Challenges in an a sealed fantasy library that make it a ‘dangerous place’?

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zcthu3

zcthu3

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I am running a game of Out of the Ashes and one of the ‘dangerous places’ the PCs described is a sealed library dating back to the First Age of the World. It is situated near to the character’s settlement in a hidden mountain valley (which they have discovered is linked to both the Gods of the Sky and the Gods of the Earth). The library seals are weakening, and it’s guardian spirits are escaping into the valley, but I am Trying to think of some non-monster challenges to exploring the library.

Please grant me your wisdom RPGPub!
 
Eh, what about environmental? Bad air, mold spores, vermin all over, the flooring's gone rotten, the bookshelves are liable to topple over at any time, and the roof's already caved in at the southeast corner. The books are decayed enough that they often crumble at the touch ... or worse, whatever arcane seals are on tomes describing Blasphemous Things Man Is Not Meant To Know are on degraded wax that's falling off, or with leather binding that's coming apart. Or the spirit bound into the bust of the library's founder, tasked with giving cheerful reference information to visitors, has gone batshit insane?

Hm. First Age of the World? So ... how's everyone's skill in Archaic Seliseni? Not so great, huh? Well, how about that skill in the conjectural proto-Seliseni that a handful of philologists think must be the precursor to Archaic Seliseni? And ALL the books seem to be written in it? (Never mind when the party wizard spends hours fumbling through language translation spells, only to finally realize that the important-looking jewel-encrusted tome she's been laboriously working over happens to be a romance novel, or the minutes of the 14th triennial meeting of the Benevolent Society of the Tea-Drinking Marching Band.) Hmm. So people want to take away important texts? Fair enough, except that they're on crumbly clay slabs, written in cuneiform, and those suckers weigh 30 lbs apiece ...

Finally, look. We all have strong notions of what a library looks like. Organized by subject matter, rows of shelves, some manner of standardized classification system. Who's to say the First Agers didn't have entirely different notions? What about a fully faceted classification system, where books are ordered by date written, or by the personality of the writer, or by the geographic location of the subject, or for some whacky combination of the above? Perhaps the library is comprised of donated works, and each room is an individual collection, of whatever books the donor owned?
 
(My wife, who just woke up at the cataclysmic lightning strike, wonders what exactly's eroding the seals, and what's scaring away the guardian spirits. Also: "People put magical seals and guardian spirits on things for a REASON. They don't do it for funnies. Maybe the party wants to rustle up the town's clerics and shore up those seals, after talking to the spirits and finding out what they're running away FROM.")

(Possibly helpfully, we've both been elected library trustees in the town in which we were living at the time. Hm! Maybe that sheave of papers the party found is the meeting minutes of the trustees, or confidential personnel documents!)
 
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Book mite swarms. Have swarms of mutated book mites swollen to colossal size by exposure to strange energies lurking in the stacks. When the characters enter, the book mites leave hibernation and come out in search of food.
 
"Wow, there's books here that literally haven't been read for thousands of years. I'm just going to read one more page. I know we need to pursue the villain across the world before he can perform the Unholy Ritual but... just let me get to the end of this chapter."
 
Mesmerizing stories. Books that holds people enrapt, their consciousness lost into the story as invisible observers, trapped until someone in the outside world finishes the book (essentially another victim to take their place). The library was sealed to stop the cycle of death.
 
Books as sirens, I love it.

Building on that idea:
For fiction books, if you fail (whatever appropriate check) then you begin to assume the identity of the main character.
For nonfiction, if you fail the check you become obsessed with the subject matter. Unable to think of anything else.

Each would be a series of failures with each fail getting x degree closer to complete mental loss (almost like sanity rules with Call of Cthulhu).

Just spitballing and that may be making the library too much of a focal point for your story.
 
No apparent order to the books. The spines are illegible.

And each card in the catalog* requires a non-trivial amount of blood to reveal its contents. (Or a near-trivial amount, multiplied by a lot for the adventurers to finally find what they need)



*Catalog? #HowOldAmI?
 
Half the library is actually on the ceiling, which is 'down' when you're there. Along with the protective enchantments and bindings, the gravity-warping enchants are getting weak. Opening the wrong magical tome can release a pulse of magical 'static' that would normally be harmless, but now, with the enchants being weak...
 
It all depends on how dangerous you want these challenges, and how you present the clues about the danger.

Many of these suggestions are variations on a single theme (which others have already introduced):

--Death from knowledge--

FAE FEAST: OMG, you've always been looking for a book on this topic. In a language you can read. There's another! It's hard to stop reading.
*For every page you read, you gain valuable knowledge (usable in game), but you also age a day. You and your friends probably won't notice until after the first 600-1000 pages. The books disintegrate if removed from their section of the library. You have to read them here. You can camp out here that long. It's safe enough, right?
&& Corpses in various states of decay sit (collapsed) at tables with large piles of books of varied heights to their left (unread) and right (read). More books on the right = more decayed bodies, usually.

VAMPIRIC ENLIGHTENMENT: You pick up books that have no writing on them, not even the spines, and the titles magically pen themselves in as you touch the books. It's EXACTLY what you want to read and what you need to know for whatever is in store for you next, but it does take time to read and understand. The coolest thing is that they write themselves as you read them.
*The uncool thing is that it's using your blood to write itself, and you can't heal yourself by any means while you remain in the library. You can open the book to any page, sure, but it will pre-write all the pages before that one to "get to" the page you open it to. So if you open a 300-page book to the last page, it will prefill all 599 pages so you can read the end of the story. Dunno if you have that much blood.
&& Desiccated corpses lie collapsed holding open books with no writing in them, and wide stains of dried blood about them. Every book in the area that is out on a table is blank and similarly haloed in dried blood.

YOUR FUTURE SHELVES: Aisles and aisles of shelves in this area that are each quite long and end in a wall. Most aisles are empty, but some have one or more decayed corpses in them, as well as books. The books are barely visible without entering the aisle, but you can make out dates on each of them, as if they were journals. Walking down the aisle is really difficult, as if something is trying to push you out. And you can leave anytime. But those books look like they're getting larger, and more dates appearing on the spine.
* The books document your future. Absolutely. Infallibly. If anyone goes down the corridor and reads their future journals, everything they read will come true. They can leave any time until they read the last journal entry. Up until that point, as a GM, you can "skip to the end of the story" and pick up gaming from where the character stops reading. Project what the character's lifespan could be, and give them a journal for each year they have remaining. If they reach the end of your projected lifespan, the last entry, which they get a heart attack reading, is, "They realized everything that would have happened since Date XYZ is what would have happened if they had left the library." The paper rips out of the book as they fall to the ground, dead.
&& The corpses are distinguishable only as crumpled heaps far down the aisle, and sharp eyes can pick out a partially torn paper in their hand.

--Crumbling foundations--

ELEMENTAL BLOCK. Air and Earth don't hurt books. Fire and Water do. Until the seals are broken, your survival is in question here.
* Torches, candles and other fire-based light sources and effects simply don't work in the library. Magical light might work. Characters need to drink twice as much water as they normally would to survive. Water generation spells fail. Water and fire native creatures will likely die in here, starved of the elemental forces required to keep them alive.
&& The library is dark, cold, and very, very dry.

QUIET PLEASE. Sound and speech do not carry in the library. Period. Penalize any character whose player tries to weasel out with "I motion to my friends to do XYZ," or "We all work out how to do XYX," as workarounds. This isn't supposed to be easy unless multiple characters have some sort of sign language to work with and are looking at each other. Have them describe exactly the motions they're making. Do not allow them to explain the motions.
* More extreme areas of the library (maybe with more valuable things) just disallow breathing. You have to hold save your breath and time your return.
&& Corpses in the extreme areas are strewn about at various distances, most in a panic, running back to the exit, scrabbling at the dirt or clawing at their throats.

PRETTY LIGHTS. Torches are in sconces on the walls, but they don't cast enough light to really read by. There are chandeliers, though, with ignition systems you can reach. You're be able to see your way around well once you get them lit.
* They're mesmerizing. The patterns never repeat, and seem to change color. You can almost predict the timing--maybe one more round.
&& Heaps of bodies, swarmed around the areas near chandeliers, eyes burned out like moths in a flame.

WORDS OF WOE. You wouldn't imagine how dry and itchy it is in the library. Bugs, maybe? You'll be glad to get out of here. Some of the books are certainly interesting, maybe even valuable, but the words fade from pages as you read them.
* There's a reason these books are trapped in here. Every word is alive and malevolent. Reading ANYTHING in the library (a sign, a book, other corpses) will transfer the words to the reader's body. It takes a little time--as long as it takes the reader to read the words. They move under your skin, alive, aggravating, until you scratch or cut them out, if you don't have the magic to quash them.
&& Corpses of prior victims have words vibrating on the surface of their skins, like spastic lenticular tattoos.
 
A traumnovellesque anthology that consumes the reader, little by little. Once consumed, they of course become part of the next story in the anthology.

Is the first story filled with first readers? Is there an Editor of the dream work? Perhaps a spirit of Story itself which cannot exist if no one reads the book? Does speaking the title out loud compel you to open the book and read a random passage... which in turn draws you into reading more and fading slowly into strange literature...?
 
One of Rumble's comments jogged my memory. One of the plot threads of the fourth season of Once Upon A Time was that the fantasy story book owned by one of the principals (and where the tales turned out to be real) was under the editorial control of an Author, who with the right magic pen and ink could not only write more tales which would thereby be real and true, but could change what was already written. This became as much of a plot football as you can well imagine, especially when it became apparent that there was more than one Author.

So. The reason this library had seals and bound guardian spirits was that it was the ancient repository of this book, and it was the high honor and trust of the librarians to guard it against those who would misuse it. Enter a band of solipsist PCs. Oops.
 
Infinity book, you find yourself in the ancient library reading the infinity book in which you find yourself in the ancient library reading the infinity book in which you find yourself reading the infinity book...

The maze of shelves. The shelves form a complex maze that changes and shifts when you're not looking. The maze always leads you back to the front door but never leads you deeper into the library.

The card catelog, the books are shelved according to the Dewey Decimal system. This might seem innocuous but it's full of interesting titles and of course, they're out there somewhere in the maze. It's a subtle trap but the unpublished songs of John Lennon and the erotic poetry of Miriam Webster often lead searchers astray. Worse still, much of the fiction section is entirely fictional, like the fourth book of Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien and Robert E Howard or the Douglas Adams script for Star Wars Episode I. There's also a reference to the Throne of the Erl of Sherl that's taken many home by the long route.

The carpet, okay, so carpets aren't that exciting but there are lines on the carpet that form interesting patterns which occasional show the current map of the maze. Which often misleads searchers who don't realize that the shelves move.

The mirror of infinity. There is a mirror where there should be a window. It is permeable. If it is touched your hand passes through into the mirror universe and few who have passed though ever return. Worse, if one gazes into it and moves on their doppleganger from that other world may well follow them through and out. Nobody hates you like your mirror self, nobody knows your weaknesses, nobody wants to move into your life and take it over like they do. Also, the maze on the other side is easily navigable until you try to get back to the mirror, good luck with that.

The book on the plinth. Oh you who say "Hello Sailor" know you not the magnitude of your sin? Oh well, anyhow there's a big book on a plinth and reading the open page summons a cyclops that can only be defeated by reading down the left hand column.
 
A book keeps appearing on the shelves where the PCs are looking, or at a reading desk they sit at. Not all the time, but often enough to be noticeable. There is only supposed to be one copy.

There is a trilogy of books giving one of the PC's biography, written in the past tense, and with occasional references to their death. So far the PCs have only found the first two volumes.

Here that scratching? Some of the books are writing themselves.

The Library uses the minds of certain visitors to store its catalogue. In game terms it takes up one (or more) of a wizard's spell slots. The only known way to lift the curse is to get another wizard to take your place.

The shelves sometimes move around by themselves.

You really, really don't want to be overdue returning a book to these Librarians.
 
1) Necronomicon, ahoy!
2) Story Without Ending. Pull out a narrative system (because that just fits the simulation, here:angel:) and tell them to play their characters. You can leave if you have finished all the stories you started...or is there another way:grin:?
3) The Book That Existed Before Writing is also here.
 
There's a spell on the return slot. Reach inside and it files, catalogues and shelves you. You're magically bound to your shelf until someone else takes you down.

The library helpfully stores the party's voices in glass jars at the entrance, to be collected as they leave. There are party -1 intact jars.
 
Never mind, for instance, the library in the Dreaming (Sandman series), which consists of works that might have been written: things their real-world authors didn't finish, ideas they thought of but never did, continuations of beloved series even after the authors croaked. How many of you would stop dead mid-adventure to read The New Shadow by Tolkien, or see how Patrick O'Brian planned to continue 24, or to listen to the last movements of Schubert's 8th Symphony, or to read Lincoln's autobiography?
 
DNI Linking Books or other Books that send you to "realms of fiction" or "other worlds" (There are some fun ones in The Great Library)

Books of Persona, the same idea. You read the book and you "become that person" sometimes physically, usually mentally, for a time. Usually wears off at inconvenient times.

The Undying Staff. They who are "spirits of the library". If there have not been patrons in a long time, the spirits might be a bit crazy or not used to organic people. If you do something "bad", the spirits might "over react".

The chair of your chronicle. You sit in it and you become your autobiography. oops.
 
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