”I’m sorry… should we continue to the stores? There is likely to be much of interest in the stores… I wish I had had the chance to look at these books before they were smashed to smithereens, but then they were somewhat bent on eating us, so it’s a good thing I didn’t. I’ve gone off this whole magic thing recently anyway.”
Can I have a quick look at the books too? And then follow to leave. As an aside to Mr Walken:
”He doesn’t really mean depressing as such, you know – it’s just his light hearted and witty way. People generally concur that my life-affirming chanted anecdotes are really quite wonderful and positive. Would you like to hear one?”
Looking at the (once-)living books, it seems that they don't contain much but runes scribed into them on a scant few pages. No doubt those used to create the constructs themselves. The more mundane books are precisely that; mundane. Intriguing, if you're the sort intrigued by rambling treatises on methods of lichen farming, but mundane.
The party heads for the storeroom, and the trip there turns out to be uneventful. As you open the storeroom, a horde of rats, evidently still scrounging for what's left, flood out, retreating into cracks and holes in the fortress walls. Crates, most hewn of stone, line the walls; on shelves sit the occasional item, most evidently mementos. Little of interest stands out at first glance.