Disappointingly, this would afford nothing more than a view of a small patch of wall behind the door in its current position.
To clarify: no one has touched The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces yet. Only Rogi’s magic hand has. Held thus, you four have only examined its cover and the two pages that were originally open. No one has entered the room, and the other books on the study table remain undisturbed.)
Erudisia taps Rogi on the shoulder. She points at the book on the floor, the books on the table. She then taps the corner of her eye, points at Rogi once again, points at his mechanical hand, then points at the books on the study table beyond the open door, again, and then the space below the table with an upward jab towards the ceiling. She knocks her knees together and raises both eyebrows a few times. She then points at the glass in the door, the crumbs on the plate and then presses her finger to her lips. She nods at him.
After a moment, if he does nothing, she makes a little ‘go on’ shooing movement with her hands towards the room.
Bell's fingers are itching to grab all the books... but, in the back of her head, she hears that tiny voice that is saying how this 'reading material' is probably so far beyond her baseline knowledge and experience set... that it would be like giving a child a lit torch while in a shed filled with pressed oil.
She gives a soft, shoulder slumped sigh as she agrees with that inner voice and continues to try to make sense of the nonsense in the margins.
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Bell looks to her companions as they trickle toward the door of the Hearth to go to the Pillars of Pedagogy to search Matreus’ study room. She was already trying to thinking ahead to what obstacles they might face since the study rooms were supposed to be kept private and protected by tradition and magic. With a huge sigh (from such a little body) she stood and followed the others; jaw set and mind awhirl.
As Rogi stands to join the two women, Erudisia beckons to Bell. "Come with we three. Let's go find out together. If the guards knew, then Matreus' fellow avowed would have, also. No use staying here and talking up a feywild season. Or are we not seekers?"
Meredith, Erudisia, Bell, and Rogi cross the Court of Air, stars twinkling overhead, the ocean roaring distantly below, and enter the Pillars of Pedagogy. It is customary to offer a silent prayer to Deneir upon entrance, for a small fountain dedicated to the God of Scholars splashes melodically just within the first courtyard. Then you find your way through the pillars toward the one in the back in which Matreus’ study room is situated a few floors above. You pass several Seekers, noses in books, lamps flickering.
The door to Matreus’ room is at the end of a hallway atop a curling stairway of stone, and the door has a small window in it. Looking within, little has changed since earlier in the day:
Whoever it was that peeked earlier (OOC: you can decide) notices a change. The previously full tea cup is now empty, while only a few crumbs remain on the plate of cookies. There, and a few crumbs can be spotted on the page of the open book next to the plate, the one closest to the creaky-looking wooden reading chair.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
“Well, whatever has happened to him, it has not caused him to lose his appetite.” Erudisia peers in through the little glass. Almost without thinking she tries the door handle, to see if it opens.
She has always been meticulous in ensuring her study room is locked when she is not in residence, but perhaps a true avowed does not need to be quite so cautious and observant of the rules.
The handle, fashioned in the shape of a round-edged quill, turns downward in Erudisia’s hand, and with a soft click the door comes unlatched. But the quiet is then torn by the door groaning loudly on its hinges when Erudisia gently opens it into the study room. You know that permanent silence spells enchant each of the study rooms in the Pillars of Pedagogy. But each enchantment only functions when that room’s door is locked from within.
Do you enter?
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
(flavoring Mage Hand)
Rogi looks right and left to make sure no one else is there, then pulls out a trinket from his pocket, shaped like a tube with a wooden hand at one end. He points it at the tome and presses a button. It extends, telescoping out until it reaches the book, grabs it and brings it back to them.
Rogi sees no one in the room to either side. His magic hand extends into the lamp-lit chamber, as shadows dance up the walls when a slight draft from the hallway disturbs the previously calm air and the lamp's flame. I suppose Rogi stands just outside the doorway with the others peeking over his shoulder while maneuvering the wooden appendage to "grab" the surprisingly heavy tome. Heavy: its thick covers made of ornately tooled leather decorated with gold filigree, its pages of dense parchment. Surprisingly, for when the hand grabs the book off the table, it falls due to the unexpected weight, almost to the floor, before Rogi is able to pull it back up again in the nick of time, then succeeds easily in reeling in his catch.
The book now floats sideways at eye level, the left half held vertically by the magic wooden hand, the right half drooping down, its pages loosely fanning. A few telltale crumbs slipping off the parchment and onto your toes show that it remains open to the same page as before. I imagine Meredith, Erudisia and Bell are all looking over Rogi's shoulder, four heads turned sideways to read the sideways pages. All four can attempt to examine the book in the almost-minute before Rogi's spell ends.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
If possible, Bell will attempt to view the displayed pages to see if she might know what Matreus was reading about. If there is the time and space, Bell could do the ritual she has used many times this past 7 day - Comprehend Languages
Cheek to cheek with Meredith, Erudisia skims the page that Matreus last read.
“Show us the cover,” she whispers. “What is the title of this book?”
Bell sees that the tome is written in the common tongue, and that a comprehend languages spell will not be needed.
The book’s cover shows the title, The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces, and the name and an embossed bust of, presumably, the author: an imposing spellcaster whom you four recognize as one of the most important wizards of the current age, Mordenkainen.
Mordenkainen, you know, is a prolific archmage from another world who is responsible for having invented many powerful and useful spells. Legend has it that he was the leader and sole survivor of the Oerthian group of wizards known as the Circle of Eight, which included other major spell inventors whose names are familiar: Bigby, Drawmij, Nystul, Otiluke, Otto, Rary, and Tenser. Legend further has it that they all perished – except for Mordenkainen – battling the evil lich Vecna in its first attempt to ascend to godhood.
The open pages are rather dense prose recounting arcana in excruciating detail relating to pocket dimensions, whose real point you cannot make out unless you were to start from the beginning of the chapter, 20 pages back. However, there are some handwritten notes in the margins of the open pages, written in some kind of shorthand in a different script from the rest of the text.
(OOC: Please make an Arcana check, DC13, if you wish to decipher the shorthand. Also, Rogi's spell is now ending and the book will drop or Rogi's magic hand may place it on the floor before disappearing, or someone may take it in hand, or...)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
(Rogi will place it on the floor just long enough to pick it up again.
Edit: Arcana check 18
{game log} Arcana check: 13
Bell:
(Kol: please tell us how it is that Bell is able to decipher the shorthand and read the following: “works nicely… commodious… collection… shut the door to open the door… unlock the door to unlock it… don’t forget scepter…”)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Done. After scrabbling under the book's spine, the hand can now balance it open as if it were on a lectern before you.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell pushes her glasses up on her button nose as she squints at the open book and the scribbled notes in the margins. After moments tilting her head one way and another she lets out a tiny noise as she pulls off her backpack and digs around for her notebook. Quickly flipping pages, she talks to herself "... no, not that... perhaps.. wait.. wasn't that in the other book ... perhaps it IS part of .... oh my..."
Bell will turn to her companions and slowly translate what she can of the notations. She looks about to laugh or cry...
"Shut the door to open the door" "Unlock the door to unlock it" "Don't forget the scepter.."
What scepter? Which door? Unlock to unlock?
If it wasn't in a book about magic talking about magic, I'd say it is pure gibberish. She throws up her hands in frustration.
Erudisia listens in consternation. This was an avowed, what shoddy note taking! How unnecessarily cryptic!
Still, she places her nose to the little window to look and see if there a scepter she can spot.
If not, she says. “We need some oil for this door and …” she pauses. But clearly, the man has abandoned his duty, or fled by means of some spell. “We should search his room in the Hall of Rest.”
Meredith examines the book silently turning over Bells words in her head to no avail.....she nods to Erudisia having no other idea presently.
Erudisia sees nothing approximating a scepter in the room. She does, however, see an old key on a ring looped over the top rung of the high-backed wooden chair at the study table. The key looks just like the ones you each have which unlock the doors to your personal study rooms. You also use them to lock your doors from the inside, which engages the silence enchantment imbuing each room.
(OOC: The door to Matreus’ study chamber is now open, so to look through the window would require stepping into the room and peering to the left, to where the door has opened on its hinges. Disappointingly, this would afford nothing more than a view of a small patch of wall behind the door in its current position.
To clarify: no one has touched The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces yet. Only Rogi’s magic hand has. Held thus, you four have only examined its cover and the two pages that were originally open. No one has entered the room, and the other books on the study table remain undisturbed.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia taps Rogi on the shoulder. She points at the book on the floor, the books on the table. She then taps the corner of her eye, points at Rogi once again, points at his mechanical hand, then points at the books on the study table beyond the open door, again, and then the space below the table with an upward jab towards the ceiling. She knocks her knees together and raises both eyebrows a few times. She then points at the glass in the door, the crumbs on the plate and then presses her finger to her lips. She nods at him.
After a moment, if he does nothing, she makes a little ‘go on’ shooing movement with her hands towards the room.
Bell's fingers are itching to grab all the books... but, in the back of her head, she hears that tiny voice that is saying how this 'reading material' is probably so far beyond her baseline knowledge and experience set... that it would be like giving a child a lit torch while in a shed filled with pressed oil.
She gives a soft, shoulder slumped sigh as she agrees with that inner voice and continues to try to make sense of the nonsense in the margins.