Candlekeep Mysteries

Candlekeep Mysteries is an anthology of adventures written by members of the Dungeons & Dragons community. Each adventure begins with a book that the characters find in Candlekeep, an enormous library located on the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms setting.

## Books

### The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces

*Written by Sigrid and Aul*

**Session 1 summary**

- The party (excluding Sigrid) went to Candlekeep to look for Matreous. For your own reasons, you are looking to cure a certain sick town using the scholar's help.

- you met Sigrid the new avowed (librarian of Candlekeep) in the library and together, went to look for Matreous

- Matreous was nowhere to be found. However we found a book with Mordenkeinen as cover, named 'The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces'. Someone guessed 'scepter' as the keyword and it opened a portal.

- through the portal we were transported into a mansion where we found Matreous. Everyone introduced themselves and it seems Matreous also found the mansion by accident. We requested for his help and in return he also wanted us to do him a favor for his own research. However when Matreous went to enter another room, everything suddenly went dark. .

- but it was a darkness that could be handled by darkvision and light spell. When we entered the room Matreous went to, he was not around. We only found a black cat. The room was filled with books. .

- we explored the mansion and found sus stuffs like Slaad tadpoles and demon summoning circles. We also found 2 other books with Mordenkainen as cover, but with differing titles.
(Ben pinned the book titles in table-chat )
- the latest thing we did was to look for food inside the kitchen because Mao was hungry. But when we sat down, Mao's chair turned out to be a mimic. And to be continued.

**Session 2's summary**

In the midst of the battle with mimic that was attacking Mao, the party met Irgad the arrogant noble-birth tiefling who jumped down from balcony. He was there to help the party, Irgad was one of those who went to look for Matreous. We explored some more.

- Fistandia, the writer of the most books the party found, was actually the owner of the mansion. The party heard that she is on the 2nd floor, inside a planetarium room.

- Irgad got attacked by a demonic book, and langsung tobat on the spot after Aulani'orar saved his ass

- yeah somehow every part of this mansion is danger hazard. Flying swords and what not.

- We keep on finding more books!

**Session 3’s Summary**

The party found their way to the empty planetarium. After several attempts of playing with the telescope, they managed to open the door towards a secret room. Inside, a shelf and a table resided, dusty, left for a long long time. A peculiar book laid on the table, the similar book with a golden letter and Mordenkainen’s face on the cover. Forscher took the book and it activated the magic that was put on the shelf, animating it to attack the party. Through bonking repeatedly, the party found some spellbooks and in total, has 7 peculiar books. After discussing in the dining room, Aul found out that the books can be arranged to form the word “LIBERTY”. Which when said out loud, opened the entrance where the party could exit back to Candlekeep. There, Matreous laid dead by unknown reasons. Some things that were brought out also disintegrated for unknown reasons. Another avowed then came in, which in exchange for doing her work, agreed to do what’s Matreous supposed to. The group then met with the Dean, which provided some information regarding the new task. It was about investigating the strange happenings around this book called “Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions”. Two donators recently brought the book to Candlekeep and one of the copy went haywire, as the Dean herself destroyed the book. First, the party talked to Yalerion Highscroll, who claimed to buy the book 13 days ago and paid a high price for it. He bought it in a stall in Wide, a marketplace in the upper city of Baldur’s Gate. He remembered that the stall’s name was “somethingsomething dune”. They then proceeded to look at the remaining copy of the book. The book was written by Mazfroth Gethur, which contained stuff regarding the weave, lycanthrophy and its origin, and the demon lords of the abyss. A “Y H” monogram was also written on the cover. Finding no more information, Sigrid tried to take the book, where it suddenly transformed and started draining her life force…

### Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions

*Written by Aul and Zev*

In our search for more clues regarding the book, Sigrid attempted to take the remaining Mighty Digressions book. It turned out that the book changed into this glowing, basketball size, something that attacked Sigrid. After repeated bonks were made, this life-leeching of a thing dissipates, leaving us with nothing. Aul then found out that there’s no magic involved, for it was actually a creature that could shapeshift. Yashenti then pointed the party to master V'ziir-Ag to gain more knowledge of the creature. Basically they are:

\* A creature summoned from the another plane - By a powerful spellcaster of course

\* Drains life energy to stay on this plane The party then met up with the other book holder, Valor.

He also didn’t remember about the details of his visit, but it seems that it was the very same book stall that Yalerion visited. Receiving no new information, the party then joined Yashenti to teleport to Baldur’s Gate. While she’s off to Wytchway, the party easily found their way to Wide. After sometime, they reached the end of the street, where the Amberdune Books lied. Trying to find more info on where the book was taken from, Irgad grew impatient and attacked one of the shopkeeper. Obviously, guards came and through smooth talking, Irgad was sent to court, without dragging the others into his mess. The party then, Karen style, asked for the manager. Even then, no prove were found and the manager offered the real copy of the book for 250gp. Having no funds, the party were on their way to Yashenti, to ask for some funds, while Zev helped defend Irgad at the court.

**Zev's Journal Entry #1006; Baldur's Gate - Day 2, Sunny; This is written inside the inn**In the court room, this weird the defendant Irgad plead guilty, as I sat on the visitor's bench with two other visitors, a porter and a fisherman.
He was sentenced with 425GP in total and to be paid in 10 days, or something will happened. (but Irgad said he can pay, hm..)
Then I met with the other group on our way outside of court room with Irgad.

Sigrid, Aul, Mao, Irgad (I call it Village Team) decided to get some fund to buy the book from Yashenti at Whychway Village.
While I and Forcher (Spy Investigation Team) would stake around the bookstore to observe their operation.

Investigation Team found a cafe near the bookstore and we noticed that they changed shift every 3-r hours.
The scary lady owner will come with two other staffs and switch around.
Nothing interesting happened for the rest of the day, we agreed to meet Village Team the next day around the bookstore area.
We went back to the inn and get some rest. (note to self: I need to buy more papers & ink)

**Zev's Journal Entry #1007**
Baldur's Gate - Day 3, Sunny
This is written while we stake out the shack

It's our 3rd day in Baldur's Gate and we haven't explored much. (I want to eat interesting food! but I have no money..)

After I met with Forcher, we decided to stake around the bookstore again until we meet with the Village Team.
We went to the cafe again and heck their food and beverages were expensive!
I got myself a glass of hot water (it costs me 5 copper, what a ripped off)

I couldn't believe Forcher ordered beer so early in the morning, hope his stomach was ok.
We sat there for quite a while, I got bored and started reading the Book that I found in the mansion, quite interesting, a wizard who explore the world finding dragons.

In the afternoon, we met again with Village Team.

The village's problem seemed resolved by Yashenti and the village's old man chief gave Village Team 200 gold. Yashenti also gave Sigrid 480 gold and potion of greater healing for the person with protagonist hair. (who the heck is this person? but Sigrid gave the potion to me OwO). They were planning to help the village ploughing fields, but they decided not to do it and went back to Baldur's Gate.

We went to the bookstore again and Sigrid bought a book.
As we were promised to be introduced with Korvala (their boss), we were led through small alleys until we reached a small shack (very musty smell inside).
Inside were a small room with seven chairs and Korvala met us.
She said she's able to copy the book daily (what an amazing writing speed she has).
Sigrid bought the original Mighty Digression book for 250 gold and another copied book about entailing dragon for 50 gold.

While they discussed, I noticed Aul was sleeping in the corner (next time I'll draw something on his face)
It turned into a heaty discussion, I'm not sure why the others didn't trust this lady, she was honest and gave us the original book.
After a while Aul was snapped from his sleep, and we decided to go outside and discussed next strategy.

We decided to disguise ourselves with used rags to blend with the people in slum area and hid. (I can't believe Mao threw mud at my shining armor! Didn't she know it took hours to polish?)
Apparently Aul could transfer his conciousness to an animal and he saw / heard things as a spider before. (I thought he's sleeping while standing in the corner)
He said there are more 'people' inside, some with furry body like a dog, standing on two legs, some storage area for the books, and a chest which can't be opened.
We observed the shack for a while, and after the lady boss went outside with two other staffs, we knew this is our moment to sneak inside.

(to continue later if I got chance to write more, now time to mov\_\_ <there's ink blotch stretched from the word 'mov' as it seemed it was stopped in a hurry>

### The Book of the Raven

*Written by Aul*

- With the party charging inside the house, the clerks seemingly ready for the ambush, activated the magic carpet and a gingwatzim that’s held by none other than Sigrid.

- The battle’s tough, but the party managed to subdue them, sadly letting one ran away.

- They collected both of the chests that Aul found. One can be opened, contained 5 original books. The other, was turned small by Forscher.

- They then debated on burning the library of fake books but then decided not to, in fear of the fire spreading to nearby settlements.

- They quickly depart to meet with Yashenti. They also brought one of the clerks to interrogate, easily passing the gate by disguising him as an unconscious drunk.

- Reaching Wytchway, Yashenti opened the other chest, which contains a bottled heart, Lamia’s, Zev claimed.

- The group through *peaceful* talks, found that the store clerks and manager were working their ass off to revive their master. The heart was their master’s remain.

- Successfully making the prisoner pissed himself, the party then slept peacefully until the sun’s risen, which then they’re woken up by the arrival of Korvala, the manager, with the rest of the store clerks.

- The party then offered a recommendation to work in Candlekeep and the jar, in exchange of stopping their business.