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World:Cities

City 3 of 26 · Tier 1 · Level 4

Cornerfax

First seen by DJGG ·

A quiet crossroads village that guards a labyrinthine library hidden deep beneath its unassuming cobblestone streets.

On the road out

3 of 3 enemies met here

Gate boss

The Bound Librarian, Keeper of Forbidden Secrets

The elder at the gate

Old Maddock

Before the gate road opens, the elder asks for one of these, picked fresh for each life. Once paid, a life is not asked again, and an account that has beaten this gate never is. See Gate elders.

  • Often

    The ferry east runs on fish. Bring Maddock some trout and he stops pretending to be asleep.

    3 × River trout

  • Sometimes

    Maddock smells fish on you and has opinions about how it should be cooked. Cook it.

    1 × Grilled carp

  • Rarely

    Maddock's stove is cold. He wants soot moss and ash logs to start it, and he wants a lot.

    5 × Soot moss, 3 × Ash log

Gathering

14 of 14 finds gathered here. Each one appears once anyone gathers it in this city. See Life skills.

Mining

Woodcutting

Herbalism

Fishing

Crafting

23 of 25 recipes that use materials from here are known. Crafting works in any town; these are what this city's materials go into. See Recipes.

Blacksmithing
Copper ring (1), Kitchen knife (1), Apprentice wand (5), Quarterstaff (8), Tinker's pick (10), Tinker's hatchet (10), Tinker's sickle (10), Tinker's rod (10), Iron signet (15), Chainmail shirt (18), Iron longsword (20), Garnet band (26)
Alchemy
Minor healing potion (1), Focus draught (5), Firebomb (10), Cleansing tonic (12), Healing potion (15), Frost bomb (18)
Cooking
Grilled carp (1), Trout stew (5), Eel pie (10), Sun perch skewers (15), Cavefish chowder (22)

General store

The same shop is in every town, stocked by your checkpoint city's tier. With your checkpoint here, these join the shelf at tier 1. See the full stock.

Events and weather

Every tier 1 city shares these. They turn up on the roads out of town.

Events

48 of 49 tier 1 events seen

The cursed shrine, A merchant in the fog, The wounded knight, The goblin who wants to play, The black pool, An abandoned nest, A chest on the road, The old well, A travelling bard, A ring of mushrooms, Wolf ambush, Bandit toll, The glowing crack, A roadside hot spring, A loose page, The arm-wrestling miner, Soot squall, The silver bowl, The pointing scarecrow, The white hart, The snared goblin, Something on your shoulder, Blood moon, Timber, The chained book, The door with opinions, The book cart, The helpful signpost, The road across the sea, A message in a bottle, The sailor who lost his ship, A shed glass shell, The glinting tide pool, The sword in the surf, Gull raid, The chicken, A fresh grave, The goblin census, Light fingers, An amateur robbery, Pell's broken wheel, A still-warm campfire, A purse with your name on it, The apprentice, The skull on the fencepost, The oath stone, The sleeping guard, The town crier

Weather

Tier 1 roads have no weather.

History: The Unfinished Index

12 of 12 pieces known. The locals tell them in town, one at a time, and each one appears here once anyone hears it.

  1. Wynne Harrow: The library goes down further than anyone has mapped. The rule is simple. Never go below a floor you can't name.

    Wynne Harrow: Most of the staff can name nine. The founders, we're told, could name them all.

    First seen by Hester (DJGG) ·

  2. A retired stack-runner: Forty years I ran books between the floors. Up with a request, down with a return. My knees remember every stair.

    A retired stack-runner: The low shelves were always warm. You'd put your hand on them like a stove on a winter morning.

    First seen by Hester (DJGG) ·

  3. A moth-catcher: The paper moths only eat one kind of page. Lists. Catalogues, indexes, registers.

    A moth-catcher: Leave a novel out and they won't touch it. Leave out a shopping list and it's gone by morning.

    First seen by Edric (Anacott) ·

  4. A student: I've only been lost in the stacks twice. The second time I found a book with my name on the spine.

    A student: The library writes everyone down, you see. Everything that happens, as it happens. I didn't open it. I'm told that was wise.

    Hearsay

    First seen by Edric (Anacott) ·

  5. Hollis Crane: I have mapped the library under Cornerfax three times, and drawn three different maps. The library disagrees with all of them.

    Hollis Crane: The stairs are where I left them. It's the floors in between that keep changing their minds.

    First seen by Hester (DJGG) ·

  6. Wynne Harrow: The founding charter says Cornerfax was a library before it was a crossroads. The street grew on top, later.

    Wynne Harrow: It also says why the library was built. That page is missing. We have the index entry for it, which is somehow worse.

    First seen by Edric (Anacott) ·

  7. A retired stack-runner: The lowest floor I ever reached had one shelf, and the shelf was built round a stone. Square, and older than the walls.

    A retired stack-runner: Every book on it was the same. Pages and pages of music, written in notes nobody could play.

    First seen by Hester (DJGG) ·

  8. A moth-catcher: The Librarian was nearly done, you know. Every secret filed. Everything down there written up and shelved.

    A moth-catcher: Then he found the last entry kept growing while he wrote it. So he bound himself to the catalogue, to hold it still.

    First seen by Gwendolyn (DJGG) ·

  9. A student: The Librarian isn't dead. He's the index now. Ask a question out loud in the stacks and the right book falls off the shelf.

    A student: Usually onto your head. I have a very well-informed head.

    Hearsay

    First seen by Hester (DJGG) ·

  10. Hollis Crane: I found a page of your family's Ledger down there. Not the original. A copy of its oldest page, the names nobody can read.

    Hollis Crane: It was filed under "Arrivals, uncatalogued". Someone meant to come back for it. I left it where it was. Filing is not my department.

    First seen by Rosamund (bobert) ·

  11. Wynne Harrow: The founders didn't build a library to keep books. They built it to write something down, all of it, so it could never surprise anyone again.

    Wynne Harrow: It's the kind of plan that only makes sense to clerks. I say that as a clerk.

    First seen by Rosamund (bobert) ·

  12. A retired stack-runner: The index can't be finished. The Librarian knew it at the end. Whatever sings under that last stone is still being written.

    A retired stack-runner: You can't shelve a thing that hasn't stopped.

    First seen by Rosamund (bobert) ·

The library under Cornerfax was built around an old waystone, to write down the music that rises through it until nothing about it could surprise anyone again. The Bound Librarian came nearer to finishing that catalogue than anyone, and learned why it can never be done: the thing it records is still being written. Somewhere in the stacks is a copy of the oldest page of the Ledger of Arrivals, filed and forgotten.