From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [KQ] 'Raelf [Outside the Warehouse] Happy Trails
Date: 11 Sep 92 04:28:32 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon

+ The KronQuestors made their way gingerly out to the street through the exit
+ 'Raelf had effortlessly created for them.

[ Effortlessly?  The trick is to make it LOOK easy...]

Getting rid of the drug was actually a little harder - removing it was a
bad idea, since it was attached to neurotransmitters - but changing its
nature from fire to earth, rendered it inert and harmless.  Sometime he'd
have to see what that really did to the chemical structure.  Anyway, Thk had
that nice sample in his pouch there, to use as a baseline.

While the others were gathering in the alley, 'Raelf constructed the
discriminator for the spell, to show it the general definition of the
joystix drug.  Then the substitution of earth for fire, which was fairly
straightforward.  He laid down the spell matrix into an empty slot in the
staff.  There's a lot of this nasty lying around, and no reason to leave
it just sitting there... About a half-block radius, that would take, oh,
ten charges.  Wow.  That leaves 11 charges left, have to find a nice hot
mana-pool and recharge before doing much else.

He made the formal offer to the others.  "I can purge the drug out of your
bodies, if y'all want, and then heal up any serious damage.  Some of you look
like you been playing with knives."  There was a general assent.

He activated the spell matrix, wincing as the telltale on his staff showed
less than a quarter power remaining.  Must have been even more of the stuff
in the warehouse than he thought.

+ 'Raelf then turned to healing, mending Captain's wound from the crossbow bolt
+ and others--no-one had come through completely unscathed.  He balked at Marcel,
+ though.  "That cyberstuff is heavy, y'know?  It's like a separate entity--not
+ part of the package deal.  Sorry, dude.  I can patch minor scratches, but your
  first aid kit can do a better job for you."

"Anyone I just patched up - y'all need to eat real food real soon.  The
heal spell uses your own energy reserves and it can and will come undone
if you don't replenish them.  Go do lunch, people."

"Are'nt you coming with us, 'Raelf?" Kron asked.

'Raelf shook his head.  "Sorry, dudes.  It's been fun and all, but I got some
stuff to clear up.  The timestream around here is all mucked up, and needs some
serious debugging.  But to do that I gotta hit the books, so now I gotta go
to the library."

"I'll try to join you in a few hours, though.  I want to be in on it when
you meet the Wasters' big boss."

He turned to Thk and spoke a few words in Lizardspeech - something about a
twin brother in the tunnels, and did he know where there was a basilisk.
Thk described a place in the swamps, the Ktatzin Ryuthru, "Valley of Statues".
He described the major landmarks leading inward.  'Raelf grinned (still mostly
stone, he more than resembled a few of those statues).

"Now, what was this about finding one of my brothers in the tunnels?"

"Yeah, down below the warehouse, man, but it was you, really, only he was
a real no-brainer.  No smarts, no speech.  Had a majorly nasty black sword,
and had a big ring on one hand...  No tats, either.  Thk, hey, come back,
HEY, GOJIRA, oh well."

He watched Thk's tail-tip disappear down a nearby manhole.  Shrug.  Thk
is a big boy, he can handle himself in the sewers.

"Hey, Marcel, mon ami, and the esteemed reb Fishbein.  Y'all got an FM
broadcast unit in all that chrome? Give me a test tone on the 15 mhz band."
The Cyberknight complied; A gemstone embedded flush in the staff began to
blink an amber light.

"Tubular, man.  Could you like, turn on a beacon on that band just before
y'all go off to find the Big Boss Dude?  I'll join up with you then."

He grinned, saluted, and FLICK a hummingbird hovered where he had been
standing, then zipped up into the sky and vanished.

====

"Let's all go to the lobby,
   Let's all go to the Lobby,
     Let's all go to the Lobby,
       And get ourselves a TREAT!"
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn