From: kjc@aramis.rutgers.edu (Kelly J. Cooper) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [Witts] Part III of IV Keywords: feedback appreciated Message-ID: Date: 21 Dec 93 16:49:24 GMT [Admin: This is Part 3 of 4 parts that have been written so far.] "Two drawbacks of a map are that you have to know how to read, and you need to know where you are at least once during your trip." -Unknown ** --- <<<< ---- >>>> --- ** Archi was seated in the commissary at one of the tables reserved for mages -- that meant it had a tablecloth. He had a book held open with his left elbow while he wrote notes with his left hand on a pad. His right tried to navigate spoonfuls of gruel into his mouth, but more times than not were slightly off. Between stabs with the spoon and furiously writing notes his tongue would flick around the edge of his mouth, cleaning up excess gruel. So engrossed was he in his work that he failed to notice the fellow who had come over and was standing beside him. "Ahhemmm... That's quite a trick." Archi was briefly overcome with that confused moment when you're not sure what to do. Looking up and over his spoon (poised in the stillness of bewilderment halfway between the bowl and his mouth) at the newcomer, Archi recognized Dieter, the fellow from Urcohea's Security team. His mind went 'Ummm', but his body took over. Setting the spoon down, and closing the book, Archi replied "Hello Dieter. Something I can do for you...?" "Do you mind if I join you?" Before Archi could reply, Dieter sat down across from him. "Good read?" he asked, pointing to the book. Archi's mind unfroze with the familiarity of his favorite topic. "Absolutely fascinating. It's the laboratory notebook that that fellow Errol Trafalgar found in the unstable zone yesterday. I've promised ...sage that I'd give it today and am quickly gleaning out references for my research..." "That's what I want to talk to you about, well sort of..." "My research?" "No... the unstable zone and that gang of yours, the Witt's End?" "Oh, my assistants..." ** --- <<<< ---- >>>> --- ** Everyone lay panting on the pale grass of the weirdly lit cave. A strange luminescence coated the walls and lit their faces with a slightly greenish tint. Standing up out of her crouched position, Danu undid her harness and walked over to Carroll, to kneel beside him. Despite her attempted gentleness, he yelped when she touched his arm. He squinted up at her... "I know you. You're in my History, Legends, Myths class. Drew?" "Danu. Hold still." "Ow! That hur..." He blinked. "Er... feels much better. Thanks." Danu nodded, glanced a Tuek, then walked over to Raine. He growled low in the back of his throat, and bristled, the black tipped white fur rippling. Ignoring him, she gently tilted his long jaw up slightly, to look at the rope burn, then followed its path over his shoulder. The wolf turned under her hand and a cold, wet nose poked her hand as his warm breath ran over it. He stilled under her touch. She reached out toward his wounds, but her wrist was caught and held. Danu turned and looked at Cat. "I don't mean to be rude, but what the hell are you doing and how did you get here? It took us two hours to get to this place from there," she waved over her shoulder at the well, "And you just appear out of nowhere?" Danu looked pointedly at Cat's hand until the young woman reluctantly removed it. Gently stroking Raine's fur, she said softly, hesitantly, "My name is Danu and I... overheard your destination and part of your route for this adventure. I decided to try it myself." Her hand passing over Raine's shoulder got slower and slower. "I... have only one friend here. His name is Kyle, but he's mostly called Wings." She paused, her face and neck becoming slightly flushed. "I told him what I'd heard and he decided he was going." Raine leaned his furred, warm weight against her. She smiled slightly, "He's like that. And he invited someone named Siaran along as well. Said he wanted to get him involved in more than brooding." She shrugged. Her hand was moving very slowly now and glowing almost imperceptibly red. "We were looking for a way through a wall when I saw a door, set in the stone, with a twisted snake symbol on it. A healer's symbol. And healing is my calling. I put my hand on the door. There was a flash of light and suddenly I was here." She lifted her hand. The abrasions on Raine's shoulder were gone, and the ones near his mouth were much less angry. "I don't know where the others are. I hope they can take care of themselves." Raine cocked his head and his ears went up and tail went up. His black nose poked at her pack, and sharp white teeth started undoing knots. Danu nudged his insistent nose away from the bag, and he growled at her. To the surprise of everyone there, she growled back. He looked at her with a questioning gaze, then grinned a toothy smile, tongue lolling to one side. With an abrupt shrug, Cat said, "Well, you're with us now." Pulling out her notepad, Cat wrote some notations in it, and then looked up at Danu. "Say, where did you enter the Lost Corridors?" "The what?" "The disused and highly irregular portions of the guild," proffered Tuek. "Oh here, you mean. Well... we came through a vent grating in the backroom behind the west wing lecture hall..." "Old Jenkin's, huh. How did you get in there? He's got a personal seal on it," asked Carroll. "W e l l..." said Danu, her blush deepening. She looked at her feet. "Doesn't matter," interjected Cat. Looking at Danu, Cat continued "When we get back, I'd appreciate it if you would look over the map I have for that region and add anything new you've discovered." Looking at the rest of her team, she said, "Take a brief breather, guys." Cat then pivoted to look around the cave. Still nothing but a rocky opening, but she felt some "influenced area" was near here. Stuffing the notepad in a pocket, she unwound an extra rope and hitched her belt to it. Taking from her pack a piton and borrowing Danu's hammer, she secured the piton to the floor in front of the only other apparent opening in this cave besides the well. Attaching the rope to it she said "I've got a funny feeling. I'm just going to scout a ways ahead." Staying crouched, she crawled through an opening, then slithered on her belly away. The rope slowly snaking behind her. Raine snorted as she left. "Her feelings have been highly accurate," protested Carroll. Raine rolled his eyes and, four huge paws spread, shook vigorously. Cat wriggled through the tight opening, peering ahead, trying to find something tangible to go with her sixth sense. She felt it, now she had to find it. The narrow passage widened and the floor started to take form... steps! "I found steps," she called back towards the group. The area was still rather small, but the steps were evident and the opening seemed to widen ahead. Cat figured she had maybe ten feet left before her rope was all played out. She hammered a piton in a side wall, attached a carabiner to it and fed her rope through it. No need to take chances now. Slowly crawling up the steps, she came out onto a stone floor. 'Yes!' she thought. "I found a stone floor. Can't make much out but I think I see... Ugh! Soft rock! Be careful, there's soft rock up here..." Her voice just stopped while at their feet, the rope snapped taut. Danu and Raine were nearest and both lunged for it. The wolf clamped his jaws on it and Danu held on with both hands, slightly behind him, near the piton. Suddenly the tension eased and Cat's face appeared, lit in the dark at the head of the passage. "I'm OK, just slipped in the muck. Come on up, all, there's a chamber." The others made their way carefully up the narrow stair, to the odd shaped room in the rock. One face of the room was slick-looking brown, the rest was the grey-black of old granite. Cat nodded in grim silence at Danu, before standing and moving restlessly toward the slick surface. Something about that wall tugged at her instincts. She reached out a hand toward the brown surface, and her fingers sank into it with no more resistance than very thick mud. Cat pulled her fingers back, calling over her shoulder. "I _knew_ we were getting close to the unstable areas! This whole wall's softrock!" Raine whimpered at Cat, wishing silently that she wouldn't play around in that stuff. She ignored the sound, turning back to the wall, and slowly plunged her arm in the thick sticky mud up to the shoulder. Her eyes went distant as she concentrated on feeling around for anything beyond... Then, her eyes snapped wide and she spat a curse. "Spacetwist here! Ungh, I've got something..." She arched her back and heaved, leaning out from the wall, putting all her weight behind her hauling. Slowly she dragged something out of the wall, something entirely covered with the softrock... As it emerged, she snatched her hand away from it and stifled a sound of pain. ** --- <<<< ---- >>>> --- ** The Witts' End Gang is: Archibald "Archi" Halidon (Carl Fogelin, fogelinc@pt.cyanamid.com) Carroll Jarvek (Colin Roald, colin@callisto.pas.rochester.edu) Chrainein "Raine" Hydor (Liralen Li, li@inigo.data-io.com) Danu (Kelly J. Cooper, kjc@cs.rutgers.edu) Kyle "Wings" Dorshan (Steve Hutchison, hutch@hutch.intel.com) Siaran (Andrea Evans, Andrea.Evans@orb.nashua.nh.us) Tahd Musgrave (Penny Hutchison, penny@agora.rain.com) Theodora "Cat" Rediche (Carl Fogelin, fogelinc@pt.cyanamid.com) Tuek Esmar (Alfvaen, aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca) The characters above are copyright 1993 by their authors. Permission to archive this story is granted for non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved.