The Scrollery · 7 Tales Recorded

Tales Told by Others

Stories the Dungeoneers have been given — round fires, across tables, through locked doors. Each tale is attributed to its teller. Pull up a booth to choose whose tales to hear, then open the codex to read.

The Salt Dog · Lampwright Harbor

"Find a booth. Buy a drink. Listen. Or don't."

— iii —

Other Tales at This Table

An impressive compendium written in illuminated script upon linen pages.

The Horn of Rust

The Horn of Rust is among the most dangerous artifacts known to persist in the current age. It functions as a staff and carries two distinct properties: when sounded, it summons a whirlwind of rust-laden shards capable of stripping the flesh and armor from those caught within its radius; it may also be turned inward, drawing disease from an afflicted body and dispelling it harmlessly.

The Horn is bound to Xar-Azmak, a named entity of considerable power. If the Horn’s summoning ritual is completed in full, it is said that Xar-Azmak will walk again — and should that occur, the Horn will become empowered beyond the limits described in this volume. The entity’s return is considered by most scholars to be an unacceptable outcome.

On Destruction: Three conditions must be met in careful sequence.

First, the Horn must be washed with juice pressed from a fresh peach taken from an immortal arboreal. Second, while still wet, it must be submerged in a pool of molten dawnsilver. Third, it must be cooled immediately afterward with the tears of a remorseful demon.

I note that the third condition is the most contested in the literature. Several colleagues have argued it was introduced as a joke by early transcribers of this account. I find that argument convenient rather than convincing. The precision of the first two conditions argues for a compiler who did not traffic in comedy.

The Clockwork Heart of Caviana

A locket of mechanical construction, bound by means I have not been able to fully replicate to the heirs of the Caviana bloodline. The Heart is not a weapon; it is a command mechanism.

Somewhere in Caviana there is a construct army. The Heart controls it. The army has not been seen in several centuries, and whether it remains functional is an open question. The binding to the bloodline, however, is still active. I have verified this personally.

What purpose the army was originally built to serve, and who built it, I was not able to determine. The Heart itself offers no explanation. It simply works.

An eldritch compendium bound in brass plates set with red spinel.

The Elderwood Enclave, Isle of Tissol

The Elderwood Enclave occupies the forested mountains of the Isle of Tissol and has done so for longer than any available record reaches. They have made their position on contact with humans and similar peoples entirely clear: they do not want it.

Their reasoning, where they have been willing to explain it at all, comes down to deforestation. They have watched humans raze forests at a rate that, from their perspective, constitutes a long and ongoing atrocity. The hostility is not temperamental. It is considered, and it is not without grounds.

Travelers who have attempted to enter the Enclave without invitation have not reported pleasant outcomes. I have documented three such attempts in my field notes. I do not recommend a fourth.

The Secret Society of Sorcerers

I include this entry with the caveat that my evidence is largely circumstantial. There are references scattered through several reliable independent sources to a Tower — not any specific tower, but a Tower as a mobile institution — that shifts to a new location every few years. Those who seek it find nothing. Those who find it claim they were not looking.

Whether this constitutes an actual organization of sorcerers or an elaborate pattern of independent coincidences, I cannot say with certainty. The Tower appears in enough accounts, across enough centuries and enough different witnesses, to be something more than rumor.

What it is, specifically, remains an open question.

The White Raven Trading Company

I have attempted on three separate occasions to identify the proprietor of the White Raven Trading Company. I have not succeeded, and I do not believe further attempts would yield different results.

Their deliveries arrive via animals — predominantly crows and foxes, occasionally other species. The goods are consistently what was ordered and of reliable quality. On at least four documented occasions, a potential customer received an unsolicited note from them some time after finding an unusual pipe. The note, in each case, represented a specific and well-calibrated offer to enter into trade.

I have spoken with a number of people who have done business with this company over the years. None of them has met a human representative. Several of them have tried.

Tales Told by Others

The Salt Dog · Lampwright Harbor

The Horn of Rust

The Clockwork Heart of Caviana

Basrakal

On Demons

The Elderwood Enclave, Isle of Tissol

The Secret Society of Sorcerers

The White Raven Trading Company

The Dawnforge, Plane of Metal

Chiezzem, the Bringer of Death

Nethum the Soulkeeper