The Library of Arcanum

After solving the problems with the wolves, Taargus, Gur'Thar, Xanaphia, and Mogus returned to Welton to celebrate their success. Luckily for them, Welton's Harvest festival was set to start and they were able to take part in the festivities. Mogus and Gur'Thar entered an arm wrestling contest and after two rounds Gur'Thar was eliminated, but Mogus made it to the final round and bested the town's blacksmith in swift fashion to claim the winnings. Gur'Thar, and Taargus then entered the pie eating contest and after several gut wrenching rounds of pies, Gur'Thar managed to tie for the prize and take home half the winnings.

When the contests were completed, Mogus was approached by an old man named Aberhard offering them a job as his bodyguards. He was concerned about a group of people he believed was following him. While he didn't specify a reward, he did say his work was important and that if they are successful he would be paid a hefty sum of money which would then be split among them.

While waiting for a raft to take them downriver to a set of ruins Gur'Thar began investigating a shady looking young man that had been observing a board game in the tavern the night before. He learned the boy's name is Morn and met his father who told him Morn was unavailable to meet with him. Giving up, Gur'Thar returned to the rest of the group waiting for the raft.

Late in the day, the raft arriving and they were able to depart along with a shipment of food and other goods headed down the river. After two days of travel, they were attacked from shore by three people Aberhard claimed were the ones following him. The fight ended when the old man used a wand of fireball to scorch the three bandits, forcing them to leave, but the wand broke after being used.

Another day passed and it came time to depart the raft. Unable to stop the raft to get off, the party was forced to swim to shore. Late into the day traveling they came upon the ruins of the College of Arcanum. A once proud college of lore and magic, it had largely been reclaimed by nature. Searching through the campus, Gur'Thar came upon the three outlaws again and was narrowly able to escape their attack. They didn't chase however, and he was able to join Xanaphia, Taargus, and Aberhard who had gone directly to the library to search for a specific book.

Looking through the first floor of the library yielded very little as most of the books that had been abandoned here were rotted to the point of being unusable. Searching the director's office, Gur'Thar claimed a book entitled "Runes for Orcs". They then found a secret door leading to the storeroom and then a hidden door that opened to a spiral staircase to a secret lower floor.

Roughly three stories underground, they found a relatively large room whose walls were lined with ancient books that had been preserved from the ravages of time. The far wall also held eight pedestals containing unique items.
1. A pair of rings that when worn and spoken into, the person wearing the other ring can hear their voice as if standing next to them.
2. A scabbard that forms to fit any weapon even if it doesn't normally use one and changes it's colors to bright unnatural tones.
3. A small one minute hourglass that travels one minute backwards in time once all of the sand empties into the bottom.
4. A conch horn that seems to have summoning properties but when blown does not cause anything to happen immediately.
5. A small mirror that seems to reflect only non-living things.
6. A multicolored orb that emanates an extremely powerful magical aura. What the orb does is unknown.
7. A strange elongated skull.
8. The eighth pedestal contains nothing.
Gur'Thar quickly became obsessed with the hourglass and attempting to travel through time, Taargus took to the orb and trying to discern it's secrets, Xanaphia examined the conch shell, and Mogus went for the scabbard. The book Aberhard was searching for was eventually found: a magically locked book entitled "The Prisons of Takhisis". After examining some of the writings done by students and scholars on these items, Mogus went to the skull and picked it up.

Upon grasping the skull in both hands, a voice spoke to him in his mind, promising to grant him his deepest desires. The writings on the skull were more limited than the others, leading them to believe that either fewer people had studied it, or it was a newer acquisition to the collection. As Mogus held the skull, he took it up on it's offer, and asked for "ultimate power". With Taargus, Xanaphia, Gur'Thar and Aberhard looking on, Mogus was quickly drawn into a vortex of dark energy and vanished.

This prompted Gur'Thar to try even harder to use the hourglass to go back in time and save Mogus, but it was for naught. The hourglass never took anything with it, and since it took a minute to activate, and only travelled one minute in the past, nothing could be done to save the minotaur. Following this tragic event, the party scooped together the items against Aberhard's protestations that they should be left for more qualified individuals to investigate and bring back to Rimpeir.

Going back upstairs, they were quickly ambushed by the individuals they had fought from the raft upon leaving the storeroom on the ground floor. Gur'Thar took the lead and engaged the two warriors just outside the door while Taargus and Xanaphia fired spells out from behind him at a mage. Taargus ultimately scorched the mage to death while Gur'Thar and Xanaphia together ended up killing the two warriors with their greataxe and flame-blade respectively.

With the immediate threat eliminated, the party are now preparing to leave the Library of Arcanum. But the question still remains, who were these people and what were they after?