Myth conceptions by Robert Asprin

Our appearance was also carefully designed for effect, with the aid of the Imps’ abandoned wardrobe and my disguise spells.

Aahz was outfitted in my now traditional “dubious character” disguise. Gleep was standing placidly beside Buttercup disguised as a unicorn, giving us a matched pair. It was my own appearance, however, which had been the main focus of our attentions.

Both Aahz and I had agreed that the Garkin disguise would be unsuitable for this effort. While my own natural appearance was too young, Garkin’s would be too old. Since we could pretty much choose the image we wanted, we decided to field a magician in his mid to late thirties; young without being youthful, experienced without being old, and powerful but still learning.

To achieve this disguise involved a bit more work than normal, as I did not have an image in mind to superimpose over my own. Instead, I closed my eyes and envisioned myself as I appeared normally, then slowly erased the features until I had a blank face to begin on. Then I set to work with Aahz watching carefully and offering suggestions and modifications.

The first thing I changed was my height, adjusting the image until the new figure stood a head and a half taller than my actual diminutive stature. My hair was next and I changed my strawberry-blond thatch to a more sinister black, at the same time darkening my complexion several shades.

The face gave us the most trouble.

“Elongate the chin a little more,” Aahz instructed. “Put on a beard . . . not that much, stupid! Just a little goatee! . . . That’s better! . . . Now lower the sideburns . . . okay, build up the nose . . . narrow it… make the eyebrows bushier … no, change ‘em back and sink the eyes a little instead … for crying out loud change the eye color! Make ‘em brown . . . okay, now a couple of frown wrinkles in the middle of the forehead…. Good. That should do it.”