From: hutch@hfglobe.intel.com (Stephen Hutchison)
Subject: [KQ] 'Raelf (GMOAB 4.5)  Ground Control to Major Tom
Reply-To: hutch@ibeam.intel.com
Organization: Intel Corporation
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 02:47:28 GMT

[ADMIN]  Note that the 4.5 number assigned to me doesn't mean that the
4.3 or 4.4. articles ever existed.  It's Just A Post, You Should Really
Just Relax...

----------

'Raelf collapsed to one knee, still holding the mind-fog spell, and the
protective circle.  But he was beginning to flicker, visibly, fire,
water, air, earth, nothing - and around him, the only energy sources
were hostile, and taking them in was the same as giving himself to that
noxious mass in the tub. 

And all around, the Mother's forces were preparing for their final victory.
Kron put one foot out, poised over the pool of flesh...

[Time 15:00 - Parsely, Thyme, Rosemary, and oh yeah, ...sage ]

A butterfly made of steel and lace appeared before him, landed on his
head.  Flick.  FIREFIREFIREohyeahFIRE AIR WATER EARTH EMPTINESS.  'Raelf
stood, staff once again at ready.  The mental fog wall thickened, the
protective circle faded into visiblility again.  The butterfly-construct
had carried enough uncontaminated energy for 'Raelf to copy the planeshift
template in his staff, in order to bootstrap in a trickle of power from
outside.  A trickle, though, just enough to offset the drain caused by the
effort of holding the screening so many minds.  Then using the trickle, a
bit more, enough to feed the staff with the energy to sustain the physical
shields.  But then the pressure resumed, and ...

(At the Mages' Guild the front door froze half-open.  The elevators stopped
moving.  The gateway energies which allowed the structure to hold its extra
dimensions began to weaken, and the building began to vibrate like a tuning
fork, at C# above high C.  At the WorldGate, Traveller the Gold Elf saw the
flames of the Gate Beacon beginning to ebb, and quickly stoked them up,
bringing the massive extraplanar energies of the GateKeepers onto the Web.
Somewhere, where physical laws were different, a black hole began to evaporate
at a slightly higher rate as gravity-siphons pulled energy from it.  The
GateKeepers' Web absorbed the powerloss with relative ease.)

His staff was at 1/3 charge.  He could create at most two more serious
effects, before he was forced to boogie out of here.

There, Sandar Tol was using his warping powers on someone, hard to see with
that thing in the pool glaring so brightly.  Ah.  ...Sage?
He'd made it, after all - 'Raelf wasn't sure whether he should rejoice or
despair - No way could ...sage stand toe-to-toe with this creature, unprepared,
unless he'd learned more than just a few things.  And there, that looks like
the illithid they'd met in the drug warehouse, and some black-souled entity of
no particular identifying characteristics, both attacking - no, they were both
preparing to flee.  Sensible, if craven.

Hmm.  Timeflow seemed to be warping - Mother is using too much of her
power and events were becoming nonsequential.  Time to play games with
Sandar Tol, then, grab the timeflow and wrap it around him thus ...
<<ContinuityEmbolism GrizzeldaGlamourCat_Template Fascination to 0.99>>
... There.  Recursive memory loop, ought to hold him long enough for ...sage
to get clear.  We hope.

(Sandar Tol suddenly found himself remembering his entry into Great Mother,
but backwards, then the entry of Cheyenne, and then backwards, and then Aa'a,
then backwards, then Seer, but that hadn't happened yet, and >.. 1001000200230
restart 010329 re 10s, happy zombies march into Mother, feed feed feed ...
   {arrividerci, Black Goat you bastard, I'm going off to Mother}
   Step 1 go at 100900000090000000.
   SandarTolRemembersMommieDearest, Part 45.
Fireflies began to spawn from his forehead.  Ideas leaked out with each
of the blinking bugs.  The weaker members of the mind started to pounce,
sensing weakness...
 --IA IA SHemNyuMiggurAthM'euNigguTherummnIaIaIa--

Sandar realized that somehow he had lost a few minutes of time.  But
Moderator was pointing out the albino drow, and near him that annoying
priest had gotten out of his womb in Mother's substance.  He gathered
strength from the reserves allocated to him, and began the spell of
twisting as the foolish drow dared to speak the Name...

'Raelf considered the situation.  This was an unmitigated disaster.
In fact, it might be good to get going.  He started looking around for
the rest of his group.  There, the animated disasters Mother had spawned
were all down for the count, but at a high cost - where the hell was
everybody?  Didn't see Mother eat anyone but Seer...

"MARCEL!  PREPARE FOR EVAC!  BRING IN THE WOUNDED!"

Then Kron did something drastic at the pool.  'Raelf fell to his knees under
the aura of psychic shock, barely holding the mind wards in their place.
The protective circle collapsed around him.