Tales of the Planes
Who’s this? Another visitor to my hall of books? Well, fellow bibliophile, don’t just stand there, come in! The door isn’t locked. Please, make yourself at home. There are some chairs over there for you to sit in. You might want to drag them closer to the light to make the reading easier. The books are through those doors over there. Oh, and as long as you’re up, would you mind getting me a refill for my pipe? Thank you. I would get it myself, but I only just sat down a few moments before you got here. I’m also feeling rather tired of late. Oh, and as you can see, I’m right in the middle of dictating some wonderful new stories I overheard.
Before I begin to direct you around my humble home, I suppose that some introductions are in order. These shelves over which I cast my watchful eyes are home to stories from all around our fair multiverse. As for me, I am a mephit. My name is Smogarentio de la Conjestico, Stealer of Breath, Inflicter of Allergies, Author Extrodinaire, and richest of all Smoke Mephits! *AHEM* Oh. Yes. And that rodent in the corner is my lowly assistant, Nib.
Now where was I? Ah, yes. The fiction. It is so wonderful to have a fellow lover of the written word come and visit me. In fact, I’d so love it if you would come over here and shake my hand. I’d get up to greet you, but my back has been acting up recently. Ah, you’re so kind. Unfortunately, I have just so many things to attend to, that I really can’t take the time to show you around personally. Nib, why don’t you take a break and take care of our visitor?
Nib: Of course. Certainly, Mr. Conjestico. If you would follow me, please?
Now that we’re away from that blowhard, I can give you the true chant. That smoke mephit over there doesn’t do a single whisker of work around here. I know that his kind are supposed to be lazy, but he’s nearly beyond Hercules’ Pillar. Do you realise that he hasn’t been out of that chair in over a year? I’d wish a good, strong wind would come along and disperse him. Anyway, since I’m the one that has to do everything here, I really know my way around. Allow me to give you the guided tour to the contents of these pages…
Novels
Fire and Dust
by James Gardner
Someone is blowing up the headquarters of factions in Sigil. As part of a multi-faction team, Britlin Cavendish (artist, swordsman, and Sensate) gets drafted to stake out the Mortuary and keep an eye out for trouble. One fire bomb later, Britlin and his companions are fighting wights that don’t obey the Death Pact, on a trail that leads from the Plane of Dust to Carceri, Plague-Mort, and many strange places in between.
- Screen PDF version
- Paperback PDF version (designed for printing)
- James’ thoughts on possible sequels (and why he won’t be writing them)
Short Stories
Smogarentio de la Conjestico: Ahh… you’ve returned. I trust you had a good read? Now, before you go, I’d to ask for just one more favor. If you’d just go over there and – *THUD* Ouch! What hit me? Where’d this book come from? Fire and Dust? Can’t say I’d ever heard of it. Not part of my collection, surely.
Nib: Ah-ha! I knew it! I told you he was a lazy, ignorant cloud of pollution.
NIB!!! I heard that, you disrespectful refugee from a lab experiment! Come over here and I’ll give you such a drubbing. Do you hear me, Nib? Don’t make me get out of this chair. I’m warning you…
Source: Ken Lipka and respective authors. Fire and Dust art by Tony DiTerlizzi. Mephit art by Vicki Hood. Jon comments: Much of this collection has been lovingly stolen from the now-defunct On the Wings of Mephits fiction archive from the late 1990s, dredged up from archive.org here and updated to preserve the tales for posterity. I’ve included stories with minimal editing and tinkering, and credited the original authors of course! Thanks also to Feniks for making the PDF versions of Fire and Dust.