From: ...sage@basement.library.generica.nexus
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [KQ] ...sage [TGMOAB 4.0] Thought I'd drop in.
Followup-To: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Date: 6 Nov 1992 02:35:53 GMT
Organization: the basement of the Great Library of Generica
Distribution: world
Reply-To: pcalvert@economics.adelaide.edu.au
NNTP-Posting-Host: calvert.commerce.adelaide.edu.au
Keywords: archives

Three figures moved through the swirling ethereal mists.
Three figures thinking vastly different thoughts.
Three figures with vastly different intentions.

One: Iglyarch.
Controlling the teleport, slow boat style. It wouldn't do to 
let Mother know ahead of time that I'm coming, with guests.
He had time to ponder the task set before him.

"The fool ...sage. He has no idea what he is in for."
"My master will reward me greatly for upsetting Mother's plans
 and I will reward myself with the key to the Great Library's
 basement when this reject drow is one with Mother's primordial
 soupiness."
"I'll make things obvious when it is too late for him, though 
 the rabble called the Kron Questers may yet win out. I'll make
 them see that if they survive, their lives are owed to me.
 I'll be generous, and forgive what they did to me on the 
 Broadmarch, once Generica is MINE!"
"As for the mind flayer: he is no match for me. I might spare his
 miserable skin, though, if he agrees to be my servant. After all,
 his work has been destroyed, so what else has he to live for?"

Two: Quruuminias.
Psychic defense against the coming mental assault and caught
between a rock and a hard place.

"Great Mother will chew these two alive, so I must prepare to 
 teleport out as quick as I can once their guard on me relaxes."
"Iglyarch is an egomaniac, and deserves his fate, though I can 
 understand what drives him. He is not transparent to me; there is
 something there that I cannot place. An external entity that
 governs his actions perhaps? But it is his supreme self-confidence
 in his own ability that will be his undoing."
"He will prove a worthy addition to Mother's troupe of adorers."
"...sage, though, is another matter. I cannot fathom him at all."
"He is blind and sickly white, and yet could have killed me, but
 chose not to. Mother will deal with him, in her own way, I'm sure,
 but I want to get as far away as I can from this place, at least
 for a while, until I am strong once again."

Three: ...sage.
Clutching Thk's Silver Trident, he had weaved defensive spells around
the three and was preparing for the probing of an entity that had
breached his wards at the Great Library.

A bell rang.
Reaching into a pouch at his side, he felt a small wooden box 
inside, and tipping it up within the pouch, something that felt
like a silky smooth coccoon fell out.
An impression formed within ...sage's mind : no, a name. : 'Raelf
and an emotion : no, an impression : trouble.

The Silver Trident felt warm under ...sage's grip, and that boded
ill too, for being a thing of Water, and the rightful property of
a cold-blooded lizardman, it should still have been cold to touch.
More trouble.

Distant voices on an ancient hill echoed in the back of ...sage's mind
as he recalled his trip to Arkham and the small clay amulet he found
there.
********************************************************************
What strange forces was he dealing with. Was he out of his league?

..sage had no time to think of Iglyarch and Quruuminias.
He was too busy thinking of his friends.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Iglyarch signalled the other two and the ethereal mists parted.
Something was wrong, though. Surely this wasn't Generica. Or even
Nexus.

The sight that assailed their eyes was that of a madman's garden,
in an underground grotto. Huge fronds swaying in no breeze, a fetid
stench assaulting their overwhelmed nostrils and muttering and 
chanting on the edge of sound tickling at the corners of their ears,
 - and their sanity.

..sage reeled. His true sight had revealed that the entire floor
of the grotto was one huge creature, made up of many, many others.
And the grotesque conglomeration of multiple personalities hammered
hard at the librarian's mind.

Quruuminias had done his job though, and the three managed to 
maintain presence of mind as ...sage started his probing.

A voice shattered his concentration.

"GREAT MOTHER. I OFFER HERE A TOKEN FROM MY MASTER TO YOURSELF."
"THE KEEPER OF KNOWLEDGE OF YOU AND YOUR KIND IS NOW DELIVERED
 UNTO YOU BY MY HAND."
"MY WORK HERE IS FULFILLED, AND MY MASTER BIDS MY RETURN."

Quruuminias jumped and seized his chance and almost caused an 
audible pop as he vanished from sight. Iglyarch, too, vanished
quicker than the blink of a mind's eye, leaving a small figure
in a mottled green cloak, and clutching a Silver Trident to 
bear the brunt of the mounting force of Mother's collective mind.

It was then that ...sage noticed that they were not the only ones
here.
On the far side of the cavern, the figure of Kron, with a glazed look
in his eyes and seemingly unaware of what was happening, was standing
in mid air, over the place where the huge gelatinous mass was lapping
the side of the bath, arms outstretched to embrace a figure of
a young girl. But the young girl was part of the huge mass in the
centre of the room; M'ya'Yglleth, now called the Great Mother,
once consort of Shub-Niggurath; the Black Goat with a Thousand Young.

The other Kron Questers were there too, though looking very much
the worse for wear, and it looked like 'Raelf had joined them.
He was straining to hold some corruscating magical force against
another being that was extruded from M'ya'Yglleth's bulk.
He was also holding wards in place to stop the Kron Questers from
succumbing to the call of insanity that permeated the room.

Quruuminias had gone, so the pressure was starting to bear on
..sage's mind, and Iglyarch too, being gone, meant that firepower
was out of the question, and his parting shot did nothing to appease
the monster before him.

Slowly the pressure built up in ...sage's mind, yet the madness did
not take hold. ...sage's mind seemed to separate from the horrors
about him and race away at a great pace.

-=- Ever been in a situation of great trauma and felt as though
 time had turned to treacle? Ever see each object more clearly 
 than you thought possible? Ever find that you had plenty of
 time to think, when in reality you only had a split second?
 Well, ...sage is experiencing that now.
-=-

Silky smooth = coccoon = 'Raelf.
One hand reached into the pouch and pulled out a coccoon the size
of a child's fist. An aura of magic surrounded it and before his
eyes it burst open.
A butterfly leapt forth, but no ordinary one. This was composed of
precious metals and gemstones, and not second rate stuff either.
A message formed in a conceptual way that defied Generican logic.
"To 'Raelf" and the little beastie fluttersd in a long and lazy arc
over the sunken bath towards the embattled mage.
Well, it seemed like a long and lazy arc, but in reality, the 
butterfly fairly zoomed along, back to its master.

But ...sage's mind has leapt again, and now the Trident is the 
focus. ...sage sees Thk, also on the other side of the cavern with
the Kron Questers, though closer to ...sage than the others.
He is wrestling with a member of the watch. The same man that tried
to arrest Kron a few days ago (though it seems like months ;)

"Powers of the Trident, Thk must activate to save them."

"THK" "POWER WORD SPIN AND SUMMON" - the words took no audible
form, bypassing the usual aural track and echoing straight into 
Thk's mind.
..sage tossed the Trident straight out from himself and it flashed
in mid air before vanishing -

The force of the telepathic call had thrown Thk off balance, causing
him to drop the Elven King's swords, making an opening for Panarchus.

As Thk reeled, Panarchus brought his sword around for an overhead
smash
- when the Trident reappeared in front of the Lizardman.

Thk instinctively grabbed at it, and the sword was stopped by the
shaft of the Trident, instead of Thk's skull.

..sage had no time to watch. Kron was still suspended in mid air.
..sage levitated the former Watch sergeant using his innate 
drow ability and then, applying some Earth science (picked up in
Arkham) to magic, threw himself backwards against the wall behind
him. The conservation of momentum threw Kron a likewise distance
backwards, snapping the levitation link and dropping Kron to the 
ground like a shot pigeon.

-=-=-=-
Time started to speed up again. Then again, Generican time was
always doing strange things, but it wasn't about to let the
librarian to operate at a rate so much faster than everyone else.
Especially this librarian.
-=-=-=-
As ...sage hit the wall behind him things returned to normal, or
as normal as they could ever be in such a place.
Slumping to the ground he was dimly aware that the mind of 
M'ya'Yglleth was now focussing on him.
He saw renewed activity across the grotto as the butterfly
reached 'Raelf, as Thk regained his balance and shifted the 
Trident into position and as Kron lost the glazed look from
his eyes.
His attention swivelled back to M'ya'Yglleth, and the tendrils
emerging from the sunken bath and heading in his direction.

"M'ya'Yglleth, Ogthrod Ai'F Geb'L-ee'H Yog-Sothoth 'Ngah'ng Ai'Y Zhro" 
..sage yelled, and the tendrils paused in their approach.
"Ogthrod Ai'F Geb'L-ee'H Yog-Sothoth 'Ngah'ng Ai'Y Zhro, M'ya'Yglleth,
 I know who you are!"

			[admin: gosh! ain't it exciting!]

					...sage