Crossover omake. 1009 words.
The One Ring vs The One Power
"Now, everyone, we apparently have another interested party joining us today. This is Harlon Stark, a foreign mage who has offered to help us with the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat Sauron." The wizened old wizard, Gandalf the Grey, introduced Harlon to the party sitting at the stone table. At the center was the supposed "One Ring", a supposedly powerful artifact that was the root of a good deal of evil in the world.
He had managed to get to this strange world via Traveling using a gateway created with seventy-two of the most powerful Channelers in the kingdom. He had apparently arrived during a time when a great conflict with evil was about to come again. He quietly groaned to himself about how he sometimes hated being ta'veren. Still, this Middle Earth was interesting. Not only were there humans, but elves, dwarves that were very unlike Tyrion, hobbits, and all manner of other creatures to learn about. That much he was enjoying quite a bit.
"Thank you, Gandalf. I hope that I'll be able to help you resolve this crisis quickly. I'm sure we'll find a solution to this little artifact and be able to get on to more important things soon enough."
The various parties at the stone table laughed nervously at how he was being so flippant about the whole thing. Then again, they did look pretty impressed at his set of Valyrian Shardplate and how the huge direwolf Midnight was simply napping next to him, apparently no threat to anyone. Gandalf started speaking up again though.
"Now, the only way to... Harlon, what are you doing?"
Harlon picked up the ring. Well, it certainly was shiny. Harlon did like collecting shinies. Still, he doubted it was worth the trouble in this case. He used a few spells to determine the artifact's functions. Once he got the results, he was quite confused.
"Wait? This is it? This is the most dangerous artifact in the world?"
Gandalf and the parties at the table exchanged looks. Apparently they were downright disturbed by his estimation of the ring.
"Of course it is!" exclaimed the wizard. "Sauron will rise again and conquer everything if it is not destroyed."
"Really? Because frankly this thing pathetic. Oh, sure, the Passive Control Sequence layered into this thing is a little impressive - I didn't know you could do a Passive Control Sequence in the first place - but it's not all that powerful. You'd either have to be a weak minded fool for this to affect you immediately, or you'd have to keep it for days! A neophyte Mind Mage who just learned the Fortify Sequence an hour ago could put up his Passive defense and resist this."
Gandalf gaped as Harlon tore into the One Ring and how it was the crappiest shiny ever. Apparently they didn't understand a thing about basic mental defenses on this world. Still, Harlon was in lecture mode, so he continued.
"The invisibility function is rather nice, but honestly hardly worth it considering it's meant to attract some sort of evil creature when you wear it. I can see the link to this Sauron character is forged pretty well, and the gold is enchanted well enough that it should resist most damage. Still, it's not anywhere on the level of cuendillar. Any number of things could destroy this piece of junk."
Gandalf looked like he was about to have a seizure.
"You mean you think you can destroy it? Impossible! The only way to destroy the One Ring is to throw it into the fires of Mount Doom! As such we must prepare for the journey."
Harlon sighed internally. Seriously, did this old guy think he knew more about magic than Harlon did just because he had grey hair and along beard? Harlon was three hundred years old, for crying out loud!
"Nonsense. I could use Balefire to destroy it here and now if I wanted."
That piqued Gandalf's interest. "What is Balefire?"
"Balefire is a weave of the One Channel that erases the existence of everything it touches. To be more specific, it literally burns what it touches from the Pattern, the very fabric of reality. Not only that, it works retroactively. For example, if you were killed and five minutes later I were to destroy your killer with powerful enough Balefire you would then be alive again."
"WHAT!?"
"Yes, shocking, isn't it? You have no idea how much I was tempted to experiment with it, but considering overuse apparently risks unravelling reality I decided against that."
"WHAT!?"
"I would be interested to see the effects of using it on such an important artifact, but it might be risky. I've learned enough in my three hundred years of life that sometimes experimenting sadly just isn't worth it."
"Then what do you intend to do?" The old wizard looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Harlon really didn't want to deal with that right now, but if it happened then so be it. He was still a healer at heart.
"Well, I've seen one of your maps, and I've been here in Rivendell long enough that I'm familiar with it. So... I'll do this."
Harlon opened up a small gateway and tossed the ring in it, then promptly closed the gateway.
"WHAT WAS THAT!? WHERE IS THE RING!?"
"Oh, that was a gateway. Basically I bore a hole in reality to connect one place to another. In this instance I opened it to Mount Doom and threw the ring into the fires, just as you wanted. Problem solved. Now... you there!" Harlon pointed at the nearest elf. "Take me to Rivendelle's library."
And so, Harlon walked off to the library, and Midnight just still sat there napping. Everyone else just looked at one another in confusion at what had just occured, one of the hobbits seemingly a little miffed he wouldn't get an adventure. Still, everyone agreed it worked out for the best in the end.
