The Records Room
The records room is a small partitioned-off corner of the library full of file cabinets. It isn't the Master's actual records. That is, the information in the "records" room isn't particularly useful. The records room is full of bureaucratic bric-a-brac. Despite the secrecy surrounding the dojo, Master Tobuo still had to have it built. Fortresses don't just construct themselves, you know. You dig through the files, knowing exactly what you're looking for.
The records room is by far the most boring part of the dojo, so it won't be heavily guarded. You shuffle around drawer after drawer of paperwork: building permits, timeclock receipts, elevation maps. Not what you're looking for. You do note, with some amusement, that the dojo was built in the guise of a luxury ski resort. Enlightening as it is, it's not what you're looking for...wait...you've found them! The floor plans.
Unfortunately, they don't yield any useful information. Whatever secret passages and hidden traps the Master built, he was careful to leave no record of them...but wait... near the center of the plan for the basement is a small, intricate symbol. It was definitely drawn in after the fact by hand. You squint to get a good look at it: a serpentine dragon wrapped in a spiral around a small circle. Quickly but silently, you take the floor plan over to the main library and find a book on ancient symbols. The dragon seems to be the most prominent feature, so you look in the "D" section of the book. There's plenty on dragons, but nothing that even comes close to what you're looking for. You try "circle." Still no luck. You decide that maybe the serpentine dragon is really a draconian serpent, so you decide to look up "serpent." On the way from "circle" to "serpent," you stop. There it is, buried at the bottom of the page, a tiny illustration and little more than a blurb, but you've found the symbol. The entry reads, "Heartstone Pendant symbol. Obscure cartographer's symbol from Qin dynasty China said to denote the location of the Heartstone Pendant, a mythical artifact said to bring invulnerability to the wearer. The pendant and associated symbol remained a footnote in Qin records. The pendant was forgotten entirely during the civil war following Shi Huandi's death, and the symbol devoled into a decorative mark with no significance."
It seems odd that someone would bother putting a decorative symbol with no significance on a set of floor plans nobody was expected to look at after construction was completed. So there's a chance that the symbol is used with its older meaning intact...maybe Master Tobuo has the Heartstone Pendant, and maybe it's at the location denoted in the plans! Of course, the thing might not really grant invulnerability, but hey, if it's from ancient China and merited inclusion in a set of floor plans it's got to be valuable and, thus, well-guarded...maybe TOO well-guarded. Maybe the symbol is a trap, and all you'll find at the location is a rival student. Maybe you should just explore the basement and see what else you can find. You're taking a risk either way, but...what will you do?
Written by Zodiac on 13 July 2007