Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: Doc Pan & co. [great forest]
Message-ID: <tim.719139639@mik.uky.edu>
From: tim@mik.uky.edu (timothy c huesman)
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 09:00:39 GMT
Keywords: Pan, Prill, Lek, contraceptive, NEW NPC

ADMIN:  here is another NPC guard...free for use but not killing  8)

    He was good, no doubt about it.  And within minutes the guard would
 be going to arrest a very surprised merchant.  Yes, Investigator Goode
 was just that.... good at his job.  Goode relaxed in the pleasure
 that infuses a guardsman when evildoers are caught and handed over to 
 the Judge.  And the merchant had gone too far in his attempt at fraud.
 Now his own peers would turn their backs on him for murder had been 
 added to the charges and the evidence was too evident to overlook. 
 The guild would rescind his priveledges and return his prorated fees.
 He was as good as hung, or worse, sentenced to the dungeon.
    Goode was temporarily full of himself.  He couldn't help it.  It was
 that flaw along with an inflexible moral code that had prevented him
 from going independant as investigator or signing on with Moriarty
 Investigations.  He even had the suspicion that one day he would catch
 those at MI on the wrong side of the law.  But for now he did his job
 as a member of the guard.
    But his smug attitude was not given sufficient time to decay.  He
 had more work to do.  It seems a body was found at Mrs. Cludne's
 Boarding House and the oddity of the find warranted an investigation...
 a Goode investigation.
=================

    Doc Pan admired again the form of Lady Prill as she bathed in the
 pond.  Pan laughed to himself at this behavior that would have shocked
 him on his homeworld.  Always the gentleman, frequently in the company
 of celibate scholars and monks, the barber had 'warmed' to Prill's 
 uninhibited views over the past four years.  He knew perfectly well that 
 most of the slow, fluid movements of the bimorph were intended as much
 to entice the stuffy scholar to join her as to wash off the dust of the
 day.  The Doc rose to the occasion and jumped in.  Playful at first, the
 pair were about to add more heat to the warm pool than they were taking
 from it when giggling halted their actions. 
    "'Tasha", said Prill.  "And I don't know who else."
    The barber from Thera sighed.  Perhaps he had been mistaken in 
 answering all the queries from the youths.  Nothing has slipped by them...
 and now 'Tasha, Lek, Beatrice, and Alfie were pairing off and slipping
 away to gain privacy at every opportunity.
    The outing to the Great Forest had started much more sedately as the
 six of them crossed the leagues.  Doc Pan wanted to make the forest before
 the main caravan season started, when highwaymen would come out of
 hibernation to ply their trade.  The Doc, using the map provided by 
 Grumbli Blisterthum, took a route that would cover areas not detailed
 in the botany sources he had read.  As they travelled, Pan would list
 the uses for plants and name any which the youths pointed out.  They
 would gather plants throughout the morning as they travelled and eat
 some raw at the noon meal and eat those that required cooking at the 
 evening meal.  One plant brought was defined by the DOc as:
       "Tapeas.  Quite edible...grows over most of the known lands. 
    Not in wide use as a food source but are used by some peoples as a
    contraceptive for males.  Their use in civilized lands is prevented
    by the machismo philosphy.  Still, I understand that some of the
    rural women do not bother to inform their males of the primary 
    effect of the plant and serve them daily calling them 'Pole Beans.'
    I hear they taste quite nice with bacon."
    There was a long silence after this information and the Doc missed
 all the glances passing among the youths.  Finally Beat said, "We
 brought salted bacon, didn't we?"  This comment also went unnoticed
 by Pan until the young people made a point of serving up a nice dish
 of Pole Beans that evening.  From then on the party was more a mixed
 group of 'couples' travelling together but spending free time apart.
 The Doc objected strongly to this...but then he had reason to enjoy
 it as well.  Still, he was debating on ending the fact-finding mission
 early.
    As they travelled farther into the woods the next day another reason
 ended the outing prematurely.  Prill noted that many of the denizens
 of the forest were agitated.  Upon speaking to some of them, rumors
 of invaders and refugees made the Doc decide to continue this mission
 at another time.  They made way for home.

--

  Doc  Pan       tim@mik.uky.edu          Tim  Huesman