THE HISTORIUM

 

The Hook: 'Well, yes...' The man in the hood answers you uncertainly. 'This is The Historium... We weren't expecting anyone... What is your business? We are busy...' The last a slight increase in pitch and a flash of annoyed anger to accompany it. You stare hard at the individual before you... Certainly even the scribes here knew of your errand? It wasn't secret... The man's eyes shift to the left, suddenly, and he changes the foot he's standing on. You're looking up at the portly scribe with the pock-marked face. He's waiting for you to answer at the top of a marble staircase. Half of him is peeking out of a crack in the massive, heavy double doors leading into the white marble structure. His brown robes seem uncomfortable. He keeps pulling on them. What is this? You ask yourself... The Historium is well known, but, you thought it would be different... Your friend, the wizard is still, staring at the man like a hawk... He nods at the man's thick tan hands and fingers and his dirty nails... NOT the hands of a scholar...

Details: Dedicated to the god of sages and history, The Historium was built high up on the windy slopes of Scholar's Mount long ago by a group of learned individuals with the backing of a rich patron, the Prince of the local kingdom. A scholar, himself, the Prince spent long hours there, and supported any efforts to grow its collection of scrolls and books. The scrolls are kept in the library and scriptorium in cherry wood shelves reaching to the ceiling built around a central support. Lining the outer walls are scribes' desks. Only a small number of people live here dedicating their time and energy to scholarship. It is not uncommon for the Head Scholar to commission apprentice scribes, explorers, and mercenaries to look for lost or specific information by visiting old ruins and castles where histories and scholarly works may have been preserved. The sages of The Historium also trade information for gold or silver. The Head Sage meets with people in the Sage's Hall and, acting as a priest, he makes offerings to the god of scholarship by writing entries in a massive tome laid out on a black obsidian altar that details the events of The Historium. All activities the Head Sage knows about are entered into this volume. It is huge, The Historium Archive, and covers the top of the altar almost entirely. Its pages are thick parchment and bound in leather. The interior of The Historium is for sages and scholars, but, they occasionally take visitors they put up in their guest apartments. In the crypts below, there is a Record of the Dead dedicated to both the god of scholars and the god of the dead and smith-craft. All those committed to the place who die there are placed in one of the many shelves between the pillars, then noted in the book. Time, date, cause of death, time served, name... any notable contributions.

The Historium has recently been taken over by mercenaries hired to rob the place. They were sent by a rival scholar in a city far away. They have captured the small staff and have bound and locked them in the secret room behind the tapestry in the Great Hall. It's taking them time to gather materials and to look through what's there. They're even taking extra time, as per the orders of the mercenary leader, to take whatever they think might net them extra coin somewhere else, beyond what the other scholar was looking for. They left horses with a few guards down off the mountain path, in a copse of pine and fir trees. They intend to bring the most valuable texts with them in sacks sitting on the tables in the library. They will try to push away any characters, but, they also don't want to arouse much suspicion, so will invite them in, and try to be hospitable, though they truly have no idea how scholars should behave or what their daily life is like. Just a cursory glance should say that something unusual is happening.