Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison) Subject: [KQ] 'Raelf [Library] Stack Checking Algorithms Message-ID: <1992Sep23.021836.2887@intelhf.hf.intel.com> References: <19e9ifINNcbg@huon.itd.adelaide.edu.au> Date: Wed, 23 Sep 92 02:18:36 GMT [ADMIN] sometime last week, pcalvert sent out a post describing ...sage leaving the Great Library and picking up his two erstwhile assistants, on his way to deal with the vandal who's been destroying books. However, before that actually happened, 'Raelf had visited the library, the second of the two minor things he wanted to take care of before he joined Kron's party as they take on the crimelord behind the Wasters... -------- The library was an impressive edifice, and not nearly as pretentious as the Mage's Guild. But it was still done in the standard Public Building sort of monumental-huge that seems to be common to all civilizations once they learn basic stonework. 'Raelf strode in past the pillars carved with the Seventy Sages, entered the main lobby, and looked around. There were a number of librarians, all with different colored robes, and a pompous looking older gentleman reading a huge dusty tome, at what appeared to be the main desk. 'Raelf approached. "How would I find my friend ...sage here?" The fellow looked at him disapprovingly. The young man was clearly not a scholar, probably some dissipative young nobleman that ...sage had attracted in his unorthodox searches for outside information. Maybe even one of the ruffians from that tavern at the crossroads. He frowned. "You wouldn't. If he wants you to find him, he'd tell you how to reach him." He returned to his book, pointedly ignoring the interloper. "Pardon me, but which way are the books on magical theory?" One eye unfocussed from the book and refocussed on 'Raelf. "One follows the signs. If one is literate, they suffice, along with an understanding of Generican Standard Filing System. Otherwise one pays for the use of a library research assistant." The eye re-focussed on the book. 'Raelf tipped up on his toes, trying to see what it said - it appeared to be a treatise on the history of two contrasting theories of accounting methods. In small print. Shudder. He looked around for a sign, and finally across the lobby, spotted a small sign pointing to a side corridor. There. It lead into a large open room, filled with card catalogs, behind a waist-high barrier. After a few yards, the wall opened down to a counter, behind which a number of bored looking individuals sat, reading or just sitting; they wore robes of different colors. The corridor formed by the barrier and the counter led to a swinging gate, guarded by a studious looking man. "What topic?" "Beg pardon?" "What topic are you looking for?" "Uh, why do you ask?" "So I can summon the proper research assistant. You DO want an assistant, don't you?" "Not really. I'm looking for someone." "Well, visiting isn't allowed in the library. If you would like we can send someone with a message." "No, I just need to find ...sage." "I'm very sorry, but he has left word that he is unavailable." "Right. Look, maybe I can just look for him." "He isn't to be disturbed. If you want to look for something to read in the common stacks, feel free to. Otherwise, please leave." "I'll look at the stacks then." The gate was opened, and he entered. A few moments' concentration let him see the shape of the room, with its exit on the far end going down, but any attempts to catch the eye of the librarians, without making noise, roused the stony glare of the gatekeeper. 'Raelf seethed for a while, reconsidered several options, and finally snapped his fingers (unintentionally) loudly, materializing a crystalline sphere. "SHHH!" came several rejoinders. 'Raelf sighed, then headed for the exit on the far end. He turned aside, once he was out of the view of the others, and looked around. A secret door, no magical wards or guards, was cleverly hidden behind an unguarded counter. He went inside, into a corridor. The sphere glowed dimly. Inside, the glyph for Ancient Knowledge gave off a faint glow, stimulated by the environment. He held it out at arm's length, and turned, and it glowed brighter in one direction. He proceeded that way, but stopped after a while - there were some more book stacks ahead, and people around them. A magical ward on the door to the room, probably restricting access to staff only. "Let's get duplicitous, Launchpad." he muttered to himself, and dug into his memory for the proper shape. FLICK - ...sage (or an unreasonable facsimile) stood there, identifiable as 'Raelf only by his trademark multicolor eyes. He considered; Everyone knew ...sage had blank-white eyes, but he could stick to the more pale-colored manifestations and hope it would pass. Otherwise, he would have no access to his otherplane senses, and he needed them to find things here. Now, for an impressive-looking tome of ancient lore - the idea was a fairly easy one, and the manifestation was easy surrounded by all these books and things... Some of the librarians gave greetings, and he replied with an absent wave and a look of concentration, on the tome he had invented. The sphere continued to glow, brighter with each minute, showing the way to the oldest things in the library. He passed some common areas, where the staff had rooms and facilities, and down a long hallway to some stairs going downward. He continued, following the increasing glow. After a while, it led into an area devoid of other people. He felt the warning tingle of a set of wards. Probably the barriers allowing only the most trusted people into the ancient archives. With a bit more than a touch of ...sage's hand (or close enough) they moved aside in layers, admitting him, then closing up behind him. A downward spiral into what appeared to be a catacomb cut from the rocks, led into an area that was clearly once used as residences by ancient librarians. Currently, only the chief librarian, and ...sage, maintained apartments in this area. He was led to a set of stairs going down into a vault hewn from the living stone. The wards were incredibly nasty, and a warning bell rang as soon as he touched a foot to the stair. <> He dissolved the crystal and remained in the waning darkness, kneeling in za-zen position, practicing his breathing. After a while, ...sage appeared - materialized, really. He was completely dishevelled, and carried Thk's silver trident in one hand. 'Raelf stood up, wondering if ...sage would notice that he was being impersonated. "'Raelf! What are you doing here? What can I do for you?" "Hey, buddy, long time no see. Got some questions for you, and it seemed safest to come here. Hey, can I be myself without setting off the alarms?" "I think so. You'll have to tell me all about how you got this far." ('Raelf inhaled, FLICK, and resumed his customary blonde surfer form.) "Oh, well, your bureaucrats gave me the most trouble. Major red tape. Once I found a way into the non-public section, things were fine until the staff-only section. So I only knew one member of the staff, and that was you. Was a bit touch-and-go at the next set of wards, the Authorized Personnel Only. After that, I got here, and I haven't tried to mess with the mega-nasties you put around the vault there." "I... see... I may have to change the way some of those wards work." "Well, dude, the APO ward could only get stronger by putting in the truenames, and I only spotted four open slots on the way through it, so do all four of your authorized people want you to know their truename?" "I'll have to think about that. So what brings you here?" "Research, my man, research. The stars 'n' planets. Know much about 'em?" "Well, probably as much as the next person, why?" "I need to look some stuff up in your secret stacks, or at least, have you do it. Has to do with some anomalies I've discovered." After a moment, ...sage nodded. "Hold on here, I'll need to gate us inside." A momentary distortion, and they materialized inside a huge, dark, cool area, surrounded completely by unbroken stone, the gentle whisper of a very small, very stupid air elemental keeping the air breathable. As 'Raelf looked around, ...sage waved, and a twinkling of tiny lights appeared around them, making it bright enough to see, but not bright enough to harm the ancient manuscripts. He placed the trident and a sheaf of papers down together in a careful stack on the floor. "Now, what is this thing you are searching for? And why do you think that your answer would be here?" ...sage asked, sitting down into midair (levitation, nice trick). 'Raelf knelt on the floor and pulled some things out of his bandolier. "Hey, the Ancient Knowledge is here, right? And you're a way canny dude, so you were my best option. Anyway, my profession is artifice magic. I was vetting out the local influences and I came across something kinky. Here, let me show you what I found out." 'Raelf opened and activated the flat case - his MageFamiliar Model 500. After a few minutes digging through his crystal-pouch, he came up with the orrery program. <> It came up, showing the constellations and planets and their astral influences, all marked meticulously with tiny runes that identified them. All but two, blinking amber. "Look at this. See, these two planets here. They show as residuals in a local-field scan, but they don't show in any of the local starcharts and none of the astrologers hereabouts seem to believe they exist." ...sage looked, with some surprise, at the orrery. "That's an unusual device, 'Raelf. What does it do?" "What, the orrery, or the case?" "Both. Either." "The case is a general purpose tool. It's kind of similar to the thinking machines they use on the Arkham Earth, but operates on a different set of underlying physical laws. The orrery is a spirit-overlay, a sort of semi intelligent very limited mind, able to calculate incredibly precise and specific things about the stars and their influence, but only about that, nothing else. The case has some special parts that let it "sense" the world around it. Anyway, it identified these two influences, that it categorized as planets, what do you think they are?" After musing for a moment, ...sage snapped his fingers excitedly. "I have it. Generica is on a nexus point, in fact, the world's called Nexus in the nearby dimensions. There was something I read, a few dozen years ago, about encounters with something..." He floated up and down through the shelves, muttering, no, no, maybe, no nonono, yes! He gently removed a carefully stored flat collection of papers from the middle of a stack of comparable articles. He showed it to 'Raelf, who whistled in amazement. "Wow, a pre-publication issue of Sandman -102, what is it, 'Sibling Rivalries', features the whole family. Cool." 'Raelf accepted the proferred document, holding it in a blanket of dense air. He gently turned the pages, using wafts of air to protect the fragile paper from finger oils. The story, unfolding, discussed a wager between the two oldest of the Endless, a family of conceptual beings... The stakes were held by their younger brother, who ruled over nightmares, and they chose a part of reality to play their game on. 'Raelf looked up, shaken. "This whole astral subtree, they're playing a game with it. No wonder time won't flow like it should - it keeps getting caught on inconsistencies in their rules - and they keep changing them." "I don't think that I want to know about this," he continued after a pause. But once he knew what the influences were, he could divine which was which. He returned the document to ...sage, and knelt by the orrery, and touched one of the amber dots, making it flash green. He flipped a coin, and called "heads" - it came up tails, so he labelled the other dot "Destiny" and the first, "Death". The MagFam 500 thought for a few minutes about this. Then it moved things around again, and the lines and constellations took on a different set of configurations. "all RIGHT!" shouted 'Raelf. "What?" ...sage asked, blithely, floating down to where he could watch. "There's a completely better map of materials to times. I can put together a HyperCosmos rune, even, if things fall together right. I have all the materials I need, too, except for lots of gold, and I can get that." The albino librarian shrugged, dimly visible in the glow from the case. "So then what will you do? Leave? Can you get back in time for your contest, or are you still interested in that?" "Well, yes, I do want to go back there, but I have some things to finish here, and it will be a few months before I can complete the Rune. I have most of the timewarp already bent, though, all that needs is for my younger self to successfully get himself ... uh, better not talk about that here. They have to thwart the Dark Master, though." "Which Dark Master are you referring to?" "Shadowy fellow, probable time-paradox victim, got caught in a shadow realm by a lost Traveller artifiact, thorough rotter." "Oh, him. He's been trying to get Generica for a very long time, but he's hampered by the fact that his gateway won't open except under a new moon, and the place it opens is unpredictable. This is as opposed to the Dark Master on the Western Isles, who recently tried an invasion but it got lost in the temporal noise, and the Dark Master who rules to the northeast, who has been trying to extend his power and causing some annoyances on the Specifican trade routes..." 'Raelf shrugged. "Lots of them around, eh? Anyway, I also have to hang around and help Kron out when he finds out who the Wasters are working for, otherwise something really nasty is going to happen." "How can you know that? Your tool here?" "No, this comes from an earlier life. My first full-sentient meal, in fact, her name is Maribel, and she has a powerful prophetic gift, she reads the timelines like most people remember. I had to put her shape on, for a short time, and I got this real STRONG image on all possible futures, that if I was not there when Kron meets the Wasters' own version of a Dark Master, then the city will be a very ugly place to live." "Ah. Well, that probably doesn't concern me directly, but please do let me know if you need help." "Fer shure. So, how did YOU get hold of Thk's trident?" "Ah, you've met our scaly prince, then. I was backtracking on that route you used to bring us here, and I came across this interesting object in the plane of Fire, and then after I retrieved it from the creature who had it, I came across a truly irate illithid gentleman, but after we exchanged a few pleasantries, I managed to calm him, and I hope to have him ally with me against the common enemy..." "What, that vandal you were chasing down?" ...sage nodded. "Anyway, the trident. I've been analyzing it, for our records, before I return it to Thk." "Really? Can I take a look?" "In a minute, if you tell me what you find out. I have some questions first... You really shouldn't have been able to get down here, even by looking like me. How did you get past the illusion walls, and how did you get through the labyrinth?" "I didn't notice any illusion walls. Oh yeah, that's right, there was some smoke and light stuck up in a couple places. I just went around it, didn't want to knock it down, figured it was there for a reason. It would work better if you tossed in a mental component too." ...sage made a mental note to reinforce the illusions - they must be wearing thin with age. But then, they'd never looked particularly convincing to him; maybe that was the problem. When crafting an illusion, perhaps you had to believe it yourself... "Anyway, I got through the labyrinth easy. Look, Ma, no hands." A theatrical wave, and 'Raelf manifested the crystal holding the image of Ancient Knowledge. It began to glow brightly until he tapped it, reducing the volume. "See, this reacts to the thought-archetype of Ancient Lore. It led me straight here. Came across some interesting things up in the Rare Books stack though, on the way - did you know you have a seventy-thousand year old copy of the Ballad of Eskimo Nell in ancient mandarin? - Anyway, the void-probe, plus the similarity-tug from wearing your shape, no problem finding the right path. This seemed to satisfy ...sage's curiousity. He performed some small cantrip or other, producing a cup of hot beverage. "Would you like some tea?" he asked, politely. "No thanks, dude, I'm fine. Maybe later at the Inn." "So, 'Raelf. First... I'd like to thank you for healing me earlier; I was rather in a hurry, and I was regretting that things ended so gracelessly and abruptly. And then we didn't really get a chance to talk, last time we met. But what I really wondered was, if it's not too much trouble, when you have a spare moment or two, I'd like to plumb some of your elemental knowledge. I've spent decades trying to map the safest routes through the inner and outer planes, and I think I've done a pretty decent job with the Astral and Ethereal planes, but the elemental planes provide some short cuts that might be very profitable, and I ... well, the 'kan seem to have knowledge of travel methods that could push my research ahead by a century or two, compared to the classical approach." "Don't sweat the healing. It's the least I could do after getting us into that crash-landing. But the other stuff. The elemental routes are really hazardous unless you can do adaption. But I'll assume you already knew that." He touched what ...sage saw as a protruding glowing web of colors floating just above the case. <> The dimensional illusion of the constellations vanished. 'Raelf then swapped the crystal with another. <> and the holographic field was filled with a set of colored, nested spheres, spiralling and touching into and through one another, in a complex Mandelbrot pattern in five dimensions. Each sphere contained a delicate tracery of light, each a different rune, with the individual repetitions ever so slightly different. "The shape of the HyperCosmos, friend elf. Notice that it all repeats and swirls around on itself? Well, it's a transfinite series, and each of the spheres is an archetype interaction. Notice, there's a smaller infinity of spheres there, wherever they all touch. <> There, see, the way I do shortcuts, is to move through the archetype into one of the other places where they all touch. The place where the spheres aren't is the Outside, and that's where the Gateway network, like the one Traveller operates, go through. They create a sort of a wormhole that completely bypasses the realities." "Fascinating... How difficult is this moving through archetypes?" In response, 'Raelf pulled a toothpick out from behind his ear. <> - it grew to slightly larger than wand-size. "Well, for me, it's instinctive. I had to spend a century in school learning how to do it deliberately and consciously. Most of my people never bother, and never get this far from home." He extended the wand in front of him, and muttered <>. "Here, see this pattern in the wand, how it matches the overall shape of the closeup? That's called the Cosmos Rune, and the copy I put into this staff is incomplete - see, there, the break at the spots where the pattern would begin to recurse on itself? This abbreviated copy is a MicroCosmos Rune. There's also a ParaCosmos Rune, which is the kind I had on my big board, that broke when we bounced off of RavenLoft. The ParaCosmos contains two levels of iteration. The HyperCosmos Rune has the full defined recursion, plus temporal constrictions." ...sage nodded, examining the patterns. He thought for a moment. "So, could this map operate as a travel device?" "Oh, no, it's just a symbolic. Has no "mass" - only carries a virtual reality, not a full model. The master copy does, though, which is how my copy is kept up to date. Too bad it only works one way." ...sage considered for a moment, then assumed a deadpan expression. "So, what this means is that to travel regularly along the elemental routes, we would require some kind of travel device. Heh. Perhaps we could set up a taxi service..." He grinned at his terran-style joke. 'Raelf chortled politely for a moment... "Uh. Right. I think the Traveller would claim license infringement, but we could fer shure set up some special trips. Maybe something kinda like a whitewater rafting trip." 'Raelf seemed to find the idea attractive. He absently returned the wand to its shrunken position behind his ear. "Anyway, ...sage, the upshot is like this. I use this rune to focus moving from place to place. It's easier than using my own built-in movement, like using a bicycle is easier than walking. And to navigate, I check the map when I get lost, and at least once before I go anywhere too far away. As for mass-produced regular maps, well, this one gives routes in terms of current best 5-space path, and most people can't even see 3-space correctly. Besides, I don't know anything about how they calculate this stuff. It's way over my head. The map was an add-on I bought when I got the MF '500." "Well, you've given me information I would otherwise have spent far too long finding out, so that's something anyway." "So can I look at the trident now?" "Uh, I've found out already that it's being watched out for, and I'd rather you not do anything that might make it ripple in the Plane of Water." "Right, don't make waves. I'll be circumspect, dude." The surfer closed up the MF '500 and stored it in a pocket in his bandolier. Then he waited, kneeling in zazen position. ...sage dubiously set the trident on the floor in front of 'Raelf. Who concentrated, eyes closed, for a moment, then gestured - FLICK-FLICKFLickflICK - A collection of tiny spheres appeared around the kneeling form of the surfer. Some gave off a delicate light, others, none, and a few others vanished in a shattering pop. After examining them for a moment, he waved them back into nothingness. (To ...sage's special vision, the surfer had vanished, momentarily replaced by the outline of a huge humanoid feline, who reached into the astral plane and pulled a handful of Ideas into the field of reality, where they reacted to the Trident as befit their nature. He added this to his growing mental list of questions.) 'Raelf looked at the trident for a few moments more, then spoke. "Great. Well, we knew it was magic. It's artifact-quality magic, in this case because it is the property of a god with serious water connections - probably Thk's sleeping fish god. It's made out of pure silver and has heavy weaponcraft spells on it. Three levels of standard combined Durable and Sharp, two levels of extra Hardness to offset the softness of the silver. That part isn't too shabby, probably done before the other things happened to it. An obvious elemental link to water, even a human could see it. I see what you mean about rippling - the link's incredibly sloppy work, has to be the work of a god. A human could never force that much power into such a slipshod, ill phrased construction. Conjury pattern, control pattern, strong tropism - oh, and the dratted thing has a True Ownership spell on it, it wants to be taken to its real owner, but it's so casually done that it seems willing to attune to just about anyone. What a piece of work! Look at that, those runes in the sides, all spelled out in self-significant script, all the command words and stuff." "'Raelf, those runes aren't visible except in seawater." "Oh, yeah, that too - another side effect, they should always be visible to the person holding the trident. Probably said 'suustheuruusca' instead of 'suisthereusca' when they were written in. Or maybe it's just badly spelled, heh. There's at least two nasty booby traps on this thing, which I'd have to actually probe to understand, and it doesn't even have a coherent spirit bound to it, to channel the side effects." ...sage checked against his notes. Elemental water, check; conjury, check; tropism - "By tropism, do you mean it draws the wielder to the depths of the ocean?" His researches had shown that behaviour with past owners. "No, it convinces its wielder to take it back to its True Owner. Just happens that means, something that lives on the ocean bottom. There might be other side effects, too. Thing is, most True Ownership spells make for a kind of immortality, but this one is promiscuous, prob'ly just extends the life of its temp owner until it changes hands." "Did you see anything about other powers?" "Well, it's dormant now. Here, focus your vision on the flows that center there, around the two grips. See that?" "The flash of power?" "Yeah, that's an incomplete spell. It uses the wielder to complete the spell - spells, actually, there's two of them, one tied into the conjury pattern, and one tied into that little water-air fillip there. The water-air appears to be electrical in nature. And it seems likely there's at least one other spell node, with that snarl of flows there around the tines of the fork, but it's so garbled I can't tell without poking at it." ...sage scribbled furiously on the notes. "Without actually touching it, can you see anything else?" "Not really. The runes kind of give away part of it - but you already have them written down, right?" 'Raelf stood, stretching. "Right, although you might want to check my transcription." ...sage waited, as 'Raelf glanced from the notes to the trident and back - no obvious errors. "So, do we have any other clues?" "Well, kind of. I saw Thk use the thing once, and it gave him a humongoid appetite. And his physiology is all screwed up. His teeth are kind of sharp and nasty - I thought it was just something he did to bug the mindflayer, but I checked against the form-archetype, and he's different from other lizardmen. Shallower mouth, slightly more humanlike frame, way bigger muscles, way more effective gills. Beaucoup plenty bigger teeth. Also he has a gonzo metabolism, makes him all hyperactive. Doesn't seem to have hurt his thinking tho." "So you think that might be a beneficial side effect." "Well, for him, anyway. Dunno what it would do to a mammal. Probably really wreck 'em - mammals aren't constructed right for gills. But it would take time, have to use those spell-hooks for it to make any changes. Hey, maybe it's trying to turn him into a copy of its owner!" "Ah. Right. Interesting speculation. Anything else?" "Not really, dude, except, if you've been using it, you better check yourself over real good, 'cause it might have long term effects. Want me to try selective activation?" "No, thanks, with all the fragile books and things here, I'd rather use more indirect methods to find out the rest of the details." "Cool with me. Don't forget Thk wants it back." "Right, should only take me a day or so. Is he going to need it?" "Don't think so. He didn't ask me to go looking for it, and he knows I can get around when I need to, so I guess he's OK without it." At that moment, a bell sounded. ...sage looked up, annoyed. "I can't believe it! Another intrusion!" "An attack? Need help?" "No, just something on the stairs. If it were alive, it would have rung twice, and if it had been an attack, it would still be ringing." A complex gesture, and they materialized on the steps. A small crystal sphere wrapped in silver wire flashed amber light at their feet. "Ooops. Sorry, ...sage, it's my fault." 'Raelf picked up the object. "What oops? What is this thing?" "It's a repeater. My friend Marcel just turned on a signal, and in order for it to reach in here, past the stone and the wards and things, I had to put it into the plane of Air. There's a transponder back at the Inn. Anyway, it means they've just left Waster HQ and they're going after the person who can clear Kron of murder - and I have to be there." "Well, be careful then. I expect I will see you later?" "Sure, man, I want to hash out some working plans for that planar expeditions idea of yours. Besides, I need the cash." "Then we'll meet for dinner at the Dragon's Inn some night this week." "Roger dodger. Oh, let me know when you track down whatever it was wrecked your books, I'll lend a hand. See ya ..." 'Raelf's form grew fainter, and vanished with a sigh of fresh air. "Now, where was I - Oh yes, halfway through the third prime power." ...sage vanished from the steps.