Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison) Subject: new character. A pleasant interlude at Miskatonic U. Message-ID: <1992Jun26.202131.20271@intelhf.hf.intel.com> Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 20:21:31 GMT [ADMIN] Introducing 'Raelf. ...sage is used by permission. ...sage coughed once - the nice cool air-conditioned catacombs of the library did not prepare one for the blast of heat and stale air that met anyone coming out the side exit. Summer in Arkham. He strolled past the light pole, plastered with posters, and a roving band of vandals putting up more posters. A gust of hot wind came up, scattering the posters in his direction. Reaching out with a well-timed foot, he stomped the top poster, pinning most of the others before they had time to escape. The cute redheaded coed smiled up at him, gathering them before another gust could come up. "Thanks" "Don't mention it. Your ink is still wet," ...sage noticed, as the poster clung to the bottom of his shoe. He pulled it loose and examined it. Miskatonic University Martial Arts Club Hosts International Martial Arts Tourney Karate - KungFu Demonstrations July 12-19 In the Commons Gymnasium Admission $12.00 Students $ 5.00 "This one seems to be ruined, sorry," he frowned, covertly wiping the ink off his shoe onto the grass next to the sidewalk. "Oh, that's OK. Hey, would you like to come and see some of the demonstrations? I'm going to be doing spear kata." "Perhaps. What time?" "Noon on the 12th. You're not a student here, are you?" "No, I'm a visiting librarian, doing some research." "Oh, neat. I tried to major in library science last year, but the head librarian disappeared and the university said that three in one year was too much, and pulled the program. So now I'm just pre-med." ...sage nodded absently, thinking of the cafeteria. Breakfast had been yesterday. "Anyway, here's a free pass," she said, pulling a ticket from the rubber-banded bundle attached to her stapler. "We're supposed to give these to the faculty, but they never come anyway. Bunch of zombies." She turned away, and resumed stapling the poster over the thick rind of previous posters. The 12th was unusual for summer in Arkham. Usually it was muggy and hot, or depressingly rainy. Today, there were thunderstorms, rolling in and out. ...sage had dismissed the encounter with the coed from his mind, but then he went to the Commons to seek a glass of wine and some of that strange local delicacy - pizza. Well, what they served here wasn't TOO dissimilar from the crusty, messy, wonderful thing he'd first had under that name. There had been a family with one of those uncontrolled four year old girls, and she'd kept asking him why he had such white skin and why his eyes were pink - but then she'd seen him devouring the crisp, tangy, delicately spicy mass, and told her mother about the vampire man with blood all over, and the mother had been SO embarassed ... This wasn't quite like that. For one thing, each greasy slice was nearly a foot long, with a thin scrape of red sauce and melted cheeze, and not a lot of the meats and spices. True street food, to be eaten outdoors. But as he turned to the door to seek his usual dining place in the shade, a cloudburst broke loose, turning the outside seating into a shallow lake, and the inside seats were full. He scanned for a table, briefly considering a cantrip to make an opening, but deciding against it - most of this Earth had little in the way of magic, but Arkham in general and MiskU in particular, well, they leaked. "Hi! Are you coming to my demo?" ...sage was distracted from his search by the redheaded human girl he'd met earlier. She was carrying a wicked looking spear with a fluffy feather on the shaft just below the very sharp blade. "I suppose I could - is there seating there?" "Absolutely." ...sage followed in her wake. The gym was below the eating area. She pushed her way through the crowd to the elevator. The door opened, and ...sage followed her aboard. There were already four people on, and the two of them made it a tight fit. He absently glanced over the other passengers. A short woman in a black cotton uniform, two shorter, wiry, older men who were not the same race as most of the people he'd met here, and a middling tall, well-built, blond man ... wait a minute. The man was flickering, replaced for an instant with a strange apparition. ...sage watched, rapt, figuring out that the shape was a humanoid feline, in outline, like a bubble in space. Each flicker was different. Flick, a wash of flames. Flick, a fall of stones. Flick, a cresting wave. ...sage realized he was staring and abruptly turned to the front of the car. Careful. If he stared too hard, the creature might recognize his gaze. No good to be rude to strangers. The elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors opened. The group disembarked into an empty hallway. "Hi, Ralph, Leanna. Sensei Ito." The redhaired girl bowed, slightly, to one of the older men. She indicated ...sage. "This gentleman helped me when I was putting out posters. Mister ..." She looked questioningly at ...sage. "Oh. Yes, we never did exchange names, did we. ...sage is my name." "Mister Sage, this is Sensei Ito, my teacher and our club advisor, and his cousin Mr. Fong. Leanna Durkin, my roommate, and Ralph David, one of the competitors who's been staying with us. I'm Debi." "Pleased to meet you," ...sage repeated the local formula of introduction. They murmured the ritual replies, and ...sage let his social manners follow the niceties while he shifted most of his attention to a careful introspection of these people. The two women had strong grips, they were bright, fiery energy, typical of the exuberance of youth and ... odd, bonded together? Unusual in this culture. The men, both warriors and mystics. One, Mr. Ito, seemed to have some sense for the life energies, but ...sage maintained his mask of anonymity, not letting the magic flow too strongly past the other man's aura... and ...sage realized that the last fellow was holding his hand out to shake. and ...sage traded firm grips with the being. There was a snapping sensation as their hands touched, and looking up, he saw the feline shape, with glowing rainbow eyes, looking at him with surprise. "You have an unusually strong grip for a little guy," the voice of the big human said. ...sage looked down and realized he was squeezing its paw. Hand. See him the way he wants to be seen. No threat evident. Watch. He is doubtless just another traveller - not like the things ...sage had been reading about lately. The demonstration was interesting. These people had depths he hadn't seen. Their technology meant that they didn't HAVE to be warriors, but it appeared that some of them kept the traditions of a warrior past. The swordplay was exceptional. The young woman, Debi. Very unusual spearplay. He winced, recognizing a snap-turn-lunge combination as probably resulting in a disembowelled or castrated victim. Very efficient. Afterwards she came and sat next to him in the stands. The demonstrations came to an end. ...sage shoved the remains of his lunch into a paper sack, briefly considering a return through the storm (still quite audible outside) and decided instead to watch examinations. The not-human, Ralph, was matched up with a man who was taller than he, but more slender. They were wearing white cotton tops, and strange, blousy black leggings. The taller man was weilding a pair of short trident-shaped things. Sai, was what Debi called them. They started by bowing, and mumbling something in another language - "Please help me to study" - and then the taller man became a whirlwind of stabs, jabs, punches with the blunt end. It was very strange. Each blow went to just where Ralph had been, but he had melted away from that place. Finally the balance shifted, and somehow the man had given the sai to Ralph, then threw himself to the ground, where Ralph carefully spun him around and held him pinned with one arm up behind him, and the sai carefully placed out of reach to one side. ...sage realized, suddenly, that while the combat was happening, Ralph had flickered very little - the feline form had only appeared once or twice. Other less comprehensible things began happening below, and ...sage turned to his companion. "How long have you known Ralph," he asked Debi. She turned pensive. "Well, he's been on the circuit for about ten years now. Was written up in Iron Fist magazine. He's a prize-winning surfer, he competed in a few bodybuilding contests a few years ago but now he spends most of his time training martial arts. He did stunts for Van Damme in his last movie, when Van Damme had that sprained elbow. He's been staying with Leanna and me for the contest." She began absently dissecting an orange from her satchel, eating the peel first, then the insides. "He's really a nice guy. You know what's weird, though, is I saw the pictures from his competition surfing days, and he looks younger now than he did then. Wouldn't think he'd be the kind of guy to go for a facelift. He isn't really vain or anything, like some of these super jock types. And he hasn't tried to come on to me or to Leanna." "Could you introduce us? I've wanted to know for some time about Hollywood." "Sure, come over for dinner tonight, around six," she dug through her satchel. "Here's a map. You'd be sure to get lost if I just gave the address." Dinner was vegetarian. ...sage recognized at least four of the dishes as variations on old elvish feasting dishes. So, either there'd been elves here, or the Arkham coincidence field was going again. Conversation was light, and included lots of strange stories from Ralph's vagabond days. Dinner ended, and Debi and Leanna went off to their room, pleading exhaustion. The blond man began preparing tea, Black Dragon brand, and took it into the den where ...sage was waiting, reading one of the safer volumes from the library. "So, you were in a movie," ...sage ventured, putting the book down. "Yeah, well, part of me. I only did two stunts. Van Damme had injuries and I had been his stand-in. You know he usually does his own stunts." "Actually, I don't know who he is. I'm not from around here." "I thought you might be from elsewhere. The accent, for one. You'd like to sound British, but it's too generic." "Can I ask you a personal question, Ralph?" ...sage asked. He let his left hand drop down alongside his chair and began the spell which would ring in his ears when he heard truth spoken. Flick. The blond man was holding a tiny glowing crystalline pattern, the rune for Truth. ...sage realized it would shatter if a lie were spoken. "So now we're trustworthy, can I ask you a question?" "We can trade. Question for question. Oh, and it's 'Raelf. Aspirated R. I didn't correct you before because Debi never gets it right, and it would just embarrass her." "'Raelf. OK. Where are you from? Really from, not just where have you travelled." "Uh huh. If I say it out loud it will wake the ladies. It translates as s'ch'h''Kani. It's about as far from here as you can get. My turn. Where are YOU from?" "Generica. A small port city. Somewhere charmwards of up from here." "THE Generica? With the fountains? I've wanted to visit there for quite a while. Wow." 'Raelf poured more tea for ...sage and waited. "Next question. What kind of being are you?" "You mean, what race? We're called the 'kan. Right now, in this world, I'm a human, because I can't hold my true form here for more than a few minutes. The human I am, happens to be named David Berensen, but we merged a long time ago." He saw the unspoken question in ...sage's eyes. "Well, he was dying. I'd been his companion, his dog, for a couple years. He tried hang gliding before they got the wings figured out right. The wing shape collapsed, he fell about 500 feet onto some rocks. I was too far to stop him falling. I got to him before he died but couldn't heal him. I needed the body of a native, and he was my friend. I consumed his elemental matrix, and now I'm him. Or he's me. Take your pick. We were compatible, and he didn't want me to bud him off as a new 'kan, so we merged. I've been living out his dreams and ambitions for about 20 years now. They're great fun." The blond man smiled an engaging smile. "OK, my turn. You seem to be an elf. There's a taint of the Unseelie Court, but you don't carry the marks of evil on your spirit. What are you doing here on a world the Elves abandoned almost a thousand years ago? "Studying and researching. There's something strange back home." And ...sage began the story of Mother and the goings-on in Generica. They talked for several hours. ==== [ADMIN] Once again, ...sage appears by permission of pcalvert. 'Raelf is copyright 1992 by myself, and I'll be integrating him into the ongoing goings-on soon. Don't mess him around without clearing with me first.