The Riddle

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: The Riddle
GM: Lisa
Season: Spring 803 WK

Party

1. Thaeuss
2. Dawn
3. Father Broc
4. Clarissa
5. Faith
6. Kayseri
7. Mortimer
8. Thoric

Mission

Finding a missing manuscript for 'M' on Plane: 'Bond' Earth

Original scribe notes

Media:Snsp0302.zip

Scribe Notes

These are the certified true and correct scribe notes for the adventure, as written by: 
Venerable Father Broc von Hecklyn  	 	 
For the period 30th Frost to 8th Seedtime 803 

Prologue

Noon 30th Frost 803 (Alusia)

The wet, cold and generally nasty day wasn’t getting any better as the constant flood of ‘good and upstanding’ townsfolk continued into my room at the Church of St Eustace in Seagate.

All these good people with so much sin to confess, I was still astounded by it all. If it hadn’t been for my aching headache ¹ from the binge drinking the night before with that party in the Green Dragon I would have got up and left but it was easier staying put and listening without the need for movement.

Several times during the morning I’d had to excuse myself to the gardrobe so as to make myself more comfortable after the nights excesses. I vowed never to drink dwarven Rot Gut ale followed by Fenargh Brandy again. Well not in the company of dwarves and a few orcs anyway.

A knock on the door while I was listening to Miller Sveltston broke me from the stupor that had developed over the past 20 minutes of listening to how much he loved his pets over and above his wife in a ‘very special’ way. Looking up I saw my acolyte Ga’Venton motioning at the small window beside the door. I realised that something of great import must have happened, as I was never to be disturbed while in ‘confessional.’ I quickly stopped the Miller and told him his penance ² and he left expounding profuse thanks, vowing to all he can for his marriage and his good wife.

Once he had exited Ga’Venton came in and told me “A runner from the guild just passed by saying that the ‘Mad Mechanician’ Mortimer had returned to the guild unexpectedly and needed some help in an urgent task”.

I had spoken to him of Mortimer’s repute as a scholar of great experience and my wish to meet him. He is renowned as a great sage and good man so I would be furthering my work on Gabriel’s behalf by enjoying a sojourn with him as well as my ability as a religious scholar of history and literature.

I asked Ga’Venton to excuse me to the waiting petitioners and I grabbed my warm cloak and headed up to the Guild with haste. I saw a few others heading in the same general direction but also under heavy cloaks to keep out the cold and light drizzle of the day so I failed to recognise anyone on route to the large imposing edifice by the river which is known as the Seagate Adventurers Guild (SAG). It’s also known as ‘The Guild’ in the surrounding area due to its fearsome reputation or perhaps the fearsome reputations of its members.

1. I know I could have healed it but they say suffering is good for the soul and it gave me something to help look miserable and down trodden which is better for my supplicant than me smiling and looking happy when they are so down.

2. He was to sell all his animals to the church and to spend more time with his wife. He was to just talk with her some more. (She had visited me some days before and told me of her concerns and how she’d do anything to save their marriage)

Chapter 1:

1pm 30thFrost 803 (Alusia)

I passed through the guarded gates of the guild and asked the door warden where Mortimer was meeting to organise a ‘party’. He indicated meeting room 2 at the far end of the corridor. I entered the deeply shadowed and irregular shaped room; there I saw a few other adventurers including a few familiar faces.

Already gathered in this warm and cosy room (with dark & shadowed corners were:

• Thoric Farsearcher, a Dwarf male, renowned for his mattocks and thick accent
• Faith, an Elven female E&E, short in height but big in notoriety
• Clarissa, an Elven female Air mage, a lady of known good character
• Thaeuss, an Elven male Binder, a fellow adventurer I know well
• Dawn, a Human female Air mage, a young lady of repute if not renown
• Kayseri a Human female Illusionist, as well as her small ‘dog called ‘Spot’
• Mortimer, a Hobbit male Warlock, a mechanician of some note.

(There are more detailed physical descriptions can be found in the Endnotes section)

I bowed upon entering and introduced myself to the assembled mob and I then asked Mortimer to join him in whatever endeavour he had need of a group. He acquiesced, indicated a seat for me and then started on his story.

Other introductions were made, including Kayseri’s small dog-like creature of the beagle variety. Faith commented “was it like an Alpaca?” several of us looked on in askance at this being a real word until Mortimer said; “it’s like an ugly sheep” ³ . The others were ‘enlightened’ with the range of warnings to do with Thaeuss ⁴, his special abilities, equipment & golem assistants, the rest of us seem quite pedestrian in contrast.

Mortimer has been asked by an off plane ‘source’ called ‘M’ to assist in the recovery of a manuscript that had significance to the plane he was on, called ‘Earth’. Mortimer had an established relationship with this ‘M’ who worked for a guild called MI-6 and they had called in a favour for past assistance. The letter read:

 3. We do worry at this time that Mortimer classifies barnyard animals by their attractiveness.  

 4. Don’t pick up his amulet when it drops, do pick up the sapphire or was it the other way around? 

The Note to Mortimer

To: Operative Graves
Re: Research Mission 
We believe that your unique abilities will assist us in the location of a manuscript that
may be of grave importance to our world. Please assemble a suitable group of specialists
and report to Headquarters as soon as possible. Skills needed may include puzzle solving,
research abilities, information gathering from civilians, and some mode of
transport and infiltration abilities. Please wear your existing garments, as we believe
they will be more suitable than our current trends.   M 

Guild notes in relation to this manuscript are:

The Guild can confirm that suitable payment has been lodged (to the amount of 2 large gold ingots), and that the bearer of the message was genuine. His additional verbal comment was to the effect that they were calling in a favour. He also brought a fragment of a manuscript that has been left with the Guild for further investigation. The value of the ingots has been assessed as being 40,000sp.

A low, raspy cough from the far corner emanated at this point announcing a Guild security member, he stepped from the shadows dressed in customary all black garb, appearing dull, gaunt and seemingly distracted. He identified himself merely as “Geoffrey” and asked that we formally designate party members before going any further, he then returned to the shadows for the rest of our discussions.

After a brief discussion we proceeded.

Military Scientist was the first discussion with 3 possible of Mortimer, Faith and Thaeuss. Each of which have their strengths, Faith’s being in mass battles, Mortimer’s in sieges and Thaeuss’s in small unit tactics. After a discussion we voted Faith in as the Military Scientist when in mass battles with her 2iC ⁵ being Thaeuss who would control any smaller battles. In the event of us conducting, being involved in a siege we’d of course defer to Mortimer’s experience.

The issue of who would be scribe was next. Clarissa volunteered that she herself was in arrears of several sets of scribe notes and would not be a good choice. Then a long silence reigned in the room and people started studying their navel fluff in order to avoiding looking at others. The silence grew more uncomfortable but then Thoric started speaking in his heavily accented speech. I feared he would agree to be scribe which meant that we might all have mangled unintelligible dwarven gibberish ⁶ to read later, so I got in first, volunteered and was voted in without resistance for this thankless group task.

The thorniest issue of all was the Party Leader voting which came last. While it is usually highly contested and sought after it seemed we had an unusual group of retiring, standoffish guild members. Several of us thought Mortimer would be a great leader due to his breadth of experience and knowledge of where we were headed, however he declined to volunteer himself.

Clarissa whom had been with Thaeuss and I on my last three ‘missions’ did in the end put herself forward as she correctly recollected that I had led one and Thaeuss had led the other. It seemed only fair that she should lead this one to round out the three missions.

We expounded on how the Party Leader does in fact seem to be a figurehead rather than a true leader at times due to the often democratic decision making processes that are common in guild parties. While there were some with reservations of being lead by one of the ‘young, new’ crop of adventurers it was soon smoothed over and Clarissa was voted in as our Party Leader.

 5. 2nd in Command 

 6. I’m sure it would have been perfectly good to other linguistically challenged non-inflective people who don’t communicate via written form. 

With these petty administrative tasks completed we then undertook a short and brief examination of the piece of manuscript, which read as follows:

The Manuscript

‘Neare a tree by a river there’s a hole in the
ground where an olde man of Aran goes around and
his mind is a beacon in the veil of the night. 
He is the peacemaker.  Do not let him pass 
beyond the veil. Ware the fey, they are’ 

I examined the manuscript after others had looked at it, Thaeuss defining it as partially magical due to his innate magical talent for seeing such things. I looked at it and quickly assessed there was an embossing on the paper itself that I saw to be depicting a flying winged figure (possibly angelic) carrying a heraldic banner of some sort. I also used my ability to examine runes, symbols and writings to conclude that this manuscript details some sort of prophecy. It was specifically a prophesy of doom but I couldn’t assess who or what’s doom.

Others then looked more closely at the manuscript but could ascertain no further information. Thaeuss turned himself into one of his small rag and string golems and then started to interrogate the letter itself though an ability to speak with writings? ⁷

7. I did think he was being very rude to the poor manuscript and wasn’t at all polite to such a nicely worded document. 

We all listened in some fascination to his interrogation of the poor manuscript and we couldn’t help ourselves from interjecting in the conversation when he was asking

Thaeuss:  	“Did you see who wrote on you”? 
Manuscript:   “No I don’t have any eyes” 
Some of the party,  “Yes you do, ten ‘I’s’ in fact” followed by much laughter. 

A number of other questions were asked of the manuscript but failed to produce anything more of substance or significance to us. He did get the following information though:

• The letter is very old
• It had been reused many times
• A being identified as the archangel Gabriel is depicted
• It was written in the blood of some as yet undetermined creature

After all this had been done we decided to leave in 4 hours by meeting back here at the guild as the note to Mortimer did stress the need for urgency. We all left, completed our various travelling preparations ⁸ and returned to the guild by 4pm.

8.   I asked Ga’Venton to look after my supplicants as well as my home here in Seagate. Also to pass on missives to my wife in Eastern Gracht 

We all rendezvoused at the appointed time back at the guild dressed in our travelling attire and we proceeded to portal up to the castle of Countess Anastasia in Borovia. Mortimer went a few minutes in advance to ask permission, pass on courtesies and to generally speed our passage. We exited the portal in an unusual looking bedroom in the castle and then passed onto another room at Mortimer’s direction.

This new room was different in that the scenery depicted in the windows didn’t resemble Borovia by any means but we were told by Mortimer that it was a scene from the plane we are going to / now on and we had already passed through the portal.

Earth

A voice in the distance shouted “Hello, is anyone there” and we hurried down some stairs into a large room where we were introduced to James Martin, an agent of M's and a member of MI-6. He was almost shouting when he said “HOW ARE YOU” and several other sentences.

We managed to get across that we were in fact not deaf and could speak normally so the conversation then continued. We are to see the “boffin” in the morning to discuss the issue of the manuscript and in the meantime we are to make ourselves at home here in Kree’s ⁹ ‘penthouse apartment’.

The night passes painfully for some while Faith almost gets ‘el-ectric-ified’ when she pours some wine over a rope leading between a ‘jug’ and the wall mounted ‘mana conduit’, she is ably joined by Thoric in this endeavour much to Mortimer’s chagrin.

The ‘lady’ Faith also shuts herself in the safe of cold specifically trying to find out about the light therein. She also soon after seeing them ‘borrows’ James’s ‘Triggering card’ ¹⁰ and his speak to others device ¹¹ but later has to return these when he notices them missing.

 9. Count Kree of Borovia, he is a renowned guild member and warrior of repute. 
 10. It is some sort of device for inserting in small holes, which then triggers the doors and deactivates whatever security measures. 
 11. A small folding box he speaks into apparently hearing the response of others at the same time as he speaks to them – most ingenious. 

Also Thaeuss in his ‘being helpful to the Air Mages persona’ manages by way of his magic to open a portal to the outside world via the wall of the ‘penthouse apartment’. This sets off a rather loud noise that emanates throughout the residence causing us discomfort and James to run over to a wall and look at some lit up panels on a larger panel. We inquire as to what’s causing the noise and he responds with “someone has penetrated the perimeter security measures of this abode”, we all start to prepare for the expected assault in our usual ways (magic) but are unable to do so due to the distraction of the very loud noise.

Thaeuss at this time comes over and asks what’s happening exactly, James explains that the penetration is in the dining room north window, at which point he turns around and sees Thaeuss standing there holding something vaguely window like.

Thaeuss says “this one?” 
James nods in disbelief and asks “Why? How?”   

The response is “to provide fresh air and an egress for the Air mages to fly out, Oh and I used my magic to do this!” <Thaeuss was smiling as he said this> – thinking he had been a clever binder (we all know this to be an oxymoron in almost all cases – perhaps he is the exception to the rule)

James asks in a remarkably calm voice that he should replace it forthwith, which will then hopefully enable the reset of the alarm system, which he temporarily mutes by way of pressing some of the panels.

James also states in a slightly calmer albeit higher toned voice that “there is a roof door for those who need to fly and I’ll show it to all once the window is replaced”. The window is replaced, the alarm reset and the roof exit is shown to those enquiring.

James comes to the kitchen, in one long swig finishes off some of the wine named champagne and then goes to pull out his speak to other device. Well he tries to but it’s at this point that he discovers it (along with his ‘triggering-card’) missing. Faith pipes up and says she has them and returns it and his ‘triggering card’ to a now chary looking James. He uses the device and asks for some more ‘protection’ ¹² and some food as well. He’s informed they will be there shortly and he emits a small sigh of apparent relief, barely heard by any but those of us with trained hearing abilities.

Meanwhile young Kayseri goes exploring the local areas while unseen and we lose her for a while somewhere in this large tower we are in. She finds many other floors in this tower some 32 in fact by the count of the numbers on the panel in the elevating room. Most look like the one we are on and it is all well lit and warm. She returns in the elevating box when several of James’s fellow workers bringing food in boxes, which turn out to be delicious ‘pizza’. NB: I must make some of this upon my return to the guild; the hobbits would just love it!

I find a ‘closet’ full of Kree’s ‘local’ clothes, which are about my size, and I spend the next while getting dressed in various garb which is very different from my Alusian attire, and no real place for my sword and crossbow to comfortably be hidden.

But he has a range of great accessories and so I grab myself some sunglasses (‘Oakleys’) and a long leather jacket. I also ‘borrow’ two bags, a small (Backpack) easy to carry one for bits and pieces, as well as a large bag for all my Alusian gear which I can’t wear here on “earth’ as it’s a bit obvious and out of place judging by the pictures in the ‘magazines’ I have looked at.

I’ll now wear a dark suit, black shirt, black leather shoes and a dark tie and carry a pair of sunglasses with me at all times while here on ‘Earth’.

We also indulge in some ale and wine imbibing while staring at a wall depicting some local ‘troubadour’ tales titled “Die hard”, “Die harder”, “Die hard with a vengeance” ¹³, “Terminator”, “Terminator II” and “Ever After”. Mortimer calls this last one a ‘chick flick’. Roger the other protection lad watches it with us!

Actions undertaken, decided or being cogitated over:

1. To wait for the boffin to tell us what they want us to do and how we can help them as it would be a waste of effort to start undertaking research or planning not knowing what we are to do.

12. We aren’t sure if it’s protection for us against the outside world, for him against us or as a buffer to stop anything ‘unfortunate happening’ to/for/by/because of us. 

13. We note that people in these tales don’t die easily as the hero doesn’t die no matter what ‘weapons’ are fired at him while others called ‘innocent bystanders’ or ‘fellow actors’ die as soon as one is fired in their general direction.   The explosion’s, which kill and maim many others, have no affect on the Hero.

Chapter 2

3am 1st Snow 803 (Alusia) - 18th August 2003 (Earth)

The various members of our ‘party’ amuse themselves in a variety of ways. While there is a number of beds (some large enough to accommodate 3 persons) very few of these are used. Some of them are being used to store / rest our heavy armour and weapons upon and only Faith seems to be using a pillowcase.

Thoric is in a deep slumber, slumped over a low table in the main room. The noises emanating from him are reminiscent of distant thunderclouds but the ‘volume’ of the ‘troubadour’ tales is increased until it becomes bearable.

Several members are asking James about local customs and he describes crossing roads as its very dangerous here with the speeding metal boxes and lots of people. Apparently you have to wait till you see a green man before crossing the road, and if you see a red man you should wait until a green one comes along.¹⁴

I find Kree’s library in another room, which contains a small number of books, but in a different printing style to Alusian type. The print is all smaller and quite uniform and the books are all ‘hardbacks’. Very few appear to have been read but one ‘Sun Tsu’s – The Art of War’ seems well read and I start reading this book. There is a great variety here including several ‘cookbooks’ and I take one of these to read on our journey as well as a few other tomes of various types. ¹⁵

There is a discussion about the killer metal golem’s in the ‘Terminator’ series of tales; Thaeuss would like some for him and his protection . The wee small hours pass for us and James and one of his fellows keep a watch , mainly on us. ¹⁷ We fail to keep a real watch ourselves as we are lulled into a false sense of security or are drunk, engrossed in books, disturbed by watching the troubadour tales or by visiting various types of mental torture upon James and Roger.

14 Also what different signs mean – Kayseri has discovered that signs here differentiate ‘garderobe’s’.   The males use a door, which has a picture of a figure not wearing a dress while the females would use the facility, which has a figure wearing a dress. 
15  Lots of cooking books are in evidence here!  Perhaps Kree cannot cook?    Also guide books to distant realms like ‘Tuscany’, which seems quite similar to Mordeaux and other areas.    The Paper the books are written in seems hardier than Alusian paper and it shines.  The pictures are brightly coloured and seem almost life like. 
16 We are glad that these golems would be very difficult to make as in the hands of some deranged megalomaniac (present company exempted) they would be nasty adversaries. 
17 The watch appears to be on us rather than watching for intruders.   James and his companion take turns wandering the apartment checking on our whereabouts and various activities.   I see James taking notes occasionally on one of his ‘Spiral bound notebooks’, no doubt for inclusion in notes on various SAG personalties and abilities.

730am 1st Snow 803 (Alusia) - 18th August 2003 (Earth)

Some of us had dozed off and we now awake to different sounds and smells.

A strong scent of ‘coffee’ from a shop called ‘Starbucks’ pervades the apartment and I quickly get in and snatch 2 while continuing my perusal of Kree’s books. I dispose of them in short order and find my senses more alert as a result.

I ask James if we have any more and he shows me how to grind and make coffee, which I do in large quantities for all and sundry – mainly me! Apparently my eyes have grown in size and I have become slightly agitated or ‘hyper’ from the coffee, but hey I feel great after very little sleep. ¹⁸

James is worried that it would be an effort if we were to travel across London to meet the boffin so he requests that the boffin comes here. To fill in the time we all discuss with James & Roger the logistics of supplying such a large city with food, political relations of the various nations etc. He provides us with a map of the world and shows us also a globe depicting the various countries. This keeps us amused some time and I take the maps once we have finished looking at them. Thoric wakes and decides to bathe, James show him the bath/shower and leaves him to it.

18 Must procure some supplies of this ‘coffee’ for when we return to Alusia.   It would have great use and I know of so many people who would desire it. 

830am 1st Snow 803 (Alusia)

18th August 2003 (Earth)

There is a chiming sound, the front door opens and in comes 2 rather large ‘protection’ chaps in dark sombre clothes with bulges under their armpits. Following behind them comes a small, frail looking old human female apparently of some 70 years of age with unnaturally curly grey hair and a small black bag. She says good morning and James invites her in for a cup of tea, motioning the ‘protection’ to wait outside the door and guard it against any intruders.

She sits down, looks around going oh dear, ummm, and other similar sounds. She explains that she has read reports of guild members’ activities here on ‘Earth’ on M’s behalf but had never seen Elves, before. We now note Thoric’s absence and Mortimer quickly surmises his whereabouts in the shower/bath. He says he’ll get Thoric ‘out here’, he then moves away from the direction of the bathroom and pushes a tap in the kitchen.

At this point there’s a loud dwarvish scream from the bathroom and Thoric emerges dripping wet but very red from apparent heat. Luckily he’s wearing a towel as he emerges and states, “what just happened” or words to that affect. He looks around quickly and notices our new company, we all look at him with our ’The important person we need to talk to is here, so stop bathing and get out here look’ and he says ‘I’ll be out momentarily’.

The ‘boffin’ introduces herself as ‘Lorraine’ and she speaks with a lyrical accent she identifies as ‘Irish’, we introduce ourselves to her and ask her to continue illuminating us as to what has happened here to promote the idea of hiring a party from the SAG to ‘m’ and also what is required of us now that we are here on ‘Earth’.

The piece of manuscript was found inside an old book that was being catalogued as part of a collection that had been donated to the ‘Crown” (AKA The Royal Heritage Society) by the estate of the 13th Earl of Yorkshire. The book was found in his library, hidden after apparently having slipped down the back of the shelves. The book was identified as a monastic tome probably from the nearby Monastery at Rievaulx (in Yorkshire). This Monastery and Abbey has been in disuse for some several hundred years (back to A.D 1500’s) since the time when the church disagreed with the King’s laws and voiced the opinion, at which time the King declared them ‘outlaw’ ordering their destruction.

The tome upon investigation by Lorraine was found to be a book of prophesies from several hundred years ago. The unusual thing was it’s uncanny accuracy in that it foretold a number of events with exacting precision. The book was written in Latin , while the piece of manuscript that fell out was written in English but both were of the same hand.

The paper of the manuscript piece was dated as being from 1592 some 410 years ago and the writing dates from that time. However the style of the language, grammar and sentence construction is relatively modern and estimated as being used in the last 50 years or thereabouts.

Apparently Lorraine along with 4 other researchers from ‘Housden Manor’ had a good look at the book and took some notes and she arranged for it to be locked up safely in the vaults of the Bank of England for the night once they had examined it for just one day. The book was gone when they returned in the morning and they can find no way for it to have been stolen from the vault.

The funny thing she says is that for some strange reason only herself and M can remember anything about the book as the other 4 researchers can’t unless reminded of the book persistently and even then they can’t remember anything in it. Even if constantly reminded of it the individuals seem to be recollecting less and less information as the days go by. We ponder this as she continues.

They have found one other piece of writing in the collection near the place last occupied by the book, it is written in the same handwriting and has been dated around 1700 . This reads as follows.

The latest Manuscript Piece # 2

‘In the land where horses born with eagle wings 
And honeybees have lost their stings 
There’s singing forever 
Lion’s den with fallow deer 
And rivers made from wine so clear 
How on and on forever 
Dragons fly like sparrows through the air 
And baby lambs where Samson dares 
To go on and on and on on on  
My fairie king can see things 
He rules the air and turns the tides 
That is not there for you and me 
He guides the winds 
My fairie king can do right and nothing wrong 

Then came man to savage in the night 
To run like thieves and to kill the knives 
To take away the power from the magic hand 
To bring about the ruin to the Promised Land 
Someone has drained the colour from my wings 
Broken my fairie circle ring and shamed the king in all his pride 

We ask what they actually want us to do and she replies “We have bought you here because you are still strong in a magical sense where as most of the magic has gone from Earth. Most people don’t believe in magic anymore but we feel there is some fairie magic going on here and wish you to find out what is happening and make contact with the Fairie court to establish communication on our behalf”.

We ask her about herself and use our magical abilities to divine more of her, she has an old charm given to her by her great grandmother. Upon investigation we see the charm is magical in fact and gives the wearer protection of some sort against as yet to be determined beings, individuals or forces. At this point we take a serious pause and then take action based on the knowledge and information we have just discovered through our various endeavours.

I am to ward the apartment from outside magical influences, Mortimer & Thaeuss will take her through the portal to Borovia so they can divinate her on our world and Dawn will undertake one of her feathery astrology readings asking “Where is the most likely place we can make contact with the fairie court”. The rest of the party will continue fact-finding and whatever else until our actions are completed.

The results of these actions are as follows ? The amulet is protection vs Fey & Fairie magic and it prevents her from being touched by the fey and partially disguises the wearer’s aura. ? The astrology reading indicates 14 mounds around a circle ? The warding goes well but takes twice as long as expected due to interruptions. ? Mortimer and Thaeuss discover she has some small trace of blood not human and define it as fairie blood.

Mortimer makes the connection and propounds to her that her great grandmother ‘had the sight’. She is astonished at his perception of this but agrees that she did. We illuminate her on her heritage being part fairie and she seems happy with this. Further investigation reveals she has been in an area of magical affect but due to the amulet the magic failed to take on her and she suffered no effects. The Borovia group then returns to the apartment and we cogitate on future actions once all is done there that could be done in the short time we had available.

Actions undertaken, decided or being cogitated over: 1. Lorraine will undertake research references to the isle of Arun, which she thinks is off the west coast of Ireland (her home country) and other such references in these manuscripts. 2. If a few of us who are skilled in ‘research’ techniques could visit the libraries or similar places here we could perhaps discover some more information. 3. Fairie mounds will be investigated as well as stone circles here in England as well as Ireland, Scotland and Wales 4. Investigation of the vault the book was taken to, to see if it is merely magically hidden but still there in the vault 5. Visiting the manor house (including a search of it) and perhaps speaking to the previous owners of the ‘book’ or Manor house may be productive via various means we have available 6. Visiting and ‘searching’ the ruined monastery for more clues and information 7. Visiting Aran and undertaking some research on relevant sites there would be of use to us. 8. Possible links to the ‘olde man’ not actually being a person but rather a location or geographical feature related to ‘Aran’ in some way.