The Library has Changed

It’s a brisk Autumn day on the verge of Redfall in Calsonta. Arias, wearing a formal cape and a fancier dress and jewelry than usual, emerges from a small corner cafe near the library. She is accompanied by a nondescript man in a nondescript suit. The conversation they’ve just had appears to have been tense. The man gives her a stern nod, “Have a nice day, Lady Dreisari,” and disappears into the crowd.
 
“You as well,” she says in a dry tone. She stands by the street for a moment, glancing at the clock tower, trying to figure out what official she needs to talk to next, when one such official finds her.
 
“Arias! You’re here?” Arias turns around to see her good friend and ex girlfriend, Beth, dressed up in her formal High Priest of Ioun robes, rushing over to her.
 
“Beth! I thought you were back in Marstow.”
 
“And I thought you were in Idriell.”
Beth puts a hand on Arias’ arm and leans in close. “They sent me to investigate the disappearances. What the hell is happening in there?”
 
Arias glances around to see who’s noticed their conversation, then looks Beth in the eye and gestures to the library.
 
The two of them hurry over and into the cathedral-like building. They rush through the foyer, past a few… armed guards? Arias apologizes as some of the staff try to get her attention, and ignores as others of the staff whisper and gossip. Dewey notices the two going into an office and follows, calling for someone else to watch the main desk.
 
Inside the office, Beth stands up against a bookcase as Arias starts pacing. “You remember what I told you about Idriell’s Infinite Library?” Arias says.
 
“There’s a statue that resembles Ioun out front? It charms visitors and tries to keep them in there? Wraiths and porcelain people?” Beth says.
 
“Yes. And… about that special mission I could not go into detail on?”
 
Beth squints at her. “You haven’t shipped all those priests off to Idriell, have you?”
 
“No… a bit of Idriell has come here.”
 
The two of them turn their heads as Dewey enters, carrying a small bag. He nods at the two of them and grabs a seat. After a moment, Beth speaks up again. “Alright, what does that mean? A bit of Idriell has come here?”
 
Arias sighs, and continues to pace and gesticulate as she talks. “Back when The Library first heard about the library...” A pause. “Ah… hmm… Back when… The Owl first heard about the Idriellic library it started hatching a plan to, well, integrate the infinite library into itself.”
 
Beth looks at her wide-eyed. “It what?”
 
Arias makes the motion of putting books away. “It sent me with a series of books, demanding that I place them inside the infinite library, and, as best as I can tell, the two are merging.”
 
“That’s… how… Has it ever done anything like this before?”
 
“It has been very busy. I tried asking for more details but it’s not responding much. I don’t think it would even remember if it had done anything like this before. You know, before I started making an effort to connect with it, its perceptions of the world around it were vastly different from ours.”
 
Beth takes a moment to process this information. “Alright… so… your library… the, uh… The Owl is trying to integrate the Idriellic library? What’s happening? How does this work?”
 
“Well, some of my companions in Idriell, Caelam Zefer, Kitarel, Chris Hemsworth, Kaecil, a Tiefling paladin we hired, and I teleported to the Idriellic Library’s entrance and… it looks like a small Calstonan villa now. The Ioun statue has been replaced with a statue of The Owl. There were Gilnaith Drones out front, but they didn’t respond violently to us.”
 
“Wait, this is outside Gilnaith?”
 
“Yes, dozens of miles away. The city has apparently managed to expand its influence somehow. And The Owl has done something to make the Drones accept me as a citizen. So after talking to them, the library stairs opened to us, and rather than the old waiting room, there was now a wooden door,” she gestures to the door of this room, “opened by the keys in my pocket. This door led to the grand hall. Here, in this library.”
 
“Here? You’re telling me there is now a door in Idriell that leads directly to this building?”
 
“Yes, though I don’t think the stairway will open for just anyone. Part of why I’m here now is to discuss matters of security with the city. Anyway, when we looked around, we saw, well.. The owl,” she gestures wide with her arms and speaks to the ceiling, “who can now apparently physically manifest as an owl, visible to anyone,” she lowers her arms and resumes pacing, “we saw it fluttering up in the stacks and chased after it.
 
“With the help of Shuffle, we eventually found ourselves at a new door. The image of the Ioun Statue was engraved on it.” Arias gestures with her thumb and forefinger making a circle over her forehead. “The door required us all to weaken our mental resistances before entering. Luckily, the paladin we’d hired could protect us from the room’s influence.”
 
“Inside we found… ah….” Arias pauses her very energetic description of recent events. Dewey looks away and Beth leans in with anticipation.
 
“What? You found what?”
 
Arias sighs. “A small section of near-infinite library. A hallway. There were some odd creatures with six arms, and... Mikael Invorati (I don’t actually remember his last name.)"
 
Beth perks up. “You found Mikael!?” Her excitement quickly turns to worry when she sees the mournful look on Arias and Dewey’s faces.
 
“He wasn’t… he was… He was one of those porcelain people. With large pieces of his head missing. And he attacked us on sight. Viciously. With Fireballs.” She says that last bit with an added twinge of anger.
 
“He… his head? And he attacked you? Why would he attack you?”
 
“He wasn’t himself anymore. He was lost. Though the other porcelain people from before never seemed at all aggressive. I just don’t know… There was a swarm of Wights, as well.”
 
“Wights! Inside the library!?”
 
Arias nods. “We are looking into having guards stationed, but… as far as we can tell, they have never gone out into the library proper. The Owl has managed to keep things sectioned off. So… we had no choice but to fight back. Every hit that Mikael took, pieces chipped off of him, until… he.. Well.. shattered.”
 
The room grows silent. Beth rubs her eyes and shakes her head. “Great. Just… fucking great. So you’re telling me that all these missing priests may now be violent porcelain zombies?”
 
“I… hope they’re not all as far gone as Mikael. We still don’t know if recovering from this condition is possible, but I think the resources to do so may be on Idriell. But… finding more of these rooms has not been easy, and we need adequate preparations to go inside. Even with some of the most skilled people from Vareholm, the six-armed alien creatures nearly defeated us.”
 
Beth looks up, brow furled. “Six armed alien creatures?”
 
“Yes… Tall humanoids. When we arrived, one of them appeared to be attempting to question Mikael? I’m not sure if they are responsible for his condition, or if that’s just a feature of the Idriellic library. After the fight, and after they sent some Invisible Stalkers after us, we chased them to the end of the hallway.
 
“Once we had them pinned down, they proved themselves to be powerful spellcasters. Each had some sort of colorful disc to aid in their casting, and their multiple arms seemed to allow them to cast multiple spells at a time. We had immense difficulty with their ability to counterspell faster than we could cast anything. Luckily, when we could reach them to make attacks, they proved to be relatively weak. We slew one of them, and the others teleported away when things got too intense.
 
“In the end, we found what they had been searching for. A book with The Owl’s face on the cover, several magic gems embedded on it, and a directory of the library.” Dewey draws the book out of his back and goes over to Beth so she can have a look. “The room returned to a normal room, without the Charming effect, and we exited out directly to the Grand Hall.”
 
After a moment, Beth asks, “Is that it?”
 
“Essentially. That is what we were able to accomplish so far. We haven’t be able to locate any of the other doors yet.”
 
Beth is glaring at the floor now, processing everything. “So this… Idriellic library, which… is now contained by Your Library… seems to be preying upon Ioun’s priesthood.”
 
“Yes… as best we can tell. The only people that have gone missing are from the church. We’ve been trying to keep track of all attendance since it started”
 
“Have you considered shutting the place down?”
 
Arias looks at her with shock. “Shutting down? We can’t shut down!”
 
“It’s not safe, Arias.”
 
“Beth, it needs people! It needs interest and curiosity and learning! Conditions won’t improve if people stop visiting. It will starve! It will start losing the battle. For all we know, it might become hollow and dangerous, like the Idriellic library. And it will...have to take more from me.” She says that last bit with a distinct tone of fear in her voice.
 
Beth stares down Arias for a moment, then heaves a sigh and looks away. “Alright, fine. It needs to feed. But how are you going to protect people?”
 
Dewey pipes up now. “We’re talking with everyone. The church, the guard, the university. We have investigators from ‘The Spiders’ scouring the place. We’ve posted notices. There’s will be guards. The City is taking this situation very seriously. We’ve had to go a little more public with the overall nature of the place. I can share some of the plans with you if you like.”
 
“Alright,” Beth responds. “I should go report back with what you’ve gold me. I’ll come over later tonight to look over those plans.”
 
“Okay,” Dewey says. “I guess I’ll get back to business, then.” He nods to Arias and leaves the office.
 
Arias and Beth stand in awkward silence for a moment, not really looking at once another. Eventually, Beth starts towards the door, stopping just next to Arias. “Can you tell me, Arias. ‘The Owl’. Does it care that its experiment here has gotten people killed?”
 
Arias has to think a moment before responding to that. “I don’t know that it feels guilt or shame the way we do, but I can tell you that it very much enjoyed the company of Mikael, and of others that have gone missing. It would never have wanted this to happen to them.”
 
“Hmm…” Beth mumbles, and nods. She glances up at Arias and takes her hand, giving it a slight squeeze. “I guess I’ll see you later tonight.”
 
Arias gives her a smile, with Beth returns, very slightly, before heading on her way.