Dormian Mysteries Game 1

The group gathers at Candlekeep and searches for Matreous.

Recap

• It's early springtime, maybe year 521 * 8 years after the conclusion of the prev campaign
• The weather is decently warm, sunny, starting to warm up just coming out of winter
• Raphy is waiting for everyone to meet up with him
• Raphy and Stefon OOC discuss their relationship, how they know each other
• House of Rest * Inn, The Hearth * Tavern
• Raphy and Stefon are sitting together sharing some wine, waiting for the rest of the crew
• Click approaches Candlekeep * massive walls surround the gigantic library. Can't see all of it but can see the large keep in the center, "Exaltation"
• Waiting outside the large front walls is a small line of people
• There are 2 massive doors, one is slightly ajar
• Click waits in line for 30 min
• Asked to come in by a female dragonborn, asked for payment (one book that Candlekeep doesn't already have)
• Orders: no fighting, no stealing, no copying of existing work (can copy at the huose of the binder), no damaging or marking the books
• Click Clack reluctantly agrees, has to sign the paperwork and just writes a squiggle
• CC walks into the Court of Air (large expanse of courtyard with cobblestone ground, buildings line the walls, further beyond there is another large wall.. green glowing Emerald Doors.)
• Lyn arrives after CC, traveled from a nearby village
• Lyn is greeted by the same female dragonborn
• Lyn's payment: handwritten zine about refinishing antique furniture
• Click Clack approaches Raphy and Stefon, greets them and learns Stefon's name
• They all drink white wine until Lyn joins them
• Stefon asks why Raphy has gathered them all here
• As Raphy was traveling around, he stumbled upon a town a couple of days outside of Candlekeep known for its grapes
• The Town of Stafyli
• Raphy discovered the town was cursed * the crops were all withered, the remaining livestock were standing like sticks out in the fields
• Stefon knows of Stafyli * it is one of the vineyards that he frequents. He hasn't heard of the curse
• There's a known curse expert who resides in Candlekeep
• Stefon is drawing scribbles on a notebook as the group catches up on the details
• Stefon rolls a CHA check * he knows the person! Matreous. He is not an "Avowed" of Candlekeep but he does come here very often. Stefon hasn't seem him for a while. He's def in CK right now. One of the Avowed might know...
• Stefon is going to find an Avowed. Dwarven man named Falthrax
• Stefon ends up coming back to the Hearth (where we're all hanging out) to look for Falthrax after looking everywhere else.
• Falthrax is with a half*orc named Mitor Jans (was training to become an Avowed but became a ship captain instead)
• Falthrax hasn't seen Matreus in a while. He came to CK a few days ago and his normal room wasn't available so they put him up in a different room. He was real excited about something...
• "He was doing research for something?"
• "Yeah * I didn't attend to him, somebod else did. I heard he took a specific book out. The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces or something like that. He took the book out, went back to his room, and we haven't heard from him since."
• As Stefon turns to leave, he passes a Giant Ogre * a regular. He has his own custom seat, a big boy seat. He is holding a regular sized book in his very large hands.
• What Stefon does: "I raffic in information * I work for Trabem, I have a few superiors in Trabem various conjurers and evokers the wizardry type, I shuttle information back and forth, I do a lot of research."
• Falthrax joins us outside * upon seeing CC mentions Crinkle, another Kenku that lives/works here. CC is excited, nods enthusiastically about arranging a meetup
• Almost all of the rooms in CK have a permanent silence spell cast on them, for studying
• Falthrax takes us to Matreus's room * knocks, nobody answers. They enter and Matreus isn't there, but the Extradimensional book is on his desk. The book was written by a wizard named Fistandia
• Stefon recognizes the man on the cover of the book as famous wizard Mordencainen
• Raph investigates the room for signs of recent presence * seems like he was there recently..
• Stef: what page was the book open to?
• The page has a bunch of handwritten notes in the margins, written in Common ... about opening a portal to an extradimensional space. Fistandia was able to do so and the command word was "Sceptre".
• Stefon says the word * a large shimmering double door appears, they look like they're going to slowly fade out
• Stef goes through the portal, Click Clack follows quickly after. Raphy and Lyn follow
• We come through the portal into a carpeted hallway, glowing purple. Matreus is here, dressed plainly, holding a small figurine
• Matreus is afraid the portal is going to close again permanently. He can keep the portal open while we explore the mansion.
• Whatever we find we show to him, and he'll help us with the curse in return
• Raphy says extradimensional spaces are never very large, so it shouldn't take long to explore
• But as Matreus leaves, the doors slam shut and he probably dies (:
• Stefon and Click Clack poke around the area, while Raphy bangs on the door
• Lyn pokes into an ajar door, revealing another room. There's a fluffy black cat inside! Along with lots of books.
• Clack and Lyn draw the cat near, it likes Clack, Clack picks it up
• Inside the room, paintings and books: Portait of a unicorn in a wooded glade, pegasus in flight, landscape with a large green dragon emerging from a grove of pine trees
• There are a LOT of books here.. Stefon begins investigating, Clack helps.
• Lyn lifts the unicorn painting off the wall! Looks at the wall behind it, investigating. Looks normal, nothing hidden.
• She tries the other two. They are the same.
• Stefon and Clack determine that the majority of the books were written by Fistandia herself. Most of them are her memoirs. Fistandia was a powerful mage and priest and she frequented CK to study. Through her priestly duties out in the world, she was granted by her diety this permanent ED space. This space only works in a certain room in CK. Ever the nice lady, Fistandia was worried people would gain entrance and not be able to get out, so she hid the command word on the spines of 7 books in her mansion. Clack finds a book with the letter "i" on the spine in gold