From: 344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU (Mike Sander)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Week 11 ... Back in the Shadows Again
Date: 15 Oct 92 05:08:17 GMT
Organization: Central Michigan University

[ADMIN: This is posted for Stephen, at hutch@ibeam.intel.com, who is
 having problems still with his server. Enjoy!]

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+ "Hang on tight." 'Raelf waited for them to take hold, and then the board
+ began to shoot blue fire around its runes, faster and faster, that sudeenly
+ looped around them - they were a large spark, rushing over the open grave,
+ past the eerie glow, and into the place beyond.
+
+ With a snap, the gate closed behind them.

They were inside a mirrored sphere. 'Raelf seemed to be looking out, and
Wiliam had moments where what he saw wasn't really the strange distorted
reflection, but something else.  Then there was a SNAP and they were standing
in a cave, exactly like the one they had been in before.

But then there was a sense of deja-vu.  They weren't in the cave, and never
had been in the cave.  There was a shout, off in some unreal place that wasn't
there any more.

(Off in a dark cave, a shadowed figure looked with surprise at the swirl of
 images in the crystaline construct below his throne.  This was ... unexpected.
 How delightful - a challenge.  Then let them have their little excursion
 Encourage them, even - they still have to come here, and the Shadows can
 work on them a while, start their inevitable corruption...)

They werwe in a room, ramshackled and with fallen beams, broken tile below
and large holes punched in the walls.  Grafitti and gang markings contested
on the walls where there was still flat unscarred surface.  In the center
of the room, a blasted pit sagged blackly where once a magic fire burned.

"The Worldgate?" Lancos looked around, curiously.

"Yeah, it's the closest nexus where Travel magic can focus."

"WHERE ARE WE >KlunK< OW! $#$!@" The others turned to the shrunken
giant.  He wasn't shrunken.  The DiamondSword was expanded to its
full twelve feet, the giant likewise.  The partly fallen rafter had
a gouge from the place where he'd struck his head on the underside.

"Wave. Moderate the voice," 'Raelf winced.

"SORRY - Ahem. hem. Sorry," the sword-giant replied. "Hey, the helm
 really did grow when I did."

"Toldja so." 'Raelf grinned.  He looked around. "The door's over here."
He gestured towards a slightly blacker spot, and a momentary light filled
it, showing a doorway to the street.

They steeped out to the street.  ShockWave was glowing faintly a nervous
sort of light - there were enemies about, unholy things all around them.
A certain aura of death outlined the figure standing on the pedestal in
the center of the street.

"Disgusting," 'Raelf noted, as they came into the open.  The figure was
a human, incredibly finely sculpted, face drawn into an expression of
purest horror. Half the stone had collapsed into dust, eaten by the gray
plant growing up form the pedestal.

"The Avenue of Traitors," Valgar spoke, glancing at a page from his
book. "'They were each spellbound unto immobility, thence their families
being tortured before their helpless eyes, and then they be placed where
they still stand as lesson to any who might dare the waath of the Ruler.'
mumble mumble stuff stuff, aha. A kind of lichen grows on them,
turns the bodies to stone slowly, then eats them.  He wrote some of this
part before he really got looney," He snapped the book shut.

'Raelf looked with concern at William.  The man was shaking.

"Hey, dude, you're taking this pretty bad.  Here, hold onto this, and stay
next the Wave monster for a while," he handed a clear glass sphere to the
man.  It contained inside it what seemed like a mass of darkness, but the
presence of a single point of light inside changed the dark to a clear pure
crystal luminance.

"Symbol of hope, oh molder of realities.  Don't lose it. Hope, that is."

"Oh, thank you" came the reply, "is this really _it_?"

'Raelf looked, quizzically, not knowing whether William was serious.

"It's an idea, bro, a concept.  I just made it a little more tangible."

William, very nearly gravely, put it into his pocket with the bit of the
dragon shard he'd sculpted. Now he had two talismans against this place.

'Raelf watched - it seemed that William grew, it not less fearful, at least
more in control of himself.  Sometime, something had really trashed on this
mand.  Too bad he insisted on coming - coulda taken him back to the Inn in a
half-second, if he'd said anything.  Oh well. He was pretty good when he
lost the blocks and inhibitions he'd built for himself.  Might be a learning
experience, if he don't break.

They walked, quietly, down the deserted street.  A scream in the distance
cut off, was the only sound.  Not even crickets chirped in the oppresive
warmth of the night. They continued, under the fitful light of the lower
beacons of the mouth of the bay, down the Avenue of Traitors. About a block
away, they saw it.  Something bright, up near where the Dragon's Inn might
stand in the REAL world.

Before they could go closer, a bat flitted down from the sky in front of
them, and transformed, somehow, in a bit of mist and bad special effects.
The fellow standing where the bat had been looked like a butler in a cape,
or possibly a major-domo of a fine hotel, after a bad night.

"Welcome to Ak Ir'neg.  The Dark Master bids you go safely in his city, and
enjoy your stay as his guests.  You need only show this emblem, to purchase
food or drink or other pleasures, and I warn you, the moneys you bring from
the other world are not legal tender in this land.  When you have grown tired
of your sport in this town, or should you find yourselves endangered, simply
speak the words on the back of the badge, and his servants will come to you."

Before they could speak, or interrupt, the man swirled his cloak again, and
was gone.  A bat flapped in the distance.

"What badges? We don't got no steenkin' badges," 'Raelf said to Lancos,
who just shrugged.  Valgar gave a yelp, then, and William and ShockWave
followed.  Lancos muttered an oath, and 'Raelf suddenly spun around in
place, in a defensive stance.

There, pinned or otherwise stuck to their clothing, at the chest on the
left side, was a badge, made of some kind of ivory, a line drawing of a
diamond in a pyramid in a cube in a triangle, all white on the black-colored
surface.  Each had a number in the center.

Lancos tore his free first, and looked at the back of it.  The writing
was in a standard form of Common, and read,

     Greetings, number 6.  To summon assistance, say "Dark Master Aid Me",
     TO summon a pyracubic diamond for Transportation or defense from crowds,
     say "Dark Master Take Me".  You may not lose nore deface this card.

Lancos scowled. "I am not a number. I am a free man!"

'Raelf twitched the edge of a grin, and examined his card closely.
Same as Lancos, except his number was 3.1414926i; ShockWave was 4, Valgar
was 5, and William was number 2.

They tried to remove the badges - somehow, they remained attached.  If they
tried to put them down, they stuck to the fingers. And they were too slippery
to pull off, but they stuck to their owner's clothing freely. 'Raelf even
vanished into air and reappeared, disgruntled, the thing still affized.
Finally, he stuck it to the bottom of his boot.  The others did the same.

They proceeded towards the light.

There, the plaza, where Dragon Way and the Avenue came together, a brightly
lit place, its enormous windows showing the interior clearly, all booths
with pleasant, shining formica tables, sit with plastic flowers and each
booth was occupied by some stalwart, herioc figure.

They went inside - the hostess, demure in her bat-wing-decorated fishnet
stocking outfit, seated them at an unoccupied booth.  There was a small
glass tray on the table, filled with crumbled bits of fiber, wrapped in
paper and burned on one end.  'Raelf scowled in disgust.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Hutchinson hutch@ibeam.intel.com

=========================================================================
Michael Sander 344lwkc@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu
AKA Lancos Erredan
SAQ:"Darkest color/blistered earth/true death of life"-Metallica