:I think so! ...Anyway I guess my plan is still to research other temples we can visit, and then we can divide that up? And - maybe we can research the spirit world on our own, in case we can figure out how to go there without Summerhawk's help?: 

:It might be dangerous, since the Moonpaths needed inventing for safety reasons...:

:It would probably be dangerous. I'd want to wait and see if any of the other temples also go there and are willing to show us. But if they're not, well, it still seems important to understand? Especially if that's where all the spirits of dead people are, and they...still exist...: 

:...yeah: It seems very hard to calculate the value of taking an unknown risk (unescorted spirit jaunts) in pursuit of an unknown amount of information (regarding dead people in their millions) in order to pursue an unknown feasibility of goal (having them not be dead, somehow) but it's at least worth not dismissing out of hand.

:And I read through the whole book Summerhawk lent us, so we know something about what to look out for. I bet there's more in Urtho's library, too, now that I know what keywords to dig around for. We'd want to be smart about it, obviously - take our time preparing, maybe make special protective artifacts for it if we can figure out what we need to be protected against...: 

:Yeah, I agree, we can split up books we find on this too:

:Sounds good: Ma'ar glances over at her. :I'm - glad we can both work on this together: 

:It would be much harder without someone to bounce ideas off!:

Nod. 

They've reached the main courtyard outside the entrance to the Tower, and Ma'ar stops. "- I'd better go help Aala with her homework. I can go to the library tomorrow. Want to pick a time when we can talk about this again...?" 

"Sure, I have a bit after lunch?"

"- Tomorrow? I've got combat practice in the afternoon, could you do just before dinner, or maybe after it?" 

"After dinner is also okay, sure."

"I'll see what I can find in the library before then." And Ma'ar nods to her and dashes off into the Tower. 

After dinner the next day she goes to the library; if she doesn't spot Ma'ar immediately she'll start skimming the stacks looking for spirit world stuff.

Ma'ar is not immediately apparent. Neither are books about the spirit world; there doesn't seem to be a category for it, so she needs to guess at which related categories to check, and the first book she finds, under 'Theoretical Magic: Extraplanar', is...very theoretical and clearly written by someone who had not, personally, ever visited the spirit world. 

Ma'ar shows up shortly later. :Sorry I'm late! Finding anything? I spent candlemarks looking last night but maybe you'll have found something I missed...: 

:Nothing good. There's this one but it's very speculative:

:Ooh, I should've looked under extraplanar theory, that's smart. Even if it's not useful by itself, maybe we can combine different books to get a picture: 

Ma'ar joins her, slinging down his bookbag and reaching into it. :I found this book in the practical section on extraplanar work. It's mostly about the elemental planes, and summonings, but it has actual instructions on projecting your mind to other planes in general. And on safety. It sounds like the spirit world is actually safer than, say, the elemental plane of Fire, so probably the precautions they suggest would be enough?: 

:...maybe? Let me have a look -: She takes the book and investigates this claim.

The book is, as mentioned, mostly about the elemental planes. The Elemental Plane of Fire and the Abyssal Plane both sound incredibly dangerous, though! In fact it's not recommended for anyone to try exploring the Abyssal Plane at all unless they're an Adept with decades of experience projecting their mind to the other planes, and have a guide who's been to the Abyssal Plane before. 

In general, the plane of Earth is safest, followed by Air and then Water. (None of them would support human life if you were to literally transport your body there; their physical laws are believed to be different from in the material plane, and certainly magic behaves differently.) There are instructions given for mind-shielding techniques. 

What exactly happens? Fire isn't dangerous to look at or think about, it's dangerous to touch, so if you aren't physically there what goes wrong?

The 'fire' in the Elemental Plane of Fire isn't exactly the same thing that ordinary fire is, but in any case that's not the dangerous part in itself. The main risks are, one, the ambient density of magical energy is several hundred times higher there, and a mage projecting there is, by default, opening a channel between that and themselves – if they're not careful, the energy will follow the gradient 'downhill', just like when tapping a node, except intensely enough to seriously damage mage-channels. 

The other risk is the local life. The more intelligent Fire elementals can perceive the mage-energy signature of human visitors, and will tend to go investigate. And, being native to such a magic-dense place, they're absurdly powerful and can accidentally cause serious magical injuries just by trying to communicate. (And sometimes it's worse, and they're hostile...) 

The demons native to the Abyssal Plane are the main danger there. And, unsurprisingly, they're a lot more dangerous in their home environment than when they're summoned to the material plane in construct-bodies. 

Huh! Does this book say anything about the spirit world at all?

It's mentioned a few times – it's in the list of planes that can be visited by mind-projection, and in the section on existing and historical practices around extraplanar projection, where it's specified that this is a skill priests and shamans of some religions pick up. It's rated as somewhat less dangerous than the Elemental Plane of Water, but more dangerous than Air and Earth. 

"I guess that does seem encouraging but if part of the problem is hostile locals it might not be uniformly safe-as-these-go," she remarks.