From: scavanag@neumann.une.edu.au (Steven Cavanagh)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [T&R]4.10: slash!parry!thrust!spin! <boinggg>..
Date: 18 Nov 92 08:34:01 GMT


>Rollik's eyes swept the room, searching for possibilities. His eyes were
>irresistibly drawn to the far side of the room, where a giant decorative rope
>was tied to the third story and stretched to the ceiling far above.
>"I guess I'll just have to wing it" he said. 


No more words were said, or needed. Timelord dropped his cloak and disappeared
into the gloom to his right. Rollik straightened, lifted the rapier in salute
to no-one in particular, and charged.
	The guards were in the room mostly for show. Nobody was fooled into
thinking that a being such as Ak'lssh needed a few guys with swords and
crossbows around for safety. Nevertheless, guarding Ak'lssh's personal
chamber was a highly exalted privalege, and therefore the guards therein were
none other than the rest of the elite guard, who had lost a leader and their
best members recently.
	Two stood at their post, ever alert, unlike their counterparts outside
the door. They were highly trained, and ready for anything except the 
appearance of a laughing swashbuckler suddenly upon them at a dead run. A
thrust to the heart, a parry and slash to the throat, and he was gone again.
	Rollik's speed of blade and foot was such that he had covered a
third of the distance to the rope before one of the guards let out a yell.
from across the great room he heard the hiss and crack of crossbow quarrels,
but none came his way. Concern for Timelord flashed through his mind, briefly
changed to faith in his friend, then was dashed to the back of his thoughts as
three guards came toward him, each armed with a light, cut-and-thrust fencing
sword that Rollik identified as a pappenheimer. They seemed to have seen more
than ceremonial use. Rollik drew his parrying dagger, and with a click its
single blade divided into its usual three.
	A loud blast came from the center of the room, from what Rollik could
only assume to be Ak'lssh revealing his power to Timelord. Rollik took full
advantage of it, slashing one adversary across the cheek and continuing the
movement on to his sword arm. The sword dropped to the floor closely followed
by its wielder as Rollik ran him through.
	The other two were quick, coming at him simultaneously and causing
the swashbuckler to keep both hands busy. As they worked their way apart from
each other Rollik saw their ploy and put his back to a wall. Two opponents
at the same time was risky, but luckily an opening soon prevented itself and
then there was one.
	The other must have been the best of the three, as evidenced by his
skill and the indifference to losing his two comrades (which either showed
the callousness of the guards or the self-control of the swordsman). The two
circled on the balcony, trading blows. Though not as good as Rollik, the
guard soon promised to take time to defeat, and as hideous laughter from
Timelord and Ak'lssh's direction showed, time was something Rollik did
not have. The swashbuckler caught his opponent's blade high with the parrying
dagger, then gave a hard kick to the stomach which sent the guard over the
thick stone railing to the floor below. 
	Rollik took the opportunity to spring to the railing and glance at 
the scene in the middle of the room.
	"I knew Mouzdin-Zor was lying" laughed Al'lssh. Of course, when 
Rollik thought Timelord was dead he had told the charmed drow mage to inform
Ak'lssh that the swashbuckler would defeat him alone.
	Then something else grabbed his attention.
	One of the mages had been cut down by Timelord, and the robes were
shown to contain the old, decayed husk of a body.
	About fifty years dead.
	Realisation and dismay washed over him. They had thought that killing
the mages would end Ak'lssh, but now the experiment half a century past had
been revealed.  The composite mind had taken the last step, had left its
bodies and become a being of pure magic.
	And how do you defeat something like that?
	"You have it with you!" Ak'lssh suddenly hissed. "I can feel its
presence! no matter, it will do you no good. I will deal with both of you
my way!"
	We have it? what?
	The old man who gave Rollik the ring drifted into his mind unbidden.
"Use it on Ak'lssh's minions, and Ak'lssh too, if you get that far.."
	A sound behind him interrupted his line of thought. He spun around
on the railing to confront another of the guards. The man swung his sword at
Rollik's legs, as they were within easy reach until Rollik jumped the blade.
The pappenheimer continued its agressive arc and instead knocked off one of 
the pot plants that had been sitting placidly on the railing. The pot 
shattered on the floor downstairs, throwing soil in petal-like patterns.
Rollik replied with a slash of its own, but it was parried in a moment and
a counterstrike aimed at his knee. This one too was jumped, and the plant
on the otherside plummeted downward. It landed hard on the defeated guard
below, who was just waking up. 
	When the next strike came Rollik parried it downward and leaped over
his opponent, twisting to land lightly on his feet. Now that he was on an 
even footing with his opponent, and now that Rollik knew the desparation
of the situation he and Timelord were in, the guard had little chance. The
rapier whipped out with blinding speed, cutting first one ear and then the
other, while the parrying dagger caught any returning attempt. The guard then
switched his pappenheimer to his left hand in order to render Rollik's
parrying dagger useless. Rollik, without hesitation, switched weapons in
BOTH hands and slashed viciously downward. The keen blade sheared through
the man's hand at the wrist, and it dropped to the ground twitching around
the pappenheimer's hilt. The guard gasped, grasped the wound in a desperate
grip and waited for the killing blow.
	It didn't come.
	Rollik motioned over the balcony with the rapier.
        The guard's face went white.
	Rollik lifted the rapier and glared.
	The guard disappeared over the side. Rollik renewed his charge
for the rope.
	He had already taken out three groups of four, and so he ran some
distance before encountering the next pair of guards. These had witnessed
his actions and both vaulted over the side before he got there. The next
two were stationed just before the rope. The first was a pappenheimer-
wielding guard like the rest of them, but Rollik recieved a shock when
the second flung back his hood and revealed himself to be a drow! The dark
elf drew a longsword of jeweled adamantite, and readied himself while the
other came at Rollik.
	Since the guard was using a charging thrust, Rollik had to only
slightly parry with his rapier to deflect the pappenheimer and bring the
guard forward into his somewhat unorthodox headbutt. The guard staggered
back, but still insisted on fighting until steel pierced his heart. Rollik
watched him fall with mild regret.
	Then the lights went out.
	The drow cast his globe of darkness around Rollik with gleeful 
anticipation. This was magical darkness, and while the swashbuckler's
senses were obscured the dark elf could easily see him. He took a moment
to savour Rollik's helplessness, then stepped toward him with sword raised.
	"Petaklud" Rollik said.
	There was a loud whoomph, and the air was filled with whirling rose
petals, twisting, turning, obscuring. The drow moved forward blindly, eyes
vainly trying to make some sense of the crimson cloud. Where in the name
of Lloth was he?
	Then the rapier was through him.
	Rollik moved out of the globe cautiously, but its act of dissolving
told him that his thrust had been well estimated. The dark elf now lay on
the floor, petals settling over him in unjust tribute. Rollik leaped to
the rope, cut its tethering knot, and looked to the center of the room.
Timelord had obviously been fighting several zombie-like creatures, whose
decaying bodies now lay scattered on the floor. Even from his present position
Rollik recognised two of them, Mouzdin-Zor and the messenger who had met them
in Generica. Suddenly there was a loud crash and a roar, and the massive form
of an undead giant lumbered through the wall on the far side of the room. 
Timelord spun to face the new threat, and prepared to fight for his life.
	Rollik sheathed his rapier, gripped the rope in iron hands, and 
launched himself into space.


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                                |
Steven Cavanagh                 | The force, y'know, It's got a lot of
(Cav)                           | power.
                                |                      -Michael Jackson.   
scavanag@neumann.une.oz.au      |
                                |
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