From: morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Morpheus Nosferatu)
Subject: STORY: Aristobulus the Dark, part 21
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: Netherworld Dreamscape
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 20:35:23 GMT


                             -- 9/22/9526 --

     Aristo pinched the bridge of his nose.  The dull ache behind his eyes
was finally gone: how he hated the after-affects of that identification
spell.  Why so useful a spell had to drain a mage to such a degree had
never made sense to Aristo.  He just attributed it to having been created
by a human mage, since they tended to be rather distinctly limited in the
area of intellect -- not that elves were any better.
     Climbing out of his make-shift bed, he found that his ankle was no
longer bothering him.  He took a few steps, jumped up and down, and finally
did a back-flip.  Yes, his ankle was much better: he could now move about
without more than the occasional twinge of pain.
     He dug some of his meager supply of rations out of his pack, thinking
it had been too bad he had not had the chance to appropriate any from the
ogres.  But then, having caught a glimpse of their cuisine, he doubted it
would be much to his tastes.  Creatures who dined on gnolls -- or whatever
those humanoids had been -- could not have very refined tastes.  Ari
shrugged to himself.  Maybe gnoll meat actually did taste good.  After all,
he never had tried any.  Then again, he did not care to, either.
     After draining his waterskin, Aristo went and refilled it from a small
basin set in one wall of the other room.  He was glad for the existence of
these basins, which he had run across in a few of the rooms.  They were
constantly filled by a small stream of water, the excess of which drained
away through holes near the lip of the basin.  He had no idea where they
drained to, or where the water came from -- perchance some underground
river, possibly even the same one he had crossed in the tunnels above.
     He had spent some of his idle time wondering what would happen if he
were to dump some poison into them.  Maybe they drained into a reservoir.
How much poison would it take to pollute an entire reservoir anyways?  Oh,
well, it was a moot point in any case, since he had no poison and would not
be able to try it in any case.  Too bad he had never had the chance to learn
the skills of an assassin.  That might liven things up in his life, so to
speak.  Then again, he got by well enough on his own.  Although effective
for getting the point across, stabbing someone in the back or poisoning
them was not exciting enough for Aristo.
     Packing up his things, he dug out the enchanted medallion.  At least
he would now have a companion for his explorations.  Granted, being couped
up in these hidden rooms with himself had not been the most pleasant of
of experiences, and he had a rather low tolerance of anything that did not
please him.
     Now, however, he would not be stuck in these dull chambers, he would
be exploring these tunnels.  That would be different.  There would be things
to attract his attention, of which this room was definitely lacking.  Plus,
he would have a second opinion of his experiences, and he was certain that
this time they would be opinions he could agree with, for perhaps the first
time in his life.
     Activating the enchantments upon the medallion, Aristo felt a wrenching
sensation and then was standing next to himself.  A momentary flicker of
distraction passed across the face of both elves as each considered that the
other might be a simple clone, but it quickly passed.  He had already argued
with himself over that point and had assured himself that it was not the
case... or was it?
     There was a moment of silence, before one of the pair of Aristos asked,
"How the devil do you greet yourself?"
     "A sword in the gut comes to mind.  But that would distract us from our
explorations."
     "Too true," returned the first, loosening his grasp on his sword, and
the other responded in kind.
     "What say we dispense with such trivialities altogether?  I talk to
myself entirely too much as it is."
     "Yet there is that faint urge to say something to someone you've just
met...  Too much of that blasted elven upbringing," he concluded.
     "Get with it!  How often do I greet someone with something other than
something along the lines of 'Bugger off!'"
     A faint smile quirked at the lips of the other elf.  "Careful.  Have
you forgotten that it is improper grammar to use the same word more than
once in the same sentence?  Three `some's in a row?"
     The faint smile was met with a distinct snarl.  "You'd best watch your
tongue our you will get a sword in the gut."
     "Sorry.  I couldn't help myself.  It's not like I don't normally do
that sort of thing to everyone I meet."
     "What?  Did I hear you use the word `sorry?'  I don't believe I've ever
apologized to anyone before in my life!"
     "Oh, like you really count as a different person!  I have no problems
with apologizing to myself.  I just don't think I've ever had the chance to
do it to my face."
     "There are always mirrors."
     "I don't care for mirrors."
     "True, elven faces do bring out the worst in me."
     Continuing his idle banter with himself, Aristobulus exited the secret
door from his current refuge and took off down the nearest passageway he had
not yet explored.  The sooner he was in new territory, the better.  This
passage twisted and and turned, eventually opening up into a small chamber.
There was a passage meandering off to somewhere else, but it was the
stairwell going down that snatched his attention.  A chance to explore the
deeper reaches of these tunnels!
     "Damn, I wish I had known there was a stairway this close before, or
I never would have had to bother with those blasted ogres."
     "Then I wouldn't have this nice medallion.  Now shut up and try to
think before you open your mouth again.  It's not like you say all that
much, so you shouldn't have that much occasion to open your mouth and let
something stupid come out."
     "Stow it yourself.  You're spouting as much inanity as I am... more
even."
     "Watch your tongue, or we'll definitely get around to that flashy
death you've always wanted," spat out the other, taking an irritated swipe
at a pile of trash with his foot.
     Their nest disturbed, giant centipedes started swarming from the mess.
Aristo was distracted by this.  His elven eyes had not noticed their body
heat under the rubble.  Even as they crawled across the floor they were
still fairly cool, not hot-blooded psychopaths like most of the critters
dwelling in the underrealm -- just mindless killers.
     The two Aristos quickly stomped and hacked the squirming things to
death.  One of him, however, had been bitten by a centipede, and he became
rather nauseous for a few minutes as its venom started coursing through his
body.  The poison was not very potent, however, and its affects soon ceased
to bother him.
     While his other self leaned against the wall with perspiration starting
to bead on his brow, the Ari who had not been bitten thought aloud to
himself.  "I had not though of that: the powers of the medallion do not
duplicate the enchantments on my magic items.  So it makes sense that it
cannot duplicate the magical wards that protect me.  You really should
renew them for yourself."
     The other elf pushed himself away from the wall and wiped off his
forehead on his sleeve.  "Now you tell me."  He forced himself to relax for
a bit, forcing off the affects of the poison as he gathered his magical
powers to set up some protective spells on his person.
     "Come to think of it," wondered the unwounded one, "I wonder which
of us carries the real enchanted cloak and dagger and other stuff."
     "Did the dagger cast light as many enchanted weapons do, it at least
would be easy to tell."
     "That doesn't bother me in the least.  I'm quite glad it does not shed
light.  Otherwise someone might notice me before I could use it to stab him
in the back."
     "Just watch who you stab in the back.  Try it on me and I'll turn you
into orc meat."
     "No thanks, I can't stand orc meat.  It's smell alone is disgusting."
     "Wait, isn't that goblin...?"
     "I don't know.  They're all the same to me."
     The other one looked over at the stairway, then at his twin.  "I'm
doing it again.  I'm talking to myself and forgetting what I'm supposed to
be doing.  I hate it when that happens."
     "You're not the only one..."  Aristo cut himself off, thinking about
what he was saying to himself.  "Then again, maybe you are..."

     Briadne looked out from the cover of a doorway, waiting to see who or
what was descending the stairway.  She had heard the sounds of voices and a
scuffle from above, prompting her companions and herself to hide.  They were
not about to be ambushed by another of the killers who lived in these
tunnels.  They had already had their share of battle -- not only did they
take little pleasure from the killing of others, even in self-defense, but
at this rate they would never find the goal of their quest.
     Briadne was surprised to see a pair of elves enter the room.  The two
elves warily took in the torches she had left in the sconces of the room.
She knew it would put whoever was approaching on guard, but it would also
serve to illuminate them and also ruin any darksight they might have.
Granted, the torches also ruined her own elven heat-sensing vision, but
her two companions could not see in the dark as Briadne could.
     Watching the two elves enter the other room, she was amazed to see that
the two elves appeared to be identical twins, right down to the clothes they
wore.  Twins were extremely rare amongst elves, and identical ones almost
unheard of.  In fact, she could not recall mention of any being born in the
past millennium, and these grey elves did not appear to be more than a
couple centuries old at most.
     She considered that one of the pair might be a mirror image of the
other generated by a magical spell, but quickly discarded the possibility.
She had herself used the spell a number of times, and always the images
exactly copied the motions of the real person.  These two elves must indeed
both be flesh and blood.
     Then there was some twinge of familiarity about the elves, as if she
had seen them somewhere before.  Yet that could not be, for she was certain
she would recall ever having met a pair of identical elven twins.  Perhaps
she had only met one of them?  That was possible, but she still could not
think of any identical elves.  The only ones she knew of there more than a
thousand years old.
     Since these were a pair of grey elves, Briadne chose to reveal herself.
Grey elves were the most noble and good of all the elven races, and so she
did not believe that these two would outright attack her and her companions
as most of the inhabitants of these tunnels had done.  She stepped from her
concealment and revealed herself to them.  "Hale and well met, travellers.
I am Briadne of House Zavinius."
     The two Aristos unsheathed their swords and assumed defensive postures
like a pair of perfectly choreographed dancers, not at all pleased at the
appearance of this elf.  They both made the same comment about high elves
and orcs, then looked over at each other, but resisted the urge to grin.
     Then a human and a halfling appeared from the shadows behind Briadne,
their weapons unsheathed, yet trying to not hold them threateningly.  They
did not know what to expect from these two identical elves, but they trusted
Briadne.  As for Briadne, she had not touched her weapon, completely taken
off guard by the openly hostile reaction of the pair of grey elves.
     Aristobulus looked over the trio: an elf, a human, and a halfling --
three of the races he despised the most.  Of course, there were also orcs,
and gnomes, and goblins...
     All three of them were well-armed.  The human was weighted down by
chainmail, but it did not conceal the exaggerated anatomy so common to human
women, unlike the slender elven frame, though she was not bad looking... for
a human.  The halfling was a typical fat little furry-footed imbecile no
higher than Aristo's waist, yet held his short sword with rare familiarity
for one of a race more suited for wielding forks and knives and the
occasional set of lock picks.  Briadne was also armed and armored as a
warrior.  In all, they looked quite capable of defending themselves, and
Aristo was more than tempted to put that to the test.
     The elf maiden held up her hands in a gesture of peace.  "I apologize
for startling you.  I realize these tunnels are filled with dangerous and
evil beings, and had not intended for you to mistake us for them."
     One Aristo spat back, "I see no mistake."  Both of him were busy
deciding whether or not to just kill the trio outright and be done with it.
He had hoped to never have to deal with another elf again, except possibly
for a dark elf, and then only out of curiosity about the drow and their
purported ways.
     "Surely you do not believe that we are some of evil denizens of this
place?"  Briadne was astonished by the thought, especially from an elf about
a fellow elf.
     Aristo shook his head.  "No, you have more the look of adventurers, and
from what I have seen, that makes you worse than those whom I am used to
running into in this place."
     The human spat back, "And you are not yourself an adventurer?"  Azalia
had never taken insults lightly.
     Both Aristo's glared at the human woman.  There was something about her
that he did not like, something vaguely familiar...  "Adventurers seek
wealth and riches and fame and other similarly worthless things.  I am in
search of wisdom and knowledge -- something you three would obviously know
nothing about."
     Azalia started to say, "Have a care with your insults, elf..." but was
cut off by Briadne.
     The elf maiden was taken aback by the crude manners of this strange
pair of elves.  "Why do you behave in this fashion?  Are you cursed?  Never
before have I met an elf so barbaric in his ways."
     "You're forgetting Donnan's brother..." Azalia started to remind her
friend, then stopped in mid-sentence, staring closer at the pair of grey
elves before her.  "Aristobulus!"  She hissed it as if it were the most vile
of insults.
     Aristo was surprised to hear his name spoken, having not yet introduced
himself.  Then he remembered.  He had met these people before, if only
briefly, some months before descending into these tunnels.  They were some
of the motley adventurers his eldest brother occasionally travelled with.
It had been from them that Aristo had obtained the location of the entrance
he had used to descend into the underrealm.
     It would seem the efforts he had been taking to forget his past were
working, as previously he would have recognized them immediately.
Unfortunately, his efforts were not sufficient, for he would rather have not
recognized these fools at all.  Granted, he did not know them well, for he
had only met them briefly, as he had spent his time plying information on
the underrealm from their records which his brother had seen fit to grant
him free access to.  Yet what time he had spent around them had been enough
for him to grow to dislike them intensely.
     Hearing the name spoken, Briadne made the connection between the name
and the atypical elf before her.  She had not immediately recognized him, so
much had his appearance changed since last she saw him.  However, recalling
who he was, she was not quite so surprised at his behavior.  "Yes, now I
remember: Aristobulus, son of..."
     One the pair snarled, "I know his cursed name."  The other added, "I
need not be reminded of it."
     She was taken aback by his rudeness.  "You have not changed, have you?
...except to become worse in your behavior.  And how came there to be two
of you?"  She knew for certain that Aristobulus had no twin.
     Azalia indicated the medallion he wore.  "Don't you recognize that?
It's that enchanted medallion Lucius lost to some ogre."
     "How came you to know of this medallion?" demanded Aristo, ever hating
to be kept in the dark about any information -- the main reason for his
explorations of these tunnels.  How could they have known that the medallion
once belonged to an ogre?  Could the medallion have actually belonged to one
of them?  As Aristo recalled, Lucius had been a rather crude human overly
obsessed with sex.
     "Why should I tell you?" Azalia shot back.  "The only thing I should
tell you is to give my greetings to Charon just before I kill you."
     Aristo replied to her in the patronizing voice of one speaking to a 
child: "Well, then, the next time I tell you to unhand me, I suggest you do
so."  Giving her swordarm a cursorly glance, he added, "Though I see you
still have your hand."
     Azalia touched the scar that ran almost completely around her right
wrist, recalling how her hand had been nearly severed by Aristo's sword.
"Yes, Donnan was kind enough to heal it for me.  He also apologized for your
actions."  She obviously thought that had been a waste of Donnan's breath.
     None of this held any interest for Aristo.  His family had never been
one of his favored subjects.  "My brother always was a fool," was all he
said on the matter.
     Considering Aristo and the way he acted, Briadne commented, "I only met
you briefly when you visited us, and despite what Donnan said about you, I
did not believe it could be true that you were as callous and evil as you
appeared to be and as Donnan described you.  I thought that there must have
been something wrong with you: an illness or dementia, or just a very bad
experience.  Now I'm still not sure.  Are you cursed?  Is there some demon
tormenting you?  I cannot believe that any elf would behave as you do."
     Both Aristos rolled their eyes, one of them saying, "The only demons
that torment me are the insufferable fools that populate the world... such
as yourselves."
     The other Aristo added, "Nor do I have any interest or use for evil.
Such things are relative:  To me, you are as evil as anything else in this
blasted world, yet you will no doubt deny it."
     "Of course we are good," piped up Therin, the halfling.  "We have
always fought against evil, ever since Grimwald first established the
group."  He referred to the loose band of adventurers who had first been
gathered together by Grimwald, a dwarf seeking to recover his ancestral
home from the evil denizens who had taken over those ancient dwarf tunnels
under the Dragon's Teeth Mountains during one of the Demon Wars millennia
before.  The band of adventurers had been growing and changing over the
several years since it had been formed, but had always challenged the
forces of evil.
     Taunting them, Aristo countered with, "Ah, but is it not an evil action
to threaten to kill someone as Azalia did moments ago?"  Growing more grim
and moody, "I suggest you look at yourselves and your own actions before
judging others by your values.  You claim to champion `good' and yet freely
use methods and tactics that are generally considered `evil' to do so.  You
might say I am `evil,' yet none of you live up to what you claim is `good.'"
     "That is not true, and you know it!" Azalia shot back viciously.  She
loathed being talked down to by anyone like Aristo.  "We fight against evil
with whatever means we can find, and if that means fighting fire with fire,
as the saying goes, then so be it!  If that sometimes means I have to kill
or break a law, I have no complains as long as it helps the greater good."
     "Then is that how you justify threatening my life?"
     "Yes, exactly!  You tried to kill me, and for that you owe me
compensation!"
     Aristo snarled, "Had I wanted you dead, bitch, you would not be here
now to grate on my nerves.  I cut your hand off to teach you a lesson, but
it would seem to have done no good.  Though had that imbecile not healed
you, you might have learned your lesson on proper behavior."
     "The only lesson you've tought me is to never trust you.  I am glad
you came down into these tunnels.  They suit you well, filled as they are
with beings whose entire being is devoted to malicious evil."
     Briadne shook her head in sadness.  "I cannot believe that an elf could
be as sick as you are.  Were you a drow, then I would expect it.  But a grey
elf?"
     Aristo just stared back at her. "I would have thought that one who
professes to be an adventurer would have seen more of the world.  You must
be incredibly naive if you believe all the light elves are bright and good.
I've met orcs who are more amiable than some of the elves I've had the
misfortune of knowing."
     "Perhaps moreso than yourself," sneered Azalia.  "I think orcs would
make better friends than you would.  At least then I would expect them to
betray me and stab me in the back."
     Aristo waxed philosophical, saying, "The darkest evil is good, for
you trust it... until it bites you!"  This last was said with a vicious and
deeply angered tone of voice.
     "And to think," Therin thought aloud, "Donnan actually wanted to come
after you and bring you back."  He had not believed that Donnan had wanted
to save Aristo from certain death in a lone adventure in the underrealm of
the world.
     Aristo stared down at the halfling, a thing not hard to do.  "Then he
is lucky he did not, for gladly would I have killed the bloody fool."
     "You would have tried, wouldn't you?" uttered Briadne, now realizing
that Aristo would have embraced the act.  "Frey would not smile upon the
killing of one of his own priests by a fellow elf, one of his own children."
     One Aristo pointed his sword at the elf maiden.  "I am sure Lolth would
also frown upon the slaying of one of her children, but that would not stop
me from running you through."
     It took Bri a moment to realize that Aristo was actually implying that
she was a dark elf.  "You go too far, Shea..."
     Aristo quickly cut her off, his anger flaring up.  "I am not of that
House any longer.  I ally myself with none of your hypocritical elven
Houses.  Would that I could manage it, I would not even be an elf.  As it
is, I am fed up with your intolerable, unending stupidities.  I have no
interest in what elves think or say of me.  I have long since learned that
elves have no grasp on the true nature of the multiverse."
     "No doubt that applies to you as well," Briadne shot back, "for there
is much for you to learn."
     One of the Aristos brought his arms up and outwards in a gesture of
enlightenment to indicate her beginning of comprehension.  "Exactly so!
There is much to learn, but I am certainly not going to learn it from a
bunch of moronic elves, or humans or any other race for that matter.  They
say the lore of the ancients is lost or hidden down in these tunnels.  I
fully plan on doing everything in my means to gain it, no matter how far
into the bowels of the world I must go."
     Bri shook her head sadly.  "You're mad.  Completely mad.  If I've
learned nothing else about these tunnels, it is that the deeper you go,
the greater the evil and power of those beings that exist down here.  I'm
surprised you've made it this long on your own.  If you go any deeper, you
will surely die.  You cannot stand a chance alone, on your own."
     "I do not care if I die or gain the wisdom," Aristo stated in a flat,
uncaring voice.  "If I die I then I won't be around, and then it won't
matter to me one way or the other, and if I gain the wisdom and knowledge
so much the better."
     Bri was surprised that she was even still amazed by anything Aristo
said.  "I just do not believe it.  How can you have no respect for life?
You don't even care about your own life?  How can you have lived for, what?
two centuries? without learning just how precious life is?"
     "Quite the contrary.  All of this time has proved to me that there is
no point in life.  Everything is futile.  I've seen several generations of
humans come and go, all to no purpose.  They're like ants.  You trod upon
their hill and they mindlessly start rebuilding it until someone else comes
along and grinds it back into the ground.  It's the same thing with the
Demon Wars.  Every couple of millennia there is another one that destroys
civilization, such as it is, and people just mindlessly start rebuilding it
like mindless little ants.
     "I don't want to be a mindless little ant, doing the same thing over
and over again, when untold numbers of people have already done the same
thing.  I will live my life as I please, and if you do not care for that, it
is your problem.  If I can't find some ancient wisdom buried down here
somewhere that gives a reason for the futile, pointlessness of life, then
yes, I would much rather die and get it over with...  Preferably ceasing to
exist altogether, instead of going to some bloody afterlife to start the
same thing all over again.  Or worse, being brought back to life,
reincarnated as someone else; probably someone not even smart enough to
realize what I have in this life."
     Therin looked up at the two Aristos in disbelief.  "Aristobulus, you
are an idiot."
     "You had best watch your tongue, you stupid little runt, or I'll cut
out your intestines and strangle you with them!"
     "I love it," tossed in Azalia.  "You get on our cases for killing,
but have no qualms about doing so yourself."
     "Quite a different point, you stupid little human.  I was pointing
out how you claim killing to be evil, yet make free use of it.  I, on the
other hand, couldn't give an orc's ass either way.  If I feel like killing
someone, then I do it, and never once run around as the hypocrite preaching
how evil it is to kill."
     "I should think killing you would be an act of good."
     "Ah, see?  Killing is to you either good or evil as its usefulness
suits you.  You want to kill me, so it is good.  Later, you will see someone
kill someone else, and tell them it is an act of abhorent evil."
     Therin said, "Briadne is right, it's surprising that you're still
alive.  With an attitude like your's, I'm surprised no one has tried to kill
you."
     "Oh, they've tried.  But no one has yet been good enough.  And with
two of me, it will be even harder.  It'll make things even more interesting
from now on."
     "Which brings up the question of that medallion," commented Briadne.
"How did you come to possess it?"
     "I had a bit of fun with some magic-using ogre.  I killed him and made
made off with a bunch of interesting little items."
     Azalia claimed, "It rightfully belongs to Lucius."
     "If the cretin can't keep an ogre from taking it away from him, then
he doesn't deserve to keep it.  Besides, if he wants it back, he can come
and try to take it away from me."
     "Maybe I'll do it for him."  She gestured meaningfully with her sword.
     "You aren't even worth the bother.  Unless you've learned a great deal
since last we met, you wouldn't stand a paladin's chance in the Abyss."
     "Don't tempt me.  I would love to dice you.  Both of you."
     Briadne grabbed her friend by the elbow.  "Back off, Azalia."  Of
Aristo, she asked, "Will you come back to Drashain with us?"
     Azalia stared dumbfounded at her companion.  "You've got to be kidding!
Why would we want this bastard with us!?!"
     Aristo said, "I agree with that sentiment.  Why should I want to come
along with you?  To see you safely out of these tunnels?  If you're that
incompetent you shouldn't even be down here."
     "Come back with us.  Perhaps Donnan can help you.  Or your father, he
is a powerful druid.  He might be able to help you."
     "How?  Pray to some incompetent deity to remove my curse?  It's not
that easy.  Enlightenment is not a curse, it is a blessing, although
blessings are as much curses as curses are.  This is not something that
can or needs to be cured.  Until you realize that, you're never going to
have a chance at realizing just how pointless life really is."
     The halfling rolled his eyes.  "The sad thing is, he actually believes
that."
     Aristo stared Therin down.  "Save you mourning.  You'll need it for
when I slice your vacant head from your shoulders."
     "Try it," Azalia prompted him.  "I'd love to take you on, if only to
teach you how stupid you really are."
     Bri tried to motion her friends away from Aristo.  "Leave him alone.
Fighting would accomplish nothing.  He's probably just trying to goad you
into it like he did last time.  There is enough danger down here without
bringing about even more."  To the Aristos she said, "If you will not come
with us to seek help, then go.  We don't need you around to hinder us.  Go
and seek your death, if that is what will please you."
     Aristo gave her a look of mock amazement.  "To think, an elf actually
encouraging someone to go and get killed.  You know, I might be teaching
you something after all.  That or it is just your hypocrasy showing itself
again."
     Losing her anger, Briadne shouted, "Go, damn you!  If it is what you
want, then seek death on your own!  I will not help you in that endeavour!
If you will not welcome anyone's assistance, then I shall not waste the
futile effort of trying to help you."
     "Ah, so, you are also beginning to recognize the futility of all
things.  Perhaps I should stay with you, if it would help your further
enlightenment."
     "Just shut up and get out of here, Aristo," growled Azalia.  "Or I
shall gladly cut you down lite the bastard cur you are."
     Aristo's eyes lite up.  "Then perhaps we can have a spot of fun."
     "I agree," added his twin self, "killing these imbelices would liven
things up around here."
     Briadne ground the heels of her hands into her eyes.  "By the gods,
just go.  Azalia, Therin, put your weapons down.  You're just encouraging
him."
     Most reluctantly, the human and the halfling obeyed their friend.
     However, Azalia could not help but say to Aristobulus, "I look forward
to the day I learn of your death."
     "Promises, promises," muttered Aristo, seeing that they were not about
to attack him.  It would not have been quite the same thing were he to
simply outright kill them.  There would be little enjoyment in that.  Having
thus exhausted any of the amusement he could milk from this trio of
adventurers, Aristo gladly turned both his backs on them and set off down
one of the passageways.

/----------------------------------------+------------------------------\
| Jeff Standish, Dreamwalker, and        |  morpheus@sage.cc.purdue.edu  |
| Morpheus Nosaferatu, The Dream Vampyre | standish@mentor.cc.purdue.edu |
| Too many minds trapped in one body.    |     Reality is for those      |
| And it would be a human one, at that.  |   who can't handle fantasy.   |
\----------------------------------------+-------------------------------/
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