From: morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Morpheus Nosferatu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp
Subject: STORY: Hawn Ambrosius, part 23
Date: 12 Apr 92 02:02:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: mentor.44946
Organization: Netherworld Dreamscape


Well, I'm back for the moment.  Sorry for the delay between parts, but
reality has conspired to screw me over and dump an excessive load of
class work on me.  I had hoped to finish Hawn by the end of the semester
but that now looks impossible.  So I'll try to at least post what little
I have managed to finish.  I'll still be around during the summer (with
luck) and maybe finish then.

BTW- I may be able to finish and post the last of Aristo by the end of
next week, but don't hold your breath.  I'm not.

					JLS

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			       -- 1/1/6068 --

     His rage under control for the moment, Hawn looked across the street
at the wall surrounding the lavish mansion from where he was hidden in an
alleyway.  The streets were filled with revellers celebrating the arrival
of a new year.	Hawn only hoped that no one would notice him, not so much
as they might ask what he was doing hiding in an alley, but because he had
no wish to be drawn into their merrymaking, for there he had no place left
in his heart for such things.
     For a moment, Hawn considered if this might not be easier if he were
to have some help in breaking into the wizard's mansion.  But he
immediately and adamantly asserted to himself that he would not endanger
anyone else's life if he could avoid doing so.  This was his undertaking,
and no one else's.  He had seen too many deaths, seen too many of those he
loved dead, to place anyone else he knew in danger.  This he would do
alone.
     Returning his attention to the task at hand, Hawn further contemplated
the walled mansion across the street.  He had attempted to probe its
defenses and study the grounds of the mansion, but his crystal ball had
been unable to penetrate the protective wards surrounding the residence of
Kaalatar.  That only left Hawn the direct approach.
     From his pack, Hawn produced a scroll of spells he had appropriated
earlier in his travels, thankful that he had kept it in his possession all
of this time.  Even though the spells on the scroll were useful, Hawn
already knew how to cast them, so on a couple of occasions, he had
considered discarding this scroll and two others he owned, or at least
leaving them in Skellig Keep with the rest of his meager belongings.
     Reading from the scroll, Hawn cast a spell of invisibility upon
himself.  Although he could have used his own magical powers to cast this
spell, Hawn decided it would be wiser to use the spell inscribed on the
scroll, and thus save his own powers for when he was on the grounds of the
Kaalatar's mansion, where they would be more useful.
     Crossing the street, being careful to avoid the many revellers who
could not see him, Hawn approached the tall, ivy covered wall.	Calling
upon his own powers this time, Hawn searched the wall for any magical
wards, and found the wall rife with them.  However, there were no such
wards protecting the air above the wall, leaving only the problem of
getting over the wall without setting off any of the wards on the wall.
     Looking around, Hawn saw no trees or anything else which he could
climb and from which he could then jump over the wall.	But an idea did
come to his mind.  Returning to the alleyway, Hawn pulled another scroll
from his pack, using it to cast a levitation spell upon himself.  Although
he would rather have used a spell of flying, he did not have one and this
would have to do.  With the power of the spell, Hawn levitated himself up
the side of a tall building, and then relaxed the spell so he could clamber
onto its roof.
     His new position afforded him with a better view of the wall, plus
much of the grounds beyond.  From what he could see, the grounds of
Kaalatar's mansion were a sprawl of pathways winding through gardens,
shrubbery mazes, and pools with fountains or waterfalls.  Taking only
enough time to memorize the general layout of the grounds, Hawn strode
across the roof to the opposite side.
     Getting a good running start, Hawn darted across the roof and leapt
off the side facing the street.  Using the power of the spell of
levitation, Hawn kept himself from falling to the cobblestones while the
momentum from his running leap carried him forwards, gliding almost
gracefully across the street and the ivy-covered wall beyond.  There was a
brief feeling of elation at this sensation of flying, but it was quickly
pushed aside before it could summon any painful childhood memories of
similar experiences leaping through the air.
     Losing momentum, Hawn made it over the wall, and lowered himself to a
somewhat awkward lands in the grounds of Kaalatar's mansion.  Hawn
concealed himself in the nearest shadows, despite the fact that no one
should be able to see him thanks to the spell of invisibility: he was not
about to take any unnecessary chances.
     Skirting a cluster of trees surrounding a gazebo, Hawn remained
vigilant for any guards or objects or places which might have enchantments
placed upon them.  As he neared a topiary garden, he heard something moving
sleathily in his direction.  Turning to face the source of this noise, Hawn
found himself facing a pair of wolf-like creatures, each being easily the
size of a pony.
     They were still several dozen yards away, but were sniffing the air,
and Hawn was certain that if their noses were anywhere near as keen as
those of real wolves, they would catch his scent and raise an alarm with
their barking.	As the two creatures started to growl, Hawn pulled a small
wand from his belt and pointed it at one of the wolf-creatures.
     A narrow beam of greenish light darted from the tip of the wand and
struck the creature, enveloping the giant wolf an instant before turning it
into a slimy little slug.  The second wolf let out a loud growl and started
to bark as it too was reduced to an insignificant slug crawling through the
grass.
     Hawn hated to use this magic wand, for he had no idea of what limits
there were to its power, or even how many times it could be used before its
powers were exhausted.	However, his business was too pressing to take any
chances, and he was not about to use any of his more explosive spells to
deal with the threat the wolves had posed him, and was certainly not going
to take the risk of engaging them in battle with his sword, especially
considering that such would break his spell of invisibility.
     Before Hawn could move on, a pair of guards showed up, their swords
unsheathed, having heard the growling of the giant wolves.  But their
search of the area was brief and ineffectual, since they did not see the
wolves.  Because of this, the guards assumed that the wolves had moved on,
and so went about their patrols, one of them never noticing the slug he
trod upon in passing.
     When the guards were gone, Hawn moved on, careful to not make any
sounds as he crossed the grounds in the general direction of the mansion.
Reaching the side of the mansion without further trouble, Hawn looked over
the building, trying to find an easy means of access which looked
reasonably safe.
     There was a door some ways down the wall.	However, Hawn had no wish
to contend with whoever might be inside, or with whatever wards might be
placed upon the door.  He considered moving around to the front of the
mansion, since with the party going on, there would be numerous people
moving about.  This would provide him easy access to the interior of the
mansion since he was invisible, but he had no way of telling if anyone
around there could see that which was invisible, for there were simple ways
of penetrating a spell of invisibility, ways that might well be known to
the guests of a wizard.
     Finally deciding on a more direct approach, Hawn cast one of the first
spells he had ever learned.  Setting his hands against the brick wall of
the mansion, he started to crawl up the wall, moving as if he were a
spider.
     Hawn made his way into the upper floor of the wizard's mansion through
the door to a small balcony.  He moved quickly through the hallways,
looking for anything useful.  One room was a lavishly decorated bedchamber.
The style -- or lack thereof -- was typical for humans with too much money:
in other words, items were selected on monetary value rather than aesthetic
value.	This, then, was presumably the bedchamber of Kaalatar.
     A further search located Kaalatar's office, a chamber overflowing with
books, magical and alchemical apparatuses, and other items scattered about
by someone utterly lacking any sense of order.	Hawn rifled the litter,
finding nothing of value to him.  However, he did discover one relatively
clean corner, were a huge metal safe was situated.  He considered trying to
open the safe, presuming that what he wanted was inside.  Caution, however,
continued to prevail, and he examined it for magical wards.
     Finding a number of dweomers on the safe, Hawn decided not to bother
opening it.  He did not have the time to try and identify the spells which
had been cast upon the safe, even though doing so would give him an idea on
how to neutralize the enchantments.  Besides, he assumed that if he were to
open the safe, it would likely alert Kaalatar or some else to the presence
of an intruder in the mansion.
     In any case, Hawn had another idea on getting both the contents of the
safe and all that was known to Kaalatar himself.  Hawn retreated to the
disgustingly lavish bedchamber, where he awaited the end of the party and
the arrival of Kaalatar.
     After hours of impatient waiting, dawn was approaching and the
wizard's party finally was winding down.  As dawn was breaking and the sky
outside grew lighter, Kaalatar stumbled into his bedchamber.  He was
revoltingly obese, with a long, ill-kempt beard soaked with wine and ale,
his clothing was stitched with gold and platinum threads and splattered
with food and liquor, and flittering crazily about his head was a large
bat.
     From where he stood in one corner, Hawn said, "Sit down and do nothing
that will invite me to kill you."
     The wizard let out an explosive explicative and chanted a quick spell.
Hawn dove across the room as a cone of frost and cold shot from Kaalatar's
hand.  Although he avoided the worst of the bone-aching cold, Hawn was
still caught in the edge of the freezing cold from the spell.  A brief
shudder was the only visible sign the spell had any affect on the grey elf.
     Hawn started to hurl a spell of his own at Kaalatar, but he wanted the
wizard alive and preferably unharmed.  But the bat was still flittering
around, looking for some place to hide.  Realizing that there was a good
chance that this bat was Kaalatar's familiar, Hawn unleashed a barrage of
sorcerous bolts at the bat, knowing that a familiar is often a mage's
greatest weakness.
     The magical missiles drilled the flying rodent, propelling it into the
wall from where it bounced to the floor.  Kaalatar groaned, doubling over
as if overcome by excruciating pain.
     Hawn was amazed to see that when the bat landed on the floor, its body
changed into something two feet tall and vaguely humanoid, with a hunched
back, a long pointed tail, and grey scaly skin.  The thing moved slightly,
showing that it was still alive, if only barely.
     Hawn realized that the bat was actually some manner of demonic
familiar.  He knew that ordinary familiars gave mages extra strength, but
demonic familiars gave a mage far more, including greatly enhanced spell-
casting abilities and an unflagging constitution.  Because of this, Hawn
instantly knew that this creature would make an excellent bargaining chip
in getting Kaalatar to do all Hawn asked of him, since slaying a mage's
familiar would greatly weaken the mage, sometimes even killing lesser
mages.	The more powerful the familiar, the greater the loss to the mage,
and the loss of a demonic familiar would surely take a severe toll on
Kaalatar's magics.
     Hawn leapt across the room, shouldering the stunned Kaalatar out of
his way.  He grabbed the demonic creature, ignoring the unpleasant feel of
its scaly hide.  Holding his enchanted sword to the creature's throat, Hawn
threatened, "Now do as I say or this thing dies."
     Kaalatar blanched visibly, agreeing in a weak voice.  He knew the
price he would pay should his familiar die.
     "I know you are involved with demons and with the renewal of the Demon
Wars planned for this spring," Hawn stated openly, watching the wizard's
eyes widen in surprise.  "You will tell me everything you know about this
invasion of demons."
     Kaalatar tried to deny his knowledge, claiming ignorance on the
subject.  But Hawn dug his blade into the demonic familiar's neck and ichor
oozed from the wound.  Kaalatar flinched from the pain along with his
familiar.
     "No!  Don't!" pleaded the wizard.	"I'll tell you, just please don't
kill him!"
     The sight of the fat, pleading human turned Hawn's stomach.  Kaalatar
was offensive enough in appearance without this added to it.  Staring down
the wizard, Hawn demanded, "Tell me everything.  Now."	He considered using
his cursed demon knife to tell him whether Kaalatar spoke truthfully or
not.  But he dare not loosen his grasp on the wizard's familiar to retrieve
the knife from his pack, the familiar could very well escape.  Also, he did
not know what affect the proximity of the demonic familiar would have on
the knife.  Their combined strength might be enough to prevent him from
controlling the knife.	Therefore, he would have to rely on Kaalatar's fear
to keep the wizard from lying to him.
     "I've don't know everything," offered Kaalatar.  "The demons have told
me very little about what their plans are."
     Hawn merely dug the blade of his sword deeper into the demon's neck.
Kaalatar whitened even further, bawling out, "I tell you the truth, they
won't trust all of their secrets to me."  That much Hawn could believe: if
he did not trust this human, he was certain that no demon ever would.
     At Hawn's prompting, Kaalatar revealed that he served the demon prince
Graz'zt.  The name was vaguely familiar to Hawn, since he had never really
studied the hierarchy of the lower planes until just recently under the
tutelage of Ularr Nakuln.  He was none too certain who Graz'zt was off
hand, however.
     Kaalatar revealed that despite the fact that most of the demons would
be arriving in remote, desolate regions of the world, smaller numbers of
them would appear within most of the major cities of the world, where they
could immediately crush the majority of the defensive forces before these
forces could be marshalled against them.  Towards this purpose, Kaalatar
was one of a number of powerful mages who had been employed by various
demonic lords and princes, their job being to make preparations for the
arrival of these contingents of the army to appear within their home
cities.
     To this end, Kaalatar had purchased a huge dock-side warehouse where
he was dutifully making ready for the demons' arrival.  He was employing a
number of evil mercenaries and stocking the warehouse with everything that
could prove useful to the invasion.  Despite Hawn's urgings to reveal all
he knew, Kaalatar claimed to know of only a couple of other mages in other
cities who were also serving the demons in a similar manner, though he did
gladly reveal their names.  Hawn knew that he would have to check out these
other mages as well, and see to it that their efforts were brought to an
abrupt halt.
     Kaalatar also commented that he knew of an evil cult of devil
worshipers here in Tiresk, but he would not reveal too much about them,
claiming to have never trusted religious zealots and as such had not
learned too much about them.  Hawn knew that he would have to look into
this cult also.  However, he doubted he would have the time to waste on an
entire cult of devil worshipers.  But ideas came to him on how they could
be dealt with.
     His attention focused on questioning Kaalatar, Hawn had not noticed
that the wounds on the demon he held had been quickly healing.	Now he was
caught completely off guard as the demon changed, and he suddenly found
himself holding a large wolf, which twisted free from his grasp and dropped
to the floor.  At the same instant, having been in telepathic communication
with his familiar, Kaalatar's face turned from a mask of abject fear to one
of consuming rage as he started chanting a spell.
     Recognizing it as a spell of lightning, Hawn jumped towards the wolf
as its claws scrabbled on the polished wooden floor, desperately trying to
get clear of the area before its master's spell took affect.  Swinging his
sword, Hawn slew the demon wolf with a single blow.
     Kaalatar choked in mid spell, wrenched by the death of his familiar.
He doubled over and sprawled on the floor.  In moments, his body shrivelled
up into a dried husk, like a mummified corpse, his life force torn from his
body by the loss of his familiar.
     Hawn knew that the death of a familiar was costly to a mage in both
health and power.  However, he had not expected that the death of this
demonic familiar would have so great of an affect on Kaalatar.	Hawn had
simply thought that the shock of the familiar's death would momentarily
disable the mage, not slay him.
     Hawn had a fleeting thought of how glad he was to have never taken a
familiar of his own.
     With Kaalatar out of the way -- permanently -- Hawn proceeded back to
the dead wizard's study.  After magically sealing the door so as to not be
disturbed, Hawn looked over the mage's metal safe from a wise distance.  He
did not feel like breaking down any of the wards set on the safe, so he
decided to use a simple method of opening the safe.
     Standing as far away as possible, Hawn cast a spell of opening on the
safe.  There was a fiery explosion, which set nearby papers aflame.
Fortunately, Hawn was back far enough that he was only slightly singed by
the explosion.	Carefully approaching the open safe, Hawn detected no other
visible or magical affects around the safe.
     Shuffling through the contents of the safe, he found a stack of notes
on Kaalatar's preparations and knowledge of the invasion.  There was also a
book of spells on one shelf of the safe.  But as he opened the cover, the
first page exploded in his face as he cast his eyes down the words written
on it.	Shaking his head painfully, Hawn stuffed the spellbook into his
pack.  He could examine the spells in it later when he was more prepared
for whatever other defenses might have been laid upon it.
     At this point, Hawn was interrupted as the door to the office burst
open.  An irate woman stomped into the room and hurled some sorcerous bolts
at Hawn.  Staggering angrily to his feet, Hawn hurled a bolt of lightning
at the woman as she was starting to cast another spell.  The blast of
electricity caught her square in the chest and hurled her back out into the
hallway, where she slumped to the floor and remained unmoving.
     Forcing the pain from the magically inflicted wounds from his mind,
Hawn put the rest of the papers into his pack, deciding that it would be
best to find someplace more quiet to study what he had discovered.

     A pair of Tiresk's elite city guardsmen walked along the street,
watching some of the populous coming to life in the morning light, braving
both hangovers and the frigid weather.	As they were wishing they were
still in their bunks, the two guardsmen noticed smoke rising from one of
the larger warehouses.	Obviously, somebody had been interested in a rather
more spectacular form of revelry in the course of the night, thought the
guardsmen as one started off to find a mage to put out the fire and the
other remained to keep people back and watch the flames which soon started
leaping from the roof.
     From a side street, Hawn watched the flames rapidly engulf the
warehouse with some satisfaction.  He was glad he found those barrels of
lamp oil, they had helped the fire start most readily.	In a few minutes,
there would be nothing remaining of Kaalatar's preparations.
     Scratching a fresh, itching scar in his side, Hawn was also glad to
have discovered the cache of healing potions, since the mercenaries bunking
in the warehouse had actually shown themselves more than adequately trained
with their weapons.
     Now he would have to look into those other mages mentioned by
Kaalatar.

/----------------------------------------+--------------------------------\
| Jeff Standish, Dreamwalker, and        |  morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu   |
| Morpheus Nosaferatu, The Dream Vampyre | standish@mentor.cc.purdue.edu  |
| Too many minds trapped in one body.    |      Reality is for those      |
| And it would be a human one, at that.  |    who can't handle fantasy.   |
\----------------------------------------+--------------------------------/