The party moves silently through the mansion's fourth floor hallway, slipping through a doorway. The room opens up to reveal the high, vaulted ceiling of a massive library. Thirty foot tall shelves dominate the four walls, each with multiple wheeled ladders for accessing those hard to reach volumes. In addition to the stuffed shelves, there are books everywhere. There are stacks in the corners and next to chairs, on tables, and some are just strewn randomly on the floor. The stale-sweet smell of ancient but well cared for paper surrounds everything.
Thastarisk the wizard steps forward as if in a trance, too overwhelmed to decide where to start.
"Careful! I haven't yet checked for traps", Kerry whispers sharply, but the mage is already selecting a thick green leather tome, cradling it with reverence.
Lassater sets down her battle axe, taking a moment to adjust a loose strap on one of her bracers, when her eyes are drawn to a large pile of books toward the center of the room. She tugs at the strap, pulling it tight against her forearm, when she notices a flicker of movement at the top of the pile.
Alisteria sits contently on the floor chewing on some of the dried fruit they found in the pantry on the first floor as Lassater approaches the pile. The books rise well above her head to at least seven feet high. Was this stack this tall when we came in here?
As if in response to her internal question, two small books with matching gold covers leap from a nearby table and tumbling up the side of the pile finally rotate to rest neatly at the top. Lassater instinctively reaches for her axe, but remembers that she left it leaning against a shelf on the other side of the room.
"We should keep moving" she says.
"Are you crazy?" the wizard replies without looking up from the book in his hands. "I need time to search, there could be spells here."
The large pile before her slides apart, forming two uniform columns as three more books fly from different shelves to land on the top. "Yeah... that is exactly what I'm afraid of." Lassater says, moving for her axe.
"Did those books-" Kerry is interrupted when a torrent of books pour from every shelf and surface to add to the swelling form in the center of the library. The growing figure creaks and snaps as thousands of books which had been comfortably stationary for countless years now groan an angry protest.
Thastarisk looks up as the book he is reading is ripped from his hands. It flies upward, pages fluttering violently, stopping as it clings to the head of the now fully formed giant humanoid framework of books hulking before them. It takes a lumbering step forward, the impact shaking the room as loose books fall from the shelves nearby only to be drawn into the behemoth, adding to its feet.
Tome Golem
Huge construct, unaligned
Armor Class
14 (natural armor)
Hit Points
95
Speed
30 ft.
STR
18 (+4)
DEX
10 (+0)
CON
16 (+3)
INT
8 (-1)
WIS
10 (+0)
CHA
3 (-4)
Saving Throws
Str +7
Damage Vulnerabilities
fire
Damage Resistances
bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
The golem is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.
Magic Resistance.
The golem has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Magic Weapons.
The golem's weapon attacks are magical.
Actions
Multiattack.
The golem makes two slam attacks.
Slam.
Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (2d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.
Info Dump.
(Recharge 5-6): The Golem spews books in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5d8 bludgeoning damage on a failed save and they are restrained and considered to be in full cover; or half as much damage on a successful save and they are not restrained. A creature restrained in this manner can spend an action to dig out from the pile of books. The area effected by this ability is now considered difficult terrain.
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