Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Week 12: The DragonQuestors embark on a displeasure cruise.
Message-ID: <92301.171223344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
From: Mike Sander <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Date: Tuesday, 27 Oct 1992 17:12:23 EST

As the questors prepare to retire for the night, Kadrys is even more silent and
withdrawn than usual. He knows that the others will look to him for information
on the path they should take to find their foe. His memory reaches back to the
brief whisper of thought that had somehow slipped its way into his mind as he
struggled out of dreams of falling to awaken in Ak Ir'neg's main square.

"Walk toward the end of oft-repeated pain
Sail upon a sea that never came from rain
Then bargain with an evil that would be freed again
To meet the dragon's master and make his plotting vain."

To Kadrys the first line is clear enough. For him at least, the most frequently
repeated pain comes from the sun. And the end of the pain comes with sunset,
of course. The party will have to go west. He remembers that Generica's docks
lay in that direction. Presumably those of Ak Ir'neg would be in the same
place. That would naturally be the obvious place to start a sailing journey.
The third line would have to wait for events to clarify it.

The next morning, as the rest of the party come down from the upstairs rooms,
pale and shaken from their private battles with nightmares, Kadrys begins
packing, preparing to carry some of the party's food supplies himself, solely
to lighten the others' load since he of course has no use for food. He notes
the poor condition of the supposedly preserved supplies, and thinks 'If we stay
in this place much longer, no-one else will be able to eat this either. As for
what _I_ will do if thirst becomes critical and the party is alone on a ship
somewhere...' He dismisses that line of thought impatiently. Just the ambience
of this place trying to get to him. '_IF_ the need ever grows too great,
perhaps 'Raelf or William will be able to solve the problem with magic.

Finally, Alita appears, last of all the group, and tries to drape herself over
him in very much the same way she did the last time they met, back in Generica.
Kadrys' only reaction is a sigh and a patient untangling of her arms from round
his neck. He notes Miro's surprise of Alita's manner, but does not understand
it. Kadrys in turn would have been astonished, had he ever seen her in her
earlier, more restrained mood.

ShockWave reacts with unfamiliar, imperious irritability to the delay, and
storms out the door, only to wait outside as he realizes belatedly that he does
not know where to go.

The strange and ill-assorted group, the giant, the mage, the sculptor, the
fighter, the escapee, the elf and the woman, thread their way cautiously
through the dark and deserted streets, following in the soundless footsteps of
the vampire. Their shadows leap and loom before them as they move away from
the sunrise that gapes at their backs, burning as luridly as the mouth of Hell.

At last they stand together on Generica's westernmost shore. They stand in
silence, all of them in their own ways overwhelmed by the sight. For the
seashore that hisses and sighs before them is one that has never known the
cool caress of water. Instead of Generica's Great Blue ocean, they look out on
an ocean of profound blackness as wide as the horizon. It seethes and pulses
with the restless motion of waves, but there is no trace of softening moisture
in the air, no tang of salt. The air is empty of seabirds, hot and deathly
still.

Valgar bends and reaches out as a 'wave' comes hissing up the beach. His hand
closes on dust, dry and loose and blacker than ink. It is as fine as talcum
powder, but somehow the fineness of the particles does not stop them from being
as painfully abrasive to his skin as powdered glass. Valgar hastily stops
rubbing the dust between his fingers, and shakes it off his hand. He holds out
his palm, grimacing in pain. The pads of his fingers are oozing blood as
steadily as if they have been completely skinned. 'Raelf shakes his head and
repairs the damage with a FLICK of his powers, before summoning a crystal
covered in spined facets like a sea urchin, and throwing it into the heaving
sea of dust. It vanishes with a soundless splash and a spray of black droplets,
the fineness of the grit mimicking the action of water almost perfectly. After
a moment, the crystal reappears, its once-clar facets coated with the black
dust. 'Raelf trains a small beam of light from another crystal on the hovering
dust-covered remote, and analyses the dust's composition. Though his grin is as
white as ever, something makes its flippancy seem just a little forced.

"Horrendous. This dust seems to be 99 44/100% pure Void. That's spiritual
energy to you guys.  'Course, it's not happy joy energy, either, it's like
crystallized leftovers of all the total rudeness happening here.  Rivers
of hate pourint into a sea of misery."

This statement is greeted in silence.  None of the others feel much like
adding to that remark.  Valgar reflexively wipes his hand on his clothes,
though his injuries have been healed.  'Raelf carries on muttering, watchin
the silently pounding waves with a manic stare, as if he feels compelled to
fill the silence with speech,

"Radical death surf, dudes and dudessa! Suffocation fer sure.  But what
a ride..."

William looks up from the heaving dust and rallies gamely in response to
'Raelf's efforts,  "Actually, you'd probably be fire if you didn't get caught
underneath it."

Valgar stops reflexively rubbing his hands and mutters, "But what are we
supposed to find? It looks as deserted as the rest of the place!"

'Raelf replies quickly, sounding glad of the question, "Looking for it now.
<<locqtus loqatus logarithmus barquam?>> (pause) Think I found something,
by where the quay should be - look like a ship.  And we're not talking the
Loveboat here -- some kind of Ghost ship."

Kadrys peers into the distance.  His voice is carefully neutral as he replies,
"I see it also..." He remembers back to the verse's reference to sailing, and
slowly addds "I think... I think it's our method of transport."

'Raelf --and a few of the others-- stare at Kadrys to see if he is serious.
Kadrys simply nods.  At the new, the others display different reactions, from
slight shock to a shrug of general acceptance.

They watch and one by one manage to pick out, silhouetted against a sky heavy
with iron-grey cloud, the empty hull and jagged spars of a sailing ship. As the
questers move in silence towards the quay, the ship heaves to and drifts toward
the quayside.  Its towering spars hold only a few ragged shreds of sail,
drifting to and fro like cobwebs in the still, dry air. Its keel and ribs, bare
of all but a few splintered scraps of hull timbers, nonetheless ride on the
surface of the dust as smoothly as if the mere memoty of the vanished planks is
enough to keep the dust from pouring into the ship's guttted frame. There is a
long, rasping hiss of shifting dusts as the ship drifts closer. It slows as it
nears the pier, until with a groan of unsound timbers, all forward progress
halts. With a faint creak, the end of a plank appears, as if pushed out from
the deck by someone above, despite the fact that the questers can see through
the holes in the deck that nobody is about.  The plank tilts lower as it
extends, until its end contacts the pier with a dull thud. The board looks just
sturdy enough to bear their weight. The questers stand close together in the
cagelike shadows thrown by the skeletal vessel, looking up at it in silence.
ShockWave breaks the silence suddenly "Well, what're we WAITING for!" he booms,
striding toward the gangplank.

"'Wave, is that wise?" asks Lancos.  "If anyone's going to make that plank
break it'll be you!"

"Well if it's going to break it's best to know about it now!" ShockWave snaps,
pushing impatiently past Lancos, heedless of the danger of a fall into the
dust below, and bounding up the gangway in a series of giant-sized leaps.
At each contact of his feet, the plank splinters ominously.  But it holds
together as Lancos, Valgar, Alita and Miro board it.  As William scrambles
desperately up the slope, the critically weakened plank finally starts to
give way. ShockWave bends low and uses his giantish reach to grab William's
hands before he can plunge into the cruelly abrasive dust. 'Raelf and Kadrys,
both still standing on the pier, heave a united sigh of relief, before they
each make their own way to join their companions: 'Raelf by fading into Air
and floating across, and Kadrys by becoming a bat.

On board the ship, William seats himself shakily on one of the sounder-looking
timbers, rubbing his bruised hands. His shoulders are still trembling with the
strain of his narrow escape.  He looks up for a moment at ShockWave, with
something - gratitude? hysteria? - glittering in his eyes. Then 'Raelf gathers
his human form to himself and emerges from the Element of Air, and a large
balck bat settles on a fallen spar nearby, to be replaced the next instant by
Kadrys.  The follong moment, there is a long groan of stressed timbers, and
a shudder runs through all the ship's frame. Above the protest of rotten wood
there rises a new sound, the steady hissing rasp of the dusts, as the keel
starts to slide over the black surface, faster and faster. Everyone grabs the
nearest piece of timber, and some get unpleasant surprises as seemingly solid
wood crumbles to rot and splinters in their fists. The hiss of the dust rises
to a dull, constant roar as the ship continues to gather speed until it is
rushing headlong away from the shore. It moves faster than any normal ship,
even one with all sheets set in the teeth of a gale, though it carries only a
few tatters and threads on its masts.

The questers split up and explore the ship, testing every board before relying
on it for footing. ShockWave in particular is forced to rein in his
impetuousness. Several times the other questers hear a crunch of decking
giving way under one of the giant's feet, followed by a string of inventive
Titanian curses as ShockWave is forced to sit and pick more splinters out of
an ankle. Kadrys is as cautious as usual, but there is a distinct nervousness
as well that is far from usual for him. Lancos wonders about this, seeing
Kadrys flash into mist repeatedly as even small bits of decking collapse under
his tread. After a moment's thought, however, he works out the reason behind
the other's unusual trepidation. Surrounded by splintered beams and jagged
spars of wood, it is no wonder that the vampire is frighteneed to fall.

Some time later, the questers meet on deck. "Not a soul on board..." mutters
William, adding under his breath, "...At least none that wanted to be seen..."
'Raelf sighs and pushes his fringe out of his eyes. "Ditto, amigo. Marie
Celeste city." The others nod in silence, their gaze wandering around their
temporary home, taking in the ruin and rot that surrounds them on all sides.
They exchange grim glances for a moment, resigning themselves to an extended
stay in these dismal surroundings, then turn back with one accord, to watch
the coastline of Ak Ir'neg fade into the distance and the dust.

===========================================================================
Michael Sander 344lwkc@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu
AKA Lancos Erredan