The Manor

Turning back to the hallway you make your way down its length and carefully peer around the corner to see.... more hallway. You move down to the next intersection with equal care and examine it as well.

Skeeve begins poking and prodding the solid stone to no noticeable effect. Just as he is about to stop tapping, with the pole extended to its maximum length you all hear a faint clicking and clacking noise. It sounds mechanical and originates from somewhere further down the hall.

Additional pokes and tapps where you triggered thing, down the hall to the east past the intersection, have not affect on the faint mechanical sounds

Satisfied the intersection is clear you head to the north door, tapping as you move. You reach the door without incident. It is a heavy Iron door.

Opening the door you see a large room with a tattered carpet, the remains of several chairs, couches, and small tables, with the walls lined with covered bookshelves. The air is musty and stale and dust covers everything in the room. Ahead of you there is an open archway on the east wall. Moving cautiously into the room you look around. The furniture is old and show signs of being smashed but a blunt object. The bookshelves however, other than the dust, are in good condition as are the books on them. Peering through the dust to read the titles on the spines you see they are mostly book on history, theory, and practices of various practices including horsemanship, fencing, falconry, hunting, training hounds, climbing, wrestling, and many other physical activities. Looking though the archway, whis is sealed by a closed polished wooden pole gate, you see another large room with several thick wooden beams with short rods sticking out of them. Along the walls are racks of weapons, armor, and a few manquin looking figures of wood and metal.

Skeeve can still sense faint magic somewhere in the building and traces from the bookshelves and the wooden pillars and equipment.

You examine the bookshelves closer but conclude none of the books to be magical but the magic comes from the shelves themselves. The magic preserves the books and the shelves themselves. Otherwise the shelves and books would likely be in as bad of condition as the carpet and furniture.