From: aaron@atlantis.uucp
Subject: [SQ/MI] Maps And Legends, Part 2: Cartomancy
Date: 28 Feb 93 19:58:09 GMT
Reply-To: aaron%atlantis@uunet.uu.net


Characters involved: Alfvaen/Elstree/Lassiviren, Ornigan, Bronwen, the
Kelsie, Maleiu, Mistletoe, Queriche; Grumbi Blisterthum, Slim


<This reminds me of when I was first trying to find Moriarty's office.> 
Alfvaen.  <I ended up wandering into the temple of Azpiazu first.  I keep
expecting to see it.>

<It's not that bad...>  Elstree.  <I'm sure Queriche knows where he's going.>

"Well, I admit I'm lost," Queriche said, scratching his head.

"And this is our >guide<?" Ornigan snarled at Elstree.  "Godforsaken place--
what's the point of getting maps from someplace you can't find without one?"

"Lighten up!" Mistletoe said, slapping Ornigan lighty.  "Don't worry about
him.  Okay, we're lost.  So now what?  Do we ask for directions?  Spin around
and point in a random direction?  What?"

The Kelsie brightened.  She started spinning, first on both feet, then on one,
then only on a toe.  She became a whirling dervish.  The cloak she was wearing
flew off and hit Ornigan in the face.  When he ripped it off, she came to a
sudden stop and stood pointing into a tiny alley none of them had even noticed
was there.

Queriche's face brightened.  "Right!  I remember now.  C'mon, let's go!"

"Good work, Kelsie!" Bronwen said, taking the black back from Ornigan and
draping it over the Kelsie's unwilling shoulders.

"You weren't exaggerating," Elstree said.  "I presume she doesn't like
clothing either?"  Bronwen shook her head.

They walked down the narrow alley, in single file because it was no wider. 
"You know," Ornigan said, "I remember a passage like this in Castle Maybold. 
It had little panels in the wall that you could open and poke blades through. 
And you could block off the passage every ten feet."

"Shut up, Ornigan," Mistletoe said cheerfully.  "Ooh!  Is that the place?" 
She pointed at a grandiose house at the end of the cul-de-sac.

"No," Queriche said.  "It's that dingy-looking thing over the in the corner. 
The one that looks like a garden shed.  It's bigger inside, though."

"Ah, that's where the Mage Guild architect cut his teeth," Ornigan said.

Outside the door hung a sign that looked like it predated Old Generica.  The
legend "Cartographer's Guild" was barely legible.  "Let's hope they keep their
maps in better shape," Ornigan muttered.

"Oh, they do," Queriche said.  "They're not very organized, though."

They filed through the door into a room that looked much larger than the
exterior of the building.  As the door swung shut, a cloud of dust rose up,
blinding the group and setting Ornigan to sneezing.  "Neat!" the Kelsie said.

When the dust cleared, a dour-looking dwarf was standing in front of them. 
"Let in the cold air, you did," he said.  "What do you all want?  If you're
here to get the new revisions, there they are."  He indicated a huge stack of
scrolls and books that looked to be on the verge of falling over.  "We used to
have a cart around here somewhere, but I think Slim lost it.  You can always
order a carriage, but they've never had much luck finding the place."

"Uh--no," Ornigan said.  "Actually, we're here to peruse some maps.  We're
told you have them available."

The dwarf sighed.  "Oh, of course.  I'm not busy enough.  I need some people
traipsing around and getting everything out of order and pestering me with
questions.  I'm sure the Guildmasters weren't really serious when they said
they wanted those copies by three o'clock.  They're usually such >great< guys
about that kind of thing."  He stopped, looking at the group as if expecting
them to leave--or willing them to.  Then he sighed again.  "Grumbli
Blisterthum at your service.  And Slim, who's around here somewhere.  SLIM!"
he bellowed.  "GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE!"

Off in the distance they saw a slow-moving figure appear from behind a stack
of scrolls.  "Sure thing, Grumbli," it said.  As it drew closer, they saw that
Slim lived up to his name, being skinny as a beanpole where most elves were
slender, and unusually tall as well.

"Now," Grumbli said, suddenly smiling and rubbing his hands together, "you're
allowed to look around here for the paltry fee of a silver piece...each.  If
you want my help, it's a silver a minute--half that if you get Slim's help. 
Any copying is at least a gold piece, depending on the size and legibility of
the original.  If you want to take the originals, then we're talking
expensive--those things don't grow on trees.  Of course, >some< of them are
also available in the Great Library, but they get very nasty if you get too
far overdue, and heaven forbid you lose anything.  So?  What'll it be?"

"Ummm..." Ornigan looked to his comrades for confirmation.  "We'll just look
around.  If we need your help, because we can't find something, we'll call."

Maleiu dug seven silver pieces out of his pouch.  It seemed strange to be the
only one of his friends with money.  Grumbli made the coins disappear, then
smiled.  "Have fun, milords," he said, sarcasm colouring his tone.  He then
turned Slim around and steered him back to where he had come from.

"Well...let's get started!  Maybe we should split up, for greater efficiency. 
Sing out if you find anything."

"What're we looking for?" Elstree asked.

Ornigan looked uncomfortable.  "Stuff to do with the Gaps, I guess.  More near
the...north?...end of the city.  And Maleiu, you're looking for more
large-scale maps, right?"

Maleiu nodded.  "Preferably ones showing other continents besides this one and
the Dark Continent, and islands."

"Got it," Elstree said.  "C'mon, Q."

Maleiu and Mistletoe explored adjacent shelves.  "A Historical Map of
Fortezza," Mistletoe murmured, reading labels.  "Streets of Greater London. 
Transit Routes of the Edmonton Area, 1986.  Trade Routes from Catal Huyuk. 
Softwind and the First World.  I don't see anything too promising yet..."

An hour later, the seven of them had made little progress, having inspected
only a few shelves and stacks of the vast room, and raised several more clouds
of dust.  Elstree was careful to keep Ornigan in her sight, in case he found
something and kept it to himself, or perhaps was meeting someone here.  But he
was engaged in the same kind of fruitless search as the rest of them.

"Hey!" the Kelsie said.  "Why don't I try spinning around again?"

"I don't know if that's..." Bronwen began, but the Kelsie had already started
her gyrations.

Outside, the wind-force produced hadn't been that noticeable.  Indoors, in a
place where the wind hadn't touched in years, chaos was on its way to being
wreaked.  Great clouds of dust flew off in all directions from the Kelsie, and
some of the more fragile scrolls, who were only being held together by the
dust in the first place, started to disintegrate.

"WHAT IN THE WOODED PITS OF HELL IS GOING ON?" Grumbli yelled.  "Who brought
in a..."  He stopped in a fit of coughing, then continued, "...a bloody
forge-quenching tornado in here?"

The Kelsie suddenly stopped, and the dust settled rapidly again.  Her pointing
finger stopped an inch in front of Grumbli's forehead.  "I think that means we
should ask him," she said helpfully.

Ornigan smacked his hand to his forehead.  "Okay.  All right.  Maleiu? 
Perhaps we should pay the good dwarf and his assistant for their valuable
time."

The black-skinned warrior produced two gold pieces from his pouch and offered
them to the dwarf.  "Just to start," he said.

"Okay.  Who wants Slim?"

Maleiu and Ornigan exchanged glances.  "Ummm...well, the Kelsie pointed to
you," Ornigan said, "so we should get your help, and Maleiu & Mistletoe can
use Slim."

"Right."  Grumbli pressed a device on his wrist and it beeped.  "Keep track of
time, and how much you owe me," he said cheerfully--or at least, less dourly
than his usual manner.

"I'll go with you guys," Elstree said brightly, tagging after Ornigan and
company.  Queriche shrugged and went over to where Maleiu and Mistletoe were
talking to Slim.

"So what're you looking for?" Grumbli asked.

"Gaps.  We want to know about the Gaps.  With particular attention to--ah--the
lower levels of Glorshanned Keep."

Oh, boy, Elstree thought.  The dungeons.  They want to know how to get into
the dungeons of Glorshanned Keep.  Her opinion of Ornigan dropped several
notches in that instant.

"Right," the dwarf said, and headed off towards a stack that looked no
different from any other.  "I think the best we'd have for you is an old
plumbing specification from when the thing was first built.  The sewers were
added long after the Keep was built, you see, but they interfaced with the
Gaps, which were there before the Keep, and anything else except the Low
City.  They had some problems clearing the things out at first, but things are
a hell of a lot better now.  Now there's only T-crocs, and the usual humanoid
riffraff."  As he spoke, he was swiftly digging through the stack, adding the
scrolls he removed to a smaller stack nearby.  Finally he said, "Okay.  This
should be what you're looking for."  He held out a map labeled, "Plumbing
Specification, Generica Sewers, Glorshanned Keep Extension."

Ornigan took it from him and perused it.  His jaw dropped.  "This is a maze!"
he said.  "And this is the way they >wanted< to build it?"

"No, no, look at the legend," the dwarf said crossly.  "Those bits are only
the original Gaps.  These other tunnels--they're a bit faded, aren't
they?--are the newer additions.  By now, it's hard to tell them from the
originals, though."

"How much for a copy?" Ornigan asked.

"Two gold," Grumbli said.  "That faded stuff can be a bugger to reproduce."

"That's okay," the Kelsie said.  "Just give it here.  I can pick out a path
from here."  Ornigan handed her the map, and she studied it.  "Wow, neat!" she
said.  "This bit here spells out a rude word in Faerie."  She studied it some
more.  "Okay," she said, handing it back to Grumbli.  "Now how do I get to
this point?"  She indicated a tunnel at the lower edge of the map.

"Well, for that you'll need something more to do with the Arcade of Fountains
drainage system.  I don't think I have a map that >quite< joins up with that
one, but it'll get you within a hundred feet."  He walked over to a shelf and
then looked around.  "Forge-quenching Slim probably took my stool.  It's on
the top shelf, you see."

"Which one?" the Kelsie asked, taking off her cloak and tunic before Bronwen
could stop her.  A pair of gossamer wings sprouted from her bare back.  "Lugh,
these things are stiff," she said, fluttering them a few times experimentally
before launching herself upwards into the air.  "Which one?" she asked again.

"Fifth from the bottom of the third stack from the corner," Grumbli said, as
if Faerie girls fluttered up to the top shelves of his stacks every day.  "No,
not >that< corner--the far one!  Yes, that stack.  No, that's not the bottom
of the stack you counted from...that big map is on the top of the stack
below.  Right.  That one."

The Kelsie fluttered down with another map, scrutinizing it as she did. 
"Okay, I see.  It doesn't quite join up, but it has to go like that, because
it would spell...right."  She looked at Grumbli.  "Should I put it back?"

"No!" he said, grabbing the map from her.  "There's more chaos and confusion
caused in here by laymen putting things back..."  Muttering, he tossed the map
offhandedly onto a nearby shelf.

****

"So...what you guys want?" Slim asked.

"Well, you see," Mistletoe said, taking a deep breath, "Maleiu's on a quest to
walk all the shores of the world, and he's done the Dark Continent and most of
this continent and a few islands of the Antilles and a few other archipelagos
nearby, and we just need to know what other continents exist, and islands for
that matter, so that we know how far he has to go to complete his quest."

Slim looked puzzled.  "We want an overall map of this world," Maleiu said, and
Slim brightened.

"I know where that is," he said slowly.  "Follow me."  He proceeded to walk
with glacial speed down a long aisle.  "We've got that kind of thing up on a
wall, because lots of people come in asking for it."

Mistletoe peered around.  "I don't see it."

"Oh, there's a bookshelf in front of it.  We'll have to move that out of the
way first."

"Which bookshelf?" Mistletoe asked.  "Maybe we can get started on it for you."

Slim shook his head.  "Grumbli gets mad if I let the customers mess around
with moving stuff too much.  I'd better do it."

Mistletoe, Maleiu, and Queriche exchanged glances.  The two black men picked
Slim up by the elbows and carried him rapidly over to the shelf.  Slim
blinked, obviously a little disoriented.  Then he shrugged and slowly started
taking books of the shelf and setting them down carefully, and apparently
randomly, on the floor.

Finally, he had cleared a space large enough that they could see a map was
indeed on the wall behind the shelf.  "Why is there a shelf in front of the
map?" Mistletoe asked.

"Grumbli made me put it there," Slim said.

Mistletoe sighed and went back to perusing some of the maps on the next shelf
over.  "Cyclic Hexaflexagon Dimensions--An Overview.  Stars of the Imperium,
Indexed by Mineral Resources.  Migratory Routes of the Spotted Deadhead.  The
Grey Elven City of Mandywindain--Historical Atlas.  You know, I swear most of
this stuff isn't even from this world."

"No," Slim said.  "Grumbli says that the Guildmasters said that since this is
a Nexus of Dimensions, we need to keep a larger stock here."  He cleared
another shelf.  "Okay, you should be able to see it now."

"That's >it<?"  They peered at the map, which was only about six inches
square.  "Ummm...can we get, perhaps, a large copy?" Mistletoe asked.

"Have to ask Grumbli," Slim said.  "Just a sec."  Then he tottered off towards
the dwarf, who was just finishing up business with Ornigan.

"Five gold," Grumbli pronounced.  "For an enlargement.  Plus it won't be ready
for another week.  More if you want it quicker."

Maleiu shrugged.  "We won't need it that urgently.  We'll be back to pick it
up in a week.  Oh, and one more thing--can we get a map to show us how to get
here?"

"Our most popular item.  Another gold piece, and you can have that one right
now.  We keep a few on hand for just such an occasion.  So that's six gold up
front, and you'll get your big map in a week."

"Done," Maleiu said, shaking hands with the dwarf.  "Nice doing business with
you.  Are we ready to go?" he asked the others, to general assent.

Another cloud of dust rose when they opened the door to leave.  "Now I hope I
can find my way back..." Queriche said.

Grumbli closed the door behind them.  He waited until he couldn't hear them. 
Then he pulled an amulet from beneath his cloak, placed it against the map of
Nexus.  He uttered the mystic words "400% Enlargement".  There was a rustle,
and a much larger copy of the map, folded appropriately, appeared on the floor
before him.  Grumbli smiled.  Whoever this mage Zerox was, his amulet was the
mostly useful thing the dwarf had ever seen.

***

Ornigan was glad to retreat to the privacy of his room in the Dragon's Inn. 
He wasn't quite sure what Elstree's game was, but she wasn't just a friend
come to look up Maleiu.  He hoped that she wouldn't twig to their purpose.

Since he was staying behind in Generica after the rest left to find Shade,
perhaps it would be best if he didn't have any involvement with the actual
jailbreak itself.  That way he'd be clear to defend them if the worst did
happen, and they were brought to trial.

***

<So?>  Alfvaen.

<It looks like they're planning a jailbreak.  Looking for maps of the tunnels
leading to the dungeons of Glorshanned Keep?  What else could it be?> 
Elstree.

<Sure hope Moriarty shows up soon.  Now it's time to ask Urcohea if there's
anybody in the dungeons that Thorn would want out and he wouldn't.>

<It doesn't fit together, though.  Why would this Ornigan have all his friends
working on freeing someone for Thorn?  The impression I got of them was that
they wouldn't go along with it just for the fun of it.  Maybe someone they
know as well?>

<I don't know.  And--well, who knows what they're really like, eh?  Everyone
has a dark side.>

Both were silent after that.

---Alfvaen(1881 Books, 1055 Albums, And Counting)