From: pcalvert@economics.adelaide.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [R] Karl [Pashar] Arrival in Rameshan
Date: 20 Aug 92 04:01:41 GMT
Organization: Economics, University of Adelaide


ADMIN: Being posted on behalf of Dennis Brennan
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By the next morning, Karl had recovered enough of his strength to
stand on the deck (gripping the rail tightly with both hands).  The
boat was clipping along at a remarkable speed, and Gover cheerfully
remarked that the _Moorglade_ was on pace to break the record for
the Specifica-Pashar run.

As before, Jenever was smiling flirtaciously at the crewmembers,
but Killian had demonstrated his lycanthropic nature to the seamen
and they were terrified to risk angering the weretiger.

By late afternoon land was in sight.  off the starboard side Karl
watched as one ship broadsided a pirate vessel that had been foolish
enough to prey off ships near the Rameshander coast.  The young
captain of the Rameshander enforcer smiled and waved his hat as the
_Moorglade_ passed, welcoming the visitors to his country.  Karl
weakly smiled back.  Despite the evident joviality of the young
Rameshander, Karl would never again be able to stomach the company of a
Rameshander sailor after the Dougl incident.

Pashar's harbour was large, perhaps twice the size of Generica's.  The
city lay to the south of the harbour, surrounding it on three sides
like a crescent.  The vessels of all lands sailed about.  Karl
even thought he spied the curious lopsided masts of a junk from
Cathay or Xipangu.  There were Ydionian coursers and swift Generic
traders.  There was a huge Alasyrian war galley on some uncharacteristic
mission of peace.  And, painful as it was to observe, there was a
Rameshander slave galley with dozens of oars beating the water on each side
as it transported its cargo from one side of the harbour to the other.

When the boat was tied up, Gover supervised the removal of the
travelers belongings from the _Moorglade_.  He apologized again
for not being able to remain and return Karl and his party
to the north, but there was "urgent business to be done."  Not
knowing what else to do with them, Karl removed Helios's few belongings
as well, placing them in a sack along with his own.

Karl turned to the others and said, "It will not be necessary
to arrange accommodations.  Quarters have already been prepared
in anticipation of our arrival at the Court."  Radan wondered how
the Rameshanders could possibly have known how many were coming.

A pair of carters, brothers by the likes of it, bore the travelers
and their belongings to the Court, the massive interconnected
buildings that housed the Rameshander government, guests, nobles,
their servants, their servants servants, the servants servants' slaves,
innumerable spies, courtiers, sycophants, hangers-on, and hundreds
of distinct factions and petty rivalries.  The mazelike, unplanned
street network of Pashar was nothing in comparison to the extraordinary
complicated social structure that passed for government in Rameshan.

There was the Shaheran, the ruler of the empire in name if nothing
else.  The power of the throne had dwindled greatly in the past
few centuries, but the Shaheran still had one ace-in-the-hole: the
Scarlet Ones.  His personal assassins.

There were the temples.  Rameshan had a kind of state religon, which
heavily tithed the people, but hundreds of sects and heresies within
faiths competed and jostled with one another and the rest of
the social scheme.

There were the merchants.  Increasingly, wealthy merchant-princes
were able to fund personal armies and keeps and live in
virtual independence.

There were the Guilds.  They could (and often did) order work
shutdowns and strikes, paralyzing commerce until they could
be persuaded (or threatened) into resuming work.

And there were the many Secretive Societies.  The mages.  The rangers.
THe Watchful Order of Apothecaries, many of whose members were not
involved in pharmacy or chemistry at all.
The thieves' Guild.

A servant led Karl to his quarters.  He put away his belongings
and fell fast asleep in the hub of this incomprehensible web
of politics and betrayal.

Dennis Brennan