Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: djb6@ellis.uchicago.edu (Dennis Brennan)
Subject: Re: [R] (Karl & Arty) Smoke on the water...
Message-ID: <1992Oct30.033711.26302@midway.uchicago.edu>
References: <1992Oct25.221713.21631@midway.uchicago.edu> <92303.122444BANNON@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1992 03:37:11 GMT

Drowsily, Karl's head slumped back onto his chest.  He was awakened immediately
by the sound of a scimitar being drawn from its scabbard somewhere nearby.
Instinctively, Karl ducked and rolled on the ground away from the sound,
finding himself somehow in the pilot-room of the _Arcas_.  Regaining his
footing, Karl peered out a porthole.

"Strange," he thought.  "The sail of that other boat appears to be on
fire.  How curious."  He mulled over this observation for a few moments
before realizing the dangerous proximity of the pirate vessel to the _Arcas_
and the possibility that the ignited sailcloth might endanger the _Arcas_. 
He shook his head and slapped himself, trying to compose his thoughts through
the effects of the drugs and dweomers to which he had been subjected.  The
ship lurched when a wave passed underneath.  Karl stumbled, grabbing a
handhold to retard his descent.

"Hmm," he thought again, identifying the fixture that supported him.  "The
wheel."  Perhaps he would be able to move the ship away from its undesired
partner.

"Now how in all of Nexus do these silly things work anyway?"  Due to his
missing foot, he could not brace himself properly to turn the wheel.
Crying aloud a prayer to Kibo, god of bizarre circumstance, Karl siezed
one of handles with both hands and attempted to drag it to the floor.  The
sail-beam swung wildly, but the sail was already in tatters.  The only
effect of this manoeuvr was to knock four hapless pirates overboard who
had been facing the wrong direction.  "Blast!  I have to get this damned
tub away from that other boat!"  In desperation, he screamed out the porthole,
"Anybody want to get out and push?"

***

Underwater, underneath the pirate vessel, Artifice studied the hull of
his target.  Extrapolating from his knowledge of shipbuilding and the
likely internal beamwork of the boat, Artifice located the most crippling
point on the hull to make an incision.  Gripping the devil-beam with
his left hand, he thrust upward into the wood of the boat with his right
hand, puncturing it.  With a karate-chop like motion he expanded the gash
in the hull.  Artifice perforated the ship in this manner at several
locations until water began to gush into the hold.  Satisfied that the
distracting intrusion to his project was crippled, he set off to return to
the _Arcas_ to complete his errand.

***
(Admin:  I can't say what Amaan does until Bernie writes.)

 

-- 
Dennis Brennan
djb6@midway.uchicago.edu