- Man wearing bearskin
"Anything can be a shanking chisel if you try hard enough." - Katie Patterson
- Bright and early the next morning, Soliana, Poetry, and Zemma hide in a nearby alley while Niniel and Caleb enter the Tattered Parchment shop. It is a very small storefront packed full of shelves which are also packed too full of books.
- Midway down in the shop, there's large, red-faced human man with a handlebar mustache. They immediately start asking about what Rex knows about Grim. He claims to not know anything about the book and Niniel and Caleb believe him. (Bad Insight checks all around.)
- Niniel looks around the shop and finds that the nicest books are on the shelf adjacent to the counter itself, so Niniel grabs a random nice-looking book about botany and flips through it to test Rex's reaction.
- She then takes a different book about Elven architecture, but she isn't interested in that either.
- Niniel then gets fed up with the the situation and summons one of her day's tentacles then pulls her trident out and holds it under his chin and says she wants to know what he wants for it.
- Caleb also immediately gets in on the act saying that they already took care of the people who tried to steal the book in question and they don't want to have to do it again.
- Rex hits a book and the whole shop fills with smoke and Niniel trips backwards and lands on her back. Caleb and Niniel hear the sounds of someone fleeing.
- Niniel casts Fly on herself goes over the counter and follows the sounds of fleeing down a hallway behind the counter, but she doesn't see Rex anywhere. She hears footsteps off to her right somewhere in the room.
- Soliana, Poetry, and Zemma see the small dusty windows fill with fog, but Rex does not come out the front.
- Caleb feels his way around the shop to follow after Niniel.
- Niniel doesn't see an exit from the room, so she lands and casts Wall of Water in a ring around the edges of the room and she takes her time feeling around and does not find an invisible man in the space.
- Caleb finds another room off the hallway. It's a small storage room with nicer manuscripts and a safe.
- Caleb calls out to Niniel about the other room and she lets the Wall of Water fall with a sploosh.
- Caleb starts checking for traps and finds that the entry to the room is not trapped, but the safe probably is.
- Before dealing with the safe, Caleb goes into the room that was previously blocked by a Wall of Water and finds a secret door that leads to a back alley.
- He sticks his head out the door and tells his waiting friends to head to the university and get the carriage ready to go and they'll be along in a few minutes.
- Caleb then heads back inside and starts examining the safe more closely.
- Niniel goes through the desk in the room she soaked and finds ledgers with running ink. She feels good about ruining his notes.
- Caleb handily picks the lock and opens the safe without detonating the trap. He finds 100 GP and a fancy looking book. He takes both. Books goes straight into the bag of holding.
- Niniel doesn't find anything useful in the other rooms, but she leaves a note in the emptied safe that says, "If you come after my friends, I'll ruin the rest of your books."
- Caleb slightly adjusts the trap inside the safe so it works differently and then closes the safe back up.
- Niniel also checks behind the counter and she finds a silver-skull (Orcish?) the size of a coin. She yoinks it.
- Caleb and Niniel catch up with the others who are just about to board a carriage.
- Caleb confirms with the coach driver that the area is safe enough that Caleb needn't ride shotgun.
- Caleb hands the book to Soliana who doesn't sense any magic in the book, so she opens it. It is written in Dwarven. She holds Grim with one hand and asks him for help, and casts Comprehend Languages through her bond with the book. She can now read Dwarven.
- Soliana goes back to reading it. It is a spell book. It will take her a little while to figure out the spells.
- A few hours later, the carriage comes to a stop in the town of Lamara and the driver opens the door.
- The village looks the way Soliana remembers it from 54 years ago when she left, and she remember the way to walk to her house.
- They walk the half hour from Lamara to the Ashera estate, and Soliana talks the most in that half hour that her friends have ever heard her says. She's almost chipper.
- And then they come to the gate and turn to look through it, they can see the dilapidated, once-beautiful manor house. Parts of the roof are missing, most of the carved wooden trim is missing and any stone carving trim is so dirty and covered in mold and grime that they are no longer visible.
- They enter and see that the front parlor right off the entry way has some chairs and a little bed set up in there where it's clearly being lived in.
- Ms Emmyth greets them at the door and Soliana finally breaks down sobbing into her neck.
- When Soliana finally calms herself, Ms Emmyth and the group sit down over food and start making a plan.
- Soliana of course decides that she's going to re-organize the Library and sort out an Arcane Study as well. She'll also clean up her bedroom (cramped) and the kitchen (roomy).
- Zemma says she can organize the Smithy and Workshop (6 tools here). She'll also clean up a bedroom and the family parlor (roomy) to hang out in. She cleans out the cupboard under the stairs (cramped) and puts a cot in there, because, you know, kobold.
- Poetry is going to organize a Storehouse for the orchards and vineyards (vineyards installed by Ialantha) and a Garden for spell components (instead of herbs). She's going to grow herself a natural bedroom (cramped) in the orchard. She's also going to clean out the courtyard area and fix the plants there for an outdoor hang out space.
- Caleb will organize more Smithy and Workshop (6 tools here) and he'll clean out another bedroom and the dining room.
- Niniel disappears into an empty room somewhere and texts with her friend Gin. There's a magic tarp behind which Gin has discovered a magical space with a Garden (herbs), Storehouse, Kitchen, and Parlor. She just hangs a hammock in Ashera mansion somewhere until she eventually gets to go back home.
- 1,000 XP ea for 10,750 XP total ea.
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