Back to the Library

We bought some armor & got Mel cured of her disease. We found Augrael reading some books he had pulled from the Library. He again offered to help us, should we need assistance. We found a smell from nearby was piles of dead Ghouls that Augrael had left on some steps. We asked him to put them in the nearby Haunt (Eye) room. He agreed & started moving the Ghoul corpses. We headed into the Library to continue exploring. Rosa reminded us that we should try to find the name of that Ghost lady & see if she had been laid to rest since we dealt with her remains. We loo0ked about but could not find her name. Griska turned to her, asking for her name. She told him in an irritated manner. We then headed for the next door, finding a "Repair Room" with several magic scrolls. The next door was labeled "Belcorra's Office". We cautiously checked for traps and moved carefully into the room. The first room was a small antechamber with a single desk & several book shelves. Several cracked mirrors were also on the walls. We spent some time investigating the mirrors, finding nothing special. Mel picked a lock into a further room. Inside this room we found a small fairy looking creature trying to balance book that was too large for it. Sprite recognized it as a Lurker in Light. Mel called out a "Hello there". At which point it reacted in a hostile manner. We quickly closed to try to squash it! We were definitely not on form though, taking a long time to defeat this one creature. After we, eventually, defeated it we found that the room held many books. Some looked to be of interest to Morlibint so we took them along. Of through another door we found stairs leading down. We turned back to continue exploring this level. Off in the other direction we found a surprisingly clean washroom. We headed back into the Library proper. We opened a door labeled "North Wing". We headed down the tunnel beyond it. Inside this room we found a sculpture of a sprawling city on a table. We also saw a wooden creature in the shape of Belcorra. Sprite was able to identify it as a "Tree Creature". Rosa felt it was more likely a Wood Golem. At first this creature seemed not too bad, then it started laying into us, dropping multiple heroes before we decided to retreat. We got away and headed back to town.
The next day we asked around about what anyone knew about Wood Golems. Unfortunately, it seems that noone in Otari knew much about Golems. We bought some Alchemist Fire & Griska got himself a really big axe. Heading back in we again struggled to defeat the Golem, but eventually emerged victorious! Looking at the table with the city on the table Griska was able to tell that the damage seemed to match all the damage the city of Absalom had sustained from sieges up until about 500 years ago. This was about the same time that Otari's group defeated Belcorra & founded the nearby settlement, naming it after Otari, since he had fallen in the fight. The books in the room contained information on siege warfare. Annotations in the books taken as a whole told a tale of what went wrong with previous sieges so they could make a better plan to lay siege to Absalom. We decided to collect the books for Morlibint & continue exploring. The next door along opened onto a rough hewn area that seemed as if they were trying to expand the complex. Rosa detected that a pick in the room was magical. We collected it & continued on to the next room. In this room we found a cold forge with mounds of ash. As we explored the room 2 fire spirits leapt out from the forge, attacking! We spent some time trying to fight them before eventually falling back out of the room. Rosa was able to use Ray of Frost cantrips to disable the forge by breaking it. We moved back and found a magic ring in the forge. Rosa then spent some more time, destroying the forge. We felt a cleansing pass over us & the room immediately cooled to a normal temperature.
As this was a dead end we moved back to the main Library. We entered a door labeled "Restricted Collection". Inside here we found a group of Ghouls working to repair things. They backed away from us. One of them spoke in common, asking if we had "Come to speak with the High Priestess Nhakazarin". Mel asked what God the Priestess worshipped. She felt we should speak with the High Priestess ourselves if we had questions like this. It was apparent to everyone, except Rosa, that she was intending to lead us into a trap & kill us. We attacked, killing them all. Afterward we found more books. These ones we decided to keep and see if the Dawnflower Library would want to house but let us still use. We set them aside while we continued to explore. Opening one of the 4 doors off this room we found another couple of Ghouls debating the proper time to allow flesh to ripen before eating it. They exclaimed in delight and leapt to attack when Griska opened the door. Griska finally figured out how to use his new pick, nearly killing one by himself. Mel rolled in to finish off that one and then start in on the next one. However, then Rosa stepped up and sent a truly inspired blast of electricity into the last one's face, killing it in one shot! Searching about we found a secret door. We rested and healed up, before investigating.