The ogre blinks twice at Meredith’s question, shakes his head as if slugged in a brawl. His hands compact into fists and knuckles pop as he seems to tower over Meredith, rippling pectorals straining his tunic at her eye level. The smells of him — beer, linen, something wild and pungent barely masked by cheap cologne, make her hackles rise. But at that moment, the circlet around his brow gives off a subtle glow. His eyes clear, he relaxes, and anger shifts to amity.
“Felines…? I…glad you ask. Is something I ponder about early ogre tribe ruin with cat god depict outside Waterdeep…”
Merediths quill went into overtime as the ogre talked........many glasses of wine were consumed.....
Bell listens to Rogi's rambling rant without expression. As he wound down, she gathered her books into her book bag, stood, moved her chair back under the table. Moving as if 'on a mission', she goes past Meredith muttering something about 'a headache' ; leaving the Hearth and goes straight to her bed chamber.
Almost on automatic mode, Bell carefully undresses and gets into her sleeping gown; settles her bookbag inside her trunk of personal possessions before moving to lay face down on her bed, with her face buried into her pillow.
The ogre keeps up his part in the conversation and asks many questions of his own, of Calimshan, of Meredith's recent adventure, and of her decision to come to Candlekeep. It is late when he yawns hugely, joking about "getting beauty sleep," and trudges heavily out of The Hearth to the stable, where he says he prefers to sleep in the hayloft, rather than in a bed. When Meredith heads to her own room in the House of Rest, she is walking down the hallway just in time to see Rogi knock quietly on Bell's door. Rogi has not yet noticed Meredith.
BELL
The young Wizard from Carradoon has fallen into a fitful sleep when she is roused by a gentle knocking on her door. “Bell. It’s me.” Rogi’s voice.
Rogi stands still for a moment, listening. Meredith calculates groggily that he can’t see her around the corner, and seemed too lost in his own thoughts and focused on listening for Bell’s response to clearly mark the bard’s misstep.
”Hello?,” he calls tentatively down the hall. But if Meredith doesn’t respond, he listens for another moment, then shakes his head to clear it, then knocks on Bell’s door again.
Bell is roused from a fitful rest. She spent more time tossing and turning than actually resting. She hears Rogi calling outside her door and is torn. Mad at him for not wishing to stay here at Candlekeep. Mad that he doesn't understand the situation or her... Why *was* she mad?
The knocking continued. Grumbling, she threw on her robe; raked her fingers through her hair and went to answer the knock.
When the door opens, anyone looking might think they ran into the Mad Woman of the Moors. Eyes squinting and puffy from late night crying. Sprigs of hair going in directions no respectable hair should ever go. A robe that looked 'well worn' bottoming out just shy of a pair of fluffy pink scuff slippers.
Locking on to the target of the knocking, Bell's lips drew thin across her face. "I thought you were done with Candlekeep and us. I thought you could not wait to leave. Why are you here now?"
When Bell opens the door, Rogi is there. His face, lit warmly by the half-dimmed hall lamp, shifts immediately from relief to concern and confusion when he takes in Bell’s appearance, and to regret when she speaks.
“I’m sorry, ok?,” he says, softly, his glance rising slowly to meet hers. “I went overboard. I didn’t have to be so… detailed. I guess I needed to convince myself even more than you.
“And – wait, let me finish – what I came to say is, yeah, I have all those reasons for going. But I have one reason why it doesn’t make sense. At all.” Now, he looks at Bell directly and she notices the corner of one eye moistening. He deeply inhales. “I don’t know what this is exactly, but… but if you wanted me to stay… I'd stay..."
He trails off, powerless to keep his glance from falling to the young wizard’s lips.
Bell shakes her head. "No. I do not think you coming in or staying 'for one reason only' is wise... for either of us."
"Go. Stay. Do not place that burden on me; that is your choice and yours alone. You may be right; Candlekeep may not be the place for you right now. Perhaps in the future. Maybe never. There is an entire world of wonder and magic and mechanicals beyond these walls. Good luck finding your Way."
She closes the door and slides down; coming to rest with her back to the door - her head resting on her bent knees.
A few moments later, Bell, through the closed door, hears Rogi step away from the door and down the hallway.
MEREDITH
You hear Bell's door open, an exchange of words between Bell and Rogi, and then you hear the door close. You peek around the corner and see Rogi, from behind, shaking his head. He takes a deep breath, head back, looking at the ceiling, then sticks his hands in his pockets and walks away. You are able to remain in place until Rogi has left the area.
Meredith presses her back hard against the wall.....she feels the tiniest hint of a relieved smile begin to form then scolds herself for it.....her friends are in pain....it would be wicked to be.....pleased......no......mollified......perhaps......by that circumstance. Part.....a much braver and more well put together part that had no business being within her psyche....of her wanted to go and knock.......she quashed that immediately and instead put her palm against the outer wall of Bells chambers and then turned to look in the direction Rogi had departed.
" I'm sorry......", she whispered, perhaps a little more in the direction of the wall than the corridor, ".......just......not very......"
She drew herself up again and marched directly to her chambers where she planned on having a very uncomplicated dreamless sleep and a tiny touch of self loathing....
Janussi, The Keeper of Tomes, calls a general assembly. For the first time, you see all of the Avowed together, gathered in the Court of Air. Someone casts a levitate spell and Janussi rises above the crowd, then speaks through a magical megaphone which projects their voice across the courtyard. Bell, Meredith, Erudisia and Little One are presented as The Scholar’s Shield, and the rights and responsibilities represented by the pendant that has been bestowed upon and accepted by each one are recited for all to hear.
Valna Oxalonthrinn, the black-and-green robed Keeper of the Emerald Door, leads a number of discontented Avowed who argue that the so-called Scholar’s Shield have not earned the privilege of access to the Great Stacks through study and intellect as have all of the Avowed. This is a breach of protocol unprecedented in the history of Candlekeep, they say.
Janussi ignores them and expects their respectful adherence to the new dictum. She later gives you your first assignment. Mushrooms. You are to research mushrooms, especially, magical ones. You are not to divulge the focus of your studies to anyone else. When you enter the Stacks for the first time, you find that there is no current topic heading for magical mushrooms. Therefore, this will be a slow slog. Neither does Janussi offer you a cause for this particular research topic. But she is unbending. Mushrooms. And recent books about magic should particularly be checked for references to mushrooms.
Days pass, tendays pass. The rains of the month of Tarsakh increase to terrible storms wracked with lightning that force everyone indoors. A vengeful assault by Talos, God of Storms, many grumble. But, the enforced quarantine makes it easier to focus on research. During this time, travel is dangerous and the House of Rest but slowly empties out of Seekers, leaving empty rooms. In the village on the beach below Candlekeep, there is flooding and destruction from whole trees uprooted to crash through thatched farmhouse roofs. An early planting is completely ruined.
But one day, Talos seemingly has spent all of his energy. Not that the capricious God requires a reason. Whatever the cause, he suddenly departs for other parts of Faerun. And so begin the crisply warming, fair-weather days of Mirtul (“the melting”), the fifth month. The farmers in their fields near the beach now busily clean debris and replant, from dawn till dusk. There is still time for a fair harvest.
Bell sat at a nearby study table and was making a list on parchment. "Local and regional mushrooms. Exotic and magical mushrooms. ? List of Underdark mushrooms ? Mushroom uses beyond standard cooking."
Looking over the list she nodded - at least it gave her a starting point.
She continued staring at the list. She wasn't ready to move just yet.
Dragging out her personal spellbook, she flipped through the pages looking for something... a finder or location spell or ritual. Did she even have something like that? She knew there was something like a find object spell but it was not something she had ever stumbled upon in her readings. Perhaps if she could somehow modify her unseen servant ritual with the find familiar spell? But that would take weeks to research and test... time and resources she did not have right now.
So, she finally got up and started walking the stacks as she hunted for relatively new books that might touch on mushrooms, either as the main topic or indirectly with encounters in the wild. Maybe she could roam among the personal journals later...
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Fungi of the Sword Coast, Myconid Cropping and Husbandry, A Field Guide to Toadstools by Abigail Crabb...........Meredith added to books to the pile as she finished going through them.
Meredith sighed and looked across to the other two, " Wish we had a little more to go on.....its a pretty broad topic...."
" Anything you need me to fetch for you two?"
Meredith had studiously avoided mentioning Rogi around the others, and always made sure Erudisia was present with her and Bell.
Bell has collected 105 sources in the span of three tendays, while Meredith has found 70. However, since Meredith has been avoiding Bell, it turns out that 20 of the same sources were found independently by both of them, making the total now only 105 between the two. Erudisia has found 65 sources, bringing the grand total to 170. Thousands of potential sources still remain to be examined.
It is late in the afternoon on a fair-weather day, almost evening, when Erudisia, Meredith and Bell are scanning through tall stacks of potential titles fetched from the stacks. You three are sitting around a large circular study table in a room that has been devoted to your secret research. It boasts a tile ceiling mosaic that depicts a peach tree grove with a single great tree branching away at its apex.
Just as sleep from boredom threatens to disrupt your studies, Little One steps heavily into the chamber.
“We start get visitors again. Seekers. Scared of rain…why? Haha. Humans so scared. Also, while possibility of damage from falling limbs increase, fewer bandits on road is proportional decrease in number hunting large mammals and birds. Is safer.” You have learned over the intervening tendays that while Little One’s common tongue is imperfect, he is fluent in Giant, Dwarvish, Illuskan, Gnomish, and a number of northern dialects. He just can’t quite manage Common.
“Anyhow,” he continues, “one seeker is bring this book as offering. Avowed let him in. Head Adjudicate say this book new. About magic. Therefore, draw our interest as primary source in topic heading. Hopefully prose is not crap like my last five potential source. Nice cover anyhow. Anyone want to read?”
He places it on the center of the table, and at first glance, it seems like an interesting change of pace from the dusty tomes you have been studying.
Seven inches wide and nine inches tall, its brown leather cover is new and shiny. The name of the book and its author, Mazfroth Gethur, are elegantly written in cursive with black ink on the first page. The care put into the front page, however, does not apply to the rest of the book’s contents. The pages don’t all match in size, while the stitching is haphazard. Indeed, it looks like it could come undone at any moment.
Bell stifles a big yawn as she looks at this new book. "I bet Grueselma over at the House of Binding would have a few choice words about the stitching somebody tried to do."
She looks around the table and asks, "If no one objects, mind if I use aDetect Magic on it to see what happens? I mean, I really need to take my mind off mushrooms and fungii for a few minutes."
“Thank you, Little One,” says Erudisia, standing back with the others as the wizard works her magic.
Once again, she thinks to herself how unfortunate it is that their little company has lost their former artificer, Rogi. Though the other two never speak of him, to have left without a word, with not even a chance to change his mind or discuss where they might send any correspondence was so unexpected.
Her thoughts drifting, as they so often do in the past month during this long search for magic and mushroom, Erudisia corrals her thoughts, to look at the book before her as Bell prepares to deliver her conclusions.
Merediths quill went into overtime as the ogre talked........many glasses of wine were consumed.....
Bell listens to Rogi's rambling rant without expression. As he wound down, she gathered her books into her book bag, stood, moved her chair back under the table. Moving as if 'on a mission', she goes past Meredith muttering something about 'a headache' ; leaving the Hearth and goes straight to her bed chamber.
Almost on automatic mode, Bell carefully undresses and gets into her sleeping gown; settles her bookbag inside her trunk of personal possessions before moving to lay face down on her bed, with her face buried into her pillow.
MEREDITH
The ogre keeps up his part in the conversation and asks many questions of his own, of Calimshan, of Meredith's recent adventure, and of her decision to come to Candlekeep. It is late when he yawns hugely, joking about "getting beauty sleep," and trudges heavily out of The Hearth to the stable, where he says he prefers to sleep in the hayloft, rather than in a bed. When Meredith heads to her own room in the House of Rest, she is walking down the hallway just in time to see Rogi knock quietly on Bell's door. Rogi has not yet noticed Meredith.
BELL
The young Wizard from Carradoon has fallen into a fitful sleep when she is roused by a gentle knocking on her door. “Bell. It’s me.” Rogi’s voice.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith immediately tried to hide around the corner, however the wine may have other ideas ( Disadvantage)
Stealth- 3
Rogi stands still for a moment, listening. Meredith calculates groggily that he can’t see her around the corner, and seemed too lost in his own thoughts and focused on listening for Bell’s response to clearly mark the bard’s misstep.
”Hello?,” he calls tentatively down the hall. But if Meredith doesn’t respond, he listens for another moment, then shakes his head to clear it, then knocks on Bell’s door again.
”Bell, I want to talk. Please.”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith stays silent......her demeanour flip-flopping rapidly between concerned, embarrassed and.........jealo........enviou.....disappointed?
Bell is roused from a fitful rest. She spent more time tossing and turning than actually resting. She hears Rogi calling outside her door and is torn. Mad at him for not wishing to stay here at Candlekeep. Mad that he doesn't understand the situation or her... Why *was* she mad?
The knocking continued. Grumbling, she threw on her robe; raked her fingers through her hair and went to answer the knock.
When the door opens, anyone looking might think they ran into the Mad Woman of the Moors. Eyes squinting and puffy from late night crying. Sprigs of hair going in directions no respectable hair should ever go. A robe that looked 'well worn' bottoming out just shy of a pair of fluffy pink scuff slippers.
Locking on to the target of the knocking, Bell's lips drew thin across her face. "I thought you were done with Candlekeep and us. I thought you could not wait to leave. Why are you here now?"
BELL
When Bell opens the door, Rogi is there. His face, lit warmly by the half-dimmed hall lamp, shifts immediately from relief to concern and confusion when he takes in Bell’s appearance, and to regret when she speaks.
“I’m sorry, ok?,” he says, softly, his glance rising slowly to meet hers. “I went overboard. I didn’t have to be so… detailed. I guess I needed to convince myself even more than you.
“And – wait, let me finish – what I came to say is, yeah, I have all those reasons for going. But I have one reason why it doesn’t make sense. At all.” Now, he looks at Bell directly and she notices the corner of one eye moistening. He deeply inhales. “I don’t know what this is exactly, but… but if you wanted me to stay… I'd stay..."
He trails off, powerless to keep his glance from falling to the young wizard’s lips.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell shakes her head. "No. I do not think you coming in or staying 'for one reason only' is wise... for either of us."
"Go. Stay. Do not place that burden on me; that is your choice and yours alone. You may be right; Candlekeep may not be the place for you right now. Perhaps in the future. Maybe never. There is an entire world of wonder and magic and mechanicals beyond these walls. Good luck finding your Way."
She closes the door and slides down; coming to rest with her back to the door - her head resting on her bent knees.
BELL
A few moments later, Bell, through the closed door, hears Rogi step away from the door and down the hallway.
MEREDITH
You hear Bell's door open, an exchange of words between Bell and Rogi, and then you hear the door close. You peek around the corner and see Rogi, from behind, shaking his head. He takes a deep breath, head back, looking at the ceiling, then sticks his hands in his pockets and walks away. You are able to remain in place until Rogi has left the area.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith presses her back hard against the wall.....she feels the tiniest hint of a relieved smile begin to form then scolds herself for it.....her friends are in pain....it would be wicked to be.....pleased......no......mollified......perhaps......by that circumstance. Part.....a much braver and more well put together part that had no business being within her psyche....of her wanted to go and knock.......she quashed that immediately and instead put her palm against the outer wall of Bells chambers and then turned to look in the direction Rogi had departed.
" I'm sorry......", she whispered, perhaps a little more in the direction of the wall than the corridor, ".......just......not very......"
She drew herself up again and marched directly to her chambers where she planned on having a very uncomplicated dreamless sleep and a tiny touch of self loathing....
The next morning, by the time you all rise, you find that the door to Rogi's room is open, the room itself, vacant...
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Chapter 2. Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions
Janussi, The Keeper of Tomes, calls a general assembly. For the first time, you see all of the Avowed together, gathered in the Court of Air. Someone casts a levitate spell and Janussi rises above the crowd, then speaks through a magical megaphone which projects their voice across the courtyard. Bell, Meredith, Erudisia and Little One are presented as The Scholar’s Shield, and the rights and responsibilities represented by the pendant that has been bestowed upon and accepted by each one are recited for all to hear.
Valna Oxalonthrinn, the black-and-green robed Keeper of the Emerald Door, leads a number of discontented Avowed who argue that the so-called Scholar’s Shield have not earned the privilege of access to the Great Stacks through study and intellect as have all of the Avowed. This is a breach of protocol unprecedented in the history of Candlekeep, they say.
Janussi ignores them and expects their respectful adherence to the new dictum. She later gives you your first assignment. Mushrooms. You are to research mushrooms, especially, magical ones. You are not to divulge the focus of your studies to anyone else. When you enter the Stacks for the first time, you find that there is no current topic heading for magical mushrooms. Therefore, this will be a slow slog. Neither does Janussi offer you a cause for this particular research topic. But she is unbending. Mushrooms. And recent books about magic should particularly be checked for references to mushrooms.
Days pass, tendays pass. The rains of the month of Tarsakh increase to terrible storms wracked with lightning that force everyone indoors. A vengeful assault by Talos, God of Storms, many grumble. But, the enforced quarantine makes it easier to focus on research. During this time, travel is dangerous and the House of Rest but slowly empties out of Seekers, leaving empty rooms. In the village on the beach below Candlekeep, there is flooding and destruction from whole trees uprooted to crash through thatched farmhouse roofs. An early planting is completely ruined.
But one day, Talos seemingly has spent all of his energy. Not that the capricious God requires a reason. Whatever the cause, he suddenly departs for other parts of Faerun. And so begin the crisply warming, fair-weather days of Mirtul (“the melting”), the fifth month. The farmers in their fields near the beach now busily clean debris and replant, from dawn till dusk. There is still time for a fair harvest.
How have each of you spent your days?
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell sat at a nearby study table and was making a list on parchment.
"Local and regional mushrooms. Exotic and magical mushrooms. ? List of Underdark mushrooms ? Mushroom uses beyond standard cooking."
Looking over the list she nodded - at least it gave her a starting point.
She continued staring at the list. She wasn't ready to move just yet.
Dragging out her personal spellbook, she flipped through the pages looking for something... a finder or location spell or ritual. Did she even have something like that? She knew there was something like a find object spell but it was not something she had ever stumbled upon in her readings. Perhaps if she could somehow modify her unseen servant ritual with the find familiar spell? But that would take weeks to research and test... time and resources she did not have right now.
So, she finally got up and started walking the stacks as she hunted for relatively new books that might touch on mushrooms, either as the main topic or indirectly with encounters in the wild. Maybe she could roam among the personal journals later...
Fungi of the Sword Coast, Myconid Cropping and Husbandry, A Field Guide to Toadstools by Abigail Crabb...........Meredith added to books to the pile as she finished going through them.
Meredith sighed and looked across to the other two, " Wish we had a little more to go on.....its a pretty broad topic...."
" Anything you need me to fetch for you two?"
Meredith had studiously avoided mentioning Rogi around the others, and always made sure Erudisia was present with her and Bell.
Investigation- 7
Bell Investigation = 18+3 == 21
(( forgot to do it in the last post ))
Bell has collected 105 sources in the span of three tendays, while Meredith has found 70. However, since Meredith has been avoiding Bell, it turns out that 20 of the same sources were found independently by both of them, making the total now only 105 between the two. Erudisia has found 65 sources, bringing the grand total to 170. Thousands of potential sources still remain to be examined.
It is late in the afternoon on a fair-weather day, almost evening, when Erudisia, Meredith and Bell are scanning through tall stacks of potential titles fetched from the stacks. You three are sitting around a large circular study table in a room that has been devoted to your secret research. It boasts a tile ceiling mosaic that depicts a peach tree grove with a single great tree branching away at its apex.
Just as sleep from boredom threatens to disrupt your studies, Little One steps heavily into the chamber.
“We start get visitors again. Seekers. Scared of rain…why? Haha. Humans so scared. Also, while possibility of damage from falling limbs increase, fewer bandits on road is proportional decrease in number hunting large mammals and birds. Is safer.” You have learned over the intervening tendays that while Little One’s common tongue is imperfect, he is fluent in Giant, Dwarvish, Illuskan, Gnomish, and a number of northern dialects. He just can’t quite manage Common.
“Anyhow,” he continues, “one seeker is bring this book as offering. Avowed let him in. Head Adjudicate say this book new. About magic. Therefore, draw our interest as primary source in topic heading. Hopefully prose is not crap like my last five potential source. Nice cover anyhow. Anyone want to read?”
He places it on the center of the table, and at first glance, it seems like an interesting change of pace from the dusty tomes you have been studying.
Seven inches wide and nine inches tall, its brown leather cover is new and shiny. The name of the book and its author, Mazfroth Gethur, are elegantly written in cursive with black ink on the first page. The care put into the front page, however, does not apply to the rest of the book’s contents. The pages don’t all match in size, while the stitching is haphazard. Indeed, it looks like it could come undone at any moment.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell stifles a big yawn as she looks at this new book. "I bet Grueselma over at the House of Binding would have a few choice words about the stitching somebody tried to do."
She looks around the table and asks, "If no one objects, mind if I use a Detect Magic on it to see what happens? I mean, I really need to take my mind off mushrooms and fungii for a few minutes."
Meredith nods, " Can't hurt."
“Thank you, Little One,” says Erudisia, standing back with the others as the wizard works her magic.
Once again, she thinks to herself how unfortunate it is that their little company has lost their former artificer, Rogi. Though the other two never speak of him, to have left without a word, with not even a chance to change his mind or discuss where they might send any correspondence was so unexpected.
Her thoughts drifting, as they so often do in the past month during this long search for magic and mushroom, Erudisia corrals her thoughts, to look at the book before her as Bell prepares to deliver her conclusions.