From: albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [GATM][ELR] Krupp: Tunnel Visions Date: 31 Aug 1993 17:14:05 GMT Message-ID: <2600st$9hf@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu> Part 1 - Tunnel Visions You've only had to run so far, So good But you will come to a place Where the only thing you feel Are loaded guns in your face And you'll have to deal with Pressure --Billy Joel:Pressure In my life, I've done some dumb things. Joining the army during the Lizard Wars. Climbing into the Bildurbom sisters' bedroom on Founder's Day. Going into Low City at night without plate mail and an orge battalion as backup. But none of them were as deranged as playing bait for a goddess wannabe. I stood outside the building where I nearly died a second time. 'Raelf and Erik said the spell they cast on me would keep her from discorporating. I trusted that they thought it would. But I had just faced one of her priests, and nearly croaked. The real thing had me real scared. The building looked empty. No lights, no sounds. I took a deep breath, and stepped through the walls. I took a roundabout walk through the building. Nothing. There were residual traces that folks had lived there and the psychic "scent" left over was pretty cold, which fit in well with 'Raelf's explanation of this godling. So, the room where they worshiped the doll. It was just on the other side of a wall. I could tell that nobody was home. So there was no reason why I was so damn terrified, right? Hah. Then I thought about the kids that godling was turning into sickos and walked through the wall. Empty. I sat down in a chair and composed myself. Well, we had figured that they might move. I pulled a silver sphere from my coat pocket and said "activate." A sculptor once said to make a statue of an elephant, he takes a block of marble and cuts away everything that doesn't look like an elephant. The sphere did something like that. It seemed to melt inwards upon itself, collapsing into a silver butterfly. "Okay, Fido, find the baddie." The butterfly danced around the room, looking for traces of Br'Nai that I couldn't pick up. It flitted around the spot where the kids had sat yesterday, and then picked a direction. I followed the bug downstairs, and then through a hidden trapdoor to a basement. "I'm going underground," I whispered silently. <> I wanted to ask him what a radio was, but I got the point. The bug was impatiently flitting ahead of me, eager to go on down. Shows what it knew. Me, I was thinking Rameshan was lovely this time of year. The bug led me from the basement to the sewers. I looked up and saw the sun fade behind a cloud. In the distance, I heard a peal of thunder. How appropriate. I walked through the sewers, trying hard not to see the tunnels as a big throat, with me walking into the stomach. I crammed my fears down in the same place I stuck 'em in the Lizard Wars. Sarge's words came back to me, "It's fine to be scared. Hell, I seen guys twice as big as me wet themselves when the scalies pop up out of the water. The thing to do is to put it aside. You kin be scared later. Scales ain't gonna wait for you to calm down to react." I remembered sitting on the barge after one patrol. It was a bad one. We lost three guys and I was almost number four. I was trying to hide the shakes I knew if I let out would rock the boat. Sarge plopped down next to me. He punched me on the shoulder and said, "Yer a good soldier, Shorty." He gave me a pull on His Flask, the ones regs said we couldn't carry. It helped. I never was one to pray, but right then, in the sewers, I was really hoping Sarge's ghost was watching over me. The bug was hovering ahead of me, next to a hole in the wall. As I got closer, I saw that there was a translucent fake wall covering the hole. Illusions. It would fool anyone else, but not a ghost. Ahead of me was another corridor, this one really big. Wide enough for a cart and horses, and twice as high. I thought very strongly about not being seen, and cautiously walked down the corridor. There were torches spaced irregularly on the walls, stinky ones sputtering out light and shadow in equal amounts. About twenty feet or so down, I caught myself hugging the shadows like a master thief. I was so tense I almost laughed out loud to myself for trying to hide in the shadows when I was invisible, but caught myself. I kept to the shadows as I crept down the corridor. What the heck, it made me feel a bit safer, though 'safe' was not a word that described the situation. Up ahead, I saw a brighter light, and I heard voices. "Okay Private Faraway, it's showtime," I said to myself. Part 2 - Dancing on a Volcano Holy Mother of God You've got to go faster than that to get to the top. Dirtly old mountain All covered in smoke, she can turn you to stone So you better start doing it right Better start doing it right. You're halfway up and you're halfway down And the pack on your back is turning you around. Throw it away, you won't need it up there, and remember You don't look back whatever you do. -Genesis: Dance on a Volcano In my life, I've seen many things both strange and wonderful. To my, well, I was going to say dying day, I will forever be haunted by what I saw in that cave. It was pretty big, a natural cavern, easily roomy enough for a dragon to think about moving in. The ceiling glowed with a faint purple luminescence that gave everything a strange cast. Some colors glowed under the light. In the center of the cavern was this raised bit. In the middle, there was a big bonfire. But it wasn't normal fire, instead of orange and red flames, it was purple with green highlights. Around the fire danced around a hundred or so children of varying ages. The children were dancing in perfect time to a rhythm only they heard. Every move, every gesture, every breath one made was made by all. It was all like some giant clockwork machine, perfect in every detail. Except life, that is. As 'Raelf said once, "the lights are on but nobody's home." Those children may have well have been statues. 'Raelf's butterfly started flying straight towards the fire. I reached out to grab it, but it flew on ahead, heedless of me. I started circling around to the right, hoping to hug the comforting shadows. "COME OUT, COME OUT AND PLAY, MISTER FARAWAY," said a strange dual voice. A cloaked figure walked around the fire, and looked right at me. Shit. Trying to put on my best cocky glare, I walked out of the shadows. The cloak hid the body, but I could see his hands. They pulsed with light under the skin. "I'm glad you're home, Barney. I was afraid I'd have to leave a message with the rugrat brigade." I shoved my hands in the pockets of my trenchcoat, to keep them from shaking. "FOOLISH GHOST," said the figure, "YOUR EFFRONTERY IMPRESSES EVEN US." As I listened, I could make out two voices. One was a normal human male voice, though it was was hoarse, like it had been talking for hours. The second was feminine, amplified with power and overlaid with a sickly sweetness to it. "'US' eh? Sounds 'bout right. There's two of you in there, after all." I reached out with my mind, and yanked back the hood of her cloak. A man's face, twisted in pain and joy looked back at me. With my second sight, I saw a twisted female clown face overlaid on it. "Tsk tsk, good bodies are so hard to find." "YOU AMUSE US, HALFLING. BUT YOUR AMUSEMENT VALUE IS AT AN END. <>" I could see the tendrils of energy that floated through the air, reaching out for me. Here's where I hoped 'Raelf and Erik were as good at magic as they acted. As soon as a tendril reached me, it just happened to fizzle out and flop to the ground. Whew. "I don't think so, Barney old chum." I could feel her push more energy into dissipating my ectoplasm, but the "ground fault interceptor" deflected their energy. "I'm not abysmally stupid. I wouldn't waltz in here without some sort of protection." "DAMNABLE CREATURE!" cursed Br'Nai. "Tsk, tsk, and with children present. Here's the deal, Barney. You get the hell outa my town, and leave the kids alone. Otherwise, >piff<, you're gone just like your cousins." I really wasn't offering a deal, in case you were wondering. "I SHALL DESTROY YOU. <>" The aspect of Br'Nai's host came forward and gestured. Flames jumped from his hands and etched some kind of magic circle around me. This, I hadn't anticipated. I looked down, and saw the earth smoulder around the flames. But, as I looked closer, I could see the flames really weren't there. Illusions so real they almost were. But they weren't real enough. "Sorry, chuckles, but you have to be more real than that." I walked through the circle. I could feel an echo of a tug at me as I walked through it, trying to convince me it was real enough to hold me. "So, what are you going to do next? Bore me to death?" "I SHALL KILL YOU," screamed Br'nai. "Been there, done that," I taunted back. Now, to get this show on the road. "Well, if that's your best shot, I think I'll dash. I hear there's a preschool letting out, that's probably all you can handle. That's your game, isn't it? Prey on kids who can't fight back. Wotta schmuck." Usually, when I broadcast emotions, it's fear. That's the instinctive one ghosts can do. I was trying something different: irritation. I had to get Br'Nai so damn mad at me she'd do something as stupid as we planned. I turned my back on Br'Nai and started sauntering back out, whistling to myself. "I WILL KILLLLLL YOU" shouted Br'Nai. "<>" I heard a sick ripping and tearing sound. I really didn't want to look back. No, no, not gonna do it. Nope. Who'm I kidding? I looked back. The dancers were flocking to their mistress. I heard a few cries of, "We love you, Br'Nai" as they flocked to her side. "I LOVE YOU TOO. HYUK." Br'Nai herself was glowing bright purple with energy. As each kid got to her, there was a sickening slurp as their little body was absorbed into her own. With each body she absorbed, she grew larger and larger. Her body lost human form, the jaw distending and growing uncomfortably sharp teeth. The arms shrunk in relation to the rest of the body, which was turning scaley. A long tail flopped to the ground, to counterbalance the huge body. In the end, there were no children left, no possessed illusionist, just a large, hungry looking lizard. It reared up and roared at me with anger and hatred. "Ah, well, I can see, uh, you're busy here," I stuttered, backing towards the way I came in. "DIE!" it screamed. 'Raelf's magic butterfly, which I had lost track of in the confusion, flited innocently around it's head. Br'Nai leaned backwards, hefted up one of it's huge feet, easily as big as a horse, and brought it down on the bug. It squished against the floor. 1: The bug was a magical creation, no more solid than I was. + 1: The bug got squished when under Br'Nai's foot. --- TIME TO GO. Part 3: Faster than a Speeding Bulette The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive Everybody's out on the run tonight but there's no place left to hide Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness I'll love you with all the madness in my soul Someday girl I don't know when we're gonna get to that place Where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run --Bruce Springsteen:Born to Run The plan was working. So now why was I so worried? After all, I was _just_ being chased by an angry demigoddess in the form of a giant purple lizard. 'Raelf told me later she was shaped like a critter called a Terriblesoreus Wreck, or something like that. I got the Terriblesourus part. "DIE, YOU LITTLE RAT." screamed the lizard. I was only about ten or so feet ahead of it in the long corridor connecting her cave to the sewers under Low City. "Little Rat's a friend of mine. Don't you bad mouth her." I taunted back. I was starting to get tired. She couldn't dissipate my ectoplasm like before, thanks to my favorite Deus Ars Magica, 'Raelf, but the constant exertion I had been under for the past couple of days was starting to wear thin. Not that I was going to show that bitch any weakness. I kept running and turned my head all the way around to stick my tongue out at her. She roared again and started to catch up. I checked my location on the mental map 'Raelf had put in my head. I was heading East under Low City towards the Avenue of Unforgotten Heroes. I was making good time, which is to be expected with what I had twenty paces behind me. But the sewer was getting a mite cramped for her. Here's where I hoped Ale's money was well spent. "Hey Barney, I'd like to dedicate this little ditty to you," I shouted. Big Dumb Lizard, running after me. Big Dumb Lizard, can't catche me. Attercop, Attercop, Can't you stop, stop running so slow and catch lil' me. Old Tomnoddy, all big body, Old Tomnoddy can't catch me. Attercop, Attercop, Up I pop, Up to the top, where you won't get me. Okay, so I'm not too original a poet. I'm a flatfoot, not a bard. I stuck her the finger and lept up through the ceiling to a Low City street. I kept running, slowing down a minute to make sure she caught up. I was just looking back to see what was talking her so long. The storm on the horizon was rushing in from coast, bringing with it a nasty storm. For a moment, I wondered if someone (or something) was summoning the weather, or if we just had bad timing. The cobblestones ahead of me exploded upwards. I skidded to a stop on the ground to see Br'Nai's purple head right in front of me. "Can't we all just get along," I muttered, scrabbling backwards on hands and feet. She snapped at me with teeth that were half as big as I was. The traffic on the street was light, just as planned, mostly folks who hadn't gotten the word. They got the picture though. Br'Nai lumbered out of the hole she had made, cobblestones falling all around as she widened the hole for her bulky lower body. "THERE YOU ARE, GNAT." "Gnat," I said, an outraged expression on my mug. "I was hoping to be at least a mosquito." I had a small problem. I needed to go the direction that Br'Nai was standing in. I could go another way, but that would lead her onto streets Ale hadn't paid to keep clear. So, like my crazy uncle Jim used to say, "When you're waist deep in mud, make mud pies." I pushed the brim of my hat back, and gestured. The cobblestones rose and started pelting Br'Nai's ugly kisser. I stood fast as she advanced. I hoped she thought that I thought I could stop her with a couple of rocks. I knew better, I hoped she didn't know I did know. You know? "I SHALL SQUASH YOU LIKE THE VERMIN YOU ARE." I tried to make myself look as scared as possible as she advanced. Wasn't hard. She reared up and lunged forward. At the second to last second (didn't want to cut it too close), I dove forward and dashed between her legs. "See ya, sucker," I shouted. I gave her a raspberry and ran down the street as fast as my etherial legs would carry me. From behind me, I heard her roar again with anger. I really hoped the plan worked, otherwise I was in for a world of pain. The roaring got closer. I could feel the thumps of its footsteps as much as hear them. I saw the Avenue ahead of me. Just a few more feet. Five steps. Her inchaote screams promise ten thousand lifetimes of pain. Four steps. I smell her fetid breath, dank with the torment of children. Three steps. I see her rage, reflected in the eyes of those around me. Two steps. The waves of anger buffet my body. One step. I taste victory. -- Rick Jones "Come to think of it, there are already a million albert@bcm.tmc.edu monkeys on a million typewriters ... and Usenet is Systems Support Cente NOTHING like Shakespeare..." Voice: 713-798-7352 --Blair Houghton