Shardhunt

The Librarian

To: Puzzle Solvers

07/05/2023 5:00 PM EDT

Hello to all puzzlers!

I've found something, and I think it could be a big deal. I was trying to track down the origins of a misshelved book, and I've ended up, well, here. It's the most puzzling place I've ever seen, so I figured you might be the people to ask for help!

If you want to help me get to the bottom of this, let me know. I'll be in touch.

Sincerely,

The Librarian (they/them)

The Librarian

To: Puzzle Solvers

07/28/2023 6:00 PM EDT

Hey everyone!

If you're getting this email, it's because you answered the advertisement I put up asking for help with some puzzles. (Or you ended up on this email list by accident. My address book is pretty disorganized.) Thanks for your help! Wow, I didn't expect so many of you.

The reason I need your help is because, well, I stumbled across this really weird library. I mean, I think it's a library, but it's not like anything I've seen before. And here I was just trying to return a misplaced book.

Anyway, I can't get past the first floor lobby. The staircase is blocked for some reason? But the books are all full of puzzles, and I think deciphering them might help us figure out what to do. This is where you all come in! I'll leave notes for you as I explore (it's pretty easy to get lost in here), and my team of interns might be able to help you out sometimes, but otherwise, the puzzles are up to you.

We'll unlock the puzzles ten minutes after you see this. For now, I've set up a basic puzzle of my own. I've put a hex address in the Copy to Clipboard button on this page. (Click the button to copy it. It's long!) Go to that hex, and visit wall 3, shelf 1, volume 16, and page 14 to see my hidden message there.

Good luck, and thanks again!

Your pal,

The Librarian (they/them)

The staircase is blocked here. If you can puzzle your way through this, let me know!

We boldly go into the unknown! This'll be a great story to tell my cat.

The library can't really go on forever. That's not possible. Right? Right??

I think we might not be the first people to find this place. I keep finding old notes and markings.

Y'know, if these books really do contain every combination of letters, then one of them contains the words I'm writing right now.

At this point I'm not even wondering who built the library, just why. Like, it's cool, but what's it for?

I don't know why I keep expecting to see something different. It's just hex after hex after hex...

The Librarian

To: Puzzle Solvers

08/06/2023 9:00 PM EDT

Wow, great job! To find the mechanism for opening the staircase I had to CHECK OUT THEIR CARD READERS, just like you said. The second floor's got more hexes, it looks like, and more puzzles. I'm not sure why the staircase was blocked in the first place, but there is something vaguely unsettling about this floor... probably just my imagination, though.

The Librarian (they/them)

Endless books full of gibberish, cryptic research notes, impossible geometries...all I want are some answers!

This floor is weird. I mean, everything still looks the same, but something feels off. Like the walls move when I'm not looking at them.

Is it just me or are the angles of the shadows wrong?

No, no, I'm not going crazy. The rooms don't meet the way they're supposed to. I'm not imagining it.

I've found more notes from whoever was here before us... I don't think the library was always like this.

Whoever blocked the staircase did so for a reason. What were they keeping out? Or— what were they keeping in?

The old notes I've found up here keep talking about "breaching the boundary" and "contacting the other side". What did they do??

The hexes feel like they're twisting around me. I see strange patterns in the disjoint doorways, like some kind of maddened scrawl.

I think I'm lost. And I'm out of Red Bull. But hey, at least you're still here, right?

The Librarian

To: Puzzle Solvers

08/06/2023 9:00 PM EDT

A MANIFOLD MAKER... I've never even heard of such a thing. Is it alive? Why is it damaging our Library?

After spending so long here I've started to feel a weird sense of responsibility for the place. If this Manifold Maker is destroying our hexes, we need to figure out how to get it out of here!

But at the same time, I want to know more about it. It's not every day that you encounter an extradimensional entity, right? It's folding books as it moves through the library. Maybe by solving the puzzles in those books we can start to understand it?

I think we should try. Are you with me?

The Librarian (they/them)

The Librarian

To: Puzzle Solvers

08/06/2023 9:00 PM EDT

You did it! I can't believe it! The Manifold Maker's gone, and the library's back to... well, not normal. But all the hexes are where they should be now. Whatever you wrote in that puzzle book must have convinced it to leave and repair the hexes. By explaining our ENTITLEMENT TO HUMAN WRITES, I think you proved that we're sentient beings, and that it was hurting us. That's what books are for, right? To let us into the mind of someone else?

Well, that's just speculation at this point. Whatever you did, it worked! There's still this whole library to explore, and I never did figure out where to shelve that misplaced book... but I think I've had enough adventure for a while. I'm going to go take a nap and pet my cat.

Thank you for all your help!

Gratefully,
The Librarian (they/them)

Story