Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: kinsman@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Aphoriel/Kinsman)
Subject: [Denner/Dramic/Kev/Meran/E'Karam] Just Outside the Inn
Message-ID: <1993Jan25.140934.27015@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 14:09:34 GMT

Denner rolled out the last of his barrels down the stairs under the watchful
eyes of Listener and the rest of the bar.

"Now, I don't want you or your friends coming back here until you can learn
 to behave yourself.  There's no fighting allowed, *at all*, in this bar,
 so you shape up before you come on back.", Littlefair warned.

Denner mustered up some politeness (with difficulty) and answered, "Very well.
I certainly can't answer for the others, though, but I will inform them if
I ever see them again..."

"Never mind that it was everybody else that jumped *us*." Denner muttered
under his breath as the rolled his barrel out the door.    

When he got outside, Denner spotted Dramic and three other people he recalled
to be somewhat involved, seemingly waiting for him in the snow.

Denner was a bit taken aback. "What do *you* all want?" He had no wish to
to see Dramic again for a long while...

"Have you seen the person I was with?  I didn't when I left and he's nowhere
 nearby outside..."

Denner unconcernedly rolled the barrel off to the inn's stable towards his
wagon. "That charmed guy?  Can't say I have."

Dramic turned to Meran and E'Karam.  "Damn.  I'm beginning to worry about him.. He doesn't know a thing about this city.  Hope he's not lost."

"Hmm.. you say lost?" Denner's voice echoed from within the stable.
Whatever dislike Denner had for Dramic after the incident at the Inn, it 
didn't hold for that other person..  it was more like he was being naively
led along by the guardsman, and Denner had some bad suspicions about the
charm; suspicions now floating to the top, considering that he was now
being reported lost...

"You there.  You name was Dramic?"          

"Yes.."

"What do you know about that man's charm?"

"Eh.." Dramic never really knew until a few minutes ago that Kalendraf was
under any sort of charm...

"I noted that charm too," Meran spoke up, "and I wonder if it might be
causing trouble for that man."

"It's always dangerous to fiddle with your body with magic.  That per..
Curse it, what is his name? Kalendraf? Thank you then, Dramic...
Kal-en-draf, I doubt that the spell he's under was any of his doing.."

"Oh? Are you a magician, Mr. ..."

"Denner Train.  And you're.. Meran Quicksilver? And you.. E'Karam.
 And you... you.. come on, what's your name?"

"I don't think he speaks the language.  He calls himself Kevin."

"Mm. Anyway, no, I'm not a magician, but I work for a few, and I know that
any spell that allows you to drink as much as Kalendraf did is just plain
not good for your health.  Imagine trying to suck water out of your body..
the body's just not meant to have that happen to it, and if that spell
had safeguards against it, that'd mean Kalendraf's an accomplished wizard,
and he wouldn't be going around *conducting* *drinking* *contests*..."

Denner glared at Dramic, who whistled innocently.

"So someone probably put a spell on him.  I'd say a curse."

"Then this curse is probably wreaking havoc on him right now and he's wandered
off lost in a strange city.  He's in trouble." E'Karam said.

Denner nodded.  "Let's go find him, then, and see what we can do.  And you,
Dramic..." Denner turned with a glint of accusation in his eye. "What do
*you* know about all this?"

Dramic waved his hands in concern. "I didn't know anything about any magic!
I thought he was just some fellow at the guardhouse who could drink a lot.
I didn't know I was causing him trouble, in all honesty..."

"Hmm." Meran murred. "I think it's time for you to take responsibility for
your actions."

"Right.  Let's go look for Kalendraf, then, and see what we can do."
Denner took a few steps, then stopped and looked around at the falling snow.

"You know, if anybody's got a horse, we could all ride in my wagon...."

-Aphoriel/Kinsman
Sean Givan