Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Subject: [inn] Bakr and his bear entering the fog
Message-ID: <1992Jun26.134747.13235@rhrk.uni-kl.de>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 13:47:47 GMT

  One day, Bakr was entering the city from the East, riding a huge bear he
found in the woods, and he wondered about the unguarded gate when he
encountered a raging mob, charging in his direction.  When they saw the bear
bearing a fat bearded man, they stopped in surprise, and when he made the bear
snarl angrily, they fled.  Thus Bakr prevented the rich merchants' quarter to
the East of the City from being looted for the time being.  Minutes later,
they came back, though, and invaded the houses.

  From afar Bakr could shortly make out the illusion of a dragon hovering
over the Inn.  He rode on to the vicinity of the Plaza of Glittering Steel,
which was, mildly put, in a state of disorder.  To the left, the Dragons Inn,
surrounded by fog, to the right, Maurin's Pet Shop and Throcken's Armoury,
slightly damaged, being defended against the mob by Throcken the half-ogre.

  The bear galloped to the Inn, where Bakr alighted.  He opened the door,
jumped in, sat at a table and started to behave as if in trance, or better,
he stopped to behave at all, while he concentrated on steering the bear.

  On the outside, the bear started to scare people.  She chose one of the
crowd, locating him by smell, and charged him.  The victim heard an abominable
roar, he saw a dim figure, nine feet high, towering before him, he felt hairy
arms hugging him, he smelt the stench of a wild beast, and when the bear let
him go, seemingly accidental, he ran away in panic, overthrowing some others
on the way.

  After running for a minute, the man stopped, breathing heavily, thanking his
god for the lucky escape.  With loudly beating heart, pale face, and shaking
knees, he headed in the direction of Ratty's.  He needed a drink, and he
needed rest.

  Meanwhile, the bear had hugged five others.  Two of them had wounded her
slightly, one with a dagger, one with a short sword (the others had only
torches extinguished by Scrawl's magic), but as bears are not very common
in Low City, the men lacked experience in this sort of fight, so she could
disarm them quickly by biting them in the hand.  When they were dropped to
the floor, they all chose to run.


Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, apprentice mage.