The fellowship first looked around and decided to first explore the library collections.

They first came upon the Chronicle of Gondolin. Jesoc noticed a few books were distrurbed and examined those first. The first book was a chronicle of the fall of Gondolin. When Jesoc touched the second book, his left forearm blazed in pain and when he looked down he saw this Tengwar script:

Hallamir looked at the script and shared that this translated to ‘Fortress’.

The party continued west and explored the Chronicles of Thangorodrim. Hallamir explained that this was Sauron’s first fortress in the first age. The fellowship noticed that the books were untouched and moved on.

The party then explored the first room and found it was a study room and saw that in the middle of this room was a bronze brazier. As
they looked within it, they saw the burnt-black corpse of a cat.
Under one of its paws is a small package about the size of
your hand, wrapped in leather and knotted with twine.

They carefully opened the package and found that it contained a deck of playing cards with regal looking felines with the joker cards being dogs. Along with the cards, was this poem:

“Our small feline friends,
Their wit most distinguished,
Pushed to great ends,
Their chances extinguished.”

The fellowship tried to make sense of the poem and tried a few things without success. They first removed the burnt cat. Then the fellowship threw the King of Hearts on the brazier. The card burned with no consequence. The fellowship then tried to re-order the cards which also had no effect. Finally they tried to extinguish the brazier which just relit itself.

Frustrated and out of ideas, the fellowship continued on. The came came upon the the Chronicles of Numenor and noticed that a few books were again disturbed. They explored a few books with no effect. The fellowship then turned the corner and were surprised to see a Refuse Golem. The Refuse Golem asked them for the Gold Key and explained it was required to go to the third floor. The party asked if the Refuse Golem knew where the Gold Key was. The Refuse Golem shared that he did not and the party left to search the rest of the second floor.

The party explored the next study room and found that this room was jam-packed with rows of shelves and piles of open crates, all of them filled with all manner of assorted mundane household objects—coils of rope; candles; dinner plates; taxidermied beasts including a raccoon, a badger, a fox and a fawn; gardening tools; and the like. A single leather-bound book lied open in a small circular clearing in the middle of the room, as if it were deliberately placed there.”

Inspecting the book revealed just a few lines of text written neatly on its open pages:

“The key you seek is here somewhere.
Do not be so hasty, or look past what’s right there.
We all have one.
Some big, some small, some long and tall,
and even when it’s stuffed it can run.”

While the rest of the fellowship tried to understand the riddle, Arbun spoke a guess out loud – “Nose?”.

Suddenly Arbun’s nose was itchy and when he reached inside he pulled out a unbelievably large silver key from the small hobbit’s nose. The party acknowledged that they now had two of the seven silver keys they believe they required.

The fellowship moved south and explored the Chronicles of Menegroth. They explored a few of the books that were recently moved with no effect. The party continued on and came upon the Chronicles of Valinor. Jesoc noticed that one book was disturbed and moved forward to explore it. Once again his forearm starting burning and when he looked down the following Tengwar script appeared:

One again Hallamir translated the Tengwar script and informed the fellowship that it meant ‘Life’. Finding nothing else, the fellowship moved on to the next Study Room.

The party found that room contained eight decorative marble urns arranged a foot apart from each other to form a horizontal line in front of them, from left to right. Hovering above the center of the line, 1 ft. below the 16-ft.-high vaulted ceiling, is a small metal key within a sphere of glass.”

Kifak opened the second urn and it uttered ‘Re’. Confused, Jesoc moved forward and opened the first urn and it uttered ‘Do’. The fellowship quickly understood these were notes and opened the urns in order. When the last urn was opened, the glass sphere shattered and the third silver key fell.

The party continued exploring and came upon the Chronicles of Vinyamar. The party moved on after noticing none of the books had been disturbed.

The party entered the fourth Study Room and noticed the room was empty except for a desk in the centre of the room. The desk was empty except for a single silver key in the centre of the desk. Hallamir cautiously approached and picked up the fourth silver key and the party moved on.

The party opened the door to the next Study Room and were surprised to see a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. This room was set up as a fancy dining room. In the middle of the room, three canvas dolls in colorful dresses are seated around a table that has been set for tea with cups, plates and a platter of scones. Glass-doored cupboards and shelving units full of more plates, cutlery and other table settings line the east wall.

The first doll exclaims: “We’re missing what we need.”
The second doll says: “You can use a perpetual top or a
treetop pulp.”
The third doll says: “We need to repopulate PT!”

Kifak noticed that the place setting was purple and that there was a purple teapot in the cupboards. Kifak grabbed the purple teapot and placed it on the table. The third doll’s head split open with a squeal and the fifth silver key popped out.

The fellowship moved into the last Study Room in the west part of the library and saw that ahead of them the room was dominated by a central altar. On the altar sat a gold offering bowl, a small leather pouch and a small set of golden scales.

Kifak opened the pouch and found that it contained 10 gold coins. Kifak put the first gold coin on the altar. Kifak noticed his backpack was lighter and he was missing 500 gold coins. Kifak then studied the altar and noticed it was an altar for a Deity of Trickery.

The party then used the scale to weigh the coins and found that coins 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 balanced perfectly. They set those coins aside and weighed coins 6 and 7 and 8 and 9. The scale showed that coins 6 and 7 were lighter and the party decided to place the sixth coin on the altar.

The coin disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving behind the sixth silver key.

The fellowship then decided to return to the first Study Room to determine the riddle of the burnt cat. Once in the room, the fellowship again explored the cards paying special attention to the face cards with the images of regal cats. Suddenly Kifak commented that the riddle could mean a cat’s nine lives. The party threw eight more cards from the suite of hearts into the brazier and the brazier extinguished leaving behind the seventh silver key.

The fellowship decided to return back to where the Refuse Golem was and came upon the Chronicles of Numenor, the Chronicles of Nargothrond, and the Chronicles of Tol Sirion. These collections were undisturbed and the party moved on after a cursory investigation.

The party realized they still did not have the gold key. They also noticed that one central office remained unexplored. The entered the office and found a collection of statues.

Six towering statues were set around the room, each depicting nearly identical hooded figures. Each statue was facing a central table covered with ragged cloth atop which sits an assortment of oversized items carved out of the same stone as the statues: a book, a scythe, a dagger, a spear, a hammer and a crown. The fellowship quickly determined that the:

• The first statue’s fingertips are stained black and drip
with ink and pairs with the book.

• The second statue has mud-crusted shoes and pairs
with the scythe.

• The third statue has blood-stained hands and pairs
with the dagger.

• The fourth statue’s hands drip seawater and pairs with
the spear.

• The fifth statue’s hands are covered in soot and pairs
with the hammer.

• The sixth statue is spotlessly clean and pairs with the crown.

The fellowship placed the items in the hands of the respective statues and the statue with the crown knelt down and offered a gold key.

The fellowship returned to the Refuse Golem’s location and found that there was a second Refuse Golem guarding the staircase up. The Refuse Golem asked if they had the gold key and demanded the key. The fellowship refused the hand over the gold key and demanded the Refuse Golems stand aside. The Refuse Golems refused and the fellowship attacked!

The battle was quick and fierce. Jesoc delivered a vicious blow that caused one Refuse Golem to explode in a flurry of papers and parchment. The fellowship moved forward to dispatch of the remaining Refuse Golem with Jesoc and Kifak pushing each other out of the way to get a better angle to attack. The fellowship defeated the remaining Refuse Golem and used the gold key to open the staircase to the third floor.

The fellowship saw that the third floor was centered around a pedestal that looked to be where a Palantir would have rested. Unfortunately, the pedestal was now empty.

Kifak noticed that there was a room to the east where a palantir sat on a pedestal in the middle of what looked to be a steel cage. Kifak smartly decided to send his twin to investigate. The twin noticed that not only was there a palantir on the pedestal, but there were two wish spells in the adjoining rooms.

Kifak ordered his twin to grab the palantir but his hand went right through it. Kifak asked Arbun to smell the cage structure and Arbun could not detect the scent of any magic. Kifak also requested Arbun to smell the Bag of Holding that they had deposited the four Palantirs in and likewise Arbun could smell no scent of magic.

Strange, it was almost like the Bag of Holding was empty.

Kifak then ordered his twin to touch the palantir with his sword. Kifak’s twin pushed the palantir to the floor and it shattered! Silence filled the room when the fellowship heard the shuffling of hundreds of legs behind them.

“So you saw through my little charade did you?”

Out slithered a Centipede Hag which the party assumed was Engwa. Horrified and enraged, the fellowship attacked. Engwa summoned six Lurkers in the Dark to attack.

Hallamir smartly cast fog cloud and this stymied Engwa and the Lurkers in the Dark from teleporting to attack. The fellowship then methodically disposed of them all one by one with a series of unrelenting vicious attacks. The fellowship examined the wish spells and determined that they were fake and obviously created to draw people into the cage. The fellowship was able to discern that all magic was rendered ineffective in the cage.

The fellowship decided to retreat into a well appointed corner oubliette to rest and recover. They didn’t even notice the skeleton of a long dead human in a chair in the corner until the next morning.