Underhall Borrower's Card

Origin

Issued by Professor Sylic from the Underhall Archives beneath The Collegium Arcanum after Shelly removed a library book whose text vanished the moment it left the stacks.

Image

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Current Location

with Shelly

Current Loaned Volume

An Underhall treatise on Steam Wagon design is currently keyed to the card.

Background

The hidden library in the Underhall Archives does not truly allow its books to leave. Outside the room, their writing drains away, leaving only blank pages and the memory that something important used to be there. It is less a trap than a rule: knowledge in that chamber is meant to remain where it can be watched.

After Shelly carried out a book on Steam Wagons and discovered that the text had vanished, Sylic solved the problem in the most archival way possible. He issued a card. The card itself is a stiff rectangle of treated vellum backed with thin brass and stamped with Sylic's lending sigils. On its own it does nothing dramatic. When Sylic keys it to one approved volume, however, the library recognizes that book as temporarily absent rather than lost.

For thirty days, the chosen book remains readable anywhere the bearer takes it. When that term expires, the text fades again until the volume is physically returned to Underhall and renewed. Sylic can also clear the card and assign it to a different book, but only one checked-out volume can remain legible through it at a time.

Properties

While carrying the card, the bearer can keep one Sylic-approved Underhall library book readable outside the library.
The chosen volume remains legible for 30 days from the moment Sylic issues or renews the checkout.
When the 30 days expire, the writing fades from the book again until it is brought back to the Underhall Archives and renewed in person.
Returning to the library allows the bearer to renew the current loan or check out a different approved volume in the same way.
If the card is revoked, destroyed, or keyed to a new volume, the previous borrowed book goes blank again.

Notes

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