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Draft
While this library is believed to be located in modern Venna, it could potentially be located in any other place that a GM deems fit. This is particularly rue because of the fact that the Library, once connected by teleportation circles, is scattered throughout the known world. In the wake of the Collapse, information about the precise whereabouts of each major collection in the Library has been lost, and since each collection was accessed magically, the Arcane Schools of Sascria are scrambling to find their physical locations and to re-open them, in the hope of recovering the lore they contain and somehow reconnecting them.
The Library of Yemuria was a library created by the School of Worlds in the years following its founding. The power of the School of Omniscience was great at that time, and the School of Dominion sought to hide their growing collection of materials from the School of Omniscience. The wizards of the School of Dominion crafted an artifact that created a void in the perceived reality of the library and prevented others from discerning the truth of the Library in either its location or its contents. The magic went so far as to even hide the Library from someone standing right in front of it by clouding their mind. The School of Worlds was then called upon to actually construct the library itself. It was their innovation to decide construct each major collection-room of the Library in a different, remote location, connecting the Library as a whole by way of teleportation circles.
This led to a forced alliance between the School of Dominion and the School of Worlds. In time, the School of Dominion rose to power in a coup, replacing the School of Omniscience for a time. With the help of the School of Worlds, the Dominionists held power far longer than had previously been the norm among the Arcane Schools of Sascria.
In response, the other Arcane Schools allied against the two in power. Against the combined might of the Schools of Desolation, Omniscience, Eternity and so on, the two allies were unable to stand. As a price of the defeat, they were forced to share the resources and the protection found in the Library of Yemuria. It became a repository of arcane lore for all of the wizards of Sascria for generations, and many more locations were opened and connected by teleportation circle.
On the verge of the Collapse, a cabal of Wizards came together and decided they needed to seize the opportunity, as well as the priceless lore held in the Library. They murdered the Dominion and Worlds Wizards who were in charge of maintaining the Library, seeking to take control of it. They underestimated the severity of the Collapse, however, and found that they too were suddenly cut off from the Library. They fled, and are currently the most wanted persons in Sascria and everywhere that nation has influence.
Meanwhile, the Schools are desperate to re-locate their ancient lore. They believe that the answers to how and why the Collapse occurred can be found there. The School of Dominion, in particular, is regularly hiring adventuring parties to seek out the Library's various locations, to re-open them, and hopefully someday to re-connect them as they were in the past.
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Comments
For me, as I think about it,
For me, as I think about it, the Library was almost too benign. Maybe a table of random magical traps to encounter, with more coming the longer you explore the place? And then maybe a half-dozen specific magical bits of loot, each with it's own 'security system', so that the temptation is clear, but the more you go after, the more you get pounded on...
I think if the Library is in
I think if the Library is in a module, it should be like you described. For a convention game, I simplified it a great deal.
Yes!
@ Sea-of-Stars: Definitely! I like the setup being that the arcane construct guardians are slow but unstoppable, and just provide an extra puzzle aspect, forcing the PCs to move strategically in the library as they spend the time (and the skill rolls) to solve the various puzzles and deactivate the library's defense system.
@ Raemann: I think that in the past, the library was a repository for knowledge for who were at the time powerful, influential spellcasters. Closer to the Collapse, the knowledge inside might have even become a little bit redundant, and it fell into disuse. Built into its defenses, though, was a sort of fail-safe, so that if those who knew the passkeys were killed, it would go on a kind of "lockdown" mode. Lockdown mode means that only clever, skilled, knowledgeable intruders would be able to open the library and access it's secrets.
I like the idea that the Library isn't so full of wonders as to be unbalancing - maybe arcane protections have failed, and some of the books and scrolls have crumbled into dust or been eaten by vermin. There could be collapsed wings that the PCs have to excavate, meaning they can't just plunder the place all at once.
Also, the value of the Library is information. You can only carry so many weighty tomes of lore out of the Library with you to sell or whatever.
The Library could even be a bargaining chip. With the Collapse interrupting all sorts of magic on the surface, places like the Library suddenly become very valuable to anyone, not just arcanists or magocrats. The PCs could just trade the Library for a powerful patron.
I love the way this team is so real ...
In my dungeons I insist upon a close connection to the plausible. All rooms in the evil castle must have a purpose. I refuse to have nothing more than rooms that are points for encounters. I like the way that people look into how things function here. I especially like the way people with already fantastic ideas are open to improving them even more, making the final concept untouchable by common scrutiny. This library is reminiscent of some of the old Earthdawn, pseudo macabre dungeons we used to delve. Arcane energies, imminent danger, a hint of intrigue and mystery all mixed into a bowl of horror. Easily we can scare and excite and challenge the wits of our parties with concepts of this kind.
My addition to this already exciting concept is that we consider the use of everything within the library. By that I mean whoever built it intended to make use of it to some degree. The frequency to which the builders planned to utilize the resources therein would set the number and complexity of the traps within. Certainly if the place was visited by hundreds daily the traps would have a central over-ride to allow one shut off and frequent access by authorized patrons. On the other hand, if the library is a repository to be treated as a safe deposit box then it is likely that few people came to visit its stacks and there would be many traps, tricks and magical pitfalls hidden within its walls. With the decay of magical energies and the subsequent erosion of control, it is possible that many of the safeguards that once worked to ensure safe passage to those with proper authorization codes or passes no longer function safely and in fact may even work to destroy someone that would have the right to be there. I love to have people spend a month collecting artifacts and assembling a gate-pass only to discover that once inside the pass key does not give free access any longer... but then I live in a place called E'ville.
Puzzles
Sound like a great chance to set up a classic "puzzles and traps" style dungeon to get to the library to me.
Just a note on detail - the
Just a note on detail - the way I imagine the School of Dominion hiding a library wouldn't be a rift in the fabric of magic - that is more of an Abjuration thing in my view. What I imagine Dominionists doing is a more powerful version of something like the Antipathy spell - when you approach the library, you simply get disoriented and turned aside. So even with a map, you can't get near it unless you know the secret.
I think that under the hood, when no one returned to the library to renew it's enchantments and protections, it went into a sort of defense mode, and is now a lot more dangerous than it would have been otherwise. I'd like to see a chain of linked traps that have to be bypassed in order to deactivate the Library's defenses for anyone who does find it. Possibly even some ancient magical guardians, since I assume the Library would be buried in order to preserve its magical secrets post-Collapse.
Or - maybe much of the ancient arcane treasures were lots, and it could be an exclamation point on the Collapse and what a big deal it was.
Of course, buried in the wreckage either way are clues as to what the Collapse might have been...
Made some changes
I made some changes based on your suggestions. Thanks!
Ok, this idea may be stupid,
Ok, this idea may be stupid, but I'm kind of picturing the linked traps being patrolled by lumbering magical construct guardians. The constructs move slowly, right, but they're very very hard to defeat in combat. So what the PCs end up doing is having to move around the library individually solving the puzzle-traps and moving so as to avoid the lumbering constructs. It would be sort of like old school arcade games, where the threats move in set patterns and at set speeds and you have to move among them and accomplish your goals. A little like Pacman...
Anyway, that's my thought. Then, when the defenses are switched off once the traps are solved (maybe they require that you use a certain area of knowledge to disarm them) the lumbering guardians become librarians and docents who help you navigate the library's contents.
I also think it would be cool to have a "special collections" vault beneath the library, hidden unless the PCs think to ask the guardians about it, that contains some cool magical relics, or possibly real concrete information about the Collapse, or both.
Definitely a worthwhile encounter
Finding and exploring the Library will be one of the games I run at Con on the Cob, so I'll definitely include this somehow. :)