Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn From: tkelly@unix2.tcd.ie (Mithrandir-the-Love-Stricken-and-happy) Subject: [Sorc] Meetings, exchanges, the road to Saelex. Message-ID: Date: Fri, 21 May 1993 09:56:19 GMT She gazed into his eyes, this elf of her dreams. He was just as she had envisioned him. His grey hair, slightly bedraggled, his grey silk clothes, tunic, breeches and cloak. His sword as he replaced it in it's scabbard. His skin, unnaturally pale, and his eyes, fierce, entrancing. Yet he looked worn, tired, weary of all the world. He looked a mere twenty, perahps twenty-five, yet that meant that as an elf, he was probably closer to the hundred and twenty mark. Yet his face bore the appearance of one much older than that, who had seen too much of the world and done too many things. He held her with his gaze, this vibrant young mortal who silently would scream at him in his dreams. She was vivacious, full of life. He looked at her blonde curled hair, long down her back and left free. She was wearing flowing robes of mainly red and gold. Her eyes, blue, piercing, young. Who was she? A wizard, no doubt, like many other mages around the city. But her robes were of a diffrent style to any he had seen before. Or had he? The more he thought on it, the more he was sure that he had indeed seen that style of robes before, in his dreams. The Black-Robed Man. His Robes were midnight black, but they were the same style, right down to the small bordering work on the ends of the sleeves. Silken stood a step back from Saoirse, suspecting that perhaps she worked for him, like Iglyarch, and that these others, similarly robed except for one of them were also the servants of the black robed man. She was surprised to see him stand away like this for a moment. Her companions merely looked on at this seeming silent exchange of recognition between the two. None of the others recognised this elf and they were wary. Jarakh cast a quick detection spell on the elf to acsertain his nature. He frowned for a second, scanning the elf's trace again, then his eyes widened in realisation. He tapped Saoirse on the shoulder, and she turned to face him. Then, he spoke so she could read his lips. "Saoirse, who is this elf?", he asked quietly. 'I have seen him in dreams, Jarakh. He has something to do with the Sorceror affair, I'm sure of it.' Jarakh looked at Silken, who looked back at him, confused, wary. Jarakh switched to telepathy also. 'Saoirse, I've run a trace scan on this guy. He's no elf.' 'What do you mean? What have you found?' 'He's a vampire, I think. Highly unusual variety, but strongly powerful variety also. He's highly dangerous' 'What?? Are you sure? 'Very sure. Be very careful with him. You'd never know wwhat might happen if he got hungry' They broke contact. Silken watched as the two mages, the middle-aged in blue robes and the woman from his dreams appeared to exchange a silent series of communications between each other. Probably about him. The Blue Robed man seemed highly worried about something, and was always watching Silken very carefully. They both looked up at him. "Who are you ?", Jarakh asked simply, bluntly, to the point. "I might ask the same of you, mage", Silken retorted. He had to get somewhere quickly. Saelex Keep was the place to go and he had no time to waste. But at the same time, this woman was connected to this whole mess. He was undecided on the matter. "My name is Jarakh of Magira. These are my companions. We are on an important journey. Now, who are you?" "My name's Silken, if you must know. Who is she?", he turned to the blonde woman, who hadn't spoken as yet to any of them. She looked into his eyes for a second and the ring on her finger lit up. He immediately tensed, suspecting a trick or a ploy. His hand went to his sword faster than the mages could follow with their eyes. 'Rest easy, elf. It is merely my way of communicating. My name is Saoirse, and I too am from Magira' Magira. That name meant something. Wasn't that a city really far north of here? The Magicians city. He'd heard the name once or twice before. It was very much a city of legend as the Magirans were a highly insular crowd. It was said that the city was bigger than Generica but not tightly inhabitted. Mostly wizards lived there. "OK, so tell me what you Magirans are doing here? And why the hell do I feel like I know you ", he was getting impatient now. He had to go to the Keep and deal with the problems there. 'We search for an old enemy' "Who?" 'His name is Sorceror, Silken.' "Sorceror? Never heard of him. Listen, I've got to go. I have to do something. Maybe we'll meet again sometime. have fun finding Sorceror, by the way" Before anybody could say anything, Silken leapt into the air, and began to fly off, keeping an eye on these mages, to make sure that they didn't do anything nasty. 'No, Wait, you don't understand!' Saoirse was desperately calling out to him 'Silken!! Sorceror is the black robed man. From the DREAM!! He was already a long distance out. As he flew off, the message hit him, and he stopped suddenly, in mid air, above the Great Library. He paused, considered its content, and decided. If these people really were who they said they were, he could use all the help he could get. If not, well, he'd just have to be ready to get the hell out of there. He landed in front of them. "You know of him?" Saoirse, Jarakh and Lothaer nodded. Talon walked up beside Saoirse, to assess the elf. He had a notion that he'd seen the elf around the city once or twice before. Probably one of thsoe adventurer crew that hung out around the Dragon's Inn. Lothaer, wheezing and leaning heavily on his staff fixed Silken with a steely gaze that unnerved the elf. "Now listen here boy. I can see from my spells that you've got problems. And it's my guess that you've gotten caught up with this mess just as much as we have. We need to know where he is. You need to know where he is. So let's just quit messing about and get together. This mutual enemy of ours is old, millenia old, and a god by all accounts. He's got to be stopped, understand? No question about it." Lothaer broke into a fit of coughing and reached into his robes for a vial. One of the Mages from Extraplanar Contacts, a young bald man named Faldar, went assist the Master. Lothaer waved him away. "I'll be alright. Now where was I? Oh yes. He's got very bad plans for this city and this world boy, very bad indeed ..." "I know ", Silken interrupted ", this city is already crawling with demons." That set a murmur up among the various magi there. "Well, whatever", Jarakh said loudly and hastily ,"Listen, Vampire, it's simple. Do you know where we can find him or not?" Silken was stunned by Jarakh's frankness. And he'd called Silken a Vampire as a means of derision! But too much was riding on this to let his anger take the better of him. The Beast could rise from it's currently well-fed depths at any time to cause him havoc and pain. "Have you ever heard of Saelex Keep?" he asked tersely, tensely Talon spoke up "Yes, Silken, I have heard of the Keep. I've lived in this city for many years after all. That's where this Sorceror person is so you say? It doesn't make sense. Saelex Keep is just a ruin. It's been that way for centuries." 'Talon, Jarakh, everybody. Let's just get there and check the place out, OK? We're wasting time even as we speak.' That promptly shut everybody up. "I'll tell my Guild of this later, when I get the chance ", said Talon absently. In yet another mass teleportation, the strike team plus one Vampire elf shimmered with a bright light for a second in front of the Guild and then there was nothingness. From an alleyway to the right, a dark figure looked on, and waited to see if they would return. This figure, a small child, then quickly ran up the streets of the city, avoiding the revellers and reaching the Merchant Quarter of a city. Once there, he met a man dressed in noble finery, his black hair washed and looking the real gentleman. "Alex ", whispered the child. "Yes. my beautiful Tekuma, what have you found out?" "Alex, the elf's gone to Saelex keep, with a whole load of magicians. There's gonna be trouble, Alex, big trouble." "Yes, Child, I know. Call the others. Tell them that Iglyarch is gone, and we are at just the right moment to take over Low City's crime scene and ensure Vessels for all of us for a long time to come. But we must act quickly" Alex retreated into the shadows, while Tekuma went to find the other Hunters. Toniight would be a biig night, he knew it. -- Mithrandir [tkelly@unix2.tcd.ie] Bill has loads of guns, and bombs, and more guns, and is dead cool. How is dat for Carictar Devleopment -- Alan O'Dea