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Discover the Lost Library of Archmage Dantly! New Setting and Subclass!
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 15:41:03 +0000 UTCExcerpt from Pindlith Vel Dran’s Guidebook for New Volunteers
Compiled, annotated, and clarified by Pindlith Vel Dran, Senior Archivist, Acting High Adjunct Curator of the Story Stacks, Certified Rhetorician (provisional), etc.
Section I: Orientation, for Those Who Are Always Disoriented
Welcome to the Library. You are reading this because you have—through misfortune or misjudgment—become a volunteer. Most are not chosen. Most are not asked. You are simply here, and someone has decided you might be useful. Possibly even you.
Let us begin with this: you will not make sense of the tower. The Library is a recursive structure that responds poorly to attempts at neat cartography. Wings shift. Rooms invert. Staircases go nowhere. Attempting to impose order on it is like—I don’t know what it’s like. Stupid, I guess.
I mention this because Dantly is trying to map the place. You may hear about this. You may even be invited to help. Decline politely: they have lost seven notebooks and one intern to the effort. We had to listen to the intern crying in the ductworks for weeks.
Your responsibilities, if you insist on having them, include:
Replacing books that are willing to be replaced
Locating and subduing Dantly’s scattered pages before they gain sentience
Assisting visitors without encouraging feedback (I don’t want to read it)
Not dying in the Black Index
Not touching the catalog system (I will know; I will find you)
You are not expected to succeed; you are merely expected to avoid introducing further complications. Do not follow the same hallway twice expecting the same result. Do not engage in debate with inanimate objects. If you encounter signage written in blood and rhyme, disregard it. If you are unsure whether something is your responsibility—it is not. If you think something should be done differently, keep that to yourself.
Stay out of my way, and we will not have a problem. Consider yourself oriented.
– P.V.D.
A folded recipe card has been tucked between the pages. It smells faintly of cloves. In messy scrawl:
Don’t let Pindlith scare you. The tower’s strange, sure, but it’s not trying to hurt us…probably? Come to the refectory whenever you want a hot meal.
You’re going to do fine. Promise.
—Joriah
The Lost Library is not only hidden away from the prying eyes of day-to-day travelers in the Ethereal Plane, but it's also a home to many Lost things. Lost lore, Lost magic, Lost gateways, Lost people....
The Library itself is connected to countless places across the multiverse, but which entrance you find—or stumble upon—is impossible to guess ahead of time. It's also ever-changing and alive, it seems. Its caretaker, Archmage Dantly, is hardly the sort you'd put in charge of something all-knowing or all-important, but maybe that's what an omnipotent building would want by its side. Opposites and attract, and all that, as the saying goes.
Oh! Right! So, thanks for visiting the Library. It must want you here, so welcomes are certainly in order. Don't mind the shifting walkways, you get used to it. Well, you do, and then they change again. We don't abide by much of a time table here when it comes to travel. Good luck?
Oh, and be sure to put stuff back where you found it. Especially the spooky books, those shouldn't be left to wander around unattended.
This setting includes a new Fighter subclass: the Stance Master. Ready actions with deftness and activate specialized stances to make the most of your opportunities in between your turns! Pair passive effects with active reactions, change them on the fly, and make the most of your opportunity attacks: you get several!
Speaking of subclasses, here's a reminder that we also have official subclass playtest sessions on the Discord! So please feel welcome to sign up for them and get early looks and hands-on time with them! As always, further revisions will be made here with published updates as they're released!
What's Included:
19 pages of quirky librarians, artisans, visitors, and their associated gossip!
Use the Library as a multidimensional base of operations to delve into lost lore or travel to faraway places through its various exits!
Bonus maps donated by Cze & Peku!
6 new creature statblocks!
New subclass: the Fighter's Stance Master! Take specialized reactions and gain their associated passive benefits as you prepare for the worst and deliver it back to your enemies!
Credits
I was responsible for direction, design, the subclass, and additional editing for this setting. However, this couldn't be possible without extra help. If you like this setting, consider supporting these other incredible creators:
John Webb — Writing
TheArenaGuy — Monster design, editing
Cze & Peku — Maps
Damien Mammoliti — Monster Art & Subclass illustration
Benjamin Sommeregger — Cover art
Jelke Ludolphij — Additional layout
This release is also made especially possible by the extra generosity of $12+ Legendary Heroes! Thank you all so much for you support, and be proud of your place in the end credits! You've earned it!
