Hooked on Books discussion

January 1, 2025
Open-Ended
Individual

Race: Human
Class: Monk
Class level: 3

Links
Q&A
Quest Check-in
Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Challenge Rules
📘No graphic novels, poetry, or cookbooks allowed.
📘Standard Rules Apply

Race Tasks: (choose one)
1. Read a book with a character that matches the race type you choose
2. Read a book with all the letters of the race type you choose in the title/subtitle/series (example: GOBLIN)
3. Read a book with the race type chosen listed in the text of the book: please state the page or % (example: DWARF)

Class Tasks: (choose one)
1. Read a book with a character that matches the class type you choose
2. Read a book with all the letters of the class type you choose in the title/subtitle/series (example: WIZARD)
3. Read a book with the class type chosen listed in the text of the book: please state the page or % (example: BARBARIAN)

Please choose one race & one class
Race options:
Elf
Dwarf
Goblin
Orc
Human
Shifter
Fairy

Class Options:
Barbarian
Druid
Ranger
Rogue
Wizard
Fighter
Monk

Link to Class options to explore skills: https://5e.tools/classes.html#barbari...

Please Note: Each player will read a total of 2 books for this. One for race & one for class.

Your spreadsheet is in message 1

Quest #1

A prized 'sack of flour' has been stolen from you, but you've tracked it down to a highly secure bank. The bank will not give it back to you. Do you give up, or plan a heist?

If you give up: spell out CONCEDE
C
O
N
C
E
D
E

If you plan a heist.
Step 1: Gather your heist materials
Minimum 4 books - items should be on covers or in the title

Step 2: Security - security guards & alarms
Read a book with a security guard character (to distract him)
Read a book with the word alarm in the text (to disable it)
{Create your own additional tasks as needed to fit your plan}

Step 3: Execute your plan - tell me your plan
Use book titles BUT please use filler words as needed to tell me your plan. Minimum of 4 books.

Announcement: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Quest #2

After a night in a tavern, each member of the party wakes up in the body of another member with no memory of what happened. One party member's body is gone, however, their mind instead inside a sentient item... a bag of beans.

Are these magic beans? Maybe, maybe not; plant them and find out. Worst case scenario, you could eat them. Do you eat the beans? If they are magic beans, how do you use them? Can you get everyone back in their bodies?

If you eat the beans, spell out BEANS
B
E
A
N
S

If you think they are magic beans, start here
Plant the beans
Read a book with dirt on the cover
Read a book with all the letters of BEANS in the title
Read a book with water on the cover
Read a book with a sun on the cover

Step 2: Find a solution to the body problems listed above. Use book titles BUT please use filler words as needed to tell me your solution. Minimum of 4 books. (everyone will do step 2 no matter the choices above)

For those of you playing solo... you will play this as if you were a member of the party experiencing this issue. How would you solve this? You can play as any member the party, one that is in another body or the beans. But you must present a solution.

Bumping this to show activity...

🌀 Quest 2A: The Dreaming Staircase

Your body is back. Your spirit is whole. But the staircase still calls to you.

Night after night, the same dream haunts you. You see the staircase winding through a forest that shifts with every blink—stone becomes bark, stairs become bones, wind hums with the laughter of something watching.

You climb. You fall. You climb again.

Ella hears the same dream. You were changed when you ate the beans. Now, something is trying to finish that transformation.

To unlock the Dreaming Staircase and survive the climb, you must complete four reading tasks that resonate with its strange, spiraling power:

📚 Reading Tasks for The Dreaming Staircase

Portalwalker
📘Read a book involving a portal, gateway, or crossing between realms.

The staircase is more than stone—it’s a boundary. Step carefully, for some doors don’t open both ways.

Dreamborne
📘Read a book where dreams or hallucinations play a key role.

What is real? What isn’t? Only the staircase knows. And it’s not telling.

The Fall
📘Read a book that includes a physical or metaphorical fall.

The higher you climb, the farther there is to fall. Some falls are necessary. Some are fatal.

The Erased
📘Read a book with a missing, forgotten, or erased character.

Someone used to wait at the top of the stairs. They were... important. But you can’t remember their name.

🌑 Quest 2B: The Staircase of Mirrors

The staircase no longer waits in dreams.
It stands before you now — real, silent, breathing mist through its stone bones. The forest bends around it, trees curving like ribs, and the air hums with the pulse of something vast and waiting.

You know this place.
You’ve climbed it a hundred times in sleep.
But now, you can finally reach the top.

When you do, you find a mirror instead of a door.
And behind the mirror… you move first.

The reflection smiles before you do.
It whispers: You didn’t climb to escape. You climbed to meet me.

🎯 Goal

Confront what waits at the top of the staircase — a reflection that remembers what you’ve forgotten. The only way forward is through the mirror, but each step reveals a truth you’ve hidden from yourself.

📚 Reading Tasks for The Staircase of Mirrors

1. The Reflection
📘 Read a book with a mirrored, twin, or duplicate character.
The reflection speaks your name. It sounds like love, and pity, and hunger.

2. The Forgotten Room
📘 Read a book with a locked or hidden room.
The staircase hides a chamber behind its walls — and inside, something of yours remains.

3. The Voice Beyond
📘 Read a book where someone speaks from beyond death, sleep, or time.
Not all echoes fade. Some wait for you to listen.

4. The Breaking Point
📘 Read a book where a character breaks free from illusion or confinement.
When the mirror cracks, you must decide which side to stand on.

🪞 Resolution

When Carrie completes these four tasks, she will reach the heart of the staircase. The mirror will shatter — but whether she steps through to freedom or is pulled into the reflection’s world will determine how Quest 2C begins.