Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: wolf@cheshire.oxy.edu (Clinton Richard Wolf)
Subject: Ralston (NPC)... the better part of valor...
Message-ID: <1992Sep30.035203.23760@cheshire.oxy.edu>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:52:03 GMT

    Ralston walks his normal beat up and down the Arcade of Unforgotten Her-
oes, whistling and twirling his truncheon, his sword sheathed and forgotten.
Why remember it? It was a beautiful day, the sun shining bright... he took
a deep breath of fresh air, ignoring the tingling feeling where some of the
teeth he had before the Riot had vacated their sockets. He also tried to ig-
nore his left arm, which was still in a soft brace and tender. The Guard's
cleric had done much for him in the last two days, but hadn't been able to
heal all the damage... he had been decidedly overwhelmed by the number of
casualties. He hadn't wanted Ralston to begin walking the beat again so soon,
but Ralston scoffed at that idea. He was fine! Sure, he limped a bit, and
his left arm hurt when he moved it to quickly, and the bruises on his face
hadn't entirely gone away, but he was a guardsman! And a guardsman had a duty
to the public of Generica... even if the public had gone mad and nearly killed
him. Besides, his beat was probably one of the most interesting in Generica,
taking him as it did past that landmark, Generica's pride and joy, the Dragon's
Inn! Of course, not everyone felt the Inn was good for the city, but Ralston
loved checking all the strange and interesting patrons it attracted. And Lit-
tlefair and his family had certainly saved his life that night...
   
    It was at that moment Ralston heard the screams... he immediately broke
into a run towards the Plaza, passing a knight in black armor who seemed to
have been pierced by a dozen or so spears... when Ralston reached the plaza,
a strange and terrible sight confronted him.

    Standing in the doorway to the Dragon's Inn was a HUGE, hideous looking
creature, with nasty looking spikes and blades jutting out from every angle...
It was throwing itself at the open doorway of the Inn, somehow held back by
an invisible force, and it was snarling and howling its rage at those beyond.
    'KILL MESHTAK!!!' it shrieked. Ralston, assuming the creature was just
another of the Dragon's Inn's exotic but generally harmless tenants, was ab-
out to approach it and ask if he could be of assistance, when he saw a troll
he recognized as Trawm approach the creature before him. Trawm was nonchal-
antly shredded...
     'Gah...' was Ralston's comment on this event. He looked at his truncheon,
then to the creature, then to Trawm's dissassembled parts, then to the creat-
ure... Reaching a decision, he turned and sprinted off towards Glorshanned
Keep, wondering if the City Guard had anything in its collective arsenal that
could handle THAT...
      
ADMIN: Open for use and/or abuse by whoever, except don't kill Ralston. You
       can of course ignore this post entirely (the Guards didn't believe Ral-
       ston or whatever...), but it might be interesting to have the entire
       Generican City Guard show up, and try to figure out how to remove this
       invulnerable creature from the Inn's doorstep :)