Compass Points Library

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Compass Points Library, beside the Ramble in Crow's Keep

Pirates of Leviathan

**Compass Points** is the library on Leviathan, located in Crow's Keep. It's akin to a Library of Alexandria, a place of cultural significance and wonders, but splintered and fractured as it had to be fought for and protected from the drunken deprivations of pirates that might not have as active an interest in the preservation of their own pirate culture. The library itself contains many areas that function more like social spaces, which is compared to an "L.A. library" by Siobhan.

It is managed by the librarian, Ayda Aguefort, and the pirate wizard Rawlins, who works the front desk.

## Description

The entrance of the library is decorated by huge emblems of massive bronze sextant. The library itself is made of wood and golden towers. A collection of old figureheads cover the building like a cathedral, but the spars and splinters of the ships that they were taken from still extend past the figureheads. Many, if not all, of the books inside are stolen and are often stolen again by visitors. The Bad Kids promise not to do so, but successfully get away with all of the books they find.

The library has books on a myriad of topics, including religious texts, old treasure maps, and breaking curses on treasure, which pirates are particularly interested in. It has several clearly marked forbidden sections, but it's unclear if having a library card grants access. It also has an enormous 'friendship' section, which is disguised as a very small, dusty, sparsely populated shelf. Pushing on the shelf reveals a hidden room filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of books dedicated to the topic of friendship. They rest on countless towering shelves with ladders on rails are bathed in golden light. On the back of the shelf is an inscription that reads:

> "*Much like this shelf, friendship may at first seem humble, but beyond its drab exterior lies a golden treasure greater than any ship's bounty. Go with love, me hearties*."
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It's later revealed that the section was built by Ayda when she was lonely.

Inside the library is an observatory, a massive wooden dome decorated with arcane runework and containing an enormous, 60-foot, gilded, spyglass-like telescope, inlaid with golden filigree work, fleur-de-lis, busts, and the like. Ayda and several other patrons can be found napping there, as well as playing chess.

The library receives funding from the city based on how many people have a library card, which can be obtained free of charge, so the Bad Kids all agree to get one. Fig offers to get more cards through her burner phones and false identities, which they apparently receive double funding for. It's possible that the library cards have the ability to point towards the books that patrons may be looking for, although this may only work in the friendship section.

## History

Ayda has dedicated several lifetimes to building and running the library, using the observatory to chart the stars and determine where Leviathan is.

The Bad Kids are sent to the library by Garthy O'Brien to learn the pirate version of the Sending spell in order to get in touch with Ragh's mother on the mainland. They meet Rawlins, who directs them towards Ayda in the observatory. They speak with Ayda about helping them learn the Sending spell, and she's hesitant to help them at first, but agrees once she learns about their note from Garthy.

While Adaine takes several hours to learn the spell, the group splits up to look for various books. Kristen and Riz find a tome of old maps and journals about a temple to a strange unnamed deity of Sylvaire. They successfully take it out of the library undetected. After comparing it to Kristen's On The Subject of World Religions, they discover that while there are a lot of old deities from Sylvaire, none of them match the descriptions they find, despite the deity being acknowledged by all five types of beings that lived in the forest. Adaine casts Identify on it, which reveals that it's just a book, and the group considers that this deity could be erasing itself (or being erased) from history, as Kristen mentions her dream about not being able to draw the face of her god. They also consider that it could be a unicorn deity, but don't find a lot of information on the topic.

In a forbidden area, Fig finds a book on breaking curses on treasure, *Breaking the Evil Eye*, with an entire chapter dedicated to gemstones and steals it by disguising herself as Rawlins. In the book, she learns that the spell Plane Shift can be used to enter a cursed object and remove an underlying contingency curse, which might have otherwise destroyed the object if the overlying curse is broken.

Gorgug asks the real Rawlins about books on making friends feel better, hoping to help Fabian who has retreated to the Hangvan, and is led to the friendship section, which he initially believes to be a prank. This is made worse when Fig runs by disguised as Rawlins. Rawlins gets defensive and Adaine approaches to steal his book of wizard spells, which turns him into a pile of bones. Adaine leaves Gorgug to deal with the situation as she goes back to studying, and he instead discovers the real friendship section. He finds the book *Cheer Up Me Hearties*, which he takes. He exits the room to find that two pirates have apprehended Gilear for destroying Rawlins, though it's unclear why he was just wandering around the library, or felt the need to pick up bones there. Gorgug explains the situation and tells the two pirates that they're good friends to Rawlins for helping put him back together.

Ayda approaches Adaine as she finishes up learning the spell and hesitantly tells her to tell her father whatever she likes, as it's no concern of hers. Before Ayda leaves her, Adaine asks to be friends, as Ayda is desperate for one and she doesn't have any wizard friends of her own. She offers her Boggy to hold, which Ayda thinks is utterly fantastic, and when Adaine produces a tiny backpack for him from her jacket, she yells that he's too cute. Ayda compliments Adaine's spellwork, and Adaine offers to teach her the spell, Find Familiar. She calls Adaine one of the two greatest wizards of this age, along with Gorgug, and invites both of them back whenever they like.

Fig dispells her Disguise Self in an attempt to make a joke about there being three greatest wizards, but when Ayda misunderstands and thinks Rawlins has just transformed into Fig, she puts the disguise back, as it would be too hard to explain. Ayda comments that he ought to run faster, to catch all the people that steal their books, and desperate to please her, Fig does so.

Outside the library, the Bad Kids use their new Sending spell to get in contact with Arthur Aguefort about Ragh's mother.

In order to travel with her friends, Ayda intends to shrink the library down piece by piece to a portable size and take it away from Leviathan.