From: pcalvert@economics.adelaide.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [R] The World According to Artifice...
Date: 7 Sep 92 23:54:39 GMT
Organization: Economics, University of Adelaide
NNTP-Posting-Host: eco.economics.adelaide.edu.au

Posted on behalf of Dennis Brennan
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
With a light 'click' Artifice snapped his right leg back on.  For a
moment he mused... he was different.  And yet, strangely, he was
utterly commonplace.  If Artifice had been so inclined, he might have noticed
the irony.  But Artifice did not appreciate irony.

He did not know from where he came- certainly he looked like a local
Rameshander, but he soon found that his external appearance could
be easily changed.  His first memory was his indoctrinationas a
personal domestic slave to the Shaheran.  Artifice had a lot of memories-
he could clearly recall any aspect of anything he had observed for the
last seventy years...

Seventy years.  Now that was unusual too.  By human standards, that was old.
But Artifice did not look appreciably different from the way he did seventy
years ago.  Hmm.

When that Shaheran finally died, as Rameshander law provides, all his slaves
were freed.  Artifice chose to remain in The Court- the surroundings with
which he was most familiar.  His unique talents made him a superb
spy.  He was paid handsomely by many of Pashar's influential
people.  He even became a rather important figure in his own right.

That was what these people seemed to value: money and power.  Therefore,
Artifice sought these things, and earned them.  It was the lifestyle
he lived.  It made sense to him.

An objective observer might look at Artifice and see him driven by these
two goals.  THis objective observer might hypothesize that Court life
had programmed these values into Artifice.  An objective observer might
declare that Artifice was, then, no better than a machine.
This observer would be quite correct.

It just so happened that at this time Artifice had been contracted to do a
job.It was a rather typical job, one which would earn him both money
and power.  Cardinal Xar, benefactor of the poor, patron of the arts,
persecutor of mages, had learned that a magically summoned being
had arrived in Pashar.  The good Cardinal believed that this creature
must obviously be some kind of summoned demon from the lower planes
brought here to wreak havoc.  Cardinal Xar had hired Artifice to
investigate these reports, observe and study this demon, and and
make such preparations as necessary to destroy it.  This 'demon'
was called Hazy Drifter.

Staking people out was nothing new to Artifice.  People were all the same.
They lusted for treasure, they schemed for power, they brawled and
drank and took drugs.  Predictable.  Their habits could be determined,
and anticipated.  Then it was easy to lie in wait and kill them.

Interestingly to Artifice, this Hazy Drifter seemed to be associating
with Karl of Generica.  The same Karl who would be bringing Amaan
back to the North with him.  The same Amaan that Xar had been hounding
for the past seven months.  Was this coincidence?  The known variables
suggested that it was not.

Artifice observed Hazy Drifter while she was alone and with Karl.
Strange, she did not seem to eat.  She transmuted herself into
some sort of gaseous form and drift about.  That was not too unusual-
Artifice had seen certain mages perform a similar trick.  But these
mages used the dweomercraft as a means of escape- yet Hazy Drifter
assumed gaseous form when no threat was evident.  Illogical.

She seemed to move around quite a bit in random patterns, as if
to elude a follower.  But she showed no signs of anxiety or paranoia.
This calmness was also unusual in Rameshan.  What in the world
was this creature?  Artifice needed more data.

He crafted a face, an old man's wizened face with spectacles.  He
removed his own face and applied the mask.  He took a rather large
sack of gold pieces and made his way to the court.  He found
his way down the corridors, up the tall spiraling staircase to the
room with the high windows.  As he had observed Hazy emerging from this
window earlier that morning, he concluded that these were her
chambers.  He knocked.  THere was no answer.  So he removed the
tip of his left index finger and picked the lock with the pick
built into his hand.  He placed the gold bag on the bed.  Then
he entered the closet (strange, there were no garments there),
left the door open a crack, and altered his blackbody spectrum
as to render himself invisible.  He would observe her reactions...

db