Great Library of Greyhawk

C2 :    The front of this building, facing the Processional, is a grand sweep of granite walls and tall columns. Three wide stairs lead to a pair of massive front doors, suitable for a castle or fortress.   The building beyond the facade is not so grand, but its true worth lies in the treasures kept within its walls. And indeed, the Great Library of Greyhawk is repository for more volumes than are gathered in one place anywhere else in the Flanaess.   The library is unlocked during the hours of daylight, and all free citizens of the city as well as foreigners are welcome to enter the library and browse through its cool, musty halls. Silence is expected of all visitors, and weapons and armor are not permitted.   Any visitor is welcome to peruse the volumes in the six public halls in the front of the building. Only those who are Contributing Members of the library board can remove these volumes, up to three at a time. Contributing Members must donate at least 100 gp annually to the library in order to maintain membership status. Contributing Membership is often granted by sponsorship. For example, a rich merchant or powerful noble will generally employ a personal secretary or scribe. While the noble or businessman might not be a member, he will certainly make sure to purchase a Contributing Membership for his scribe.   The high desk of Gratius Saghast, head librarian, sits upon a raised platform inside the front door. Gratius is always found here. He is crusty and irascible, but a sage of great repute. He shares his knowledge (including simple directions on the library's contents) only reluctantly, though the flattery of a pretty young woman always gets him to open up.   Six wings lead off from the main entry hall-three to the right and three to the left. Each is separated from the entry by an open arch. These are labeled History, Geography, Artistic Studies, Poetry, Science, and General. Each, of course, contains volumes on the listed topic. There are 3d6 x 1,000 books in each wing.   Funded through the good offices of its contributing members, the library is well able to acquire new volumes. Indeed, it has several sages and scribes under contract to actually write books, mostly detailing current affairs in the Free City itself. This surplus of capital also enables the library to maintain a selection of exquisitely rare, even magical, tomes, and to protect those treasures accordingly.   The rear of the library building is a stone edifice, layered over on the outside to look like wood. Only Contributing Members are allowed back here, and even they may never remove any book from these chambers.   An iron door leads to a narrow hallway behind the head librarian's desk. Several scribes labor constantly in here, not so much from scholarly diligence as from duty. Their true purpose is to serve as sentries, for their hallway guards the three locked, iron doors to the Library Vaults. These large metal chambers, surrounded by heavy stone, are the repositories for the library's most valuable works.   The sentries' task is a simple one. Beside the desk of each of the three scribes is a pull cord hanging through a hole in the ceiling. A tug on any one of these cords releases a pair of pigeons from the loft above the library. Those birds then fly, one to the nearby College of Magic (in l d6 rounds) and one to the Wizards' Guild Pyramid (in 2d4 rounds), and a powerful mage (level 8-13) then teleports to the library the next round to see what the trouble is.   Each of the three vaults contains books of a specific type. One contains examples of all the various sorts of magical tomes and volumes, one of each. These, of course, cannot be read by anyone, since to do so would mean the destruction of their writing. However, they prove useful for study, and wizard/scribes have discovered that, by starting from the back and working forward, it is possible occasionally to copy one of the works without destroying it.   Another room contains books of rare art. The entire collection is valued at over 6 7 1,000,000 gp, with individual volumes worth l d20 x 100 gp. Included are rare paintings from the east, rendered upon silk, and feather-pictures from lands in the far south.   The third and largest room contains the official records of the Free City, including tax reports for the past 30 years, military strengths and expenditures, and the official treaties and partnerships to which the Free City is subject. One whole wall of the room is dedicated to the rosters maintained by the guards at each city gate. Rosters are kept for five years. Also secured here are books deemed of a libelous or scandal-provoking nature, when those doing the deeming were influential.   It is an interesting comment on these cases that even when a book is effectively banned from distribution in the city, one copy remains guarded at the Great Library.   Below the library are several cellar apartments. Gratius Saghast lives here in several austere rooms, and other tiny apartments are kept to offer scribes and scholars whose labors keep them in the library often for days at a time.   If the PCs Seek a Book: When word of a specific volume comes the way of player characters in a campaign, or if they simply desire to read about a topic for other reasons, they might seek the book at the library.   There is a base 50% chance that a specific volume is here, and an 80% chance that a specific topic is covered. Add or subtract 10% or 20% based on the relative likelihood you, the DM, attach to the book's presence. (An unnamed, general volume on the history of the Grand Citadel might have a 95% chance, whereas the named work "The Plundering and Disposition of the Silver Metal Cairn" by Vasco Plugge might be encountered only upon a 30% chance.)