A visit to the library

After they bought what they wanted from Quart, the three adventurers split up to gather information. Chen decided that the best place to find information would be the local library within the palace walls. On the way there he concentrated on the people behind him to see if he was still followed, but because the streets were filled with people it was in vain. The library was the biggest Chen had seen so far and with a little help from the librarian he soon had a selection of books on history, geography and local myths. It took him three hours to look through them and come up with the following bits of information:

- The wealth of the town was due to flourishing trade realitions with the dwarfs living underneath the mountains. The town sold everything the dwarfs needed in return of precious metals and gems.
- The mountaineous area was almost circular with Gom Dalat being the biggest settlement above ground. Chen memorised the maps and landmarks. Only a few smaller settlements were marked on the general maps and they are mostly located around the mountains.
- The history books were full of wars against orcs from north of the mountains. The victories seem to be equally distributed with a tendency towards orcish wins in the recent past. The orcs managed to capture several territories in the north.
- History revealed little about the mountain range itself sence the people from Gom Dalat don't seem to penetrate the mountains often. There are occasional hints to other races but except for the dwarfes they never had relations with Gom Dalat.
- The book on myths and folklore on the other hand was full of stories about the mountains. Many tales were about strange mountain dwellers and missing people. Chen tried to crossreference the stories with the history and geography books and could dismiss most tales as myths without background. A few stories could have a true core:
1. A tribe of vampires living in a castle in the southern region. The exact location was unknown but reports of vampire encounters could be found over the whole history of Gom Dalat.
2. An ancient dragon living in the middle of the mountain guarding a huge treasure in his hoard. There were occasional sightings of a huge, dragonlike flying creature from hunters.
3. A very elusive and old race inhabiting the higher regions of the whole mountain area. Only few people have ever really seen them as they seem to be masters in camouflage. They seem to avoid contact and no settlement was ever reported to be found. Hunters from time to time reported ranged attacks out of nowhere when trying to hunt and therefore avoid going futher into the mountains.
4. Only a few stories were about the time before Gom Dalat was founded. Tales hint to a kingdom of a evil and very religious race which was destroyed in an epic battle. Gom Dalat was founded by the progeny of survivors from the good side.

After he could find no mention of black cloaks or a special place inside the mountains they could aim for he gave the books back. The mountain range seemed to be mostly unknown to the current inhabitants of Gom Dalat with little to no specific information from recent history. Many ancient places were mentioned without exact location or confirmation of existence. He left the library to head back to the others. Hopefully they found out more.