Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Subject: Bakr: [L] Bob Littlefair wants to hear a story
Message-ID: <1992Sep24.010432.28057@rhrk.uni-kl.de>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1992 01:04:32 GMT


  Brycur, Luthor, Salamander, Helen, Firecat, and Jabu were already there when
Bakr finally entered the inn.  He was not accustomed to quick motion, so he
had been a bit more cautious than necessary.  His companions were sitting at
a table, and he joined them.  Almost immediately Serene brought him a goat milk
 - his surprised look earned him a smile - and he drained it at once.

  Bob Littlefair approached the table and asked, "Have you been adventuring?"
  Luthor's companions looked at each other and nodded, smiling.
  "Can you tell me the story?"
  Laughter.
  "Littlefair Junior, you have the right attitude.  When you one day inherit
this pub, you'll be a good barkeeper.  You know, barkeepers have to listen to
all sorts of stories,"  Brycur told him.  "Perhaps we'll start with our names."
  Everybody told their name and a bit of their history.

ADMIN:  To the others: If you want, post some things about yourself that are
	not known yet.  Don't worry, I don't intend to re-tell the whole story
	here.  I just think it would be neat to use Bob Littlefair for what he
	was intended - as a listener - and I want to drop some info about Bakr.
	Later we can continue with things like 'And Salamander told the story
	of how they fought the dragon at the portal'.

  When it was Bakr's turn, he said:

  "My name is Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, and I am from..."  he
hesitated, " from Eschar.  That's a hot land covered with desert, and water is
found only in a few places."
  "Why do you have such a long name?" Bob asked.
  "My own name is Bakr.  'ibn Ja'far' means that my father's name was Ja'far.
'Ibn Musa' means that my grandfather's name was Musa, and 'al Mekneshi' means
I am from the city of Meknesh.  My grandfather was a merchant.  He had hundreds
of camels when he died, and he had crossed the desert more times than most of
the other Scharidian merchants.  (People from Eschar are called Scharidrim.)
He told me stories of his travels when I was a boy.

  "My father had a magic shop in Meknesh, similar to Miggung's Magic Shop in
Dragons Lane.  He sold magic herbs, magic crystals, magic chalk, magic rings,
magic potions, and a lot of other wares mages need.  Quaint things you need for
magic spells and potions.  Rose water, hearts of electric eels, toads' eyes,
dragon scales.  So I learned a lot about magic when I was as old as you are now.

  "My grandfather's stories and my fascination for magic made me choose the
life of an adventuring mage, so my father let me learn the art from Machbar the
Incredible, one of the famous mages in Meknesh.  That was more difficult than
I had thought.  In twelve years he told me four spells, and I was twenty-five
when I left Meknesh last year.

  "Well, the ship I was on sank in a storm, and I clung to debris with three
other survivors.  We stranded at an unknown coast, and we started to stray
through the country.  They have been my companions until I came here first.
A Scharidian merchant called Tarik Radan, a ranger from Moravod by the name of
Arasnastrar, and an assas... barbarian from Fuardain called Ormgwen.  Perhaps
I'll one day tell you of an adventure I had with them...

  "Anyway, I walked along with them on a road when I suddenly found myself on
a clearing, without my companions.  I never found out how that happened.
I wandered around, and finally I came to the Dragons Inn, where I met Luthor,
Brycur, Murell, and Salamander."


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