"Where do summoned creatures come from?" asked Melar. "Are they assembled from raw energy like illusion, or do they have real existences in some other place, from whence we snatch them as we need them?"
(From Philip Rennert's short story "Master's Thesis, The Space Gamer 62, April 1983, with Denis Loubet illustration)
Combatants in Metagaming's Wizard could conjure illusions or summon physical creatures to fight for them. The Summon Myrmidon spell produced an armed human with no apparent free will. In this tale young Melar devises a series of experiments to summon warriors and attempt to awaken their true personalities and determine their origin. Unfortunately for the entire wizard guild the process works, and one of the summoned men escapes with the knowledge of who has been randomly abducting so many of his people and returning them with fatal wounds.
