The Great Library of Palanthas
An Aesthetic shows you to a small reading room.
Stories of Ansalon from the view of Kiyo.
A little gully dwarf runs by and says 'Wordwrap Off 65 80.'
The gully continues 'Eyes hurt? Turn Color OFF!! (regular story dates)
Astinus says 'Enter the main library here to view only the author list.'
Astinus gently places an enormous book on the table in front of you.
You note the spine bears the word 'Kiyo' scribed in deep purple ink.
Author: Kiyo Date: Wed Aug 23 23:49:16 2023 Subject Boundary Crossing, Pt. 1
AtfirstwhenthekendercametoMtNevermind... "Hey! Stop that! Don't write it like that. No one will understand it, much less read it." "Fine!IfyouinsistbutitwillbelongerhmmIwillstartagain." A kender once came across the sea to Mt. Nevermind. She was, of course, fascinated by everything about the gnomes, who in turn found her curiosity endearing. Her interest grew to the point where her wanderlust ended after she and a gnome called Kethil fell in love. They had child, a girl, but soon after the child's arrival, the Kender received word of an emergency among her family on the mainland. She left to address the problem, promising, sincerely, to return straightaway. Tragically, however, the gnomes received word that the kender had been killed by a goblin on her return journey. The girl's parents had not yet been able to decide on her name, thus Kethil gave the girl her mother's name, Kiyo, but in the gnomish fashion, Kiyokiyolsudhasahkrithikethilrigothkovest, at least to start with. Kiyo grew up resembling her gnomish heritage in appearance and behavior, aside from two things. She had her mother's pointed ears as well as her curiosity. The combination of a gnome's intellect and concentration and a kender's inquisitiveness did her well throughout her education. On the other hand, she faced not a little discrimination from others for her mixed heritage, gnomes not being freer from bias than any other peoples.
Kiyo passed tests and exams, and was drawn to the sciences rather than engineering. This was a quandary to the Gnome elders, who were beginning to watch her with minds towards assign her a life quest. Typically, a young gnome would be assigned their family's unfinished life quest. But Kethil was an architect and structural engineer, whose life quest was to design an indestructible support column. Sending Kiyo to this endeavor would be inappropriate given her lack of interest. In a highly indirect way, Kiyo's departed mother contributed to the solution, for Kethil's mate had one final gift for her daughter: wanderlust. Kiyo grew restless with the confines of Mt. Nevermind. She wanted to get out there and find out how the world worked. However, she desperately wanted a life quest. Her intellectual curiosity ranged far and wide, but at the same time craved a purpose. The elders noticed, and where wary of placing with a task that involved staying in one location. One day, she was in Kethil's work area where he was testing column strength. His work involved frequent experiments augmenting the columns, then trying to destroy them. This led to frequent collaboration with other gnome testing their more...destructive... work. Kethil wasn?t dismayed at the constant wrecking of his efforts, as failure led to new improvements. A gnomish engineer was setting up his device, meant to grind rock into gravel, against one of Kethil's columns. The machine suddenly backfired and shot a stray metal strut directly at Kiyo. The shocked young woman just barely ducked while swinging out her arm, which let out a pale blue mass of energy. It connected with her father?s column with a great WHAM! The column crumbled and the watching gnomes when silent, many of them grinning. Kiyo said, "Father, I..." Kethil recovered and exclaimed, "Magic resistance! That is brilliant, honey. The columns definitely need that!" Then he stopped, frowned, and looked at Kiyo. "Magic! Your magic!" Kiyo smiled, "I wasn't even trying to do anything! But..." "But what? That was amazing," Kethil asked. Kiyo asked in turn, "But how did that work?" Neither father or daughter had an answer to that. The watching gnomes, however, talked excitedly, some about the column and some about Kiyo.
Two of the gnome observers were elders, and passed on the story of Kiyo's magic to others. They spent days arguing. Gnomes were no strangers to magic, and they had plenty of mages. But how to put Kiyo's to use? Every gnome family had unfinished life quests in their history that they didn?t want to talk about, and Kethil's family was no different. As it turned out, one of Kiyo's great-grandmothers had only partially completed a life quest on how magic worked. She had returned with the explanation of the godly source of magic, which she and most gnomes found frustrating and incomplete. The discussions continued until the Departments of Physics and Astrophysics proposed an elegant solution, inspired by Kiyo's own question. How magic works, obviously, was to big of a question, and no one wanted to revisit the source of magic question again. Therefore, the two departments jointly offered Kiyo the life quest of finding out what happens to magical energy when a spell ends. Kiyo herself accepted enthusiastically. Achieving this would require getting out and seeing all kinds of magic all over Krynn, observing the magic of other peoples and that herself. She would get to relieve her wanderlust. Kiyo's life quest ceremony was held, and she was invested as a member of both the Physics and Astrophysics Departments, Kethil watching proudly. She prepared to set out, researching library holdings and practicing with other gnomish mages. On the day she left Sancrist, one physicist advised her, "Mages on the mainland have towers, you might start there. Ask your mother?s people to guide you to one, they are usually helpful."
Two of the gnome observers were elders, and passed on the story of Kiyo's magic to others. They spent days arguing. Gnomes were no strangers to magic, and they had plenty of mages. But how to put Kiyo's to use? Every gnome family had unfinished life quests in their history that they didn?t want to talk about, and Kethil's family was no different. As it turned out, one of Kiyo's great-grandmothers had only partially completed a life quest on how magic worked. She had returned with the explanation of the godly source of magic, which she and most gnomes found frustrating and incomplete. The discussions continued until the Departments of Physics and Astrophysics proposed an elegant solution, inspired by Kiyo's own question. How magic works, obviously, was to big of a question, and no one wanted to revisit the source of magic question again. Therefore, the two departments jointly offered Kiyo the life quest of finding out what happens to magical energy when a spell ends. Kiyo herself accepted enthusiastically. Achieving this would require getting out and seeing all kinds of magic all over Krynn, observing the magic of other peoples and that herself. She would get to relieve her wanderlust. Kiyo's life quest ceremony was held, and she was invested as a member of both the Physics and Astrophysics Departments, Kethil watching proudly. She prepared to set out, researching library holdings and practicing with other gnomish mages. On the day she left Sancrist, one physicist advised her, "Mages on the mainland have towers, you might start there. Ask your mother's people to guide you to one, they are usually helpful."
From Sancrist, Kiyo took a gnomish ship involving wind turbines and propellers, which worked beautifully until a flock of seagulls perched on the blades during a calm. The gnomes tried to shoo them off, but the gulls liked it and stayed. Eventually, a merchant ship passed, Kiyo and the other passengers moved there, and the gnomes and seagulls rowed back toward Sancrist. After a stop at Lacynos, showing a horrified Kiyo the slave market, the merchant ship docked in Caergoth, and she disembarked. She wandered the fortress town, found a room in an inn, and slept. She didn't know quite where to start, and it seemed silly to wander around looking for towers or kender. The mainland was huge. She knew what happened to her mother, who had not passed on her fearlessness to Kiyo. She went to a market to find a meal, and walked into a disagreement. A large human was arguing with the stallkeeper, and gesticulating angrily, causing coins to fall out of his pocket. A short kender, shorter than Kiyo anyway, pick coins up with clink. The human whirled around, shouting, "You picked my pocket!" He took two threatening steps and loomed over her. "I did no such thing, they fell out. I was going to return them to you!" she said. Different scenarios of her mother's death had occurred to Kiyo over the years, and several of them rushed through her head right then. Another kender woman about to be killed. As the human shouted down and the kender began creatively insulting him, Kiyo spoke over the two, "She's right you know, I saw them fall out of your pockets when you were waving your arms." She imitated him to make her point. "No way! You're likely together, robbing the whole town," he shouted at Kiyo. Kiyo was scared, but replied, "I've not seen any of you before, I just arrived from Mt. Nevermind." The human looked Kiyo like she had arrived from one of the moons. He growled indistinctly, grabbed the coins roughly from the kender's still open hand, and brushed past them out of the market. Kiyo exhaled a long breath. The kender deftly took the hoopak from her back and leaned on it, "I could have handled him, but thank you. This was much easier. I'm Dormouse."
Kiyo introduced herself and the two began talking. Dormouse was a wandering cleric from Hylo visiting temples. "So if your father's a gnome and your mother was a kender, that means you're both! I'm sorry she died, that's hard. What was her name?" Kiyo replied, "Kiyo Tumblewind." "Hmm, that's not familiar, but it sounds like a Kendermore name. Maybe you have family there. So where are you going next?" Dormouse said. Kiyo explained that she was a mage and a physicist researching magic, and she was looking for a wizard's tower, but she didn't know where to start. Dormouse started to talk about Towers of High Sorcery, "But those wizards don't really like people like us going in their towers, so maybe don't start there. Hey, you don't talk really fast like other gnomes, can you not?" Kiyo answered, "Of-course-I-can-I-just-choose-not-to-most-of-the-time." "Let me try. Lemme-think-where-else. Hey this is fun, I'm going to talk like this for the rest of the day," Dormouse grinned. "So-anyway-there-is-another-sort-of-tower-here-plus-another-down-the-east-r- ad-if-the-closer-one-doesn't-work-out. I'll-show-you." The two women walked down toward the river, where a white spire emerged. Apparently already forgetting to talk fast, Dormouse said, "This is the Temple of Solinari. It would be awkward for me to go in, but you should." Kiyo replied, "Oh, thank you so much. But I'm not much for religion." Dormouse said, "That's okay, they're still really good at magic. The Temple of Lunitari is the other one I mentioned, if this one doesn't work out. Maybe I will see you again?" Kiyo bid farewell for now to Dormouse and walked towards the temple.
Kiyo approached the entrance to the Temple of Solinari. An old human in white seemed to be asleep sitting up at the door. She went in. Her first reaction was that it was a very human or elven design. Gnomish temples were more practical, sometimes hard to distinguish from normal work areas. That's not to say that she didn't find it impressive, her architect father would have thought so. To her, though, magic was everywhere, she could feel it in the air. No one, however, was present in the temple to ask about anything. Her curiosity rising, Kiyo give herself a tour. She reached out with her magic, trying to become more aware. The whole structure seemed to be magic. But, then, how was she to examine how the parts worked? She went upstairs, finding more practical rooms, sleeping areas and a kitchen, and some rooms that nearly vibrated with magical energy. Not that she could tell what kind, only that it was different from her own. Obviously, she needed to build up her knowledge of magic if she was going to finish her quest. Up another stairway was a laboratory of magic. Kiyo was a kid in a candy store. Finally, this was more like it. She had thought of so many ideas on the journey here, not mention the tower's sights. Maybe here, she could contain a little of her own magical energy, observe it, and compare how it differed from the other magic here. She had nearly finished setting up equipment, when a younger human adult appeared in the doorway, a look of shock and fear on his face. "Who are you? And what are you doing?" he asked. Ignoring his tone, Kiyo answered, "I'm trying to contain magical energy for observation. I'm Kiyokiyolsudha..." He cut her off, "We don't need the Solinari's lab destroyed, gnome!" Kiyo clarified, "Well, my mother was a kender..." "You're a kender!?! Get out! Get out!" he shouted while forcing her from the lab. "Excuse me! You're making me leave for that?" she protested, but he was not listening. He pulled her down the stairs and outside while she argued with him. He began talking to himself, "No, this isn't enough, she'll just come back in. They'll be impressed by this, though." As she stood there, indignant and glaring at him, he waved his hand and a large multicolored circle appeared. "Is that a portal?" Kiyo asked. He started pulling her into it. She pulled against him, "Now wait a minute! Where does that go?" Kiyo's anger began shifting to fear. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed distant movement. Hoopak in hand, Dormouse was sprinting toward them. "Hey! Don't do that to her!" she was yelling. But he pulled hard and suddenly Kiyo was in a city with lots of marble. She and the human stood on a grand staircase. The tall human pushed her through a set of huge doors, and pointed at her. He said, "Learn something in there!" "Where is this?!" she yelled at him as he turned back to the portal. She started to follow him, "You racist..." He stepped through the portal, which winked out. "Hey!" she yelled, trying run out the doors, but she fell backward to the floor. Kiyo had collided with something, but nothing was there. Now she really was scared. She picked herself up and tried to exit again, slowly this time. She was stopped again, something like an invisible wall was in front of her. She felt a quite solid nothing. Kiyo had collided with something, but nothing was there. Now she really was scared. She picked herself up and tried to exit again, slowly this time. She was stopped again, something like an invisible wall was in front of her. She felt a quite solid nothing. "Do you need assistance, ma'am?" asked a quiet voice behind her. A skinny human in brown stood further inside the entryway. Kiyo breathed out and said, "Yes! Where am I?" He replied calmly, "The Great Library of Palanthas, welcome."
Kiyo tried to get out the Library for a week without success, the human cleric had done a thorough job of ensuring that she could not go through the door, either the front or back one. At first, she examined the doorway itself. Her father was a structural engineer after all, and she knew the basics, but, aside from it's impressive construction, there was nothing odd about it. She reached out with magic, trying to find unseen aspects of the door, but it had no magical energy. After that, she tried testing the barrier itself. It was completely solid all the way around, even when an Aesthetic brought her boxes to stand on to examine the top of the door. The barrier, however, didn't feel like anything to the touch, the flesh of her palm just pressed hard against nothing. She tried throw crumbs of food through the door. They sailed through and landed on the steps outside, making the pigeons happy. She threw a box out, which went through normally. Kiyo next tried tried her own magical energy against the door. She sent a small amount of it against the doorframe and only watched it evaporate harmlessly against the marble walls wispily. Then she sent the full force of it at the middle of the doorway. The stream of energy sped through, crossed the street, and narrowly missed several passersby on the other side. "Sorry!" Kiyo yelled to them. She tried to push against the barrier, which did nothing, even after she had of the Aesthetics push her. She asked a group of four dwarves to pull her through. They were confidant of pulling one small gnome woman. Two of them held each of her arms and shoulders and pulled gently at first. Encountering no barrier themselves, they pulled her against the barrier. They pulled and pulled until Kiyo was afraid she would break something. Knowing some structural engineering themselves, the five of them stood and argued about the door, until the frustrated dwarves wished her luck and walked away grumbling. Having expended her experiment ideas, Kiyo retreated back into the library to do more research. The Aesthetics shared their meager food with her and gave her a place to sleep. She read through the physics, engineering, and architecture sections without finding anything of use. She moved on to the history of the building with the same result. She thought about the human who had cursed her, and read about the gods of magic. His racist actions seemed to be more in line with evil magic than that of Solinari, but clerics weren't necessarily always reflective of their gods' ideology. Finally, she found the tiny magic section. This was equally frustrating, but for a different reason. The books had much discussion of magic spells, many beyond her ability to perform at the moment, but their authors didn't much care where magical energy went after the spell ended. The disregard of her life quest was disappointing, for she had realized that her life quest was the key to the problem. She had to induce the end of the human's spell. The Aesthetics had grown curious about Kiyo's problem, and occasionally inquired as to her progress. One of them asked her, "You keep looking at external factors. Have you considered that the problem may be you?" She was about to angrily reply to him for being another racist, when she realized what he meant. She had looked for magical anomalies everywhere in the building, everywhere but on herself. Kiyo reached out to her surroundings looking for magic and turned inward. This was not easy, for she found much. She herself had much magic. She concentrated and delved through her own magical energy, which was complex and somewhat incomprehensible. After much time and effort, however, she found that something was off. Something with her was not her. Kiyo returned to the magic section and poured through spellbooks. Eventually, she found one to remove magical impediments someone. The cast the spell, failing the first few times, before successfully get it started. She hunted within herself for what was not her. It was elusive, evading capture, and she concentrated harder. She cornered and pinned it down, sending the spell through it. The new spell's energy absorbed the curse's energy. She could feel both spells cross from her feet down into ground. Curious, she thought, a datapoint for her quest. Feeling lighter, Kiyo ran to the library entrance, where a few Aesthetics stood. Hesitantly, she put one foot in front of the other, then again and one more time until she stood outside on the top step. The barrier was gone, she was free to go. The Aesthetics at the door congratulated her. The shortest among them said, "If you can accomplish that, you may want to seek out the the wizards of the Conclave, before they seek you out." Kiyo replied, "But would they accept me?" "They should, with your ability," he said. "Come, I will show you a map to Solace and south beyond that."
The way to Wayreth Forest was simple enough, if simple included close encounters with bandits and dangerous carnivores. Eventually though, Kiyo found her way to an inn at the forest's edge. The not-too-clean patrons eyed her as she walked to the bar, but soon lost interest. Kiyo asked the barkeep about the tower in forest. He gave her an ale and asked, "Another tester, eh?" Kiyo brightened, "They have a test? That's fine, I can pass a test." At this, several people moved away from her, and someone in red at edge of her vision left the building. The barkeep smirked, "I don't think it's that kind test. I've heard that failing is death." Kiyo frowned and answered, "But isn't failure the path to wisdom? Every gnome knows that." Amused, the barkeep shrugged, "That's their way. So, will you still take it?" She replied, "Yes, I'll take it. Tests aren't to be shied away from." The barkeep nodded and moved to the next customer. A figure in black left the inn. In the morning, she left the inn and entered the forest. Kiyo found mazes tedious, and the forest was no exception. A few minutes into forest, she turned around to keep track of her bearings and found a tree immediately behind her where none had been before. She thought she caught a glimpse of white out of the corner of her eye, but looked closer and saw nothing. This happened a few times, until she suspected being herded. Not knowing what kind of wizards killed their students, she didn't want to end up where they were leading her without knowing it. Trying to appear random, she moved in a series of patterns rather than in a straight line. A passing shadow of black caused a spike of fear, but made her certain of her strategy. This led her to get lost, but she theorized that trying to go straight would have gotten even more lost. In the end, Kiyo turned around to look behind her and found there a large metal gate with a tower behind it.
Opening the gate, Kiyo passed within the outer wall the Tower of High Sorcery, or what she thought was the tower. Her father Kethil had taught her not to rely on assumptions. A garden holding beautiful and exotic plants spread out before the Tower itself. Shrubs with leaves as big as a gnome, flowers of brilliant colors, and fruits of unknown varieties surrounded her as she walked cautiously forward. The lush garden unnerved her, as did the complete silence. No one was here, neither person, bird, nor insect. Kiyo instinctively reached out with her magic to increase her awareness. Magic was everywhere, but her challenges in the library had made her more adept at seeing what was there. The plants seems to be pure magic, meaning illusion. The plants immediately wilted and the light of day grew dimmer. The colors of the garden turned to black and gray. The plants died and the first noise echoed from the walls. Heavy footsteps sounded from everywhere as armed skeletons appeared from behind the plants. "So it's like this, is it?" Kiyo asked. Was this an attack or part of the test? Better, she thought, not too make assumptions. Her opponents moved toward at the small gnome woman, and she ran for the edge of the circle, knocking one down with a shock of electricity. Escaping their circle, Kiyo cast a protection spell on herself and drew her dagger while trying to gain some distance from them. Two stepped in front of her, and she shattered them with ice cold hands. Did you think that a gnomish childhood was poor training for combat? You had to learn to be quick and alert growing up in Mt. Nevermind work areas. Kiyo kept running around the dead garden flinging fire, electricity, and magical energy at her bony pursuers. Again and again, she reduced their numbers, only to have them reappear. She tried to get to the tower itself but no opening ever appeared. She eventually emerged into a small circular clearing surrounded by dead plants. The skeletons reformed their ring around her, then stopped. Kiyo slowly spun around, keeping an eye on all of them. Then the ground underneath her disappeared and she fell into a deep, stone hole. She cast a spell to stop her fall. The top of the hole was a distant circle of pale light, and a torch lit hallway opened in front of her. Someone was still herding her towards somewhere.
On her guard, she began down the hall. Every twenty feet or so, another corridor branched off a short way before ending in a pile of collapsed rubble. After three of these, a terrible stench filled the air. Kiyo couldn't see anything until an enormous troll lumbered in from the next branching hallway. He was as tall as the ceiling and as wide a sofa, and licked his lips as he spotted her. Kiyo started to run, but the troll ran after her, faster. She turned and attack him, sending fire that covered his hand. He stopped, calmly considering his unburnt hand, and started for her again. She tried electricity, ice, and pure magic, he didn't even notice any of these. Immune! Her mind raced and found again the warning not to make assumptions. Changing tactics, Kiyo conjured a whole roast chicken. She made sure that he saw it, and suddenly heaved the meat into the next branching corridor. The troll swerved after it and almost caught it, but hit his head with a loud crack on the top of the corridor archway. He fell with a crunch against the wall, blocking the main hallway, splitting several stones in the wall. Kiyo watch him for a moment, not dead but not conscious either. She carefully climbed across his legs, saying, "Sleep that off." Poor troll, she thought, he was just hungry. Kiyo noticed a curling scroll fall out of his pocket. Taking it, she concentrated and deciphered that the scroll was one of shielding. She tucked it in her pouch. Leaving the troll behind, she continued down the hallway, now able to make out the distant end of it. There was something there that broke the monotony of light brown stone. When she eventually got close enough, she saw that it was a thick tome on a stone pedestal. Kiyo read the words on the cover, "On the Dissipation of Magical Energy, by Vollini." She gasped. This could be the key to her life quest! Or a big jump in it anyway. She could barely contain her excitement as she reached to open the cover. She heard louder cracking in the stone walls, when someone to her left shouted, "Run, save yourself!" "Father?" Kiyo asked. Kiyo turned, and Kethil was running down a long hallway toward her. More cracks sounded, and pieces of stone fell from the walls and ceiling. Behind her father loosing an arrow at him, appeared a goblin, looking the same as the goblin from her childhood nightmares who had killed her mother. More stone fell, the tower was collapsing!Kiyo knew that she had only enough time to do one of three choices. She could cast a shield and save her father. She could incinerate the goblin and avenge her mother. Or she could save the book and be close to completing her life quest. Ignoring the goblin, and taking a last split second glance at the book, she rapidly read the scroll and cast a barrier around her father, while the tower crashed down around her. The goblin ran out and the book quickly disappeared in the rubble. The stone strangely dissolved upon impact, and just before Kiyo feared that she would herself be crushed, she found herself back in the garden again. Kethil looked around at its now perfectly healthy native plants and intact tower. He smiled at her before vanishing himself. Heart aching, Kiyo shouted to the air, "Father!" A strange air surrounded her. She didn't know how, but she felt three reactions in it. One was approving and kind, another was disappointed and angry, and a third was disinterested and bored. Getting a handle on herself, Kiyo said, "Curious."
The Storytellers of Ansalon, The DragonLance MUD
Astinus points to the massive wall of books behind him and bids you to make a selection.
Authors: All|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z
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