‘You are mostkind Lord and do yourself an injustice. It is we that areunaccustomed to asking for a Lord to help.’
‘Please tell meabout your problem Plogash and I will do what I can.’ repliedAquitain a little flattered at Plogash’s warm welcome.
‘Lord it hashappened during this last few days. Our food has tasted different.It seems to cause the young to become unruly. They will not listento their elders. They fight among themselves and even join withlike-minded air brothers to fight their own kin. One was even seento take the side of our fire brothers. That is most unusual.’
Aquitainrequested to be taken to the area and he was guided to asubterranean magic node not far from their present location. It wasa magic node in a cave similar to the one at Twin Towers exceptthat it was completely filled with seawater and partially darkbeing lit only by light filtering in from outside the cave.
He used hisLogicon form as it could breathe underwater and modified it to moreclosely resemble a small water elemental. On arrival he could smellfresh compulsion magic residues. Someone here was trying to causeproblems. If he had Aura Sight he might be able to instantly seewhether the culprit was still here or not but he didn’t so he wouldhave to use his wits to detect them.
If some type ofagent bent on causing trouble were here, then he suspected thatthey would try to stay hidden, which meant they would be invisibleand water breathing or perhaps polymorphed to imitate a waterelemental. If they were polymorphed and not detected by the waterelementals, then they were very experienced and hence verydangerous.
Compulsionmagic was the trade mark of a mind wizard but other wizards andpriests used it as well. Some experienced wizards could use it andremain invisible, as there was no obvious tell-tale from where ithad originated. Very few could use any magic while polymorphed soit was highly likely that the culprit was invisible and waterbreathing.
Consequently,if they were invisible they would probably use mental attacksrather than an elemental attack as that would not give away theircover and be just as effective as in air. Since they wereunderwater, fire attacks would be impossible and acid or coldelemental attacks would have a limited effect. A lightning attackwas the most probable and the hardest to defend against underwater.
If they werepolymorphed to imitate a water elemental they would have to changeshape to their normal form to attack and then they might use eithera mental attack or an elemental attack.
The highestprobability was for a mental attack from an invisible waterbreathing person or creature near the cave wall.
Since heresembled a water elemental he hoped he would not draw undueattention and he could drift around using his senses of taste andsmell to search the area rather than his vision which was almostuseless under the present conditions.
Through hismindlink with Plogash, he told him he suspected that there might bean invisible intruder present and his plan to detect them. He askedPlogash to tell his people and to come quickly to his assistance ifhe found someone, as they might get violent. Then he began slowlydrifting around among the thirty water elementals presentlycasually feeding in the area.
He moved aroundfor about twenty minutes taking in the tastes and smells of thewater attuning to the smells of the elementals and he began todetect a fishy odour that didn’t seem to belong to the elementals.The problem was that it swirled around the water in the cave notgiving a accurate indication as to the direction of its source.When he closed in towards what he thought was its origin it was nolonger there. Then he guessed what was happening. It knew he wasthere trying to find it and it was moving away from him keeping itsdistance.
That means itcould see him but he couldn’t see it. Had it been warned by one ofthe elementals here? Was it controlling or manipulating one or moreelementals? He smelt fresh compulsion magic residues. It was tryingto coerce one or more elementals into doing something. Suddenlythere was a disturbance. Two of the large elementals began adispute, physically barging into each other. Some moved away andsome started heading for the cave entrance.
‘Go to the caveentrance and stop your kin from leaving, Plogash. I’m sure there isa hidden intruder in here and we’ve scared it into action. It’strying to cause a distraction to escape. Tell your people there isan invisible wizard here that might try to influence their minds toattack me or others. They should try to resist it.’
Plogash sentthe message to them and the dispute settled down. Plogash and twoor three others blocked the cave entrance. And the others beganmoving around trying to detect anything in the cave. Aquitain movedto the centre of the cave thinking desperately how he could flushit out but couldn’t think of anything. It was a mental game. Itshould be getting worried by now. How was it avoiding detection? Itmust be using an illusion that is fooling the water elementals.
It might haveguessed that he couldn’t see very well in his fake water elementalform. It must be a water creature. It had spotted him worked outwhat he was doing and expertly countered his every move. It nowknew that he knew it was there. Perhaps it could even understandthe water elemental language. Perhaps by telling Plogash he wasannouncing what he was doing.
He would haveto change to a form that could see well or increase the light inthe area or both. He chose both. He sent a quick message to Plogashto be ready and switched to his gnome form with sharp eyesight. Hecreated light on himself and the whole area lit up and he quicklooked around for possible illusions.
The brightlight passed through the water elementals leaving a hazy shadow onthe cave wall but in one it didn’t. It showed the shadow of ahumanoid shape on the wall coming from one of the elementals in agroup of three. One of them was a wizard hidden in
