Group 2 | Session 3: "The Sword of the Whojamajigs"
Previously: Three strangers stood at the entrance of a buried library and went in three separate directions. Eldric went up toward the gallery. Thanatos jogged until he found a scriptorium. Gohma went down. They found creatures made of ink, doors rigged with falling rocks, and a hand in a cubby whose fingers had been stained so long that the discoloration had become structural. They uncovered four clues, marked two conditions, and found a book that cannot exist: a newly bound volume with mismatched contents, featuring one page written in Eldric's own handwriting inside a satchel carried by a figure who has never met him.
The session opens in a hallway where two paper wasps, the size of small dogs and assembled from salvaged pages and binding string, block the path. Eldric's magic speaking voice is gone. There is only one thing left to try.
What Light Does to Wasps
The camera opens on Eldric's hand holding the wand. He runs the calculation. Without his voice, casting the spell is significantly harder, but the wand brings the odds back to even. He names what he fears: that the light will draw more attention, not less, and that whatever else dwells in this place will see it and come.
He casts the light past them against the far wall. It shines bright and moving, mimicking the way living things navigate a space. Close-up on the wasps: they turn toward the distraction. He runs. A piece of vellum sloughs off one of the wasps as they lurch toward the illumination, and he grabs it without slowing down, refusing to look at it until he is clear.
The camera follows him through the gap, keeping tight on his boots and the wall of the hallway. The gallery entrance grows closer and larger until he bursts through it. Cut to: the vellum in his hands.
It is a torn sheet featuring three separate handwritings. The first hand is careful and scholarly. By the bottom margin, the third writer's script is crowded and overlapping, clearly running out of room; something is deeply wrong with how fast they were writing. Three distinct authors, writing at different times under increasing pressure. The camera holds on the bottom margin, focusing on the exact spot where the handwriting changes. This is clue five.
Three Rats and a Dying Wasp
Cut to Thanatos in the scriptorium. He is not alone. Three rats emerge from the walls, each from a separate nook, moving in formation toward the center of the room. The middle rat reaches the ink splatter left behind on the floor by the animated ink. It extends its tongue to taste it. All three rodents shudder simultaneously, then immediately retreat to their nooks. The camera holds briefly on the ink splatter and their hurried retreat.
Thanatos is looking for scripture, as his partial book is spent. There is a doorway he has not yet tried, where vellum hangs on strings from wall to wall. From the other side, he can hear a distinct buzzing. Cut to: one paper wasp on the floor of the annex. It is heavily damaged and turning in tight circles, its wings unable to lift it. The camera pulls in tight as Thanatos picks up two large blotters.
The creature's sting catches him in the leg as it goes down, forcing him to mark the "Nauseous" condition. He pulls two partial sheets of vellum from the lines, writings in two different languages he cannot place, and stuffs them into his pack. He does not intend to use them; he just wants to carry them out of here. He then heads up toward the gallery, following the path Eldric took.
The Gallery Had Already Been Robbed
In the gallery, wooden panels line the walls alongside cracked icons faded past reading, a torn painting, and empty plinths. Footprints in the dust track back and forth, appearing neither careful nor recent. Someone was here before any of them; they took their time, took what they wanted, and left. The camera holds on the plinths, emphasizing what is no longer there.
Pat asks all three players: what masterwork was once displayed here, and why do you mourn its loss?
Eldric had expected showy, expensive pieces—the kind worth collecting. He went up toward this room on the first day because he assumed that was where they would be stored. Because they are missing, he realizes someone else had the exact same thought and arrived first. That is the kind of loss he understands all too well.
Gohma, across the dungeon, grew up with a book of fairy tales. The book told of a hero whose name his parents could never quite remember, so they simply called him "the Whojamajigs", the word they used whenever a name escaped them. The hero carried a jeweled, highly specific sword that became legendary in the way things your parents tell you often do. For years, Gohma did not understand that "the Whojamajigs" was not the hero's actual name. He had believed in that sword completely and came here looking for something like it. There is no such sword to be found.
Thanatos had hoped for a simple cloth, the kind worn by the wandering sage of Lesser Whojamajig. He sought something plain, worn, and meaningful, but it is also absent.
Cut to: Thanatos shouting for Eldric. The sound goes out, but commotion answers from a different doorway, and he follows the noise.
The camera pulls back to reveal a four-way intersection and a central pedestal. A book strains against its chain, snapping at the air as if it knows he is there. Thanatos addresses it, asking after its teachings, but the book does not answer in words. Evaluating its movements, he can see exactly how far the chain reaches. Though he is thoroughly nauseated, the restraint of the chain is real.
He moves past it as quickly as possible, pressing flat against the wall and watching the radius. The book snaps at him but fails to reach.
The Book That Will Not Come Back
Cut to Gohma, still in the armorium. The camera opens on the exit from which the book wight emerged. He sees a hallway lined with statuary shelves showing signs of regular use: the center of the floor is completely clear. Something moves through here often, but he decides not to follow it. He has a plan to return to the entrance, so he turns back. The camera catches a set of footprints before he does.
There is fresh ink on the stone, heading in the exact direction he is going. Close-up on Gohma, who chooses not to overthink it. He quickly catches up to a loose shape ahead of him: ink in motion, held together by sheer pressure and something older than physics. He names what he fears if he misses, getting lost in the dark. His pickaxe comes down through the middle of the entity, and its surface tension shatters instantly.
Ink splatters up the walls and across the ceiling. What is left of the creature gathers into small, snail-like shapes that move along the wall, leaving dark trails behind them as they head toward an unknown destination. Gohma keeps his eyes strictly on his work, failing to watch where he is going. The camera cuts wide to reveal a dead end. Behind him, he hears steps.
One of the ashen, ink-stained figures emerges from the passage. Gohma has an ability that will not help him later if he uses it now, but "later" is entirely theoretical, whereas the book wight is an immediate threat. He invokes the spirit's whisper, though the price is something he deeply values. He carries a book of fairy tales from his childhood, the one containing the story of the Sword of the Whojamajigs, the jeweled blade carried by a legendary hero whose name his parents could never recall. He sets the book down and leaves it behind. His pickaxe comes down again, and the creature completely comes apart.
In the ensuing quiet, the way back becomes clear. He knows exactly where he went wrong and precisely how to correct it. Pull back slowly on Gohma standing alone in the corridor, then on the book resting on the floor. The library has now taken something from him that he will never get back. He does not look at the book again.
Where Things Stand
Cut to: the entrance. Above ground, in the open air. The three companions emerge at roughly the same time. Thanatos and Eldric retraced their route, while Gohma found his own way out. They now have five clues and three conditions, alongside an empty gallery that was cleared out long before they arrived and a book left behind in a dark corridor far below their feet. The camera holds on Gohma's hands, focusing heavily on what is no longer in them.
Meanwhile, in the ruins of Ahknoor above them, something is already moving. Someone out there knows Eldric's name, knows what he is looking for, or understands something about the library that none of them have discovered yet. They have left something behind for him, though he does not know it yet. Below, the library continues to wait—and it will wait for as long as it has to.
Fade to black.
The next session will open above ground, where there is urgent business to complete before anyone ventures back inside.
