He pulled out apartly rusty iron bracelet inlaid with some runes in gold.
‘This is amental restraint. It is used as a device to stop a mind wizard fromusing his mental powers. It would have no effect on anyone else.Its value might be about 500 gold.’
‘These itemswere possibly magical but have no power left. These two smallspheres are called mind lock pearls. They would explode on contactpossibly paralysing their target for 10-20 seconds. Each is worthabout 500 gold.’
‘Ah thatexplains what happened when old Gimplestead dropped one on thefloor.’ said the gnome with a smile.
‘This finalitem, the flat gemstone is what is known as a third eye. It is aneye of exposing. When used by a mind wizard it allows you to detectwhen someone is lying to you. It is probably worth about 5000gold.’
The gnomelooked at Aquitain and said ‘Well that makes the lot worth about7500 and your share about 1850. I’ll tell you what, for 2000 youcan have the lot.’
‘I’ll give you1000 in high quality gems for the lot and another 500 if you cansell me a couple of invisibility potions and a gnome hat.’
‘Done.’ repliedthe gnome rubbing his hands together and dancing a short jig.
He got a clothbag and placed all of Aquitain’s new items in it. He then quibbledwith Aquitain over the value of the gems until finally everyone washappy. Lastly he went out to the back room and came back with abrand new green gnome hat and handed it to Aquitain.
‘This is thegenuine article. They’re very popular as souvenirs. I always keep afew in the back.’
‘That’s a nicegreen one.’ said Aquitain. ‘It’s like the ones the gnomes wear inMudrun. Why do the gnomes here all wear different colouredhats?’
Rumplechuckled. ‘Well it’s like this you see. We all like to get up to alittle mischief at times. If we all wore different coloured hats itwould be too easy to work out which one of us was the culprit. Soby decree of the Gnomish General Council all gnomes in foreignlocalities are directed to wear green hats.’
Aquitain wasnot sure whether Rumple was telling him the truth or not. Itsounded 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 lookingaround.
‘I can’tbelieve what just happened.’ said Chantalot. ‘We went for adviceand you end up shopping for bargains using a small fortune’s worthof gem stones.’
‘We both gotwhat we wanted,’ replied Aquitain. ‘He gave us the information weneeded and sold us a lot of items from his junk draw, which he hasbeen trying to get rid of for years.’
‘It happensthat a couple of those items are worth a lot in the right marketand might be useful on this current quest. My whole family make andtrade in magic items that are usually quite expensive.
Rather thancarrying heaps of gold that is heavy and vulnerable we deal ingems, preferably high quality ones that can be imbued with magic. Ibrought some very pure gems with me from Panmagica that would beexceptionally valuable for making magic items. Rumple has exchangedjunk for valuable magic item quality gems that’s why he’s sopleased with himself.’
‘Do you mind ifI walk around a little?’ asked Aquitain. ‘I’d like to see a fewmore gnomes. I’ve only ever seen a couple. I’d like to see how muchthey vary in height and shape.’
‘This iscertainly the perfect place for that!’ chuckled Chantalot.
So they walkedaround like tourists looking in shop windows and nodding at passinggnomes. While Chantalot was simply enjoying the sights Aquitain wasbusy building a mental model of a gnome. He scrutinized their bodyshapes, their skin tones, their facial variations, noses, ears andeyes. He then concentrated on the hands and feet and their posturesboth standing and moving. He used the skills he had used to crafthis little person body to craft a mental image of an average gnome,one that wouldn’t stand out in a crowd.
Feelingconfident he moved into a shady nook out of direct sight took thatgnome hat from his bag placed it on his head and changed to his newmental image of a gnome wearing gnome clothes made out of mindclay. Chantalot thought he was going into the nook to relievehimself and turned and looked the other way.
A minute laterAquitain called to him and said. ‘What do you think?’
Chantalotstared and could hardly believe what he saw.
‘By the Powers,is that really you? You … you look just like one of them.’
‘That is theidea. Now if I can get their walk and mannerisms right I might evenbe able to fool one. Let’s go into this inn and have somedrinks.’
‘I don’t know,’replied Chantalot with a worried look on his face. ‘They may nottake it kindly if they discover that you’re a shape changer.’
‘Well you’lljust have to distract them won’t you?’
‘How about youoffer to sing for some drinks? They’ll be so interested in you theywon’t notice me.’
‘It mightwork.’ nodded Chantalot. ‘Let me go in first then come in after Istart singing.’
Aquitain stoodaround outside for about five minutes then heard Chantalot’smelodious voice wafting out the doorway. He waited until a newcustomer entered and he followed behind. The place was morebrightly lit that he expected. The stone walls were all coveredwith white plaster and decorated with small animal head trophiesand some small swords no bigger than Newman daggers.
There was abarman filling a jug of ale from one of a stack of small woodenkegs. Several gnome customers sat on three legged stools all facingChantalot who sat in front of a fireplace strumming a gnomish sizedlute and singing a popular Twin Towers song.
Aquitainselected a stool near the back wall furthest from Chantalotexpecting everyone to sit in front of him and thereby not take anynotice of him. He would be able to observe the gnome’s behaviourand individual mannerisms. To complete the image he picked up anempty mug from the floor and held it as if he still had some drinkleft.
Everythingseemed to work well until the barkeeper walked over and withoutasking filled his mug with ale then held out his hand
