Lost Scriptorium
The Lost Scriptorium is a half-forgotten sub-chamber of the Deep Archive, sealed by intricate wards after a mysterious incident in 311 AR. It earned its ominous title when a group of apprentices vanished within its walls — only to return decades later, unchanged and unaware that time had passed. Now, it sits largely abandoned, spoken of in hushed voices by archivists and students alike.
Purpose / Function
- Original Purpose: A dedicated scriptorium where specialized scribes transcribed unstable magical texts that couldn’t safely be moved to other rooms of the archive.
- Current Purpose: Officially closed — now functions only as a cautionary tale and an occasional site of secret study by reckless or ambitious students hoping to tap into its temporal anomalies.
Design
- Roughly rectangular, about 80 ft long and 40 ft wide, with high vaulted ceilings crisscrossed by delicate runic support beams.
- Rows of writing desks still stand, some draped in rotted parchment, others strangely pristine.
- Small tide-pools cut into the floor helped maintain the humidity needed for certain aquatic inks.
Entries
- The primary arched doorway is sealed with interlocking rune panels that only archivists can open by reciting a shifting passphrase.
- A lesser-known narrow side passage was bricked up after the incident, but legends say it still leaks faint phosphorescent mist.
Sensory & Appearance
- Sight: Faint afterimages of scribes sometimes flicker at the desks, only to vanish when focused on.
- Sound: Echoes of quills scratching, pages turning, voices murmuring. Even when empty, the scriptorium seems alive with ghostly activity.
- Smell: Salt, mold, old ink — but occasionally also fresh brine, as if the sea itself just swept through.
- Touch: The stone is unnaturally cold, and certain runes embedded in the floor hum gently under fingertips.
Denizens
- Officially none. But archivists whisper of echo shades — faint magical imprints of the lost apprentices who replay moments of their final days, forever scribing spectral pages that vanish in the next blink.
- Occasionally small spectral jellyfish drift through, emerging from tide pools before fading back into nothing.
Contents & Furnishings
- Long, rune-carved desks with rusted ink knives, stacks of blank vellum sealed under cracked glass.
- A few partially completed illuminated manuscripts, their inks still suspiciously bright and shifting on the page.
- Caged lanterns that gutter with ghostly blue flames.
Valuables
- Some books and scrolls left behind may contain lost ritual fragments or forgotten binding diagrams.
- Certain tide pools are rumored to reveal past or future glimpses when gazed into for long enough.
- The Obscura Codex, a half-transcribed tome of planar convergence rituals, is believed to still lie somewhere on a desk, untouched since the vanishing.
Hazards & Traps
- Temporal glitches may abruptly shift visitors a few seconds into the future or past, disorienting them.
- Echo shades can unintentionally entangle a person’s sense of time, leaving them momentarily stuck reliving old memories.
- Reading certain unfinished texts aloud might trigger arcane feedback loops, causing illusions to solidify dangerously.
Special Properties
- The chamber exists at a minor temporal fault tied to nearby ley lines — time flows oddly, sometimes accelerating or looping in subtle ways.
- Magic cast here tends to either stretch out in slow, haunting waves or unleash in sudden chaotic bursts.
Alterations
- After the incident in 311 AR, dozens of additional containment runes were inscribed along the door and walls to prevent temporal bleed.
- Tide pools were partially drained and lined with iron bands to disrupt ley resonance.
Architecture
- Typical of early Arcanum design: sweeping arches and coral filigree.
- Here, however, the designs seem subtly warped, spiraling into fractal patterns the longer one studies them — as though time itself etched new motifs.
Defenses
- The main door seals automatically if any strong temporal surge is detected, trapping both threats and intruders inside until stabilization.
- Runic failsafes designed to force time “normalization” can erupt in flashes of white light, potentially stunning or forcibly ejecting echoes.
History
- 311 AR: A group of seven apprentices entered to continue copying the Obscura Codex. They vanished for 46 years, only to reappear unharmed, believing only minutes had passed.
- Since then, the room has been sealed, its deeper mysteries left to rumor — or daring exploration.
Tourism
- The Lost Scriptorium is not officially on tours, but students often dare each other to slip a hand through the slightly ajar rune doors at night.
- Some claim simply pressing an ear to the sealed entrance lets you hear snatches of old lessons… or screams.
Founding Date
188 AR
Parent Location
Environmental Effects
The very air seems warped by temporal echoes. The chamber is damp and cold, laced with drifting motes of pale blue light that fade when approached. Whispers of past conversations often slip through the silence — some clearly belonging to people long dead.
Owning Organization
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