Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: wolf@cheshire.oxy.edu (Clinton Richard Wolf) Subject: The Ransom of Lucas Murphy, Part 4 Message-ID: <1992Jun18.182322.3053@cheshire.oxy.edu> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1992 18:23:22 GMT Seer continued to sit in stunned silence for a few minutes, mulling over Genevieve's sudden (and violent) departure.... Since this provides him with no clues, he rises and once again goes down to the dungeon "Guard!" shouts Seer, entering the cellblock. The guards look around at each other, over their shoulders, and back at Seer. "Ah... which one of us, sir?" mumbles a brave soul, finally... "What! What do you mean which... Oh... oh yes, I see... YOU!" he commands , pointing at the unfortunate who just spoke" "Me, sir?" "Don't kill him, sir... he still owes me money" "SILENCE!!! Leave us..." The other guards fall over each other in making a hasty exit... "Now, then... what happened here..." The guard quakes in fear... "I... I dunno, sir... we's just down here... Uh... that, is, me and the other guards... are just down here guardin' our lit- tle hearts out... Uh, not literally, you understand.." "GET ON WITH IT, CRETIN!!!" "Uh... uh, yeah, well... so's after you leave, we sees Genny scurryin' back n' forth from her room to the torture chamber, wherein the prisoner is, and she's got just about everything but the Chinese Kitchen Sink Torure, if ya know what I mean Seer growls. "Oh, yeah, well, back to the story... so she's doin' that for maybe an hour or so, and we hear a lot o' yellin' from the chamber towards the end, though it's all her yellin' and not the prisner's, as if she was bein' tortured instead That's a right one, ain't it, sir? As if 'e could be the one torturin' 'er... ha ha ha... uh... ROIGHT! So... Right after that, she lets out this big shriek, like to shake the whole HQ down to its foundations, n' comes stormin' out like 'er pants was on fire or something... walked right through our card game, too, she did... quite a day for bein' a guard, all in all, sir, although that's only a relative opinion... I'm sure those guards in the Castle get a lot more action, you know? Boy, that would be the life... always dreamed o' guardin' people in the Castle... this is only a temp job while I audition for that one, you know... No offense, of course, sir... I mean, the pay's ok here, and the.." "SHUT UP, YOU LOUDMOUTHED BASTARD!!!" shrieks Seer... "I must think on this... fetch me Thugg at once..." "Um... Thugg's not in right now, sir..." "No? Scorpion, then..." The guard shakes his head. "No?!? All right, then... Slythe..." Again the guard indicates no. "NO?!? Where are they all?!? I certainly didn't give them the night off... not now, especially!" "Well, Scorp, Slythe, and Thugg are out roundin' up Kron just like you asked them to, sir... and just in case you ask, Blink and Genny are gone, too.. Genny checked out for the night, muttering about 'indestructible priests,' or something, and Blink's off havin' fun in the town... See, there's kind of a riot goin' on, and..." "A RIOT?!? WHY AM I NEVER INFORMED OF THESE THINGS?!?" "Well, we all thought you knew already, sir... I mean, you're the clairvoyant one and all Don't make much sense tellin' the news to a Clairvoyant, you know? Reminds me of a joke I heard 'bout two weeks ago... see, there's this Barbarian, and a Clairvoyant, and a Rabbi, and they're all... At this point Seer, out of patience, tosses a Sleep spell on the gar- rulous guard... muscling up his authority, he prepares to enter the Torture Chamber and confront the priest once more...