Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: Alfvaen[Inn]: Small Talk
Message-ID: <1992Aug6.231423.3658@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 23:14:23 GMT

Alfvaen got a room at the Dragon's Inn with little hassle from the innkeeper,
Rowan Littlefair, but didn't intend to stay there very long.  Too much magic
in one place was rather dangerous--he liked things spread out a bit more.  He'd
have to see about finding someplace a bit safer, if he was going to stay here
for any length of time whatsoever.

He sat in the Inn for a while nonetheless, nursing a cider and looking at
Serene speculatively as she busied herself about the mostly empty Inn.  It had
been a long time between women...the last one had been that cute half-elf from
the House...he couldn't even remember her name anymore.  But she was in Delta
City now, and he was--where?  He didn't even know.

"Hey, barkeep, what do they call this place?" he called.  "This world, I mean."

Littlefair shrugged.  "The Known Lands, I guess.  I don't know if everyone ever
got together and agreed on it, but that's kind of what they call it.  Kind of
like the Forgotten Realms.  Why, where're you from?"

Alfvaen got up from his table and sat at the bar.  "Place called Roth.  Nice
little place, in a lot of ways.  Not as many adventurers about as here, but a
heck of a lot more gods.  You ever met a god, Littlefair?"  At the innkeep's
headshake, he went on, "I met a few.  Let's see, there was Niamh's patron, and
Bahamut, and Gaia and the other three Elemental Lords, and...let's just say a
lot.  And I haven't seen one here yet..."

Littlefair shrugged.  "Well, we got our fair share of temples, like anyplace,
but I ain't seen no gods in all my years at this Inn.  More adventurers than
you can shake a stick at, though.  This place is like a vortex--we get them
from all over.  You want me to top up that cider."

"That's OK."

Littlefair looked at Alfvaen consideringly.  "You fixin' to go back to Roth
soon?  It ain't that hard, from here.  We got Gateways all over, and more than
one multi-purpose one.  Even if your place isn't on the charts--and I doubt
that, from the way you say you arrived; it's gotta be close by here somewhere--
they can find it, for a fee."

"Well, if the only way back's through the City of the Dead, like how I came--
no thanks."

<Suit yourself, halfbreed.  I found it pleasant enough.>

<Shut up, Lassiviren.>  "But--I don't know.  Back home my life was really
getting complicated.  Now that I know I'm not dead--I don't really feel like
going back right away, if ever.  Well, no.  I should at least say goodbye to
Niamh, if I'm going to stay.  But I'd rather stay here a while.  Hmmm...that
means a job, I guess--I don't have >that< much with me, and I really don't
feel like looking for some dragon's hoard."

Littlefair chuckled.  "Well, to forestall one question--we don't need any help
here.  Between Marux and the Short Ogre Cook and Serene and that new girl--I
forget her name, she's going to kill me--we're okay here.  But that wasn't the
kind of job you were talking about, were you?"

Alfvaen shook his head.  "No, I was thinking more like something at the..."
he stopped himself from saying Thieves' Guild "...Locksmith's Guild, or that
kind of thing.  Or something flexible."

Just then the door to the Inn swung open, and a black man dressed in Islander's
garb walked furtively into the Inn, holding a piece of paper in his hand.  He
pinned it to the Bulletin Board and then left hurriedly.  Alfvaen, who hadn't
noticed the Bulletin Board before, looked at it curiously.  "What's that?"

"Oh, from time to time people want to leave messages up for something or other.
Most of them are bar patrons, or else people who make a living gouging
adventurers."

Alfvaen shrugged and perused the postings.  The new one caught his eye.
Moriarty Investigations, it said.  An idea sprang into the back of Alfvaen's
mind, and then burst forth.  "That's the ticket," he said.

"Where's Cor Caroli Lane?" he asked Littlefair.

"Go south down the Arcade of Unforgotten Heroes, and it'll be on your left.
You can't miss it."

"Thanks," Alfvaen said, leaving a gold piece on the bar and dashing out.

He hoped to catch the black man before he disappeared, but no such luck.  He
looked south, and saw a long row of statues in the center of the street.
"That must be the Arcade of Unforgotten Heroes," he said to himself, and dashed
down it.  Cor Caroli lane couldn't be that hard to find...

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Aaron V. Humphrey, Page of Newts)
Canadian Network For Space Research, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
"John Wayne in a slip?  Now _that_ would be silly."  Axel Fusco
Current Album--Billy Joel:Storm Front
Current Read--John Varley:Millennium