The Silver Archives are the main library of Argentum, in the heart of the city beside the Cathedral of the Silver Flame.1 They are the branch of the church responsible for the city’s libraries and historical records.1 The city’s other libraries tend to be specialist or privately owned.1
Description
The Archives stand in the Lantern Wards, across the street from the Bureau of Infrastructure & Mapping, in the southeast corner of the ward.12 The building is a massive stone structure of several stories, rounded at both ends, and about as big as the three buildings across from it put together. Two armed and armored guards stand at the entrance.2
Inside, the Archives are very like a library. Stone shelves are carved into the walls, with wooden shelves added to them, and the upper levels are balconies over the main chamber. A librarian works at the front desk.2 Luma has been sent to the ground floor many times, but had never been allowed into the basement.2
A door behind the front desk leads down an ordinary stair to the basement, a large chamber with several doors and a couple of hallways. Censors of the Inquisition guard its doors.2 Behind one of them, a passage leads down to sections of the sealed Underforge Vaults, which take clearance to enter.12
Society
The historian Rurik Hulduro works through the Archives, and they hold his book.1
History
Session 9
Temerity thought of looking for books on purification at the Archives on 29 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, but did not know her way there.1 The same evening Kessa Tumblebrim offered to ask people she knew at the Archives about a meeting between Luma and Hulduro, and told Luma she would need a day or two to arrange clearance for the vaults beneath them.1
Session 11
On the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF, the party came to the Archives for Luma’s survey of Vaults 17 to 19. The librarian had spoken to Kessa Tumblebrim about Luma the afternoon before. She read the work order twice, called it highly irregular but in order, and warned the party not to touch anything or wander off.2 She led them down to the basement, where a Censor checked the order and key again and unlocked the door to the vaults.2
Session 13
The party came back up through the Archives late on the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF. A different sentinel of the Order of the Lantern was on the door, told them they were not supposed to be down there, and sent them out.3 In the Archives the party had been much closer to the Silver Flame than in the tunnels a mile beneath the chapel.3
Session 16
Vaestra Wenn, the head of the Archives, whose title is curator, ordered Luma fired on 3 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF.4 On 6 Nightdeep Luma was interviewed in an office in the basement, on the floor from which the party had gone down into the vaults.4 The doors open at seven.4