As part of a conversation with the ghost of a sage in the local cemetery, the characters learn about a hidden library containing books from the past. This was just a spur-of-the-moment hook I tossed out to the players. I had no intention of coming back to it. But one player caught hold of this hook and held fast. He made a deal to learn the location and wanted to go immediately. I was able to put him off to the next session of the game. In the meantime, I quickly wrote up a secret library of knowledge using the library in the adventure "Seven Days of the Serpent God" by Alex Kurowski. It is part of the Goodman Games Fifth Edition Fantasy adventure series.
Session 157: The Hidden Library
Lakima (human magic-user), Aldus (human cavalier), Domago (human cleric NPC), August (human magic-user NPC).
It is late summer in Edgeron. The skies are clear, and the weather is warm. The members of the Company of the Black Dragon are taking their time to prepare for an expedition to Lockeland to clear the area of goblins. While everyone is busy, Lakima decides he has time for a quick trip to the City of Glass to see if he can find the Hidden Library.
Lakima asks if anyone is interested in going with him to the Bridgeway and the City of Glass. Well rested and just back from a tournament in Uthersberg, Aldus says he is ready to travel. Lakima decides that his apprentice August and charmed bodyguard Luna should accompany them. He also wants to bring Brovin, but the thief is still recovering from his near-death experience.
“I have a few free days, and I will join you,” Domago says.
Surprised, Lakima asks if Domago should not be preparing for the trip to Lockeland, but Domago assures him that everything is ready. Grasshopper and Eathwund decline to be involved in the trip to the Hidden Library.
Early the morning of Augrast 8th, they set sail on the Cloudstealer for the Bridgeway. Clear skies and a light breeze send them on their way. As they start to pass over the Arkwood forest, they spot a swarm of eight giant wasps heading up from the forest toward their ship. Aldus loads the ballista and manages to strike one of the wasps. Once the wasps are within range, Lakima casts a fireball spell into their midst. Three of the wasps drop, flaming from the sky, while the rest scatter and head back down toward the trees.
“That showed them,” Lakima says.
“We should let them go,” Domago says, “I wonder what stirred them up?”
In another hour, the ship reaches the lonely stone bridge in the forest that holds the magical bridgeway portal. The bridge seems deserted. They descend until they can all exit the ship on a rope ladder. Lakima knocks on the door to the bridge. After a few moments, he is greeted by the custodian, Ezmeralden. The custodian is surprised by their visit since they had just left two days earlier. He asks if they have come to install the teleportation portal.
“No, the arches are not ready yet,” Lakima says, “We want to go to the City of Glass.”
“I have a lead on the location of a hidden library in the city,” Lakima continues. When Ezmeralden asks about the library, Lakima elaborates.
“It is said to hold magical knowledge of the lost age, magic tomes, poetry, history, all waiting to be found.”
While a little skeptical, Ezmeralden expresses interest in joining their group. He asks if they can wait 4 to 5 days while he arranges with the elves to have someone watch the bridgeway.
“Unfortunately, we are on a tight schedule,” Lakima says, “We have our next adventure already lined up. Perhaps you can join us next time. We will report back to you on what we find.”
Ezmeralden sets the bridgeway device for the City of Glass, and the adventurers step off the bridge onto a bridge within the city itself. After a short walk, they arrive at the Central Square.
“What are we looking for?” Domago asks.
Lakima explains that the library they seek has been hidden away for centuries below the city's Great Library. He asks a passing local and is told that the Library of Hukara is a large square building next to the Palace of the Emir. The man turns and points at the palace's towers.
Thanking the man, the group makes its way to the library, a square, two-story building built of local stone. A pair of stone lion statues flank the only public entrance doors. Once inside, they find a cool, clean chamber leading to the areas where books are shelved. A bored-looking guard informs them that the library is only open to the city's citizens (the nobility). He directs them to a librarian sitting behind a desk in a nearby chamber.
“How can I help you?”
“I am Lakima, and my stepmother is a citizen of the city,” Lakima says. I would like entry for myself and my companions.”
The librarian looks at the group with some skepticism. He then informs them that foreigners must pay 10 gold coins each to enter the library. This cost is per visit, and they can only read the books and not take them out of the library.
“Here are 100 gold coins,” Lakima says as he hands over a cloth bag full of gold, “I would like to donate to the library and pay the entrance charge; I trust this is sufficient.”
The librarian happily scoops up the coins. He makes one more comment about taking care of their valuable collection of books and waves them on their way. As soon as the group enters the library, they come to a central sky well. Sun shines down from an opening in the roof forty feet above them, illuminating the courtyard and a fountain. In the center of the fountain, there is an ancient statue of a sphinx. The fountain looks a few hundred years old, but the statue looks genuinely ancient. Lakima checks if anyone is nearby and finds the area deserted.
“Harvest knowledge and let it be shared,” Lakima says in a clear voice. The group all waited patiently, but nothing happened. Lakima discretely used the Wand of Secret Door Detection, but it revealed nothing.
“Hmm,” Lakima says, splashing one hand into the fountain's water. It is cold and clear and appears to be normal water. Noticing the four sets of circular staircases heading up to the second floor, Lakima points and tells everyone they should check upstairs. Upstairs they find that the courtyard is smaller, there is a circular opening in the floor looking down to the level below and the hole in the ceiling. Two hallways lead to rooms full of shelves of books. No one seems to be around.
Again, Lakima repeats the command phrase Arcos the Ageless gave him. A stone staircase instantly appears in the sky well leading down. They see no sign of the floor below—just a stairwell circling far down beneath the library.
“Quickly, let's go!” Lakima says, “Domago cast find traps.”
Domago takes the lead and casts the spell. He descends what he thinks is about sixty feet to the bottom of the staircase. The stairs lead into a chamber with a tiled floor. Stained glass windows line the walls, letting in magical sunlight. A dozen small statues of local animals rest on stone plinths.
“It looks safe to enter,” Domago says.
The group enters the rotunda. Lakima takes a moment to look at a few statuettes, then points to the door in the east wall. There are also open archways leading into dark corridors heading north and south. The hidden library is calm, quiet, and dusty.
“It looks like no one has been down here in 100s years,” Domago says. Then he tells everyone that the door looks safe. Aldus opens it, and sunlight streams into the chamber.
“It’s a garden?” Aldus says in surprise. The garden chamber has a path around the edges and through the center. Grass and neatly trimmed hedges grow under the false sunlight of a flat, magically lit ceiling forty feet above. In the center of the garden is a statue of a scholar with his hands outstretched.
“It looks like he wants us to place a book in his hands,” Lakima says as he approaches the statue.
A disembodied deep voice calls out from the statue.
“Where can we find this book?” Lakima asks. The statue continues to stand quietly.
Lakima uses the Wand of Secret Door Detection to locate a section of the stone floor that appears to conceal a platform that descends, but he cannot find a trigger.
“We need to give it the book it requested to open the door,” Lakima guesses.
The group heads north because there are no other doors from the garden. Here, Domago warns them about approaching a pair of trapped doors. The pillars on either side of the pair of doors are carved to resemble curving pythons. They head north and find a hallway with four pairs of stone statues that resemble scholars pondering a book.
“The hallway is trapped; there is a trigger between the first two pairs of statues,” Domago warns.
Lakima summons his armored protector and tells it to lead the way. As the empty suit of armor clanks between the first pair of statues, they hear a voice call out.
“Sssshh”
“Did the statues just shush us?” Aldus laughs.
The suit of armor continues down the hallway and passes a second pair of statues. A wind magically rises out of nowhere, building until it is a hurricane-force gale blasting down the hallway. Domago loses his balance and is tossed twenty feet down the hall into the wall. Everyone moves back from the chamber, Domago crawling out on his hands and knees. Once everyone leaves the hallway, the winds subside.
“Trapped indeed,” August says.
“Listen, guys, what if the statue was telling us to be quiet?” Aldus asks.
“Maybe it gives me an idea,” Lakima says, and he casts a wizard eye spell. Using the Wizard eye spell, Lakima views the hallway to its end. Here, he finds a pile of scattered sheets of parchment on the floor in front of what appears to be a magic portal. Turning the other way, he enters a large chamber full of bookshelves. The hidden library at last! There is some damage as part of the second-floor balcony of this library has collapsed, but thousands of intact books sit on bookshelves. Most of them appear to be in good shape. Those books that have fallen on the floor have decayed into piles of debris, but the books on the shelves are intact.
The other party members wait while Lakima stares off into space, narrating what he can see through his wizard's eye. Eventually, he relaxes and dismisses the spell.
“I think I could get through the trap using an anti-magic shell,” Lakima says, “But it would only protect me.”
“I still think we just need to be quiet,” Aldus says. Taking a mimed quiet step, his armor clanks ominously. Aldus shrugs.
“I can cast a silence spell on myself,” Domago says. "To be safe, Everyone would have to stay within 10 feet of me.”
Domago casts silence, and the adventurers stay close to him as they go down the hallway. Lakima makes sure that the suit of armor sticks close as well. They make it to the end of the hallway and pick up the pieces of parchment that Lakima has identified as coming from the epic of Kahlmakis the Dawnbringer.
“Let’s head to the library!”
Lakima rushes to the library and looks at books stacked on the many shelves. Domago also excitedly looks over the shelves. The others are less interested.
“I doubt there is anything here in books that will help me become a better warrior,” Aldus says.
“The greatest warriors know to study their enemies' moves and learn from their peers. Look at a book on martial tactics,” Lakima shows Aldus.
Aldus begins going through the shelves as well. Lakima dumps a few books into the bag of holding.
“How many do you think I can take?” Aldus says. Lakima quickly calculates the capacity of the holding bag.
“We cannot take them all!”
Domago then walks up to Lakima with a stack of 6 books detailing ancient prayers, he points to the bag of holding and with a sigh Lakima opens the bag.
“Okay, six books each,” Lakima says.
Aldus, Lakima, Domago, and August each pick out some books and add them to the almost full bag. Once that is done, they take time to study the library. A second-floor balcony holds more shelves of books. Near the entrance, the second floor has collapsed. Domago calls everyone to him and shows them a shelf with a library catalog.
“Look for the title, The Banishing of Chaos,” Lakima tells him. Domago finds the card for the book and heads over to the shelf. But they find that the shelf the book was on is destroyed by the collapsed second floor.
“I think the rest of the book is beyond the portal,” Lakima says, pointing at the teleportation arch.
The adventurers brave the teleportation arch without knowing where it will send them. Stepping through, they find themselves in a desert near a gully. A sagging rope bridge crosses the dry gully. On the other side lie ancient stone ruins. A colossal statue of a sitting sphinx, more than 100 feet long and 60 feet high, towers over the ruins. The group decides to head toward the sphinx. As they head in that direction, a voice calls out to them.
“The Company of the Black Dragon,” the voice growls. "At least Lakima, Aldus, Domago, and companions are there, but where are Eathwund and Grasshopper? Never mind. I wish to speak with you.”
The group approaches the ruins of a temple. The front of the temple has collapsed, but the rear is still largely intact. Sitting on a stone dais is a living sphinx. A winged lion with the head of a man. He beckons them closer, and Lakima engages the sphinx in conversation. The sphinx tells them that the sphinx queen, Hukarramma, built the library many centuries ago. The portal they came through was one of twelve connected to the library from the cities of the Sphinx Empire.
“Did anything come through the portal recently from the library?” Lakima asks.
“No. The portal was last used by the Bookwyrm to enter the library many years ago from a portal in the mountains. I re-directed the portal because I wished to meet you.”
“Why did you want to meet us.”
“Because I foresee I will have a task for you when you come more into your power.”
The sphinx tells them that the Bookwyrm is a red dragon, odd for its kind in that it does not horde gold or gems; it hordes books and knowledge. He explains that this is the Bookwyrm's weakness.
“For it will not breathe fire in the presence of its precious books,” the sphinx explains.
The sphinx then bids them return to the library and destroy the bookwyrm. When Lakima notices the pile of cold gems and jewels lying on the chamber's floor, the sphinx notices.
“They are gifts. Humans come and ask me questions or ask for advice. When I tell them what they need and should know, they gift me these baubles. What I really desire is knowledge.”
Lakima suggests they could bring books from the library, but the sphinx tells them they cannot remove them.
The adventurers return through the still-open portal. They step through into the cool but stale air of the hidden library. Lakima quickly checks the bag of holding and finds that none of the books are in the bag. He nods knowingly.
They head back to the library shelves and explore, finding a section of collapsed walls and ruined shelves. A burrowed tunnel leads into the library through the wall. They also find a single door in the wall. Entering the door, they find themselves in an even bigger library chamber. A tiered atrium comprising three levels. Shelves of books line the walls, and steps that seem to hang in the air lead between the levels. Forty feet below, at the bottom of the tiers, they can see a red glowing light. In this chamber, the books are pristine, and the floors are clean. Lakima quickly checks the shelves and finds books on art, poetry, history, and naturalism.
 |
| The Great tiered library |
They decide to explore the burrowed tunnel in the library wall. It appears to have been dug by some enormous clawed beast. They follow it, and it leads into another chamber. This chamber is under a permanent silence spell. Ritual candles lie on the floor in a circle, burned down to the bottom. The shelves here are rotten, and mounds of debris indicate their ruined contents. But on the floor is a fresh pile of parchments. Checking the parchments, they find more pages from the book they seek.
“Collect all of the pages,” Lakima urges.
As they collect the pages, eight giant silverfish emerge from under the debris and scuttle toward them. Two of the silverfish rear up and cast magic missiles at the group. The adventurers can quickly kill most of the insects. August uses a death spell he has on a scroll to finish them all off. Once the pages have been collected, they leave the chamber through an open archway and see the rotunda ahead.
Lakima tells Domago to lead them to the bookbinding chamber. Here, Domago uses his dormant priestly skills to bind the pages they have found into a complete book. It takes him four hours.
“Lakima, while we wait, I think I will read one of those books I gave you,” Aldus says.
Lakima tells Aldus that the books are all back on their shelves.
“We cannot take books from the library.”
“It was all a waste of my time?” Aldus asks.
“Maybe not, be patient,” Lakima says.
Once Domago declares that he has finished the book, they gather around the table to look at the restored book, “The Banishing of Chaos.” Lakima flips through a few pages.
“It is an epic poem or play about the exploits of a hero called Kalmakhis the Dawnbringer,” Lakima says. “Let’s take it to the statue.”
Lakima then casts a limited wish spell, and an exact duplicate of the book appears beside it.
“Why did you do that?” Domago asks.
“I wanted to see if it would work. This is how we can copy and take books from the library,” Lakima nods at Aldus, “You will be able to take your books. It was not a waste of your time.”
The group heads to the library, and Domago places the restored book in the statue's outstretched hands. The statue animates and steps down from its base. The base immediately begins to rise while the floor sinks. The statue steps down on the descending floor and disappears out of view. Lakima ties a rope around the statue base and tosses the rest in the hole in the floor. Aldus is the first to descend, followed by the rest. They find a hallway leading into a tomb. The statue stands with the book still in its hands, facing a stone sarcophagus. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics. Most are hard to interpret, but they do see symbols showing books being brought to the library from all over the world and from worlds beyond.
“Should I open it,” Aldus says as he points at the stone sarcophagus.
“Once everyone is set,” Lakima says.
Aldus waits until everyone nods and then shoves the stone lid to one side. Inside the sarcophagus is a damaged mummy of a man. Claw marks can be seen on its chest and legs. Everyone is silent for a few moments, and then the mummy grabs the edge of the coffin and pulls itself upright.
The mummy shrieks at them and raises its wooden staff in anger.
“Wait!” Lakima shouts raising his hands, “We are no friends of the wyrm, we wish only to study in this library.”
The mummy hesitates for a long time and then asks them more questions. Lakima explains they are not new servants or librarians, just simple travelers looking to study the books in the library.
“Should you destroy the wyrm, I will allow you to read the library books at your leisure,” the mummy says.
It explains that he was once the head librarian of the library during Queen Hukarrama's reign. When she died, he was entombed along with her to maintain her life’s work—the great library. Other servants were also entombed with him but have long since left. He had done his job faithfully until the wyrm arrived. He fought it and lost. He has been resting, trying to recover enough strength to fight it again.
Lakima asks about the locked and trapped doors, and the mummy tells them it is the door to the forbidden library. Where evil texts are taken to be destroyed. If they cannot be destroyed, they are chained in the chamber.
“But there is something else in the chamber now. I can sense an evil intelligence beyond the doors.”
Lakima assures the mummy that they will return with reinforcements to clear the library of any interlopers. The group then leaves the tomb and returns up the stairs to the library of Hukara above. Stepping off the magical staircase, they surprise a young woman named Sereen, who is reading a book in the library. She questions where they came from and their use of magic. When Lakima tells her his name, she is shocked.
“There is a bounty on your head, Lakima, the grey of 2,500 gold coins, set by Princess Orla herself.”
Lakima tries to get more details on the bounty, but Sireen is scared to tell them. They only learn that most of the people of the City of Glass hate Princess Orla, who taxes everyone far more than previous rulers. Sireen refuses to help Princess Orla, so she runs away, telling Lakima she will not tell anyone about him.
The magic stairs vanish, and the group heads to the first floor. Lakima goes to see the librarian at the front desk and asks again about the “Banishing of Chaos.” The librarian tells him again that the book is lost to time. Lakima then reaches into his bag and takes out the copy.
The librarian is astonished and asks where they found it and if there are any other books. He offers to buy it immediately. The head librarian is sent for, who also examines the book.
“It looks like a copy made in ancient times,” he says, “How much do you wish to sell it for?”
“I wish only for an audience with Princess Orla.”
The librarian looks intently at Lakima, “I am sure that can be arranged.”
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