Scriptorium

You find yourself in a vaulted stone chamber.  A tapestry hangs on the far wall, while shelves line the side walls.  Some of the shelves are stocked with bottles of various inks and boxes filled with quills.  Other shelves are filled with books and scrolls.  Perusing the books, you find that half of them are blank.  Most of the books with writing in them have notes on where they were acquired.

One small section of written-in books is set apart from the rest and the writing in them exhibits the same hand.  They seem to tell stories about someone known only as “the Fox of the North.”  Glancing over at one of the four tables in the room, you notice that the manuscript lying on the table is open to a passage mentioning the Fox of the North.  Moving over to look more intently at the manuscript, you notice the same hand that wrote the collections of stories has written notes in the margins of this manuscript.  Sticking out from underneath the manuscript is an annotated copy of a map you saw on one of the shelves.

As you head back to the shelves to investigate the books more thoroughly, you are intrigued to discover that of the other three tables, one is covered with tools for illuminating manuscripts, one has a stand and a lamp on it to facilitate reading, and one has an inkwell, quill, and a stack of paper on it.

Before you can peruse the shelves, the story desk, the illumination desk, the reading desk, or the writing desk, Direlda enters laden with a stack of books.  He sets them down next to a shelf that still has some space on it.

“I’m sorry this isn’t the most organized.  It may take you a while before you can actually find something in here,” Direlda says as he starts putting books on the shelf.  “The story desk and the illumination desk are in good shape, though!”