Sigil (Merchant Ward) -- Many in the City of Doors claim that cranium rats are the most dangerous pests the City of Doors has to offer. Others will tell you it's a dead heat between wererats and Taker tax collectors when it comes to pestilence. Everyone may soon have to revise their lists thanks to an apprentice wizard at a pet shop.
Finnius's fine pets is owned and run by one Finnius Dugal. Mr. Dugal, a jovial, balding human with a shockingly loud speaking voice, is a Merlain. Merlains are a brand of wizards that specialize in the changing and augmentation of living things. Normally such people end up creating monstrous beasts that terrorize the countryside. Not so with Mr. Dugal. Beloved by neighbors, local children and his customers, Mr. Dugal has spent the last thirty two years creating and selling unique but harmless pets for those that can afford them: canaries with metallic feathers and cooing monkeys that fit in the palm of the hand have always been favorites.
In the last few weeks something new has come out of the back rooms of Finnius's pet shop, razorvine eating slinkers. For those who have never had the pleasure, a slinker is a pest from the prime, usually found on spelljamming ships, craft that fly between prime worlds. The obnoxious little creature is the size of a good size rat and looks like nothing so much as a plucked, hunch- backed chicken with a rat's tail. Its sole positive attribute is the ability to reproduce at a rate that would shame a rabbit. At least that was its sole attribute before Finnius's nephew, and apprentice, Billic, got hold of them.
"You see, it was all to help my mum," said Billic as he tried to defend his pet project. "There's this razorvine bush out in front of her house and every couple of days she'd have to take a hatchet to it or it would block the front door. Her poor hands are just a cross-hatch of scars. And she's getting on in years. She can't keep doing that. So I figured I'd do her a favor and make something that would eat the stuff and give the old gal a break. I didn't see how it could do any harm. I mean, I haven't yet met anyone who likes slinkers. their vile looking little things. Even those Wylder nuts that are protesting outside think they're as ugly as a Balor's backside."
"And as for their diet, please! It's razorvine! Nobody likes the stuff. It's always in the way, you can't get rid of it, and if you're not careful it'll slice ya to ribbins. How can any sane person be angry to see it go?"
But there are those who are outraged at the thought of something eating up Sigils razorvine. The Wylders, a nature oriented sect based in the Beastlands, has a few sympathizers in the City of Doors. These bashers are often seen protesting the pet shop when they're not making a ruckus in the Hall of Speakers. They have also been agitating the Guvners in the hopes that charges can be brought against the young mage. "It's an utter outrage against the natural order!" proclaimed Tiss Morglen, herbalist and Wilder sympathizer. "Razorvine is an integral part of outer-planar ecology. Take away the razorvine and the entire ecosphere of the Multiverse could be thrown out of balance. People with any concern for nature, like myself, have always warned that living things should be left alone. But no one ever listens. Time and again 'thinking' creatures try to shape the world to their liking. But all they ever do is end up cutting the web of life out from under themselves. There'll be Hades to pay for this in the end, mark my words."
It may be that Hades pays young Mr. Billic however. There are unconfirmed rumors that several fiends have approached the mage in question about producing more of the altered slinkers. "It makes sense. The lower planes often lack a reliable food source and razorvine is in endless supply there. Besides, chard slinker served with an oxblood and hemlock sauce is utterly divine, if you'll forgive the pun,"remarked an unnamed tiefling passing by the pet store.
As for any legal action against Bellic Dugal, well that's a whole other barrel of slaadi. At first it would seem that Mr. Billic's little experiment poses a real threat to private property (even if that property is just razorvine) and that's more than enough to get anyone sent to the prison. However there is a largely forgotten, centuries old law offering a bounty to anyone who could get rid of all razorvine in Sigil. "It's a seeming paradox in the city's laws. It has a lot of the Guvner upper ranks in a bit of a snit. Paradoxes in the law isn't just a legal problem for my faction, it's a bit like a crises of faith. It could be decades before this is all sorted out," proclaimed Crete Bollg, Guvner factor.
For now Billic Dugal's future seems up in the air. His uncle Finnius has cast him out of his shop and will no longer speak to him. "Merlains often cause problems for those around them by selfishly making things to increasestheir own power, and so the names of Merlains are often spoken like a curse. I've spent my whole life, more than three decades trying to change that. People in this town had come to see my work as safe, honest and useful. Now in one fell swoop my reputation is shattered. I'm sorry I ever took him in, sisters' son or no"!
I'll bring you more on the Sigils slinker situation as it arises.
-Achillesx
Feature: Blessing Or Curse?
