Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: hutch@ibeam.intel.com (Steve Hutchison) Subject: [Inn] Contracting for repairs? Message-ID: References: Date: Sun, 28 Feb 1993 09:53:57 GMT The cart was almost full. Five tunnes of wine, four casks each of five different ales and microbrews. Six dozen bottles of varied fine wines and all this cargo is empty now. Rowan gestured to the driver and he took off, hauling the empties to the warehouse down by the river. "Thanks for helping me move that lot." He nodded to the two who had helped: a red-haired giant and a somewhat smaller blond man. "No prob, dude. We needed the exercise, eh, Ray?" "Beer?" The giant scratched his head, pushing aside a small gem-green dragonet which was sitting there. The white and black cat on his broad shoulder lashed its tail and swatted at the dragonet, which hissed a jet of flame that missed. "You had enough already. Pull yourself together." "Is he going to do that in the Inn?" "Only if you give him Catamount Porter. I advise against it." "Right. Hey, I hear you're good with carpentry, heard you fixed up the old ruined lighthouse a few days ago." "Yeah. What's up, need another dark corner installed?" "No, thank you - limelights might be a better idea. No, someone managed to bring a magic-resistant creature into the Inn, and she tore a hole in the roof." "No kidding? Way cool - I was wondering how well the Peace spells work on real extreme attitude cases. What happens if one of them gets in, attacks someone?" "Oh, some kinds of violent self-defense are allowed. The wizard who put the protections in called it `no-fault clause'." "Cool. Hey, I thought from the feel that they were older than that." "He said he built on a primeval spellnode." "So you have a hole in the roof. What kind of repairs, complete matching or ordinary patch or would you like a sunroof instead?" "Complete match would be nice." "Well, you find the materials, and I'll patch it in exchange for two months' of dinners at the Inn." "One month." "Three." "Two." "Deal." They shook. "Hey, Ray, come on, we got an emergency job. You coming, Rowan?" "Sure." The walk seemed shorter than usual. "So where's the hole?" "It was right there." Mary was inside, holding down the fort. It was a slow night, everyone off to Serene and Luthor's party. "Who fixed the roof?" Rowan asked. "I don't know. I came up to put fresh sheets out, and it was all fixed." "Strange... This might be magic. 'Raelf, could you check it?" "Looks normal to me. Real even. Traces of something." He flashed a light from the amber amulet he wore along the alleged hole. A faint sparkling showed along the lines where things had sealed themselves. "Huh. That's a pretty good fix job, Rowan. You want to know who did it?" "Of course." "Ray. Ray, put down the beer." "Whatcha want?" "Leah. Come on, we need retrograde scry, and I'm carrying too many loops right now to backtime." The giant redhead shook his head, blinking, and pulled the green dragonet off his head. His hair turned white, but that was the extent of the change. <> The dragonet crooned, and emitted a jet of steamy smoke that gradually filled the room with an eerie green light. "Got a lock on it now. Commencing playback." The area under the hole began to coalesce into a vision of what had happened earlier. An owl glided through the hole in the roof of the Inn, landed, and examined the wreckage on the floor. It expanded, changing into an amorphous... mass, which flowed around and beneath the debris. One long pseudopod stretched to the door, sprouted an eye, and determined it was locked. It retracted, and the blob stretched upward into a column until it reached the hole. Then most of it flowed out onto the roof while the rest morphed into a wooden scaffolding supporting the pieces at ceiling level. The thing sprouted multiple tentacles and eyeballs, and quickly rearranged the wreckage into a semblance of intact roof. Then it changed again. A blue flame showed through from the other side, and the fragments of roof slowly knit themselves back together. The scaffording inside melted into a cat, which padded over to the window, lept onto the sill. It shrunk into an ant, crawled out through the slightly ajar shutters, and grew into a pigeon. The pigeon flew up to the roof out of sight. The smoky vision evaporated and dissipated. [ADMIN: Justin Fang's descriptions slightly modified for effect.] "What the hell was that?" Rowan demanded. "Looks like that metamorph you had hanging around the Inn for a few days." "What metamorph?" "Hey, I never got the dude's name. He did a pretty good fixit though. By morning it should be unbreakable. The Inn's defense spells are already flowing through the repair, so - hey, howcome you have dragon-magic in your defense spells?" "None of your business." Rowan shooed them out of the room, locking the door from the outside. "Mary, this room is to stay empty for the night." "Rafe?" The giant warrior tapped 'Raelf on the shoulder. "What's up?" "Does this mean we don't get free lunches?" "Fraid so." "Darn. Let's go back to the party." "OK. Hey, Rowan, you owe Ray for the spell. One free lunch." "Sure thing." "There, you happy now?" "Yeah." "Yeah,