The Day of the Missing E's

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Betandor
Sojourner
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 05, 2002 5:01 am

The Day of the Missing E's

Postby Betandor » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:54 pm

My quill has not been idle as I have passed these many months away from the place that has been my home. In that time, I have travelled and heard much that concerns the gods, and their own struggles to live in harmony with each other. The following, may Oghma forgive the revealing of this somewhat human state it portrays him in, is one such tale.

Betandor Heartsong--Battlebard of the Honest Lyre

The Day of the Missing E's

There have been quite a few amusing things to happen in the Realms of the gods. While mortals might not always understand the signs of what is occurring, some of the most recent pranks have given many the gods a moment's pause, while making their followers believe that some dire occurence must be in their future. As an example, what happens when the books of Oghma's libraries seem to be missing the letter E? What could possess someone to do such a heinous thing as to remove a vowel from all of the works in an organized and catalogued library? What havoc and mayhem must result?

The answer to this mischief and the solution seems to rest with the gnomish community, and the gnomish deities, Garl Glittergold and Gond, the Wonderbringer. It seems that the disappearance of the vowels was an attempt to make the usually stoic and serious Oghma laugh and smile for once. He always seemed so serious about keeping his libraries quiet that Garl, the prankster, decided to crack the serious mask and make the keeping of knowledge and books slightly more interesting. In the course of a day, the gnomish prankster sent tiny motes of gemdust to cover and thus erase all of the e's in the Binder's books. This caused great distress to Oghma, and the silence of his library was broken by a somewhat hoarse scream, as the knowlege contained in the greatest library of all the Realms was tainted and believed to be destroyed. Those books that were titled with the letter E beginning their labelling suddenly flew to other places in the library, the magic which kept the library organized automatically shifting these tainted books to new places on the shelves. The scribes, clerics, monks, and bards who were writing and researching suddenly noticed a lot of empty space in their references and became confused, a loud murmuring of discussion and confusion echoing through the formerly quiet halls. What must this disappearance and destruction of one of the most used letters mean for the future? If language could be changed in such a drastic measure, what might the rest of their lives be like?

While all of this chaos was going on inside the library of Oghma, Garl was ecstatic. The gemdust actually worked! It made whatever image he set into the particles of the dust completely disappear, to the eyes of mortal man, and the eyes of the gods. Gond would have to be given a bonus for this creation! The gnomish prankster rubbed his hands together and pondered a suitable reward for such a wonderous trick. Perhaps a gemstone set of tools, finely crafted, and able to work without manual labor. Yes, that would be just the thing. Garl set himself to making a hammer of diamond, a saw of sapphire, a chisel of emerald, and a wrench of ruby. When he was finished, he couldn't help but cast a spell on the tools, to do the exact OPPOSITE of what their user would have them do. What a prank that would be!

When he was presented with the finely crafted tools of gemstone, Gond was quite taken with the gifts, and offered to create some other challenging project that Garl might have in mind. Garl gave a small grin, and remarked that he much enjoyed the latest project, and would think about other projects over the next few days.

After Garl went off to his own Realm, Gond tried the tools that he had
been given. While he was watching, they built everything to perfect
specifications, and allowed him to work on many projects at once. However, when Gond turned his attention to something else, they began to destroy the workshop that Gond had worked so hard to make organized and neat. With muttered gnomish curses, the Wonderbringer grabbed his old tools, and commanded the new ones to cease their work. The new tools only worked faster. Gond tried every command he could think of, and all of the enchanted tools he had been given only destroyed his workshop at a faster pace. Finally, exasperated, he howled, "Destroy the workshop then, you accursed rocks!"

The tools stopped, as though waiting for a new commandment, then swung into motion once more. Slowly, they repaired all of the smashed and ruined parts of the workshop. Then, they hung themselves gently on his toolbelt, and the glow which had animated them slowly disappeared.

Gond was furious. All of his workshop had been destroyed, and only a
frustrated curse had made all of his work and projects be returned to
the semblance of normal. As he left his workshop to confront his kinsman
about the cruel nature of his prank, Gond heard the distant argument
coming from the library of Oghma. Raising a suspicious eyebrow, the
Wonderbringer made his way to the library, and saw the use to which his
magical gemstone powder had been used. Muttering under his breath as the scribes, monks, bards, and sages threatened to come to blows, Gond saw Oghma, furiously scribbling though the books of the library, replacing the missing E's. With a mischevious grin of his own, the Wonderbringer commanded the gemstone tools, "Remove all of the E's from the books of Oghma's library."

The tools flew to their task with a will. The edges of the hammer, saw,
chisel, and wrench suddenly flew to inkwells, and the tools began to write E's where all of the gemstone motes had removed the letters before. When the task was completed, Gond gave Oghma an apologetic look, and went back to his workshop, determined to make himself something to keep Garl's pranks from causing more mischief.

Unfortuantely for most of the Realms, on occassion Garl's pranks avoid
the watching eyes of Gond's alert sentries, who warn the other deities
when Garl's tricks might harm their circles of influence. That may be
the biggest prank of all--with the sentries, Garl always has an audience
for every crafting of gems, every considered joke. To keep the attention,
Garl is forced to cause mischief and practical joking mayhem. What else
is a gnome to do, but entertain the audience that he has been given?
Remember that the song doesn't end until the echo of the last bard's voice fades into dreams.

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