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M'lora
the Nostalgic
(Prime/ female
grell / Godsman / Neutral)
M'Lora's
wigwam stands near the edge of the Bazaar, away from the
cat-calls of the merchants and drone of the crowds. It's
entrance slit is usually slightly ajar, and the pungent
scents of foreign planes waft out. A couple of burly
tieflings stand guard, keeping M'Lora's clients outside
the tent in a queue (perhaps to make her services look
more popular to passing bodies).
The
tieflings'll even warn Clueless sods not to be afraid of
M'Lora, because as they say: "she ain't your
normal-looking type, berk." In fact, she's a grell. To
the uninformed, grell are domineering colonial creatures
that look like nothing so much as disembodied levitating
brains with sharp beaks and tentacles. Don't be
embarrassed if you're shocked by the sight at first; it
surprises most bloods.
M'Lora
might not look like an average fortune teller, and indeed
the fortunes she tell's are far from average too. See,
she doesn't deal with telling a cutter their past or
future. That's too simple for her, and too transient. As
an ardent Believer of the Source, M'Lora uses her
prophetic talents to delve into past or future *lives* of
the client. In this way she can give the inquirer insight
into their origins and destiny on a much longer
time-scale than that offered by most other
soothsayers.
Why
would a blood want to know what he did in his previous
life, or indeed, what's in store in the next? If you're
asking that, berk, you don't see the picture like the
Godsmen see it.
If
you understand your past life (regression, they call it)
then you know why you are where you are. M'Lora can delve
into the lost memories of petitioners, uncover darks that
past selves knew, and even unlock psychic talents and
magical potential in mortals. How? The secret's within
each of her clients. She claims, in her chirping,
whistling voice, that a cutter follows a life line that
encounters the same themes time and time again.
Apparently if you're on an ancient quest now then it's
more than likely that in a previous life you followed a
similar path. The experiences you've lived, memories you
had and powers you learned are usually stored
subconsciously, or lost to the present mind. M'Lora can
find them.
What
of future lives? Well, most bloods have a long-term
vision. It's useful to know where you're headed:
eternity-long torture in Baator, or a cushy number as an
elf or Arborea? It puts a body's mind at rest. If the
client doesn't like the look of her destiny, then M'Lora
says it's not too late to change things. Many's the
cutter who's turned over a new leaf after glimpsing her
next life.
Fee:
5 silvers to 10 gold, depending upon the difficulty of
the task. Petitioners' memories are the most expensive to
dredge, as are latent psionic powers.
Serendipity
the Crone
(Planar / female night hag / Sign of One / NE)
She
says her name's Serendipity, but most right-thinking
bashers dub the epithet 'the Crone' to the end of her
innocent-sounding name. Well, as soon as they're out of
her earshot, at least. Serendipity's a night hag, and one
of the ugly ones. She's got warts on her warts, and then
coarse black hairs growing on top of them! Her faces is
as gnarled and wrinkled as a gehreleth's boot, and her
breath smells as bad, too. Still, for all her faults, it
has to be said she provides a very much sought-after
service.
Chant
is that she tried to make it big on the larvae trade,
like most hags, but never managed to sell a single one.
That's not because they were of poor quality, but because
she was simply so hideous-looking that she scared her
customers away! Again, that story's never told when she's
even on the same plane, because she's got good enough
hearing and a nasty enough temper for a blood to worry
about. She came to Sigil, fell in with the Sign of One,
and learned to hide her features under a veil. She
doesn't much show her face, except to scare away would-be
trouble-makers. To this day, she's not once been
peeled.
Serendipity's
a Signer, which means she reckons the whole sodding
multiverse revolves around her head. Mind you, that's an
attitude shared by many night hags. The difference
between them and Serendipity is that she's got a heart.
Or at least, she's got a heart if you garnish her well.
She's set herself up as a fortune-teller, and has an
astounding array of devices she uses to tell the future.
Well, that's what it looks like, anyway. The dark is that
she's got a pet mimic who changes form to suit whatever
she wants; be it a giant crystal ball, a scrying pool, or
a brazier of incense.
For
a modest fee, she'll tell a cutter what his fortune is.
Now read that sentence again. She won't foretell it,
she'll tell it. She imagines a real nice future for the
basher, and then it comes true. She's usually a bit vague
though (possibly to leave room for manipulations
afterwards, should she be so inclined), and it's a cert
that paying more gets a happier ending.
The
hag's been accused of cheating and using magic or
psionics to divine the future for clients, but she
vigorously denies that's the case. She dreams then all up
herself, she says, and she's proud of the fact. Of
course, in most places she'd be branded a knight of the
cross trade, but in Sigil, imagination's got as much
clout as any magic spell. Funny thing, that.
Fee:
Anything from 2 gold and
up.
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