The Startening... Again
In reply to Fithelos (msg # 652):
Miscommunication. 1 roll with advantage, but different outcomes at each number. You first roll is all I need, plus it beat out everything.
Also, I had to rework a lot of this, so hopefully it still makes sense. I read it like 12 times, but it's hard to find flaws in your own work. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense or even if you're not 100% on what I've said.
| How can I find Britannia?
| Why was Britannia moved?
| Where did it go?
| How do I get to Britannia?
| Where do the worlds of Aber Toril and Britannia meet?
| Is Britannia a different world or a different plane?
| If it is a different plane, which plane is it?
As you ask yourself these questions, you come to a realization. If this room is organized by geography then time, and texts that happened before the "event" are on the same shelf as the things that happened after the "event", and the Library contains all texts from the material plane, Britannia never left. It's in the same exact location it always has been.
One thing that is strange is how much more time-concentrated the texts become (more texts per day). You start to wonder, if it's in the same location, how come no one has found it. Surely shipping routes didn't change overnight. There must've a point when ships were still expecting to find the island nation, and it was just gone, so how did they not find it if it were there.
While contemplating this, you come across a diary with only two entries. The front of it is embossed in gold with "The Era of Frederick Smeek".
Day 1 of the Era of Smeek:
I've done it. The cost was great, but by the gods I've done it. Britannia will never have to deal with outsiders. It took years of preparation, sweat, tears, blood, but we are safe. Britannia has been shrunk to the size of marble and encased in an impenetrable sphere. I've left 12 anchors to Abeir-Toril in order to access the weave. Though some might be powerful enough to open a portal through ankh, at best they would only be able to communicate through it. Reading about the 12 anchors, the pain in your skull comes back. This time when you close your eyes you see a small quiet shrine. As you, or you in the vision, reaches out to touch it, you see a furious Fraz-Urb'luu yelling at you, but you can't seem to hear any of it. The library returns; you continue reading. People are confused and scared now, but soon they will know what I accomplished. Soon they will praise me as a god among men. For now I rest.
Day 5 of the Era of Smeek:
I have just now awoken. 4 days have passed, since fell asleep. I would not have realized it had not heard the Parade of Lights begin this evening. On top of this, I have aged decades. The toll on my body was much greater than I imagined. I must make my announcement tonight when the mayor is to address the town. How the people will love me when they find out what I have done to protect us all.
A few days later in the stack you find a decree from Britannia, sentencing Smeek to death, his properties destroyed, and his name erased from history. Britannia apparently did not share his views. Lucky for you, the Library doesn't seem to care about their laws.
This does explain the concentration of texts though. He shrunk all of Britannia, including its inhabitants. Geographically, everything is happening in the same location.
You realize going forward won't help though. The man with the answers will continue to be dead. You head backward in the collection looking for more texts by him. You search a day, then a week, then a month. He hasn't written anything. Well anything with his name on it. You check for different rituals as you go, but the closest thing you find is a half-completed ritual for trapping some strange looking spider beast with people trapped in it. You start to lose hope until you've made it back a year. You find a pair of books tied together with a ribbon reading, "Property of Frederick Smeek, Do Not Open!". One book is his diary, the other is an ancient book of rituals. The latter is falling to pieces when you pick up the pair. Enough is left though, you find remnants of the ritual Smeek used to encase the island nation. Skimming through his diary, you find a passage where he speaks about the "Isolation Event" he is planning. Using his diary as a reference, you find several rituals he had to combine for his plan to work. You now know why he was missing for nearly a year. He performed all of the rituals himself; a year long process he most certainly ignored all but his most basic needs.
He didn't leave any hints behind on how to undo his work. He was positive it was the right thing to do, and there would be no need to reverse it. You abandon his diary and begin looking through the ritual book. As ancient as it is, it is still written in modern common. After every few pages, you all but destroy the book. Lucky for you, the librarian earlier showed you it has infinite copies of all texts on the shelves. Each time the book becomes too damaged to read, you toss it to the side and grab it off the shelf again. You pick up where you left off and the cycle continues. It isn't until the last ritual you find what you need. "Control Zed", named after a powerful necromancer, Zed, that regretted his path later in life and developed the ritual to "undo" everything he had done. Unfortunately, this ritual requires the caster is also undone, piece by piece. Zed was already on death's door when he performed the ritual. It's success is marked by a witness, who details the agonizing death of Zed, as well as the nearly instantaneous reverse of countless undead beasts all around him.
You have your answer.
First you must locate Britannia. It supposedly still floats in the same spot, but finding a marble on the sea will be exceedingly difficult. At least you have an idea of its location. The map from earlier shows it resides in the Trackless Sea. An arrow pointing to the west on the map points to Leuthilspar at roughly 510 miles away. Another arrow pointing east to Gudbrandstad at about 450 miles away.
Then, this ritual must be performed once for each ritual Smeek performed. A ritual to shrink the islands, a ritual to create a sphere around it, a ritual for each ankh connected to the weave (12), and a ritual of permanency. 15 rituals in total, 15 lives must be given. And not some street urchins with nothing to lose. You would need convince powerful mages, with absolutely nothing to gain, to perform a mass ritual all at once, forfeiting their lives. This quest seems to become more difficult with every step.
Finally... Wait, what's next. All you've managed to do at that point is get to Britannia. That seems like only half of your journey.
Insight into Smeek you gained from your research in the library: Smeek had been orphaned at a young age by pirates that had come to shore to storm his family's castle. All that left when the pirates were done were Frederick and a lone tower. From that point on Frederick vowed to never let anything like this happen again. He began to study magic, barter with gods, devils, and demons for more power. By the time he performed the "Isolation Ritual", he was much more powerful than any mage you have ever met. He spoke of high level magics he'd do in the tower dozens of times each day, like using Imprisonment to remove pesky flies, or using a series of Gates to avoid taking the stairs. The man could have challenged lower level deities, but was so laser-focused on "protecting" the islands, he had no clue what kind of power he wielded.
