Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: A New Adventure--[Kyla] Message-ID: <1993Sep15.220410.1@gacvx2.gac.edu> From: ehope@gacvx2.gac.edu Date: 15 Sep 93 22:04:10 -0600 Magic. The word itself conjures power. Those who can control its fickle nature are rare enough. Those who have mastered it's intracacies are even rarer. Some resort to brute power, to control nations with their might. Yet, they fall at the stroke of one hero's sword, or anothers minor magic. But no magic is minor. Every magic performed bends the universe this way or that just a fraction. Those with brute power may be able to beat the universe in the direction they want it to go, but the true masters are always subtle. They use minor magics to push gentley for a new course. And while the Universe will bounce back from being beaten, those gentle redirections remain and eventually make a big difference. So there are those with finesse and those with power, but every so often someone will come along who knows how to use both. Fortunatly, there hasen't been one born for ten-thousand years. Unfortunatly, one just has. Forces are beginning to move in the Universe to determine if the newborn mage will be a force for good, or a force for evil. And all her parents wanted was to be left alone. ******************************************************************** Bryan sat and thought about what the midwife had said. She had cast a routine fourtune telling when his daughter was born. Imediately thereafter she had said, "Your daughter has a great future, but only if she can leave. If she stays, forces of darkness will find her and turn her to their own wills." He hadn't believed her at the time, but now he was changing his mind. In the year since Kyla had been born several children about her age had been murdered in the Kingdom. And now strangers were starting to ask questions that would seem to lead them to his beloved Kyla. However, he couldn't leave. He had five other children and a wife to take care of. He couldn't do that on the road, he was a farmer, not someone with marketable skills. He decided that he would have to ask the midwife. ******************************************************************** "Yes, I will help you. Not personally, but I know of one who can and may be willing to help. He is an old wizard, and can create powerful effects. Your Kyla could learn much from him," spoke the midwife. Bryan replied, "But how can we get in touch with this person. I have never heard of a true wizard ever being in the Kingdom, and few enough from outside." "He is not of this world, but he passed through once. He left my grandmother with a talisman to summon him. Somehow he knew that one day it would be needed." "Do you know if he is even still alive?" "The Jewel in the talisman still glows, indicating life." "Will you summon him?" "No. You must go to Kyla and place the Talisman around her neck, then say, 'Xavier Fernandez del Castillo, Magus of Dyson's Reach, I summon thee in this my time of need!' Then he will Appear." "I thank you for what aid you do give me. I am sorry I doubted you before." "You are forgiven your doubt. But be wary, for Kyla will be in danger as long as she lives." ******************************************************************* "Xavier Fernandez del Castillo, Magus of Dyson's Reach, I summon thee in this my time of need!" intoned Bryan. There was a blinding flash of light. A multi-colored mist filled the room, and at the center a red, formless light gradually resolved itself into a man and his cat. Kyla giggled at the (unseen to Bryan) comic interplay of auras of magic going on in the room. "Yes, they are funny aren't they. Where the hell am I?" said the strange man. "In m-m-my h-h-home honored sir." replied Bryan. "That's obvious. But where is your home?" The cat spoke up, "Remember that trollop of a midwife you met on your way home from that Diabolist's Conferance you destroyed?" "Oh yeah, but that was 100 years ago." "So, that man who just fainted isn't the trollop you met 100 years ago." "So he isn't. Well, I better wake him up and find out why he got me out of the Library of the Imperial University at Avillonia in the middle of a lecture." ******************************************************************* "So, a prophecy indicates you child is in danger and you have to send her off. Real world events are starting to corroberate the prophecy. Why me?" Bryan finally got a good look at the man he had summoned into his home. He was about six foot, had white hair and unnervingly blue eyes. He also had a strange golden complexion. He appeared to be in good health for someone in middle age, yet he talked on a scale of decades regularly and centuries occasionally. "I trust you, because the midwife has the gift, and she says that Kyla should go with you, Magus. I am hesitant to send Kyla off with a stranger, but at the same time i cannot keep her here in good concious. I have discussed this with my wife and she agrees. I know that she will be killed if she stays." "Well?" said the cat (something Bryan still wasn't used to), looking at the Magus. "Well, I guess we must. Young Kyla certainly has the Gift at a prodigious level, and she is in danger here. But understand this Bryan, if she survives and begins to realize her potential, I will inform you. But don't expect anything for the next ten to twenty years." "I thank you, Magus. Take Kyla and protect her." Xavier picked up Kyla and held her in one arm, while with the other he etched complex runes in the air. There was a gathering of colored mist. Then suddenly it disappeared. "Damn. They've got a lock. They're blocking the direct route. Bryan! Get everyone out of the house, run to the midwife's! She may be able to hide you. I've got to get Kyla out of here before the launch a mage bomb. Whoever the hell "they" are." Bryan raced out of his home, with the rest of his family (who had been hiding from the strange man, in the next room). Half way to the Midwife's he looked back to see a blink of light a fraction before the entire house, the entire property, exploded in an ink black cloud of total destruction. ******************************************************************* At the Dragon's Inn, strange things start to happen (of course everyone trys to ignore it as strange things are always happening in Generica). The patrons in the bar see a series of bright, almost blinding, flashing lights. Then a mist forms and disappears several times throughout the bar. Then at the main bar, Formless lights appear on three of the stools. They resolve themselves into a very young child, a large white cat- with red markings and a scorched tail, and a tall middle aged gentleman with short white hair, blue eyes, a golden complexion, and burned clothes that looked like they once might have been rather nice academic gowns. He says, "Bartender, a Strongbow Cider for me, a bowl of milk for the cat, and an apple juice for my young friend." After whoever is on duty delivers the drinks, the strange man drinks the entire pint in a series of long swallows. He then turns his head, flashes a toothy grin, turns back and faints face forward onto the bar. <> <> Note: Please write to one of these addresses as I don't read mail that gets sent to the auto-reply address.