Kiya drank too much last night, feeling guilty about charming Saures and leaving him at the Pious Chapterhouse.
We go to Mantor Library in the Blacklake District. Small private library, unassuming and neat. Stonework sign that says “Mantor’s Library”. The attendant, Mary, brings us a human woman wearing a robe with glasses, Kiya recognizes a library scholar. Cassra Brandywine, scribe master. She has blue-stained hands. We go to her office.
We pass through a room that is filled with lots of tables and scribes. It is filled with books and papers. Kiya casts suggestion on Cassra, fails to convince her to share a list of people who checked out the book. So Kiya then casts Minor Illusion, shattering glass to get Cassra out of the room.
On Cassra’s desk, Kiya finds a memo from her to Lord Sage, Master Opanral. “Sorry could not make appt” but mentions she had heard that books have gone missing, a list of exactly the three books that were missing, “uncertain as to whether they are connected and we need to get them back”, advocating a formal investigation. Also find a note that she was writing today about a missing scribe “Ellison” who is frequently absent.
Cassra takes us to the second floor, to a door with a sign “Lord Sage / Master Opanral”. She knocks timidly and Tyener helps her by knocking loudly. We enter a neat office with an older man standing behind the desk. Kiya activates her cloak to be impressive.
Two staff members missing, Garda and Ellison.
Lord Sage to Cassra: “If I hire these investigators, will you stop sending me memos?”
They hire us for 102GP to find out what happened to the books and the missing staff members.
Asked about blue ink, Cassra says scribes tend to have hands covered in ink. Their scribes are well known for their blue ink. Cassra gives us a sheet of paper with their names:
- Garda Greenleaf – he is an archivist working there over 30 years, helping people research esoteric knowledge. She gives us the address of his boarding house in Blacklake.
- Ellison Berenger – a scribe hired 4mos ago.
And missing books: She researched the missing books – Aya was the first to check out in 3 years, Martin the first ever, and Agin the first ever as well.
Kiya asks Mary about membership, and receives an explanatory pamphlet.
- 83g /yr – read book
- 150g /yr – check out 1book
- Market Pricing – access to archivists
- Scribe services at 1s/page
Compare Cassra’s note to the assassin’s note. They seem to be written by different people. Same paper, same ink.
We go to the Sword and Board, on the edge of the Blacklake District.Near Olfgar. Vistra asks about Garda Greenleaf, last seen two days ago when he got dinner. Vistra convinces the bartender to show us his room. Brings us to door with Garda’s name and a green leaf engraved on it. Kiya Minor Illusion of yelling voices downstairs to get bartender to leave.
On the desk, there is black ink and papers. Nothing of note in the desk. Locked drawer. Book case: history, geography. Journals at the bottom. Vistra flips through the most recent journal. It details complaints about his coworkers. Ellison was hired as a scribe but didn’t always put books back the right way and sometimes spent more time reading than writing. Last entry is about Ellison going down to the deeper area of the archives, pulling many books, and Garda wasn’t sure why.
Kiya casts Knock on the drawer. It contains only gold so she closes it again.
We visit Agin and convince him to get us access to the archives. He gives us a sealed envelope to gain us entry to the archives for 24 hours.