Tome Appraisal for Jane
August 16, 2021
From the Client
“Hullo?” the Miqo’te woman stepped tentatively into the tea room to peer curiously around her before continuing in a strangely stilted and formal tone. “That is, uh, greetings…good ser. You’d be Amon, I presume? Lovely place you’ve got here. Oh, the Tome – well, I um…found it on the banks of Lake Silvertear. Yeah, that’s it…” Her voice dropped to a low murmur, “Technically.”
She let out a resigned sigh. “Okay, so all I know is that its last owner was one Lambard Calowise, a former Ala Mhigan defector to Garlemald. So whatever data’s on there is potentially pretty important to my…” The woman trailed off then, seemingly undecided about what to say. Visibly flustered, she blurted out, “Whatever you can manage to dig up would be greatly appreciated. Ooh, are those sandwiches? Can never resist a good sammich. Lemme guess,” she deepened her voice as though performing a swaggering impression of someone, “you’ve got liverwurst, liverwurst, chicken, and liverwurst.”
When her bizarre reference went unrecognized, she laughed nervously, then hastily seated herself at a corner table to wait. “I’ll uh, just get out of your way and let you do…that thing you do, now.”
Tome Attributes: Other than some indication that mayhap at one point, it had been slightly stained with blood, it appears to be in excellent condition.
Gil Donation: 3,000
Tea Order: Papaya Philosophy
Amon tilted his head, observing his newest client who seemed a slight bit skittish at the moment. He then nodded, acting as if he understood her sentiments, hoping to relax her somewhat.
“No liverwurst here, I’m afraid. I’d offer to send for some, but ‘twould lengthen your stay to wait for it, and you seem a busy sort,” the Elezen offered her the cup of tea instead. “Mayhaps you can find a suitable substitute? The sandwiches are all freshly made!”
He then took the Tome and studied it a moment. If there was information upon it that could get him tangled up in the whole war dispute, it wasn’t something he wanted to know.
“I shall do my utmost to unlock and copy the data as you’ve requested. Please, though – mums the word that you brought it here should there be war secrets within. I will keep no record for myself, nor even read the data. I have no desire to find my business set upon for whatever reason,” Amon explained.
Then he went to settle behind his machine to get to work.
Appraisal Outcome
‘Tis a curious Tome – one that has been meddled with. I can wager a guess that the insides of this piece are not the original. I believe that the casing has either been replaced with something of better condition or the data chip on the inside has been switched out for another.
Someone has also forced a re-write on this Tome. Whatever content existed from the Allagan age has been fragmented in attempts to wipe the data storage clean and make way for new data. This new data is very rough-shod – it seems an amateur out there has attempted to store information on here – likely using cobbled-together tech. Would the Garleans have such a device, perhaps?
As you suspected, this data is recent. And as promised, I have indulged in reading none of it. I have, however, put my encryption device to work to crack the file – they attempted a rather weak protection on the data – so that you have direct access to whatever secrets may lie within.
Amon returned the Tome and a copy of its contents on a second mini-tome.
“Interesting. I suspect someone was trying to disguise some kind of data by writing it to a Tome. In this day and age, ’tis a pretty safe means of storage since not everyone has access to a reading and encryption device,” he told his client. “I hope the Tome and the copy of the data will serve you well. It may be a little difficult to read as the means of data writing was somewhat primitive. Mayhaps you’ll find what you’re searching for within, nonetheless.”