Dream Research of the Astronomers
The spell research notebooks from the Gemini room of the dungeon contain enough research for any sorceror to reconstruct the four dream spells of the Astronomers: Dreams, Sleep, Dream Omen, and Dreamwalk. The books have a mojo level of 15 for researching those spells. The spell descriptions can all be found in Arcane Lore at godsmonsters.com/Game/Lore.
The notes are also useful for researching other dream-oriented spells. They have a mojo level of 8 for dream spells in general.
Clock Design Notes of Abiram Forney
Master Astronomer Abiram Forney’s diary details the day-to-day construction of the clock, as well as his day-to-day consultations with the Dwarven builders. He also has a binder of notes planning the clock’s design and summarizing his original consultations with the Dwarves. Combined, the two books are worth 200 to 300 shillings, depending on the buyer. The diary alone is worth about 50 shillings; the plans about 100 shillings.
Diary of Abbot Jethroh Parthane
The Abbot’s diary is written in both Ancient and Anglish, depending on what the Abbot felt like. It concerns itself mostly with the bureaucratic aspects of running an order. The last entry, dated May 5 896, concerns a dispute between Captain Cambel and Lieutenant Courlander over how to defend the castle from the goblins. Another recent entry indicates that the harvest was extremely good this year. The diary also contains, about a year previous, the code word for “Abiram’s book case”. (The code word is “Ne Lucere”.)
Beyond that there isn’t much of interest in Parthane’s diary, although you are of course welcome to place any clues or foreshadowings you wish into the text.
Military Notes of Lieutenant Aaron Courlander
It is up to you how much information the lieutenant’s notes contain. One of the trivial things it contains are some of the names of the other members of the order, such as Captain Cambel, Abbot Parthane, and Master Astronomer Abiram. Toward the beginning of the book (while he is merely a minor officer, probably a sergeant), he agrees that the Dwarves are being too paranoid about the Gemini room. “Their idea is too dangerous.” But he thinks they were right about needing a secret passage out of the dungeons. “We may come to regret the lack of an exit.”
When he discusses the goblins, he calls them “orcs”, which marks him as from the nobility. Most people else in West Highland call both goblins and orcs night trolls. East Highland and the nobility call them goblins and orcs, or just orcs, since they’re usually led by at least one orc. The last entry, dated May 3rd in the 896th year of the Cataclysm, mentions an argument with “Captain Cambel” about what to do if the “rumors of orcs is true”. Cambel wants to “take the field and wipe them up as we always do. Parthane agrees.” Courlander thinks “we ought to hole up. This time different. Should send courier north. Still technically at peace with Illustrators.”
Courlander’s diary also, toward the beginning, describes how he and a group of three warriors and sorcerors made a pact of mutual benefits. One group project was commissioning a special ring of silver strands and soft white pearl from the Dwarves. It describes his and their adventures acquiring the pearl back in East Highland. It tells of their journey into an underground tomb of the Druids, though it does not say why. Sometime after that he and the rest of the group moved ahead more quickly. Nothing sinister about it, but something is missing from the diary. He becomes a better spy; it was he who copied the “No More Stars” piece by sneaking into Illustrious Castle. He does not describe sneaking in, though he does describe sneaking around and going into their underground living quarters.
You should fill the diary with entries that relate to adventures you might want the characters to discover. For example, on a journey to find a ghostly castle that appears but once every year:
Date
We have come further south than I ever imagined possible. The sky is diamond-studded pitch, and the forest is alive with ghosts. We must retrieve a stone from a castle that does not exist.
No More Stars
So the four maps to Charon were cured here of war. Ten fun games cause doom to man in his writing, creating the lament that is his fee due god. We issue in you this world of humor, you mute women known.
Test semen under no fat woman gods you nurture, you who mint them the noxious musks. He who draws to worlds will knit one toy net. Hinges vow to better hinge, and bar shale. Harm all strange metal, and adhere to the thin hate of the freer sin there.
Beneath the text, in more coarse handwriting, is written “excerpted from Illustrated text”. A player with appropriate knowledge can guess that this means either a text from the Knights of Illustration—since the Astronomers often interacted with them—or a more general text that has been illustrated by some Christian order.
Translation:
Words are the source of power for the human race. Indeed, it is the written language that is the source of magic and the means of summoning. If you would summon Nowhere, you must know where on it is.
To understand the nature of summoning, you must know where those you summon exist. The World as we know it is not the only world. There are things below, and things above. And there are things in the realm of the Ether, and the realm of the Astral.
See the resources archive for a PDF of this document and the Inkscape original.
