From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Fourth Movement and First Aftermath
Date: 20 Aug 92 01:10:01 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon

DRAGON Quest week 4

Characters: the Dragon Questing party - SunStorm (actually, at this point,
    ShockWave), Kadrys, Lancos, 'Raelf, and Valgar.
Situation:  SunStorm has been disminded.  His spirit now dances through
    endless repetitions of his life's great tragedies.  His body, however,
    dances to a sword's tune, and none too skillfully.
    Those who were not crystal-trapped did slightly better: Valgar managed
    to prevail despite having neither magic weapons nor outrageously
    magical strength, Lancos has fought "the dark armor" Krastin, to a
    bloody, excruciating defeat (if not death).  Kadrys has made the
    gargoyles less eager to attack things just because they look human,
    and 'Raelf has demonstrated how well enemies can get in their own way,
    resorting to magic only when they start cheating.
    
    But they have to have the last word...

----
Definition:  Invoke (verb)  to call on a being or entity external to
oneself, for aid or for a service.  In religious usage, to call upon a
god, spirit, demon, or other supernatural aid, for help or for rescue.

In application, what a gargoyle shaman should be careful about doing.
Tonguerot the gargoyle has sacrificed burnguts the gargoyle, drinking
his ichor from his dying throat, in supplication for help in defeating
that nasty flying mage with his stupid tricks.  His god, or some god,
answered.  But his tiny gargoyle brain was a bit small for the gift
of power that it was given...

+Tonguerot howled in agony as his mind cramped in the grasp of the
+spell he had prayed for, and been given.  He must speak it now!

+'Raelf [having reflexively devoured one of the gargoyles, in a fairly
+unnerving way] carefully dispelled the remnants of his meal, sending
+it off to the proper elemental planes.  Four seconds had passed.

+He whirled around, FLICK,  himself again, to face the remaining gargoyle.

+Who hissed in pain, and with the remnants of his mind, spoke the
+WORD he had been given, and detonated the skies around them.

Tonguerot plummeted to the ground below.  He bounced once, twice, then
(like a statue dropped 50 meters) shattered.  'Raelf was buffetted by
waves of pain and disorientation.  He tried, frantically, to interpose
his precast wards, only to feel them getting caught up in the attacking WORD.

He slowly drifted down towards the plaza.

The echoes of power shuddered through his bones.  He would have
screamed with pain, if he could have.  The offensive spell he had
carefully constructed, fusing MTV with a fascination spell, was eating
away at the edges of his mind -  DEVO couldn't get no satisfaction
so they were whipping him good... Janie's gun was aimed at HIM...
NO - I can't fly 55 - NO I DON'T WANT MY MTV.  Orinoco GO AWAY!
let me reach for that beach STOP IT west end girls AAAAGH! STOP!

He grabbed the other defensive spell he had hung, the one against
domination, and frantically interposed it - with a burst of static
and the fading image of a dinosaur in a spacesuit on the moon,
the hallucination vanished.

He came to himself and discovered intense pain.  Staying in this
plane of existance had cost more than he'd bargained on.  No
solid rock of stability left.  (Which way is down?)  Wow, look at
the pretty lights in the sky.  No, no time to be an airhead.
Focus.
Breathe.
Ground.
Need to touch the ground.  Force downwards.  Why is this so hard?

The sparks from a bonfire blocks away caught his attention.
Involuntary memory overwhelmed him - the inquisitor with his brand,
searing the word WYTX into his elven brow, then the churchmen tying
him to the stake, the insidious net of energy preventing him from
changing form, keeping him isolated from the faint flows of magic
that survived in the CyberPapal world...  And then they'd made
the mistake, they'd ignited the fire, and he only had to let the fire
change him into fire.   He'd gotten the inquisitor, and three of the
guards, and barely seen his friend the Archbishop riding up too late to
save him, but then a WORD had pushed him out of that world.

He remembered where he was just in time to keep the memory from taking
him out-planar again.  Keep going downwards.  The pain flared up again,
momentarily, and he spun up a few feet into the air, clutching at his
head, drifting un-noticed higher into the sky.

+But now that Angrypaw had moved back, SunStorm was able to let
+Spiketail's body fall on its left side.  SunStorm crouched, and managed
+to hold ShockWave in a horizontal position, although quite shaky.  The
+light from the sword was no more than a shivering flicker.  The gargoyle
+then got up, ready to jump and attack an enemy apparently on the brink
+of exhaustion.  But Angrypaw managed to see a gargoyle body lying in
+pieces on his side:  Tonguerot, his leader!  Angrypaw then became aware
+that most of his fellows had been vanquished by the DragonQuesters, and
+that Krastin was nowhere in sight.

+"I won't flee until yar dead, dwarfscum!"

+"Try me!" said SunStorm, getting up again, trying to look as fierce as
+possible, dropping the mace and holding the sword with both hands again.

'Raelf spun slowly in midair, waiting for the pain to pass.  Remember
your first aid training.  Self-assessment time.  Arousal - sort of conscious,
I guess.  Having trouble thinking straight.  Balance?  quick self-exam.
Oh. No.  No wonder he was having such a hard time moving to the ground,
his elemental-earth component was almost gone.  That was why he was having
such a hard time thinking - no stabilizing solidity.  Control?  Well,
not really.  Power pool fairly low, but his control pool was less than half
allocated, now that he was only holding two spells - the one remaining ward,
and the spell of strength on Lancos.  The other half of control was almost
completely gone though.  He kept losing human form, and his pulse was racing,
flickflickflickflick fireairwatervoidfireairwater(earth)void...

+Angrypaw then quickly decided to keep the better part of valor to
+himself, and took off.

And bounced off the human mage.  He felt an incredible wash of pain,
worse than what the stoopid dwarf had given him.  He looked at his right
hand, and realized eventually that it just ended at the wrist.

'Raelf suddenly snapped into alertness.  Something had just fed him
a nice chunk of stability.  He looked into the darkness.  There was
a gargoyle, hand missing, in front of him.  Its elemental structure
was damaged, torn somehow.  The loss of control was much worse than
he'd imagined.  He blurted, stupidly.

"Oh, man.  I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that.  Man, I haven't torn
a sentient like this for centuries, sorry, can I fix that for you,
the hand, I mean?  That is, if you like..."  He trailed off incoherently.

Angrypaw was confused.  The mage was offering to help him.  This was
not the way things go.  This was wrong.  Gargoyles ate soft-flesh, and
soft-flesh didn't help gargoyles.  "Sod off, bastich," he growled,
and attacked.  A wing raked a bloody trace across the mage's face as
he spun out of the way.  Angrypaw growled in frustration and turned
to face the creature.  It just stood there on its stupid board,
mumbling to itself about "hunter covenant" and "ethics breach".

Angrypaw lunged again, and overshot.  He tried to bank, to pull up,
but his momentum was too great and he (crunch) found himself bouncing
off the lightning rod on the Dragon's Inn.  The mage was still there,
still muttering and staring at him.  A black fire washed over Angrypaw's
brain.  The foodbeast was mocking him.  Kill it.  He flapped slowly
towards it, ignoring the pain of his truncated hand and his gut where
the rod had cracked his armored skin.  Go slow, close on it, and kill it.

"You not able kill me."  The mage was speaking in Gargle.  "You not
live ifn you go away with no hand.  You die stupid death.  You try
kill me you die stupid death.  Eitherway same.  You die anyway..."
It seemed to change its mind.  Its voice became mocking and sarcastic.
"You dead anyway, come get kilt, mushface.  Nya, one-hand, drainspout,
soft-horn.  Nya, weakling  You eat cooked meat, and you like it!"

Angrypaw was overwhelmed with mortified shame.  How had it found out?
"Waz a axident, not my fault, stoopid krastin left it in nest."
He closed on the mage, slowly, then grabbed suddenly, lashing out with
his hands and feet, swinging his spiked tail up through his legs to
slash at the knees.  The foodthing didn't move to defend himself.

Angrypaw wrapped around him in a tackle.  For a second he thought he had won.
He opened his fanged mouth around the mage's throat...

+ShockWave was feeling ill, and weaker and weaker.  He knew that this was
+because his consciousness was inside SunStorm's mind instead of where it
+SHOULD be:  inside the nearly dark magical crystalline sword.  He tried
+to make himself reenter his own "true" body.

+"Arrh, too hard!  Too weak!"

+And he passed out, falling on the steely pavement of the Glittering
+Steel Plaza, between SunStorm`s shield and mace, amidst a half dozen
+gargoyles bodies.

+Only a flicker persisted in the sword.  And you really had to look at it
+in the dark of the night to be able to see it.

Valgar saw the last gargoyle die, vanishing into the sudden cloud of fire
and smoke where 'Raelf had been.  The fitful light showed him what the
dim starlight and the vagrant light from the Inn could not: Lancos,
slumped against the wall of the Dragon's Inn, and Kadrys, standing over
a pile of bodies.

"Damn.  I wish that dude hadn't done that."  'Raelf slid down through the
air to land by Valgar.  He wore a strange expression.  Kind of ... guilty?

'Raelf unsealed the neck of his suit, and pulled out the crystal amulet.
It began to emit a gentle light, in a directed beam rather like the
light from the beacons on the towers by the harbor entrance.  He passed
it over the plaza, over Valgar and Lancos.  It sparkled slightly as it
washed across some of the gargoyles, more strongly as it went over Valgar,
and over the greenclad fighter.  (And not at all as it passed over Kadrys.)

K-KLAK - he stepped off of the board.  It rose to hover beside him.

"How's SunStorm?"  he asked.  Valgar looked up from where he was kneeling
by the unconscious mini-giant.

"Seems to be barely alive, and very heavy.  We should move him inside."

'Raelf played the light across the shrunken giant.  It sparkled faintly
where it struck his flesh.  The sword, too, had a faint glimmer, and there
was the hint of a thin streamer of glow shining between the hilt of the
sword and the giant's heart.

"Oh bogus.   This is going to take more than I have.  Hello, Kadrys."

"'Raelf.  What goes?"

"Giant's badly hurt,  Sword's badly hurt, Valgar and Lancos are injured but
not critical, can you do anything for them?  I have to gather earth, remember
our earlier conversations?  ... I'll explain later."

"Oh.  OH!...  I understand.  Good hunting."

Kadrys moved to perform first aid, while the mage clomped out into the
plaza, stopping at each of the places where the few gargoyle bodies showed
traces of life.  Valgar watched, bemused, as the outline of mage and gargoyle
flickered briefly, leaving only the mage, each time he knelt to touch one.
He returned, scowling.

"That was barely more than what I needed for myself.  They were all pretty
much gone, just a bit of leftover cellular activity.  Step back, Valgar, I
wouldn't want to catch you too close to this."  'Raelf knelt on the cobblestone
street.  He removed the magical case from its bandolier pocket, snapped open
the back.  A number of small gems were clipped into place inside, each held
by a gold spring.  He pulled one loose, and hefted it experimentally.

"About 3-quarters charged.  Hope it's enough, with what I got from the
gargoyles."  He put the case down beside him, then the bandolier and the
amulet around his neck.  He stuck the stone to his forehead, and placed
one hand each on the giant and the sword.  A moment's focus, a silence
that seemed to go on forever...  The words of binding were ...

He began to blur slightly, an aura that touched and permeated the sword
and its bondmate, extending outwards to brush delicately across the
onlookers...  A careful, always careful, examination of the knots and
twists and bindings and strictures.  Moments passed.  He began chanting
something in that language that sounded like rocks exploding.

<<  Thy name, oh sword, is Shock, thy form be bound in crystal.
    Thy name, oh spirit, is Wave of Light, thy will be bound in diamond.
    Thy power we bind in fire, Thy power we bind in blood.
    Thy will  we bind in water, thine intent we bind with holy oil.
    Thy speech we bind to air, thine communion we bind with sacred word.
    Come forth, oh spirit, from that place of crystalline metal,
    Serve us in our need and we will serve thee in thine.

    ShockWave.  Can you hear me?

    ((What?  Who?  I thought I heard the old priest?  Who are you?))

    ShockWave.  Come to me.  Let go of the giant.

    ((I can't.  'Raelf, is that you?  You look strange.))

    ShockWave, let go of the giant NOW.  I'll keep him alive now.

    ((Promise?  Well, of course you do.  What is this place?  Why am I walking
      on six legs like this?  Oh great goddess, this is my original body!))

>>

Nearby, Kadrys had bound Valgar and Lancos' wounds, healing what they
could.  Somehow, they all understood the exchange -- the speech echoed
in their heads in their native tongue, an accident of the casting, or
some leftover magic fluctuation, or a side effect of the aura that touched
the edges of their perceptions.

Lancos began to feel uneasy.  Then time seemed to hiccup, and split into
two parts.  The three observers were afflicted with sudden deja vu.
Valgar stepped back, out of the aura of presence the surfer-mage had
extended, and the words became nonsense-noise, and the deja-vu vanished.
Curious, he moved back into the effect.

<<
    Don't let it worry you, ShockWave.  I'll put you back in the sword as
    soon as I've fed you.  Here, this is qvartessence, drink it.

    ((The real thing?  (slurp, gulp) Goddess, that's good, it's been
      millenia since I had any.  Where did you find it?))

    I took it away from some gargoyles who won't be needing it.

    ((Oh.  Serves them right, I suppose.  Hey, what happened to SunStorm?
      His spirit was completely gone from his body!!  I have to help him!))

    Well, watch, but don't touch.  I'm about to fix the damage to his body.

    ((Oh my.  His poor neck really did get all torn up.  And they tore a
      big hole in his poor tummy.  He didn't lose his ...))

    No, he'll still be able to father children.  The neck injury is bad,
    though.  He was almost crippled.  I wouldn't have been able to save
    him, not with his spirit gone off elsewhere.  :::-__-

    ((HEY, what was that - OOOH I like that.  He's all healed up!))

    Patched, anyway.  It takes a few hours for it to become permanent,
    in the meantime, stay out of fights.

    ((How did you do that?  Can you show me?))

>>

The sense of deja-vu worsened into a sense of complete dissociation.

<<
1   I guess so.  It might make your future owners live a bit longer.
1   Here, this is how it works :::-__-
2   I guess so.  It might make your future owners live a bit longer.
2   Here, this is how it works :::-__-

1   ((I think I can remember that.  So can I go back into my body now?))

1   Yes, but you need to keep the bond going.  His body will die if
1   it doesn't have a spirit in it, and frankly, I don't trust what
1   would happen if some wandering loose ghost or imp took a fancy
1   to that dense little fellow.

1   ((Oh.  No, we can't have that.  I think I have the strength now,
1   to keep the bond going.  But it's really hard to move around.))
2   ((I think I can remember that.  So can I go back into my body now?))

1   Fine, I'll carry you in on the board if I have to.  'Wave, dude,
1   do you recall the words I used to wake you up?
2   Not yet.  I need to ask you something.  Remember the chant I used
2   to waken you?

1   ((Yes, that was the chant the old priest used when I was created.))
2   ((Yes, that was the chant the old priest used when I was created.))

1   Not quite.  I was reading the lines of your binding.  ShockWave,
1   you were damaged a few years ago.  Someone cast a disjunction on
1   you and it cut loose some of your constrictions.
2   Not quite.  I was reading the lines of your binding.  ShockWave,
2   you were damaged a few years ago.  Someone cast a disjunction on
2   you and it cut loose some of your constrictions.

1   ((Well, I certainly remember the disjunction.  One of that bitch
1   DemonMother's pet priests, if I'm not mistaken.  And I never am.))
2   ((Well, I certainly remember the disjunction.  One of that bitch
2   DemonMother's pet priests, if I'm not mistaken.  And I never am.))

1   Yes, well, when I finish, the bond will be back in force the way
1   it first was.  You might find some side effects you don't like.
2   Yes, well I want to do something you might not like.  SunStorm's
2   body will die in a few hours without a spirit to tenant it.  I would
2   like to do something to your bond, so you can keep him from dying.

1   ((What kind of side effects?  Will they keep me from doing what
1     I need to do?))
2   ((Does it mean I have to keep animating him?  I don't LIKE that,
2     it's creepy and it makes me feel so clumsy.))

1   No, but you'll find the desire to kill demons is stronger, and
1   you might find a few other minor things.
2   Look, do you want him to die?  If so, I'll just put you back in your
2   sword-body, SunStorm will die, and you can say goodbye to Titania.
2   The DemonMother will win.  Your thousands of years of service will be
2   for nothing.  Do you want that?

2   ((No, of course not.  But the priests put the restrictions there on
2     purpose when I was consecrated.  The sword can only control the
2     wielder in an emergency.))
2   Wave, dude, you were a baby sword then.  They were afraid you might
2   start taking over for good, and that isn't right.  But you've been
2   around for thousands of years now, and stayed with hundreds of different
2   warriors.  Do you think you'd ever do anything to hurt your wielder?


2   ((Of course not, what kind of sword do you think I am, anyway?))

2   A very old one.  Now, do you want me to do this or not?

1   ((Oh.  Well, that's fine then, as long as it doesn't hurt.))
2   ((Will it hurt?))

2   Not if you go along with it.

2   ((Then do it, but I really don't like this one little bit.))

2   Objections noted.  Hold on now.  Stand HERE, between your bodies.

1   Good.  Stand HERE, and keep one foot in SunStorm here...
2   Good.

1   Thy name, oh sword, is Shock, thy form be bound in crystal.
2   Thy name, oh spirit, is Wave of Light, thy will be bound in diamond

1   Thy name, oh spirit, is Wave of Light, thy will be bound in diamond.
2   Thy name, oh sword, is Shock, thy form be bound in crystal
2   Thy name, sword spirit, is ShockWave,
2   thy life be bound in the life of thy bearer,
2   sustain him, be sustained by him, thy power his and his be thine.

1   Thy power we bind in fire, Thy power we bind in blood.
2   Thy power we bind in fire, thy power we bind in his blood

1   Thy will  we bind in water, thine intent we bind with holy oil.
2   Thy will we bind in water, thine intent we bind with holy oil

1   Thy speech we bind to air, thine communion we bind with sacred word.
2   Thy speech we bind to air, thine communion we bind with sacred word,
2   to serve him in thy need and he to serve thee in thine.

1   Come forth, oh spirit, from that place of crystalline metal,
1   Serve us in our need and we will serve thee in thine.

	De tol so, ed era feccere tol.
>>

Valgar stepped back, shielding his eyes, as the sword began to glow.
The plaza was filled again with light.  The wounds vanished.
The blood was gone.  The armor was still torn up.  Blue eyes opened slowly.

1 "Yes, I guess it worked, I don't feel nearly as horrid as before."
1 ShockWave moved the giant into a sitting position.  Balance was not
1 too bad - really, a little better than it had been before.  Maybe
1 that disjunction really did have some side effects.
2 "This is strange.  What did you do to me?"  The voice came from the giant
2 and the sword, simultaneously.  'Raelf grinned.  Stereo.

1 "You'd better let me move you inside.  Oh, and you're going to have
1 to make him eat.  There's no IV drips at this tech level and I am
1 not about to keep him from starving by magic."  'Raelf gestured,
1 and the board moved into the air beside the mini-giant.  He moved
1 over to where Valgar and Kadrys stood, tending Lancos' wounds.
2 "I just finished what you had started.  Your bond is now complete, and goes
2 two ways, so you can draw strength from your wielder if you have to.  Be very
2 careful, though.  It would be easy for you to take too much, or give too much,
2 so don't lose your head.  Oh, and it will require a ceremony now when you are
2 handed over to a new wielder, but not a big one.  And you're going to be a bit
2 more intimate with your future wielders, so I suggest you begin thinking about
2 how to keep privacy between you."  The mage stood, moving towards Lancos.

Time seemed to slow, oooozing together with an almost audible slurp.

SunStorm's body stood, slowly, using the hovering rune-board as a bench
to pull up on.  ShockWave was cradled against his shoulder.  The hilt was
just above his head.

"OH NO!  WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"What?"  'Raelf turned, one eyebrow cocked.

"YOU SHRUNK ME!!"

"No.  You are attuned to your wielder.  You always were, but you wouldn't
admit it.  You are the right size for his needs.  You always could be, if
you didn't think it was so hot being a Huge Egotistical Holy Sword."

'Raelf turned back to Lancos, who was pale and shaking.  Incipient shock.
Some blood loss.  He touched the wounds, concentrated, FLICK-FLICK, and the
man in green was suddenly whole.  The mage exhaled, marshalling his strength.
One more to go, and he could rest.  The powerstone was half drained now.
More than enough power for this.  Odd.  The stone should be more drained.
Surely he had used more power?  Oh well...

"'Raelf?"  The giant-sword had come up behind him.

"What do you want, ShockWave?"  He reached out, touching Valgar on the
shoulder, focussing will,  ... FLICK-FLICK - his injuries were gone...

"Tell me how giants eat food.  I'm new at this."

'Raelf grinned, matching an involuntary sharp smile from Kadrys, and
Lancos and Valgar carefully suppressed laughter.  They rose, and led the giant
back into the Dragon's Inn.

"Serene!  Food for four, please."

====

Food! glorious food...
Newsgroups: alt.skinheads