Agents of Chaos

by Des Pensable

  Chantalot said that he could sometimes dispel magic enchants but tried three times without success.

  ‘By the Powers! He’s got some very powerful magic on him. My skill at dispelling this magic is not adequate we will need the skill of either Featherdown or Granwell and that’s not easy as both of them have been called away.’ said Chantalot.

  ‘Is there anyone in Twin Towers with a rod of greater dispel magic.’ asked Aquitain.

  ‘Yes I think both mages have one but I don’t have ready access to either,’ replied Chantalot. ‘We’ll have to wait. Is there anything else we can do?’

  ‘We could find out about who made this ring, that might be helpful. But I would need access to a magic item artificer in one of the other towns who might know about local item marques.’

  Chantalot stood there thinking for a minute and then said.

  ‘Aquitain, Featherdown seems to think very highly of you and your family and so do I. Can I trust you to keep a secret?’

  Aquitain was a little uncertain what he was going to tell him, so he said

  ‘I don’t like carrying around secrets, it makes me vulnerable, but as a mind wizard I can erase any knowledge that I don’t wish to remember. So I guess you can tell me and then if you change your mind I can erase it.’

  ‘There is a workshop nearby, but not exactly in town.’ he said. ‘I’ll take you there, but I’m not sure the owner will cooperate. Artisans seem to be very touchy about anyone using their equipment. Don’t shape change to that spider thing while you are there as you’ll probably cause a riot.’

  Aquitain was not sure what he was talking about. So he simply followed Chantalot to the teleport circle in Granwell’s tower to see where they were going.

  Chapter 9 Shopping at Gnome World

  ‘You won’t be able to get to where we’re going without a ward stone and there are only a couple of people that have access to them. I am one of them.’ stated Chantalot proudly.

  He rested his hand on Aquitain’s shoulder and uttered a word and they were teleported to a circle at the end of a cobblestone-paved street of stone brick shops, all underground in a giant cave. There were gnomes everywhere; ancient ones wearing sombre earth coloured clothes, hobbling along with the aid of sticks made out of highly polished gnarled tree roots; younger adults with brightly coloured clothes and of course mischievous little children running around chasing each other and laughing happily. They all wore various coloured conical shaped gnome hats. He had no idea how far they had travelled but now they were in the middle of a gnomish town.

  Aquitain fitted right in from a size point of view although he felt a little self-conscious not having a pointy green gnome hat, but Chantalot was a giant, being more than three times their size. Some of them recognized him and politely wished him a pleasant day as they walked down the road. He stopped outside a shop that had a large glass window in the front to display its goods. Aquitain could see a sprinkling of various items. He used his detect magic ability and they all glowed in various shades of the magic colour that depicted magic items.

  Aquitain was curious as to how Chantalot was going to fit into the shop, as he was considerably taller than the top of the doorway. He solved the problem by producing a ring that allowed him to reduce his size by half. He was now similar in size to Aquitain. Before entering the shop he said

  ‘This fellow is named Rumple. He’s a wonderful artisan and the leader of the community but very difficult to deal with. Let me introduce you and we’ll see if he will help.’

  They entered the shop. It was made of neatly cut stone blocks, joined together on a thin bed of mortar. The inside walls were covered in smooth white plaster that had seen better days. There were glass-fronted cupboards against the wall and two glass-topped wooden showcases standing in the middle of the shop floor. A doorway led out to a smaller area, which was the workshop and a staircase led upstairs to where they lived when not in the shop. Aquitain could see two workbenches, with small sized anvils, an oven, and a large variety of tools. It made him feel a little homesick.

  Chantalot introduced Aquitain and told the old artisan that he was also an artisan far from home and would like to have the use of some equipment. Rumple was not happy about that. No artisan lent his equipment to outsiders.

  ‘How do I know you’re an artisan? You might break something. What do you make?’ asked the gnome.

  ‘I learned my trade making magical items. I am a crystal tuner. I specialized in embedding magic into gems and crystals.’ replied Aquitain.

  The gnome went over to his workbench and returned with two rings. ‘Tell me about these.’

  Aquitain used his detect magic ability to examine the two rings. Both were of gold and each was set with a single gem. One was loaded with illusion magic and the other not. He concentrated carefully and used his ability to visualize the internal structure of the gems using his crystal sight. He noticed that the gemstone in the non-magic ring had a structural plane slightly out of alignment, which was caused by a thin layer of an iron impurity.

  He told the gnome what he had found. The gnome grabbed a magnifying glass pulled the gem out of the ring and examined it carefully.

  ‘Damn fine eyes you got there, but it doesn’t mean you’re an artisan.’

  He grabbed hold of Aquitain’s hands to look at them.

  ‘I thought so. You’ve never done an honest day’s work in your life.’

  Aquitain thought for a moment, then reached inside his shirt and pulled out a small leather bag held by a thong around his neck. He opened the bag tipped out some gems, selected one, returned the others and put the bag back. He passed the gem to the gnome and said

  ‘That is the purest aquamarine that you will ever see. From where I come from this is worth about 50 gold for use in jewellery but as a magic holding gem it will hold a power more powerful than normal, giving it a value five to ten times greater than normal.

  It is yours, if you keep to yourself what I am about to tell you. The gnome looked at Chantalot, he nodded that it was okay. He checked the gem with his magnifying glass nodding his head in agreement. It was definitely a fine gem. So he pocketed it with a happy smile on his face then pulled down the blinds in the front window and locked the door.

  Aquitain shape shifted to a Llanllean spider. The gnome didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned about Aquitain being a Llanllean but he was very interested in the gold collar revealed around Aquitain’s neck. He walked over to a shelf and got a yellowish crystal and looked at Aquitain through it.

  ‘My, my…. You are indeed a Llanllean. Who would have guessed? You’re not going to tell me that Llanlleans are starting to make magic items are you? That’s a very nice collar.’ he said, not being able to keep his eyes off it.

  Aquitain shifted back to his little person shape again.

  ‘I’m an artisan as I said. I was a Newman, but recently I died in an accident, and was reincarnated as a Llanllean spider by a druid. Aren’t you afraid of Llanllean spiders?’

  ‘I’ve made quite a few sales to Llanlleans over the years. They’re pretty keen on magic and magic items. They’re not very skillfull at making items though.’

  Aquitain couldn’t help being a bit disappointed. Most everyone else he met had been scared of his spider shape.

  ‘Would you like to see my collar?’ he said. It was formerly shaped like an ironstone amulet around his neck. But in changing to his spider form he purposely mentally changed it to look like a gold collar knowing that it would catch to eye of Rumple. Aquitain took off the collar and handed it to the gnome who examined it carefully using a magnifier.

  ‘It’s not gold, what metal is it?’

  ‘It’s made out of a very rare substance from another world that can mimic other metals.’ said Aquitain. ‘I’ve made it to look like gold but it can look like any metal and as if to prove the point the collar changed back to ironstone. It acts as a magical vehicle allowing the collar to adjust its size to the wearer.’

  The
gnome was more excited than Chantalot had ever seen him.

  ‘You made this yourself,’ asked the gnome. ‘Where’s your marque?’

  ‘My marque is normally invisible on a mind activated item as it usually talks to the mind of the user if he asks for it. But I can mentally tell it to appear for a few seconds.’

  He held the collar with the topside uppermost and concentrated on it. Moments later his marque appeared.

  ‘I can’t say I that recognize it.’

  ‘That’s why I wanted to borrow the use of your equipment. I have a ring of object locating and I wanted to check its marque and embedding. It might give us a clue to where it came from. We are interested in finding the maker.’

  ‘Maybe I can help you. You can’t be that bad if you’re a Llanllean. I always like doing business with Llanlleans; most of them are pretty honest. Let me see the ring.’

  The gnome had a look at the ring and its marque then passed the ring and his magnifier to Aquitain, for him to have a look.

  ‘I would say it was made by a Newman. They use that band cross section a lot. The gold’s been diluted with copper and probably tin, it’s probably about half gold. That made it a bit more durable and a lot cheaper. The magic is in the gem. A poor quality, but acceptable enough for its purpose. Ring of object location I would say. By its poor finish I’d say it wasn’t intended for sale. It was probably used by the maker of some more valuable object to find it, when it got lost.’

  ‘I don’t know whose marque it is, but I have seen one or two items that have a similar marque that came from Templegate. There are several magic item makers there. That’s the best I can do.’

  ‘Thanks.’ replied Aquitain checking the ring carefully under the magnifying glass.

  ‘Now there is something you can do for Me.’ said the gnome and he wandered off to the back of his shop returning with a wooden drawer containing several items. They looked tarnished and quite dusty and obviously hadn’t been used in quite a time.

  ‘I got these some time ago at an auction. I knew they were magic but couldn’t work out what they did. Maybe you can tell me?’

  Aquitain looked at the items and could see immediately that some were mind activated. ‘I’ll do it for half their value.’

  The gnome stopped dead, banged the lot on the top of the display cabinet and said.

  ‘There you have it. I go out of my way to help these nice people and they want to rob me blind.’

  He looked at Chantalot and said ‘I thought you were a honest person like your brother and what do I find … a mercenary, a charlatan trying to trick a poor gnome out of his livelihood. Wait until I tell your brother!’

  Chantalot looked worried. What was Aquitain doing? They were supposed to be getting the gnome’s help. Not fighting over the cost of identifying items. Aquitain started to walk to the door. The gnome quickly headed him off.

  ‘All right twenty percent.’

  ‘Thirty.’

  ‘Twenty five.’ replied the gnome. ‘And that’s my final offer.’

  ‘Okay,’ replied Aquitain nodding, ‘Let’s see what you’ve got.’ and they both went over with smiles like naughty little children on their faces, to look at the items in the drawer.

  Chantalot couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be the crusty old Rumple he had met before.

  Aquitain pulled out the first item. It was silver collar inlaid with a pink coloured crystal.

  ‘This is worth only the value of the silver. The crystals are rose quartz of a poor quality, worth nothing. It’s a collar of control. Some magic user probably used it to enslave some unfortunate person or creature. It has no power.’

  The next item was a fancy torc of copper inlaid with a small clear gem.

  ‘This is a torc of mind blast. It increases the effectiveness of a mind wizard’s damaging mental attack on their enemy’s minds. Most mind wizards can use them, but it’s useless to anyone else. Its value on the Panmagican item market might be 1000 gold if you were lucky.’

  He pulled out a partly rusty iron bracelet inlaid with some runes in gold.

  ‘This is a mental restraint. It is used as a device to stop a mind wizard from using his mental powers. It would have no effect on anyone else. Its value might be about 500 gold.’

  ‘These items were possibly magical but have no power left. These two small spheres are called mind lock pearls. They would explode on contact possibly paralysing their target for 10-20 seconds. Each is worth about 500 gold.’

  ‘Ah that explains what happened when old Gimplestead dropped one on the floor.’ said the gnome with a smile.

  ‘This final item, the flat gemstone is what is known as a third eye. It is an eye of exposing. When used by a mind wizard it allows you to detect when someone is lying to you. It is probably worth about 5000 gold.’

  The gnome looked at Aquitain and said ‘Well that makes the lot worth about 7500 and your share about 1850. I’ll tell you what, for 2000 you can have the lot.’

  ‘I’ll give you 1000 in high quality gems for the lot and another 500 if you can sell me a couple of invisibility potions and a gnome hat.’

  ‘Done.’ replied the gnome rubbing his hands together and dancing a short jig.

  He got a cloth bag and placed all of Aquitain’s new items in it. He then quibbled with Aquitain over the value of the gems until finally everyone was happy. Lastly he went out to the back room and came back with a brand new green gnome hat and handed it to Aquitain.

  ‘This is the genuine article. They’re very popular as souvenirs. I always keep a few in the back.’

  ‘That’s a nice green one.’ said Aquitain. ‘It’s like the ones the gnomes wear in Mudrun. Why do the gnomes here all wear different coloured hats?’

  Rumple chuckled. ‘Well it’s like this you see. We all like to get up to a little mischief at times. If we all wore different coloured hats it would be too easy to work out which one of us was the culprit. So by decree of the Gnomish General Council all gnomes in foreign localities are directed to wear green hats.’

  Aquitain was not sure whether Rumple was telling him the truth or not. It sounded reasonable enough but with gnomes you could never be sure. Rumple bid them fine day and asked them to come back again soon. Aquitain and Chantalot walked out of the shop and stood looking around.

  ‘I can’t believe what just happened.’ said Chantalot. ‘We went for advice and you end up shopping for bargains using a small fortune’s worth of gem stones.’

  ‘We both got what we wanted,’ replied Aquitain. ‘He gave us the information we needed and sold us a lot of items from his junk draw, which he has been trying to get rid of for years.’

  ‘It happens that a couple of those items are worth a lot in the right market and might be useful on this current quest. My whole family make and trade in magic items that are usually quite expensive.

  Rather than carrying heaps of gold that is heavy and vulnerable we deal in gems, preferably high quality ones that can be imbued with magic. I brought some very pure gems with me from Panmagica that would be exceptionally valuable for making magic items. Rumple has exchanged junk for valuable magic item quality gems that’s why he’s so pleased with himself.’

  ‘Do you mind if I walk around a little?’ asked Aquitain. ‘I’d like to see a few more gnomes. I’ve only ever seen a couple. I’d like to see how much they vary in height and shape.’

  ‘This is certainly the perfect place for that!’ chuckled Chantalot.

  So they walked around like tourists looking in shop windows and nodding at passing gnomes. While Chantalot was simply enjoying the sights Aquitain was busy building a mental model of a gnome. He scrutinized their body shapes, their skin tones, their facial variations, noses, ears and eyes. He then concentrated on the hands and feet and their postures both standing and moving. He used the skills he had used to craft his little person body to craft a mental image of an average gnome, one that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.

  Feeling confident he moved int
o a shady nook out of direct sight took that gnome hat from his bag placed it on his head and changed to his new mental image of a gnome wearing gnome clothes made out of mind clay. Chantalot thought he was going into the nook to relieve himself and turned and looked the other way.

  A minute later Aquitain called to him and said. ‘What do you think?’

  Chantalot stared and could hardly believe what he saw.

  ‘By the Powers, is that really you? You … you look just like one of them.’

  ‘That is the idea. Now if I can get their walk and mannerisms right I might even be able to fool one. Let’s go into this inn and have some drinks.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ replied Chantalot with a worried look on his face. ‘They may not take it kindly if they discover that you’re a shape changer.’

  ‘Well you’ll just have to distract them won’t you?’

  ‘How about you offer to sing for some drinks? They’ll be so interested in you they won’t notice me.’

  ‘It might work.’ nodded Chantalot. ‘Let me go in first then come in after I start singing.’

  Aquitain stood around outside for about five minutes then heard Chantalot’s melodious voice wafting out the doorway. He waited until a new customer entered and he followed behind. The place was more brightly lit that he expected. The stone walls were all covered with white plaster and decorated with small animal head trophies and some small swords no bigger than Newman daggers.

  There was a barman filling a jug of ale from one of a stack of small wooden kegs. Several gnome customers sat on three legged stools all facing Chantalot who sat in front of a fireplace strumming a gnomish sized lute and singing a popular Twin Towers song.

  Aquitain selected a stool near the back wall furthest from Chantalot expecting everyone to sit in front of him and thereby not take any notice of him. He would be able to observe the gnome’s behaviour and individual mannerisms. To complete the image he picked up an empty mug from the floor and held it as if he still had some drink left.