Nephris' mage hand taps Katherine on the shoulder, then offers a hand with the door.

Best is cautious.  "We must be careful, this door seems trapped.  Cade, are you able to slip inside in your gas form and get a better look at what is attached to the door?  Also Nephris, are you skilled in disabling traps?  We might be able to dispel it's magic if it has magical qualities.  Again I would try to detect if it has magic but I would need to throw away my invested power in my spiritual friends."

"Well, I am a jack of all trades," Nephris chuckles, "But unfortunately I'm not great with thieve's tools, nor do I have any on me unfortunately. I can spend a little time trying to detect magic while someone tries to figure out a way through to disarm the mechanism there."

With that, Nephris will take a moment to ritually cast his spell and check the door and the supposed trap behind it for any magic. 

Cade tries to slip under the door.

Cade tries to slip under the door is a gaseous form, but realises that the door is airtightly sealed. Not even he will be able to get passed this door until the door is unlocked.

Nephris casts detect magic and determines that the door itself does not have any magic coming off of it. However, he does detect that the clock has an aura of conjuration magic.

"More interesting items covered in magic," Nephris says as he looks over the clock. "Conjuration magic to be precise. I hope that it does not conjure some fiend as the clock strikes the hour..." he says as he scratches his chin. "Perhaps we don't stick around to find out. So no one sees any easy enough entry? Hmm..."

(DM Question - looking at the locked door, you've mentioned it's airtight and that it slides open and there's a mechanism attached to it. Is the mechanism on our side and what does it look like? Also/alternatively, does is seem like any other door we might have encountered on our travels - ie. simple latch on the other side to unlock etc.)

(The mechanism is a large cog on the front of the door in the corner.)

As Nephris studies the clock, he notices that the clock hands are frozen at midnight. Despite the number of minutes that tick passed, both hands remain pointing straight up, pointing at the number XII.

Nephris turns to the others, "What was that little bit about the hours and time earlier? The more I look at this clock, the stranger I find that it never moves. Perhaps, rather than a trap, it is in fact the key to our seriously sealed door?" He raises an eyebrow as he looks to the others.

Best thinks for a moment and says "I will update the clock to 1 o'clock and see what happens"  He casts mage hand and tries to move the dial to show 1 o'clock.

As the mage hand goes to move the clock hands, Nephris takes several steps back... just in case.

Cade also flies back away from the door, as the clock is adjusted.

Katharine ignores the mage hand as it taps her on the shoulder, and instead focuses on contemplating the door.

"There's got to be some way of getting that mechanism working."

As Best moves the clock hands to adjust the time to one, the mechanism in front of the door activates and starts spinning. Soon the heavy door begins to grind open revealing the room on the other side. The centre of this round chamber, on the other side of the door, is dominated by a large table strewn with scrolls, notebooks, and writing utensils. Three passages split off from the room, one to the east, west and south. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves choked with dusty tomes crowd the wall spaces between

Nephris steps warily through the door, watching for anything that might come to life as they enter (Perception: 21). He will then make his way over to the table strewn with scrolls and notebooks, "Hmm, wonder if there's anything useful here?" he says as he looks carefully without touching anything (Investigation: 30).

Best follows Nephris and sends Vixon (owl familiar) into the east passage for as far as 60 feet with instructions to come back (next turn.)  He will use his action to see through Vixon's eyes and other senses.

Katharine carefully steps into the round chamber looking around the place. She sees Nephris investigating the scrolls and notebooks.

"I would be careful if I were you. It's probably trapped. We'd better just look for these spirits."

Cade, still in whirlwind form, follows the others inside.

As Nephris investigates the scrolls and notebooks on top of the large table he discovers a finger of death scroll, a magic jar scroll, and a true resurrection scroll. He also discovers a spellbook containing all the 1st level through to 4th level necromancy spells on the wizard's spell list.

Meanwhile, Vixon flies into the small section of the library on the east hand side. However, there is not much space for the owl to fly.

Nephris lets out a low whistle, "Well, well. These might come in handy." He picks up the three scrolls, then looks to the others, "Anyone have a use for a spell book? Filled with a whole heap of necromancy, but still, might be useful later on if you want?"

(OOC: What does he see, Best through the owl's eyes?  The end of a hallway?)