This post contains spoilers for the Abomination Vaults adventure path. If you plan on playing in this campaign at some point, please be aware that their are major spoilers ahead which will deminish the experience.
It’s always struck me as slightly odd that the third floor of the Abomination Vaults, the literal library level, isn’t a Library for the purposes of the Research subsystem. It seems like an obvious choice for the writers to include this, but they didn’t! As such, I decided to put one together for my own game and now, you can use it in your games too!
This Research Encounter assumes your PCs have defeated the Cult of the Clanker, or at least most of it, however, you can also run this alongside their clearing of the Ghouls. I decided to make it level 4 for this reason, however if you run it before the ghouls have been cleared then you can reduce the DCs slightly and still run it absolutely fine.
Belcorra’s Library – Research 4
Unique | Occult | Undead
Once the Cult of the Clanker is defeated, the Library level of the Gauntlight can become a useful location to research occult and undead topics. There may be remaining Ghouls or other nasty creatures still in the rooms included in this Research encounter. The heroes must first defeat these creatures before they can make Research Checks in the room. Also, these research encounters work alongside the dungeons usual encounters, not replace them. Activities such as finding loot, searching for secret doors or exploring the history should still be available alongside the research attempts.
In the rooms C13 Librarian’s Workroom and C36 Scriptorium, fighting and killing the NPC within reduces the maximum RP by half, provided they haven’t already gotten all the available RP.
Research Checks: C11 Main Library, C13 Librarian’s Workroom, C15 Gauntlight Reading Room, C19 Scrivener’s Workshop, C27 Belcorra’s Reading Room, C30 Siege Castle History, C33 Restricted Collection, C36 Scriptorium
C11 Main Library:
There is a mountain of knowledge to be found in these tomes, however, locating the correct information can be difficult. (Gaining the maximum RP at this location provides a +1 to following checks that relate to reading tomes.)
Maximum RP: 6
Research Checks: A hero who spends 8 hours pursuing these tomes can make a DC 19 Occultism check to understand the topics of the tomes, or a DC 17 Academia Lore or Library Lore to read through many of the tomes.
C19 Scrivener’s Workshop:
This workshop turned tattoo parlour provides the chance to analyse the tattooed flesh.
Maximum RP: 2
Research Checks: DC 19 Perception or Crafting to look at the tattooed flesh, DC 23 Religion to find purpose in the tattoos.
C30 Siege Castle History:
This room contains a detailed sculpture of Absalom and annotated tomes.
Maximum RP: 4
Research Checks: DC 20 Society to recognise the sculpture as Absalom, DC 19 Athletics or Warfare Lore to understand the siege intent behind these tomes.
C36 Scriptorium:
This room once functioned as a place to copy important tomes. The ghost of Chandriu, the director of the scriptorium, still haunts this place and will try and put your heroes to work.
Maximum RP: 6
Research Checks: DC 19 Diplomacy to get Chandriu to talk, or a DC 19 Crafting to read through the books as they copy them.
C13 Librarian’s Workroom:
The ghost of the libraries original librarian still haunts this room. She might be convinced to talk about Belcorra’s secrets.
Maximum RP: 4
Research Checks: DC 21 Diplomacy to convince Jarelle to talk, DC 19 Crafting to repair books and read the contents.
C15 Gauntlight Reading Room:
The ghouls of the Cult of the Clanker used this room for reading their evil tomes. The books they were reading still litter the room. The blue ribbon of light might also be of interest.
Maximum RP: 4
Research Checks: DC 19 Occultism to understand the topics of the tomes, DC 23 Arcana to analyse the blue ribbon of light.
C27 Belcorra’s Reading Room:
This room contains the favourite books of Belcorra before she died.
Maximum RP: 6
Research Checks: DC 20 Perception to search through the books, DC 19 Occultism to understand the nature of the spells in these books.
C33 Restricted Collection:
This room is filled with what remains of Belcorra’s most valuable tomes. (Gaining the maximum RP at this location provides a +2 to following checks that relate to reading tomes.)
Maximum RP: 8
Research Checks: DC 22 Occultism or Arcana check to understand the topics of the tomes, or a DC 20 Academia Lore or Library Lore to read through many of the tomes.
Research Points:
5 Research Points: The PCs learn that the Gauntlight descends deep into the ground and encompasses 10 distinct floors. With direct access to the Darklands, the lower floors become progressively more dangerous and hostile.
10 Research Points: The PCs learn that Belcorra was obsessed with gaining revenge on the city of Absalom after they cast her family out for having a strong aberrant bloodline and worshipping an unknown but apparently evil god. Their research of this topic has an unforeseen effect on their psyche.
Curse: Your peripheral vision is constantly haunted by flickering shadows and sinister shapes that distract you from what is real.
Saving Throw: DC 19 Will
Effect: Your constantly glancing around and distracted by the false shapes in your peripheral. You have a -2 status penalty to all perception checks, including initiative rolls that use perception.
15 Research Points: The PCs learn that the Gauntlight is itself, an enormous magic item and as such, functionally indestructible while its creator exists.
25 Research Points: The PCs learn that the Gauntlight requires a living creature to anchor its light and that the activation of the weapon kills the creature. Having spent such an extended period of time in the Library, 3 surviving Cult of the Clanker ghouls happen across the party and attack them.
35 Research Points: The PCs learn that the Gauntlight was created in honour of an Old God called Nhimbaloth. Also known as the Empty Death, this god stalks the river of souls indiscriminately feeding on both hunter and soul, and any she eats will never find the afterlife they deserve.
40 Research Points: The PCs learn that while her body was destroyed, Belcorra survived as a ghost, tied inexplicably to the Gauntlight but confined to its lower floors. Discovering this fact makes her mutually aware of the PCs and she sends a Chuul to hunt down the party and destroy them. It will take about one hour to reach the party and will ensure they know who it was that sent it.
If you aren’t ready to reveal some of these secrets to your party at this point in the adventure, then feel free to adjust the rewards for something that suits your group. It’s also a good idea to encompass the natural rewards of the adventure into this encounter, such as providing the scrolls and spells they might earn through exploration as a reward for gaining all the research points in that location instead!
Outro
Thanks for checking out this post! If you’re interesting in checking out more of what I do, I’m currently releasing Campaign Diaries for the Abomination Vaults AP which focus on GM-facing content. You can see how I run the various encounters, how I change the AP to make it personal to my group and get tips on how to navigate certain tricky moments. Check them out if you’re interested!
I’ll see you again soon! B’bye!
Veneon Reforged 
wow!! 64Abomination Vaults: WHAT IF the party never interupted Boss Skrawng?
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