Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [KQ] Maleiu[Warehouse]: Well-Balanced Adventurers
Message-ID: <1992Aug7.163653.29066@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1992 16:36:53 GMT

ADMIN: Sorry for excessive use of Azzar and Captain in this post, but they are
the ones nearest the door...

Azzar discovered a path through the trapped floor tiles, since they seemed to
be clearly distinguished from the others by a slightly different colour.  Rhoan
fired another arrow up through the murder holes, this one hitting its target.
The guard slumped and blood started to drip down through the hole.

Kron was cursing quietly.  "If they're alerted, we have to move quickly.  Every
time we've attacked this place before, they've packed up and moved into the
Gaps by the time we get to them.  If we've lost our surprise..."

Azzar flung open the door on the other end of the room, and seemed on the verge
of stepping through when she noticed there was no floor beneath her.  No--no,
there was.  But it was only about a foot wide.  Captain came up beside her and
whistled softly.  "That shouldn't be too hard, if they haven't greased it or
anything."  At Azzar's look, he said mildly, "On a ship, one has to walk placed
narrower than that."

Azzar gestured.  "You first, then."

Captain gulped.  On shipboard, one usually has a rope to hang on to, and you
could see what you were going to fall onto...on either side of the narrow
ledge.  He didn't even know that it was going to hold him.  But better that he
try than Thk or Maleiu first.

Rope..."Rhoan, do you still have that rope?  Quickly.  I'll tie the rope to
myself, and Maleiu can hold the other end in case I fall."  He didn't quite
trust Thk's goodwill towards him that much yet...but the big black man seemed
trustworthy enough.  With that safeguard, he stepped out carefully onto the
ledge.  He fumbled a copper piece out of his pouch and dropped it over the side
experimentally.  It splashed, and then he heard sizzling and saw a puff of
steam.  "Acid," he said.  "Be >very< careful with that rope, Maleiu."

Maleiu nodded.  The acid would be about ten to fifteen feet below, judging by
the time of the splash.  The room seemed to be about twenty feet across, and
the rope was fifty feet long.  As Captain made his way along the ledge, Maleiu
paid out more rope.

Just as Captain reached the ten-foot mark, a trapdoor above him opened and a
spear poked downward at Captain's head.  Kron swore.  Captain dodged out of the
way, and slipped off the ledge in doing so.  He grabbed it briefly with his
hand, and Maleiu ran out further onto the ledge.  (He was more used to tree-
limbs, but this was good enough.)  Captain's hand slipped before he could make
it, and he crouched down low on the ledge and braced himself as Captain's full
weight came to rest on the rope.  The sudden jerk almost pulled him over, but
he lay down and braced himself as best he could.  He heard the hissing and
steaming again, and Captain yelped briefly.  "My foot!"

The spear came poking down again, and from his vantage point, Maleiu could see
the face of another guard above him.  Maleiu had left his own spear back with
Thk.  The spear was too short to reach him, but he would have to reel Captain
back in before the guard decided on another tactic.  He hadn't seen the rest,
and he wasn't calling for reinforcements yet.

He wrapped the rope around the ledge carefully, and tied it with the best knot
he knew, and then started pulling Captain up.  He caught Lady Azzar's fearful
gaze at one point, and Kron's tight apprehensive one.  Marcel stood around,
evidently feeling useless.  Maleiu returned his attention to the rope, and
soon Captain's hand clutched at his.  Bracing himself on the other side of the
ledge, he pulled Captain back up onto the ledge.

The guard above said, "Hey, guys!"  Maleiu looked up, and saw him speaking to
someone else in the room.  Quickly he stood up, grabbed the guard's dangling
spear, and jerked downward.  Caught off-balance, the guard plummeted downward,
and looked like he was about to hit the ledge.  Instead, he passed right
through it, and headfirst into the acid.  He was too surprised to even scream,
although some muffled gurglings were heard.

Maleiu was more interested in where the guard had passed through the ledge.
Sure enough, just past the halfway point of the room the ledge seemed to
disappear.  No, it didn't disappear.  It turned right instead.  He looked at
Captain, who was sitting cross-legged, examining his left boot, the toe of
which was eaten away.  "Let's go," he said.  Captain got up and gasped as
Maleiu stepped off the path into apparent nothingness.  Maleiu's eyes were
closed, and he didn't know that he was walking on nothingness.  He walked,
arms out to balance himself, until he heard the echo of the wall get closer.
Then he put his arms out to examine the wall before him.  A simple door, no
apparent tricks, opening inward.  He turned back to the companions.  "Well?
What are you waiting for?"

Captain spoke up more sensibly.  "Does anyone have a means of marking the
invisible path?"

--
---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Aaron V. Humphrey, Page of Newts)
Canadian Network For Space Research, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
"I got transferred to the Moon--worse pay, better hours." Was(Not Was)
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