From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [inv] Alfvaen[Inn and Outside]: Things is gettin' a bit rough
Date: 31 Jul 92 16:15:05 GMT
Reply-To: aaron@space.ualberta.ca
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

Alfvaen is in the process of settling an account with Littlefair for a room
when somebody arrives at the door gasping that the Inn is being invaded.
Great, he thought.  There are definite disadvantages to having this high a
concentration of adventurers...

Well, it might be a good idea to help out.  The innkeeper might be grateful...
and this place was not cheap, so a little charity would not be amiss, if it
were deserved.  He saw a few others also making their way to the door...

Outside, there were a number of forms moving around.  Skeletons, Alfvaen soon
realized, were most of them.  Why did it always have to be skeletons?  He drew
his short swords and leapt into the fray.  He yelled to one of the Inn's
defenders, "I'll watch your back, if you watch mine."  He >hated< people coming
up behind him.

There weren't that many skeletons, he realized.  This was good, because only
three or four people had emerged to defend the place.  Unfortunately, there
were still enough for him to have to fight two of them.  And Alfvaen was not
at his best in a straightforward fight...  <Neither of us are,> Lassiviren
said in his mind.

<Don't distract me,> Alfvaen said.  <And I'm not touching the amulet--how can
you be speaking to me?>  He parried the blows of both of the skeletons, who
were only slightly out of synch.

<It takes a bit more effort, but I can do it.>  Great, Alfvaen thought.  Well,
at least he probably can't read my thoughts, but it's only a matter of time
before he figures out how to take over without me having to die...

He parried another set of blows, and then riposted with both swords.  He
knocked back one of the skeletons, and then brought both swords to bear on the
other.  He cracked its weapon-arm, which then hung loosely at its side, and
left a notch in its spine.  If Elstree were here, we wouldn't even need to
fight these things, he thought.  She'd put the fear of Aditi in them and they'd
shamble away as fast as they could.  But Elstree wasn't here.  Elstree was
dead.

Then he felt a prick in his arm, and wheeled to face the other skeleton, which
had returned to the fray.  <Why didn't you warn me?> Alfvaen screamed to his
internal companion, as he fended off its blows.

Lassiviren chuckled, a strange sound to appear in one's head.  <Would you have,
in the same circumstances?  I seem to recall you didn't...>  That much was
true.  When the bandits had come upon Lassiviren, he hadn't spoken up to warn
him about the one with the blackjack behind him.  When the drow's throat was
cut, all he felt was relief, as he could seep back into his body again.  That
was something strange about the amulet, too...when the wearer was killed, the
amulet teleported itself a short distance away.  Common sense--who wants to
get killed twice in the same place?

As he was polishing off the second skeleton, he looked around for more foes,
and he was not disappointed.  He saw some large, hairy shaped across the Plaza,
like ogres or somesuch.  And he saw a winged shape in the sky, blotting out
the moon(moon?  Wasn't it afternoon when he arrived in the Inn?  Great, that
was all he needed--a place where time didn't work properly).  He heard a
hissing noise, and saw a gob of some substance fly through the air towards one
of his fellow combatants.  He didn't see if it hit--he was too busy ducking out
of the way himself.  Great--a dragon.  A black one, unless I miss my guess.
I hate dragons.  I don't suppose the fact that I'm a personal friend of
Bahamut will sway him any...

ADMIN:  Take it away, Nightstalker.

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Aaron V. Humphrey, Page of Newts)
Canadian Network For Space Research, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
"Don't you point that raygun at me--I might just explode..."  Thomas Dolby
Current Album--Yello:One Second
Current Read--M.J. Engh:Wheel of The Winds