Quillary nods, of course Sarah can read this. Now, the hard part. "This does not help us much, as Sarah can already understand us when we speak to her. We could play the many questions game, where we narrow down the answer while she nods or shakes her head as we go. Some spirits can only focus on one aspect of the world as it relates to their unfinished business, but now we know you do not have that limitation. Now, if you will not take my body—which is still on offering, by the way—are you the sort of spirit that can manipulate an object?" she holds out the quill. 

If you need me to do something, say so. Otherwise, if my part is quick and the part with Sarah is going to take a while, I'm cool with waiting my turn.

(OOC: I'm tempted to drag this out, but after all these clever ideas, I shouldn't keep making obstacles.)

Sarah is having trouble manipulating the quill. But when she notices a layer of ash near the fireplace, she is able to draw words on the hearthstones. (She is not certain why Quillary seems reluctant to get any closer to the fireplace, but Sarah is focused on what the party would like to know.) To summarize:

• Lord Viallis Yellowcrest was responsible for the murders of his wife, his children, Sarah, and three other servants, all of whom were killed as part of a dark ritual. (The trauma Sarah suffered has occluded her memories of the details of the ritual and of her own death.)
• The book that Sarah observed Viallis reading was the source of the ritual, and a work of evil.
• The souls of Lady Maria, Malik, Janus, and Tianna have not moved on since their deaths. All four are trapped in the mortal realm until their physical remains can be buried in hallowed ground.
• The remains of those victims are missing. Sarah doesn’t know what happened to them, but she is certain that Lord Viallis has something to do with it.
• Sarah's unfinished business is for the Lady and the 3 children to move on, before Sarah herself can find rest. The remains of Sarah and the other servants are in the City of the Dead. (The diary being brought to the graveyard allowed her to assume ghost form. The book is her anchor to the mortal realm, until her task is completed.)

At the library, Hildigrim finds out the tome is called Retribution of the Ancients. It is not part of any public library, but is known by reputation. It is a dark work of ritual magic, its contents potentially deadly in the wrong hands.

Drusk is able to find out that the being on the cover of the tome is a Great Old One called Gaernoo, a demi-god-like creature of madness and malevolence.

 Oh, so he did kill them!

Jorin's face darkens as the story unfolds, "To kill your own kin, " he says and spits, "shameful.  We must find and kill this lord.  Avenge his family."

Quillary stills as the story unfolds. At Jorin’s statement, she says sadly, “The certainty of their death makes mortals choose terrible things. Immortals do not have that excuse.”

She does not go on to explain, but stares into the middle distance a while.

Before leaving the tower, I'll try to find out if anyone knows of anyone who knows the book well enough to discuss it.

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

Before leaving the tower, I'll try to find out if anyone knows of anyone who knows the book well enough to discuss it.

No other information, beyond what you've already learned.
All information was second-hand, rumors, gossip... The scholar does say that if you find this book, they would definitely like to keep it in a secure and safe place for study, to keep it away from people who would use it (for ill).

Is it possible to request an audience with the Blackstaff?

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

Is it possible to request an audience with the Blackstaff?

(I'm going to say the boss is currently out of town. No more help from the Blackstaff organization, beyond what you've learned so far.)

OK. Do I know of anyone else in town who might know more about the book?

(I am here, it’s just that Quillary is a woman of action, and she doesn’t know how to proceed. I think DDP is on the right track with the book, given that our quarry has allegedly fled. The house might still have secrets to divulge, I suppose, particularly in the underground, and Quillary would be on board with a little sneaking and entering.)

(Nothing more to be learned about that book, from any source. Only that it involved long-time scale rituals to contact one of the malicious Great Old Ones.
The book won't be used directly in any combat in the future, as it is a mcguffin for the family+servants being murdered.

You have the option of yes-no questions or miming, if you wanted to be certain about any facts that Sarah the ghost would know.
There are also people and places that were mentioned between post 5240 and now.

If you the player are completely drawing a blank... mention what you are thinking right now, mention that you'd like some guidance, and I'll give feedback.)

Disappointed in the dead end, yet slightly informed, Hildi suggests to Drusk that they head back and at least let the others know what they've learned. "Perhaps Sarah has been able to relay more helpful information."

(I don’t know if people are busy & I should wait, or if people are stumped & I should mention options.)

(Haven’t received a response. Let me add two more options to the two from the last post. Let me know what you want out of the 4.

- This is a Candlekeep Mystery. If you aren’t interested, we can abort and try something different.

- We can retire this campaign. Losing Pascal has taken out a little energy. We agreed to keep this going as long as we wanted to. If you are busy in RL or with other campaigns, then this may be the time to end it.

I’m fine continuing, but I do need guidance.)

(Yeah, my bad. I think it's partly that I'm really unsure how to proceed, and partly that yeah, life can be overwhelming sometimes. But I like this crew and I love Quillary, so here I am re-committing.)

Quillary gathers the others in the taproom after close, and invites Sarah to join them by asking her and bringing the book down. She procures and dumps a pile of flour on the table, spreading it out. "So that Sarah can write, if she needs to," she explains. "As I see it, we have two tasks. The first is to help Sarah, Lady Maria, and her three children move on beyond the veil. The second is to bring to justice this creature, Lord Viallis Yellowcrest. Thankfully, it appears the two are connected."

"We must find and honor the mortal remains of the family for them to rest, and it is nigh certain this Viallis knows where they lie. We can search for them in the old home, but I am pretty sure so many bodies would have been discovered by now. I guess it wouldn't hurt to make certain. I think we should infiltrate the manor and search the basement thoroughly."

"As for finding Viallis, it would seem the book Sarah has described is our best tie to him. Hildi has been unable to learn much more about it, except that it is an evil tome of perhaps some repute?" She looks to the halfling for confirmation. "If Waterdeep cannot, or will not tell us more, is there another place we can ask?"

OOC - it seems like we need to find the lord in order to advance to the next stage, but i'm not sure how to go about that?

Hildi takes it upon himself to summarize what they know so far:

1. The ghost of Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor "possessed" a "charred" book, restoring it.
2. Sarah cannot talk because her tongue was ripped out (ostensibly by Lord Yellowcrest).
3. The book appears to have been used by Sarah to learn how to write and then becomes a diary: a mixture of exercises, drawings, and reminiscences.
4. The book and Sarah's "uniform" both have the emblem of a lemon tree with the rising sun behind it.
5. Where the diary begins, the book becomes a firsthand account (written in Common) of the life of Sarah, who describes herself as a servant in the Waterdeep manor of Lord Viallis Yellowcrest and Lady Maria Yellowcrest. The diary entries are not on consecutive pages, and most are undated. In addition to writing about her daily obligations and life in the manor, Sarah also wrote about Lady Maria, who came from a poor family and empathized with Sarah’s own lack of education. Lady Maria’s genuine affection for Sarah led her to teach the young servant to write, and to give her the leather-bound book that became the diary.
6. Yellowcrest Manor stands on Delzorin Street in Waterdeep’s North Ward, but a new family lives there now.
7. Lord Viallis and Lady Maria had two sons, Malik and Janus, and one daughter, Tianna.
8. The family owned several tanneries and shoemaking shops in Waterdeep, but most of its wealth was inherited on Maria’s side.
9. Lord Viallis’s closest business associate was an elf named Faerl, who visited Lord Viallis twice a tenday.
10. Sarah had a romantic relationship with a young squire named Vecken, who lived close to the manor on Immar Street.
11. The last entries of the diary, dated just over five years earlier, change in tone as Sarah worries about the strange conduct of Lord Yellowcrest, and his habit of spending too much time with ancient books in his study.
12. The final diary entry reads: I stole close to Lord Viallis today, and saw that he had chalked a circle marked with strange runes across the floor of his study. A puddle spread within the circle and appeared to me as bubbling blood. Lord Viallis stood next to it motionless, one of his vile books in hand, and muttered something I could not hear. I slipped away quickly, though I fear he might have heard me this time. I have never been so scared, but I must tell Lady Maria what I have seen. I must!
13. In her diary, Sarah tried to draw the image of the cover of an old tome Lord Viallis was reading. The sketch shows a monstrous creature with a bulbous head, long arms, tentacles for legs, and multifaceted eyes. Sarah also attempted to sketch what she remembered of the rune-marked circle. The circle drawn in the diary was part of a ritual casting of the contact other plane spell, and the runes are tied to an entity from the Outer Planes. The tome drawn in the diary is called Retribution of the Ancients, and the demi-god-like creature on the cover is a Great Old One called Gaernoo.
14. Rumor has it Lord Yellowcrest was away from Waterdeep on business, then returned to find his wife, his sons and daughter, and the manor’s four servants brutally murdered. Shocked into a deep depression by the tragedy, Lord Yellowcrest left Waterdeep to be alone with his grief.
15. Rumors seemingly spread by members of the City Guard after investigating the murders hinted at some sort of cult activity, but details of the killings were never revealed. No suspects were ever identified or charged.
16. The Yellowcrest family had a good reputation, with no hint of personal or public impropriety. No one ever accused the grieving Lord Yellowcrest of having any connection to the murders.
17. For Vecken, he had a reputation for bravery and perseverance. Five years ago, Vecken joined an adventuring company and made a name for himself. A well-known sortie against a bandit lord south of Neverwinter earned him the nickname “Sir Vecken of the Broken Horn,” after his horned helmet was nearly cloven in two during the fight. A year ago, he returned to Waterdeep, and there is no other news about him. The scholar points out that Vecken's father, Yacken, has a house on Immar Street, a few blocks away from the former Yellowcrest Manor.
18. Lord Viallis Yellowcrest was responsible for the murders of his wife, his children, Sarah, and three other servants, all of whom were killed as part of a dark ritual. (The trauma Sarah suffered has occluded her memories of the details of the ritual and of her own death.)
19. The book that Sarah observed Viallis reading was the source of the ritual, and a work of evil.
20. The souls of Lady Maria, Malik, Janus, and Tianna have not moved on since their deaths. All four are trapped in the mortal realm until their physical remains can be buried in hallowed ground.
21. The remains of those victims are missing. Sarah doesn’t know what happened to them, but she is certain that Lord Viallis has something to do with it.
22. Sarah's unfinished business is for the Lady and the 3 children to move on, before Sarah herself can find rest. The remains of Sarah and the other servants are in the City of the Dead. (The diary being brought to the graveyard allowed her to assume ghost form. The book is her anchor to the mortal realm, until her task is completed.)

People who can be questioned:

1. The elf named Faerl
2. Vecken
3. Vecken's father, Yacken
4. Are the Yellowcrest tanneries and shoemaking shops still in business?

Mysteries:

1. What happened to the bodies?
2. Was Gaernoo summoned?
3. What would have happened to Gaernoo after he was summoned if he was?
4. Where did Yellowcrest go after he left Waterdeep following the murders and where is he now?

 Drusk:
"I agree. It seems like we need to find Lord Viallis Yellowcrest.
When we find out what he did with his family, we can lay them to rest in the graveyard next to Sarah and the other servants who were murdered.
And we want to take that dangerous tome from him, to keep him from doing more harm.

Thanks for summarizing the information, Hildigrim. It is a lot to process.
I have some suggestions.

(1) - As Quillary pointed out, the former Yellowcrest Manor might have things that were left behind. Or the current occupants might have a forwarding address? As nobility, that family might have heard more news about Yellowcrest than what was in the newspapers.

(2) - If Yellowcrest is still doing business in Waterdeep, we would need to find someone familiar with the tanner trade. This sounds a bit crazy, but we have the address of the Frewn Tanners, that Hildigrim noticed when going through Frewn's papers. We know that Emmek was on bad terms with the sisters, who are in charge of those shops. Maybe they will help us, if we give them recent news about their brother? Hopefully they aren't as conniving as their brother.

(3) - Maybe the boyfriend has done some investigating over the past 5 years? We know Vecken has returned to Waterdeep. Most likely he is with his father Yacken, or at least Yacken would know where he is now.

There are the starting points I can think of, where we can find out where Yellowcrest is now. Maybe there are more. If none of these sound good, maybe it will spark more ideas on where to look."