Downtime Interlude- Identifying Magic Items at the Athenaeum of the Dying Sun

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GaWoosh, PakPak, Thea Noir, and Wolfgang set upon the old bathhouse currently housing the Athenaeum of the Dying Sun in order to discover more about items recently retrieved in delves into the cliff face. All told, 500 gp was spent over two weeks in order to discover the properties of the items they have uncovered. In this research, GaWoosh's background and native tongue were indispensable. In the research, it becomes very apparent that having someone versed in Gnomic, Old Imperialish,and/ or possessing experience in arcane arts and their symbols is essential to make any headway with the resources currently available to the burgeoning library. All told, the items examined include three unusual liquids, a metal beaker, and a dagger.




Two of the strange drafts were the easiest to identify. One was a crystal bottle containing a liquid resembling dirty water while the other was other was a glass vial containing a thick orange-gold substance. Some sort of Old Imperialish alchemy text was the key here. GaWoosh being able to decipher the symbols and formula in its pages though not the text itself. It was a grueling process for the gnome. Both required a complex process of tasting, testing, and formula to determine their properties. In the end, they were determined to be:

  • Crystal Bottle- The liquid inside is 4 doses of a potion that grants one the ability to breath in any substance containing dissolved oxygen (most commonly things like river water, the sea, etc.). Each doses grants 2d6 turns of breathing.
  • The Glass Vial- The brew inside can heal 3d6+3 hp. It can be drunk all at once for full effect or each third of the potion imbibed heals 1d6+1 in hit potions. 
The metal beaker's identity also lay within assorted texts on alchemy dating back to the final epoch of the Empire-That-Was. Looking through texts (names unknown to our researchers), PakPak finds a picture matching the container he found in an storeroom in "The Complex". The passage covers the mystical symbols and arcane formula etching into the beaker. GaWoosh finds the formula far advanced from his own level of study but he is able to suss out its purpose along with a purelyphonetic understanding of the command word needed to activate the beaker.
  • Metal Beaker- Any magical potion placed in the beaker and then has the command word spoken will transmute into another magical potion at random (Rolling 1d100 to determine the request).
Much more can be discovered about the dagger in Thea's possession. Oddly enough, its is first identified in inheritance documents in the hoard of gnome civil documents in the library's possess. The blade's name, Sapthacrist, roughly translates into "the blade that bites as a mosquito". It seems that the blade passed through generations until a dispute over its inheritance lead to a group of gnomes to abscond with the dagger on stolen goats. It seems that after a life on the run, the gnomes settled within Indos na Egra Eithog where the dagger was used in rituals dedicated to "The Stump". In addition, Saphacrist is mention in sheet music for "The Ballad of the Rambler Lode or Ole Salt 'n Pepper" found mixed into the documents. It is written to be sung with harp accompaniment. Lode, a folk figure known for being one of the first hill dwarves to venture out form the underground halls of their ancestors to explore Ur-Dan after the collapse of the Empire-That-Was, forged the blade himself from silver teeth pulled from the barrows of elvin rulers long deceased to slay the monstrous Turm na Ulvon.
  • Sapthacris- Knowing the name of this elegantly crafted dagger grants the wielder a +1 to hit rolls and to damage rolled. The blade displays several other abilities like entrancing insect swarms, returning to Lode's hand when thrown, and feeding a near death Lode the blood of those it has slain to revive him but these properties, if not artistic embellishments, remain a mystery to our adventurers at the moment.
The last item, a glowing red liquid, seems completely beyond the research of capabilities of those using the library. Is it their lack of understanding of Old Imperialish? Or could it be something created outside the scope of the libraries texts or maybe even created after their texts were written? Only the hiring of a librarian or seeking the aide of a power magic-user such as the Enchantress or Shrune would be able to answer such questions.




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