Citadel's Shadow II, Session 62

Citadel's Shadow II, Session 62 was a session of the Citadel's Shadow II campaign, played on 12 January 2020 (UTC) (11 January 2020 for some participants).
== Personnel ==
===Game Master===
*GM: played by Michael Lee Viviano
===Player Characters===
*Fern the Siegemaster: inventive fox-person student played by Rail Runner
*Minigallith "Miss Mini" Atakares: half-elf mage played by Alden Loveshade
=== Prominent Non-Player Characters ===
* Eliza Boulavier: human assistant at Maisson Boulavier
* Eri Snow: fox-person entertainer at Madame Maude Lynn's Theater of Thrills
* Kyrie Kelevan: human priestess of Damira
* Katerina Smartcat: cat professor at St. Bassard's School and Home for Disadvantaged Youth
== Events ==
=== 1742 ===
Heris 27 (Restingday): There were no classes at St. Bassard's School and Home for Disadvantaged Youth, but Minigallith "Miss Mini" Atakares was there helping Professor Katerina Smartcat "defuse the Magistic's students' homework."  Mini said, "Oh, Professor, I've got "Climbing" down now--if you count the magical version."
Eri Snow showed up, wanting to tell Fern the Siegemaster that a book she had wanted was now in the bookstore.  As Mini was through for the week, she, Eri, and Fern went to the bookstore Paper Grotto.  Eri said that Kyrie Kelevan and Eliza Boulavier were there.
The trio saw Kyrie, who said she thought they were holding the book she wanted at the front desk.  Keri Pinknose saw them, and nodded in greeting before going back to the office.
Mini asked the woman at the desk if they had a book about the ellylon, and gave a basic description of them. The woman didn't think so. Mini then asked if they had a book about small fairies or billiken, and the woman directed her to Keri.  Keri handed Fern the book she had been looking for, A Visit to Wegiden, the Secrets of the Gnomish City of Wonders by Tomfel Harkin.  Fern looked through the book while Keri helped her find a book on fairies (Mini said specifically ellylon or billiken).  Mini saw Eliza reading, and greeted her, although Eliza was lost in the book and didn't notice.  Keri and Mini went up the stairs.
Keri and Mini went down the main aisle and were turning down another aisle when Mini (and Fern, who was closer to the source) heard "the sound of some sort of energy happening downstairs."  Both Mini and Fern suspected the sound was caused by some sort of gate spell.
Fern saw a huge raven clutching a large book, with Eliza holding desperately on to the trailing edge!  Then Mini saw a huge raven flutter past up the stairs over her head!  There was shouting throughout the bookstore, and Fern saw another large raven carrying a large book.  Fern tried jumping and grabbing it, but only scraped her nails over it.
Mini, who had seen about half of a dozen of the huge ravens and had heard perhaps twice that number, hurriedly tried figuring out the best spell tu use while running to where she thought she heard the gate spell cast--and almost ran into Fern.
Both Fern and Mini saw Kyrie skid to a stop ahead and charge down an aisle with Keri behind her.  They then both heard Eliza scream in the direction Kyrie had gone.
They then saw a big, tall raven-headed guy with a stovepipe hat and a long cape that looked like a black void inside.  Kyrie was waving her staff at it and shouting angrily.  A raven carrying a book swooped into the void, and Kyrie and Mini both questioned the caped raven while the raven drew a book out of the void of its cape.  Then Mini cast a fear spell on it while the raven opened the book.  Fern drew a knife.  The raven being made a cooing noise, and its feathers seemed to ruffle.  Mini said, "Everybody, look threatening."
However, the raven being opened the book it held, a bolt of energy shot out, and Kyrie disappeared!  Fern started taking cover behind a bookshelf while Eri tried dragging her back to safety.
Mini cast a spell so that she could speak the raven beings language.  She asked what it was doing, and it said, in croaking speech, "I come for books!"  Nearby, Fern and Mini heard the sound of a soft thud, a hard thud, a big cat hissing, and a raven squawking.  Mini asked the raven being, "What did you do to the girl?:  It said, "This!" and reached into the void.  Eri screamed, "Get back!"
Instead, Mini held up her staff and said, "Stop hurting people and taking books and I will let you go."  The being folded its cloak on itself, and disappeared.  There were then several thuds around the bookstore.  Mini cast a spell to trace where the raven being had gone.  However, in spite of her success with the spell, she couldn't track it--but did know the being had gone to another plane of existence.
Meanwhile, Eri and Fern investigated.  Eri found a book and said, "This book has Eliza's name on it!"  Fern picked up the book, whicch wasn't very big, but was nicely decorated in a popular style, something like a popular novel.  There was no table of contents; it started at chapter one:
"Chapter One: I was born in Delctra's Cauldron Borough Hospital in Raxin 15, 1727. I weighed 7 and a half pounds as a newborn.  The doctor cut my umbilical cord too long and my navel has stuck out ever since."  Fern said, "This seems to be some kind of autobiography."   Scrawled letters appeared in the book that said, "Please ignore that!"  Fern said, "It's apparently a magical book of some kind."  Eri and Fern wondered if Eliza could be in the book.
Mini said, "I'm going to try something really hard--go tell them what happened at the magic school it's right here in the building!"  Mini had recently graduated from the school associated with the Shining Luck Mages' Guild in which she was a journeyman mage.  Eri agreed to go.
Fern looked at the other book that was on the floor.  Fern didn't recognize the language, but some of the letters looked like known Trynsern, including a capital K that began the book.  And there was a sketch of Kyrie Kelevan on the front page.  After the first several pages, which occasionally had a diagram of a holy symbol.  Fern compared the two books.  Keri looked, and said the second, which was dated 3681, was written in Aidrel, the church language.  The date was in the church calendar, and would have been about 15 years ago.  Keri said one book appeared "to be biography about someone named Kyrie Kelevan, and this one Eliza Boulavier. I don't recognize the names."
Mini tried a more powerful spell, one that almost completely drained her remaining energy.  Mini got a staggering, frightening vision of another world.  There were books suspended in the air everywhere. There was no floor, just books in all directions. She couldn't see in the distance for all the books.  Flitting between the books were ravens, and many sorts of ghostly figures.  Mini though if she could teleport, she could go there right then.
Meanwhile Fern tried communicating with a book, noting words that could be put together in a phrase similar to, "Can you understand me?"
Mini learned that Kyrie was still missing, and Eliza was gone as well.  Keri said, "Apparently your friends disappeared, and these autobiographies of their lives were left on the floor!"  This had Mini quite worried.
Eri returned with Chad Zhing and Chuckie Zhing.  They learned what was known.  Master Pei Zhing came soon after, and also learned what the others knew.  Mini said, "I don't think those books existed before they disappeared."  Master Pei suggested trying to get an answer by writing in the books, which Fern, who didn't want to ruin a book, hadn't done.  Master Pei said he scribbled in his books.  (Citadel's Shadow II adventure 2020 01 11)