Library of Shifting Truths
Session 14
Chunk, Coine, Dorian, Flynn, Urzein and Vaelen
Short Summary
The party wanders around on the for basement level and manage to determine that each of the glowing circles represent a number. They are attacked by a gibbering monster, but manage to slay it. Eventually, they find a secret door that leads them to a lower level where a ritual is taking place.
Long Summary
The adventurers explore the basement level of the “old palace.” Coine volunteers to hold the gold bars (85 gp worth) while examining various sigils and words. They move to the room in the north and find a spell scroll and a box that contains 5 platinum rings (20 gold), an orchid wax paper and a note that states: “When the moons cross it begins…”
As they wander, they see strange creatures trapped in a glowing circle – a gibbering monster to the southwest, a shield guardian to the north and in a room to the northeast, a mindflayer. When Dorian states that they seek “the Listener Between”, the mindflayer answers that “They are looking for Shond, but Shond it not the Listener Between.”
When investigating the southwestern area, Coine gets close to the gibbering monster and makes a face. Then, he gets pulled into the circle. Despite the fact that small hands grow out of Urzein’s arms, he rushes to Coine and pulls the fearless druid out. A strange “phasing effect” befalls Flynn. Eventually, they attack from a distance and the gibbering monster goes down.
The adventurers search the room with the Shield Guardian, and discover a secret door to a library under the influence of bizarre dimensional effects that causes reality to warp – shelves rise and fall, words seem to shift, bookshelves shift). On the wall, it is written: “The Listener only teaches in silence”. Flynn discovers the Grimoire of Mystery of Number of truths and Coine finds a scroll of mental severance. Vaelen finds a scroll and a note that “Node 3’s inversion opens the rift, but silence seals it.”
Despite not being book smart, Urzein has enough wisdom to understand that a *comprehend language* spell might help the more intelligent party members sort out these nodes. After one of the party casts comprehend language, they realize that each of the circles represents a node, with Nodes 1-6 on the first floor (rotating clockwise from the entrance to the stairs) and in a similar pattern in the basement.
They return to search for more secret entrances. Vaelen finds two potions and a book the “Listener”. More strange clues are found: “Silence at 3, Listener does not speak, but remembers” and “He listens only when no one speaks. He sees best with eyes shut. The sanctum is shaped like the seed. The mouth devours from the root.”
Dorian finds another secret door, which opens to another room with a node (possibly Node 7). Coine walks into the room. The he hears “He is not what he was. The Listener speaks from below, yet cannot rise until the seed devours the root.” He receives a brief psychic vision of a ziggurat structure from above, but inverted — as though sinking downward, not rising. He hears the following: “Power lies in the eye that will not see. Bend the knee, and he stands taller.” And “He believes it to be power, but it is a mouth.”
The adventurers find hidden stairs that lead them to the level below where they see a massive room with cultists in the middle of an apparent ritual…
