She gave Davlin a Look. "Is trick? Stupid tricksy Gnome is going to do something mean to Grila again. Grila not dumb! Grila not fall for it twice!"

"No, real magic and no tricks at all." He said with a smile. "I'll give you two spells to use whenever you like. All you have to do is protect us as we do research. You never know what's going to jump out at you in these places."

Grila seem satisfied with this. "Fine. Grila will protect stupid Gnome and nice Hu-man ladies."

"Devil lady was nice, too."

Davlin laughed and went off to learn what he could about Endora and Rane.



Apparently wandering blindly into the kids section wasn't going to help, so he tried again.



---------------------------------------------------------------------

2 Hours of talking to people, searching for book and trying to stop Grila from going on a one woman invasion of the Library later. Hopefully he had something to show for it

In addition to confirming what Alighieri and others had said, Davlin learned the following:

Rane was quite young indeed, apparently only 20 years old or so, as far as anyone could tell. So she was apparently powerful enough to stage a more or less one-woman invasion of a country when she was only 17.

Rane herself seems largely uninterested in actually accumulating more power for herself. According to what little is known of Endora these days (more due to a lack of interest rather than any sort of difficulty in researching the place) Rane lives her life mostly within Valparin Castle throwing massive parties and bacchanals for herself and her Incubi and mortal assistants and retainers. The only influence she seems to exert over the populace directly seems to be demands of tribute. Rather than money to fund war efforts or the normal taxes, she seems more interested in "practical" things - statues of herself, alcoholic beverages, exotic foods, clothing, and other such luxuries.

A handful of reports mention that Rane has taken to selecting males from the general populace to spend the night with her, although they indicate that she requires they be willing and that they are eventually returned home. Given the repeated statements of her prodigious beauty and "harlotesque" fashion sense, it seems plausible enough. However, in a counterpoint, a few reports mention disappearances of attractive young women who are never seen again, or found badly mutilated and often spread across several yards of land. The authors believe that the Incubi have more influence than other reports claim, and that Rane is basically a figurehead and her Demons are calling the shots.

Regarding Rane's exact power there was some debate. Some reports and people claimed she was easily capable of wielding the msot powerful spells known, while other reports claimed that during her rise to power she very rarely cast any spells and seemed to rely more on reputation and threat of force rather than actual force.

"Alright Grila, you held up your end of the bargain." Davlin said with a smile as he noticed she was probably getting to the end of her attention span for the the whole 'guarding thing'. Besides, he wasn't going to get much better than this anyway.

"Tonight, while we're in private I'll imbue the spells, but if you want to follow me to the Gnome community I can teach you how to use the two spells I'm going to give you."

"Grila will be powerful sorceress and everyone will have to listen to her?!" Grila demanded excitedly.

Mariana, for her part, was still flirting and apparently doing a good job, given the chatter and laughter she and the clerk were sharing.

Once you got past the red skin, horns, and the tail, she really was quite stunning.

"For a whole hour nobody within 200 feet of you will be able to do anything but watch and listen to you." Davlin started. "Unless of course they are strong willed, and the other you'll be able to understand anything said to you in whatever language. You'll even be able to read it, for at least an hour."

"Sound good?"

Grila nodded. "This better not be trick."

"I promise it isn't," Davlin said with a smile before turning his attention to Mariana. "Do you think you can show me and Grila to the Gnome community? My friends here can identify the loot while they are here."

Mariana gave a small sigh and whispered something in the clerk's ear before running off with a wave to Davlin.

Judging by her smile and beaming attitude, her flirtations were successful. "There's lots of Gnomes in the city, can you be a little more specific?" She asked, laughter still in her voice.

"Well, any form of temple or church to the Sparkling Wit would be best," Davlin said with a smile. "The largest if more than one. I'm going to need to acquire a few things."

"There's only the one." She said, still giddy. "There are closer Temples of Heironeous, though, and many of them have smaller shrines for general worship of the gods, if you don't mind and would prefer the shorter trip."

"I don't want to imply anything, Mr. Groundsprung, but also I wonder if perhaps it would be best if we skipped this trip? I haven't had the best of experiences with most priests, and I wouldn't want to cause a scene and embarrass you in front of other priests of your god."

"You're okay, though." She quickly added with a smile.

His face darkened. "Any cleric who dare treat you with disrespect in the place of worship of the Sparkling Wit will answer to me. I'll remind them that we represent community after we trick them."

"But I do need to visit the temple, I require a holy font of the Gnomish Variety and about a thousand gold worth of incense."

Mariana smiled. "You're sweet. Thank you, though, and I mean that. Anyway, sure."

***

The Temple of Garl Glittergold was in the basement of a little (at least on the surface) round building in one of the more Gnomish parts of the city. Mariana explained that the various small explosions they heard on the way over were Gnomish alchemists breaking the laws regarding home practice, pranks, or the distant echoes of much larger explosions from the university you'd just left - or some combination thereof.

Davlin probably felt right at home - things suddenly exploding was a very Gnomish thing.

Mariana stood outside, clearly a little uneasy. It was a bit odd. Davlin had only known her a few hours now, but she was usually so confident. "You sure you want me to come inside? I don't mind waiting out here with Grila. Really, it's fine."