Date: Monday, 9 Aug 1993 13:50:26 EDT
From: Michael Sander <344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Message-ID: <93221.135026344LWKC@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [BBD] Endgame(?)

[ADMIN: Thanks to... well, all involved in this thread (Alphabetically):
Joe Carl Jr, Dan Peters, Barry Prismall, Stilt Man, and Jill Thomas, all
of whom had a hand/say into this post...]

Velric watched the battle Darvos fought with the Shades.  He cared only
about one other fight besides Darvos', and that was the one Kryalla was
having with BBD at the moment.  The necromancer felt BBD would crush her
soon if he didn't assist.  He smiled as he knew how he could assist, just
not when.  Inside his secret hiding room, he carassed his crystal ball that
monitored the battle BBD fought with Kryalla.  Velric weaved his hand over
the ball and cast a spell that would allow him to read the surface thoughts
of Kryalla and BBD as they battled.  Neither seemed to notice; perhaps they
were distracted by their battle, or assumed it was the other mage's action.
He waited for the right moment.

* * * *
Feeling Kryalla was finished, BBD turned most of his attention towards
the other battles, back at his base.  Things still looked good for his
side -- even in the lack of Velric's direct presence, he could only find
encouragement --, and he smiled wide in anticipation.

All Kryalla knew was that BBD was distracted, and she planned to take full
advantage of it.  In an instant, the katana blade passed through his neck,
severing the head from the body.  The Shrouded One stood, waiting.  A laugh,
then her feet suddenly were lifted by an invisible hand from the ground.

"Not prepared for your own trick, eh?" came the jubilant voice of BBD from
the ground below her.  She felt the hand crunching away at her, saw BBD
produce a blue metallic bracelet, and knew that she was in serious trouble.
Her cloak could not stop such an attack, and she could not move away.  As
a final resort, Kryalla's ebon eyes fixed upon BBD's similarly piercing blue
orbs, and the two held the gaze in a contest of wills.

* * * *
"THERE.  This is the moment." Velric pondered to himself.  "Kryalla is
trying to lock a gaze on BBD.  Ahh, she has mastered the stare of the gorgon.
But what she doesn't know is that BBD has met this tactic before, and is now
concentrating on reflecting that sight back to her.

Velric laughed aloud.  "You're mine now, BBD".  He reached down to the
bracelet still on his arm, and took it off.  He sent a telepathic message
to BBD as he did this: "I'm free!".

* * * *

Kryalla fell to the ground, light as a feather, the hand that had held her
vanishing when its creator had abruptly turned to a rigid statue.  The
Medusa's Gaze spell was quite effective, if difficult to use.  To date,
only mystical creatures known as gorgons had perfected it.  Learning it
from them had been difficult, and dangerous.  But BBD had not been prepared
for it.

She looked about, touching her eyes, putting a spell of true sight on them.
No invisible mage lurked.  This time, she had really gotten him.  She was
in a part of Generica she had never been before, but that mattered little.
Where the Shrouded One had stood, a raven took flight.  The bird looked
around some more, but could find no trace of its fellows in the streets;
the battle must have remained indoors.

However, Yosef's appearance and BBD's demise, if BBD it indeed had been,
left her with little reason to remain here, particularly if Arcania was
active again at home.  The portal to Arghan yawned open before her path
of flight, and closed behind her.  For now, her presence was required
elsewhere.

* * * *

Velric smiled, knowing the shock that BBD had when he realized his own
treachery had distracted him, allowing Kryalla's gaze to work.  He watched
the crystal ball as BBD turned to stone, and was overjoyed.  "Now you shall
be my plaything, _fool_."  He cast a spell of protection through the ball
on the statue.  "That should protect you from them trying to destroy you
before I can have my fun with you."

The necromancer turned his crystall ball to the battle Darvos was fighting
with the shades in time to see the motes of light destroy the last of his
servants.  "Now for my appearance.  He motioned to a dark corner of the
room, and a man stepped out from it.  In all respects he looked exactly
like Velric himself.  The true Velric opened a secret door to the room of
the battle and told his slave "Kill the mage in the other room".

The other repied in a lifeless voice "Yes, master".

Velric knew that Darvos would win the battle with his slave, but it was
the show that was most important.

He began afixing the bracelet to a three-pronged device off to one side
of his crystal ball.  "Now I am in control of your slaves, BBD.  Even
though I can't get the telepathic signal back, I can send instructions
through this device.  And I can spy using this one." he said, patting his
crystal ball.  He refocused it on the room beyond, as his double stepped
into it.

...
Darvos saw Velric appear from the shadows across the room.

The necromancer called out over the roar of over battles "You may have
destroyed my shadows, but now you shall deal with me."  he started to
motion as if he was casting a spell.

Due to Darvos' increased speed however, he had time to pull eight darts
from his knapsack, and he whipped them at Velric with fantastic speed.
Each hit Velric full in the chest, pushing him back a step with each
strike.  His spell was ruined, and he slumped to the ground dead.

...
In his private stronghold, the true Velric sent a command through the
bracelet mounted on the device.  "Retreat immediately."

He was pleased, if not surprised, that those that wore the bracelets,
along with his own servants, actually obeyed.  He smiled at his new power.

...
"That was too easy." Darvos said aloud, but didn't give it much thought.
Particularly after scanning the room, and finding the rest of the enemies
were fleeing.

* * * *
Lancos swept his blades in front of himself fanatically, trying to
push away as many attacks as possible, and provide his own occasionally.
The situation looked fairly bleak, but he utterly refused to give less
than his fullest.  His medallion called to him, louder than usual in an
obvious attempt to gain control while it could, but he ignored it. Above
all, the warrior felt he _must_ handle this himself; anything else would
be demoralizing, perhaps even compared to death.

But suddenly, his opponents paused, receiving Velric's signal.  To Lancos,
it looked like they had lost part of their will to fight, and he took full
advantage of the situation.  He sliced a daemon in half with the knife, and
brought the scimitar down on Gutt Man's left arm.

The Gutt Man screamed slightly in pain, but to his credit, did not drop
the knife.  Despite the call, he was tempted to attack savagely with his
weapons.  But he felt pain jolt up his left arm the moment he tried to
raise it -- obviously, it was hurt, maybe even broken.  Looking around,
and seeing Lancos' companions starting to advance was the final straw,
as he got a small taste of the fear he had been dishing out for so long.
He turned and ran for the street, cursing all the way at Lancos, for the
lost opportuity.

The warrior heard the derogatory words directed against him, but was not
exactly unoccupied at this point.  He quickly finished the last of the
daemons that was still nearby, and for a while, had an open shot at the
the Gutt Man.  He paused for the briefest of seconds, making sure that none
of the others would suffer because he was momentarily self-centered.  Then
he realized that was really stopping him was his conscience, and a moment
before releasing the knife, he changed its target from Gutt Man's head to
his leg.

The knife hit a Thurlan that had flown into its path.  In some situations,
this might have been a noble sacrifice, but the daemon had been running
away, and only by bad luck had intercepted the missile.  Lancos quickly
went over and collected the knife, cursing to himself at the whims of fate.

* * * *

Myrnien felt the compulsion to fight fall away.  Her attacks had proven
to be useless, for Kaalzic was apparently being protected by something.
The command had been to kill, not specifically to swing her sword.  And
the more obvious it became that to kill him was impossible, the more she
was able to resist the urge to try.

She stopped.  Kaalzic's eyes met hers.  She should try to speak now, to
explain herself, to say how relieved she was that he was alive.  She
started to smile, as she realized the irony of the situation.  They hadn't
parted well, and he owed her an apology.  But here she was, desperately
wanting to apologize to _him_, for something that was beyond her control.

"Kaal" she said quietly, but before she could continue, a command entered
her mind, a command to run away.  She did so, sobbing as she went.  She
had no choice.

* * * *
Pars was not wearing a bracelet, but he knew that there was a time to run
away, as well as any other warrior.  He could not seem to finish off Tarkyn,
the ranger's magical skill providing a valuable difference.  And he could
tell that Kryalla had left the plane, and with her went any reason he might
have to stay in Generica.  He motioned one of the few over-loyal daemons
in front of him, and made his escape to the street.

...
Arienne caught her breath, still winded from her ordeal with Yosef.  But
now all that remained from the monster was a pool of ichor.

The group looked at each other, and -- finding all still standing
healthily -- silently decided to press their advantage and follow the
enemy out.  Outside, they noticed their foes were scattering slightly,
the only stationary object being off to the left a fair distance.
Kaalzic pointed towards it, and they headed that way, finding a statue.

"Isn't that BBD?" Tarkyn questioned, not sure of what to make of things.

"Or at least the man who claimed to be him." Darvos added. "Interesting
magic -- this must be Kryalla's work; I saw her go after him."

"Well, if this _is_ BBD, we should see if we can destroy it, or take it
away." Arienne said.

"I do not have much magic in reserve, and I plan to use it to heal."
Darvos countered.  Tarkyn nodded at that, to show he felt the same way.

"Well then, let's try this another way...". She swept her weapon at the
statue, and was surprised when a force stopped it inches before it hit.
She flashed a puzzled look.

"Maybe it's part of the spell."

"Maybe." Lancos spoke up. "Or maybe something else is up.  I don't know
about you, but I wonder about this.  Hopefully, this is the end of things,
but just in case, I'm going to be ready for anything.  After all, we still
have his minions to deal with."

Darvos nodded, remembering his feeling that defeating Velric had been too
easy.  And Kaalzic echoed it, not sure he could rest comfortably until he
knew exactly how he and Myrnien stood.  The rest of them said nothing, as
they quietly started to go their own way.

* * * *
"Well spoken, Lancos." Velric said in his secret room.  "After all, this
isn't over yet."

[ADMIN: To be continued, in a few months]

Epilogue:

"Alone at last." Arienee purred, pressing close to Lancos, and ignoring
the presence of Bast, who walked in between their legs in an effort to
belie the words.  When the warrior only gave a small, somewhat disarming
smile, she knew he was distracted.  "What's wrong?"

"Oh, just wondering about Little Rat's safety, and who Gutt Man is
terrorizing tonight, with my weapon.

Arienne gave him a small kiss on the cheek to cheer him up.  "Oh, don't
worry.  He'll be taken care of, just like BBD and Velric and Yosef were
today."

Lancos nodded.  He knew the situation would be taken care of, preferably
by himself.  It hadn't reached an active level -- where he would have the
urge to hunt down Gutt Man, much like Darvos did evil vampires.  But it
might soon, and at the least, he would not rest easy until the child-
killer was no longer a threat, or the mental weight was taken off his head
by some other "grand" deed.

"Besides," Arienne added, oblivious to Lancos' train of thought.  "I hear
music, and we should celebrate a bit."

And as they neared the Plaza of Glittering Stell, he too heard music, a
light but unfamiliar melody.  But even though he allowed himself a smile
at Arienne's comment, he directed them away from the sound.  His only
reply was "Business first, then pleasure."

Most people in Arienne's position might have stated that pleasure _was_
their business.  But she knew such a line would not do her any good with
the warrior.  Instead, she pouted a bit, and said.  "Ok.  If I can get
something, too."

Lancos' mood lightened at the comment; his smile became more genuine,
and widened.  "We'll see."

They approached Throcken's armory, and entered.  There was no sign of
the proprietor, but from the back came a sound of metal being pounded.
Lancos headed to the sound, to find Throcken working on a weapon.
"Excuse me." he said timely, making sure he didn't interrupt a strike.
When Throcken turned to face him, the warrior added, "Uh... I was just
interested in finding a new short sword, or reasonable equivalent."

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