The Deciphering Tablet
A giant Rosetta-Stone engraving on the back wall of the Hollow House treasure vault — the combined, unfinished work of the four immortal scholars (Halren and the others) translating the lost language of the Elder race. It is accompanied by a vase of 10–20 smaller work-tablets (one smashed by intruders long ago). Recovered/claimed by the party in Session 42.
It comes as a multi-year puzzle: each in-character year a character spends studying it yields one clue, and the GM warns it is unsolvable in its current form without that investment (he solved a 3-clue version himself in "4–5 hours"). Fully solved, it would let the party read and speak the ancient Elder tongue — and so translate the warning text that guards the Prison of Seven Cells (and likely other Elder-race relics).
Session 42
- Found on the back wall of the boss-chamber vault, behind the door whose key was hidden in Halren's ribcage.
- Established as a slow-burn investigation reward: a long-term key to the ancient language and the pre-Fall lore threads (tied to the immortality research and the Elder race).
Session 44
- First progress. Jex spends two downtime weeks studying it as the "Puzzle of the Ancients," logging 20 of 365 days of progress (an above-average effort with his "modern problem-solving" eyes) — a reminder of just how long the full translation will take.