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Visiting the Vault of the Sages again

Leaving the others to do their various errands around town, the smaller group of the Unknowns (Cleo, Merrell, Blondung and Vaslin) make their way across the town from the Palace and arrive at the Vault of the Sages. The building is a large horseshoe shape, with it's main entrance in the middle. Crossing the large courtyard, their steps echo off the walls of the five story tall building, almost as large as the palace they have just come from, but without the beautiful towers. From the outside, it is a rather bleak, but once inside, they are faced with magnificent curving stairs, arcing down on either side of an impressive foyer.

Directly ahead, are the public lounges, with their large posters. A fair number of local people are browsing, reading the latest clack. Large wide corridors lead off to the sides towards the two arms of the buildings, and heavy doors A sage coming through a large door on the first floor allows a glimpse into a room filled with book shelves before the door shuts again. Near the entrance, a bored looking young man stands next to what looks like a lectern. A sign underneath says "Enquiries".

As they make their way towards the desk, they are met halfway by an elderly bespectacled gentleman who somewhat looks down his nose at the group in distaste, almost as if they were an alien species. He looks past them for a few moments, peering out through the entrance doors as if looking for more.

"I take it you are the, er 'Unknowns?'" he asks somewhat nasally. "I was led to understand there were more of you."

Blondung takes the lead and nods his head. "We decided to split up to get more done in the short time we have before we have to leave Silverymoon."

The man nods his head, but he doesn't appear to be listening, instead, he is staring at the sigils writhing on the back of Blondung's hands.

"Very, er interesting," he says after a moment, more to himself than the adventurers in front of him.

Blondung coughs meaningfully, and Vaslin pipes up. "Lady Alustriel said someone here might be able to help us research who or what these sigils represent..." she says.

The man looks over his spectacles at the young half-elf Luckpriestess. "And she would be correct...I've been expecting you" he says, smiling a tight smile. "Come!" he orders, turning on his heel and leading the way up the left hand stair case and through a very thick and heavy door on the third landing. Holding it open, he leads the group into a corridor, and almost immediately into a smaller room, with only one or two short book shelves on it. A scribe sits waiting in the room, along with three other men, of middle years, all standing. "Can one of you roll back your sleeves please?"

Blondung pushes back the sleeves of his robe, and stands still while the scribe does his best to make copies of the moving sigils. Once the first copy is complete, the parchment is passed to the first man, who takes it, nods to the group, and disappears through the door to the corridor, his footsteps echoing away as he moves further into the library. A short while later the other two men have also disappeared, similarly armed.

Finally, as the scribe lowers his quill, the elderly man turns to Blondung. "And now to initiate the final search!" he says somewhat pompously. He starts to cast a spell, casting a bunch of what look like glass balls into the air. The balls hover there for a moment, and the group realise that the balls have changed into what looks like real eye balls, before the elderly man rattles off a bunch of commands which seem to be abbreviations of some sort. The eyes zip off, one after the other through a small hole in the top of the door that the group hadn't noticed before, and their attention is brought back to the man as he claps his hands together. "Well, that's all we can do for now!" he says. "Come back at sunset tonight, and we'll see what we have found!" He leads the group back out to the foyer and bids them farewell.

Later that day Serena and Lucretia go to the Vault of the Sages to investgate information on "mystical beasts and their useful body parts"

Serena, finishing her own errands, heads off to the Vault of the Sages, looking for any other members of the Unknowns. A gangly youth working in the foyer on the enquiries desk indicates that some of her companions had arrived earlier, and then left a short while later. He adds that they are due to return at the end of the day. Leaving, she finds herself bumping into Lucretia, who mentions that he bumped into the others, and confirms what the youth had said. He however, had come to this magnificent library to see if he could find any information on "mystical beasts and their useful body parts"... The pair of them re-enter the library, and get directed by the youth to talk to a more senior librarian type.

After discussing for a short period what Lucretia was looking for, the librarian nods sagely. "I believe there are several books that might fulfil your requirements," he says. "They are not common texts however, and there is a cost associated with reading them." He gestures briefly at a sign listing the rates associated with "borrowing" books. "I can fetch them all, and you can choose which one you wish to browse yourself, or if you wish, I could make a selection for you." He looks briefly towards the windows and the afternoon light. "Of course, you'll only have a few hours before the Vault closes, and thus, I'll halve the fee." The sign has a number of rates for borrowing books - ranging from having a copy made, through to a simple half-hour browse. The prices also vary by type/rarity of book. The librarian / sage indicates that the books in question fall into the 5gp a day rate.

The sage leads Lucretia and Serena to a small reading room on the fourth floor, and then disappears for 10 minutes, coming back with a single tome. "I have selected this book as probably being the most useful for your purposes..." After giving the standard warnings about having to pay for any damage caused to the book, the sage exits, leaving Lucretia and Serena to read the book titled "Monsters and their Uses". It is an interesting read, with plenty of diagrams etc, including dissections instructions and the like. Lucretia makes notes, skimming the book as fast as he can. Several of the monsters depicted he and Serena have heard of before, but never seen.

Finally, at sunset the group return to find the answers to the research

With the sun setting behind them, the group move into the court-yard, the heavy walls of the building reaching up around them. Entering the foyer, in which glow stones have been uncovered to make the place bright for the few members of the public who are there. The elderly man who had greeted Blondung and the others earlier in the day is waiting for them. "Good to see people on time!" he says, smiling. " I understand that two of your comrades are already here" he says, sniffing. "We'll go to them" he adds, turning on his heel and climbing the stairs towards the 4th floor. The Unknowns follow, wondering what information they might find.

Finally, the group are all gathered in the reading room where Lucretia and Serena push the book on "Monsters and their Uses" to one side, and listen up at the elderly man turns to face the group.

"Unfortunately, we have only been able to find information on one other of the sigils," he starts, somewhat pompously. Holding up one of the copies of the sigils that were made earlier, he indicates the second of the sigils up the arm. "We found a reference in a book of historical events in Daggerdale - apparently it belongs to some wizardess named 'Gwath'." The man takes on a lecturing tone, his voice droning somewhat as he tends to speak through his nose.

"The first traces of Gwath in the Dalelands go back to the ill-named Year of the Kindly Lich (606 DR), when a travelling mage from ancient Cormyr named Garthur and his band entered the south-eastern part of the Daleswood, now known as Spiderhaunt Woods. The band had many difficult encounters with gigantic spiders in the forest, some of them believed by Garthur to be unnatural creatures. Garthur noted in his journal that the forest still had been peaceful and free of such spiders in a similar expedition some 10 years earlier."

The man peers over his spectacle to see if everyone is still listening, before continuing. He starts to pace as he speaks, hands now clasped behind his back.

"He and his band also discovered new trails that had been made into the Daleswood, and they were following these trails when the many encounters with the giant spiders occurred. After a bit more than a day in the forest and with many hard battles behind them, Garthur and his band came upon an opening in which stood a large and evil-looking tower of great dimension. Furthermore, this tower was guarded by a band of four highly capable warriors of the dark elven folk."

The elderly man's voice seems to drone nasally as he continues to recite what he has obviously read from this reference book. "It came to combat with these four apparent drow, and after three of the dark elves and one of Garthur's warriors lay dead before the tower, a woman, in part of the drow race, emerged from the tower and identified herself as Gwath the mighty! She then attacked Garthur's band with magics most powerful and evil, and only in the last minute was Garthur able to use his own magics to remove himself and the last survivor of his group to safety."

"A few years later, when Myth Drannor was at the peak of it's glory, Garthur returned to the Daleswood, or Spiderhaunt wood as it is called now. It was still home to many species of giant spiders, but the tower was deserted, scarred from many physical and magical attacks, and Gwath had disappeared, not to be heard of again!"

At this point, the elderly man stops, looking around at the party as they look back at him. There is an awkward moment of silence. "And that was the only reference..." he says shrugging.

A few questions are asked, but the man has no further information, and seems quite keen to get rid of the adventurers, and 10 minutes later, the group find themselves back outside the Vault of the Sages, heading back towards the Inn of the Wayward Sages.