Organization: Central Michigan University
Date: Tuesday, 28 Jul 1992 19:45:10 EDT
From: Mike Sander <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [Dq:] Week 2, part two

[Here's part two of three from Patrick's stuff... enjoy.]

======================================================================
ADMIN: Here goes... the start of it is quoted directly from Hutch's/
        'Raelf's last posting.

- - -
It was late morning when they were finished.  SunStorm and Lancos had gone
off to inquire of the guards what they could about the mob.  They were not
due back until later that day, with the group due to depart the next morn.
'Raelf sat at the table, twitching.  Conversation was fine but inactivity.
"I am hate this.  Valgar, is not good I for sit still in dark bar all day.
 Is nice day out.  I go get idea of what this burg looking like."

He laid the board out flat on the floor and stood on it.  The strange boots
CLICKED and a rune glowed at heel and toe of each.  More runes started to
gleam, and the board rose to tabletop level, 'Raelf balancing on it.
A sort of >kick< propelled him towards the door, and out, and with a sideways
sort of slide, he started up into the air.

The city shrank below.  There was a good breeze going south, and he found
the local earthline . . . strange, it deviated away from that urban blight
section ... Grab some sky and let's see what this place really looks like.

North of the Dragon's Inn, a few blocks to the river.  Lots of commerce, but
only one permanent bridge, if you don't count the city wall to the east.
A hill off towards the west, and north of the river, with fancy houses
all along.  Clearly high rent district.  The town square, yeah, and some
sort of city building on the other side of it to the east.  There was the
library to the north of the river, just west of the first of the fountains...

There to the northern side of the city, a palace of sorts.  Figures.  This
would have to be another feudal setup.  Why do all these high-magic places
have to be feudal?  Oh well.  Two main gates, one south and one east.
Good harbor.  Traces of strong water magic - centering around the buoys
at the river mouth and ... hey, it's cool, I'm not gonna tamper, please
don't get irate and zap me, mister hugely powerful mage ... Glad he didn't
really figure out what was touching his spellfield.  That must have been
that city magus, the master of the Vortex, that ...sage had told him about.

Something weird below.  From the smell of it, a summoning, and supposedly
in water, but wait ... a BEER elemental?  Radical.  Let us stay clear of
that sort of thing.  'Raelf kicked off against a small drifting cloud.
Any trace of dragonishness here?  Call up the archetypes, FLICK a small
glimmering rune of crystalline silver.  Tarnishing, turned copper, then
evaporating.  Down below, a smallish draconian flying off to the hills,
but far too small for TrueSilver, and besides, it was a copper anyway.

Time to go back.  Been up for an hour and a half.  He carved the air,
gradually spiralling over the city, getting his bearings before cutting
in CAREFULLY towards the Dragon's Inn.  Phasing at the last minute into
Air, then back to reality behind Lancos and SunStorm as they walk into
the Inn with their findings.
- - -

CUT TO: a few hours before...

SunStorm: "OK, I thank you all for giving your ideas on those blasted
riddles. Not that I think it helped a lot, it raising more questions than
it solved, but anyway, here is what I propose. I'll go check, like Valgar
proposed, with the city watch. Any who want to come with me can do so.

If any of you can do some search of the reasons why the riot happened, then
that would also help some. I know there are some risks involved with that
task, since it requires contacting the undergroud. Someone who know the
city well and doesn't fear the thieves guilds could take care of that part.

Also, although it's less important, if anyone can do some bibliothecary
search for maps of the local regions, preferably those with caves shown on
it, well that could also help us. ANy legends about books, caves, or just
about anything which you think might help us would also be useful, of
course.

We'll meet tonight, and if all goes well we'll be ready to go tomorrow.
Don't despair: look what we've assembled in only one evening. I'm sure
another full day will bring the clues we need to go find TrueSilver. Ok,
so I'm going to the Watch, now. Anyone want to go with me?"

Lancos: "I'll go with you, since I know the city fairly well. If need be,
I'll also try to take a look into Low City myself."

SunStorm: "Good".

Valgar: "Err, I think I'll pass. And I don't know the city that much
anyway. Well, I'll try to amass some info using... other ways."

SunStorm: "No problem. Nobody forces you to do anything, here. Know only
that the faster we find information, the sooner we'll go. I assume each of
you three will find a way to gather some useful information, so we'll be on
our way and meet you tonight.".

After much discussion, SunStorm and Lancos went outside, toward the Watch
Towers. 'Raelf decided to finish Valgar's new clothing, and then activated
his board to make a small "recon" of the city and the general area.

Shcokwave: "So, Kadrys, you really are a vampire, he? Strange, you don't
look like those I've seen at all. Well, I suppose that it must really be
so, for one such as you to join us on a quest like that. The only vampires
I've ever met always tried to suck my wielder's blood as soon as we met
them. Not very talkative types, you know. I far prefer you to any of them.
I mean, you seem like an OK guy, so hopefully you'll not share the same
fate as those of your race I was forced to vanquish. I mean, it was them or
us! I tell you: If you really are like them physically, then I'm glad
you're with us on that quest. I mean, the few vampires I've met were
far TOUGHER than the innumbrable demon fiends I've slayed. That should mean
something... Well, anyway, how does it feel to be dead?
- - -

CUT TO: Outside.

Lancos: "Here, we are nearly there."

SunStorm: "Lucky that you're with me. I would never have found it so fast
without you around. Heck, we came here so fast, I would have trouble
returning to the inn!"

Lancos: "Well, I was by here yesterday, so it's not that big of a deal.
Besides, finding the inn is easy, considering it's at the junction of
the two main roads of Generica..."
<ed: Minor editing by me here, but since it's my character, hopefully
no one will mind!>

SunStorm: "Oh, yeah. Anyway, I think I'll manage by my own now. Go see what
you can learn in Low City, and I'll meet you back at the Inn. See you!"

Lancos promptly went his own way. They had much to do that day, and only
one afternoon to do it...

SunStorm entered the Watch Tower, into a stone room with a desk and a
guard. The guard stopped writing in a book, and turned his attention to
SunStorm: "I'm TurnBridge. How may I help you, Mr...?"

"SunStorm. I came here for information, well, I lost someone yesterday in
all the commotion and I wanted to know if anybody would have seen him."

"Mr. SunStorm, that's very unlikely. As soon as the battle started
yesterday, every man available went to help against the mob. We couldn't
have seen anybody in particular..."

"This one you may have seen..."

"Then his appearance must be truly unique. And even then, with all the
strange persons hanging around the dragons-inn, the guard got used to see
bizarre looking individual, so I doubt I can help you here..."

"Well, I believe you may have seen him, big as he is, he..."

A sudden look of realization came over the guard.
"OH! You mean the giant that many citiznes spotted from their windows?
I..."

"Can you please let me FINISH? *I* am that giant... before you talk again,
I'll just stay that a mage recently reduced me, so forget about it. No, I
am actually talking about a dragon, a silver dragon to be exact. Have any
reports been made on this?"

(baffled) "Uh, hmm, well, let me check things with my superior first..."
- - -

CUT TO: A few hours later...

SunStorm had to wait and wait, to answer hundreds of questions, fill in
forms, go from guard to guard, until finally he managed to learn that True-
Silver had *indeed been sighted...

SunStorm: "WHERE???"

Jack the Guard: "Well, I was near the inn when it all started. I've been
seeing that dragon sleep behind the inn, see, so I was a little nervous.
But since it was a silver dragon, I said to myself that it's supposed to be
a good dragon, so I didn't interfere or nothing. 'Specially considering all
the weird types hanging INSIDE that inn... Well, 'nyway, I heard about the
commotion, and then ran toward the mob, doing me job alright. And boy do I
deserve a raise. 'nyway, when I got past the inn, I saw all those figther
types scrambling out of it, but no sign of the dragon. I figured it must
have flown to the fray, but if that was the case I wasn't able to see it,
so I figured what a coward dragon, can't even help a city when it uses one,
and exactly like I thought I looked SouthWard, and in the far sky I saw the
a gleaming which drew my attention. Silver gleaming. I didn't take notice
of it at the time, but now that I rethink about it, I'm sure it was that
dragon, mebe a good mile south of the city, not too high inna sky. The
gleaming didn't last, though. It was more like when thunder rumbles and
lightning lights the sky, lasted only for a moment. Mebe thass why I still
remember it, 'cause at the time I really was having my hands full. those
dogs were tough, I tell ya!"

SunStorm: "South, you say, Hmm? Can you really be sure about it?"

Jack: "Well, no, of course. But ya wanted to know what I thought, so I toll
'ya! Now, you'll scuze me but I've got work to do!"

SunStorm tried gaining any other information, but no other guard had seen
the dragon. Either TrueSilver was invisible, or it literally disappeared
from sight, like if he was teleported or something, or he flew to the south
so fast that only one guard managed to see him. SunStorm knew that True-
Silver was no coward, so whatever must have been drawing him outside the
city must have been really important for him to not take the time to tell
SunStorm.

Also, the small giant knew that dragons have very keen vision, even in the
dark of night, so whatever MIGHT have caused TS to fly there, a mile south
of the city, must have been really something which made him act fast.

"Time is of the essence"... Hmmm...

SunStorm then noticed that he was very hungry. Also, the sun was slowly
coming down. Time to return to the inn again.
- - -

CUT TO: The evening

On the way back, SunStorm met up with Lancos. He asked him what where the
news, but since they were nearly at the inn, they decided to wait until
meeting with the others to actually say everything they'd done that day.

When they got inside, Valgar, "Raelf and Kadrys were there, too. SunStorm
and Lancos went to the table, and SunStorm told everybody about what he
learned, which isn't much. Before asking the others for what THEY learned,
he asked LittleFair for a good meal. The reduced giant was literally
starving...

ADMIN: INCLUDE HERE ANYTHING NEW YOUR PC MIGHT HAVE "DISCOVERED"

/---------------------------
| Patrick "Paradak" Rannou. |
| Rannou@info.polymtl.ca    |A
---------------------------/
====================================================================
Michael Sander 344lwkc@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu
AKA Lancos Erredan

Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn