Date: Tuesday, 16 Feb 1993 17:29:42 EST
From: Brent <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Message-ID: <93047.172942344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [Ga] Aftermath (&) reflections

[ADMIN: Thanks to Joe Carl Jr.(aka Mathew) for helping with this...]

>[Zebron] "Brent, as soon as you and Mathew are well, take him and show him
>how to 'appropriate' items from a kill."

Namely the mage's wand, and the poisoned darts the brigands had used. The other
weapons were normal and thus uninteresting, and there was little else of value?
Why should there be? -- the attackers had expected an "easy" time, and the idea
of payment upon delivery caused them to forego any need to carry money.

The darts he might keep himself -- no one else might even _want_ them. The wand
-- if still usable -- would be best in Zebron's or Khisanth's hands.

It was only then that Brent looked around and saw that Khisanth had not
recovered from her ordeal, and in fact seemed to close to death. Brent cursed
at having nothing that would help her if the rest of the party couldn't, and
silently prayed for the best for her. But regardless, the half-elf had other
things to do...

>[Zebron] "Habit," was his excuse as the half-elf passed him. Motioning to
>Mathew, who was inspecting his horse, "Dusk says that Mathew charged bravely,
>but faltered due to the reality of the battlefield. The bird thinks that this
>might have been his first real battle with real kills. Go easy on him, but
>don't let him go soft."

Brent nodded, and gave a reassuring smile to Zebron -- the Drow had stated
nearly exactly what Brent had planned. The half-elf also took comfort in the
fact that if this _had_ been Mathew's first fight, the paladin had handled it
better than what might be expected.

Just then, Brent spied Garriot riding off. Maybe to find someone to help
Khisanth, maybe for his own other reason, who knew? First Phillipe and Simon
had disappeared, then Khisanth had been seriously injured, and now Garriot had
ridden off. That left six able-bodied, and Brent knew it might be five if he
didn't talk to Mathew.

Brent walked up to Mathew and said, "I must agree with Zebron -- that _is_ a
nice trinked. I think now you can see why I went through the immunization
process -- I don't _have_ any magic protection versus poison like you or
Zebron, just a permanent antidote." In fact, Brent didn't have _any_ magic at
all -- and was seemingly the only one of the group without, although he felt it
best not to mention it --, just his skills and his miscellanous items.

Mathew looked up to Brent and nodded. He cradled the locket in his hand and
said "I had no idea it was magical.  I had always thought it was broken
cause I could never open it to see what was inside.  The only reason I even
wore it was because it was the only thing left that reminded me of my father.

"If I hadn't taken it as a momento, I'd probably be dead now".  His eyes
went a little unfocused as he remembered his father.

Brent continued. "But you can't put too much trust on it, especially as much as
you did. 'You put too much trust in any one thing and you could be destroyed by
your dependance on it.'; so one said a friend of mine named Lancos Erredan,
although I have no idea if he still feels the same way. You may want to look
him up in Generica, though any such possibility is a long way away."

"He sounds like a wise man." Mathew mumbled, still partially lost in thought.

"Nah, no more so than you or me in our own way, really.  But he has his
occassional sparks of brilliance.  Well, listen. I can tell you now know that
charging those brigands by yourself was foolish. I won't scold you about how
you're lucky to be alive or how Kyleen and I were nearby to help, because if
you don't realize that yourself, you'll probably never learn it."

Mathew nodded in shame.  He was already replaying the scene, and thinking how
close he came to death.  In fact, he was close to shedding tears of regret.
'I am such a fool' he berated himself.

Brent saw Mathew's pained expression and wondered if he'd gone too far. Time
for a change in tempo... "Hey now, it's not like you did a _bad_ thing per se
-- your heart was in the right place. But you've got to learn to depend on us
to help you out a little with any group of enemy. I mean, I doubt any of us
could handle eight-to-one odds. And that's why we're together -- to be a team,
and work as one. You'll have plenty of other opportunities to handle things by
yourself, but I doubt if anything on this adventure will qualify."

"But I though you said not to trust explicity on anything."

"Well, that wasn't _my_ quote. And besides, people -- especially ones like the
group here -- aren't things. Usually you can trust them totally or -- if
they're evil -- not at all. Though I'll admit sometimes the line can blur.
For example, do you know why those fellows wanted Zebron?"

"Not really, they did say he was Jaq Spayde though, a notorious cat-burglar.
To tell you the truth, I thought _you_ were him, once". He reached down into
his pouch and pulled out the card he had hidden there and showed it to Brent.

Brent laughted. But seeing Mathew's downhearted expression, he said, "No,
don't get me wrong. You're not the first to make such a mistake. But
it's an amusing comparison.  Jaq only does it to take from the rich and
evil to give to the cashbox for his diety's goals.  When I thieved, it
was just for survival."

Mathew was about to make a comment about thievery in any form being bad,
but Brent continued.

"But really, you should talk to him about it. No, more than talk --
_believe_ him about the things he says. Zebron's one of the too few examples of
noble Drow around, and deserves to be befriended. You should go talk to him."

Brent was cut off by the sight of a silver glow coming from behind him. He
watched as Zebron healed Khisanth, to the surprise of all.

>"Come, friends," Zebron said in a strong voice that carried far and
>wide, echoing off the trees, "You have just witnessed a miracle. Let
>us celebrate by paying homage to Eillistraee, for it is her power that
>brought Khisanth to us."

Brent smiled, a wider grin than the others had seen cross his face before.
"But first... first we celebrate." he said to Mathew. Brent stepped towards
the rest of the party, hoping that luck would be with him and that he might
get to dance with Kyleen as beautifully as the two had fought together.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Sander
344lwkc@cmuvm.csv.cmich.edu