From: cj841@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Chris Steiner)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [BH] Artimian is only mildly embarrassed
Date: 16 Dec 1992 06:57:31 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


    Things have not been going very well.
 
    ArthSplunt  and  his friends had just broken into a warehouse  of  Mant-
 Kayu,  a  rather nasty technomancer, at the request of the  local  Nunnery.  
 Most of them survived the defences, two out of six had died, and they  were 
 just about to split up the leftovers.
 
    "Yo,  Arth,"  Harlek said.  "Check this stuff out to see if  Mr.  Kayu's 
 touch  has tainted any of it."  Arth nodded, pulled a pair of glasses  from 
 the  inside pocket of his third cloak, and put them on.  Of  course,  magic 
 radiated  from everything in the warehouse.  He walked around a bit, as  if 
 he knew what he was doing.  The only noteworthy auras were around a katana, 
 a digital watch, and an android.
 
    The  glow  around  the  katana was expected.  I  was  a  metallic  green 
 twisting  covering  the blade only.  "That's  another  mech-cutter.   Worth 
 keeping if we get any more swordsmen with us."
 
    The glow around the watch was one he hadn't seen before.  It was pulsing 
 from pink to orange and back again.  He noticed Karl was rubbing his wrist, 
 roughing  up  the newly healed skin.  He'd lost his last watch,  and  hand, 
 recently to a rather nasty but little dragon.  Arth decided to not  mention 
 it.  Karl would discover what it did eventually.  Or he would.
 
    The android's silver and blue aura was shrinking towards the left  hand, 
 tracing  psuedo-circutry  paths  and  growing  more  intense  as  it  went.  
 ArthSplunt  pulled  a medallion from his belt, put it over  his  neck,  and 
 waited patiently to see if it would explode.  It didn't.  The aura withdrew 
 into  the hand and stopped, as if waiting for someone to order it.  /Ah,  a 
 real  item!   I wonder what it can do?/  He picked up the  Mech-Cutter  and 
 sliced the hand off just above the wrist.
 
    "This  looks interesting, I'll keep it to examine later."  He  then  put 
 the  medallion  and the hand into his belt.  The split up the rest  of  the 
 stuff as usual.  First come first serve and anything you can carry or  ride 
 you  can  keep.   No loading of vehicles until everything  is  spoken  for.  
 Finally, they loaded up a jeap and two motorcycles and headed back to camp, 
 three and a half hours into the woods.  
 
    Harlek  was  preparing  supper and Julian was sparring  with  Karl  when 
 ArthSplunt  remembered  the hand.  He stood away from the  fire.   /5  foot 
 radius should be safe enough./  He pulled the hand from his belt and stared 
 at  it.  <Work, damn you.>  He felt the thing begin to build up power,  but 
 it  paused.   /Ah, so is has several functions./  <Show me your  most  used 
 power.>   The hand began to hum and a sphere of electricity  formed  around 
 Arthsplunt,  blinding him.  The crackling of the ligntning persisted for  a 
 few moments, then suddenly stopped.
 
    He  looked up into a dark alley in some strange city.  A short  humanoid 
 woman and an average humanoid male were staring at him.  All he could bring 
 himself  to  say  was, "Oh. That's what this does."   /Area  teleport  with 
 absolutely no falesafes.  I wonder if this also crosses dimensions./
 
    A clattering draws ArthSplunt's attention to Julian's arm and the  other 
 limbs  surrounding the circle of grass he was standing in.  /First  thing's 
 first,  gather what's mine, then have introductions./  He walked  over  and 
 picked  the sword out of Julian's hand.  He looked around and  saw  nothing 
 else that was his.
 
    "Greetings,"  he  said,  stepping  out of  the  grass  between  the  two 
 humanoids.  "My name is ArthSplunt Griwald I."  With a practiced motion, he 
 flipped his second cloak back uncovering a quarrel, popped the cap off  the 
 quarrel letting a bright light fill the alleyway, stuffed the sword in  the 
 quarrel, recapped it, and shrugged his cloaks back in place.
 


    A  worried look crossed his face as the image of the two  legs  standing 
 just outside of the hole regestered in his mind.  He guestured back to them 
 and said, "That wasn't a friend of yours, was it?  I'm terribly sorry if it 
 was."
 
 
 ArthSplunt Grigwald I - Probably the most inexperienced and the most
                         frequent dimension hopper the cosmverse has seen.
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn