Deepingrun Abbey

 

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Letter from Brother Fransico Arturro, Abbott of Deepingrun Abbey, to Brother Thermandus Rexinius, High Seeker of the Secular Order of Oghma the Discoverer, Waterdeep.

Dear Brother Rexinius,
Per your request, I am submitting a complete list of materials and other wants that we have determined will be needed for the reconstruction of our abbey. Furthermore, you will find included a request for skilled dwarven stonemasons to assist in repairing the foundations of the Great Library, so as to avoid further damage to its most precious contents.

Thank you for your willingness to provide on loan some of the texts that were damaged in the incident that I will relate to you. The preservation of such knowledge is often a tenacious thing, but never have I considered it so direly hazardous.

That evening will forever be whispered about around the dining hall table, across the workbench, and in the library cubicles, I'm afraid. Though the older monks are not as prone to exaggeration, given as they are to imperical observation and research, some of the younger students of science among us will no doubt raise the actual events of the evening to something not short of fantastical. Still, having witnessed the events first hand, I can attest that it is difficult to remain objective and unbiased towards what I encountered that evening.

Earlier in the evening, our Abbey was visited by a small travelling band of sellswords and wanderers, seeking refuge within our stone walls. It was my first inclination to turn them away, but after our esteemed Brother Anrew suffered a misstep with his elemental translocator -- a misstep that nearly injured our visitors -- I felt the obligation to invite them into our walls for rest and sustenance. One of the travelers bore a small collection of ancient tomes that he was interested in having appraised, most likely for quick sale in the seaside markets of Sembia. Recognizing their uniqueness and rarity, I managed to convince the man to leave the tomes in our possession for further study and copy. (I do regret that one of the tomes, a treatise entitled Treasure of the Fire Lords unfortunately seems to have been lost in the destruction that would later befall the Library and scriptorium. The second tome, however, contains many wonderful essays on the nature of dragonkind, though one must sift through the dogma of the cultists who penned the work.) Another of the sellswords bore an ancient blade that seemed to possess unusual elemental properties. Looking back, perhaps I made an error in judgement, but I introduced the young elf and his companions to Brother Armando Dessantonio, whose studies into the nature of the Positive and Negative elemental planes are quite familiar to you.

The evening progressed without incident, until a ruckus was sounded in the courtyard back by our small stables. An approaching firelight was sighted just beyond the trees, and our stalwart visitors took it upon themselves to investigate. The sequence of events that follow are a little unclear, but I will do my humble best to relate my observations as empirically as possible. Before warning could be returned to the Abbey, a giant...construct of some sort demolished our wall and began a steady trek towards our library! It easily stood twenty feet tall and, while humanoid in shape, seemed encased in an unearthly armor. Elemental creatures of fire -- mephits, most likely -- accompanied it, though their connection to the beast can only be hypothesized. The adventurers, to their credit, attempted to turn the juggernaut, but to no avail. The creature chose its path straight into our dining hall, and steadily back out the other side, disappearing into the darkness. The mephits, however, did the most damage, for their very touch was the anathema of the Great Library. Only the quick thinking and actions of our Brothers of Oghma (and the recent innovation of Brother Theed's fire resistant book bindings) kept the Great Library from being a total loss.

Unfortunately, we have never determined the motivation or the origins of the strange juggernaut, but such things are irrelevant in the light of our current worries -- that of preserving the contents and structural integrity of the library. We are also very fortunate in that none of our Brothers were injured beyond a few minor scrapes and burns. One unfortunate footnote: Brother Armando has rescinded his duties to pursue the sellswords and their unique artifacts, most likely in the pursuit of a hypothesis that he has hastily constructed. I fear for our missing Brother, for the world beyond our walls is a dark and hard place, and travelling in the company of men such as these may very well lead into the darkest and hardest of the places that the world can offer.

Thank you for considering our request for more funds to aid in our rebuilding. I await your reply with great hope and anticipation.

May the truth never be hidden from your searching eyes.

Your most humble scholarly Brother,

Fransico Arturro, Abbott of Deepingrun Abbey