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<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 1841182" data-attributes="member: 3424"><p><strong>Ceramic DM Round 1.3: dreaded_beast vs. FireLance</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>The Gnomish Word for Word</strong></p><p></p><p>Someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon. The glass casing which housed it in the Trophy Hall of House Sivis held only a velvet cushion with a small indentation where it used to lie.</p><p></p><p>Some legends say that Aureon, the God of Law and Knowledge, had used this quill centuries ago to place the Mark of Scribing on the patriarch of House Sivis. Since then, several members in each generation of House Sivis have possessed this mark, giving them special powers related to writing and communication, and enabling House Sivis to make a fortune in its traditional businesses of translation, notarization and advocacy. And now, someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon.</p><p></p><p>Of course, any serious student of history or religion would know that the legends about the Quill of Aureon were concocted by the accountants of House Sivis, who were not above charging a small fee to naive members of the public to see a supposed artifact. But someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon anyway.</p><p></p><p>Which was why I was rather surprised when my brother, one of the senior accountants of House Sivis, asked me to find the Quill of Aureon and get it back.</p><p></p><p>"Look, you and I both know it's a fake," I said sourly, as we walked to his office, "If you really want to continue bilking all the visitors to our Trophy Hall, just replace it with one of the cheap souvenir knock-offs and nobody will know the difference." I might have been a little harsh on him, but the idea of displaying a fake religious artifact did not sit very well with me as a paladin of the Sovereign Host. Plus, he had turned down my request for the funds to bind a fire elemental into my lance just a couple of days ago, and I was still rather annoyed.</p><p></p><p>"The situation is a little more complicated than that," he said, opening the door to his office, "Come inside. I'd like you to meet someone who can explain about it in greater detail."</p><p></p><p>Waiting in his office was a serious-looking young human woman with reddish brown hair, wearing a ridiculous grey felt cap with a gauzy veil. My brother made the introductions. "Zil, meet Amelia Laundanan, third assistant librarian at the Library of Korranberg. Amelia, this is my brother Zilan d'Sivis, one of our House's leading inquisitives. He will be able to help out with our mutual problem."</p><p></p><p>"Pleased to meet you, Zilan," she said briskly, "Two days ago, a book was stolen from the Library of Korranberg. It was a history book written in the Old Gnomish script detailing the first contact between the gnomes of Zilargo and the elves of Aerenal. This scrap of paper was found at the scene of the crime."</p><p></p><p>I glanced at the scrap of paper she was holding. "It's the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'pen'," I announced. Before us gnomes adopted the modern convention of using an alphabet, we used pictograms to represent words. Imagine the upper half of a circle bisected by a vertical line. That was the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'bridge'. Bracket it with a circle on the left, representing a mouth, and two lines meeting at a sharp angle, representing an ear, and you had the pictogram for 'word'. Place a flat triangle representing a hand underneath that, and you had the pictogram for 'pen'. Of course, given the difficulty of coming up with unique pictograms, many had to pull double duty. The pictogram for word could also mean 'language' or 'speech', and the pictogram for 'pen' could also mean 'write'. The ambiguity of pictograms was one of the factors that led to the enthusiastic and wide-spread adoption of the alphabet when it was introduced.</p><p></p><p>"And this was found in the Trophy Hall," my brother said, displaying another scrap of paper. This time, there were two pictograms on it. The first was the symbol for bridge, above a wavy line signifying water. "Reflection," I said, "Or maybe 'mirror'." The second had the symbol for water above the inverted symbol for bridge. "Opposite," I said, "Written together, it refers to the magic item known as a <em>mirror of opposition</em>."</p><p></p><p>"We think there's a pattern here," my brother said, "The thief stole the book, and left a hint that he will be stealing the Quill of Aureon. This seems to indicate that he plans to steal a <em>mirror of opposition</em> next."</p><p></p><p>"What sort of thief would leave a hint about his next target? And what use would anyone have for a book of history, a fake artifact and a mirror of opposition anyway? I think we're dealing with a sick, twisted mind here," I said.</p><p></p><p>"Well, don't let me hold up your investigations," my brother said, "I need to follow up on a wonderful idea you've just given me. Why have an actual Quill of Aureon in the display case when we can just put an illusion in its place? Like so." He waved his hand and muttered a few words, and an image of the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17074" target="_blank">the Quill of Aureon</a> (1) suddenly appeared before us. I ground my teeth in frustration as he scampered off. Brother or not, it was sometimes hard to love an accountant.</p><p></p><p>"You know, that didn't really look like a quill," Amelia said as we left the Trophy Hall. "The feather rotted away some time ago, and 'The Nib of Aureon' doesn't have quite the same ring to it," I explained. I must have sounded rather curt, because we walked down a few more streets before she asked another question. "Where exactly are we going now, anyway?" "The headquarters of the Guild of Glassblowers and Mirrormakers," I said, "If anyone knows anything about a <em>mirror of opposition</em>, it will be them."</p><p></p><p>After a little wrangling with the clerk at the front desk, Amelia and I managed to get in to see the guildmaster. I got straight to the point. "What would you say if I were to tell you that someone is planning to steal your <em>mirror of opposition</em>?" I asked. The guildmaster got a little wild-eyed. "How did you know we have one?" he asked. I didn't, actually, but I did now. I explained to him about the theft of the book and the Quill of Aureon. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to check on your mirror to see that it's safe." I concluded. "I don't think that will be necessary. It's in a secret vault in our mirror maze. It's very well protected," he said stiffly. "Better protected than a book in the Library of Korranberg, or an artifact in the Trophy Hall of House Sivis?" I asked. He got my point, and led us to the mirror maze without another word.</p><p></p><p>The mirror maze certainly lived up to its name, as the floor, walls and ceiling were all made of highly reflective mirrors. Navigating it was confusing as the multiple reflections made the passageways appear to extend almost to infinity. The numerous secret doors were an added problem. The guildmaster seemed to know where we were going though. "The passageway to the left leads to the secret door to the vault," he said confidently, "Here we – aaaaargh!" The last was said because we rounded the corner and came face to face with a crowd of skeletons.</p><p></p><p>Of course, any well-trained paladin of the Sovereign Host knew what to do when faced with a crowd of skeletons. I pulled out my holy symbol and blasted them all to Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead.</p><p></p><p>The skeletons' inert bones clattered to the floor of the mirror maze, revealing a gaunt, robed figure behind them, standing in front of an opened secret door. Before any of us could react, it ducked behind the secret door and closed it. Almost immediately, a cacophonous babble arose, like the maddened cry of some dreaded beast bellowing in confusion and fear, and a humanoid shape formed of utter darkness flew out of the closed secret door.</p><p></p><p>For several seconds, I could only stare at the creature as it approached. Then, the sound of Amelia's voice broke through my stupor. In calm, measured tones, she told me that I was under the influence of an allip's hypnotic babble, and that I should focus on her voice to shake it off. My mind cleared in an instant, and I readied my magic battleaxe, infused it with holy energy, and charged. "Take that, spawn of madness," I snarled, as my weapon tore through its incorporeal essence. Behind me, Amelia stopped telling me to come to my senses and started giving a lecture on how to fight an allip. It was easily the most boring speech I had ever heard, next to the lessons on comparative theology at the seminary, but if you focused on the tone of her voice instead of the words, it was actually quite soothing. Two more blows from my battleaxe settled the allip, and it vanished with a final wail.</p><p></p><p>In a flash, Amelia ran past me and pulled open the secret door to reveal another mirror just a few inches behind it. I had a sudden bad feeling. "Wait, Amelia, close your eyes," I yelled, but it was already too late. <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17073" target="_blank">She had already come face-to-face with her reflection.</a> (2) "The mirror," I shouted, grabbed a throwing axe and hurled it at her reflection, which shattered. "Is not the <em>mirror of opposition</em>," I concluded lamely.</p><p></p><p>Behind the decoy mirror was a small room with an empty chest and another passageway. "Come on, he can't be far ahead," I said to Amelia as we ran down it. The passageway terminated in an open door, which led to a deserted alley behind the guild headquarters. "Careful now," I said, scanning the way ahead for traces of evil as we slowly and carefully walked down the alley.</p><p></p><p>Focused as I was on looking for evil, I barely noticed it when Amelia glanced at <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17075" target="_blank">a sign hanging on a wire fence</a> (3) and asked, "Please do not feed the cheetahs? What's that?" </p><p></p><p>The effects of that were definitely noticeable. The sign exploded, creating a wave of force that knocked Amelia to the ground and slammed into me like a greatclub swung by an ogre.</p><p></p><p>I rushed to Amelia's side. She was badly injured and unconscious, but a moment's concentration enabled me to send healing energy into her, and she soon opened her eyes.</p><p></p><p>"What happened?" she asked weakly. "It appears that our friend prepared <em>explosive runes</em> this morning," I said. "Yes, but why 'Do not feed the cheetahs'? There aren't any cheetahs around here, right? As far as I know, you only find them on the Talenta Plains," she said.</p><p></p><p>"The explanation is quite complicated," I said. "There is an old gnomish saying that is best translated as 'Do not feed the swiftcats'. Centuries ago, we gnomes were the favored prey of feline carnivores called swiftcats. A gnome that died because he was careless or unlucky was said to have 'fed the swiftcats'. Used by a friend, 'Do not feed the swiftcats' is a warning to be careful. Used by an enemy, as it most certainly is in this case, it is a taunt to proceed with caution as he is ready for you. To further complicate matters, the swiftcats were hunted to extinction two thousand years ago, and the gnomish word for swiftcat was re-used subsequently to refer to the cheetahs of the Talenta Plains. Our thief may have tried to translate the old gnomish taunt, but he hasn't done so very accurately."</p><p></p><p>"And look," I continued, looking at the dirt under the sign, "He's left another message for us." Scrawled in the earth was the upper half of a circle, bisected by a vertical line, the Old Gnomish pictogram for bridge. Looking out of the alleyway, there was only one bridge in sight.</p><p></p><p>"Amelia," I said, "I think the thief is trying to lure us to that bridge for some reason. I'm going ahead with my eyes open, and hopefully, I'll be able to avoid whatever trap he has planned. However, just in case, I want you to go back to my brother and tell him everything. Get him to send help as soon as he can." Amelia nodded and left.</p><p></p><p>Slowly and carefully, I approached the bridge. From a distance, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17076" target="_blank">I could see the gaunt, robed figure I had encountered outside the vault leaning over the railings, looking down at the water.</a> When I got close enough, I saw that it was an elf.</p><p></p><p>"Ah, Zilan d'Sivis, I am so glad to see you," the elf said. "I guessed that you wanted me here, so here I am," I said casually, "Would you do me the favor of explaining why you went to such elaborate lengths to set up this meeting?" "In just a moment, if you please," he said, "I have a few final preparations to make." He spoke a few words, made a gesture, and a giant hand about the size of a horse suddenly grabbed me from behind. "I will just need a little of your blood," he said cheerfully, producing a knife from his robes. There really wasn't much that I could do about that, so I just watched as he made a cut in my arm and collected what he needed.</p><p></p><p>"This has always been about words," he said, "It was a pity you gnomes gave up the Old Gnomish script. It was such a delightful language, and had such powerful applications for magic." He made more gestures, said more words, and a large, disembodied eye and ear appeared at both ends of the bridge. "And now we have the gnomish word for 'word', enhancing the power of words." More words and gestures, and a hand appeared beneath the bridge. "The gnomish word for 'pen', enhancing the power of the Quill of Aureon."</p><p></p><p>"You do know that the legend of the Quill has no basis in fact, don't you?" I asked. "Of course I do, hence the need for the mirror. The opposite of a lie is the truth, and here, we have a bridge over water, and a reflection of the bridge, enhancing the power of the <em>mirror of opposition</em> to create a true Quill of power."</p><p></p><p>"And what good would that do you?" I asked. "With ink made from the blood of a scion of House Sivis, the possessors of the Mark of Scribing, I will use the Quill to write on myself the Mark of Death, lost so many years ago when the elven House of Vol perished."</p><p></p><p>"The Mark of Death?" I asked. "Yes." "The gnomish word for 'death'?" I asked. "Yes." "I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned. "Silence, gnome! I have worked too long and too hard for this. I will not be swayed." And he commenced his ritual.</p><p></p><p>As far as I could tell, the ritual worked. I could feel the build-up of eldritch energies as he invoked the Old Gnomish words and enhanced their power from bridge, water and reflection. There was one eerie part where he reached <em>into</em> the mirror and brought forth a gleaming quill, shining with power. And, as he wrote the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'death' on himself, there was a blinding flash when the magic did its job. Unfortunately, he had overlooked one minor detail. As I mentioned, many of the Old Gnomish pictograms had multiple meanings, and before the gnomes met the elves, before they were introduced to the ideas of necromancy, and undeath, and all the other connotations of the word 'death' that we know today, the gnomish word for 'death' simply meant a corpse. And that was what the magic turned the elf into.</p><p></p><p>I guess the main lesson in this tale is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so you should do your homework properly and make sure that what you've got is the truth. You may hear many versions of this story, or other stories with elements of this one mixed up in them, but this the truth of how it actually happened. Trust me, I'm a paladin.</p><p></p><p>(1) The jeweled pin/nib</p><p>(2) The girl in the mirror</p><p>(3) The sign</p><p>(4) The bridge</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 1841182, member: 3424"] [B]Ceramic DM Round 1.3: dreaded_beast vs. FireLance[/B] [B]The Gnomish Word for Word[/B] Someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon. The glass casing which housed it in the Trophy Hall of House Sivis held only a velvet cushion with a small indentation where it used to lie. Some legends say that Aureon, the God of Law and Knowledge, had used this quill centuries ago to place the Mark of Scribing on the patriarch of House Sivis. Since then, several members in each generation of House Sivis have possessed this mark, giving them special powers related to writing and communication, and enabling House Sivis to make a fortune in its traditional businesses of translation, notarization and advocacy. And now, someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon. Of course, any serious student of history or religion would know that the legends about the Quill of Aureon were concocted by the accountants of House Sivis, who were not above charging a small fee to naive members of the public to see a supposed artifact. But someone had stolen the Quill of Aureon anyway. Which was why I was rather surprised when my brother, one of the senior accountants of House Sivis, asked me to find the Quill of Aureon and get it back. "Look, you and I both know it's a fake," I said sourly, as we walked to his office, "If you really want to continue bilking all the visitors to our Trophy Hall, just replace it with one of the cheap souvenir knock-offs and nobody will know the difference." I might have been a little harsh on him, but the idea of displaying a fake religious artifact did not sit very well with me as a paladin of the Sovereign Host. Plus, he had turned down my request for the funds to bind a fire elemental into my lance just a couple of days ago, and I was still rather annoyed. "The situation is a little more complicated than that," he said, opening the door to his office, "Come inside. I'd like you to meet someone who can explain about it in greater detail." Waiting in his office was a serious-looking young human woman with reddish brown hair, wearing a ridiculous grey felt cap with a gauzy veil. My brother made the introductions. "Zil, meet Amelia Laundanan, third assistant librarian at the Library of Korranberg. Amelia, this is my brother Zilan d'Sivis, one of our House's leading inquisitives. He will be able to help out with our mutual problem." "Pleased to meet you, Zilan," she said briskly, "Two days ago, a book was stolen from the Library of Korranberg. It was a history book written in the Old Gnomish script detailing the first contact between the gnomes of Zilargo and the elves of Aerenal. This scrap of paper was found at the scene of the crime." I glanced at the scrap of paper she was holding. "It's the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'pen'," I announced. Before us gnomes adopted the modern convention of using an alphabet, we used pictograms to represent words. Imagine the upper half of a circle bisected by a vertical line. That was the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'bridge'. Bracket it with a circle on the left, representing a mouth, and two lines meeting at a sharp angle, representing an ear, and you had the pictogram for 'word'. Place a flat triangle representing a hand underneath that, and you had the pictogram for 'pen'. Of course, given the difficulty of coming up with unique pictograms, many had to pull double duty. The pictogram for word could also mean 'language' or 'speech', and the pictogram for 'pen' could also mean 'write'. The ambiguity of pictograms was one of the factors that led to the enthusiastic and wide-spread adoption of the alphabet when it was introduced. "And this was found in the Trophy Hall," my brother said, displaying another scrap of paper. This time, there were two pictograms on it. The first was the symbol for bridge, above a wavy line signifying water. "Reflection," I said, "Or maybe 'mirror'." The second had the symbol for water above the inverted symbol for bridge. "Opposite," I said, "Written together, it refers to the magic item known as a [I]mirror of opposition[/I]." "We think there's a pattern here," my brother said, "The thief stole the book, and left a hint that he will be stealing the Quill of Aureon. This seems to indicate that he plans to steal a [I]mirror of opposition[/I] next." "What sort of thief would leave a hint about his next target? And what use would anyone have for a book of history, a fake artifact and a mirror of opposition anyway? I think we're dealing with a sick, twisted mind here," I said. "Well, don't let me hold up your investigations," my brother said, "I need to follow up on a wonderful idea you've just given me. Why have an actual Quill of Aureon in the display case when we can just put an illusion in its place? Like so." He waved his hand and muttered a few words, and an image of the [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17074]the Quill of Aureon[/URL] (1) suddenly appeared before us. I ground my teeth in frustration as he scampered off. Brother or not, it was sometimes hard to love an accountant. "You know, that didn't really look like a quill," Amelia said as we left the Trophy Hall. "The feather rotted away some time ago, and 'The Nib of Aureon' doesn't have quite the same ring to it," I explained. I must have sounded rather curt, because we walked down a few more streets before she asked another question. "Where exactly are we going now, anyway?" "The headquarters of the Guild of Glassblowers and Mirrormakers," I said, "If anyone knows anything about a [I]mirror of opposition[/I], it will be them." After a little wrangling with the clerk at the front desk, Amelia and I managed to get in to see the guildmaster. I got straight to the point. "What would you say if I were to tell you that someone is planning to steal your [I]mirror of opposition[/I]?" I asked. The guildmaster got a little wild-eyed. "How did you know we have one?" he asked. I didn't, actually, but I did now. I explained to him about the theft of the book and the Quill of Aureon. "So if you don't mind, I'd like to check on your mirror to see that it's safe." I concluded. "I don't think that will be necessary. It's in a secret vault in our mirror maze. It's very well protected," he said stiffly. "Better protected than a book in the Library of Korranberg, or an artifact in the Trophy Hall of House Sivis?" I asked. He got my point, and led us to the mirror maze without another word. The mirror maze certainly lived up to its name, as the floor, walls and ceiling were all made of highly reflective mirrors. Navigating it was confusing as the multiple reflections made the passageways appear to extend almost to infinity. The numerous secret doors were an added problem. The guildmaster seemed to know where we were going though. "The passageway to the left leads to the secret door to the vault," he said confidently, "Here we – aaaaargh!" The last was said because we rounded the corner and came face to face with a crowd of skeletons. Of course, any well-trained paladin of the Sovereign Host knew what to do when faced with a crowd of skeletons. I pulled out my holy symbol and blasted them all to Dolurrh, the Realm of the Dead. The skeletons' inert bones clattered to the floor of the mirror maze, revealing a gaunt, robed figure behind them, standing in front of an opened secret door. Before any of us could react, it ducked behind the secret door and closed it. Almost immediately, a cacophonous babble arose, like the maddened cry of some dreaded beast bellowing in confusion and fear, and a humanoid shape formed of utter darkness flew out of the closed secret door. For several seconds, I could only stare at the creature as it approached. Then, the sound of Amelia's voice broke through my stupor. In calm, measured tones, she told me that I was under the influence of an allip's hypnotic babble, and that I should focus on her voice to shake it off. My mind cleared in an instant, and I readied my magic battleaxe, infused it with holy energy, and charged. "Take that, spawn of madness," I snarled, as my weapon tore through its incorporeal essence. Behind me, Amelia stopped telling me to come to my senses and started giving a lecture on how to fight an allip. It was easily the most boring speech I had ever heard, next to the lessons on comparative theology at the seminary, but if you focused on the tone of her voice instead of the words, it was actually quite soothing. Two more blows from my battleaxe settled the allip, and it vanished with a final wail. In a flash, Amelia ran past me and pulled open the secret door to reveal another mirror just a few inches behind it. I had a sudden bad feeling. "Wait, Amelia, close your eyes," I yelled, but it was already too late. [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17073]She had already come face-to-face with her reflection.[/URL] (2) "The mirror," I shouted, grabbed a throwing axe and hurled it at her reflection, which shattered. "Is not the [I]mirror of opposition[/I]," I concluded lamely. Behind the decoy mirror was a small room with an empty chest and another passageway. "Come on, he can't be far ahead," I said to Amelia as we ran down it. The passageway terminated in an open door, which led to a deserted alley behind the guild headquarters. "Careful now," I said, scanning the way ahead for traces of evil as we slowly and carefully walked down the alley. Focused as I was on looking for evil, I barely noticed it when Amelia glanced at [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17075]a sign hanging on a wire fence[/URL] (3) and asked, "Please do not feed the cheetahs? What's that?" The effects of that were definitely noticeable. The sign exploded, creating a wave of force that knocked Amelia to the ground and slammed into me like a greatclub swung by an ogre. I rushed to Amelia's side. She was badly injured and unconscious, but a moment's concentration enabled me to send healing energy into her, and she soon opened her eyes. "What happened?" she asked weakly. "It appears that our friend prepared [I]explosive runes[/I] this morning," I said. "Yes, but why 'Do not feed the cheetahs'? There aren't any cheetahs around here, right? As far as I know, you only find them on the Talenta Plains," she said. "The explanation is quite complicated," I said. "There is an old gnomish saying that is best translated as 'Do not feed the swiftcats'. Centuries ago, we gnomes were the favored prey of feline carnivores called swiftcats. A gnome that died because he was careless or unlucky was said to have 'fed the swiftcats'. Used by a friend, 'Do not feed the swiftcats' is a warning to be careful. Used by an enemy, as it most certainly is in this case, it is a taunt to proceed with caution as he is ready for you. To further complicate matters, the swiftcats were hunted to extinction two thousand years ago, and the gnomish word for swiftcat was re-used subsequently to refer to the cheetahs of the Talenta Plains. Our thief may have tried to translate the old gnomish taunt, but he hasn't done so very accurately." "And look," I continued, looking at the dirt under the sign, "He's left another message for us." Scrawled in the earth was the upper half of a circle, bisected by a vertical line, the Old Gnomish pictogram for bridge. Looking out of the alleyway, there was only one bridge in sight. "Amelia," I said, "I think the thief is trying to lure us to that bridge for some reason. I'm going ahead with my eyes open, and hopefully, I'll be able to avoid whatever trap he has planned. However, just in case, I want you to go back to my brother and tell him everything. Get him to send help as soon as he can." Amelia nodded and left. Slowly and carefully, I approached the bridge. From a distance, [URL=http://www.enworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=17076]I could see the gaunt, robed figure I had encountered outside the vault leaning over the railings, looking down at the water.[/URL] When I got close enough, I saw that it was an elf. "Ah, Zilan d'Sivis, I am so glad to see you," the elf said. "I guessed that you wanted me here, so here I am," I said casually, "Would you do me the favor of explaining why you went to such elaborate lengths to set up this meeting?" "In just a moment, if you please," he said, "I have a few final preparations to make." He spoke a few words, made a gesture, and a giant hand about the size of a horse suddenly grabbed me from behind. "I will just need a little of your blood," he said cheerfully, producing a knife from his robes. There really wasn't much that I could do about that, so I just watched as he made a cut in my arm and collected what he needed. "This has always been about words," he said, "It was a pity you gnomes gave up the Old Gnomish script. It was such a delightful language, and had such powerful applications for magic." He made more gestures, said more words, and a large, disembodied eye and ear appeared at both ends of the bridge. "And now we have the gnomish word for 'word', enhancing the power of words." More words and gestures, and a hand appeared beneath the bridge. "The gnomish word for 'pen', enhancing the power of the Quill of Aureon." "You do know that the legend of the Quill has no basis in fact, don't you?" I asked. "Of course I do, hence the need for the mirror. The opposite of a lie is the truth, and here, we have a bridge over water, and a reflection of the bridge, enhancing the power of the [I]mirror of opposition[/I] to create a true Quill of power." "And what good would that do you?" I asked. "With ink made from the blood of a scion of House Sivis, the possessors of the Mark of Scribing, I will use the Quill to write on myself the Mark of Death, lost so many years ago when the elven House of Vol perished." "The Mark of Death?" I asked. "Yes." "The gnomish word for 'death'?" I asked. "Yes." "I wouldn't do that if I were you," I warned. "Silence, gnome! I have worked too long and too hard for this. I will not be swayed." And he commenced his ritual. As far as I could tell, the ritual worked. I could feel the build-up of eldritch energies as he invoked the Old Gnomish words and enhanced their power from bridge, water and reflection. There was one eerie part where he reached [I]into[/I] the mirror and brought forth a gleaming quill, shining with power. And, as he wrote the Old Gnomish pictogram for 'death' on himself, there was a blinding flash when the magic did its job. Unfortunately, he had overlooked one minor detail. As I mentioned, many of the Old Gnomish pictograms had multiple meanings, and before the gnomes met the elves, before they were introduced to the ideas of necromancy, and undeath, and all the other connotations of the word 'death' that we know today, the gnomish word for 'death' simply meant a corpse. And that was what the magic turned the elf into. I guess the main lesson in this tale is that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so you should do your homework properly and make sure that what you've got is the truth. You may hear many versions of this story, or other stories with elements of this one mixed up in them, but this the truth of how it actually happened. Trust me, I'm a paladin. (1) The jeweled pin/nib (2) The girl in the mirror (3) The sign (4) The bridge [/QUOTE]
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