From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Subject:  [inn] Kloote's past
Organization: FB Physik, Universitaet Kaiserslautern, Germany
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 11:59:24 GMT


  In the back room of the Dragons Inn, Lifilis Kloote said, "What do you want,
Spach?"
  The gnome called Spach eyed the conjurer for some seconds, then spoke.  "It
seems that you are responsible for a fine mess back home."
  That could only mean one thing.  "How did you find out?"
  "Viscount Klintotos could convince Baron Basthala that it would be better
to tell him everything."
  "The shark!  I gave him the county to silence him!"
  "That's what the viscount suspected.  Suddenly a lot of strange monsters
around, the famous conjurer disappeared, and the conjurer's county under
control of his neighbor and drinking pal.  You really shouldn't have told him
where you wanted to go.  And you shouldn't have let him have this."
  Spach opened a pouch and threw the contents on the floor, dozens of crumpled
pieces of paper.  Kloote grimaced and shrugged his shoulders.
  "He just took them with him that night.  We were drunk..."
  "Oh yes, you were drunk!"  Spach picked up one of the papers.  "Look at this
abomination you created!  Six horns, a beak, three eyes!  And the talons...
Do you want to know what it did?"
  "No, and I didn't create it.  I conjured it.  And that beast was Klikk's
idea."
  "Klikk?"
  "Baron Basthala."
  "Bah!  You're the main offender.  You created the monsters."
  "Conjured."
  Someone knocked at the door.  Bob Littlefair looked in and said, "You people
want to fight some elementals?  They are out there, on the Plaza!"
  Spach eyed Kloote suspiciously.  "Did you do that?  Exhale!"
  "No!"  Kloote barked.  It was clear that it was an answer to both questions,
and Bob left.
  "Anyway..."  Spach picked the papers up, looked at them one for one, and
put them back in the pouch.  "A sort of bat with two heads!  A... no, I don't
know what it is!  A chimaira-griffin bastard!  But what do the pictures of
humans do in there?"
  "That's how it started.  I tried to think of faces, drew them, and conjured
them.  You should have seen them, as they tried to understand what happened...
Klikk and I could barely keep silent in our hideout.  Well, it was funny then."
  "Ah yes.  Very funny.  Kidnapping people."
  "Later we changed to monsters.  We thought they wouldn't mind."
  Spach and the half-ogre looked at each other in disbelief.
  "So what do you want?  Bring me back?"
  "Yes.  You'll put these beasts where they came from."
  "Nonononono.  I can't do that!  I can conjure them, but I don't know how to
get rid of them!  If I could, would I have run away and sacrificed my county?"
  "You will remove them!  Every single one!  If you can't... disjure them,
kill them!"
  "But..."
  The half-ogre's gaze made Kloote stop at that word.  Spach opened the door,
and they entered the main room.  Kloote's nose was at half-mast.
  They found that the Rabble was crowded at the windows watching the fight
in the plaza.


--
thomas kettenring, 3 dan, kaiserslautern, germany
...and then the dragon ate the princess and the knight, and he lived happily
ever after.   -- Grandma Addams telling Wednesday a story (paraphrased)