From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: Introducing Kloote [Glorshanned Keep]: The Mugger's Image
Keywords: closed short story
Date: 13 Sep 92 22:21:38 GMT
Organization: FB Physik, Universitaet Kaiserslautern, Germany


  "Hello there!  Is this Glorshanned Keep?"
  "Yes sir."
  "The prison of the city is in there?"
  "Yes sir.  Just follow the sign 'Dungeon'."

  The nobleman entered the Keep, looked around in the entrance hall, and
entered a passage to the left.  He paced the long corridor and finally arrived
at another, smaller hall with a separate entrance.  There was a desk with
scrolls on it, but nobody was there.

  "Hullo-o!  Gaoler!"
An elderly official and a massive guard appeared from a passageway.  The
official stepped forward and bowed slightly, taxing the visitor, and said, "I am
the jailer, sir.  Voop-ki, at your service.  What is your desire?"
  "I have just been robbed on the street."
  "Oh, then you are a bit wrong, sir.  This guard will guide you to the guard
commander, where you can..."
  "No no no no no.  I don't just want you to produce more bureaucratic
documents, I bring you the culprit."
  Voop-ki gave the gentleman a look that was puzzled, pleased, and suspicious
but still submissive.
  The man rummaged in his bag an produced a writing-pad and a pencil.  "I drew
a picture of the thug."
  The jailer tried to suppress a smile but failed.  "Well, sir..."

  "Wait till I explain.  I am a conjurer, and all I need to bring a being here
is drawing an exact image of it and surrounding it with a circle, like this."
He put the pad on the jailer's desk -  an excellent drawing of a bearded human
face was now visible -  and slowly made a near perfect circle with his pencil.
  "I can conjure creatures this way, but I can not control them yet.  Else I
would have conjured him first and then come here."  He crumbled the paper,
threw it on the floor, and at the same moment a bearded human that looked very
much like the drawing appeared at the same place, carrying a club.  It took him
a moment to grasp that this was the right moment to be surprised, then he was
and showed it by opening his mouth.
  The guard was also a bit surprised but managed to draw his sword and shout,
"Drop dat weapon!"

  The mugger thought about it for a second, eyeing the sword, then dropped the
club.  The guard made him lean on the wall with the hands and searched him.
  "He should have a small dark-brown leather sack containing gold coins and four
jewels," said the conjurer.  Indeed, among other things, such a sack was found
and returned to the owner.

  The mugger still had not digested what had happened to him, and the guard
could easily put him in a cell.
  Voop-ki handled the formalities with the conjurer, whose name turned out to
be Lifilis Kloote, and after that they chatted a bit.  Or rather, Voop-ki
chatted.
  "So you were robbed on your first day in Generica.  Let me tell you that we
normally don't have much crime outside of the Low City.  This crook definitely
is an exception."
  "I hope so."
  "Do you already have an accommodation for the time you stay in our city?  No?
I would recommend either Nesters Inn or Dragon's Inn.  The former you will find
at the mouth of Ceruputhon River, and it's a nice and quiet place.  If you are
interested in fine ships, the famous Tower of Marlin is very close to Nesters.
The latter is situated at Dragon's Lane, close to the Plaza of Glittering
Steel."
  "Oh yes, I noticed the sign with the dragon on it.  It's rather amateurish."
  "This inn is, well, a place where adventurers tend to stop at, sir.  A lot of
strange figures have been seen there, among them lizardmen, minotaurs,
centaurs, and dragons."
  "That sounds interesting."
  "You may also be interested in contacting the Mages' Guild, sir."
  "I don't think so.  I'm not a mage, I'm a conjurer.  Thank you for the help."
  "I have to thank you, sir.  This mugger was just what we needed for our
dungeon.  Ha ha."
  Kloote didn't react to the remark.  He only said "Au revoir" and departed.

  "Oh boy, what a snob!"  Voop-ki made a face to where the conjurer had
disappeared.  Then he noticed the crumbled piece of paper still lying on the
floor.  He smoothed it, examined it and nodded gravely.  "But he can draw!
This looks exactly like our guest."  He entered the passageway where the
guard and the thug had disappeared.

  "Here is a picture of you.  You can keep it as a remembrance of how we got
you!"  The jailer and the guard laughed at the prisoner, who looked at the
paper with a frown.  As he ripped it to shreds in anger, he disappeared all
of a sudden, and his hosts' laughs froze to gapes.

  At a corner in the city where just before a mugger had disappeared, he
materialized again.  He looked around and started to laugh, and would not soon
stop.

Lifilis Kloote, conjurer and artist.