These mountains were well-named, Monual thought as he trudged along the
path. The humidity was stifling. The helm the dwarves of Thurgadin had
made for him was wondrously magical and stylish, but it made him sweat
profusely.
Ahead, carved into the side of the Steamfont Mountains, was a large
entrance. Monual stopped a fair distance away, but still within sight of
the two guards that flanked the entrance. He and the guards considered each
other; the gnomes weren't exactly friendly, but they weren't loosening the
leather strips that bound their weapons to their sides. Monual took this as
a good sign, and cautiously proceeded forward. The guards tracked him with
their eyes but didn't try to stop him. With a small sigh of relief, Monual
entered Ak'anon.
The entrance tunnel was large and wide, enough for even a ogre to walk in
comfortably. This opened up into a huge cavern. Monual looked around, as
always feeling slightly apprehensive. He'd been in many underground lairs,
deep into the mines of Nurga or the very depths of the Fortress of Chardok,
but neither the goblins nor the vile Sarnaks were continuously tinkering
with the architecture. Monual couldn't shake the small fear that some
enterprising gnome would remove a key support column just to see if the
houses would stand up under the collapse of the mountain.
Surpressing a shudder, Monual wandered into the city. He came across a
small house, emblazoned with "Telac's Mechanamagical Deficiency Corrective
Services". In big letters fortunately. Grimly, Monual pushed open the
door, the ducked through it.
A gnome was staring intently at a small box. His fingers were continuously
pressing buttons on a small tray, over and over again in no pattern that
Monual could discern.
Monual cleared his throat.
"Put all weapons by the coat rack," the gnome said briskly.
Monual propped his mace up against the wall, then sat in the too-small chair
opposite the gnome. "I'm here-"
The gnome glanced at him sharply, his fingers poised over the buttons.
"Name?"
"Uh, Monual Lifegiver."
The fingers blurred briefly over the buttons. "Occupation?"
"High Priest of Rodcet Nife."
Then gnome nodded at the far wall as he pressed more buttons. "Read the
chart."
Monual turned in his chair, staring at the distant chart. He sighed at the
blur. Healing was a wonderful gift, and he even had the power to recall
spirits from the planes of their gods and return them to their physical
forms, granting a reprieve from death. He had channeled the awesome power
of Rodcet Nife to close up grievous wounds, watched as fighters who had
appeared on the verge of falling surge with health and vitality as their
torn flesh faded as if a bad memory. And with all this awesome power of
life and healing, he had not been able to prevent his eyes from blurring and
losing the ability to focus. He'd used his own power to heal eye injuries -
on one memorable occasion, the poisonous dragon Trakanon had taken exception
to Monual's healing of the warriors tormenting it and had raked one massive
claw across Monual's face, separating one eye from its socket. Monual's own
healing spell had caused a new eye to grow in place - with the exact same
blurry vision.
It had gotten progressively worse. Most recently, Monual had stood to use a
spell of fear to cause a vile toiler in the ruins of Akheva to flee while
his guildmates dealt with the robed form of a Protector. Alas, he had
focused on the wrong blurry figure, and it had been his own guild leader
that had been instilled with the fear of Rodcet Nife. Sinistrad had run
screaming down the tunnel, and had only been able to shake off the fear
after he'd run into the lair of the giant burrowing worms. Retrieving the
corpse from the belly of one of those vile creatures had been proven to be
much easier than trying to weather the anger of the druid after he had been
resurrected.
"Um... Rune of Rathe." Monual peered at the chart. "Rune of... Crippling.
Word of... of... um, Bondage?"
"That's enough," the gnome said. He pressed a button and a device behind
suddenly began making loud humming noises. Monual leaned back as the pitch
and intensity grew, and as it seemed about to explode, it suddenly spat out
a scroll and the sound died.
Without looking, the gnome grabbed the scroll and handed it to Monual.
"Please sign at the bottom.
You-hearby-acknowledge-that-Telac's-does-not-guaranteee-results-and-is-not-l
iable-for-any-and-all-injuries-including-but-not-limited-to-blindness-dismem
berment-death-accidental lobotomies-sterility-baldness-decreases in
height-incontinence."
The scroll was covered with minute barely-decipherable writing. Halfway
through reading it, Monual grabbed a proffered quill and signed on the
bottom.
The gnome behind the desk snatched the scroll and somehow made it disappear.
"That will be two thousand nine hundred twenty-five platinum pieces, payable
in advance."
Grimacing, Monual reached into his backpack. "How about this... a shield of
ancient magic, wrested from the hands of the vile iksar/dragon-spawned
followers of Di'zok. Of such power that-"
The gnome barely glanced at it. "SBS. One-point-five-kay on the open
market. I gave one to my kid."
Monual blinked. Replacing the shield, he brought out a shimmering leather
mask. "How about this, taken from the hoard of a dragon. Look at how
beautiful it is. Not only does it protect the wearer from harm, it makes
them more pleasing to gaze upon. Surely-"
"Worked Dragonskin Mask. AC ten, charisma eight. Can't be worn by int
casters, the only people who might find a use for it. Be lucky to get five
hundred plat for it."
With a deeper, heartfelt sigh, Monual dropped the mask back into his
backpack. Slowly he reached in and began shoveling platinum pieces onto the
desk.
The gnome stopped him after a while, quickly pushed the platinum into a box.
"This way, Mr. Lifegiver."
Monual stood up, feeling more and more like he had inadvertantly cast a fear
spell on himself. He was led down a shortc orridor and ushered into a room.
Monual blinked; there was some massive device in the center of the room; a
metal column that extended upwards for hundreds of feet. The column
narrowed just at the end until it was no bigger than the head of a pin,
hovering a few feet above the ground.
Underneath the column was a stone slab. With leather straps. Monual gulped
and walked unsteadily towards it.
The gnome pushed him so he was lying flat on the slab. Then he affixed the
straps around Monual's chest and head. "Here," the gnome said.
Monual tried to focus on what the gnome was holding out. "Is that... a
teddy bear?"
"Yes." The gnome waggled it impatiently.
Slowly, Monual grabbed it in one hand. "What am I supposed to do with it?"
"It's to comfort you during the procedure."
"I'm a *man*," Monual cried out. "A High Priest. By Rodcet, why would I
need a teddy bear?"
The gnome was holding a potion bottle now. "Hold still."
Frowning, Monual refrained from commenting that with the straps in place he
couldn't move his head anyway. He did manage to keep his eyes open as the
gnome dumped the contents of the potion on him.
"All right." The gnome put the potion away. "Can you feel this?" He poked
Monual in the eyes.
"Ow!" Monual hesitated a second; that reaction had been more reflex than
anything else. "I mean... no, I couldn't."
"Good." The gnome hefted a device. It looked like a bladed wheel, like a
carpenter might use to shape wood. It was very small, no bigger than a
coin. The gnome turned it on and moved it towards Monual's right eye.
"Hey!" Monual had no time to do anything but make that one exclamation
before he the vision in his right eye momentarily blacked out. When he
could see again, his vision was atrocious in that eye, blurry beyond all
possibility of seeing. "Okay. We're ready for Phase II." The gnome left
the room.
"Phase II? What is Phase II?" Monual suddenly became aware of a red light
emanating from the massive device above him. It was focused on his eye.
Suddenly the column began to hum, the noise getting increasingly louder.
Lights began sparking, red and blue smoke began pouring from seams in the
tube. It trembled slightly.
"Hey!" Monual felt something nameless and gibbering trying to claw its way
out of his subconscious. "Get me out of here! Help! I changed my mind!
Help! Rodcet Nife, save meeeee!"
The light intensified. A rapid series of clicking sounds was followed by
the smell of searing flesh. After only a few seconds, the light dimmed and
the tube grew quiet.
"Excellent." The gnome walked back into the room. He took a small brush
and moved something back into place - a flap of the surface of his eye,
Monual guessed. He felt nothing; it was as if the gnome was brushing a
piece of glass that was an inch above his face. The total blurriness was
gone; he could... see. Not particularly well at the moment; his eye seemed
a bit swollen at the moment. Still, Monual relaxed marginally, only now
realizing that his knuckles were white from where they were gripping the
teddy bear. With a force of will, Monual released the teddy bear.
"That was very well done, Mr. Lifegiver."
"Th-thank you."
The gnome lifted the miniature saw again. "Ready for the next eye?"
Monual tightened his hold on the teddy bear again.
---
Monual stumbled out of the building. Now that the effects of the potion had
worn off, his eyes hurt. Keeping his eyes open was all right; keeping them
closed was all right. The transition was painful.
He opened a bag given to him by the gnome. Many many potions, to pour into
his eyes at regular intervals. He was not looking forward to that.
With a sigh, Monual looked around Ak'anon. His vision wasn't perfect, not
by a long shot. But... he could *see*. The edges of the buildings were
sharp. The faces of the gnomes that walked by had actual features. While
the healing process could take months (despite whatever spells he cast), the
initial signs were very encouraging.
"Hey Mon."
Turning, Monual blinked in surprise, which caused him some small amount of
pain. "Hail, Lord Sinistrad."
Sinistrad smile. "Can you see this?"
Monual focused on the item hefted in his guild leader's hand. "Why, 'tis
the Scimitar of Nature. M'lord has finally finished his quest? I know you
have long sought to have that item in your possession."
"Indeed. Do you know what magic effect this sword has?"
"Um... no, m'Lord."
"Why..." Sinistrad smiled evilly, "it is called the Wrath of Nature."
An uncomfortable sweat broke out over Monual's body. He took a step
backwards, turned, and ran, reflecting that there were times it was perhaps
better *not* to be able to see.
---
/ooc This is a fictionalized account of my laser eye surgery. While a lot
of it is made up, of course, there are elements of truth, like the smell of
burning flesh and the teddy bear they gave me to hug.
-Richard Lawson
Monual Lifegiver
High Priest on Drinal
Avengers of Honour
This page is Copyright by Skaarak; Everquest (TM) is property of Sony Online Entertainment
All stories and art work are Copyright@ by the origial owner/writer.
Most, if not all stories, were taken from newsgroup alt.games.everquest (AGE), I recommend that anyone who gets a chance to read it should!