Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: arsmith@nyx.cs.du.edu (Alan Smith)
Subject: [NTY] Palandun: The Halls of King Gorrin.  Ja'nis: Return and
Message-ID: <1993Jun21.231552.11885@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 93 23:15:52 GMT

Palandun sank.  This turned out to be much easier than he'd thought, and he
hardly drifted at all when he reached the bottom.  'All right,' He thought,
where would it be?'  He felt around, the water being too muddy to see.  His
fingers grasped something, the pulled it in: A sword.  By feel, his sword.
Palandun had lucked, out, Gynsoo had done just what it should have, when it felt
it's owner being dragged away unconscious, it had implanted itself in the       
substrate, falling through the boat's hull.  The sword was smart, very smart.
  Palandun half drew the blade and cleaved the chains holding his limbs 
together, and shot up for air.
  <GASP!> He had drifted a bit on the way up, though.  Which was probably
just as well, seeing as those orcs were pointing arrows at-  Arrows?!  Ooop!
He dove again.

  Eventually, he pulled himself up on the shore, makeing a note to himself
that water was near useless as a shield, but made decent cover.  It was then
that he noticed that it was windy, and he was wet.  He started walking to
leeward, hoping his shivering wouldn't get out of hand.

  "Come in, come in!" The farmer said, throwing a cloak over Palandun, then
showing him into the dining room.  "Mom!  We have a visitor!"  Not surprisingly
Palandun found it necissary to explain why he was marching downwind in wet 
clothes carrying a sword and wearing manacles.  The truth took a little         
convincing, especially mom, who was still suspicious that they had given a
raving lunatic escaped from some prison at Varande a cloak and some food the
next morning.

After getting directions, Palandun set off and, in a couple days, came upon
the halls of King Gorrin.  Again it took some convincing to get the guards to
accept that Palandun was really an ambassador and not some roving lunatic.
Eventually it was actually a warning that convinced King Gorrin to see him.

  "I have been warned about you." Gorrin said as Palandun stood before him in
the throne room.  "That's how you got in here, if I'd not been warned to 
  "No, O Great and Powerful King, but my master's informants have.  He is
an example of the worst charactersitics of his species: a rogue, a liar, a
raper of children-"
  "Aw, gimme a break!" Palandun interrupted.
  "Do you deny these charges?" Gorrin asked.
  "You betcha!"
  "Then you must be tried by combat.  Prepare the arena.  Ambassador Shirek,
would you like a weapon?"
  "'Scusage?" Palandun said, seeing everything move to fast.  "Trial by combat?"  "Are you afraid, human?" the orc asked, picking a sword.
  "Yeah, but that's not the point.  Gorrin, the only thing a trial by combat is
gonna prove is which one of us is the better swordsman.  Can we at least table
the matter until the reason for my comming is cleared away?"
  "You would allow his words to hang in the air, uncontested?"
  "Provided they also remained unproven, yes."
  "Coward!  This human lacks honor.  Gracious King, would any dwarf allow
a sully on his name to hang in the air like so much putrid gas?"
  "I'm not a dwarf, and the freedom of all those slaves in Dawg's mines is 
more important than my good name."
  "SLAVES?!" Gorrin roared, "Human, can you prove this?"  Palandun pulled
one of his manacles out of his belt (he had cut them off at the farmers)
and dropped it at the king's feet.
  "That was mine." Palandun said, quietly.  The king did very little quiet.
Before either Ambassador could object the orc was thrown in the dungeon and
the Dwarven Generals were being called to a council of war.  "King Gorrin,"
Palandun said when he could finally get a word in edgewise, "I felt as you
do when I first escaped, but since then I've been thinking that war is an
ugly thing, and I have a better idea."

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Ja'nis rolled over, feeling the heat from recent lovemaking dissipate into the
air.  "I love you." Gunther's voice said from nearby.  "I moved heaven and earth
to get you."
  "I would hardly call dropping your wife off to keep some business connections
'moving heaven and earth', wherever that is."
  "It wasn't just her, I had to get rid of your lover too."
  "What lover?"
  "You mean Palandun wasn't...Oops."