One Curious Kobold

[lurkingkobold]

It's winter, and all is well with the tribe. Their new magic, an ability to make portals from one place to another, which was found by one of their members during the early-summer trip to meet with the other tribes in the area, let them both build up a decadent food stockpile and move to a much deeper part of the cave system without the worry of being unable to find their way back out. No-one has had to go hungry, and even the fiercest ice storm doesn't reach them; they are as content as kobolds can be.

Well, aside from their new mage, that is. She's bored, and curious. Making portals to known places is straightforward enough, with the magic she found, but that's far from the limit of what it can do... so one day, she slips away, portals off to a different cave system - one can't be too careful, after all - and experiments.

Temperature roughly the same... gravity roughly the same... air the same, not into stone or underwater or in a volcano or on top of a mountain... but, instead of patterning it after a place she knows, what happens if she only specifies those things, and lets the innate patterns of the spot she's casting on do the rest? Particularly this one part, which seems to specify the world...

She finishes the spell, and hesitates for just a moment before activating it.

Comments

[of_all_trades]

"And we really can't make spellbearers," Franklyn says "some powers work similar, two of my sisters do that, but isn't the same thing at all. We can make some magical devices, but the weakest one take days and only other magic users can make them."

He removes a glove and shows a thick silver ring.

"This ring does a bit of healing magic, but needs recharging even if it isn't used."

[lurkingkobold]

On the other hand she can't turn into a bear, but, still, overall she likes hers better - not that she's going to comment on that.

She moves a little closer to see if there's anything interesting about the ring.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn take off the ring and offers with a extended hand, he sits on the ground and tries to look non-threatening.

"This is the simplest form of magic device," Franklyn explains "the silver traps the magic inside and if you open one of the caps" it has two "it will release the magic to be used."

[lurkingkobold]

...she's not going to get quite that close. (Sir, have you noticed that you are huge and can also turn into a bear? This is rather intimidating; sitting down doesn't help that much.) But she will peer at the ring from outside of easy grabbing distance.

When she's done looking at the ring, she fishes around in her belt pouch - keeping an eye on the human while she does - and pulls out a strip of leather, which she ties into a loop and spends a couple minutes concentrating on, looking up every few seconds to make sure he's not taking advantage of her distraction. When she's done, she holds the loop up to show that it's now a portal, and tosses it to him to examine.

[of_all_trades]

(Franklyn isn't the correct kind of mind-reader, so he can't reply that he is well aware of his 1,98m of intimidation. Alas, no one will ever know his hypothetical reply.)

Franklyn peers through the portal.

[lurkingkobold]

The portal shows the view from the inside of the bush the kobold was hiding in earlier. If he reaches through, he can even snap off a twig and pull it out of the portal.

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn reaches through, but doesn't snap a twig, instead he shakes the bush a bit, to see the reaction from both perspectives. Then, he twist his arm around the portal, in such way that - in the absence of portal - his hand would intersect with his chest.

"Cool."

[lurkingkobold]

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn snaps a twig and tries to balance it through the portals different gravities (which no success) for a minute before saying.

"Would you do trade?" Franklyn asks "Move-magic for things or our magic?"

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold considers this proposal.

"Human do of have of move-magic, human do of...?"

[of_all_trades]

"Move to a safer world" Franklyn says after a moment, since they can do intra-world stuff easily that shouldn't be his focus for now "Human magic was secret not long ago, some other humans didn't like it, with move-magic we could stay away from danger. Talk only with other safe humans."

[lurkingkobold]

The kobold looks briefly alarmed, then nods solemnly. "Human is of know of safe world?"

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn thinks for a moment again, partially to gather the right vocabulary.

"We are planning to go to Mars," Franklyn says finally "which is very far away and hard to get even with our move-magic. Your move-magic could take us further than that, but we might stick to our original plans."

[lurkingkobold]

Hmmm.

"Kobold do of be of place, do of learn of place, do of make of spell of place. Kobold no do of learn of place, no do of make of spell of place. Kobold do of make of spell, no do of place, spell do of new place."

[of_all_trades]

"We have a move-magic to Mars, we keep it small," Franklyn says holding his hands a few inches apart "and we make it bigger for a short time to go there, it works but could be better. For a new place, we could try several times and humans would check if they are good places to live. We could do that to kobolds too, if your tribe wants a safer world too."

[lurkingkobold]

"Kobold is of shy - human do of know of place is of kobold, kobold no do of place," she explains quickly. "Human..." shrug; she doesn't have an opinion one way or the other whether they go to Mars or try to find a new world.

[of_all_trades]

"The offer to check new worlds is open if you change your mind," Franklyn says "What kind of things would you want for trade?"

[lurkingkobold]

Hm.

"Kobold no is of know of magic of human, no do of think of trade." Further consideration. "Safe is of big of important; kobold do of move magic, no is of need of trade. Human want of do of give, human do of give."

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn gives a wide smile.

"That is very generous of you, but I would like to give something in return if you are interested. Human magic gives you powers, the power suits what the person is good at or pass from parent to child, or both. I can't get a good reading from you, specially if I want to keep your language, but you might get something related to communication or healing because you are a speaking kobold and knows about healing plants... Or you could get something that helps with move-magic... Or something else entirely, but the powers are useful. One of my sisters does healing, another can sense danger and move fast, another can copy other powers, I don't think she can copy from you. One of my brothers does healing too, but on the mind, and my youngest brother can... is hard to explain one of his powers, but the other is making calming music. I could also find human knowledge to teach you, like how to make better tools or medicine."

[lurkingkobold]

This is a somewhat alarming suggestion. Headshake, headshake, no, no, no. "No do of human magic of kobold. Tribe mage do of see of magic, do of worry of hex, trouble."

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn pays attention to his power... he can sense something about this kobold's group, they are more paranoid than the average kobolds... No way to know why.

"No way to convince the tribe? Are you afraid of human magic?"

[lurkingkobold]

...um, yes. "Hex is of danger - hex spellbearer is of danger of all of tribe."

[of_all_trades]

Oh, the poor thing.

"Huh, I don't really know what I could offer you in return. I can give you knowledge but I need to research it first... maybe some tools..." Franklyn has an insight "It isn't really about the trade, I just feel there is a way for me to help you and your tribe."

[lurkingkobold]

Ah. That's sweet, but: "Tribe is of happy. Move magic is of big of help, do of help of food, do of help of safe, do of many of help; tribe is of big of happy, is of no of trouble."

[of_all_trades]

Franklyn blinks, oh, of course "I see... a problem with my power is that sometimes I forget it doesn't get everything. It wouldn't tell me that your tribe is doing great with move magic, but that makes sense."

"A portal to another world is better," He says after a pause "Unless you are okay with seeing other humans? They would be safe, but that is just my word."