The party sat around the dwindling fire, each lost to their thoughts, the blue flames flickering across pained faces.
Franz spoke first, his low rumble, “So, what do we do? I’ve no idea how to fight this thing.”
“Fire. Fire kills all”, squeaked J’pal in return.
Franz looked down, “Turi tried fire, he cast fireball, still got eaten. Fire isn’t it.”
Silence fell once again, each thinking over the problem.
“Sunlight? Moonlight?” Darr offered, “Maybe it’s vulnerable at a certain time of year? Or in a certain location? I’m grasping at twigs here.”
“How do we find out?” Franz aske, looking around at the party.
It was Beh’as who spoke up, his dark gnomish skin barely visible in the gloom, “I know a place. Or at least I’ve heard of a place. Deep underground, ‘cross the glimmer. They’ll have answers…”
The Library of The Hunt
Deep in the Underdark, across The Glimmersea, halfway up the spiraled city of Quartzel, lies The Library of The Hunt. A wide, squat building of dark stone, it clings to the side of the giant stalactite that forms the core of Quartzel. It’s floor traffic is small, a somewhat quiet area amidst the hurly-burly of the wider city. It is manned by a roving team of Sahaugin and Kuo-toa, each bringing their deep hatred for other species to bear in the scrolls and books of the library.
The library is dominated by a large stained glass window across one wall, looking out over the Glimmersea. The glass depicts a scene of unimaginable carnage, with Kuo-toa and Sahaugin slaughtering a sea of creature, from owlbears to mimics, from gelatinous cubes to dragon. All of your players will see a representation of themselves in the stained glass.
The shelves are organized by species, with a decided focus on the skills, abilities, weaknesses and methods of as many species as possible. There are treatise on the methods of mind-flayer control, and how to break it, there are fold-out diagrams of Kindori anatomy, with highlighted sections of weak-spots and vulnerabilities. There is a whole wing of mortal sentient races, how to neuter a Dragonborn’s breath weapons, how to slow a Tabaxi, how-to guide to impersonating a human merchant. If death and destruction is your aim, this is where you come to study.
The librarians, are always happy and willing to guide adventurers and monsters to their needed research, but usually at a cost. Some may ask for gold, but more than likely, they will ask for more information for the library - a book from the party, the story of a recent kill, or maybe even a quest to hunt and kill a monster, as long as the party takes a scribe with them…
The head librarian, a kuo-toa by the name of Glurpla, will approach all players that enter. His manner is dismissive and rude, almost to the point of insulting, but will happily help them with any thing they need, pointing them towards books and scrolls of their need. Players can search themselves, but many of the scrolls or written in lost and esoteric languages, they will likely need help.
Glurpa will reluctantly take payment for access, but really, he want’s the players to help him kill a Froghemoth that lurks in the tunnels that pepper the stalagmite of Quartzel. If they accept the job, he will accompany them and note all details of the hunt and kill, even going as far as to ask the party to dissect the beast for his study.
Happy new year kids! Welcome to 2024! One year closer to our inevitable demise at the hands of AI-powered influencers!
I’m back with a little location for your game - The Library of the Hunt! I usualyl try to bring things that you can drop into your game, but this one is a little different. Born out of a game I’m running (shoutout the Relay Discord), the part needed to find a way to break mindflayer control, just as they discover a way into the underdark - and so the nub of an idea formed, where would the various monsters and bad guys go to learn about their prey? Where would sentient but non-player races share knowledge when they can’t walk the streets of Neverwinter?
But what would such a place trade in? Making it just gold seemed like a wasted opportunity, so what else?
Knowledge. For a place for sharing knowledge, they would want more. And so some foolhardy mortals that traverse the underdark are the perfect vessel for this. If they perish on the hunt, nothing lost, if they don’t then the library grows it’s collection.
If your players need some information, let them know this place exists, see how much they want to risk for that knowledge, how far they will travel, a brilliant way to introduce the Underdark as a realm to them
And 2024 Issue 1 done! See you all next week!