by: Sky
Heroes of the Realms,
I write to you today to bring your attention to the reopening and recreation of the Great Library of Faerie. I shall keep my accounting formal, in such a way as to convey the information of what occurred there. For those who do not know, the Library is a place of history, of wonder, and of stories. Rather than books, as a mortal library would have, the Library of Faerie is filled with flowers. Each flower has a unique scent, and when watered by the adventures, would pull us into the story to witness it firsthand. Within the library were thirteen flowers, of which we had time to experience the stories of six. These stories spoke of meaningful moments throughout history. Some were meaningful to Faerie, some to the History of the Realms, and some more… personal.
((OOC: there is an ink blotch there, as Raindrop’s handwriting gets less precise and careful))
We could smell the flowers to discover the tune of the story within. The first flower we entered was one of conflict. Some of, perhaps, the darker parts of faerie. Abducted mortals and lesser fae danced to the tune of nobility, killing each other in a gruesome display of violence. This went on for some time, until Sir Tara, done with the ceaseless bloodshed, took her fae blade and slew the nobility, spilling their blood upon the ground in a display of wrath, piercing their protections. The illusion of the story shattered, and many of us were left with our wounds. We took time, then, to rally. To account for the dead. The vision conjured up some deep emotions for some of us, which are personal, and I will not speak of them here. What I will speak of is the learning that within each story, something was wrong. One of the tasks that the librarbeeans of the library tasked us with was finding the anomaly, so that we could untangle the flowers. With that, we had our goal for the day.
The second flower took us to a conflict between hags and bees, watched on by a queen who prized beauty above all else. She sought her daughter, Princess Muffin, who had run off with one of the hags. The nobility looked on as the bees and hags fought for control over land and flowers. It was… for lack of a better term… a blood bath. Eventually we identified the anomaly, a Risen Kingdoms soldier who had wandered in, and identified the end of the story, the Queen’s crown getting stolen, and then traded back by the bees for the construction of a great library. The illusion faded, and we found ourselves back in the Library, our wounds gone and some of our magics restored.
The third flower took us to an ethereal battleground. I admit, I was the anomaly here, so I understood less of what was happening, but as I played the role of a… storyteller… I was invested in learning of the story so that I could tell it. So I will recount what I had learned. A summoner of some significant strength, mourning the loss of their friends, attempted to conjure them back to the mortal realms. They tore a rift between realms, calling forth ghosts, but not the ghosts of their friends. I believe they also may have been responsible for the reanimation of Tibia? Magical Entities flooded out of the tear, locked in conflict, trying to heal the wounds in the realm. At no point was the summoner able to call back their loved ones. Through the Grace of the Duke of Knowledge, whose identity we still know not, I was able to recognize that this story wasn’t real, and push a bit harder to seem off, where I was identified by a group of three other adventurers, including Princess Cressida.
I admit to dealing with some personal matters after this flower, and know not the discussions which happened, but I know that following this we were drawn into a story of cultists following the rune Midoru, which should be lost. I was the leader of the cult, the so called Lord of Curses, as he prepared people to be sacrificed under the care of his lieutenants and second in command. At the end, using a spell I will not write down, but made use of the curse rune, the Lord of Curses ritually sacrificed a person, ending the story. It seemed as though this anomaly was a Mayflower from a ball.
The fifth story… was a trip into a village. There, a fae named… ((OOC: ink spills onto the page. There’s a break. The text below is in a different handwriting))
The fifth flower we chose to go into brought us to Storm Village, within Fae. It was a peaceful place at first, though we did experience the incursion of a single Tergum Vir which wasn't meant to be there. For those who were lucky enough to miss the Bedlam War, know that the Tergum Vir could cause you to be consumed by the darkness with a touch. Unexpected as it was and in a crowd of those unfamiliar with it, it was able to consume many before a great deal of magic was expended to remove it from the story.
From there, I was admittedly experiencing a growing anxiety. Raindrop had warned me before we entered this flower about what the memory within likely referred to and I have some familiarity of my own with what it means to be in an unsuspecting village in the First Age with a massing army in the forest beyond. Oberon's betrayal was at the gate and my anxiety was a living thing rapidly exiting my control.
Another interesting note were the constructs present, creations of the Inventor Gwydion. they were part of the defenses of the village. Unbeknownst to me, a drama was playing out behind me while I attempted to get my fear back under control. One of our number in the part of Raindrop's previous cycle, Crispin, had returned from scouting beyond the bounds of the village. They were telling others about what they had seen, about the blades of Wayland and the Darkness. Among those was another fae in the village, an individual named Siward. From what I recall, they were a storyteller and I will leave their connection to Raindrop for them to tell, should they wish to.
Beyond the village, the goblins continued to mass and soon broke through. Those of us who could defend ourselves took our positions to defend those behind us. Praise be to the Dukes and Duchesses, this was only an early attack and not when with the dread blades in hand, though none of us knew it. The only thing in my mind was that defense but I have been told that Siward was crafting them in clay to put in Harkel to ensure our survival. Between that and sheer desperation, we did stand, though we knew as we exited that flower that Storm Village would fall to another, future attack. I hope this helped and that this covered all the important things. Apologies for anything left unclear.
-Sir Tara
((The text returns to the original handwriting))
I’m sorry for that. I asked for help to pen the fifth flower, but I will resume the sixth. In the final flower, we ventured back into the tale of the Book of Moons. There, we explored four different stories, where adventurers ventured to repair the book and use it to delve to another realm, where we encountered the story of a Dislumina consuming the sun. I am not sure exactly what happened to end it, but with the end of that story, our time in the library came to an end, with many stories still remaining to be explored. I do hope that we can return someday, and see the remaining stories.
It is worth noting that one of the flowers had been wilted and had been corrupted by the story of bedlam that it contained. Cimone and Rekees seanced the Duchess Ophelia to ask for her advice, and she said that sometimes the best thing that can be done is wish something a better life in the next cycle. I lent them my fae blade, which was used to send the flower to its next cycle.
May this be useful, to those who read it,
Dame Raindrop Storm
With guest writing from Sir Tara Harkon
((OOC: Sky here! This was a fantastic event with references and stories of several backstories, stories of realms history, and delightful roleplaying. Eric is an excellent storyteller, and I look forward to seeing if he has plans to run another library event in the future. If he does, I cannot recommend it highly enough.))
