From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MG] Running Down the "A" List Date: 14 Feb 93 01:07:55 GMT Lendra Fen-Higshaw, Merchantess and Lady of the Court, stepped down from the carriage onto the hard cobblestones of the Generican street. The morning sun lit her fashionably styled hair, no part of her coiffure out of place, just as no part of her perfectly styled clothing was in any way wrong. Her footman helped her to navigate amid the detritus from the previous night's windstorm and the still melting piles of slush and snow. She entered the small shop and immediately realised something was wrong. Denriqa Barredein, the seeress and astrologer, was nowhere to be seen. The comfortable pillows and cushions which had lined the receiving room were gone. The strand curtains of gemlike beaded glass were gone. The room was filled, instead, with partly arranged vases, crates, and cut and live flowers by the hundreds. "What is this? Have I come to the wrong shop?" She looked out the still open door, and was reassured to see the sign still hanging there, ornate letters proclaiming "Alchemy and Astrology". She was startled by a noise, and turned again to face the interior of the shop. From behind one of the crates had appeared a sickly-looking pale man, coughing helplessly into a perfumed kerchief. He finally gained control, and bowed politely. "Milady, my shop is not yet open, but if you wish flowers or plants, whatever you desire can be delivered this morning." "Good fellow, is this not the home of Denriqa Barredein, the astrologer?" "Ah, well, that it is, but she had to depart suddenly, said something about the stars showing great menace or summat like that. She sublet the place to me, only asked four gold, said it was just as well for me to have the use of the shop while I'm still around." He smiled wanly at the look of horrified pity on the woman's face. "No, milady, I knew a year ago that I wouldn't have but a brief time, when I took the spore of the venom orchid full in the face, but until it finally takes me, I've got the green thumb, and I do have the best flowers and herbs in town. Let me suggest the blue roses, they match milady's eyes." He sorted through a vase, selecting six sky-colored buds. She nodded, puzzled. "Surely the seeress left a message for me - I was one of her favorite customers." "Aye, milady, she left news for all her customers. Said that `now is a propitious time to visit the otherlands,' whatever that means." "Ah. Well, thank you for the roses. What is their price?" "For milady, six gold stars." "A good bargain. I'll tell my friends of your shop." "Thankee, I hoped you would do." She exited the shop, enjoying the delicate tea-scent of the roses. [ADMIN] Alchemy and Astrology is closed for the foreseeable future... --- Palm trees, a sunwashed beach, green waves sliding in and out from the hot yellow sand, leaving a dark blue glistening and the white froth of <> sulphurous smoke as the surge of plasma crept back and forth, the towering blaze of the flaretrees <> reflecting the sun from the coconuts in their tops. A fallen log, driftwood, and a sphere of glass about the size of a man's head, washed ashore with the kelp and the <> smoke drifting across the cloudscape, the wind surging back and forth as heat currents charged it with motion and stillness. On the gold tinged cloud, a figure stood, <> a young humanoid, fur the color of sunlight over his muscled body, feline grace displayed with each movement, long tail lashing as he stalked across the beach, the black triangle of his nose showing the same dark brown as the pads of his handpaws and feet. The catman went to where the <> deep current surged up across the ice shelf, and reached out with one deep blue paw to pick up the giant pearl from where it rested, then swam back across the shelf of <> hot sand, lightly tossing the fishing float from handpaw to handpaw, catching the glints of the suns as it moved through the air. He placed it in a <> container::bag next_sequence movement_vector(phase_interface) next_sequence stationary_examination<-(surface1;phase_interface;volume2; surface1(population::tessile_living_nonmind,,motile_living_kan_::shinyrock)) next_sequence movement_vector(locate(->referent(shinyrock))) <> walked up to where Raye stood at the edge of his restpit. She smiled, a smile which he knew meant trouble for somebody. "Rafe, I just got a message from the gaming house. Lady Ale is being asked to meet with a representative of the Rameshan empire to arrange for something to our `common benefit' and I think I might want to know what those weasels are up to. Want to come along?" The catman shrugged, put down the net bag of fishing floats he was carrying. He stepped across the border of the pit FLICK:human: and pulled his hair back into a ponytail, then stretched his tanned form in a series of martial-arts stretches. "No, Raye, I don't think I will this time. I was supposed to take the design for the joystix-cure amulet in to the Mages' Guild and register it, and I better get ready. I am NOT looking forward to this." "Whyever not? They have no reason to be unhappy with you, after all, you just tried to pull their building down around their ears." "Not on purpose. How should I know they hadn't locked down their dimensional folder's power stabilizer - I was reaching for the Worldgate, after all." "Well, maybe they won't beat you up too hard if you show them how you did it." "Yeahright. These guys still have archmages, love, I'm not sure they have a high enough mystech level for me to be showing them 'kani technique." "Point one, fuzzycat, they have a high enough level that the guild building could be constructed from 'kani plans, point two, it's Traveller technique and there seems to be plenty of Traveller knowledge around here, and point three, *I* am an archmage, in case you've forgotten." "Not exactly forgotten. I think it's kind of silly that your family still certifies archmages. Did you ever go register with the Guild?" "What, and have to get involved in the local politics? No thank you." 'Raelf laughed and grabbed for her. She dodged. They ended up chasing each other across the room and around the tower. --- The factory floor was still operating as expected, but there were four telltales lit. 'Raelf frowned. Number one telltale - stellar map was not stable. Astral influences unsettled. He set the compensator field to damp the changes. Not surprising with all the recent near-disasters that the influences were messy; the surprise was that they were as stable as they had been. Number five and six telltales - the resupply hoppers for the water of ruby and water of emerald were low, he refilled them and noted the supply was getting low in the storage cabinet. Have to visit the alchemist. Number eight telltale - star of iron getting low in resupply hopper. He checked the storage cabinet and scowled. None. Strange - the delivery should have come this morning. He pulled the citron-crystal amulet from inside his shirt and spoke. <> -- <> -- "Oh man, I gotta get a shorter list." <> On the other side of the telltale panel was a small work area. It had a table, fitted with clamps and holders, an inlaid general purpose spell containment pattern, and a collection of tools. He pulled a thin black stick the size of a kitchen match out of the clasp holding his hair back, and locked it in a small clamp, then set the clamp into the center of the containment pattern and activated the restraint field. <> he said, <> The stick enlarged, the clamp expanding to accomodate. After a moment, it had grown to his own just-under-six-feet, and was a comfortable diameter for a quarterstaff. The ends glittered blackly, their silversteel caps arcing slightly in the restraint field. <> he directed. Outlined in faery fire, seven fields of complex energy in distinct patterns. He counted them off, one at a time. <<1:ParaCosmos>> <<2:FireGate>> <<3:EarthGate>> <<4:WaterGate>> <<5:AirGate>> <<6:VoidGate>> <<7:holder>> ... The energy gauge showed the full charge of 50 units, which had been sufficient for a half hour of full intense combat. He nodded. Number Seven then. Back in Traveller School, lo these many subjective years ago, he'd been uncommon good at certain kinds of defensive spells. That had served him well here in Generica - the wards that kept his mind from the Dark Master's control, that kept the Great Mother from finding him during that conflict, that kept the local monster-mages from detecting anything really useful about him, were very good at their very limited task. It was hard for him to be remotely targetted, and psionic probing and mental assaults were equally hard. But in the Mage's Guild he would be in full view, he couldn't safely raise a full Protective Circle. He was also still too vulnerable to direct spellcasting. But he could prepare for that. Carefully, he spun the spell pattern for a high powered defensive spell, the Dancing Spiral of Balance. It pulled anything contacting its vortex and returned it refocussed on the sender. Slot number seven opened, and he slid the pattern into place. The staff locked down, and the patterns returned to their waiting states. The Spiral was an active defense, though, and the elemental gates were active spells as well. He'd have to interpose the staff to engage it, and similarly to direct the elemental energies from the staff in any useful way. Now, on to passive defenses and dirty tricks. Inside the Guild, he would have to rely on his own strength and on what he could carry in with him, for power. Drawing on outside power would surely trigger any telltales and alarms they'd set up since he had inadvertently shaken the building up. And frankly, he'd rather they discover "who done it" on HIS terms. But he had personal power reserves enough to hold at least seven serious spells without getting into massdrain. He began the set of stable sustained wards he would wear into the Guild. Reaching into the Void, he pulled down the First Sign of Dissociation, the catalyst which would impose his own world's unstable conditions on anyone who tried to violate its integrity. He wrapped the Sign in a conceptual shroud of secrecy, enticing for anyone who was strong enough, and curious enough, to get past the other wards. Besides, it would give him a way to escape from formlock, should he be caught in that particular trap again. He reached out and engulfed the construct, settling it into his Center, then started the outer wards. Around the Center, the cloak of no-mind, and buried in that cloak, the full eidetic memory of his death at the hands of the Priestess of Pain in the Plane of Shadows. Around that, the weaving confusing fog of mental fatigue and misleading dream images that had even kept the Great Mother from his inner mind. And on the surface, the fascination-rune woven into the memory of MTV mixed with the eager random brainless energy of an Irish Setter. That would keep out the psychics and the mindprobers. However, there were other things to be worried about. Physical probes, and in case things got hairy, magical assault. His voidsuit, when sealed, made it very difficult to locate him for anything other than direct area-effect and touch-ranged magical effects, and was decent armor. But... They had some pretty good scanners there, stuff on a par with his own analysis suite. He'd avoided the active scanners last time, but this time he wouldn't be able to, since his catastrophic power tap had used his own planeshift to reach the Guild. So, to keep from tipping his hand, he needed to stay fully human, suppressing his normal elemental pulse while he was there. But that would keep him from using his full 'kani senses, even though it would improve his martial-arts trained chi sensitivity. With his goggles on, though, he'd have some limited degree of 'kani sensitivity, at least in line of sight. So his 'suit would protect him from direct assaults, but not from the continuum-field analysis of their active scanners. It would have to be enough. He considered just not going, and sighed. No, he had to, they would be sending around their "polite enforcement squad" otherwise. Besides, he had to show them how to lock off the power shunt tap. --- The late morning passers-by in the Arcade of Fountains were used to seeing mages of all kinds appearing, disappearing, flying, crawling, coming up out of the sewers, coalescing out of the air. So they weren't terribly surprised when a blue and black streak came arcing down from the sky, fading into visibility, and landed on the rim of the fountain of the heroic merchant-princes, whirling around the circumference of the base on wheels of blue fire sprouting from the bottoms of shiny blue boots. The flames disappeared as the black-clad figure hopped off, the wheels vanishing: a blond youth, wide-eyed and naive-looking, wearing a black poncho over a form-fitting black bodysuit, the blue boots fading to the same black, an amber crystalline amulet glowing gently on his chest, amber wraparound lenses over his eyes held in place by a black band, a cubit-long black rod twirled carelessly in his left hand; he stared at the GuildHall and smiled. Above the door, the decorative lintel held a runic pattern in a language understood by maybe three people in Nexus, advertising a mild aphrodisiac and appetite enhancer. "'tevli family - couldn't resist the product placement, I guess. Wonder if the Guildmasters know what it says." He breathed deeply, exhaled, and walked through the front door into the spacious entry hall. And he was scanned... (In the office of Archmage of Research Dasham, a tiny daemon was prodded into alertness. It had been commanded to watch for just this pattern, and to tell Mistress as soon as it appeared. It whirled off, searching.) The fellow behind the reception desk looked pained. "You. Please don't tamper with my lenses this time." "No prob, if you promise not to snoop without permission." "It's my job, I'm supposed to, as you say, snoop." "Well, my wards are still in place, and I'm not going to lower them." "As you wish. I just need to verify your identity anyway." "Kewl. I'll put the ID info into surface thoughts." "Ah. Very good. Thank you. What's your business this time, Mr. 'Raelf?" "Just 'Raelf, dude, it's a title by itself." "Business?" "Yeah. Who exactly do I need to talk to about registering a new device with the review board, and who handles building safety around here?" "Registering devices, that would be either Research or Production, but you'll end up talking to one of Rivy's people in either case. Archmage Rivy is in charge of the day-to-day Beaurocracy here." "So who's safety cop?" "That would be Archmage Urcohea, in charge of Security." "Fantastic, thanks, dude. Oh, could you make me an appointment with him?" "With Archmage Urcohea? I can ask his personal secretary to schedule it, but his calendar is pretty full, little time to waste on Journeymen." "Journeyman-Master, my man, and tell him it's about the ruckus in the Shun. And give him this." 'Raelf drew a small blue crystal from inside his poncho, and handed it over. The receptionist peered over the top of his glasses, then scrawled a note, and put it into a transparent tube, along with the crystal, and sealed it with a cork, then (shunk) sent it off via an air powered tube to elsewhere. The blond mage walked over to the directory plaque. "Research, fourth floor third transept fifth branch. Production, basement, sixth mezzanine, left embarkment. Huh. This place is really laid out strange." "True. It took me months to get used to it," a woman's voice replied. 'Raelf turned. The speaker was a young-looking woman, quite beautiful in a hard sort of way, with blazing red hair and bright green eyes. Through the lenses, the glow of power surrounding her was unusually bright. "Howdy. I'm 'Raelf," he said, bowing in a flagrant exaggeration of the local custom. She smiled in reply. "Call me Dash." "As you wish, milady Dash. Have you got any clue about how to reach either the Research or Production offices? I'm supposed to register a new device." "Well, I work in the Research department. I can take you there." "Excellent! Which lift do we take?" "Oh, any of them." She reached out for his hand, pulled back suddenly. "Good heavens, you're carrying some complicated wards. Do you expect to run into enemies here?" They stepped onto the elevator. 'Raelf grinned. "I hope not. This town isn't safe, though, so I keep my defenses in place most of the time. Floor Four?" She nodded. The marble statue in the back of the cage began to pull with her six arms on the rope which ran down before her. The cage rose smoothly. "I see. Well, that's probably a good policy. What's this device you need to register?" "There's kind of a problem with that. It's a specific bezoar, a poison remover that only removes one kind of poison." "And that would be?" "Joystix. See, I got caught up in this raid on a drug warehouse, only at the time I didn't know it was a drug warehouse, and the place was full of this nasty stuff I'd never seen before. So I came up with a spell to turn the stuff inert, because all my friends and companions had been exposed, and it's fatal if you stop taking it. Anyway, I overcast, and all the stuff for a few blocks around was ruined - and the city was suddenly all out of 'stix. So I had to put together these amulets, real fast, and get them out to some healers. Otherwise I'd have been responsible for killing hundreds of people." "I see. But why should you be bothered by the deaths of a bunch of drug addicted lowlifes?" 'Raelf concealed a look of disgust. "Lots of them didn't choose to be addicted to the stuff - they got one good dose from someone else, and that was it - play along or die." "I see. Commendable moral sense." "I try, dudette." They came to the fourth floor, and she led him along the route leading to the offices of the Research department. "This is my office." She indicated a smallish, somewhat cramped room. The walls were decorated with post-it notes, calendars, schedules, and at least four beefcake posters. 'Raelf grinned. "Kinda small, isn't it?" "Well, I have a lab too." "So how to register the amulet?" The redhead led him down the hall to another set of offices. There was a young man sitting behind a desk, carefully duplicating research notes from one book to another. "Kelly, could you please expedite a new device registration? Give him the design docs and the prototype, he'll handle the paperwork." 'Raelf drew an envelope from the pocket in his poncho and handed it to the fellow. "These are the specs. I want to assign repro rights to the Guild here, but only for nonprofit, and I'm keeping the operating principles for two of the five spell parts as a need-to-know-only, under the fifth article of item thirteen of the inter-guild registry agreement." "That's the clause regarding dangerous techniques?" "Right." Kelly pulled several forms from a file drawer, and began filling them out, then clipped them to the envelope and put them into a second file folder. "All done." Meanwhile, the redhead had stepped back away from the two, and had begun making peculiar motions of her hands. After the third probe gave her no useful information, Dasham scowled, and began a more complex cast. As Kelly spoke, "All done," he froze, and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. 'Raelf whirled. But Dasham's symbol of pain held Kelly in place, skewered on pure agony. "Hey, Dash, what's the idea?" "You're the idea, my pretty young friend." "Oh. So what's your game?" "Youth, dear boy. I intend to live forever, and I want to be young while I do, and you are going to show me how." "I'm not showing you shit until you let him go." "I'm not letting him go until we have an agreement." "I promise to help you in your youth researches, now let him GO!" The young man sagged to his desk, stunned. "Not to worry, he won't remember this. Rivy would be too upset." "Yeah, right. So let's go talk." She led him up the hall to her labs. --- "What do you mean, he's unavailable?" Urcohea stomped across the room, and shouted down the hall, "RIVY!! RED TAPE PROBLEMS!!" The functionary blanched. He hated getting caught between those two. There was a flicker in the air and the blonde, bombshell form of Archmage Rivy appeared in the room. "What do you want this time, Urcohea?" "I got a note from whoever caused our little building-shaker last week, and when I asked this twit to get the fellow here NOW, I was informed that he is `unavailable at this time, in conference with Archmage Dasham' - he's in the Guild Hall, it's a matter of internal security, and that redhaired harridan is NOT going to keep me from getting my hands on him." "And you want me to help fix it?" -Urco, Love, don't pour it on TOO thick!- "If you don't mind. NOW." -Sorry, Rivy, but this is critical- "Very well. As if I didn't have enough work to do." She gestured and vanished, leaving the functionary behind. Urchoea looked around, and saw him still standing there. "Don't you have some work to do somewhere?" The man scurried off. In the registry office, Rivy found Kelly slumped across his desk. A few magical gestures showed the cause. "That bitch. She's not going to get away with trashing MY people any longer. Attention, scheduling. As of today, Research department is a procedures training department. All new procedures are to be tested here first. All trainees are to be given Research department work first, and rotated out as soon as they begin to show competence. All paperwork is to be done in quadruplicate, copies to go to Synthesis, Analysis, and a third set to be circulated to Archmage Dasham for her personal signature. No approvals without that signature, for anything, especially financial. All supply and service requisitions will go by my office for approval. And schedule Dasham's personal apartments for renovation starting this afternoon, fresh paint, fresh carpets, new furnishings, work on all four shifts, two workers only and make sure they're trainees. Equip them with full personnel ward set, we wouldn't want any accidents. End message." "Kelly, wake up, lad." "Huh?" "Here, you look tired. Go home now, get some rest. I'll get Bertha to sit in for you." "Thank you, Archmage," he croaked, and staggered away down the hall. Rivy smiled, promising serious pain to the recipient of her next volley. Dasham's laboratory was locked, of course, but Rivy had the keys to all the offices. However, the door didn't respond to any of them, and she sighed in disgust. Research, of course. Though lock and binding wasn't on the official log of research happening in this room. Still, there were ways. She removed the stone from a ring on her left hand, and touched the wall in a certain spot, then replaced the stone. She stepped forward, THROUGH the wall, and into the laboratory. She stood, concealed by the shadows behind the lab table. Dasham had cornered a young man, blond, tanned, just the sort she was always going after. Rivy made a mental note to assign only aging redheads to work in Research, and considered the scene. So this boytoy was supposed to be the menace who had thrown the GuildHall off its foundations? She listened, quietly, for a moment. "That's impossible. You have to be lying." Dasham was highly indignant. "Look at the runes." Between them, a half-dozen glowing spheres held symbols: Truth, Karma, Intention, Safety, Wholeness, Magic. Dasham scowled. "All right, so you're not lying. Can you teach me how to do the transformation, then?" "I'm not sure. I don't really WANT to, you know." "Yes, yes, you already explained that part. I still think it's foolish to rely on some arbitrary cultural moral standard instead of the appropriate morality for the moment." "First, the Hunter's Code isn't arbitrary, second, it IS the appropriate morality for this moment. Besides, I don't LIKE you. You remind me of the reason why I left home - you play too many head games." "I'm sure I don't care whether you like me or not. You promised to help me in my researches." "That's true, I did, but I'm not going to give you MY answers. Besides, I'm not immortal, and you want to be immortal, remember?" Rivy smiled to herself. Time to interrupt. She selected something from the crowded table covered with glassware, an appropriate critical bit of some vitally important experiment, and shoved into it. There was a terrible crashing, tinkling, and shattering. "Whoopsie! Silly me!" She giggled. Dasham whirled, furious, and 'Raelf grinned as the runespheres showed Malice and Falsehood, and gathered them up into his staff. "Rivy! What are you doing in here?" "Why, Dasham, dear, there must be something wrong with the pager in this room, because Urcohea just tried and tried to contact you, and you didn't reply. Now, it's _my_ job to make sure all the little things work around here, so I came in to see if it was working. I didn't know you had your latest pet cornered." "Oh gods. Cut to the chase, Rivy." "Well, it's just that Urcohea wants to talk to that young man there, and he insisted that I come down personally to find out why he was delayed." "Very well. 'Raelf, I'll talk to you later." "Fer sure, Dash." "And don't call me `Dash' - my name is Dasham." "Sure thing, Dash." He took Rivy's hand, and she gestured, and the two were teleported to Urcohea's private offices. Or at least, he was - she somehow separated from him in mid-jump, and he arrived alone. "So what is the meaning of this?" 'Raelf sighed, sinking deeper into his center, consciously relaxing. He turned to face Archmage Urcohea, who stood with staff ready and, no doubt, a plethora of destructive and binding energies prepared should the blond mage try anything even remotely magical. "Uh, it's a confession?" --- The spinning, infinitely precessing array of gyroscopes was humming quietly, showing no sign of the drain that hit them just over a week earlier. Eight complex symbols inlaid in the floor, surrounding the unit, fed the power out to the guild hall, and on a raised pedestal of transparent marble, five smaller patterns writhed with coalescing energies. 'Raelf pointed to one. "... and that's the power shunt tap I accessed..." "That's all you did?" Urcohea was extremely skeptical. "Of course. Hey, I was in a bad way, I was way outclassed there. No time for anything complex. You know what that thing in the Center can do, probably as well as any of your group except for ...sage." "Yes, I do know, but only Delalle and now, apparently, ...sage also know. Remember, the existance of that entity is to be considered top secret." "Fer sure. Hey, I know that she kills anyone who goes around blabbing." Urcohea sighed, and rubbed his eyes - the fellow's mind wards had given him a headache - and tried to return to the topic of the dimensional fold breach. "You say this warpfield power shunt tap has been open since the building was locked down? Well, I still don't see why this wasn't used by our enemies in the past. It's a very serious hole in our defense." "Probably none of them had the Traveller's emergency access code. The tap takes a particular kind of shaped waveguide spell, with a complex access code created using a public/private key encryption technique. They use the same method in the WorldGate system, for Traveller's emergency power feeds. Prob'ly even the same mechanisms. See, your tap is there so that a dynamic reconfigure engine can be plugged in, but once the perimeters are locked, there's no reason to leave it open. There's not even any field scoring, so I'd say they never hooked in a d-r engine. Anyway, when I sent out a general seek for the WorldGate, it seems I pulled on the tap here as well." "And the access code is the same as for the WorldGate system?" "The emergency power feed, yeah, it uses a simple 1-2-3 sequence, because in an emergency you don't want to have complicated codes to remember. It's the default setting for an un-installed tap. It should have been reset, or randomized if you didn't want it used. So I still think you need to find out who really put this building up. Not even 'tevli family is this slipshod." "I've got an agent finding out. Meanwhile, I've cancelled the trap and hold order on you, and we're marking you as in-good-standing again. But this is all subject to review by Leonaco and Delalle, since they're the only two people who are both competent to do it, and trustworthy." "How about ...sage? He's pretty good with transdimensional dynamics." "He's your friend. Disqualified as reviewer. I'll put him down as an observer though, if he corroborates your story." "Great. But once you're satisfied, I do get the repair contract?" 'Raelf twirled his wand absently, making it shrink down to toothpick size, and stuck it into the clasp holding his ponytail. "Yes. However, I'll set the access codes myself, thank you." "Well, you better do it soon, because your dimension folder is tied by similarity match to WorldGate emergency power. If the WorldGate ever has a crash, your whole place will be sucked into twospace." Urcohea frowned, remembering the battle with the ArchLiche. No time to waste on this one. But one more question first... "Now, as Archmage of Security, I have to ask you: Exactly what is your relationship with Dasham?" 'Raelf burst out laughing.