Episode 17: Prohibition, Librarians, and Blacksmiths, oh my!

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**September 9, 2020**

We began this session inside the Arcanum, with the players having just been shown to their rooms. After chatting and eating some snacks, they were shown by Gid the way down to the dining room. They were the only ones inside, and they enjoyed a nice meal. Unfortunately, upon requesting a drink, they were informed that only 2 drinks per person were allowed for gray-eyes. This upset Ridgely and Luberos quite a bit, and Ridgely almost made an attempt to steal some from behind the counter but was dissuaded by his comrades. The party eventually retired in their rooms for the evening, and we picked up again the next morning.

Koko Dotharl woke and immediately summoned Gid to show her the way to the smithy. Rhistel, Luberos, and Muud joined her on this trip, while Ridgely went down to the dining hall to seek out Dienaar Evindal to try to arrange a meeting with the Towenaar of Agriculture Vieri. With a total change of face, Ridgely was respectful yet assertive with the Dienaar, and this led to him agreeing to arrange a meeting. The others found themselves at a building with a large partially outdoor combat training area attached to a smithing building. They went in and found a standard blacksmithing work area with a furnace, anvil, etc. as well as a sitting area and a seemingly out of place tree. Upon entering, a little bird flew from the tree over to them flitting around their heads. Koko held out a finger and the bird landed there, at which point the players could see this was not a real bird but rather made of metal with gears. The tree began to approach and called out to the bird, which promptly returned to its branches. Ridgely made his way to the smith around this time. It finally introduced itself as Craftmaster Ashfall, the resident crafter and smith of the Arcanum. Koko showed them the metal ore she had found in her vision, and Master Ashfall took it to run some tests. As the tests proceeded, Koko waited around but the rest of the group continued on to the library. Eventually Master Ashfall came back to Koko with a small coin-sized disk fashioned from the metal ore, and he demonstrated its extreme sharpness by dropping one if his branches over it, which was sliced in half. He commented that the unknown metal had an ability to hold an edge unlike any other metal he'd seen. Koko asked him to craft her something from it, and he said that he would but at a cost that was not monetary.

The rest of group who went to the library entered to see a massive room full of books, 6 stories high and hundreds of feet long and wide. There they met Bookkeeper Volyn, a beautiful and sharp elvish woman who lounged behind the central desk. As they approached, she rose and introduced herself and met the party. She explained to them the rules of hte library: books are open to everyone who enters, but finding what they want can be very difficult. That is where Volyn can come in - she can help them find the books the desire, or even share from her vast wealth of knowledge regarding a topic. But she trades information for information, nothing is for free. The party first offered to tell her about King Senos and the fight between him and the Towenaar of Wonders. Alas, she had already heard a first-hand account from Dienaar Josephine. Muud piped in, offering her a tale regarding the meteor shower, the fact that his entity spoke to him, as well as the rock he found and attached to his hand. There we left off...