'Are you Sogil the Gemner?' asked Gord.
'None other indeed,' the bald jeweler said.
'Then we have business for certain!' exclaimed the barbarian.
This was nearly too much for the skinny ancient, for he doddered back with a look of fear on his face, and his fingers fumbled to unclasp the apparently enchanted brooch.
'You don't need protection from us, we simply wish to buy from you,' Gord said with haste, as he took out a sack of coins and shook it. 'Something very expensive.'
Relief flooded the merchant's countenance. 'Ah, I understand! Your gains are in coin and you wish small items of high value instead. This is easily accommodated. Come in!'
Sogil attempted to sell the two all sorts of exotic and unknown stuff, but neither showed the least bit of interest. After this tack failed, the conniving fellow tried to foist off gemstones at ten times their actual worth. This again met with no success, so he got down to basics.
'What do you desire?'
'Two pieces of identical value. Each must be salable to any jeweler for not less than five thousand gold — orbs, I mean. The pieces should be set with many fine stones salable separately, and the stones must be diamonds, emeralds, jacinths, rubies or the like. For these two pieces we will pay seven thousand in gold and four thousand in platinum,' Gord finished flatly.
'How do I profit from such a sale?' the gemner asked querulously.
'The margin is small, I admit,' the young thief said. 'But how often do you sell goods of such value? The gold that you clear from this deal will operate this shop and keep you in style for a good year — if not longer!'
Sogil grumbled and cursed under his breath, but he went into the back room and returned with a velvet- covered tray. He set this down on the counter and flipped open the covering. Revealed was an exquisite ensemble of jewelry: necklace, bracelet, diadem, earrings, and ring, all in gold and set with square-cut diamonds and emeralds of great size and clarity. The gems seemed to flash and sparkle a? the two adventurers gazed at them.
'Wonderful,' Gord said laconically. 'May we see the remainder at this time as well?'
Sogil tottered off, doing his best to stamp disgustedly in the process, but he was simply too decrepit to manage anything effective in this vein. Eventually he brought forth more trays from the mysterious back room. Finally an agreement was made, and Gord and Chert handed over their bundles of coins. While the ancient gemner counted them carefully, the pair of adventurers examined their newly purchased fortune in gems and jewelry.
Chert took the diamond and emerald jewelry set and a dozen precious stones of unparalleled clarity and color. Gord had similar jewelry set with sapphires, a ruby the size of a small egg, a pouch of black pearls, and various other gems as well. Each then selected a brooch for his cape, a rich thumb ring, and picked up small silver coffers filled with miscellaneous lesser stones. 'Done?' they inquired in unison.
'Be gone,' Sogil cried, still fondling the coins as he counted.
'I wonder where all this wealth came from,' Chert mused. 'And how it found its way to that old fart's establishment.'
'A place ideal for the likes of us,' his companion said softly.
'Yes, I get your drift,' agreed the barbarian as he strode through the bright sun of mid-morning toward the street known as Weird Way.
Noon came and they had made no progress toward their first objective. Simply put, neither Gord nor Chert could find a way to escape the confines of Weird Way. The portal at its end, identical to the one they had entered through, did not yield when Gord tried using the coin he still held in his possession. 'Apparently the way out of this place is as strange as the way in — but not identical,' Gord said dejectedly. Not a single building — and they had managed to explore a few — had a rear exit. Each opened onto Weird Way and nowhere else. 'Let's try the rooftops,' Gord said in exasperation.
'What can we lose?' Chert shrugged.
Gord had a sinking feeling, but he strode jauntily toward a narrow opening between two of the nearby buildings. The space was a gangway between the two structures, opening onto a small courtyard. Sure enough, on each side of the courtyard were stairs leading to apartments on the upper floors and above. Three storeys later, both adventurers stood on the roof. There were dovecots, small gardens, lines of washing, and the like. By positioning themselves just right, they could see a good bit of Weird Way. Beyond the area. In the place where adjacent buildings should be, where Greyhawk was, there was a wall of impenetrable, colorless nothingness. Sunlight came through but nothing else.
'Trapped!' Chert growled, desperation keening in his voice.
'Use your head, man!' Gord exclaimed. 'How can we be trapped here? Look at all the people — and other creatures too — that we see down there. The plaza is jam-packed with shoppers. The public houses are full. There are more living things here than will fit into these buildings, and they come and go somehow!'
'They must all know something we don't, then,' Chert sighed, hefting his massive axe.
'Possibly some do,' his comrade agreed, 'and we will just have to acquire this information for ourselves, now, won't we?' He nudged his gloomy friend in a playful manner. Chert managed a weak grin and Gord continued. 'Mark you the gate area,' he said, taking Chert and turning him so he faced the end of Weird Way. 'Wait for two minutes and tell me how many folks you see coming and going in' the space of time.'
Chert squinted and watched for almost two full minutes before asking, 'Is the time up?'
'Close enough,' Gord replied. 'Now, how many did you see?'
'Six leaving, two seeming to come.'
'Passage through that portal is too cumbersome for all to use. Besides, would not the folk of the city notice such a stream of pedestrians — especially strangers of such unusual nature as these — coming and going from the Old City's less frequented sector? There must be other places from which to come and go!' Gord exclaimed, hope rising in his voice. The iron portal is controlled by some magic. and I am convinced that all other means of entrance and egress are also tied to some dweomercraeft.'
'Agreed,' Chert said glumly. 'But can we discover it? There's the rub.'
'With all the traffic that flows in and out of this place? Come now, my giant friend, how can we not?' Gord chided as he clapped the barbarian on his muscular shoulder. 'We just have to think a bit.'
'In that case, I’m going to sit down. Thinking wears me out,' Chert said half-heartedly.
Gord stayed where he was, taking in the aerial view of Weird Way and its establishments. 'How can one person be so bereft of his senses?' the young thief suddenly cried, hitting the side of his head with his open palm.
'Hey! Insulting me isn't going to make me think any faster!' Chert protested. 'In fact, that kind of talk may cause your own brain to suffer some serious damage if I have half a mind to use your head as a stomping ground, which I just might decide is worth the effort.'
Gord laughed. 'No, you idiot. I was referring to my own mental abilities.' He pulled the confused barbarian to his feet. 'Look, down that way, what do you see?'
'A crowded street with strange-looking people, so what?'
'No, no, no! Look at the sign across the way. We didn't know what we were looking for. Now we do. If you could discern the written word half as well as you can — Oh, never mind. The sign I'm referring to proclaims the edifice to be the 'Pavilion of Portals'. What quest could be simpler?'
'Perhaps,' Chert said with a ring of doubt in the word. Patting the steely bit of Brool for reassurance, the great barbarian followed his slender companion down the stairs and back into Weird Way.
Streams of people were leaving and entering the Pavilion of Portals. The broad double doors were shaded by the wide portico that ran the entire length of the large, plastered building. The whole had an exotic air, with its strange columns, tent-like roof and tower tops, and the draped windows and entrance. It was cool and dim inside, with the faint hum of conversations and comings and goings to be heard. Broad corridors led left, right and ahead. The marble walls and tiled floors seemed to lead away endlessly.
'May I be of assistance?' inquired the owner of a high-pitched voice.
Both men turned quickly. The speaker was a spidery gnome dressed in tailored livery of apple red and saffron which displayed many modish puffs and slashes that revealed flashes of contrasting colors. Gord nodded and replied. 'Yes, I believe you can be of service.' he said handing the gnome an electrum coin.
The gnome tucked the lucky into his pouch without expression. 'Pray tell?'
