Above & Below

Brask walks.  He's keeping an eye out for trouble, but this is Effort's show.

You make your way down the hall, pausing at the larger door openings. Hinges remain affixed to the arched entryways, but the doors themselves are long gone. Shining the light from your various sources, you can see that one room looked to be some kind of kitchen or storage area. Along the long wall that is illuminated, pieces of metalwork lie haphazardly on the floor. Pots, pans, various cooking vessels. The other room - as you pass a torch in front of the doorway - is lit up to reveal what look to be stone shelves lining the entire side. And on them, countless books and tomes of various colors and sizes. Even with the dry, cold air of the mountains, it seems strange that they could have survived so long...but there they are. Back at the entrance, Cadmael scratches the back of his head and eyes the rest of the grand entry.

If you decide to explore one of the room(s), give me perception/investigation. Cadmael can roll perception as well.

Seeing the library, Kurama's curiosity will get the best of him, and carefully entering the room, will see what kind of information he can find.  

Perception to look around the room: 15

Investigation to search the books: 16

Cadmael will keep watch: Perception  20

Effort follows Kurama in more slowly and cautiously, but is also drawn to the books.  She casts guidance on herself and then peruses the titles, searching for anything useful.

Investigation: 15 + Guidance 1

(dice roller edit)

Kurama, the room is again surprisingly large - perhaps the size of a small city's library, or a small university. Three walls have well-made stone shelves built into them, and most have books sitting atop. Along the far wall is a statue protruding from the mountain - a tall, clean-shaven man holding and reading a scroll. He wears loose, flowing clothes, and an owl sits atop his right shoulder. 

As the two of you work your way around the room, you find books in a few different languages. Many in common, and smaller collections in Dwarven and Elvish. They seem to be further broken down into subcategories. You both notice that there are books from the history section and the arcane knowledge section that seem to be recently missing. Extremely fine stone and dust give way to relatively clear surfaces where it appears a half-dozen books might have sat at one time. To either side of the history books, you find titles referencing the various cities in Oshait as well as former dynasties that ruled over parts of the continent. In the arcane section, you find mostly simple spell books.

If you want to peruse any of the books, give me sleight of hand checks.

Effort takes a look at the simple spell books for anything of use, as well as pouring over the remaining books concerning the former dynasties of Osthait, in the hopes of finding some reference to Whitehold itself that might clue her in to what Promise was likely looking for when he took the books.  She tries to keep her concentration focused, using magic when necessary to do so.

Sleight of hand: 21 + Guidance 3

As Kurama peruses the titles of the various books in the library, he's particularly interested in trying to deduce which history books might've been taken as well as any noteworthy titles or anything that may have some small relation to whatever destroyed his home.

Sleight of Hand: 18

Investigation (if a different check is required) to see if Kurama can deduce which cities may be in the books missing from the library: 8

Kurama, as you pick up a book entitled "A Religious History of Oshait" and open the cover, a piece crumbles off in your hand. You see that some of the pages have already broken corners off, becoming brittle over the years in the dry, cold climate. You proceed with patience, and are able to find a chapter on the origins of The House of Truth. The book seems to have been written early on in the order's history, and it doesn't reference anyone you've heard of - no one you know would have been alive back then. It does, however, praise the House for being the first true religious group to stand up to dissenting factions among the continent's populace. After generations of poverty, disease, and uncertainty, many shunned the gods in favor of darker forces. Those able to manipulate the masses promised change and offered lessons from the lower planes of existence. They themselves had been enlisted by devils and demons promising fortune and fame and a place of power in the afterlife. These factions and their thinking infiltrated Oshait's elite, which trickled down into religion and culture. Finally, The House of Truth formed to directly oppose the corruption of good and honest people. In a defensible position among the towering White Wind Mountains, they believed themselves well-suited to persist and spread the truth of Oshait and the dark forces seeking to control it.

Effort, you deftly peruse through books, carefully turning any particularly brittle pages so they don't break. The spellbooks are fairly basic, and offer rudimentary training for lots of cantrips and low-level spells. You do find something about Comprehend Languages, though. It's a long chapter, but offers the reader a more powerful version of the spell that is instantaneous. When you switch to the history books, it seems as though the texts are organized in geographical order, and when you reach the section where White Hold would most likely be, the texts are all missing. You see that the other cities and castles around it have both history books as well as books outlining their layouts and city planning. Promise - or whoever took them - seems to have cleared out this section, although at least it points to the fact that you're heading the right way. 

Meanwhile Burik rummages around in what seems to have been the main kitchen, but returns with only a few rudimentary knives. He shrugs and tosses them into the corner. 

Brask is looking around for anything fun involving wars or fighting:  Sleight of Hand 12

He's also encouraging Pip to take a look at whatever interests him.

Find anything interesting?  he asks Effort and Kurama.

Brask, with surprisingly deftness, you look through a large tome on The Great War of Oshait, which took place some 3,000 years ago. It was mainly between the eastern and western halves of the continent, with the coasts seeing heavy wear from constant battles. The mountains were mostly spared, as the dwarves of that time pushed deeper and deeper into them to avoid bloodshed. Full page illustrations especially catch your eye, of large-scale battles being fought on horseback. You also find a text on fighting styles, and peruse the section on mauls. It turns out there is more to using the weapon than just smashing stuff with it. Gain advantage on your next attack with your maul.

Pip stands next to Brask, pretending to read a book. When Brask moves on from the large tome, Pip will then start reading that one, flipping through the pages until he finds the large illustrations. The center-fold is a massive army of thousands of armor-clad soldiers storming a castle. Steep cliffs drop off to the ocean behind it, as arrows blacken the sky. "Wow," Pip points to it. "There are really fights this big?"

Not often, Brask says.  Only in the big wars.  I never fought in one like this.  Looks fun.  

(Hoo!  Can Effort now cast Comprehend Languages instantaeously? :D)

"Indeed," Effort says, returning from the stack of books and dusting her hands off.  "Besides the usual esoteric spell knowledge that would likely bore you to tears, it seems that Promise was here and cleaned the shelves of any books pertaining to White Hold itself.  I would surmise he took them in order to gain an insight as to this castle's layout, to our loss.  Still, it means he is certainly holed up in here somewhere.  I have also not heard of any disturbances from Cadmael, either.  What about the rest of you?  Have we found things of use, or is it time to move on?"

You notice Effort carefully wrapping one of the arcana books in a blanket before carefully tucking it away in her pack.

You'll be able to once you read that chapter, which would take some time (at least a short rest). But you can certainly bring the book with you and read it, yes!

Kurama pokes his head up from the tome he had found.  "Nothing in particular about our immediate mission unfortunately.   But it seems that the original purpose of my Order was to oppose demons, devils and their worshippers when much of Oshait was at one point under their sway.  It's really quite fascinating actually!  Hopefully it'll be alright if I take this with me... Oh and these as well." he continues, pointing at a few random books on various shelves in a manner that strongly suggests that he's picking them at random over any specific title.

Let's go, says Brask firmly.  He's now worried that it may take force to pry the bookworms out of this room.  

"Alright," Kurama sighs as he finishes packing the last book from the library into his bag.  "I guess we should continue on for now.  But when we're finished here, I'd like to come back and take a look at those books over there... and a few over there as well...and probably that one as well." 

You gather anything of interest from the library and continue slowly down the hall. Separated from the larger rooms by a good forty or fifty feet, smaller doors start to open up on both sides. As you peek inside a few, they seem appropriately sized for a bed chamber, although none of them currently have anything in them. You keep moving, stretching the limits of Cadmael's range. Effort feels the tug.

Burik sticks his head into another of the rooms. "More stone," he says plainly, and he keeps moving down the hall. 

Come along, Effort says to Cadmael.  Stay in range of us.

Dutifully, Cadmael sets off down the hallway after the group.

After passing by a few dozen of these small rooms, you come to a fairly wide set of stairs leading down. Burik waves his illuminated weapon past the entrance, and turns around nodding, as if it give the all clear. The stairwell isn't particularly long, and you find yourselves at its base inside of another large room. It's still been chiseled and polish with great effort, although the elegant carvings and intricate stonework of the castle's main area are long gone. Also long gone is any light from the main entryway. Your torches and light sources cast long shadows upon the stone walls, cutting through the otherwise unimaginable darkness. 

The room seems to have been a type of storage area for this quadrant of the castle. While much has faded away, piles of stone, petrified wood, and other things rest along the walls. On the far end, another open doorway seems to lead down. 

Everyone, give me a general perception check or an investigation check if you are exploring something more specific. 

Squinting a bit in the darkness, Kurama looks around the storage room as best he can for any clues or anything particularly noteworthy.

Perception: 26