Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: tomscud@ruf.rice.edu (Thomas Reid Scudder)
Subject: (William) St Cuthbert's Academy for young Paladins
Message-ID: <1992Jun2.070127.17890@rice.edu>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1992 07:01:27 GMT

    "Hey Dougl, what's up?"

    Dougl looks up from the book he is vigorously studying, to see his cousin
William standing in the door to his room.  He notices something strangely
different about him.

    "Oh, not much.  What happened to your crossbow, Will?"

    Will shrugged sheepishly.  "The guard at the entrance took it away, even
though he couldn't detect evil when he tried.  Said something about chaotic
neutral types.  What's that you're reading?"

    "Just something for a class.  We have a test tomorrow."

    Will looks at the book.  It's a slim pamphlet entitled _The Theory and
Practice of Turning Undead_.  He scratches his head.

    "Isn't this a bit early to learn something you won't be able to do until
you're third level?  And what's this?  _Developing Your Charisma Through
Gallantry and Chivalry_?"

    "Well," confesses Dougl, "We all aren't born with 17 charismas, so some of
us have to practice a bit.  And Mr. Galahad says that we can't start too soon
at learning how to turn undead.  He had a friendly mage bring in some
skeletons for him to demonstrate on.  It was neat!  He turned them all to
dust!"

    "Gee, he must be pretty high level!"

    "Well, he also has a holy sword of his own, and teaches the course on use
of holy swords.  We don't get that till we're seniors."

    "Lets see some of this "turning undead" stuff, though."

    "All right, let's see here, hmm... right foot back, holy symbol gripped
but held at waist-level... hmm... extend arm and step forward in one motion...
All right, I think I've got it."

    Dougl stands up, pulls a large cross out of his bookbag, and then suddenly
steps forward, boldly presenting the symbol and saying:
    "Back, foul creatures of darkness!  Flee back into the night where you
belong, lest ... umm... lest ... Will, hand me my book again?"

    WIlliam, looking slightly amused, complies.

    Dougl studies the page a bit, then puts it down, reassumes the position,
and repeats his speech, finishing with, "lest the power of the Mighty Saint
Cuthbert strike you down!"

    Dougl blushes briefly as he finishes, then looks back up at William.
"What all have you been doing with yourself, anyway?"

    William shrugs and says "Nothing, really.  I've been doing some work on 
the docks, moving stuff around and all that, but nothing really exciting.
But I think I might head back home, especially since Karl headed up that
way and Uncle Cedric is gonna be shipping out at the end of the week."

    Dougl looks stunned.  "Karl?  Left?" he gasps in utter disbelief.

    "What, didn't anyone tell you?  Yeah, he left town right after I rescued
you.  Something to do with that murder charge against Sergeant Kron.  Seems
like he skipped town to escape the heat."

    Dougl looks more confused than ever.  "Sergeant Kron?  Murder?  What are
you talking about?"

    William looks impatient.  "Oh, come on, just read the damn posts yourself.
It'll all be back to normal once this thread is over, I'm sure."

    Suddenly a loud bell tone interrupts the two boys' conversation.

    Dougl says, "I've got to get to Vespers, Will.  We'll talk about this
later, right?"

    "Well, actually, I was planning to leave today and see if I can catch up
with Karl.  I'm all packed up, and I've got a teamster friend of Cedric's
holding things up until I could finish saying goodbye and all.  So I guess
this is goodbye, cousin.  Don't go getting yourself kidnapped again when
I'm out of town, ok?"

    The two cousins share a hug, then the two hurry down the dormitory hallway
in opposite directions.