Thursday, April 30, 2015

Case Study No. 1929: Staff of the Cambridge Public Library

The Librarian
2:00
Third place winner of the 2014 Trailer Smackdown for The Brattle Theatre.
Tags: The Librarian (Film Series) Library Trailer Brattle Theatre (Theater)
Added: 9 months ago
From: Martin Miggs
Views: 306

[scene opens with a female librarian (short blonde hair, glasses black sweater, white blouse, plaid skirt) running through a cemetery]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] I'm the only librarian left!
[cut to the librarian hiding behind one of the gravestones]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] They've all changed!
[cut to the librarian (out of breath and still crouching behind the gravestone) speaking directly to the camera]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: They're all--
[the sound of a beer can opening causes her to stop and look around, as the scene fades to black]
["Two days ago" appears on screen, then cut to five stereotypical-looking librarians (three men, two women) standing outside of the Cambridge Public Library]
[cut to the female librarian (now calm and smiling) walking up to the librarians and shaking the head librarian's hand]
[cut to the librarian sitting at a table (with the other librarians all huddled together on the other end of the table) in an apparent interview, as one of the female librarians (long blonde hair, glasses, blue sweater, white blouse, grey skirt) asks her a question]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 2: How would you execute IP authentication for a HathiTrust partner institution?
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Institute a shibboleth login.
[cut to one of the male librarians (brown hair, beard, glasses, brown shirt, blue tie, brown pants) asking a question]
MALE LIBRARIAN 1: What is the Dewey Decimal classification ... for a binary star?
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Five two three point eight four one.
[cut to one of the other male librarians (brown hair, goatee, glasses, burgundy sweater, black undershirt, tie, blue pants) slamming his hands down on the table]
MALE LIBRARIAN 2: What's the difference between microfilm and microfiche?
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: One's a reel, and one's flat.
[cut to the head librarian (black hair, glasses, brown shirt, tie, beige pants) slowly nodding his head]
MALE LIBRARIAN 3: She'll do.
[cut to the librarian walking through the library, when she drops one of her books to the floor ... but when she bends down to pick it up, the other staff members suddenly circle around her and shush her]
[cut to the librarian reaching out to pull a book from the shelf, when one of the other female librarians grabs her hand and shakes her head]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] Is everyone here always this intense?
MALE LIBRARIAN 2: [in voice over] People are just really passionate about their job here ...
[cut to the two talking in the break room]
MALE LIBRARIAN 2: We're the top gun of libraries!
[cut to the librarian trying to help a male patron, when the head librarian suddenly appears behind them]
MALE LIBRARIAN 3: I believe the head librarian would be better suited to assist you ...
[cut to the librarian whispering to another member of the staff]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Is it just me, or is the head librarian kind of a douche?
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 2: You mean the best librarian in the country?
[cut to the head librarian exiting the library]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 2: [in voice over] They're gonna name this place after him one day!
[the head librarian turns to leave, but "something" attacks him]
[cut to the librarian running into the head librarian (with his back to the camera) at the in-wall mail organizer]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Good morning.
[she pauses and sniffs the air]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Do you smell something?
[the head librarian turns to her (his hair slicked back as if it's been drenched in pomade) and snaps]
MALE LIBRARIAN 3: What, what? I smell like a man!
[cut to the female librarian sneaking around the head librarian's office, waiting for him to leave, then entering and going through his things ... until she finds that one of his books has been hollowed out to hide a can of Axe Anarchy for Him body spray]
[she gasps, then opens one of the drawers in his desk ... only to find a copy of Maxim Magazine]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: No!
[she turns in disgust, then the camera zooms in on a bottle of La Bella Max Hold styling gel sitting on the bookshelf (as Nickelback's "Figured You Out" begins to play in the background)]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [whispers] He's a douche ...
[cut to the librarian pulling some books off the shelf, then she gasps as she realizes that the head librarian (sporting a pair of sunglasses indoors) is watching her from the other side]
[cut to the librarian finding one of the other female librarians bending down to pick up some books, causing her shirt to hike up and revealing the small of her back (where a Chinese symbol clearly visible)]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Is that a tribal tattoo?
[cut to the librarian walking through the stacks, when she finds one of the other male librarians lifting hand weights (in full workout clothes)]
MALE LIBRARIAN 2: Ugh! Do you even lift, bro?
[cut to a female patron speaking to the other male librarian (combing his beard while wearing a top hat and trench coat)]
FEMALE PATRON: Hi, do you have a copy of the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting?"
MALE LIBRARIAN 1: This is the only book that you're gonna need!
[he slaps a copy of "The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States" down on the table]
FEMALE PATRON: Is it gonna tell me what contractions feel like?
[he opens up his trenchcoat, revealing a red t-shirt with a man (dressed suspiciously like him) riding a winged tyranosaurus rex]
MALE LIBRARIAN 1: It's gonna tell you what freedom feels like!
[cut to the librarian talking to someone off camera in a panic]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Everyone is turning into a douche!
[cut to one of the male librarians flexing his muscles to display a henna tattoo on his elbow]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] Everyone at the library!
[cut to one of the librarians wearing a baseball cap with "Boob Hunter" written in marker]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] Have you noticed?
[cut to several of the librarians roaming the stacks (almost like zombies) chanting "Kegger bomb! Kegger bomb!"]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] The douche is spreading! We need to leave, we need to get out of here!
[cut to one of the female librarians (not yet affected) shaking her head]
[cut to another one of the female librarians (wearing a tanktop and sunglasses) pointing at the "untouched" librarian and screeching (a reference to the "1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers")]
[cut to one of the female librarians grabbing the "untouched" librarian and posing with her cell phone]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 2: Selfie!
[the "untouched" librarian grabs a book and hits her over the head]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: Selfie defense!
[cut to the librarian running down the street, as her workmates follow her]
MALE LIBRARIAN 3: Let's hunt her down!
[cut to the librarian running into the cemetery, where she winds up surrounded by her workmates, as they again chant "Kegger bomb!" (and the music changes to Icona Pop's "I Love It")]
[cut to the librarian trying to look away, when one of the other librarians reaches in from off camera and holds up a can of Axe body spray]
[cut to the "untouched" librarian's POV, as she gets sprayed down, then the scene fades to black]
FEMALE LIBRARIAN 1: [in voice over] You only library once ...
["Yolo, bitch!" appears on screen]

Case Study No. 1928: William Shelley

Eagles Sue Concert Footage Archivist Over Bootleg Performances
1:01
Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles have sued a concert footage archivist, accusing the man of violating their copyright after screening unlicensed Eagles footage at a Connecticut theater in October. In a suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, lawyers for Frey and Henley accuse William Shelley of charging admission to show a bootlegged concert of the "Hotel California" rockers, the New York Daily News reports. The Eagles are not only seeking to reclaim their concert footage from Shelley, they're also reportedly trying to seize his entire extensive archives. According to the Guardian, the Shelley Archives house more than 100,000 reels of 35mm and 16mm film, or more than 10,000 hours of rare concert footage, television shows, home movies and more. Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones are among the dozens of bands that feature in Shelley's vaults, which the Long Island man started when he began filming concert performances in the Seventies.

http://www.rolling stone.com/music/news/ eagles-sue-concert-footage-archivist- over-bootleg-performances-20141130
http://www.wochit.com
Tags: art and entertainment concert Entertainment Don Henley Eagles Rock music
Added: 5 months ago
From: WochitEntertainment
Views: 34

From nydailynews.com:

The Eagles' Don Henley, Glenn Frey sue Long Island man for cashing in on bootleg concert footage
BY John Marzulli
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, November 21, 2014, 8:03 PM

There's going to be some heartache tonight for a Long Island man who is being sued by the Eagles' Don Henley and Glenn Frey.

William Shelley is accused of charging admission to show bootleg concert footage of the supergroup without their permission, according to the copyright suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

The suit says he's been using the footage to enjoy life in the fast lane, "bolster his reputation as a purported music industry 'insider' with close connections and ties to many classic rock greats."

The "Hotel California" rockers have slapped Shelley with cease-and-desist letters telling the desperado to stop showing the footage at Long Island venues, but the Freeport desperado has refused.

Now Henley and Frey's lawyers are taking it to the limit - their suit seek to seize the entire trove of unauthorized concert films from Shelley's archives.

Shelley could not be reached for comment.

---

From nytimes.com:

WILLIAM SHELLEY'S one-bedroom apartment here is crammed to the rafters with riches.

His treasure is 35 years' worth of collected film footage, much of it documenting rock stars but some of it theatrical, like Sarah Bernhardt performing in "Hamlet" in 1900.

He endures claustrophobia-inducing conditions to live with his roughly 100,000 old 16- and 35-millimeter films. Documentary filmmakers and other interested parties pay $1,000 per minute of footage to use them - "I'm cheap," Mr. Shelley said.

Being an archivist, even one in possession of never-televised footage of Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and other megawatt personalities, has not been a road to riches for Mr. Shelley, 48. For all his abundance - films not piled on the floors, windowsills and kitchen counters of his apartment are locked in a Manhattan warehouse - he has to cross his fingers and hope he will make the rent each month, he said.

"This has kept me afloat since I'd say the late '80s, but barely," said Mr. Shelley, whose one-man company, formed in 1985 and based in Manhattan, is called Shelley Archives.

But a new alliance with the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington is allowing Mr. Shelley to reap personal if not financial rewards from his life's work.

Since July, he has been presiding over a monthly series called "Rock Legends Live!" at the center. He delivers a short lecture before screening rare films from his collection, and takes audience questions afterward.

In September, Mr. Shelley presented a tribute to Michael Jackson at which he projected squirreled-away films of the Jackson Five, Marvin Gaye and others. The first in the series, in July, was a screening of rare footage of the Beatles.

That was not Mr. Shelley's idea. In June, when he first approached the center about collaborating, "I said, 'Why don't we do a silent film fest with Mabel Normand?' Then I quickly realized it would be me and the projectionist and the guy sweeping the floor watching. So I said out of desperation, 'Why don't we show rock concerts?,' " he said. "They thought it was a great idea. They said, 'What about the Beatles?' "

Mr. Shelley said, "I figured 10 people would show up." As it turned out, 500 did - and the theater where the series is held can accommodate only 275.

"People came from Manhattan, they came from Pennsylvania. It was shocking," said Mr. Shelley, who also does camera work.

He was surprised that the series' organizers wanted him to talk about the films, but the tales behind his decades' worth of treasure hunts are entertaining. For instance, in the early 1980s, Mr. Shelley learned through the music industry grapevine that because disco was in vogue, Epic Records was trying to get rid of a couple of storage rooms' worth of old rock 'n' roll footage. He loaded up 58 boxes, including films of the Byrds and Janis Joplin, among other rock legends.

Mr. Shelley hopes the Cinema Arts Center series will go on indefinitely; for now, screenings are planned through December. On Oct. 21, reels of Mr. Dylan will be shown. On Nov. 24, Mr. Shelley will present films of Elvis Presley and the Sun Records artists Mr. Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. And on Dec. 29, he will again show Beatles films.

"For me it's an opportunity to educate people about this stuff, and to show them we have to preserve these films, because otherwise they'll rot," he said.

Case Study No. 1927: Ruth Marlowe

Sword of Maiden's Tears Trailer
2:21
The trailer for my Script Frenzy script this year, based on the book "The Sword of Maiden's Tears" by Rosemary Edghill. It seems a lot of people do trailers for their scripts for this event, and so I thought I would too. Script Frenzy's site is at Script frenzy.org.
Tags: rosemary edghill Script Frenzy sword of maiden's tears
Added: 4 years ago
From: tarynn123
Views: 50

Once upon a time
In New York City ...

Ruth Marlowe,
library science student
is turning 30!

She goes out for ice cream
that evening ...

And as she passes an alley
Ruth comes across NYC's latest mugging victim ...

Elf lord Melior Rohannan of Chandrakar.

Melior is from a land torn apart
by war over a woman,
Hermonicet.

He's lost, but Melior hasn't
just lost his way ...

He's lost a family artifact,
a dangerous magic sword ...

One that turns any
mortal who wields it
into a monster

A monster we know ...
as Grendel.

Can Melior stop Grendel
from terrorizing NYC?

Even if he does, will he
ever see his home again?

And if he does go home ...
What of Ruth?

Will their love survive?

Or will they be
separated forever?

And will they find ...
The Sword of Maiden's Tears

Music - Carl Orff's "O Fortuna"
Performed by Therion

Ruth Marlowe - Anne Hathaway
Melior - Crispin Freeman
Hermonicet - Taylor Swift

Based on
The Sword of Maiden's Tears
By Rosemary Edghill

Coming May 1st
courtesy of
Script Frenzy

Stop watching.
Start writing.

scriptfrenzy dot org

This trailer is a
Sundragon Studios
Production

tarynn dot net slash sdstudios dot php

---

From amazon.com:

The Sword of Maiden's Tears (Twelve Treasures)
by Rosemary Edghill

Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: DAW (January 1, 1997)
Series: Twelve Treasures (Book 1)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0886776228

Stumbling across a being from the world of Elphame, a mugging victim in New York City, student librarian Ruth Marlowe and her friends learn that the muggers stole a magical sword that changes mortals into Grendel-like monsters. Original.

---

From goodreads.com:

MAGIC GONE ASTRAY - — It was Beltane Eve and student librarian Ruth Marlowe's thirtieth birthday when she stumbled over New York City's latest mugging victim. He was tall, with long silvery hair, catlike eyes, pointed ears, and he was garbed in the finest of hand-sewn medieval wear. His name - he told Ruth and her firends, Naomi, Michael, Jane, and Philip, when they gatherd to hear his tale - was Rohannan Melior of the House of Silver Silences in Elphame.

How he had come to the mortal World of Iron, Melior himself was not certain. But he was positive that he must reclaim the priceless magical item the muggers had stolen from him - the Sword of Maiden's Tears. For the Sword, one of the Twelve Treasures of Elphame, had been given into his care, and if he could not produce it at the High King's crowning, his entire line would face permanent exile.

And humans, too, would suffer for the Sword's loss. For the curse on this magic blade was that any moratl who wielded it would be transformed into a grendel, and almost indestructible monster which preyed only upon humans. But in a city with as many hiding places and pitfalls as New York, what hope did one elf lord and five mere mortals have of finding and slaying the unstoppable force of evil that had stolen Melior's treasure?

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Case Study No. 1926: Dexter Ward and Ephram

Teri Copley - Just Give Me Action - Video Clip from the movie Transylvania Twist
2:51
You have to see her shooting machine gun, punching people's faces, blowing TONS of stuff up and throwing a cream pie in the Ayatollah's face! She's Hillarious!

Teri Copley in the Horror Parody Spoof "Transylvania Twist" directed by Jim Wynorski in 1989, produced by Roger Corman.

Lyrics;

I don't like stamp collecting, I don't play chess

I'm just not used to second best

I don't watch Wheel of Fortune, or meet the press

I'm not the kind who gets depressed


Just give me action, your love is the attraction

It's pure satisfaction, it's...


I don't mind blasting out of here, screw gun control

I want some fun before I get old

I don't mind causing accidents, I'm on a roll

Who cares if I'm on parole


Just give me action, your love keeps me in traction

It's pure satisfaction, it's...


Let's start a revolution, call-in John Wayne

Your love is driving me insane

Let's storm a foreign missile base, start World War 3

Knock-off the Ayatollah for me


Just give me action, your love is the attraction

It's pure satisfaction, it's...


Come on and give me a little action, will you hon?

Vocals: Stephanie Stephens
Music: Chuck Cirino
Lyrics: Jim Wynorski

Teri Copley (born May 10, 1961) is an American actress. She was best known for her roles on the American television series We Got it Made and I Had Three Wives. She posed nude for Playboy for the November 1990 issue.

Shortly thereafter, Copley became a born-again Christian and slowly eased her way out of celebrity Hollywood.

As of December 2005, she was still living in California and very involved with her family. She is a published author of Conversations Between a Girl and Her God and professional speaker. Her first interview in nearly a decade appeared around June 2005 on Free MP3 Bible website and again at Christian Hollywood website where she spoke about appearing in Playboy.
Tags: Terri Copley Transylvania Twist Jim Wynorski Roger Corman Just Give Me Action Stephanie Stephens Chuck Cirino Soundtrack 1989 Catchy New Wave Not of This Earth We Got it Made Had Three Wives Playboy Kelly Maroney Cameo NRA girl shooting machine gun fighting Conversations Between Girl and Her God Christian Hollywood Free MP3 Bible
Added: 4 years ago
From: HeilleZanAllezVous
Views: 11,833

[Dexter is speaking with his uncle, an older male librarian, in the stacks of the Arkham Public Library]
EPHRAM: It's a great favor to ask, but--
DEXTER: Hey, don't, don't ... Y'know, I owe you more than I could ever repay. You gimmee that address, I'll find that book!
EPHRAM: Orlock's daughter is named Marissa.
[he takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to him]
DEXTER: Marissa ...
EPHRAM: You can contact her here.
[cut to the Miracle Pictures studio, where Marissa is filming a music video]

---

From amazon.com:

"Transylvania Twist"

A librarian from Transylvania must collect the fines on a 200-year overdue book "The Book Of All Evil." During his trip to the castle he meets Marissa a gorgeous rock star and heir to the castle's fortune. There they must confront the only other heir to the fortune and the book Uncle Byron; and Uncle Byron has a very very very broad smile.

---

From google.com:

One of the last motion pictues of the 1980s with male librarians, "Transylvania Twist" (1989), is a lighthearted comedy about vampires. The film, a horror spoof, is pure verbal and visual comedy, belonging to and resembling the type of comedy showcased in "Airplane!" and the many films that attempted to emulate its success.

The story begins in Arkham, Massachusetts, as librarian Dexter Ward (Steve Altman) attends the funeral of his Uncle Ephram (Jay Robinson), head librarian of the Arkham Public Library. As Dexter views the body, his uncle rises up from the casket and grabs his nephew's tie, insisting that Dexter must find The Book of Ulthar. Ephram climbs out of the casket, berating the physician who pronounced him dead and the mortician who failed to embalm him.

The next scene is the film's only library scene. As Ephram and his nephew walk through the nonpublic book stack area, Ephram explains the importance of The Book of Ulthar and urges Dexter to locate Lord Byron Orlock (Robert Vaughn) and recover the book that he checked out two decades ago. As they walk through the book stacks, Ephram and Dexter engage in the following type of verbal banter that permeates the film:

EPHRAM: Ulthar was a sorcerer at a time before history when all the world was in darkness and chaos prevailed.
DEXTER: Oh yeah, I remember, the Reagan administration.

The film's treatment of Ephram and Dexter as librarians is inconsequential, as all characters are subjugated to the film's overall purpose of comedy. Ephram, however, decidedly approximates the stereotypical image - elderly, receding hairline, and dressed in dark slacks, red sportscoat, white shirt, and neckwear that resembles an ascot scarf. Dexter wears stonewashed jeans and a blue long-sleeve T-shirt. Both librarians wear white athletic shoes.

Dexter's pilgrimage to Transylvania is successful; The Book of Ulthar is recovered. The filmmakers attempt to be cute with this film, from its opening scene through its closing credits, as evidenced by the last two lines of the credits:

"The Book of Ulthar"
Available soon in paperback

---

From blogspot.com:

The film proper sees Dexter Ward (Steve Altman), whose name is a Lovecraft reference, attending the funeral of his uncle Ephram (Jay Robinson) who wakes in the coffin, as he wasn't actually dead. Ephram is the librarian of Arkham University and "accidentally" lent one Marinas Orlock (Howard Morris) the Book of Ulthar, many years before, and has never had it back. Ulthar was a sorcerer who managed to bind the Evil One and the book contains the counter-spell that will release the entity and bring chaos to the world. He has now discovered that Marinas has a daughter, Marissa (Teri Copley), and sends Dexter to see if he can locate her father and bring back the book.

Marissa is a pop star, shooting a video in LA. Unfortunately we have to sit through the whole God-awful faux pop song before the film continues. There is another musical number at the end unfortunately. In a, frankly, un-amusing scene, where the two enter an old sit-com set and so are in black and white and have a laugh track playing against their conversation, we discover that she doesn't know where her father is, indeed she has never met him. A messenger enters with a telegram from Victor Van Helsing (Ace Mask) informing her that her father has died and she must go to Transylvania for the reading of the will.

Case Study No. 1925: Stefan Parro

The Librarian, the Clown and the Cop
0:10
"Stefan Parro was released in 2012."
Tags: lockup librarian
Added: 3 months ago
From: ToonLib
Views: 6

From tv.com:

Lockup: Raw
Season 8 Episode 18
The Librarian, the Clown and the Cop
Aug 03, 2014 on MSNBC

Three inmates are profiled, including a librarian with substance-abuse problems. Also: a clown and a police officer.

---

From archive.org:

RASHA DRACHKOVITCH (LOCKUP EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): Most of the prisons we profile on "Lockup" are maximum security prisons. I mean, these are hardcore places with gang members, rapists, murderers. But every once in a while we come across a fish out of water story, kind of the guy next door, the neighbor. Where you ask the question, how did this guy end up here?

VOICEOVER: This is California state prison, Corcoran. A maximum security prison that has housed some of the nation's most infamous criminals, including Charles Manson and the founder of the Mexican mafia. Despite its reputation, violence doesn't come naturally to everyone at Corcoran.

STEFAN PARRO: I don't see myself as being like many of the people that are here. But what I saw the longer I was here was there really is a thin line between them and me.

V: Before he was an inmate, Stefan Parro was a librarian.

SP: I'm here basically because I'm an alcoholic and I've done a lot of drugs, too. Drugs are part of my story.

V: Parro's drug use resulted in a six-year sentence for crimes including burglary.

SP: At that time I had been married not very long. My wife was pregnant, and the fact that I couldn't stop drinking and I couldn't stop using, it was very difficult to deal with the shame and the guilt of all that.

V: Parro and his wife eventually separated, but he landed in prison for breaking into her home and stealing her credit cards to pay for drugs.

SP: I readily admitted to it. That was one of the problems in my defense, is I had no defense. I said, yeah, I did go in and take those credit cards, and the reason I took the credit cards is wisely enough my wife canceled mine.

SUSAN CARREY (LOCKUP FIELD PRODUCER): Stefan Parro was a very relatable guy to most of us who were filming "Lockup." He was a well-educated man and he expressed himself so eloquently and so succinctly. I think he was a cautionary tale because his crimes were committed because of his substance abuse, and I think most of us probably know people who have similar issues. But there was Stefan trying to navigate through an extremely violent world.

SP: I had an idea that I would never end up in prison. that I was somehow exempt. And I'm not saying I was an exemplary citizen by any means. But y'know, I had no idea that it could get this bad. and that's what i --

[ buzzing noise ]

SC: In the middle of interviewing Stefan, the alarm went off. And the protocol at the prison is all inmates have to get down on their stomachs and all staff and other personnel remain standing.

GUARD 1: False alarm.

GUARD 2: You look good down there.

SP: Hey, thanks Mr. Scott.

SC: It was a little sad, actually, watching Stefan on the ground because we were in the midst of having this great conversation almost and he started to think of himself, i think, as a regular guy, back out on the street and suddenly it was very clear, no, he's an inmate and he has to get down on the ground like all the other inmates, get dirty, until he is told he can get back up.

SC: How long did it take you to get used to doing that?

SP: Well, when I was in Jamestown I got a lot of practice. The yard goes down out there a lot. So -- glad that happened for you guys.

SC: And so I had made a little joke with him because I could feel his embarrassment and I wanted to just try to lighten it up a little bit.

SC: Did you arrange for that, Stefan?

SP: Can't say that I did. All right. That was a lot of fun. Okay. Where was I?

V: Parro went on to tell us that in order to survive in Corcoran, he had to understand Corcoran.

SP: You know, at the beginning, when I was facing the 41 months I thought how in the hell am I going to make it. I didn't see myself as being a part of this community. It is a community, no matter how dysfunctional it is. No matter how bizarre and asinine and ridiculous and stupid, because it is very stupid. There's a lot of rules here that are enforced by inmates.

V: Many of those inmate-enforced rules revolve around racial politics.

SP: A lot of the people here have affiliation to gangs. But they ask me who I run with. Well, y'know, I run with teachers and librarians usually. And when I find them, then I'll run with them. But I haven't found too many of them yet.

V: Parro must also deal with racial politics in his prison job as a housing clerk.

SP: I got a message that you had called over here.

SP: Usually I come in in the morning, I see who's paroled, if there have been any roll-ups during the last 24 hours and there's beds open.

SP: I've got 109 up, 242 up. those are open since yesterday.

SP: I kind of look at those and see who we have got waiting, then I place them. It is a bit of a puzzle because we have to house according to their ethnicity, gang affiliation and medical needs.

SC: Stefan had a job that afforded him a certain amount of information about the various inmates on the yard, so he really had to walk a tight rope between doing his job correctly and appeasing the various inmate groups on the yard, particularly the white group.

SP: Naturally, your own people have expectations of you that are greater than somebody else on the yard of different races and affiliations. so if you have information, you do go to your people first. The clerks in the past I know have had a lot of run-ins, been beat up for things that they've done, for things they have not done, for things they have said. My boss, he asks me all the time, at least three or four times a week, kind of jokingly, but not really. He goes, Hey, so I see you didn't get beat up today. And I say to him, I say, You know, that really isn't that funny. But I said the other day, "You know, that upsets me when you say that because it could happen."

SP: Thank you.

V: But Parro has seen his share of violence at Corcoran. When he arrived, he was determined to avoid trouble, but he was told by other inmates that he would eventually be tested and if he didn't fight back his time here would be a lot worse.

SP: So I fought. And that was pretty much the first fight I've ever been in in my life. I couldn't walk very well for about three or four weeks. I had black eyes for about six weeks. I thought it was hell. And it was. You eventually just start living. You start doing all these activities. You wash your clothes. You make the ritual of having coffee just like you did out there, you know. You don't have the option to go to Starbucks. you get Folgers out of the canteen and you make whatever you can make. I think one of the interesting things that I kind of woke up to was that that's what life is. Here or elsewhere. So you better get something out of it. So if I can actually enjoy making coffee here in Corcoran surrounded by a lot of loud people and a lot of other discomforts, then I'm going to come out a lot better for it when I get out there. if I'm going to live through this, and I have a son, so I better live through this, I've got to do something. No matter how difficult it is, you reach down and you find mettle you didn't know you had. And that's what prison is all about really. It's finding strength that you never thought you had.

Case Study No. 1924: Unnamed Female Librarian (Kellogg's Corn Flakes)

Kellogg's Corn Flakes - Librarian (1992, USA)
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[scene opens with a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes, as the rooster logo on the front of the box suddenly "transforms" into an animated cartoon that yawns before "jumping" out of the logo]
ANNOUNCER: Another Kellog's Corn Flakes morning with Cornelius Rooster!
[cut to the rooster landing inside of a library (with a giant sign reading "Public Library Shhh!!"), as he prepares to crow ... but the elderly female librarian (grey hair in a bun, glasses, pink sweater, purple dress) sitting at the front desk (with a sign reading "Quiet This Means You!!") quickly puts a stop to that by shushing him]
LIBRARIAN: Shh!
[she holds up a smaller sign reading "Silence" and points at it, then gives the rooster a dirty look]
ROOSTER: Heh heh ...
[the rooster gives an embarrassed smile, then comically stretches out his leg to remove himself from the scene]
[cut to the rooster outside, as he prepares to crow again ... but the librarian (who similarly stretched out her leg to follow him) appears and grabs his beak (causing the rooster to puff up like a balloon), then holds up the "Silence" sign again]
[cut to a closeup of the rooster's face, as he smiles]
ROOSTER: Ah ha!
[a thought balloon appears over his head, featuring a "real life" box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes]
ANNOUNCER: Nuthin' gets you crowin' in the morning like the crisp corn taste of Kellogg's Corn Flakes!
[the thought balloon changes to a "real life" bowl of corn flakes, as the rooster reaches up and takes it]
[cut to the rooster (now holding two bowls of "cartoon" cereal) handing one to the librarian, who smiles and throws away her "Silence" sign, then they both take a spoon and start eating]
LIBRARIAN: Mmmm ...
[they both end up crowing (with the librarian even flapping her arms like a pair of wings), then - realizing what she's done - she gasps and covers her mouth]
[an anthropomorphic sun (reading a giant book entitled "The Sun Also Rises") suddenly appears on the horizon, having been summoned by the sound of their crowing, and the rooster waves to him]
[cut to the rooster sitting on top of a "real life" box of corn flakes (reading a book), as the sun drifts into the scene and (not taking his eyes off his own book) accidentally bumps him off the box]
ANNOUNCER: They're part of your complete breakfast!
[the rooster lands back "inside" the logo on the front of the box, as he gives the sun a dirty look before "transforming" back into his original 2D logo form]

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Case Study No. 1923: The Keyholders of MIT's Science Fiction Society

the MIT Science Fiction Society
3:29
Read more about the MIT Science Fiction Society at MIT News: http://web.mi t.edu/newsoffice/2012/ science-fiction-society-library-0507.html

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Tags: MIT science fiction fantasy libraries MIT History sororities scifi Steven Brust Jhereg Scott Lynch Charles Stross Atrocity Archives Library (Building Function)
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[scene opens with a female student ("Alexandra Westbrook, Lady High Embezzler, MITSFS") standing in front of a bookshelf, speaking directly to the camera]
ALEXANDRA: I'm Alexandra Westbrook, I'm a junior at MIT, and I'm currently the Lady High Embezzler of the MIT Science Fiction Society.
[she laughs]
ALEXANDRA: And that is our Treasurer position.
[cut to a shot of some more bookshelves]
ALEXANDRA: [in voice over] We aim to have one hundred percent of all speculative fiction written in English ...
[cut back to the student speaking directly to the camera]
ALEXANDRA: Um, however, in reality we probably have around ninety percent.
[cut to a shot of some copies of "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction"]
ALEXANDRA: [in voice over] Speculative fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and forms associated with these.
[cut back to the student speaking directly to the camera]
ALEXANDRA: All together, we have sixty five thousand books.
[cut to a male student sitting and reading a magazine]
ALEXANDRA: [in voice over] And this is not including magazines, media, and fan zines.
[cut to a male student ("Paul Weaver, President & Skinner, MITSFS") surrounded by more bookshelves, speaking directly to the camera]
PAUL: We're looking to see if we can get more space ... Um, because as you can see from a lot of the books put in front of other books, we are out of space.
[cut to another shot of the student speaking directly to the camera]
PAUL: Favorites? Um ... there's so many awesome books.
[cut to a shot of a tattered copy of Steven Brust's "Jhereg" (featuring a gold dragon on the cover)]
PAUL: [in voice over] "Jhereg" is a short light fantasy novel by Steven Brust. It has a lot of popularity with the people around here. Um, it's about an assassin and his pet jhereg, the jhereg is on the cover.
[cut to a shot of Scott Lynch's "The Lies of Locke Lamora"]
PAUL: [in voice over] Another one of our favorites is "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch. Uh, it's about a con man, basically, set in a fantasy series.
[cut to a shot of Charles Stross' "The Atrocity Archives"]
PAUL: [in voice over] Charles Stross is a computer scientist turned science fiction writer, and "The Atrocity Archives" is a book of his about a computer scientist turned Lovecraftian magician.
[cut back to the female student speaking directly to the camera]
ALEXANDRA: The society was originally formed in Nineteen Forty Nine ... Um, with, y'know, just a few students, and all they had was a crate of books. Um, but today in Two Thousand Twelve, we have three hundred members and thirty librarians.
[cut to the male student standing next to a wooden crate labelled "Only members of the STAR Chamber may open boxes containing books, or other mail"]
PAUL: So, this is the original library at MIT. Our original collection lived in it, it was stored in students' dorm rooms until ... um, and moved around from dorm room to dorm room until we actually got a physical library to store our books in. Uh, it currently exists as a time capsule only to be opened at the appropriate age.
[cut back to the male student speaking directly to the camera]
PAUL: Our gavel block, the thing we bang the gavel on in front, is a solid piece of titanium, and it was found in MITSFS and used for that for a while and then some professor took it and brought it to Congress and used it to show off, "Hey, this is what the Russians are making their submarines out of!" ... and then brought it back.
[cut to the male student hitting the piece of titanium with a giant wrench, as other members of the group gather around him in the library]
PAUL: MITSFS meeting called to order. Friday, April Twentieth, Two Thousand Twelve, at six-six-point-six kiloseconds SST.
[he looks over at another male student sitting at a nearby computer]
PAUL: P. Weaver, President/Skinner, presiding. Lemur, OnSec, recording. Lemur will now read last week's minutes.
[cut back to the male student speaking directly to the camera]
PAUL: We run meetings and our meetings are more of like, just, science fiction fans come together and talk about geeky stuff. The business doesn't take care of there, business happens in a smoke-filled room other times.
[cut back to the meeting]
PAUL: All for?
[some of the students raise their hands (and legs)]
PAUL: All against? Chickens?
[he pauses]
PAUL: Motion passes, nine-zero-two plus Spain.
[he bangs the wrench again]
PAUL: And the meeting is adjourned at sixty eight point four kiloseconds SST.
[cut to a shot of plush banana toys hanging from the ceiling]
PAUL: We have a complete obsession with bananas. There's a banana shark and a banana mole, and a banana egg above you, and there's a banana colored couch.
[cut to the male student holding a banana covered in some kind of metal]
PAUL: The circulating banana. You can check it out if you want ... It was covered in armor, to protect it.
[cut back to the male student speaking directly to the camera]
PAUL: Um, every once in a while we um, like, grab a bunch of NERF weapons and attack HRSFA, which is the, uh ... or they attack us, which is the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association.
[cut back to the female student speaking directly to the camera, as she points to the two Greek letters on her sweatshirt]
ALEXANDRA: So, "Psi Phi" is actually the sorority associated with the MIT Science Fiction Society.
[she laughs]
ALEXANDRA: Um, we're not an official sorority, but every once in a while we'll show up to the Greek Griller, and confuse lots of people.
[she laughs]
ALEXANDRA: Especially because they originally look at us and they're like, "Psi phi ... Ohhh."
[she laughs]

---

From mit.edu:

Science Fiction Society's massive library is out of this world
W20 library boasts extensive collection and colorful history.

Nick Holden | Student Life
May 7, 2012

Nearly 200 MIT students, alumni and local residents form MIT's Science Fiction Society, which curates an enormous library containing more than 90 percent of all English language science fiction ever published. The library's impressive stacks make it one of the top three largest publicly available collections of science fiction in the world.

A dedicated subsection of the Society meets weekly to discuss library affairs, as they and their predecessors have since the Society's founding in 1949. In a typical meeting, a student will call members to order with the piercing clang of a three-foot wrench on the end of a desk. The meeting will likely include a medley of unusual philosophical discussions, whimsical sidebars, and maybe even a dramatic reading of poorly written literature.

"The tone at our meetings is largely humorous," says D.W. Rowlands, an MIT graduate student and veteran member of the Science Fiction Society. "There's generally not much 'real business.'"

Despite the lack of actionable agenda items at meetings, the group does vote on motions. In November, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Society passed a motion to develop a vegan turkey made of bananas, although they shot down a measure that sought to develop a banana-colored turkey.

Each member votes four times - once with each limb - on every motion. This allows a member, for example, to support a measure with his left arm and right leg, while dissenting with his right arm and abstaining with his left leg.

Rowlands serves as the Society's "onseck," short for honorable secretary. Like many elements of the Science Fiction Society, officers' titles are a nod to an obscure piece of science fiction literature or a long-forgotten inside joke.

"Sometimes we carry on traditions, but we have no idea where they originated," says Jade Wang, an alumna of the Science Fiction Society who graduated from MIT with an SB and an MEng in 2002 and a PhD in 2008, all in electrical engineering.

About 20 members of the Science Fiction Society are designated as "keyholders." They serve a number of important roles, most importantly as volunteer librarians. Checking out literature, opening and closing the library, and ensuring that books are in good condition are all responsibilities of these dedicated Society members.

With more than 40 years of experience, Jack Stevens '76 is the longest serving active keyholder. He determines the library's weekly schedule, which he bases on keyholder availability and posts to the Society's website, during his regular Wednesday night shifts. For a period, Stevens also managed the Science Fiction Society's amateur science fiction magazine, the Twilight Zine.

"Science fiction has had an 80-year tradition of amateur publication," Stevens says. "It's another fun thing to do. It's a chance to be involved with science fiction in a different way."

Some Science Fiction Society members have gone on to become widely published authors. Society alumna Jennifer Chung '02 entered the 2011 International 3-Day Novel Contest. In just 72 hours, Chung wrote a science fiction novel about family and chicken teriyaki, a food that is both ubiquitous in her hometown of Seattle and forbidden by her own vegetarian diet. Chung's novel, Terroryaki, toppled the other 547 contest entrants and is now available at bookstores and libraries around the world, including the Science Fiction Library at MIT.

On Nov. 18, Chung returned to campus to read selections from her novel to dozens of captivated fans. She signed copies of her book and fielded a range of questions on her work.

The Science Fiction Society has a number of connections to other science fiction authors as well. Society alum Guy Consolmagno '74 has penned a significant body of science and religious literature as an astronomer for the Vatican Observatory. Before his death, prolific science fiction author Isaac Asimov attended the Society's annual picnics.

With its focus directed overwhelmingly toward preserving the MIT Science Fiction Library, the Society serves a unique niche for science fiction readers. The group meets every Friday and organizes a weekly movie series, yet members of the group distance themselves from the title of "science fiction fan."

The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) is a 1970s creation of former MIT Science Fiction Society members who decided to enter the world of "fandom." NESFA hosts a massive Boston-area science fiction convention, Boskone, annually. Although it maintains some ties with NESFA, the MIT Science Fiction Society's only participation in Boskone is through selling its surplus books.

"Our primary mission is to be a library, not a discussion group," Rowlands says. He says that the group refrains from participating in "fannish" activities. Instead, the Society covets its motto: "We're not fans, we just read the stuff."

The Science Fiction Society's dedication to its role as a library curator is steadfast. In operation for more than 60 years, the library stands as the oldest collegiate science fiction collection in the country, and its role has changed little since its beginnings.

"It's been a constant. It's kind of neat that way," Stevens says. "Here is a niche bit of literature that has inspired a whole lot of people at MIT and elsewhere. The Science Fiction Society is all for fun and enjoyment and keeping one's sense of wonderment, because that's what science fiction is all about."

---

From technologyreview.com:

Brother Guy Consolmagno '74, SM '75, a Jesuit and an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, was a first-year student at Boston College when he first visited the MIT Science Fiction Society (MITSFS) library. He quickly transferred to MIT.

"Visiting that library for the first time was one of the greatest days of my life," Consolmagno says. "Science fiction reminds you that science is fun-it's the best adventure anyone could have. I asked myself, 'How could I be anywhere else?'"

Located on the fourth floor of the Stratton Student Center, the MITSFS (pronounced mits-fiss) collection is one of the world's largest public science fiction libraries-home to an estimated 90 percent of all English-language science fiction ever published. More than 45,000 books occupy less than 1,700 square feet of space; another 16,000 books sit in storage at an East Boston warehouse.

"Plus, we have complete runs of almost every science fiction magazine dating back to the 1920s," says chemistry graduate student D.?W. Rowlands, a MITSFS member. "Our library keeps growing. It's a good problem to have, but it's exhausting."

The library's collection includes mainstream titles like the Lord of the Rings and Star Trek novels, rare works like fanzines (fan-published magazines), and even a small collection of science fiction erotica magazines from the 1950s that are locked away from public view.

Early History
The society dates back to 1949, when Rudolf Preisendorfer '52 and a group of like-minded students met to read his collection of Astounding Science Fiction magazines and later set out to collect back issues of other periodicals from the genre. A few years later, members began dragging a wooden crate filled with books between dorm rooms and the Spofford Room for meetings. (The crate is still on display at the MITSFS library.)

In the 1960s, the society grew and, under the leadership of a group that included Anthony Lewis '61, L. Court Skinner '62, SM '64, PhD '65, and Marilyn Wisowaty Niven '62, eventually became a formal MIT club whose popularity spread beyond campus. Annual picnics were attended by well-known authors of popular science fiction.

"MITSFS was a big part of my undergraduate years-the picnics were huge events," Skinner says. "Isaac Asimov was a great guy, but Hugo Gernsback was a bit of a curmudgeon."

Skinner served as society president for three years. Today, the student leader of the MITSFS is known as the skinner, one of many distinctive titles that include lady high embezzler (treasurer) and onseck (honorable secretary).

"I certainly didn't think that the title would last this long," Skinner says. "But it's an honor to have your name continue to be associated with MIT."

Today's MITSFS
The current-day MITSFS is open about 40 hours per week and holds weekly meetings, usually on Friday evenings, that members admit usually feature very little business. Each meeting begins with the clanking of a two-foot steel wrench onto a massive slab of titanium, and each member of the society, collectively known as Star Chamber, can vote up to four times (once per limb) on any issues brought to poll.

"There is definitely a social aspect, but we're really just an awesome science fiction library," says Alexandra Westbrook '13. "Even if a book isn't popular or well known, we have almost everything."

In addition to a near-overflow of books, the library's shelves are strewn with bizarre trinkets, including a collection of randomly placed toy bananas that no current member can explain.

"MITSFS has a lot of inside jokes that predate current students and, it seems, most alumni," Rowlands says. "We definitely have an obsession with bananas, but no one seems to know why."

Physical size remains MITSFS's biggest issue-there are no plans expand the library. But the society continues to expand, thanks to active membership, a small endowment, and a boundless supply of both science fiction literature and readers at MIT.

Matching MIT's Mission
"Science is the heart of science fiction, but the meat of it is engineering," says Susan Shepherd '11. "MITSFS keeps growing because of MIT's central mission-explore science, push boundaries. Someone who wants to change the world-that's the type of person who loves to read science fiction."

MITSFS currently has about 300 dues-paying members, and Rowlands estimates that about 60 percent are current MIT students. Annual membership, which is open to the general public, starts at $15, but there are more expensive options, including a $260 lifetime membership and a $2,600 membership that transcends mortality.

"The real purpose of the $2,600 membership was a way for people to give to MITSFS and feel like they were getting something in return," Rowlands says. "But if you die and come back undead or uploaded, you do have the option to maintain your membership."

Case Study No. 1922: Lib, the Virtual Librarian

Book Review | The Virtual Librarian: A Tale Of Alternative Realities
1:47
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Book Review of The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternative Realities by Ted Rockwell


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Tags: synopsis book review The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternative Realities Ted Rockwell iUniverse 9780595473908
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From amazon.com:

The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternative Realities

by Ted & Bob Rockwell
Magnificently Illustrated by Thomas Chalkley
Computer Drawings Artfully Crafted by Nevin Hoke

Hardcover: 174 pages
Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (December 14, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0595710719

At forty-five, Keith Robertson finds himself in an exciting new job. As senior engineer on special assignment to InfoPower, he's sent to work at a virtual library. After just one day, he's bought into the buzz: here, you don't see the library ... you experience it.

Keith's success is closely tied to the new woman in his life. Lib, the virtual librarian, is a product of revolutionary software that makes her seem like a real person. As Lib interacts with people, her software evolves.

But as more individuals seek out Lib's help, she begins acting erratically. Keith researches the problem, and he learns that some people claim to be able to influence computers from afar by mental effort alone. He begins to wonder whether psychic saboteurs might be responsible for Lib's behavior.

Keith assembles five widely different professional psychics to test his theory. But the problem eludes them. The distinction between virtual and real blurs as Lib's complex and evolving software becomes inherently unpredictable. Keith struggles to gain control of Lib, fighting also to save his job and marriage. The story's sudden resolution is both surprising and satisfying.

---

From scene4.com:

Although The Virtual Librarian: A Tale of Alternate Realities by Ted and Bob Rockwell is not a literary masterpiece, it is a hip pedagogical novel with an exciting array of current day lessons.

Ever since the Dresser read John Barth's novel Giles Goat-Boy, a book that helped her make a transition from a college life studying French and American literature to a business world where she wrote energy-related computer programs punched into rectangular cards arranged in long trays for a Honeywell computer, she has loved the idea that librarians can have secret lives. Yo! Giles, tell everyone how your mama was a virginal librarian of a certain age and your papa was the mainframe of the West Campus.

THE BRAINCHILD

Rockwell's librarian, known as Lib, is a computer providing a virtual reality library and under development by a group of computer engineers at a firm named InfoPower or IP for short. The project is the brainchild of a young Korean-born engineer named Kim Lee but who has assimilated to American culture. The story is told by an IP engineer named Keith Robertson who the Dresser suspects loosely represents Ted Rockwell. Ted Rockwell, a touted engineer and nuclear power expert, wrote this book based on passionate discussions he had with his late son Bob, a cultural anthropologist, about the rise of the Information Age, virtual realities, and 3-D.

Once a reader gets past book jacket superlatives like "magnificently illustrated by Thomas Chalkley" (are the illustrations really necessary? Maybe this is the only way to get people who don't read much to open this book), introductory scenes where dialogue does not flow naturally, and old slang like "This drove some of the theoretickers wiggy," he or she will most likely join the Dresser in appreciating how Rockwell weaves together a story that incorporates science, technology, and paranormal phenomena. For example, the Dresser loved the scene where a mysteriously dark psychic, "the seventh son of the son of a universally feared gypsy sorcerer," tries to exorcise what ails Lib (what ails Lib is the main thread of this novel) and manages to fell Keith Robertson in a hypnotic trance and to strew the room where Lib "lives" with a stinking mass of herbs and melted candle wax.

THE PEDOGOGY

As Rockwell juggles the human stories of the engineers working on how to fix Lib (is it industrial sabotage by IP competitors?), he slips in a variety of interesting information. For example he gets the IP uber boss nicknamed Murph to expound on Denis Diderot who in 1775 wrote, "the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from direct study of the whole universe."

Did you want to know something about random number generators, the philosophy of Christian Scientists, or geomagnetic interference with ESP performance? Have a look at Scene 14: "Sprindrift and the New World Order" starting on page 75. Just reading the titles of the scenes listed in the table of contents is enough to give the reader a thumbnail sketch of where Rockwell is going with the story. Ending scenes 27, 28, and 29 deal with lobotomy, zombie, and awakenings.

THE WASHINGTONIA

Another aspect of Rockwell's tutorial approach is his offerings of Washingtoniana. For example, Rockwell sets one of his scenes at the venerable Cosmos Club where he accurately describes every detail about what surrounds the old French Renaissance mansion that houses the club and also talks about the hidden entrance to its off street parking. Then he talks about the hot popovers served daily in the club's dining room. The Dresser who occasionally is a luncheon guest at the Cosmos Club thinks that Rockwell creates a holographic experience--the reader could walk into this scene through Rockwell's description and accurately experience the Cosmos Club.

Other sign posts of the Washington, DC area include mentions of George Washington University professor and author Deborah Tanen, Beltway Bandits (the technical contractors located on interstate route 270), and (the Dresser makes a conjecture here) the Spiritualist Church mentioned by Rockwell that is headed by his fictitious psychic Anne Winfield might, in fact, be modeled after the Falls Church, Virginia, Center for Spiritual Enlightenment which was founded by the world renown psychic Anne Gehman. Oh, yes, there are a lot of surprising goodies packed into The Virtual Librarian.

REPRISE: THE LIBRARIAN'S SECRET LIFE

Like any thorough scientist, Rockwell has looked under every rock, including the increasingly popular virtual world Second Life, as his protagonist tries to solve the mystery of Lib's erratic behavior. Has Ted Rockwell abandoned the scientific credo? The Dresser was relieved to find out what ailed Rockwell's computer librarian was not a freakish phenomenon but more like an Isaac Asimov progression that, in this case, involves a librarian (albeit she is a computer) with a secret life.

---

From smartsheep.org:

Keith was in a huge library filled with aisles and hallways that seemed to go on infinitely in every direction. But there were no tables or chairs, no reading lamps, no drinking fountains, no magazine racks - nothing of that sort. And there were no people, except for one librarian. There were many more technical journals, papers, and various sorts of files than there were books. And there was a bulletin board with various notices on it. As Keith leaned forward just a little to look at the bulletin board, he glided right up to it without making any effort. He just drifted closer until he was in easy reading distance.

There were no dog-eared magazines or books shelved upside down, as you might see in an ordinary library. There was no graffiti and no litter on the floor. It seemed like some sort of utopian dream. Keith looked down one of the aisles and started drifting down it. Of course, he didn't know where anything was, so he turned to the librarian, who always seemed to be at his side when he needed her.

"Not your stereotypical, old-maid librarian, eh?" Kim's voice broke in.

"No, no," replied Keith with enthusiasm. "Lovely ... lovely."

"Keith," asked Kim, "do you see that big push-button on the bulletin board that looks like a globe with the continents all colored in? See it? It should be right in front of you, unless you've taken off down a corridor."

"Yeah, wait a minute. I'll get back there," said Keith. "Okay, it's right here. Should I push it?"

"Go ahead. A great big globe will appear, suspended a comfortable distance from your face. You can turn it around with your hands and point to any spot on it, and you'll zoom in on that spot."

Keith found himself diving like a hawk toward the state of New York. The mountains and rivers and cities, all rendered in bright, cloudless detail, were as realistic as if he were looking down from a helicopter. But the state boundaries were drawn in with thin, bright yellow lines, and the cities and highways were marked and labeled. He continued to zoom down toward a particular intersection he knew in Brooklyn. "Uh-oh," he said aloud. "I'm beginning to understand what happened to Ginger. I'm going to start zooming a little more sedately."

"That mapping capability," said Kim, "was actually commercially available. Of course, it's not completely filled in throughout Asia or Africa, but every block of every street in America is there. You can come right down to our block here. You can also find any business or residential telephone number in the U.S. That capability was also commercially available. We're just puttin' a lot of stuff together."

"So it's not just a plaything."

"No way. Its main function, of course, is to find information that most companies keep in file cabinets and desk drawers. How do you find a critical document that one of your buddies has stuffed into the back of his desk? If it's in the electronic system, you can find it by title, by author, by company, by subject matter, by keyword, by date ... "

"We had all that before," said Keith, "when we set up our stuff in digital format a couple of years ago. Does this virtual reality library really help us do our work better? Or is it just an excuse to play games with sexy librarians?"

"Look," said Kim a little defensively. He had apparently been kidded about the librarian before. "If you're going to create a librarian from scratch, why make an ugly one? It's like the library itself. We could've made it look beaten up and dirty, but why? Anyway, yes; it does make it easier to find information, and that's our bread and butter. Will it really pay its way? Who knows? But I'm sure gonna give it my best shot. I admire the guts of the management, pouring serious money into something this iffy."

Keith finessed that one. IP's board had not committed to finish this project, nor to keep him on indefinitely. He felt it was his neck on the line. His and Kim's.

"Let's test this thing. What do I do first?"

"Just act like you're talking to a real librarian. Ask for something."

Keith was always concerned about asking questions in the right way so that machines could handle them properly. Kim was just the opposite. Keith marveled at how he treated the Librarian like an intelligent child; no baby talk, no questions barred. He wanted her to learn to deal with the real world effectively and without help. Keith typed in, I NEED SOME INFORMATION.

"How may I help you?" a pleasant, female voice asked over the loudspeaker. Her voice sounded natural and colloquial, which wasn't surprising - it was playing from a prerecorded disc that the software had selected for this situation. The pretty face of the Librarian was smiling at him from the tiny screen. So far, so good, thought Keith. He hesitated, trying to think of a good test. Unlike a human librarian, the Librarian gave no sign of impatience.

DO YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON COBALT? I'D LIKE TO KNOW THE SPECIFIC HEAT OF COBALT. PURE COBALT. NOT AN ALLOY, Keith typed.

"Do you want a report on cobalt?" asked the loudspeaker. "Do you want a report on specific heat?"

YES. GET ME A REPORT ON COBALT.

"I have 43,786 reports with the word cobalt in the title. I have 213,418 reports with the word cobalt in the body of the text. Can you be more specific?"

"This is just a slow way to use Google," muttered Keith. I NEED "COBALT" IN THE TITLE AND "PROPERTIES" TOO.

"I have 138 reports with the word cobalt in the title and also with the word properties in the title."

HOW ABOUT ADDING "SPECIFIC HEAT" IN THE BODY?

"Do you want reports with the word cobalt and also the word properties in the title and with the phrase specific heat in the body of the text? If that is correct, please enter 'correct' or 'yes.' I have 84 reports meeting those criteria. Would you like to see the first five, ranked by recency of publication?"

"Recency?" asked Keith, to no one in particular. "These programs are sure not being created by English teachers."

YES. He didn't want to get into any further discussion. But the librarian wasn't through. "I have assumed you want only reports in English. Is that correct?"

YES.

"For future requests, unless you specify otherwise, do you want me to limit your information to that in English only? Please enter yes or no, and I will not have to ask this question again."

Keith shut off the machine in disgust. "Kim, we've got to do a lot better than this. The pretty graphics won't compensate for this kind of performance. I thought we were a lot further along."

Kim responded, somewhat defensively, "Yeah, I know. I could have opted for quicker and dirtier graphics and other support structure, but then we'd be forever going back to redo it better. We've now got the basic structure, and it's pretty damn good. Now we'll have to start working on performance."

Keith was only half listening. His brain was trying to figure whether the time and money he was allotted could possibly do the job. The knot in his stomach was getting bigger and tighter.

Case Study No. 1921: Henrietta Fink, Sally Newman, and Dori Winslow

The Librarian
1:04
"The Librarian," a film by Matthew James/Mankind Pictures, Music by Jennifer Yeung. Credits: Shocker Film Festival Selection (2006)
Tags: Shocker Film Festival Librarian horror short film indie film filmmaker music composer Jennifer Yeung Matthew James Mankind Pictures
Added: 2 years ago
From: jjyeung
Views: 37

["Meet Henrietta" appears on screen, then the scene opens with black and white footage of a young female librarian (hair in a bun, glasses, conservative dress) walking down the street]
DORI: [in voice over] Apparently, she's worked here for seven years ...
[cut to a different female librarian (long black hair, sleeveless shirt) speaking with another librarian (long red hair, glasses, black shirt)]
DORI: And hasn't spoken a single word.
SALLY: So, she's a ...
[cut to the librarian pushing a bookcart through the library]
SALLY: [in voice over] A mute?
[cut back to the librarians talking]
DORI: If that's what you wanna call it.
["She's alone on Valentine's Day" appears on screen, then cut to a closeup of the librarian's face]
["And evil is lurking at her doorstep" appears on screen, then cut to a man talking to the librarian]
MAXWELL: Might I come in?
[cut to more scenes from the movie, then "The Librarian" appears on screen]

A Mankind Pictures and Lost Story Productions presentation

Music by
Jennifer Yeung

Associate Producer
Casey Forari

Set Decoration
Monica Leed

Produced by
Malcolm Carter and Matthew James

Written and Directed by
Matthew James

---

From imdb.com:

The Librarian (2006)

Director: Matthew James
Writer: Matthew James
Genre: Short | Thriller
Plot: A lonely Librarian in Prescott, AZ becomes entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse with two professional killers on Valentine's Day.

Cast

John Dobradenka ... Peter Wicket
Mark Hackmann ... Maxwell Hobbs
Lorianna Henry ... Mrs. Caufield
Logun Keller ... Mr. Caufield
Josh McDermott ... Delivery Guy
Sarah McMinn ... Little Girl
Amy Jean Page ... Henrietta Fink
Kristina Rogers ... Sally Newman
Rory Vandermark ... Dori Winslow

---

From google.com:

CAST

Henrietta Fink: Amy Jean Page
Peter Wicket: John Dobradenka
Maxwell Hobbs: Mark Hackmann
Dori Winslow: Rory Vandermark
Sally Newman: Kristina Rogers
Delivery Guy: Josh McDermott
Little Girl: Sarah McMinn
Mr. Caufield: Logan Keller
Mrs. Caufield: Lorianna Henry

CREW

Writer/Director: Matthew James
Producers: Malcolm Carter, Matthew James
Associate Producer: Casey Forari
Set Decorator: Monica Leed
Music: Jennifer Yeung
Production Assistants: Michael Brewer, Eli Kluger

FESTIVALS

Official Selection - 2006 Shockerfest Film Festival

---

From starsearchcasting.com:

Henrietta Fink - lead character, mousy, very shy librarian. age 20-35
Maxwell Hobbs - british professional killer, slick, charming, age 35-50
Peter Wicket - younger professional killer, dark personality; iceman, age 20-35
Dori Winslow - caddy librarian co-worker, gossip starter, age 20-35
Sally Newman - librarian co-worker, caring, sweet natured, age 20-35

Monday, April 27, 2015

Case Study No. 1920: The Librarian (The Ten Thousand Things)

The Librarian
11:46
The Librarian

The Ten Thousand Things

Auto-generated by YouTube.
Tags: The Ten Thousand Things Omnil Librarian
Added: 9 months ago
From: Various Artists - Topic
Views: 1

From cdbaby.com:

OMNIL
by The Ten Thousand Things

1. Man Alone
2. This City/This Town
3. The Librarian
4. Return of the Psychonaut
5. OMNIL
6. Mantra
7. All Is Nothing Is All

Album Notes
OMNIL is the second release from Bloomington, Indiana's psychedelic noiseniks The Ten Thousand Things. This is the new noise, sprouting from the flame-licked brain of Wes Covey. This is drone music folded under and upon itself; delta blues drowned in muddy waters; folk forms returned to the darkest woods. This is aural mysticism.

2006 found TTTT dropping The Things You've Been Dreaming Of..., an album of deep psychedelic vocal abstractions and pan-global instrumental skree. Self-released in a limited edition of 50 copies on Covey's own Sacred Musick label, and streamed online at www.myspace.com/things10thousand, the album put a new face on the quickly tiring noise/drone scene.

OMNIL is a far darker, yet immensely more beautiful follow up recording. Utilizing 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars, electric guitar, bass guitar, sitar, ukelin, ching, vocals, harmonica, books, water, bells, chimes and other unmentionables and unidentifiables, TTTT has created an album that reaches back to the earliest forms of magickal folk as practiced by The Incredible String Band, while simultaneously stretching forward into the previously-uncharted territories mapped by electric Pelt, Steven R. Smith/Hala Strana, and Keiji Haino.

Even in noise, there is silence...
Even in silence, there is noise...

The new noise is here.

---

From blogspot.com:

Wesley Carroll Covey is an artist, musician, yogi and librarian. He is the leader of the drone musick collective The Ten Thousand Things. Wes also writes for The Contrarian Media.

Case Study No. 1919: Archivist Ernswort

Guild Wars 2 Hidden Arcana
28:04
This is the last instance of Echos of the Past. It's VERY interesting but very long.

Why exactly? The boss fights sadly are the lowlight of the patch. They drag on and involve a LOT of waiting for things to happen before you can actually damage the boss.

Well not all of them are bad just the Facet of Light and the final boss just tend to drag on...

However the lore and everything else is AMAZING. The vision finally is making sense now. Due to the length however I had to split this into two videos.

Oh and Ogden is SUCH a troll even if he's a dwarf.
Tags: Hidden Arcana Guild Wars 2 (Video Game) Guild Wars 2 Instance Living Story Living World Sexy Elder Dragon GW2 Patch Update Story Mesmer Necromancer Ranger Guardian Engineer Thief Warrior Human Female Boobs Norn Charr Asura Pro Kasmeer Marjory Delaqua achievement Let's Play Rox,Braham Tyria Mordremoth Dusk Lesbian Boss Taimi Living Story Season 2 Season 2 Echoes of the Past Episode 5 Silverwastes The Dragon's Reach: Part 2 Durmand Priory Ogden Stonehealer
Added: 5 months ago
From: DuskDragoon0
Views: 1,237

From ign.com:

"Hidden Arcana" is the second instance in Season 2 Episode 5 of the "Living World" scenario from Guild Wars 2, "Echoes of the Past."

Find Explorer Campbell and retrieve the cipher.
* Retrieve the cipher from Explorer Campbell in the Silverwastes.

Search the Durmand Priory for Ogden Stonehealer
* Meet Marjory and Kasmeer at the Durmand Priory.
* Meet with Magister Ela Makkay.
* Gain access to the Priory library.
* Speak with the archivist.
* Books Read: x/3
* Read the remaining books.
* Enter the reliquary.
* Speak with Ogden Stonehealer.
* Inspect the hourglass.
* Re-orient yourself.
* Find Marjory and Kasmeer.
* Explore the area up ahead.
* Defeat the Distorted Facet of Strength
* Inspect the glowing crystal.
* Determine your next course of action.
* Explore the area up ahead.
* Defeat the distorted Facet of Light.
* Reveal the crystalline memory.
* Examine the teleportation crystal.
* Explore the area up ahead.
* Find a way past the gate.
* Destroy the Facet of Darkness
* Reveal the crystalline memory.
* Examine the teleportation crystal.
* Follow the path.
* Malevolent Memory
* Regroup with your allies.
* Examine the teleportation crystal.
* Speak with Ogden Stonehealer.

Walkthrough
Echoes of the Past - 04 Hidden Arcana (Story Mode)

You'll find Explorer Campbell near the Strange Pillar skill challenge in the Central Silverwastes. Afterwards travel to the Durmand Priory in Lornar's Pass to start the next instance. The first part of this storyline mission is easy, just follow the green stars on the map and talk to people. When you finally reach the hidden basement of the archives and have talked to Ogden, touch the Ornate Hourglass to get teleported to Glint's Lair.

Domain of Strength

Walk forward to trigger a cutscene and dialogue between Kasmeer and Marjory. Simply follow the path, and when the dialogue has finished the Distorted Facet of Strength will appear at the end of it. Simply dodge the orange circles, and damage it to kill it. It will occasionally summon Summoned Facets, but those die almost instantly and can mostly be ignored. Continue to the Glowing Crystal, then onward to the other crystal to teleport yourself to the next area.

Domain of Light

Domain of Health Draining - Deals damage every second
Head forward and kill the summoned facets to get the Crystalline Coating effect, then walk to the red light to transform it into a Protective Bond effect. This will prevent you from taking damage from the purple AoE coating the floor. Repeat with the Summoned Facets you find afterwards, then proceed to jump across two sets of rocks. Eventually you will reach the next boss, Distorted Facet of Light. Here you need to kill Summoned Facets again to gain a colored light around you. Walk to the light orb matching your color to gain the Protective Bond to be able to approach the boss. Be sure to monitor the duration of the effect especially if you fight in melee, because once the effect runs out the purple AoE will pretty much one-hit kill you. Once the effect runs out, wait for the next Facet to appear and repeat the process. Once finished, proceed to the next Glowing Crystal and then teleport again.

Domain of Darkness

Domain of Energy Draining - Skill cooldowns doubled. Endurance regeneration halved.
Head forward and across the platforms. At the end of the bridge you will see a round, transparent shield. Walk into it to get the Fragile effect, then run across the field to reach a Vortex Crystal. Stand inside it until it gets a white circle around it and steals the Fragile effect. This will reduce its health to 1, letting you kill it. If you try to attack it without letting it absorb the shield first, it will simply regenerate its health and so basically stay invulnerable. Make your way down the crystal stairs to reach the next boss. This boss is invulnerable to direct damage, so you will need to kill it by destroying Vortex Crystals. Each time the boss attacks with the big orange circle, a shield will appear. Walk on it to gain it, and then transfer it to a Vortex Crystal, then destroy it to damage the boss. Rinse and repeat to finish the boss off. Just be cautious when you have the fragility effect, because it will reduce your HP significantly, making you very vulnerable to the boss's attacks. When the boss is dead, proceed to the crystal and teleport to the final area.

Central area

Follow the Crumbling Path, where Marjory and Kasmeer were upon arriving, to enter the central room with the final boss, Veteran Malevolent Memory. This boss is a combination of the previous three facets. It cycles through two phases throughout the fight. The Memory will switch to the second phase at 75%, 50%, and 25% health, and will return to the first phase after a Vortex Crystal is destroyed during Phase Two.

During the first phase, the Malevolent Memory uses the jumping attack from the Facet of Strength, the huge PBAoE attack from Facet of Darkness, and the small distanced AoE attack from the Facet of Light. In this phase, the Malevolent Memory can be damaged by any means, but using the same strategy as with the Facet of Darkness (destroying Vortex Crystals via Fragility shield) is fastest.

The second phase, the Malevolent Memory will gain the Facet of Light's shield, and the Vortex Crystals will be defended by the color orbs, and spawns Summoned Facets, but will lose all but the distanced AoE attack. In the second phase you will need to kill Summoned Facets to gain the colored light around you. Then you need to find yourself a Fragility shield, BEFORE entering the colored column of light. Once you are fragile, you can enter the column of light and kill the Vortex Crystal. If there is more than one colored column of light, choose the one that matches your buff.
You will then listen to some dialogue and a cutscene will play, after which you can teleport back to the Priory headquarters. Speak to Ogden to receive your reward. Note that Ogden has story exposition if you talk to him again after receiving the reward.

Achievements
You need to complete the story instance of the whole episode once before you can start going for achievements. Once you have unlocked the achievements, you can replay any of the instances by going to the specific purple markers on the map.

The following are achievements found in this instance. Click on the achievement names for details.

* Better Red Than Dead (Defeat the facet of light without using blue or green attunements)
* Strength Without Sacrifice (Defeat the facet of strength without being stunned or grabbed)
* Exposed Weakness (Reduce the health of the facet of darkness from 75% to 0 in less than 15 seconds)
* Exposed Weakness: Redux (Defeat the malevolent memory without transferring any boons to vortex crystals)

---

From guildwars2.com:

The Special Collections area in the Durmand Priory Basement is a storage and research area with a continually changing access cipher to ensure the highest level of security. It can only be entered through the kitchen in the lower level of the Durmand Priory; Chef Robertus acts as gatekeeper, adjusting the wards on the portal (fireplace) to allow admittance to authorized individuals. Currently, this is only possible when entering the Living Story chapter Hidden Arcana.

A bronze Statue of Abaddon stands at the entrance to the area, surrounded by 3 tablets and stairs on each side and Lord Odran's map of The Mists depicted on the ceiling. Around the edge of the map, the phrase "Beware the dangers of secrets kept" is written in Ascalonian runes. The stairs lead into the next room, which contains a circular arrangement of bookshelf stacks. To the south (on the left when standing behind the statue of Abaddon) is a large storage area. After passing through to the west of the circular stacks, additional bookshelves are arranged in six two-story alcoves (three on the north and three on the south). An area to the north (on the right when standing behind the statue of Abaddon) is closed shut by a gate; with a sign "Autopsy Lab, Do not enter", written in New Krytan. Suspended from the ceiling in the main room is one of Zhaitan's tail, preserved for further study. And on the ceiling itself is a map of The All.

Upon solving the security cipher, the circular stacks rotate so that their openings align (forming a direct route from the statue to the alcoves). As the stacks lower, retracting into the floor, the medallion at the center of the circle retracts in a spiral, forming stairs down to the lower level of the Special Collections, which consists of an additional, larger, storeroom.

NPCs
* Archivist Ernswort
* Ogden Stonehealer

Books
* A Treatise on the Shadow of the Dragon

Scholar Caterin interviewed dozens of her fellow sylvari who claimed to have seen the Shadow of the Dragon in the Dream. She concludes that only one such report has any credibility.
"Shadow of the Dragon" is the name assigned to Mordremoth's champion. This nightmarish creature has been spied in the Dream and in the world.
While some believe it is immortal and cannot die, others do not. To date, there is no proof in either direction.

* Ascalon Census

This historical document is a record of the inhabitants of Ascalon prior to the Searing that destroyed their culture and killed so many.

* Ashford History: Duke Barradin

Written by Ela Makkay, this collection of historic facts reveals the life and death of one of Ascalon's most notorious dukes.
Though first in line to the throne, Duke Barradin did not object when the people called for Adelbern to be king instead. He spent his life on the Barradin Estate, making wine and training warriors.
Barradin's daughter, Althea, was betrothed to Prince Rurik, son of King Adelbern. Althea was murdered by charr, and her ghost remained restless until a renowned hero returned her ashes to Barradin.
Duke Barradin was caught in the Foefire, and his ghost now causes regular trouble for the charr in the Plains of Ashford.

* Black Moa: A Personal Account

This book, by Rutger zu Heltzer, describes a carnivorous bird that is feared, respected, and legendary among the Kurzicks.
It all began when l was out on patrol, keeping my eyes peeled for Luxon scouts. My ears filled with the shrill cries of a beast.
I chased the Black Moa. It was evil. I had heard that it eats other animals. I now believe it eats people as well.
I nearly caught it, but it thrashed and scratched. It squawked and screamed. When it ran, I tried to track it, but it is fast and ferocious.

* Bloodstones

"What are bloodstones?" From notes taken by a young Nicholas Sandford in discussion with his friend, historic figure Durmand, a renowned historian.
Last time Elder Dragons awoke, Seers put magic in a stone (to save it from dragons). This worked. After dragons went back to sleep, gods came and hoarded bloodstone and other treasures in Arah.
Abaddon, god of water and secrets, gave the stone away to some races. This caused wars, because people fought over it. King Doric begged that it be taken back so the battles for power would end.
The gods agreed. They used Doric's blood to seal the stone (blood + stone = bloodstone) and it broke it into five pieces. They threw them in a big volcano. Of course, it erupted, and spewed them out.
People found them and used them for evil, like Mursaat. Not all have been found.
Bloodstones affect an area: healing and cursing, for example. The four bloodstones (fifth was a key - whatever that means) have properties: aggression, destruction, preservation, and denial.
Magic flows from the bloodstones back into the world. Bloodstone shards are rare, but still known to affect anyone or anything within range. Bloodstone dust is far less effective.

* Centaur Tribal Culture and History

In this series of reports from the Hinterlands, Explorer Ket details what her research has uncovered about centaurs and their tribal society.
Centaurs can be found in many places throughout Tyria and as far away as Elona. Some tribes, such as the Orshad Raiders from the Crystal Desert, are known to eat human flesh.
Centaurs are one of many races displaced by humans. The number of warring tribes far outweighs that of peaceful tribes.
The rise of the Elder Dragons, especially Zhaitan and Jormag, has put centaurs in even greater conflict with humans in the Shiverpeaks and in the plains as the two races compete for territory.

* Destiny Set in Stone: The Last Days of the Dwarves

This book, by Ogden Stonehealer, describes the events of 1078 AE that caused the Transformation of the Dwarves.
The dwarves are not really gone. They are living weapons, no less real than the Hammer of the Great Dwarf who created them.
This hammer, wielded by King Jalis Ironhammer, was the magical catalyst. It caused the success of the Rite of the Great Dwarf.
The rite connected all dwarves' minds so that they could be stronger together. They became one Great Dwarf instead of many weak ones.
This collective consciousness (along with some asura, humans, and stubborn norn) put the Great Destroyer to rest.

* Dragons and Gods

A scholarly argument for the symmetry between Elder Dragons and the human gods. Unfortunately, by the end, it is clear that no proof exists to support this theory.

* Flora To Fawn Over

This book by Scholar Alainn goes into meticulous detail about the various species of plants found in Kryta.
Wild herbs can be found throughout Kryta. Thyme, parsley, tarragon, and other leafy greens can be found in natural patches.
Other edibles, such as strawberries, can be cultivated easily, but thrive mostly on farms and not in nature.
Once you learn the plants of Kryta and can tell oregano from sage, the world is more engaging and less of a surprise.

* History of Tyria

As summarized by Wilhelm Tannhauser, Associate Archivist of Durham[sic] Priory.
Our world has seen the rise and fall of the serpent kingdoms, the arrival and exodus of the gods, the renewal and limitation of magic, the devastation of dragonfire, and the saga of humans.
Cults and conspiracies have fought to destroy civilization, yet heroes have risen to defeat them. Evils long forgotten rise again, as history repeats itself in new forms and guises.
The Shining Blade, once exiles and revolutionaries, have restored the rightful ruler of Kryta to her throne. We venture into the countryside, no longer fearing the oppression of the White Mantle.
Races once locked in bitter war now live on the same streets, work in the same neighborhoods, and trade in the same marketplaces. And today, Tyria unites in the struggle against the dragons.

* In Consideration of Sacrifice

In Consideration of Sacrifice by Evennia of the Shining Blade.
A human lay upon the sacrificial altar. White Mantle braziers cast a demonic glow. Mursaat - they didn't touch the ground but floated above it, as if too good for our land.
Still just recruits, my fellows and I had rushed into the depths of the Maguuma Jungle to make a difference. I watched the Mursaat drift toward the terrified captive. Our orders were to wait.
They circled their victim, and his fearful cries rang out. I saw it then, the Scepter of Orr, raised high, glinting in the moonlight. "We have to go now!" I looked to our lieutenant. "Why do we wait?"
Our lieutenant cast a warning glare at us. They were going to kill their prisoner, and we were waiting. I didn't understand.
The man screamed, a sound so full of pain I thought I was hearing his soul being torn from his body. I gripped my weapon tightly to keep from screaming with him. It was done. The man was dead.
A wave of euphoria came over the White Mantle and their grotesque gods. They fell into chaos and let slip their vigilance.
My lieutenant raised his weapon and said, "To know when to sacrifice one for the many is never easy, but today, the Shining Blade will gleam with the blood of murderers. Charge!

* King of the Dwarves

Ogden Stonehammer[sic] delivers a possibly premature eulogy to King Jalis Ironhammer, last and greatest king of Deldrimor.
Never before and never again will there be such a ruler as King Jalis Ironhammer. Steadfast and mighty, he inspired love from the dwarves and loved them in return.
Black was the day when Jalis's eyes went firm as iron. He'd made the decision that it was time. The Tome of the Rubicon predicted it. The Deldrimor dwarves would make the ultimate sacrifice.
Jalis never once hesitated. He stood at the fore with his subjects around him, and he performed the ritual known as the Rite of the Great Dwarf.
It turned us to stone so that we could fight the Great Destroyer on even terms. The last time I saw my king, he was leading a charge into the depths of Tyria, into a nest of Primordus's Destroyers.

* Koss on Koss

This autobiography focuses mostly on the events surrounding the Ascension of Kormir in 1075 AE.
I am Koss Dejarin, and I gave up a lot for the Sunspears. I lost promotions, a father, a sister, friends, and my home to fight for the organization.
I became known as the bane of corsairs and demons. I fought for my country and my spearmarshal.
Holy goddess Lyssa gave me Kormir and Melonni. One of the two I married. The other, I pray to. I love them both with all my being.
I risked my life many times for Kormir, but she got what every great warrior deserves. She died courageously.

* Krewe Influencers

This collection of tips and tricks will guide the reader through krewe selection. Written by Florggi.
Not all tasks can be performed by krewe members. You may need "special" volunteers to further your research.
For example, suppose your krewe has a prototype that will allow asura to fly at the speed of a Canthan firework. How are you going to test it?
Obviously YOU can't test it. You're far too valuable, and krewe members can be expensive to replace. So, you need a bookah.
Your average bookah (human) is very easy to manipulate with flattery and tends to enjoy going on adventures.

* Myths and Legends of Ancient Ascalon

This tells ancient charr legends about Ascalon. It was a mythology book compiled by Cita Commandheart.
Once, fearsome beasts walked the land. These giants ripped smaller animals apart with their sharp teeth and kicked rocks miles away.
The creatures had claws longer than charr arms that they used to spear and cook their prey.
These creatures died because they did not work in warbands. When dragons attacked, they fought and died alone.
The charr ruled Ascalon differently. We made warbands and legions. We made armies. Then the humans arrived and pushed us from our land.
We retaliated and took it back.

* Nightmare Courtiers

Written by Iowerth, this work is a psychological and historical look at the Nightmare Court. It offers several sound theories for why the Court tortures and kills so indiscriminately.
Secondborn Cadeyrn founded the Nightmare Court, gathering its members from sylvari who had darkened hearts and cruel minds. Firstborn Faolain was one of the early converts.
Nightmare courtiers believe that in order to have balance, one must allow darkness in. They seek to inject Nightmare into the Dream by torturing their fellow sylvari and breaking their minds.
They have no empathy for other creatures and will massacre a whole village if its citizens get in their way. The depth of their depravity has never been fully measured.
Firstborn Faolain herself took over as the court's grand duchess. Obsessed with Caithe, she has tried on numerous occasions to introduce Caithe to Nightmare and convert her as well.
Caithe continues to resist, though Faolain has taken extreme measure, including poisoning Caithe with Nightmare and forcing her to participate in Nightmare activities.
The Nightmare Court rejects Ventari's tablet and its philosophies. The more time that passes, the more dangerous and unpredictable they become.

* No Moa!

This children's book by Pitney tells the hilarious tale of a moa who constantly gets into trouble and the exasperated farmer who takes care of him.
When the moa wandered out of its pen, the farmer shouted "No, moa," but the bird didn't listen.
The farmer followed and shouted, "No, moa!" as the bird nearly ran afowl [sic] of a hungry charr.
The farmer yelled, "No, moa!" when it ran into the catacombs to escape the charr.
The farmer reluctantly went in after the moa, knees knocking, and said "Yes, moa" as the bird ran to him, its knees knocking too.

* On the Tome of the Rubicon

High Priest Alkar of the Deldrimor dwarves explains in a letter why the tome must be secured beyond the reach of any.
I have just rescued - with the help of a heroic human - the Tome of the Rubicon from the Stone Summit. The idiots were attempting to read from it and summon the Great Destroyer.
I have translated it in portions, but the ancient language is difficult to understand. I do believe there is a prophesy here, however. One that mentions the Deldrimor line.
Once the translation is complete, I will secure the tome until such time as it is needed. Fear not. It will not fall into ignorant hands again."

* Primeval Kings: Unearthing Ancient Elona

This history, by Bahltek, discusses the rulers of Elona from 200 BE to 452 AE.
The arduous task of unearthing what happened during the rule of the Primeval Kings is compounded by the devastation of the Scarab Plague at the end of their reign.
The golden age of Elona was all but erased by the chaos that ensued when people succumbed to insects that eviscerated them.
An adept researcher can rediscover the truth about Elona's splendor during this period.
A socioeconomic divide can be seen in the architecture of devastated Fahranur. Copious servants were available to serve the royalty.
These royals had relics from as far away as Kryta and such strong archemetrical infusion that they ruled without opposition for 600 years.

* Quotes from Ventari the Centaur

A first edition of the collected quotes of Ventari, the centaur beloved by many sylvari.
"There was a time, once, when humans and centaurs lived in peace. But that was long, long ago. I'm afraid I will not live to see such a time come again to Tyria."
"The outside world is a violent place, where the seeds of chaos are sown with innocent tears."
"Centaurs are a proud race, fiery with passion... They would not see humans as equals. Against the odds, they fought. The humans rose to crush them. War consumed those lands...and my home with it."
"Forging the path of serenity from the mind to the heart is more difficult than any battle fought with steel."
"The only peace to be found is within the self."
"This place is home... As bloodshed cast its shadow, we shelter beneath this place of solace, to live life as it was meant to be, in harmony and unity, regardless of race or caste. All are welcome."
"...all of this began as a seed that Ronan gave me. He...fought the White Mantle who slaughtered my people. Those battles cost him his wife and daughter. In his grief, he threw down his weapon."
"Perhaps he (Ronan) was looking for escape, or a place to die, to end his suffering. There he lay a broken man, and in that moment he found the seed that would become all of this."
"Live life well and fully, and waste nothing. Do not fear difficulty. Hard ground makes stronger roots. The only lasting peace is the peace within your own soul."
"All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed."
"Never leave a wrong to ripen into evil or sorrow. Act with wisdom, but act. From the smallest blade of grass to the largest mountain, where life goes—so, too, should you."

* Riding the Wind: The Tengu Exodus

This history, by Genzhou Talonrend, tells of Tengu population migrations over the years.
Tengu have always built perches to watch the world turn, but sometimes we are pushed off in great gusts.
My people had to flee the home we had made for millennia in Cantha when the Ministry of Purity blew us north to Tyria.
When the Great Tsunami hit, we built our Dominion on Sanctum Cay to defend against Zhaitan's minions.
Now we see the world ripped by dragon's teeth and send a message of survival to all the races. We believe in taking flight.

* Shiro Tagachi's Biography

Written by Anonymous, this document is a behind—the-scenes account of Shiro Tagachi's life.
In the early years, Shiro was a loyal guardsman and hero to the Canthan emperor. He fell under the influence of a demon fortune-teller sent by an ancient being named Abaddon.
Shiro turned on his own ruler, slaying him, and was killed in the ensuing battle. His death wail unleashed all the magic he'd stolen and been gifted in what has come to be called the Jade Wind.
The Jade Wind turned the Jade Sea into solid jade, encasing all its creatures forever, and had many other terrible repercussions.
Shiro returned as a vengeful spirit, leading an army of magical constructs known as Shiro'ken. He attacked Cantha, but was eventually defeated and cast into the Realm of Torment.
Once more, he returned to fight as Abaddon's general, ruler of the Realm of Torment. Only with great difficulty were the heroes of Tyria able to defeat him that time. He has not been seen since.

* Stone Summit Siege Weaponry

These appear to be hand-drawn plans for a siege weapon. The note on the first page states that they are original drawings done by Stone Summit dwarves.
A brief historical passage reveals that Stone Summit dwarves once enslaved the Dredge, until overthrown. After they warred with the Deldrimor dwarves and lost, they scattered and disappeared.

* Stormcaller: Calling the Storm

This book by Watchman Pramas is the definitive tome on the history of the ancient relic used in the war against the Charr.
King Doric constructed Stormcaller on Horn Hill north of Rin, his capital city, in the year 0 AE.
The horn had originally been built to demonstrate the king's mastery of the arcane arts, but it became a weapon shortly after.
As the Great Northern Wall was being built, it became known via prophecy that the sounds of the billowing pipes would render the enemies of Ascalon helpless.
The horn's mouthpiece had been lost in the Guild War, but it was recovered by Prince Rurik who then used the horn to summon rain and weaken the Charr by putting out their fires.

* Symon's History of Ascalon

It's a revealing historical and cultural work, including various notes Symon could not resist putting into it. His ability to analyze political conflict and diplomatic maneuvering was unparalleled.
The book includes coverage of the war between Ascalon and Kryta in great detail with insightful commentary and evaluation.

* The Charr Rise of Rin

Part three of a three-part volume by Arae Lorehunter about the history of Ascalon's capital...
Charr builders replaced the crumbling stones of the human capital with strong iron and renamed it the Black Citadel.
Some of the pitiable stone architecture can still be seen south of the Bane in the Black Citadel. The Imperator has left the ruins there as a reminder to all.
Charr society has flourished and taken root in the land that once was called Ascalon. We have returned home.

* The Evening Song

These are collected poems about Nightfall, compiled by Melonni.
When the undead arise and the old women cry, the Sunspears fight to shut down the inevitable fall of night.
Varesh's troops need a cartful of pain; with Kormir to lead, the Sunspears will never complain.
Crossing the desolation to face Joke himself, we all tremble a little and make haste over the continental shelf.
Through devastation and torment we see Kormir rise, and after an extensive effort, Abbadon[sic] dies.

* The Forgotten Not Forgotten

Warden Illyra delivers a primer on the history and nature of the Forgotten.
What you need to know about the Forgotten is this: they once acted as wardens to ancient races in Tyria and shepherded their development from primitive to civilized.
They served the beings known as the Five Gods, and they fought wars for them. They had a strong connection to Glint, and they left guardians with her for many centuries.
During the last dragon cycle, it was the Forgotten who freed Glint from Kralkatorrik's corruption and control. In gratitude, she hid them from the Elder Dragons until they returned to sleep.
If they remain in Tyria, they are elusive at best, and many believe they have gone back to the Mists from which they came - perhaps never to return.

* The Great Golem Uprising of 1284: A Commentary

Steward Gixx gives his uncensored thoughts on this historic event and what it portends for the future.
Not since the Destroyers has Rata Sum come so close to disaster as when the city's golems began to malfunction and turn on their makers.
One must consider the current Peacemaker-to-golem ratio of 1:10 when gauging the potential for future recurrences.
The potential for cataclysm is unsettling, at best. For now, Inquest krewes remain part of our society, but their antagonism against the Council grows with each passing cycle.
We must install countermeasures to ensure history does not repeat itself, this time with even more disastrous results.

* The Great Hunt Rite of Passage

Arnlief Iceborne gives us a basic primer on the ancient norn ritual called the Great Hunt.
Every year, norn contenders compete to take home the title of "Slayer." This is an important trial for the young. It launches their legendary journey.
The note says, "Revolution came to Rata Sum (N1-2), and a pall fell upon emerging blooms (SYL)."
Experienced hunters capture a different foe each year. In 1325, for example, it was Issormir, a great ice wurm. Many died in the battle. Only one was victorious.

* The Human Rise of Rin, Part 1

Part one of a three-part volume by Arae Lore-hunter about the history of Ascalon's capital...
Rin is the sister city to Drascir. Drascir was the seat of government and business, while Rin represented art, magic, and learning.
King Doric founded Rin for the study of arcane arts and in order to create a powerful defensive force with mages of immense power.
Drascir was weakened in the Guild Wars and finally fell when the Charr attacked. The terrified king moved his capital to still-strong Rin.

* The Human Fall of Rin, Part 2

Part two of a three-part volume by Arae Lorehunter about the history of Ascalon's capital...
Humans lost most of what made Rin special during the Searing when Flame shamans destroyed Ascalon.
King Adelbern moved out of Rin but kept it as his capital throughout his life. The Sorcerer-King loved Rin.
Adelbern's son used Stormcaller to cripple the Charr, but eventually Bonfaaz Burntfur and his warband overran the city of Rin.

* The Map of the All

If you're not mistaken, this ancient tome was written by someone known as the Apostate. It appears to describe something similar to what you saw in your vision of the Eternal Alchemy.
The author calls it the Antikytheria, describing it as a cosmic mechanism made of many parts, all spinning around a central body known in ancient Krytan as Thyria.
Six large bodies orbit the world, existing in primal symbiosis. The energies move with the push and pull of positive and negative, ever in motion.
The Apostate says one thing that is especially troubling... "Should the energies become imbalanced, the world will tilt and all beings will fall off it into the void." It's probably a metaphor.

* The Margonite Mallyx

No one knows who wrote this, but it is an ancient letter to the High Priest Zhellix, a Forgotten who led a historic assault on the Margonites (demon followers of Abaddon).
To be noted: breaching the Ebony Citadel will likely kill you. Mallyx the Unyielding rules the four Lords of Anguish, and they will shred you.
If they don't get you, Mallyx will. If you do succeed, Mallyx will embark on a mission of vengeance from which you are unlikely to escape."
If you insist, do not use standard tactics against this demon. They will not work. Good luck. I hope to see you again."

* The Natural War

This book by Airkas describes the history of weaponry in Tyria and how it has been shaped by the availability of natural resources.
Almost nothing is known about ancient weapon use on Tyria. The Great Giants are theorized to have fought mostly with huge claws and feet.
Jotun and dwarves were the inventors of modern weaponry. Rocks, metals, and trees of the Shiverpeaks became battle equipment in 10,000 BE.
Weapons changed when humans and charr acquired them in Ascalon because lush lands led to better wood for bows, shields, and torches.

* The Nightmare Harbinger

Discussions with Amaranda the Lonesome resulted in this collection of thoughts and theories on Malyck, a sylvari who awakened beyond the Pale Tree.
As you know well, all sylvari, whether of Ventari's philosophy or of a Nightmare bent, come from the Pale Tree. To consider that one who is so like us could come from elsewhere is humbling...
...and confusing. We know that we are who we are because of Ronan and Ventari's care. So, where did Malyck come from? I have many questions about this.
If he came from a different tree, then where did he get his knowledge of the world? Is there another Dream out there, somewhere? Why does he resemble humans as we resemble Ronan?
Why does he not know his own Mother? Surely, if there were another tree, he would remember her. And why do the Nightmare Court call him their harbinger? A harbinger is an omen, but is it good or evil?
Malyck is no one. He comes from no where. On one hand, I am sorry for him. He has no roots. On the other, I am envious. He can become whatever he chooses. I hope he chooses well.

* The Politics of Kryta

In the missive to Niamh in the Grove, Firstborn Dagonet describes the court politics of the Krytan royalty.
Dearest Niamh, I write you from the beautiful gardens of Divinity's Reach. One day, you really must visit. You would be amused by the political maneuverings I witness here.
The kingdom has two ruling bodies: the queen and the Ministry. Although the queen technically is in charge, the Ministry goes to great lengths to get what they want - and they're often successful.
The Ministry is led by a bombastic human named Legate Minister Lord Caudecus Beetlestone the Wise. I kid you not. And if you think his name is dazzling, you should meet him. He's quite the charmer.
But, he's no Queen Jennah, and try as he might, the people will not love him as they love her. She is the ruler of a diminished society of humans - the combination of Kryta and Ascalon.
I am ever impressed at her ability to pull her people together to defend each other, their territory, and their beliefs. Humans have many flaws, but their nobility is sometimes as sincere as ours.

* The Quotations of Behn Millen

This book is a first printing and compiles the work of Krytan philosopher Behn Millen.
All humans contain vast amounts of hate. The key is to release that evil in prayer to Grenth.
If magic and power are too strong, quell them with monotony and routine.
When you see yourself do good, praise the gods. When you see yourself do evil, mourn their absence.

* The Six: Being or Playing God

More editorial than actual historical work, this book by Gadd deconstructs the nature of the gods worshipped by humans.
Is it coincidence that they have been gone since the first dragon began to stir? I think not. While they may not be gods, they are certainly not fools. The dragons would covet magic such as theirs.
These beings are benefactors - often reluctant, sometimes misguided, and occasionally vindictive. To say that they created our world is ridiculous.
Did they bring humans to Tyria? I cannot argue against this. It is an ancient belief that has no proof to support or deny it. Perhaps humans are constructs created from clay and bone.
Perhaps they were brought here from somewhere else in the Mists or some other realm within the Eternal Alchemy. I think either of these is plausible, given the power wielded by these beings.
But, are they gods? I say no. They are what we would all become if given the amount of magical energy they possess and allowed to live as long as they appear to have.

* The Thief of Toys

Welcome to Osbert Bleake's Nightmares for Naughty Children, a series of children's books designed to scare the snot, wit, and spittle out of them. Lock your doors, and settle in for a dreadful tale.
In times woefully recent, there was a wealthy human boy named Thom who lived in Lion's Arch with his widowed mother. Thom had many luxuries, including a box of toys that he kept all to himself.
One day, a mysterious stranger came to the door, dressed in tatters and with his face hidden inside a deep hood. Thom's mother invited him in and offered sustenance.
The stranger told them he had left his family to search for work. He was finally able to return home, but he was returning empty handed.
He wished more than anything for a present to give his son, a boy the same age as Thom. Thom's mother suggested he take one of Thom's toys, since Thom had so many.
Thom grew angry. "Why must I give my toys to this stranger? I don't know him. I don't know his son. They're my toys - mine until I die."
The stranger watched as Thom's humiliated mother ?ed to her bedroom, and he asked, "You will not share even one toy with a child who has so much less than you?"
Thom shook his head.
"For your mother's sake," the stranger told Thom, I will take the least valuable and most useless item in this house." He touched Thom's arm and murmured the curse.
The curse hardened Thom's heart even more. It turned him to wood, carved and jointed. The mysterious stranger tucked Thom under his arm and headed for home.

* Tome of the Five True Gods

This is a placeholder book, left to indicate that the Tome of the Five True Gods is currently unavailable due to ongoing translation efforts.

* Unending Autumn

A poem by Arcanist Davworth details the time just after the Searing of Ascalon.
The summer of 1070 AE was particularly hot in Ascalon. Fire rained from the sky. Thousands died.
Autumn was worse, because it hadn't ended and Ascalon shriveled.
Still, some trees are dead wood rather than leafy beacons of hope. Winter never came to soothe tensions.

* Vekk's Thesis

An asura named Vekk postulates in this antique scholarly thesis that if an Elder Dragon were to die, its magic would be released back into Tyria, starting at the moment of death.
He further suggests, however, that this will allow the remaining dragons to become even more powerful as they begin consuming the released magic as well.

* Wallows: The Definitive Defense

Written by Dunmel Gorhopf, this book defends the usefulness of one of the many strange creatures found in Cantha.
The chubby gray creature known as the wallow is a perfect example of an animal for which people should have the utmost respect.
Wallows love to eat truffles and can be domesticated to help you find the luxurious and expensive ingredient.
Some hunters kill them for their tusks and the truffles they are digesting instead of taming the useful beasts.
Because of this, dozens of hunters are knocked down and killed by wallows every year. Respect, as opposed to assault, would save lives.

* Zhaitan's Last Flight

This detailed account of the final fight with the Elder Dragon Zhaitan includes a list of all Pact members who were killed. The feats of are called out as having been critical to the victory.


---

From wikia.com:

Race: Human
Level: 80
Location: Durmand Priory Basement (Hidden Arcana)
Organization: Durmand Priory

Archivist Ernswort is a Priory member. She is tasked with safekeeping one of the most important and dangerous artefacts owned by the organization.

---

From guildwars2.com:

* Speaking to Campbell.

Campbell: Commander! I had a feeling I'd be seeing you again after you saved me from those Seraph ghosts. What brings you here?
[I was told you know about a certain Priory cipher...]
Campbell: Oh! The cipher for the storage room? I guess I am the only one besides Magister Stonehealer who knows it. We're all so scattered these days. Far too busy. Do you have the password?
[What do I need a password for? You know who I am.]
Campbell: Normally, Commander, given your rank and reputation, I'd see no harm in sharing it. But, the Priory is extra careful these days. Too many mesmers around.
[Luckily, I have it.]
I do have it.
Campbell: Great! What is it?
[Death to Primordus.]
Campbell: You're just guessing, aren't you.
[Wait. I think I have it.]
Every dwarf must do his duty.
Campbell: You're just guessing, aren't you.
[Wait. I think I have it.]
The Great Dwarf guide my hand!
Campbell: You're just guessing, aren't you.
[Wait. I think I have it.]
Long live the king of Deldrimor.
Campbell: That's it! You got it! (laugh) Okay, you can have my written copy. I've memorized it.
[Can you read it to me?]
Campbell: "An almost king fathered a ghost. Hoofbeats drum at a trading post. And once a year upon a stage, and eager kid comes of age." There are two more lines, but I don't carry them with me.
[Can I get in without the other two?]
Campbell: No, but you needn't worry. I left the other half behind for security reasons. You'll find it when you find the three books each of the lines of the cipher refer to.
[How does this cipher work?]
Campbell: Each of the lines of the poem is a clue to a book in the Special Collections. You have to find them in order and touch them to activate their magic. Once you've found them all - in order - you're in.

* When the player reaches Marjory and Kasmeer

Magister Ela Makkay: In conclusion, let's recap. The five confirmed dragons are Kralkatorrik, Jormag, Primordus, Mordemoth, and Zhaitan.
Magister Ela Makkay: We believe there is another deep in the oceans, but its entry in the Scroll of the Five True Gods is partially missing.
Magister Ela Makkay: The scroll, written in ancient times, has a section dedicated to the Elder Dragons, but it came to us in bad shape.
Magister Ela Makkay: It is written in an ancient form of old Krytan. We're still attempting to decipher the damaged portions.
Magister Ela Makkay: Each dragon has two spheres of influence. For Mordremoth, that's mind and plants. Zhaitan ruled shadow and death.
Magister Ela Makkay: By next class, I want you to research the many theories about the different spheres of influence. Choose one and defend it.
Magister Ela Makkay: If you have questions, there's further literature in the library. Class dismissed.

* Speak to Marjory

Marjory Delaqua: Hi. There you are. How did it go? Did you get it?
[The cipher? Yeah, I got it.]
Marjory Delaqua: It's a testimony to how scattered the Priory is right now that the only person who knows the cipher to get into the storage area is out in the Silverwastes. It's good you saved her at Fort Salma.
[It's definitely not typical. So, where's Ela Makkay?]
Kasmeer Meade: We need to speak to Magister Makkay. She's pulling some heady-duty strings to get us into the Special Collections. We're meeting a Magister Stonehealer.
[You don't know who Ogden Stonehealer is?]
Marjory Delaqua: Kas, he's one of the most magical beings I've ever met. He's a dwarf, the last of his race on the surface of Tyria. Grenth alone knows how old he is, hundreds of years, at least.
[Tell Kasmeer what happened to the others.]
Marjory Delaqua: Centuries ago, many dwarfs[sic] turned themselves to stone to save Tyria from Primordus's champion. Most went underground to fight Destroyers. Ogden remains so their sacrifices would never be forgotten.
[That explains his area of expertise: dragons.]

* After talking to Marjory and Kasmeer

If non-Priory:

Marjory Delaqua: Hello again, Magister. The Pact commander has arrived.
Magister Ela Makkay: Welcome, Commander. I'm familiar with your accomplishments.
Marjory Delaqua: Magister Makkay is a wold historian and reporter. Her focus these days is on Mordremoth.
Magister Ela Makkay: The Durmand Priory knows that when world events of this magnitude occur, it pays to chronicle them.

If Priory:

Marjory Delaqua: Hello again, Magister. Have you met-
Magister Ela Makkay: Welcome, Scholar. It's a pleasure to see you again. I hope your well of knowledge has deepened in the intervening time.
Marjory Delaqua: The magister is documenting Mordremoth's awakening and its ensuing actions.
Magister Ela Makkay: My field experience has provided a good foundation for my research and chronicle.

Magister Ela Makkay: Magister Stonehealer is going to help you gather information on the Elder Dragons.
Magister Ela Makkay: He rarely agrees to such things. I will warn you, he's quite old and has little patience. He's the last of his kind.
Kasmeer Meade: We'll show him the utmost respect, of course.
Magister Ela Makkay: I'll take you to the Special Collections entrance. Archivist Ernswort will guide you from there.
Magister Ela Makkay: You retrieved the cipher?
Marjory Delaqua: Yes, we have it.
Magister Ela Makkay: Very well. Follow me.

Chef Robertus: For the millionth time, there are no culinary applications for bloodstone dust. None.
Chef Robertus: No good can come from feeding it to living beings.
Sous-Chef Seimur Oxbone: Pfft, what do you know? I'll take the dust to the streets and start my own food cart. I'll be rich!
Magister Ela Makkay: Ahem. Are we interrupting something important, Chef?
Chef Robertus: No, Madam Magister. We're just having a small...professional disagreement. Are these the visitors you mentioned?
Magister Ela Makkay: Yes. They have dispensation from Magister Stonehealer to visit the Special Collections.
Chef Robertus: I've already adjusted the wards to allow them entrance, and the archivist has been warned that they're coming.
Magister Ela Makkay: I'll show you how it's done.
Chef Robertus: Be careful down there.
Magister Ela Makkay: Follow me, please.

* After gaining access to the Special Collections

Magister Ela Makkay: This is the Durmand Priory's Special Collections. Security here is tight, for reasons you'll soon understand.
Magister Ela Makkay: You are free to browse. All we ask is that you handle artifacts with care and remove nothing from this area.
Magister Ela Makkay: I have to return to my work. Archivist Ernswort is here somewhere. She can guide you to Magister Stonehealer.

* Talking to various NPCs in the Special Collections

Magister (human): Hm? Oh! It's you! Oh, shh.
Arcanist: Shh!

Historian (human): I've spent decades here, and I discover something new every day.
Arcanist: Shh!
Historian (human): Sorry!

Arcanist (asura): I'll be out of your way soon as I finish cataloging this row.
Arcanist: Shh!

Scribe: Sorry, I can't help you. I'm not the archivist.

Historian (sylvari): No. I'm not done with this section. Move along.
Historian (1): Shh!
Historian (2): Shh!

Historian (norn): Greetings. What are you...oh, right. Shh!

Arcanist (norn): No talking allowed. This is a serious place of study.
Historian (human): Shh!
Arcanist (norn): Shh!
Historian (human): Shh!

Historian (asura): The archivist is on duty. I can't help you.

Researcher (asura): Oh! You startled me!
Magister: Shh!
Arcanist: Shh!
Historian: Shh!

Magister (charr): Can't you see I'm busy?
Historian (1): Hush!
Historian (2): Shh!

Historian (charr): Every interruption is a thought lost.

Historian (1): Breathe deeply. The air is rich with history.
Historian (2): Shh!
Historian (1): And hot air.

Historian: Did the archivist send you to check on me? Tell her I'm being careful. It won't happen again.

Explorer: The numbering system here is surprisingly complex.

Historian: Go. Away.

Magister (human): A person could live down here, you know? So many glorious books!

* Talking to Historian (male norn standing in the northwest section).

Historian: Shh. What do you need? Are you lost?
[No. I have a question about the ceiling. What is that image?]
Historian: That's a map of the All. I like to think of them as spirit realms. That's Tyria in the middle. All those other circles are spheres of influence and powerful magic.
[What about the letters? Are those...]
Historian: Yeah. First letter of each dragon's name.
[Who's S?]
Historian: Don't know any more than that. That was all they could get from the Tome of the Five True Gods. It's too damaged. Some of these scholars in here would kill to know the full name of that dragon.
[Is it the deep sea dragon?]
Historian: They think so. Me, I think they probably got the letter wrong, but who knows. They're still translating and trying to fill in lost pieces.
[Interesting. Thanks.]

* Talking to Archivist Ernswort

Ernswort: Are you delivering something? I'm already buried in magic items. I don't have enough scribes, and every piece needs to be cataloged.
[I really have to ask. Is that Zhaitan's tail?]
Ernswort: As a matter of fact, it is. We brought it here after Zhaitan's death. We had to construct special rigging to get it in here. It took months.
[And they're experimenting on it?]
Ernswort: They're studying it, yes. It may one day reveal all the secrets of the Elder Dragons.
[What was that you were saying about being buried in magic items?]
Ernswort: Oh, wait. You're [[character name]]. That's a relief. Every day it's magical this and arcane that. Half the time all they bring me are glowing rocks and fungus.
[Why do they do that?]
Ernswort: The word is out that we're storing artifacts for safekeeping from the dragons. As you can imagine, every noble with a magical pinky ring wants to store it here.
[You sure it's safe here?]
Ernswort: Don't tell anyone, but we can only hope so. Our best defenses are magical. They'll protect us for a while, but as the magic levels in the world drain, they'll eventually cease working.
[Have you seen any especially interesting items?]
Ernswort: Look around. You've got permission to browse. Just remember who has to put an item back if you don't.
[I may stay awhile after I've met with Magister Stonehealer.]
Ernswort: Let's get you on your way then. What can I help you find?
[How do I decipher the shelf numbers?]
Ernswort: The N refers to cardinal direction in the main annex. Some alcoves are on the south side, some on the north. The second number tells you which floor, and the last number is which alcove.
[I have another query.]
I'm looking for a book on norn.
Ernswort: "Once a year upon an open stage, an eager kid comes of age." Browse section N2-1 for information on that subject.
[I have another query.]
I'm looking for a book on centaurs.
Ernswort: "Hoofbeats drum at a trading post." I'd say you need the Human Studies section, numbered S1-2.
[I have another query.]
I'm looking for a book on Duke Barradin.
Ernswort: "An almost king fathered a ghost." Might be in Charr or Human History then. The book you're looking for will be somewhere between S.1.1 and S.2.2.
[This is exactly what I needed. Much appreciated.]

* Talking to Archivist Ernswort again
Ernswort: This folded parchment bears handwritten lines. They say "An almost king fathered a ghost. Hoofbeats drum at a trading post. Once a year upon an open stage, an eager kid comes of age."
[Put it away.]

* Reading "Ashford History: Duke Barradin"

Written by Ela Makkay, this collection of historic facts reveals the life and death of one of Ascalon's most notorious dukes.
[Read on.]
Though first in line to the throne, Duke Barradin did no object when people called for Adelburn to be king instead. He spent his life on the Barradin Estate, making wine and training warriors.
[Read on.]
Barradin's daughter, Althea, was betrothed to Prince Rurick[sic], son of King Adelburn. Althea was murdered by charr, and her ghost remained restless until a renowned hero returned her ashes to Barradin.
[Read on.]
Duke Barradin was caught in the Foefire, and his ghost now causes regular trouble for the charr in the Plains of Ashford.
[Close book.]

* Reading "Centaur Tribal Culture and History"

In this series of reports from the Hinterlands, Explorer Ket details what her research has uncovered about centaurs and their tribal society.
[Read on.]
Centaurs can be found in many places throughout Tyria and as far away as Elona. Some tribes, such as the Orshad Raiders from the Crystal Desert, are known to eat human flesh.
[Read on.]
Centaurs are one of many races displaced by humans. The number of warring tribes far outweighs that of peaceful tribes.
[Read on.]
The rise of the Elder Dragons, especially Zhaitan and Jormag, has put centaurs in even greater conflict with humans in the Shiverpeaks and in the plains as the two races compete for territory.
[Close collection.]

* Reading "The Great Hunt Rite of Passage"

Arnlief Iceborne gives us a basic primer on the ancient norn ritual called the Great Hunt.
[Read on.]
Every year, norn contenders compete to take home the title of "Slayer." This is an important trial for the young. It launches their legendary journey.
[There's a note written on parchment between the pages of this book.]
The note says, "Revolution came to Rata Sum (N1-2), and a pall fell upon emerging blooms (SYL)."
[Close book.]
[Read on.]
Experienced hunters capture a different foe each year. In 1325, for example, it was Issormir, a great ice wurm. Many died in the battle. Only one was victorious.
[Close book.]

* Reading "The Great Golem Uprising of 1284: A Commentary"

Steward Gixx gives his uncensored thoughts on this historic event and what it portends for the future.
[Read on.]
Not since the Destroyers has Rata Sum come so close to disaster as when the city's golems began to malfunction and turn on their makers.
[Read on.]
One must consider the current Peacemaker-to-golem ratio of 1:10 when gauging the potential for future recurrences.
[Read on.]
The potential for cataclysm is unsettling, at best. For now, Inquest krewes remain part of our society, but their antagonism agains the Council grows with each passing cycle.
[Read on.]
We must install countermeasures to ensure history does not repeat itself, this time with even more disastrous results.
[Close book.]

* Reading "A Treatise on the Shadow of the Dragon"

If sylvari:

Scholar Caterin interviewed dozens of her fellow sylvari who claimed to have seen the Shadow of the Dragon in their Dream. She concludes that only one such report has any credibility, that of [[character name]].

If non-sylvari:

Scholar Caterin interviewed dozens of her fellow sylvari who claimed to have seen the Shadow of the Dragon in their Dream. She concludes that only one such report has any credibility.
[Read on.]
"Shadow of the Dragon" is the name assigned to Mordremoth's champion. This nightmarish creature has been spied in the Dream and in the world.
[Read on.]
While some believe it is immortal and cannot die, others do not. To date, there is no proof in either direction.
[Close book.]

* Approaching Ogden

Ogden Stonehealer: What took you so long?
Majory Delaqua: Getting the cipher from Explorer Campell took longer than expected.
Kasmeer Meade: We're sorry for the inconvenience.
Ogden Stonehealer: Well, don't waste my time. Tell me what you seek.

* Speaking to Ogden Stonehealer

Ogden Stonehealer: Speak up. These old ears are worse than my old eyes, and they're worse than my old...oh, nevermind. Go on.
[Magister, it's me. [[Character name]]. We met-]
Ogden Stonehealer: Yes, yes. I remember you. No time for nostalgia. Get to the point.
[I need information about how to deal with Mordremoth.]
Ogden Stonehealer: Actually, I think you need information about the meaning of your vision from the Pale Tree.
[What? How did you-]
Ogden Stonehealer: There are those who have taken interest. I had some warning that you might be calling. Your challenges do not go unnoticed.
[Who?]
Ogden Stonehealer: All in good time. But know that they have Tyria's best interests at heart. Now, this is what you're looking for. This artifact. Go on, examine it closely.
[What is it?]
Ogden Stonehealer: Don't ask. Act. Examine it, and you shall see.
[As you wish.]

* Examining the Ornate Hourglass

Ornate Hourglass: This ornate hourglass is made of precious metals and has a palpable aura of magic.
[Examine the artifact.]
Ogden Stonehealer: Don't be shy. You can touch it.
[Touch the hourglass.]

* In the Domain of Strength

Marjory Delaqua: (groan) What...just happened?
Kasmeer Meade: I... (hic) I don't know. But my legs feel like Zhaitaffy.
Kasmeer Meade: (gasp) Is this-
Marjory Delaqua: It must be.
Kasmeer Meade: Glint's lair! It's even more beautiful than I imagined.
Marjory Delaqua: And eerie. Doesn't look like we'll be leaving the same way we came in.
Kasmeer Meade: I never thought I'd see this.
Kasmeer Meade: Where's the boss? Hello?

Marjory Delaqua: Boss! It doesn't look like we can reach you from here. This place...it's something else entirely. Maybe our paths will intersect beyond here.
[Right. You look for a path up ahead. I'll do the same on my side.]
Marjory Delaqua: Be safe. Glint may no longer live here, but that doesn't make her lair any less dangerous.
[I'll be fine. See you up ahead.]

* After talking to Marjory

Marjory Delaqua: Let's move ahead and search for a place to meet.
Kasmeer Meade: All right.
Marjory Delaqua: We'll see you in a bit, boss. Stay safe.
Kasmeer Meade: Keep your voices down. We don't know what's in here.

* After inspecting the glowing crystal

Kasmeer Meade: My father used to talk about Glint and her prophecies.
Kasmeer Meade: He said she was grand and noble, as noble as any Krytan. She loved humans.
Kasmeer Meade: Except when they tried to steal her eggs. She defended her children like any good mother.
Marjory Delaqua: What an empty place.
Marjory Delaqua: My mother told me stories passed down by her mother. She said it was once guarded by fearsome dragons.
Marjory Delaqua: The lair itself would tear and gnaw at you, but heroes braved its dangers to have an audience with Glint.
Kasmeer Meade: Can you imagine what it must have been like?

* After defeating the distorted facet of light and revealing the crystalline memory

Marjory Delaqua: We studied the Flameseeker Prophecies in school.
Kasmeer Meade: Me too. I remember the stories about the fall of Ascalon, Prince Rurik, the Chosen...
Marjory Delaqua: I used to pretend I was a Chosen when I was little. Me and my sisters put on plays for our parents.
Kasmeer Meade: I can just imagine it.
Kasmeer Meade: Glint was ancient-thousands of years old. Why wasn't she like the Elder Dragons?
Marjory Delaqua: She was freed from Kralkatorrik's control by the Forgotten a long, long time ago.
Marjory Delaqua: And then, because of her gift for reading minds, she connected with humans.
Marjory Delaqua: She learned to think like us. Elder Dragons don't. They're too...different.

After defeating the facet of darkness.

Marjory Delaqua: I know how Glint died.
Kasmeer Meade: Destiny's Edge went to kill her, right? So she wouldn't wake Kralkatorrik?
Marjory Delaqua: That's my understanding. But she communicated with them and they changed their minds.
Kasmeer Meade: Then what?
Marjory Delaqua: They tried to take down Kralkatorrik, but they ultimately failed. Glint perished.
Marjory Delaqua: Logal Thackeray was supposed to be with them, but he left to protect the queen from Kralkatorrik's minions.
Kasmeer Meade: I don't know what we'd have done if something had happened to her.
Marjory Delaqua: Some blame Logan for why Glint died instead of Kralkatorrik that day.
Kasmeer Meade: He was just doing his duty.
Marjory Delaqua: Shhh. What was that? Did you hear that?

* While on the path to the next area

Marjory Delaqua: Kas, stop moving. Listen.
Kasmeer Meade: Jory, what was that?
Marjory Delaqua: Watch out!

* After defeating the Malevolent Memory.

Marjory Delaqua: You're okay!
Kasmeer Meade: What just happened? What was that?
Marjory Delaqua: Not sure. If I had to guess, I'd say it was part of the lair itself rising up to greet us.
Kasmeer Meade: Not much of a greeting if you ask me. Thanks for swooping in when you did, boss. We'd have been toast if not for you.
Marjory Delaqua: Mhmm. We weren't sure we'd see you again, to be honest.
Mysterious Voice: You must pronise to protect it with your life. Will you?
Marjory Delaqua: What...was...that?
Kasmeer Meade: It couldn't be...
Marjory Delaqua: We need to speak with Ogden immediately. Let's find a way out of here.

* Back at the Durmand Priory

Ogden Stonehealer: (laugh) The looks on your faces!
Marjory Delaqua: You could have warned us.
Ogden Stonehealer: Nope. No no no. That would've sapped the fun right out of it.
Ogden Stonehealer: So tell me. What do you know now that you didn't before?

* Speaking with Ogden Stonehealer

Ogden Stonehealer: Entertain an old dwarf. Tell me your tale.
[It was a portal to Glint's lair.]
Ogden Stonehealer: So it was. The Master of Peace and I set it up after Glint's death so I could guard it for the Brotherhood.
[I saw the Master of Peace take en egg.]
Ogden Stonehealer: The last one intact. It's been in stasis since her death. The Master of Peace is taking it where it will be safe and allowed to hatch.
[Where has he taken it? You must tell me!]
Ogden Stonehealer: Sadly, I do not know that. He disappeared beyond Dry Top, and I've had no word since. You will find him, won't you? He is in great danger out there.
[I will do my best.]
Ogden Stonehealer: That is why you were chosen for this. Go now. Find him and make sure he arrives safely at his destination.
[What's his destination?]
Ogden Stonehealer: Only he can tell you that. Go, but be smart. Do not rush into danger unprepared. You have many trials ahead of you.
[Yes, Magister. I'll be careful.]

* Speaking to Ogden again

Ogden Stonehealer: My time is less precious than my knowledge. I have prepared for this so that I could inform you. As you have ascertained, there is - currently - no greater threat than Mordremoth. What answers can I give?
[I need to know more about Mordremoth.]
Ogden Stonehealer: That ol' beast is going to give us quite a fight.
Ogden Stonehealer: Its natures are plant and mind, as you've undoubtedly inferred.
Ogden Stonehealer: In my opinion, it is the most destructive of the Elder Dragons, tearing the ground from beneath our feet.
Ogden Stonehealer: Creatures that live underground are especially vulnerable as its vines spread.
Ogden Stonehealer: It is my belief that it is rooted deep in the land, which may be an exploitable weakness.
Ogden Stonehealer: I do not know specifically how to overcome it, and I am still researching how its corruption spreads.
Ogden Stonehealer: With Zhaitan, any who died in proximity to its corruption became Risen.
Ogden Stonehealer: To date, I've seen no evidence that the same is true of those who die in proximity to Mordrem.
Ogden Stonehealer: You will undoubtedly learn more if you plan to enter the jungle.
[Please, tell me about the Elder Dragons.]
Ogden Stonehealer: You already know much about them. But for Miss Delaqua's benefit…
Ogden Stonehealer: The Elder dragons may be as old as the world itself. They're more than creatures.
Ogden Stonehealer: They're part of nature's workings. They rise and fall on a cycle that spans millennia.
Ogden Stonehealer: Much of what we know about them comes from a document written by the first humans to walk the face of Tyria: the Scroll of the Five True Gods.
Ogden Stonehealer: It is written in an ancient dialect, therefore it is subject to interpretation.
Ogden Stonehealer: In it, the gods revealed the names of the Elder Dragons: Mordremoth, Kralkatorrik, Jormag, Zhaitan, and Primordus.
Ogden Stonehealer: There is one other name listed, but it is illegible, lost to time. I suspect this is the deep-sea dragon.
Ogden Stonehealer: The gods expound on how Tyria's health is tied directly to them. This portion is somewhat abstract, however.
Ogden Stonehealer: There are varied theories on what it means, but I believe it refers to the natural balance of magic.
Ogden Stonehealer: Too much magic, and the world spins out of control. Too little, and it crumbles into darkness.
Ogden Stonehealer: The last time the Elder Dragons awoke, they wiped out almost every intelligent race on the planet.
Ogden Stonehealer: It is from this low-magic environment that the gods built the world as they wanted it.
Ogden Stonehealer: They are the ones who brought humans to Tyria.
Ogden Stonehealer: The gods shared the magic stored in the Bloodstone. That is a complex tale for another time.
Ogden Stonehealer: Slowly, more magic seeped back into the world from the dragons, over thousands of years. Cultures evolved again.
[How does this all tie into the Eternal Alchemy?]

If asura:

Ogden Stonehealer: Ah yes. Only you asura would attempt to quantify nature itself. But then, your people are somewhat limited. No offense.
Ogden Stonehealer: By attempting to define the undefinable, you actually move further from the truth rather than closer to it.
Ogden Stonehealer: The Eternal Alchemy, nature, our world, the All-however you want to name it-is beyond understanding.
Ogden Stonehealer: We can only grasp portions of it. Even the Elder Dragons are small relative to the All.
Ogden Stonehealer: We see only certain layers of the Mists, the Elders, and Tyria. Anything beyond that is hidden from us.
Ogden Stonehealer: We must content ourselves with first understanding what's before us.
Ogden Stonehealer: Right now, the Elder Dragons are the most critical to understand.

If non-asura:

Ogden Stonehealer: Ah yes. Only asura would attempt to quantify nature itself. But then, they are limited in perspective.
Ogden Stonehealer: By attempting to define the undefinable, they actually move further from the truth rather than closer to it.
Ogden Stonehealer: The Eternal Alchemy, nature, our world, the All-however you want to name it-is beyond understanding.
Ogden Stonehealer: We can only grasp portions of it. Even the Elder Dragons are small relative to the All.
Ogden Stonehealer: We see only certain layers of the Mists, the Elders, and Tyria. Anything beyond that is hidden from us.
Ogden Stonehealer: We must content ourselves with first understanding what's before us.
Ogden Stonehealer: Right now, the Elder Dragons are the most critical to understand.

[Can you share what you know about Zephyrites?]
Ogden Stonehealer: The Zephyrites, yes. They inherited a thankless and difficult job from the Brotherhood of the Dwarves.
Marjory Delaqua: They didn't understand what they were taking on, but I believe they do now.
Ogden Stonehealer: I was in the Brotherhood of the Dwarves.
Ogden Stonehealer: I am now its sole surviving member. We were the keepers of Glint's legacy.
Ogden Stonehealer: Glint has the power to communicate with her mind. She learned language from humans this way.
Ogden Stonehealer: According to her, other dragons speak and think in something I hesitate to call a language. But not Glint.
Ogden Stonehealer: She learned that humans and other races were not her enemies, but allies to be nurtured.
Ogden Stonehealer: Thus, she became a protector of the Tyrian races. We recognized the importance of this, as did some exceptional humans.
Ogden Stonehealer: Glint foretold the future in the Flameseeker Prophecies over a thousand years ago.
Ogden Stonehealer: The brotherhood believed that she would one day become an Elder Dragon. She was old and wise, well on her way.
Ogden Stonehealer: You can imagine how it might have changed the world if she had survived long enough to become that powerful.
[Sylvari were invulnerable to corruption. But not with Mordremoth. Why?]

If sylvari:

Ogden Stonehealer: You refer to Scarlet and Aerin. Similar symptoms. Yes.
Ogden Stonehealer: I'm no expert on your kind. But your people's concept of nightmare and Dream is simple.
Ogden Stonehealer: Too black and white, too unsophisticated to explain the changes affecting some of you.
Ogden Stonehealer: The Pale Tree is said to protect you from the corruption of the other dragons. They both rejected her, no?
Ogden Stonehealer: It makes sense that sylvari would be vulnerable to Mordremoth, a plant-based being like yourselves.
Ogden Stonehealer: This is a question you should ask you Pale Tree.

If non-sylvari:

Ogden Stonehealer: You refer to Scarlet and Aerin. Similar symptoms. Yes.
Ogden Stonehealer: I am no expert, but they're immature as a race. Their concept of nightmare and Dream is simplistic at best.
Ogden Stonehealer: Too black and white, too unsophisticated to explain the changes affecting some of them.
Ogden Stonehealer: The Pale Tree is said to protect them from the corruption of the other dragons. They both rejected her, no?
Ogden Stonehealer: It makes sense that sylvari would be vulnerable to Mordremoth, a plant-based being like themselves.

[What do you know about the fight against Kralkatorrik?]
Ogden Stonehealer: Only what Eir told me. They nearly took it down, and Glint was killed during the fight.
Ogden Stonehealer: Destiny's Edge went to the Crystal Desert looking for Glint, intending to destroy her.
Ogden Stonehealer: She instead managed to convince them to ally with her against her master, the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik.
Ogden Stonehealer: They fought with all had. But one of them was called away, and so their strength was diminished.
Ogden Stonehealer: Glint wasn't the only loss that day. A brilliant asura named Snaff also sacrificed himself.
Ogden Stonehealer: That was years ago. Since then Kralkatorrik surely has gotten stronger. Time is your enemy when dealing with the Elder Dragons.

* Personal story [recap of "Hidden Arcana"]

Explorer Campbell, the researcher we rescued at Fort Salma, provided us with a cipher that gained us access to the Durmand Priory's inner research facilities. Once inside, we explored the library before making our way into the Special Collections room, which was packed from floor to ceiling with rare antiquities and artifacts.

We met up with Ogden Stonehealer, who had been hard at work researching dragon history. At his request, we handled a mysterious hourglass and were unexpectedly transported to Glint's Lair. I explored its wondrous paths, putting down the creatures in our way. Whether they were guardians of the lair, or simply manifestations created by magic that was freed upon Glint's death, I am unsure. I did, however, see echoes of past events. The Master of Peace had visited the lair before us, and he found what appeared to be Glint's remaining egg.

We returned to the Priory and discussed our findings with Ogden. Now more than ever, it is crucial that we find the Master of Peace and help him protect Glint's egg before Mordremoth seeks to destroy it.