From: tim@mik.uky.edu (timothy c huesman)
Subject: New Character  Dragon's Inn,  Docks,  Shore
Keywords: shaman, phu, +obadu, Inn, ESP, Psi-talent
Summary: +obadu comes bearing a message
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 06:05:38 GMT

ADMIN:  the '+' is pronounced by placing the tongue against the 
        teeth as if one were going to make a 't' sound, but the
        sound is not exasperated.  Rather one makes the sound of
        the vowel following.  To some it will sound like 'ohBAHdoo'
        to others 'dohBAHdoo' and others 'tohBAHdoo'.
 
    His name was +obadu and he was motion.  Oh certainly he was many
 other things, or had been, but now he was motion...forward motion now
 that he had a direct path to travel to the place his people knew as
 luGunwa (landing place).  It had changed generations before when a
 great sea beast had created the river-cutting, but it had always
 been a landing place...for the godslongpast.  Great things had been
 possible there when the land had the memories of those who had gone
 before.  But the phu, his people, had not gone to luGunwa to sing
 to the land and remind it who it was or danced the dream-time dances
 that keep the power of the land strong, so it held not the strength
 or regenerative powers it might have held.  Still, the power within 
 its name attracted frequent landings, many dark.
    His name was +obadu and he had been a tracker.  Now his brainpan
 had shriveled to the minimal size for protection of his spirit and 
 the synapses had been minimalized to accentuate primarily the motor
 functions.  Few memories could be accessed and then only by stopping
 his motion, which he could not do.
    His name was +obadu and he was motion, though were he not walking
 on ten-foot long stilt legs of chitinous exoskeleton, had he not 
 sacrificed his arms for the shrunken stubs with three-fingered hands,
 had he retained his digestive tract and vocal chords, he might stop
 to eat, or pause to sing to the land here.  Here the land had been
 called....he could not remember, thinking was not presently his forte
 for his name was +obadu...
    His name was +obadu and he entered the city of Generica, wading
 along the dangerous shallows near the docks.  Crossing the river here
 where a delta was gradually silting its way in place, he stopped for
 the first time in weeks of travel.  Thought was a difficult task but
 now that he had reached his goal, he must become someting new, he
 must become +obadu, who is a tracker.  But this would take time
 and nourishment.  He must remember the body parts that had been mouth,
 stomach, and intestines.  He must remember them and reform them.
 There are places for nourishment near the landing-place.  He would 
 track the godslongpast and find their landing place and find a place
 for nourishment.  But he could no longer track, for he was still 
 +obadu who was motion and the dream-time dance had not been done here 
 for countless generations.  He must wait.
    In the Shallows, near the docks, a stick figure all of twelve feet
 tall stood motionless and waited.
    Dusk came and reeds rustled as the cool breezes that came in from
 the water at sunset carried with them an echo from a distant land.
 Music pitched at the lowest of resonant frequencies, barely within the
 hearing range of the sharpest of human scouts, made the waters about
 the stick figure to dance.  The dance became defined and +obadu who was
 motion joined it's circular pattern.  +obadu would have sung had he
 vocal chords, but his esophagus rattled with the controlled breathing
 that would have carried sound were he not +obadu who was motion.  Yet
 he danced and the echoes which made the water to dance with him the dream-
 time dance reminded the land who it was and +obadu was given the 
 strength to begin the change.  Oh certainly there was not enough of 
 +obadu left to make much change as he had travelled for weeks without
 taking food or water.  Yet his synapses regrew in the hour of his
 dancing and he stored up some of the dream-time magic for his passage,
 for with the regenerated synapses, he remembered again that he was
 +obadu, tracker of the phu, shaman of the dream-time, messenger of
 ill-tidings.
    His name was +obadu and he tracked the godslongpast in dream-time
 trance, stepped upon the docks with his stilt legs and began a slow-
 paced stride that covered more ground than a sprinter was capable of.
 As he crossed near the slums of Low City, the ugliness that was 
 possible in a land which had forgotten its greatness revealed itself.
 A girlchild, human, ragged, wretched refuse of humanity stepped forth.
 Born too close to the Shunned Center, the tainted water, air, and
 hopes long polluted by Great Mother had mutated her to a hideous
 ugliness.  But with her mutations came the gift of 'sight' and she
 saw what could not be seen with human eyes.  
    She ran up to the stick  figure and danced about it as a starving
 cur might anyone who offered hope of a meal or the merest of kindnesses.
 As the stick figure moved through town, she ran behind, unable to keep
 up with the immense strides, and shouted so all might hear, "Here comes
 a shaman, he speaks the truth.  Heed the warning of the shaman!"
    Her words fell behind as the stick figure moved upon shining metal
 and approached a building.  +obadu who is a tracker bent at knees
 six feet above the floorboards and folding the legs almost double, 
 moved into the door of the Dragon's Inn.  
    Patrons long used to lifeforms of all kinds entering the Inn went
 about their usual business.  Some lurking in their dark corners,
 some winning at cards and love, some losing.  Some making the 
 business of others their own and at least these saw a stick figure 
 with chitinous legs ten feet tall (now folded back to six feet) enter
 with the fire gleaming off the grey exoskeleton.  The creature had
 a tiny torso topping the enormous legs and the tiny head attached 
 itself to the torso without the benefit of a neck.  The torso had
 a minimum of chitin and appeared to be a home for lungs of such 
 small size that they pumped continuously to feed this tree of a
 creature with air.  Almost missed because of their brevity were two
 three-finger hands on brief stalks.  The head appeared to be a
 bowl of a brainpan and two nostril-slits.  Eyes bulged from above
 the slits and appeared stationary.
    The stick creature moved around the bar and as it met each creature
 it reached it's tiny arms so that a hand ALMOST touched its head.
 It fixed its stationary eyes on the creature and waited....

ADMIN:  Those glorious Psi-talents and mind-readers and quaffers of
        ESP potions and the like will hear, "Is one voicing to you?"

    The stick figure continues the rounds until a positive response
 is given.
 
--

  Doc  Pan       tim@mik.uky.edu          Tim  Huesman