The Guide's Lantern

In the center of the Lucius Ward, standing proudly among the crammed studios and apartments, a glass palace known as The Guide's Lantern shines against the midday sun oblivious to the wear of time. A beacon of study The Guide's Lantern can be spotted among the many towering structures of Beaumont's skyline, a massive domed tower, wide at it's base that gradually narrows, with small additions clinging to it's sides. The tower's name is derived from a champion of the Learned Lady, the goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge and was built to reflect it's namesake with steel structures but largely opaque glass faces that illuminate the city during the dark hours of the day.

The Lantern's entrance is a massive set of brass doubled fence doors leading into a large courtyard that contains flora and scholars and mages at all hours of the day. It is the only entrance or exit into The Guide's Lantern and while it is simply open to the public eye, it is extremely difficult to enter without permission. Those who are invited in however, find an extremely inviting community of roaming scholars exploring the vast knowledge within its walls, enlightened conversation about new and old discoveries, and friendly debate. There is no better place on the planet for those who have a love for or need of knowledge and who want to pursue such interests alongside fellow seekers.

The vast notes of many of Verdona's many famous inventors, writers, and mages lie among the many stacks of tomes and scrolls of The Guide's Lantern, as well as philosophical debates and accounts of creatures and peoples. Contrary to popular belief The Lantern doesn't hold only writings of history changing magnitude, It holds lost family recipes, old and unfinished songs, collections and accounts of folklore, and journals from people of nearly every corner of the planet. The abundance of knowledge has made organization somewhat of a nightmare, however, the staffed scholars and mages have created extensive systems to make the information easier to find and organize.

## Entering The Guide's Lantern

To enter The Guide's Lantern, one must provide sufficient evidence of their desire to learn and lack of desire to destroy. This comes in the form of:

* A. A valid, up-to-date passport
* B. one of the following
	+ A membership
	+ Accompanied by a person holding membership
	+ A signed letter from a person of influence in Beaumont or larger Verdona giving permission
	+ A work that is not already housed inside The Guide's Lantern that holds great personal importance with a written letter describing it's connection to you
	+ A request for membership by an employee of The Guide's Lantern

Without fulfilling both requirements you are kindly but firmly turned away and asked to return with your documents in order or not at all. Upon entrance without a membership, one can be acquired to make later returns easier. The process is quite simple, just a signature from your "sponsor" and your own vowing to use the information for the progression of your studies, or, a short interview to determine your intent.

The large double fenced brass doors leading to the courtyard are enchanted in order to prevent any damage to them or anything beyond them. Both gated doors display the emblem of The Guide's Lantern (A lantern who's flame is instead an open tome) in the same brass the doors are made of.

Standing watch outside of these gates are 2 Light Guards, 2 Velvet Veils hidden in lookout nooks above the entrance, and an archmage called the Gatewarden. These guards do not decide if you enter or not, they simply take your presented materials and send them via pressurized tubes to the staff within who review your entrance. This process is normally quite quick for those who have gained entrance previously or have documentation to gain admittance, however, it may take several minutes to determine a books value or worth. It is far less likely to be turned away with signed documents or another member than if you bring an offering, so most people looking to enter the Library will search out a befriend (or pay) a current member or ask for a favor from a person of power. When you have been approved or denied your materials are returned via tube and you are allowed to enter or turned away.

Once you are admitted, you can request the assistance of a member of the staff who acts as a guide and research assistant for the duration of their visit. This guide has access to all the resources of the library, with the exception of the vaults that contain the rarest and most dangerous works. You may be able to appeal to and persuade a higher-ranking member of staff for permission to peruse these off-limits works. If you enter the Lantern on request of a particular employee that employee or one under them will be assigned as your guide even without request.

### Guides

The Guide's Lantern has many different aspiring or seasoned scholars/mages on staff at any given time. Below are just a few who you may encounter as guides to help you during your time in the library.

* Sprig Summerfoot, a female halfling scribe (23) with ink-stained fingers, a small bag of cookies in one pocket, and a good memory for recipes
* Parmak, a non-binary human scribe (25) who is constantly reading a book and occasionally walks into things
* Nax Olossis, a male brass dragonborn scribe (22) who loves conversation
* Orrin Glass, a human scribe (67) who is deaf in one ear, forgetful, and easily exasperated

## Defenses and Decorum

Where the Guide's Light might lack in 15 foot thick stone walls it makes up for with arcane defenses and constant surveillance. The building is flanked by two other buildings (A bank and a bookstore) leaving only its face and its rear exposed to the public. At any given time there are 25 Light Guards patrolling the nearby area including the nearby streets, the rear of the Lantern, and rooftop posts near the building. If anyone enters the front gates without approval being given alarms sound locking the entire building down.

### Wards

Numerous magical defenses protect the library. The most innocuous include wards to protect the library’s books from mold, weevils, and other threats. Other protections are more dramatic, as discussed below.

***Magic Restriction.*** Wards prevent anyone from entering The Guide's Lantern by any route other than through the front gates. Any attempt to magically bypass these gates fails. These wards do not prevent creatures from using magic to exit.

Anyone who tries to fly over the wall into the courtyard is stopped short. Magical flight is dispelled, and the subject floats slowly to the ground fifty feet outside the gates. An intangible ward forces creatures that can fly naturally to either land or circumnavigate the area altogether. Ordinary birds are unaffected by this ward, and a clever wizard or other individual can bypass the ward by assuming the form of a Tiny bird. The staff don’t discuss this flaw with outsiders, but anyone who can see the pigeons flying over The Guide's Lantern can easily reach the conclusion that certain creatures are exempt from this magical restriction.

**Unbreaking Glass.** All of the glass in The Guide's Lantern has been enchanted to do 3 main things.

* It is opaque looking in but completely translucent looking out
* It cannot be broken, cracked, or damaged in any way
* it is insulated in such a way it maintains a 70-80 temperature on the inside of the building regardless of time of year and amount of sun

***Fire Suppression.*** Flames larger than a candle are suppressed within the keep. Thus, any spell that creates fire is wasted if it is cast within the keep.

***Theft Protection.*** Every book, scroll, and other work considered part of The Lantern’s collection is magically protected against theft. Any such work that is removed from the keep disappears and immediately returns to its proper place in the library.

This ward also has a flaw that the staff don’t discuss with outsiders. If pages from a book or parts of a scroll are torn away, these fragments can be removed from the library as long as the bulk of the work remains in the library. Similarly, if a work is split into pieces and entirely removed from the library, only the largest piece disappears and returns to its proper place in the library.

***Shielding Mythal.*** When triggered by a high ranking staff member or by a detected break in, The Guide's Lantern will activate a mythal —an exceptional, unbreakable magical effect—that closes off all of the doorways, turn all the glass in the building red, and creates a shield that only air and sound can pass through.

### Orders of Accordance

All who enter The Guide's Lantern must agree to the Orders of Accordance, rules set forth by the senior staff to prevent misconduct. Violating one or more of these orders results in banishment from the library, and the banished are seldom allowed to return. The rules are simple:

**No fighting.** All arguments must follow the rules of cordial debate and discussion. Violent altercations between visitors/members are not tolerated. However, this does not ban you from acting in self defense or fighting a threat that has made its way into the library.

**No stealing.** This rule applies to all objects in the building, not just the library’s works.

**No copying.** Visitors are permitted to take notes while studying the library’s works, but anyone who wants to make a full copy of a work must pay to have the manuscript created by scribes.

**No damaging, marking, or otherwise modifying the works.** This rule doesn’t apply to privately owned books, scrolls, and other documents that aren’t part of The Lantern's collection.

## The Staff of The Guide's Lantern

There are roughly 300 employees of The Guide's Lantern some of which who live on the premises. The majority of them are low-level assistants, newcomers to the order, or scribes who handle the everyday work in the library (use the commoner stat block to represent them).

High-ranking members of the staff include the individuals described below.

### The Director of The Lantern

The Director is the highest-ranking member of the staff of The Guide's Lantern, who selects scholars to fill vacant leadership positions. The Director’s word is law, and each Director’s edicts are recorded for the edification of future Directors.

A Director is chosen when the previous one is retired and is appointed by the Minister of Innovation and Minister of Magic collectively, but the Director's replacement is almost always the individual the previous Director recommends. If a Director dies or departs before making a recommendation, the Ministers must make the choice themselves. If they cannot come to an agreement, the Great Readers must put the prospective candidates to a vote (usually 2).

Currently, the Director is a Earth Genasi Man (52) named Hillard Brokehann, a highly educated mage.

### Gatewarden

The Gatewarden maintains security at the front gates, through which all visitors must enter.

Currently, the Gatewarden is Kalan Strong, a non-binary human archmage.

### Readers

The Director appoints individuals to fill key roles, as described in the sections that follow.

#### Great Readers

The Guide's Lantern maintains a council of seven Great Readers, senior scholars who oversee day-to-day operations. These erudite scholars and gifted spellcasters are chosen from the ranks of Master Readers. Each is acknowledged as the library's foremost expert on a particular area of study. Many of them use the master sage stat block.

Currently, the Great Readers are:

* A’lai Ivanmore, a female human master sage and worshiper of Luara (god of knowledge). Primary expertise: divinity (the gods and the nature of the divine).
* Alkrist, a non-binary light blue dragonborn master sage. Primary expertise: politics, military strategy, and significant battles.
* Daral Yashenti, a male goliath master sage and poet. Primary expertise: music, poetry, and literature.
* Fermin Scriver, a female stout halfling master sage. Primary expertise: history, folklore, specifically regarding primordials.
* Smithe Blathers, a non-binary dwarf master sage. Primary expertise: the natural world.
* Vira Savickas, a female tiefling archmage. Primary expertise: the various planes.
* Les Chvostek, a male gnome archmage. Primary expertise: magic items, curses, and the Weave.
* Bryce Nyantani, a male water Genasi master sage. Primary expertise: all things unnatural (including aberrations, undead, and the Far Realm).

#### Master Readers

Master Readers (sages and master sages) oversee the scribes and teach the adjutants. These learned scholars possess tremendous institutional knowledge.

## Locations

### The Rising Sun

The Rising Sun is a small building just outside of The Guide's Lantern in the courtyard that acts as a respite for scholars who came specifically to Beaumont for the library. It is a tavern that contains lodging for up to 50 (with more space made available by extradimensional spaces), a decent menu for food at every meal, a bath and steam house, and bar. The tavern is run by Father Endros, a priest of Luara goddess of knowledge, who holds services of worship once a week.

### Hargreve's Reading Room

The main area available to any person given access to The Guide's Lantern is the Hargreve's Reading Room. It is a massive library with many comfortable seats and table lit by perpetual candle light. This room includes the more common books (not to be mistaken as insignificant) that are absolutely accessible to the public. You can request to see a book from a more private area of the library, however, some books will only be allowed to be checked up with supervision in a private study room, and some will not be checked out without proper approval. You are allowed to take notes on any of the books in this section, however, copying is prohibited. If you would like a copy of a book, you may purchase one for approximately 100 gp (varies with size and art) or 200 gp for translated books. If you are looking to copy a spell, you must pay 50 gp per spell level you copy or have copied into your own book.

### Study Rooms

The Guide's Lantern has many study rooms located throughout the library. Most rooms are physical, however, some are created by extradimensional spaces of varying sizes. These rooms are available to anyone to check out, but time limits are strict as the slots fill up quite quick. Some of these study rooms - especially the extradimensional spaces - can be used for group meetings, magic or technological experiments, or large scale needs (like a planetarium for example).

→ *See: Matreous's Room*

### Private Collections

The Library has many private collections and works that are not accessible to general members, or even to seasoned members without a guide. These rooms are rarely entered by anyone except the staff of The Guide's Lantern, but under certain circumstances they may be. These rooms are usually extradimensional spaces to hide them from the eyes of wanderers and they are usually in some way shaped to reflect the contents of the room. You may not purchase copies of any of the books from these private rooms.

### The Pits

The rarest books in The Guide's Lantern are kept in catacombs under the building called the Pits. There are many traps here that only the highest members of staff know how to get past, including but not limited to:

* extremely deep pits of acid, lava, tar, etc.
* dart, arrow, and spear traps
* monstrous creatures
* rooms filled with poisonous gasses

The books here are almost never viewed by anyone as the information they contain has been deemed too important or devastating for anyone to know. Many of these books are the mad ramblings of archmages, discussions of how to release or harness the primordial titans, or experiments that could be used to end life on the planet.