"Luck, yes, but we might not have to guess the combination."  She opened the book in her hand for them to see. On the inside cover was written the following: R15-L14-R13-L12.  After spinning the safe's dial as the numbers indicated, she tried the handle.

Opening the safe, Rosalie finds within it what appear to be four thick and heavy leather-bound books. Taking them out one by one, she is able to get a brief look at each and read the titles.

The first one in the stack was written in French, and called Sélections de Livre d'Ivon. The next three were in English: The Pnakotic Manuscripts, People of the Monolith, and Life as a God.

When Rosalie indicated that she had discovered the location and combination of the safe, Leo gave his niece an appreciative smile. "Well done, Rosie." He watched her work through the combination and then observed the interior of the safe with interest. "Curious set of titles. Let's see what might be inside."

09:45, Today: Dr. Leonardo Elias rolled 20 using 1d100 with rolls of 20. Medicine (75).

The tomes themselves are thick, and it is apparent that each of them will take a substantial period of time to study. Looking through them, however, a reader might easily be able to get at least a hint of an idea of what each book was about.

Life as a God was bound in white leather over wood. The pages were unnumbered, but seemed to be around perhaps just over a hundred and fifty in rough aproximation. This is a holographic diary account, handwritten by the author - Mongomery Crompton, a British soldier and artist. The text is sloppy and erratic in brown, and sometimes fading, black ink. Amateurishly bound, the book's spine is separating in places.

People of the Monolith was also bound in white leather, but hand crafted with an eye towards quality bordering on opulence. The pages and leather cover are excellently hand-stitched and the paper used is top quality. The pages themselves were printed as individual lithographic plates, that is to say, etched on plates rather than with a regular moveable-type press. Every page has elaborate geometrical designs along the boarder; there is no artwork as such, save for grotesques incorporated into the first letter of each poem. The most striking feature of the book is the unusual medallion on the front cover. It  appears to be a very thin slice of some sort of polished translucent rock placed over a thin sliver backing, creating a weird mirror-like effect in rich gray and white tones. The pattern of crystal formation is highly symmetrical.

The front page bears, in a bold hand, a dedication “To Mister Roger Carlyle. I hope you find these words to be as inspiring as yours were to me at our last meeting. My regards to Anastasia—Tyler.” There is no publisher or date of publication given. It seemed at a glance to simply contain poetry.

The Pnakotic Manuscripts is a manuscripb bound in pale green leather. The cover has no title, only a peculiar pentagram-like symbol, seared into the heavy bindings. The title page gives the work’s name,
followed by a subtitle “As written in the so-called Pnakotik Scrolls, as translatid from the Greke by
the author togeder with addicional remarkes upon that worke in the light of Newe Lerning.” The book appears to be a translation of a series of Greek documents sharing the title of the work. The print is neat, typeset in archaic English. A printer’s mark says “Trevisa et fils. 1496,” but the binding appears to be much more recent.

Sélections de Livre d'Ivon is a parchment bundle numbering 179 pages. The pages are obviously old, and have suffered from both the elements and the negligence of past owners. The most obvious damage to the work is that the back edge of each sheet is ragged. The work is handwritten and copiously illuminated with grotesque faces, obscene marginalia, and a recurring curious sigil resembling a triskelion.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:20, Thu 19 Mar 2015.

  Walking over to the now opened safe, Annabel glances at each of the books as they are removed. "Is that's all that is in there? How odd, are they valuable do you think? Silly question I know, but why else would they be in there and do you think Miss Carlyle knows about them? They don't really seem to be her style; more her late brother's I would guess."

Leo looked over one of the tomes, Life as God with a bit of disgust. He looked over at Annabel as she spoke and nodded. "Perhaps valuable for the sort of information contained within - and to the right people only. I doubt these are books that your average collector would desire."

The physician pointed at Life as a God. "This particular tome is bound in human skin." Leo heaved a sigh and then looked at the other books. "I suppose there is no other way to determine why these would have been so important to Roger than to dig into them a bit."

OOC:

Everyone except Walter, give me a Sanity roll.

10:05, Today: Dr. Leonardo Elias rolled 17 using 1d100 with rolls of 17. Sanity (80).

Bishop stayed at the door. He wished the others would finish up and shut the safe. But said nothing. Hearing that one of the books was bound with skin did little to shake the man who had seen far more horrific deeds across the globe.




10:06, Today: Stanley Bishop rolled 40 using 1d100 with rolls of 40. sanity 80
This message was last edited by the player at 17:40, Fri 20 Mar 2015.

   Annabel wrinkled her nose and scrunched her face in disgust at the mention of the book's cover.

"How horrible, why would they do such a thing?" She glanced at the cover again then turned her head away. "I hope the ink used on the inside wasn't blood or anything like that."


13:23, Today: Annabel Ashcroft rolled 45 using 1d100 with rolls of 45. sanity (70)

After the books had been pulled for study, Rosalie closed the safe, but didn't lock it.  She also swung the bookshelf back into place so that the library looked as it usually did.  "I don't read a lick of French, except perhaps to guess by ferreting out its Latin roots, but I do recognize the subject matter of this book.  This is the Book of Eibon, compiled by a self proclaimed magician.  This really should be in a museum."  She frowned as she thumbed through the pages.  Leo's startling discovery made her glance over and she turned quite pale, physically recoiling.  "Where would Carlyle even obtain such a book?"




22:53, Today: Rosalie Elias rolled 89 using 1d100 with rolls of 89. Sanity (80).

OOC:

Rosalie loses 1 point of Sanity, everyone else is fine.

"Someone with that much money can obtain anything he desires. Sometimes they get so jaded only the most obscene can even stimulate much less satisfy their appetites." Bishop said.

"If we are going to borrow those books we should probably inform Grey. Might not want to mention we got them from the safe .. but we should say something."

   Annabel looked a little shocked at Stanley's suggestion. "All of them? Even....THAT one?" It was not hard to guess which one Annabel was referring to. She was just glad she was not going to have to be the one to read it; at least she HOPED she wouldn't. After all she was Dr. Elias's assistant, who knows what he would want her to do.

  "I don't think a little white lie would hurt; after all there are so many books in here, who's to say where we found them. And I'm sure Bradley won't mind."

Leo furrowed his brow at Stanley's commentary about the books from the safe. "I don't know that this has anything to do with appetites of its owner in this case. But perhaps it has some connection to the African death cult?" Leo briefly looked to the others to gauge their reactions before addressing the matter of what to do with the books.

"Miss Carlyle has given us use of her library for as long as we like. She has offered assistance in helping discover what happened with her brother. She and Mister Grey both seem sincere. And I don't think we should repay that with deception. Miss Carlyle mentioned that there was an attempted break-in of this very library. Perhaps these are the books that were the reason for that attempt."

He again regarded the books they had discovered. "It will take some time to study these books thoroughly, but perhaps we can skim through them and get an idea of the contents."

OOC:

Just an FYI with respect to the books

Because of the density, complexity, and age of the books, some of them will take you quite a long time to skim (let alone read). The shortest books will run you between 2-4 hours each to skim. The longer books (written in Middle English, and French) may take days to skim, and weeks of study to actually read.

Based on that, if you want to spend up to four hours here, you may be able to skim both Life as a God and People of the Monolith here in the library. The other two will take over a day each to even skim.


This message was last edited by the GM at 14:58, Tue 24 Mar 2015.

"Perhaps it would be better we just ask to borrow them Dr. Elias. I do not think Miss Carlyle would object."

"One of the other victims was a book dealer, so it could be that the books were the goal of the break in." Bishop said.

   Annabel nodded at Stanley's suggestion. Considering how late it was and all they have already been though today, the last thing Annabel wanted to do was sit for hours pouring though some old books. Some of them looked awfully big. Better to do it after a good nights sleep and were able to take their time. If she had to look at any of them, it wasn't going to be that horrid one with the skin.

   "It certainly would not hurt to ask, all they could say is no. And if they do, maybe just come back tomorrow to study them when we're rested."

Leo nodded at the suggestions. "I think those are both fine options as well. As the party is still underway, it won't hurt us to look around a bit more at this library. Perhaps these aren't the only books of interest."

Looking around the library, Leo finds nothing that he might not find in another library, and though large for a private collection, small in comparison to the university libraries to which he is accustomed. There are sections on history, philosophy, science, and literature. He does find books about the occult, but they are very different from the books in the safe, and mainly are academic discussions of the subject and entirely reputable, at least insofar as occult works are concerned. The books focus on all sorts of subjects ranging from voodoo and Christian mysticism, to Tantra, Theosophy, and other various esoteric texts. Nothing seems to stand out.

Leo poked around for a bit, but didn't see anything worthwhile here besides what they had retrieved from the safe. "Well, it doesn't look like there is anything here we can't find at a university library, though the collection is quite substantial and impressive for a private citizen. It also is more heavily concentrated on the, er, mystical than one would normally expect, but I doubt that surprises any of us."

He gestured back toward the exit. "Shall we make our exit, ask to borrow the four books we found, and research them at our leisure? I think we should close and hide the safe again, keep these books well hidden and mention them only to Mister Grey on the way out." He looked around for confirmation or activity from the others.

  Annabel nodded her ascent. She had already suggested that very thing so had no objections about doing it. She would be sorry to leave the party though, it had been surprisingly fun and it had been a while since she had enjoyed herself.

Bishop nodded, it had been a long day and some sleep sounded like a good idea. While finishing Jack's work was important, Stanley hoped that there might be something in those book that would assist them in bring his friend's killers to justice.

Bishop moved away from the door to Rosalie and the others. Looking at them, he hoped he could keep them safe.

Rosalie pulled open the swinging bookshelf and made certain the safe was closed and locked before setting the shelf back in place.  Throwing a glance at the books, she pursed her lips.  "I don't think we should be seen carrying these out.  Tell Mister Grey about them, yes, but there are far too man eyes out there.  We don't know who broke in, so anyone out there could be interested in these.  Could you gentlemen hide them under your jackets until we reach the car?"

10:25, Today: Stanley Bishop rolled 36 using 1d100 with rolls of 36. Psychology 65.

Having seen that Rosalie had been a bit shaken by the book, Stanley wanted to do what he could to put her mind to rest.

"Why don't I go get our coats. We can use them to conceal the books."