Ornate Book

## Description

*A gold-gilded book. It seems normal, but when one tries to pull it open, it won't budge.*

*Also known as **Caveo**, written by Anthony Carver.*

## Quest Chain

While exploring the dungeon, Taesong Jun and their party - Niles Bazarov and Capella - discover what seems to be a *library*, nestled deep within the confines of the winding labyrinth.

Taesong obtains a book. It has a cover embellished with gold leaf... unnecessarily ornate. It looks old. When they try to open the book, it won't budge. The cover is made from black leather - it is meticulously bound. But even if they try to force it open, the cover stays stubbornly shut. Is it glued closed? Perhaps it is some sort of *magic*. The cover has an intricate design, covered in flourishes and well-sighted drawings of leaves using golden ink.

Then again, perhaps some things are meant to stay shut?

### Taesong and Aelia; November 16, 2016

Taesong Jun meets Aelia Lynn-Albrecht at the greenhouse in the rain. He shows her the book, but she seems to have no knowledge of what it might be. She *does*, however, suggest that he check the graduate-restricted shelves of the library for any books that look similar.

If Song goes to the library's basement floor, he might find a book with a similar cover tucked into the back corner of the graduate-restricted shelves. But if he checks it out or opens it, it'll be blank, save for the title page and afterword, where the author thanks his beautiful wife. The entire similar book is blank, save for the afterword and title page - on the title page are the words *Analyzing the Iliad* -- and the afterword is ten pages of many, many, sources - mostly academic. It looks quite dry. Maybe it's for the better that the pages are blank.

Aelia, instead, offers to show him the counter from which he can request books from in the basement. Perhaps he'll find something useful there?

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £0

### Taesong and Niles; November 29, 2016

Taesong Jun speaks with Niles Bazarov about his book - and also takes a second look at *Analyzing the Iliad*, frustrated over its blank pages. He also reveals that he asked Eon Horloge to examine the contents using clairvoyance - an endeavor that garnered little result.

It seems as if he's hit a wall.
A month later, he receives a letter and a package from the library, in neat printed handwriting, sealed with the official gold seal of the school. It looks very official. If he opens it, the contents are a far level less formal.

> *To Taesong Jun,*
>
>

it reads.

> *It seems that your book shares an author with another book in the library - **Analyzing the Iliad**. There was a record in the old archives that the author himself stored **Analyzing the Iliad** in the restricted section of the library no less then seventy-nine years ago! Isn't that something? In his donation, he wrote to "please pass this book on" should someone ever arrive at the library asking about his second book - **Caveo**, he called it. It would seem that this second book matches the one in your possession.*
>
>

> *It doesn't have a very inviting title, if you ask me, **Caveo**. Latin for **beware**! Mr. Carver was hardly one for subtlety. Or humor. Either way, it seems he was a strange individual. Given the chance, I think you should do a bit of research on his life as an author! As a hint: he really didn't have one. These were the only two books he wrote. Strange, isn't it?*
>
>

> *As per his wishes, I've arranged with the school to transfer the ownership of **Analyzing the Iliad** to you. It belongs to you, now! Though, I must tell you, I've checked the contents thoroughly and found that there really isn't anything in it. It's blank! Perhaps this is his idea of some joke. It really is quite odd! Perhaps the book has magical properties of some kind? Even **Analyzing the Iliad** has this strange presence to it. It seems arcane. Perhaps you can ask someone with knowledge of ential magic?*
>
>

> **DO** *be careful, though. It would hardly do for you to burn the kitchens down, too!*
>
>

> *Sincerely,*
>
>

The attached parcel contains the copy of *Analyzing the Iliad*from the restricted section of the library.

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £3

### Taesong and Aelia; January 3, 2017

Taesong shows Aelia their letter from the counter librarian. Upon reading it, she recommends that they proceeds with caution - if it was sealed, perhaps it was sealed for a reason! But she also recommends to research this *Mr. Carver*: after all, simply researching a person can't hurt anyone, right?

Following Aelia's suggestion, Taesong requests the following information from the counter librarian:

* Biographical information on Mr. Carver
* References and citations to Mr. Carver or his works
* Records of past donations made by Mr. Carver to the school.

The counter librarian seems to be quite busy, recently. As expected of a school, plenty of students seem to require help finding research material - and for pursuits far more... *academic*. But she humors Taesong anyways: she hands them a small key.

"Since you're a graduate, I can lend this to you. Don't lose it!" *She gives Taesong a look: after all, she's still a little worried that they'll go burning something down.*

*"*I've already checked for biographical information on an author named *Anthony Carver*. But he doesn't seem to be an avid author. As I've told you before, I could only find these two books that he's written. But If you'd like, sweetheart, you can go downstairs and check the archives to see if there are any old records on his donation in the Labyrinth. It's on shelf ALX556 - the third flight of stairs. Be careful down there!"

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £N/A

*You can use (!investigate ornate\_book) to view a prompt. Please use this command when Taesong has reached the top of the labyrinth staircase on the basement floor of the library.*

*They'll need a source of light if they're venturing into the labyrinth. If they'd like to rent a lantern, please purchase one from the Shop - otherwise, they'll want to bring a source of light with them.*

### Taesong, Cade, Damiel, and Niles; January 12, 2017

Taesong enters the Archive from the Labyrinth staircase, and notices that they recognize the starry sky - haven't they been here before? ... then again, it's likely that the area they accessed was one of the deeper, more dangerous parts of the archives. What was *Caveo* doing down there? Is it really that special?

After a bit of bookshelf chasing, they come across ALX556, a rickety wooden bookshelf locked in a glass case. Using the key they've procured from the librarian, they find a stack of donation records. Anthony Carver's record is a willowy single sheet of paper, written in weathered black ink.

He seemed to have been an alumnus. His name is likely in the yearbooks, somewhere. Also... he left a strange request, when submitting the books: *"Should anyone come across Caveo, please offer them Analyzing the Iliad... and please tell them to burn it. Burn both of them."*
What a strange request. It seems obvious that the librarian has noted the second part of the request as a little bit *unbalanced*. Judging from the fact that you've gotten your hands on both books, it's obvious his request wasn't honored in full.

Thinking that Carver’s request is a hoax, Song ignores his request entirely.

Song returns the small key to the counter librarian *much to her surprise*, and requests to look through the yearbooks for when Carver was enrolled in Concordia. She adjusts her glasses and gives Song a bit of a strange look: after all, at this point, their investigation of *Caveo* starts to seem a bit obsessive. But happy to comply, she thumbs through the book registry, reaching over to pat them on the arm.

*"You're very fond of that book, aren't you?"* she'll ask Song, a bit rhetorically. *"I want to say that it's Pandora's box, but you students all seem to be the same. Even when I tell you to tread carefully, you seem only all the more interested!"* She places a small envelope of paper in Song's hand - inside it is a small key.

*"Here. The key for the student records section of the Archive... Perhaps that's the nature of human beings, always seeking out danger. But I'm awfully sure the yearbooks won't hurt you. Look away! I haven't a clue what year he was matriculated in, though. Good luck... and don't lose that key!"*

*Good luck*, she says - and a bit unhelpfully, one might add. Good luck. Good luck, combing through thousands and thousands of student records - shit, wasn't this school founded in *1563*? How many hundreds of years is that? If Song returns to the Archives, they'll be very dismayed to realize that the student records span thousands of years, sprawling down into a spiral-staircase-lined abyss. There's got to be a better way to do this. Why wasn't the year of donation on Carver's donation record?

There's got to be a way to find the year Carver was a student at Concordia, right?

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £10

*You'll need to roleplay Song deciding upon a better way to figure out the years Anthony Carver was matriculated as a student at Concordia. When you've done so, submit a log to the Update Spreadsheet for your next prompt.*

### Taesong and Eon; January 18, 2017

Taesong asks Eon Horloge to take a second look at *Caveo*, for information in the past rather than the future, this time. Eon explains that his visions of the past are simply a draw of luck, and that it's not an ability that he controls. Song asks him to do his best regardless, a sentiment that Eon concedes to quite graciously. Upon touching the book, he receives a frightening vision - though he isn't certain whether this vision comes from the past or the future.

*Is this the past? The future? Or perhaps just a fluke? ... Or maybe this is simply what Florida looks like, after the slugs have built their metropolis there?*
*He sees Song, too, dropping the book on their foot at an unprescribed later date. Sucks to suck.*

Eon warns Taesong that perhaps either something really terrible happened or *will* happen: what else is one supposed to think, when they've seen a vision of a frightening beast? Eon feels a little bit confused though - after all, his first attempt at viewing the book's past or future saw only empty pages. What's going on? Upon request, he touches the book again, and receives a second vision.

*And Song, standing upon a hill, their hand clasped in someone else's:*
*~~.... The end of an otome game?~~*

Puzzled, Eon offers to help Song pursue information about the book - but not without warning them about possible danger, first. With Eon’s help, Taesong receives the idea to check the dates of the source citations in Analyzing the Iliad to estimate when it was written. Eon also suggests to compare the appearance of this book and *Caveo* with other books in the library to get an age estimate.

 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £3

Though there are citations in Analyzing the Iliad, many of them seem to be classical texts, written thousands of years ago: Song doubts that these citations will be of much help, especially when the book is blank and will provide no context for them. The most recent of these citations seems to put the book, at the very least, after the year *1603*. A three hundred and sixty-two years worth of yearbooks seems like too large a job to take on alone! It's certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Song can choose to either narrow down this timeframe by searching in the library for books with similar appearances, or look through all three and a half centuries worth of yearbooks.

**Should Song choose to narrow down their timeframe by searching for similar books:**

* Please turn in a log of Song searching the library for books with similar appearances.
* They'll find twelve books that seem to have covers of similar material and wear. They're likely in completely different sections.
* This option will only require one roleplay.
* They're searching the entire public library (which is quite massive)! It's likely that Song will only find a fraction of the books that do actually match this description.
* Song won't be finding a book every turn - please intersperse posts of finding books with simply searching the library.

**Should Song choose to search through all the yearbooks instead:**

* Unfortunately, this can't be done in a single sitting: Concordia matriculates a good number of students, and nobody knows Anthony Carver's face. And although there are some records from the year 1603, they're incredibly old*,* lack pictures, and easily damaged. You'll need to be more careful with the older yearbooks!
* This will require six sittings. Optionally, if each roleplay is done with a different unique character, it can be completed in four sittings instead (i.e.: can't roleplay with the same character twice).
* If you'd like flavor text during your search, if Thumper is free, you can ping for a couple of prompts during your roleplays (though these are simply for a bit of spice to enhance the roleplay, and aren't necessarily related to your quest).
* When you've finished all sittings, you can turn your logs in to receive another prompt.

### Taesong, Cade, Charlie, Damiel, Eon, Niles, and Rabbit; January 29-31, 2017

Song decided to dive straight into the yearbooks. An ad was posted in the dormitory common rooms, offering a modest monetary reward for any students willing to help sift through yearbooks. Slowly but methodically, Taesong managed to comb through the three hundred years worth of yearbooks to be checked- with some considerable help from their peers. Among the students Song employed to assist were Cade Moriarty, Charlie Truman, Damiel Lye, Eon Horloge, Niles Bazarov, and Rabbit.

### Taesong and Basil, January 31, 2017

In the library reaching the last leg of the yearbooks to be checked, Song mistakes Basil Merille (who has a terrible headache) as one of the students responding to their advertisement posting. Song grows a botanical remedy for the headache using Feverfew Seeds, and Basil decides to assist Song with his yearbook research. While they glance through the school records, they *both* find something intriguing.

*And then, out of the blue, a name pops out of the woodwork: a photo of the* Par Pactum Experiments *club is printed neatly in the top-left corner of a page. Its participants are staged in chairs, positioned primly in perfect seated positions. At the front of the photo is their instructor: a man with a twinkling eye and robes as far down as his feet, captioned **The Marvelous Magician Mister MYRTLE Mount Moon MERRYWEATHER**. Basil finds him...* familiar*.*
*But more importantly to Song maybe, is the name* ANTHONY CARVER *in the middle of the list. Further inspection shows that he sits on the left side of the photograph of eight students, with a large, ornate book in his hands.*
*Anthony is a mousy, small-statured boy in this picture: his hair is unkempt, and he wears thick glasses frames that all but obscure his face. Unlike his better-natured peers, he is unsmiling. In this picture, his hands are tightly gripped around what Taesong realizes must be Caveo. If Song scrutinizes the photograph any longer, they realize too that the background seems... familiar.*
*One of the chemistry labs? A science classroom? Regardless of what it is, Song knows they've been there, even if the furniture has been long changed.*

Basil recognizes Professor Merryweather... *Why?*. And Song recognizes ***Caveo***, held by Anthony Carver, who sits in the center of the photograph. Both of them, suddenly desperate for more information, attempt to find the classroom from the minute clues they can discern from the yearbook picture. During their search, they enter one of the science classrooms. A young girl - Elwen Harrison - greets them shyly, asking if they require any assistance. Taesong shows her the picture, and she mentions helpfully that the *Par Pactum Experiments* club disbanded two years ago. However, she also mentions that the records still exist, and that she can provide them should Song need. Strangely, she also seems to know Taesong's name without their introduction.

She mentions that the records are in her dormitory room, and that there are also copies of the club records in Professor Merryweather's office. She also reveals that until the club's disbandment two years ago, she acted as club president.

Basil's expression darkens at the mention of Professor Merryweather having an *office* at the school: suddenly, he becomes very desperate for information. Seeing his face, Elwen offers to take the pair to Professor Merryweather's office. However, upon arriving, someone at the teacher's office tells her that someone had already come to collect his effects at the beginning of the semester. Regardless of the questions Song or Basil ask him, the man dismisses them on accounts of having a class to teach. He merely tells them that Professor Merryweather chose to stop teaching, and that the club records were school property and likely possessed upon his leave from the school.

Elwen seems very disordered upon the learning of this information, but she provides them a thick file of paper from her dormitory instead, supposedly a copy of the papers from Professor Merryweather's office. She asks for Song not to tell anyone that she has them, and for Song to be careful.

### Taesong and Niles; February 19th, 2017

Niles Bazarov obtains some of the truth serum-laced chocolate truffles being sold for Valentine's Day. Suspecting Elwen Harrison of keeping questionable secrets, he suggests that Taesong offer her one of them in order to elicit the truth about the Ornate Book from her. Elwen gives Taesong a Stuffed Pink Potted Flower for Valentine's Day. Niles convinces her to try just one of the truffles, something she hesitantly accepts.

Almost immediately, she begins to say some strange things:

* That Taesong has helped her in the past
* That she *really likes* Taesong (much to her dismay)
* That she doesn't want to talk about Myrtle Merryweather's files or the disbanding of the club
* That she indeed *does* know who Anthony Carver is, despite never having met him
* That she has an older brother named Adam Harrison, who was the previous club president of the Par Pactum Experiments club, and that the three of them (Professor Merryweather, Anthony, and Adam) were researching something frightening.

Horrified at her sudden lack of control, she begins to cry. Taesong apologizes for Niles tricking her, a notion she receives very badly. But Song convinces her to tell them more about Adam, telling her that they need to know if they're in danger because of *Caveo*, and she willingly complies.

...and now Adam's obsessed with finding Carver when everyone knows he's dead, he won't even come to school anymore- and now Professor Merryweather's gone, because he thought that would save him, but it didn't do anything at all...
...I don't know if Carver's books are dangerous. But I know the three of them were researching something... scary. Because Carver *disappeared*, and Adam got in trouble- and Professor Merryweather said it was his fault, so Adam wouldn't have to leave. But I haven't seen my brother in a whole year, even though he sent a letter, once...
...And Adam said Anthony wasn't dead-that he was just... missing. And now Adam's missing, too. I thought maybe, you'd figure something out. About where Adam went, or something, but... I shouldn't have given you the records. I thought about telling the school, too. But then whatever Professor Merryweather said would've been pointless. I just... don't know what I should do.

Song points out a crucial flaw in her story: that Anthony Carver was a student at Concordia nearly a century ago. Elwen admits that she never met Anthony even if Adam talked about him all the time: but apparently the older members of the club had known Anthony also. She also mentions that Professor Merryweather was well-renown for having lived longer than normally expected. Niles attempts to sense anything of the arcane nature surrounding Elwen and finds no presence, allowing him to deduce that she might be a magician student.

Taesong promises her to find out as much as they can about Adam's disappearance. Elwen gives him a pair of weathered notebooks, telling him that Adam left them on his desk. She tells them that she wasn't able to understand them. Though Song thinks that perhaps the reason for this is Elwen's lack of technical knowledge, they quickly realize that they've been notated in a language they've never seem before: perhaps a kind of code? A cipher?

It seems obvious that Elwen would have done at least general research on her brother's notebooks if they were in her possession for an entire year. Indeed: they hardly look especially legible, let alone in a translatable language.

Though Taesong has reviewed Professor Merryweather's notes from Elwen, they seemed to hold nothing of interest: only the dates of matriculation and affinities of the *Par Pactum Experiments* club's former members. The large file that she provided him also included some academic papers written by some of the member's students, including:

* *The Distance Of A Par Pactum And Related Effects On Empathetic Links*
* *Astral Projection*
* *Possession of the Permanent Pactum and the Uses of Electrical Manipulation*
* *Temporary Pactum And Their Practical Uses*

 All of the papers seem a little bit off their rocker, or perfectly pointless. None of the research members seem to have been named in the papers.

* 1835: Carver and Merryweather are seen in the photograph of the Par Pactum Experiments club.
 **Counter Librarian Cost:** £20: The counter librarian will likely be happy to assist you with finding resources, but she will not help you crack the cipher. Her job is purely academic, after all!

*When you've decided on one, place your next path of investigation on the Updates Sheet to receive a prompt. Remember that information not considered common knowledge or available to your character readily will likely require some information obtained IC. There are plenty of characters that seem to possess textbooks detailing the translation of certain runes or ancient, including Taesong themselves. Perhaps that's an acceptable starting point?... then again, Adam's notes look like a mess. In more ways than one.*