The library also fails to provide a lute.  You feel a sense of embarrassment in the air at having failed two requests in a row...

"Thank you."  Raven tells Dell with a nod of gratitude.  "Never would have thought I would be missing my lute... How times change."  She sighs.  "Mom is going to say she told me so, I just know it."

Both Tagrec and the hags said something about hill giants coming Del remembers after searching M tells about the fight I do not really fancy another military campaign though, so more a thing to avoid. Does the library have anything on the Red Sails company, or on how these teleportation hoops work? Del slips a search string into the conversation Anyone have a preference among these options, or another proposal?

Lord Quentin, if you feel you ought to babysit the Thamasaille wizards, want to let them in now so it can be over and we can get going to somewhere? I can help keep the peace for Zanderfell's recovery

"I'd like to see that book with the tale about Seryathylle Skyweaver again?" Mindartis asks.

Elwin regretfully let Del know that there was no location found when he investigated the necromancer. "We can still get to him though; my patron assured me that, whenever we wanted, he would be willing to take us directly to him in the Shadowfell. Again though... I don't know that we're quite ready for that."

"Personally, since we can't determine where the Crystal Maze is, tracking down Red Sail would be my preference."

He thought for a moment, before, "Oh! Quentin, those items I handed you... would you mind casting Identify on them? One of them might hold a clue."

Just to recall, Elwin had handed Quentin:

- Three matching emerald pendants, each inscribed with a green snake symbol
- A strangely constructed ring
- A woven snakeskin headband with three beryl gems set in it
- A few unmarked vials of liquid

"Also, if we find that any of them have a curse, or need a spell broken, I'm finally at the point where I can handle that for us."

(( Elwin picked up Dispel Magic and Remove Curse. ))

Raven would get the fiddle from the tapestry vault when she has a chance. Then, while the others seemed busy she would say in a soft voice, where she is not likely to be overheard.  "Do you have any books on how to control or cure a werebear's curse?"  She waits to see if the library has any information on it.  She would also ask for books to cure her incurable disease.  (Just don't remember what that is at this point...)

(Raven - I thought that getting the curse already cured the disease?)

Del's call for library materials turns up some things. The Red Sails company is mainly mentioned as a merchant shipping company, and is mentioned in a few books about Slate City and some books on industry.  They basically behave like any other merchant, buying a wide variety of goods and transporting them to markets where they can get better prices.  Captain Aknot apparently worked his way up from being a common sailor, to the captain of a small merchant boat, to buying his own boat and successfully trading in dangerous places others feared to enter, for the highest profits. You even find an old ledger from the company, with lists of items , and the locations and prices of when they were bought and sold. It is several years old, though.  Del also finds a very old book about formulating magical items, that speaks of a device made to travel the planes. It requires a rope loop made of materials taken from each of the planes the creeator wishes to travel between.  The materials need to be woven together into a hoop, and then steeped for an hour in a special potion, then taken to the two anchor locations and attached to them with an incantation. A note at the bottom says that this spell seems impractical except as a temporary shortcut, due to the fragile and temporary nature of the portals, and the fact that you need to be able to travel to the desitinations without them to activate them. All the same, the invocation is below, as well as the ingredients of the potion, which requires, among more common components, the blood of a pixie, a scale from a bronze dragon, three whiskers from a displacer beast, and a scrap of web of a phase spider.

The book of Folk Tales of the Feywild appears before Mindartis again. It is filled with fairy tales and folk stories of the Eladrin and Fey...many of which you grew up with as a child.

Raven pokes among books of medicine and healing. She discovers that a powerful spellcaster can easily remove the curse of lycanthropy entirely with a Remove Curse spell...though if she wishes to simply control the curse, it is said that the possessor of a Moonblade is able to convert the curse into the ability to change shape at will, as a druid would.

"I would appreciate the help. Let me identify and then I'll let people in to use the library." Quentin says happy to identify items for his group before moving out to the wizards and saying. "Alright! You have been granted permission to use the library under supervision. Nothing is to leave the library. You have a couple hours. Do not write in the books. The workshop and Zanderfells room is off limits. If you're in violation I will kick you out. Any questions?" 

Impressed by Q's command presence, Del quietly backs him up, and helps the library guests so they can get started efficiently, watching for any shenanigans.

Nothing on how to tell where the hoops are attuned short of going I guess. Red Sails and Slate City seems to have the only votes.

Mindartis also helps, an intimidating presence to make clear Quentin's comments. After a while he pulls the party aside, "So... I wasn't sure when a good time to bring this up was... with all the chaos and what not." He holds a ring in the palm of his hand, "'Auntie' Knickerbritches says she can tell us things."

Elwin's eyes widened as Mindartis presented his clue. "What? Really? How--no, nevermind... What's important is, we've got to get what we can from her!"

The three matching emerald pendants are only jewelry.

The ring is an interesting mechanical device that has a small reservoir in it for poison, which can either be dripped out by pressing a latch, or by pressing a different latch, a poisoned needle pokes out of it.

The Hag's headband is an interesting and unique magical item.  If three people attune it by wearing it for one day, the wearer or the headband can concentrate and enter a trance which allows them to see out of the eyes of one of the others, similar to the way a wizard can see through a familiar's senses.

The three bottles contain virulent poison.

The scholars push hastily into the library and pull books off the shelves as if there is not a second to lose.  Lonvari politely thanks you before rushing off like the rest.

Quentin lets everyone know what all the items does as he says, "Fine out what you can from her. I have a bunch of wizards to keep in check." 

(this post for reference; the wingding letter is probably Greyelf telling the hags to recruit their own third)  Knickerbritches the hag with some racket in the Fens?  The fragment of her letter we found indicated the divisions in the conspiracy - not that that helped me much in the recent interrogations - how does she talk to you? What does she have to say?

Mindartis hold up a letter, "I haven't actually talked to her yet. She sent a letter with it. All it said was 'I can tell you things.' I haven't actually done anything with the ring yet, for obvious reasons. From what I can tell the ring isn't magic, but if I put this on and it turns out to be some kind of weird trap sorry in advance."

We'll do our best to rescue you if it is. Del answers Don't make any bargains except maybe straightforward payment

Mindartis slips the ring onto his finger, "This is all based on the assumption that this ring does anything at all. We might have to go back to the Court of Whispers to find our answers."

Quote from Astalda >>

(Raven - I thought that getting the curse already cured the disease?)

Del's call for library materials turns up some things. The Red Sails company is mainly mentioned as a merchant shipping company, and is mentioned in a few books about Slate City and some books on industry.  They basically behave like any other merchant, buying a wide variety of goods and transporting them to markets where they can get better prices.  Captain Aknot apparently worked his way up from being a common sailor, to the captain of a small merchant boat, to buying his own boat and successfully trading in dangerous places others feared to enter, for the highest profits. You even find an old ledger from the company, with lists of items , and the locations and prices of when they were bought and sold. It is several years old, though.  Del also finds a very old book about formulating magical items, that speaks of a device made to travel the planes. It requires a rope loop made of materials taken from each of the planes the creeator wishes to travel between.  The materials need to be woven together into a hoop, and then steeped for an hour in a special potion, then taken to the two anchor locations and attached to them with an incantation. A note at the bottom says that this spell seems impractical except as a temporary shortcut, due to the fragile and temporary nature of the portals, and the fact that you need to be able to travel to the desitinations without them to activate them. All the same, the invocation is below, as well as the ingredients of the potion, which requires, among more common components, the blood of a pixie, a scale from a bronze dragon, three whiskers from a displacer beast, and a scrap of web of a phase spider.

The book of Folk Tales of the Feywild appears before Mindartis again. It is filled with fairy tales and folk stories of the Eladrin and Fey...many of which you grew up with as a child.

Raven pokes among books of medicine and healing. She discovers that a powerful spellcaster can easily remove the curse of lycanthropy entirely with a Remove Curse spell...though if she wishes to simply control the curse, it is said that the possessor of a Moonblade is able to convert the curse into the ability to change shape at will, as a druid would.

 (Sounds good, I'll consider the disease healed then.)

"Anyone know anything about Moonblades?"  Raven asks the group once she is done reading the books he was brought.  She tries to recall anyone, or anywhere a moonblade is rumored to be, as well as any thing she might know about them.  If none of her group knows anything she would also ask the library about moonblades.

The library quickly provides books of genealogy, biography, and accounting.  The Moonblades are highly treasured and usually held by powerful Elvish families as prized heirlooms. They bond to their wielders, and may not be simply given away once bonded. There are some rumored to be kept, unbonded, in storage.  It is rumored that the Aldalire family in Lomalos has two such blades. It is also believed that the Lady of Whispers may hold one.  Three different noble families in Ellantar openly brag of possessing these weapons (though Quentin would warn that it may simply be boasting.) It is said that one lies in a dragon's hoard in the bluffs north of the Kalaine forest.  Another story claims that a paladin, having fought and destroyed an army of ogres, used the last of his strength to drive his sword into a stone, to await someone worthy of bearing it.  This is southwest of Yonpinagel, just over the border of the Bolgen hills. Another story claims a Moonblade was lost in a shipwreck near the mouth of the Arasrok river, and was never recovered.

((Anything happen when MIndartis puts the ring on?))