From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: Bakr is No. 4 in the Rat Quest
Message-ID: <1kp33r$9bl@nz12.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
Date: 3 Feb 93 18:32:27 GMT


  Bakr, who had been sleeping in his chair by the fire, was roused by a
turmoil.  E'Karam Applebottom the strange-looking halfling and several others
Bakr didn't know were driven out into the snow as a result.  Soon after that,
Higar the Horrible returned.  Bakr smiled, but nobody noticed it as he was
still covered with thick black pelt from eating Phaver Bezond's Fabulous
Licorice of Fur.  He had once taken Higar's form after the dwarf had gone...

}"[..] I mean, shapechanging
}is no big deal.  Even I can do it, or at least something similar."

}  Bakr mumbles something, moving his fingers through the air, and a lot
}of the patrons see Higar the dwarf standing there in his stead.
}Those nearby even smell him...but most of the more experienced ones, like
}Garshwirr, see through the illusion.  To them it's Bakr standing there,
}acting like Higar, but they are aware that he does perform an illusion.
}Then he regains his old form.

  The mage's mind came back from his recollections, and he heard Higar talking:

>"Is there anyone bold and brave enough to journey with me to
>find this giant rat and slay it? Come now, it shall be a simple
>sojourn into the sewers. We shall seek out this beast and bring it back,
>and if we're lucky, we might even meet it's mother!!!"

  Giant rats... finally a thing Bakr was familiar with.  He had slain a few of
them back on his home world.  It was not too difficult.  In fact, they were
the easiest foes he had ever encountered.  You just had to hit them two or
three times with your dagger, and they were dead.  But you had to be careful
with their teeth.  Caramon, Arasnastrar's dog, had been bitten by a rat then,
and he had been ill afterwards.  The wound had become purulent, and he had
got fever.

  Bakr was relieved that there were such feeble monsters on Nexus too.  Up to
now he had only encountered beasts that made him wonder he was still alive.
When that blue dragon appeared, he had only rescued himself by mimicking a
shrubbery.  Giant rats were more on his line, though too much of them were not
good for the spine, as you had to bend over to fight them.

  Perhaps he should accompany the dwarf for a change... though Bakr didn't
understand why they made such a fuss about *one* rat.

  A hairy fellow seemed to have joined Higar, and they were in the process of
sniffing at each other (talking figuratively in Higar's case).  Then both of
them looked around.  "Oh, what the hell!" Bakr said and rose.

  Higar and Git saw a huge black humanoid in a dirty burnoose approaching them.
They couldn't make out a face, only hair.  It stretched out a paw and said,
"Hello.  I am Bakpfr ibfn Ja'pfar... one momempf."  It pulled away some hair
from the mouth and continued with one hand attached to the face.  "Bakr ibn
Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, magician.  I don't always look like this, it's
magic.  Can I join you in your quest?"

  Then Bakr noticed that there was a blue-clad gnome standing by them that
looked familiar.  Probably he had seen him before in the inn.  Bakr waved
at him and smiled invisibly.

--
Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, apprentice mage
aka Lifilis Kloote, conjurer and artist
aka Thomas Kettenring