Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Path: netcom.com!netcomsv!decwrl!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!xlink.net!rz.uni-karlsruhe.de!stepsun.uni-kl.de!sun.rhrk.uni-kl.de!physik.uni-kl.de!kring From: kring@physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring) Subject: [Welcome] BT: The Dragon Of Eraton Message-ID: <1993Oct19.040544.27808@rhrk.uni-kl.de> Sender: news@rhrk.uni-kl.de Organization: FB Physik, Universitaet Kaiserslautern, Germany Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1993 04:05:44 GMT Lines: 184 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bakr's Tales: The Dragon Of Eraton ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADMIN: This follows "Nobody Leave The Cave!" Elpenor finished his second Kaligin. This one was slim and elastic and was the first one that had a neck, a turtle-like one. Its head was heart-shaped, with a pupil-less slanted eye in the centre of each of the two rounded parts. Ram-like horns hung at the sides of the head. The beast had three nostrils and a broad, grinning mouth with tiny pointed teeth. Two forked tongues came forth from it and sniffed the air. The demon's hide was dark brown and wrinkled; it had two holes in the left shoulder - one could look through the beast's torso! The two arms and the two legs were like snakes, but at the ends there were perfectly normal human hands and feet, the body parts that shocked me the most. The Nearer Planes of Chaos must be an interesting place, I thought, and there may be even people who want to go there. Again the conjurer had a battle of minds with his creature and won. Then he ran, breathing heavily, to the first one and straddled before it. I looked at Magrondar with a question mark in my face, and the brigand chief said, "He is losing control of the first one, because the ritual took so long. He has to defeat it again, or it will attack somebody." Kaligins are aggressive creatures. A conjurer can force them to fight for his cause. If he can. Else they will pick a fight with whomever they want. "RUUUUU!" said The Sack and swang its morningstar. Snakey - I'll call the other Kaligin that - would assist its master, I thought. It had got a battle-axe. Would they have to fight against each other? I'd put my money on The Sack, and then? That was exactly what we needed, a demon running loose! "Nudge nudge," said a grinning Ormgwen. "I've got an anti-demon omelette!" ----- Elpenor looked sternly at The Sack. The Sack didn't calm down. Elpenor looked sternly at The Sack. The Sack didn't calm down. Elpenor looked sternly at The Sack. The Sack relaxed. Elpenor looked sternly at The Sack. The Sack waddled out of the cave with surprising speed, and everyone retreated. When it had left the cave it turned and looked back into the dark. The conjurer left the cave and said, "I couldn't control it. But I talked it around to fight on our side. I told it that there would be a good fight against an interesting opponent. Don't provoke it. Don't stare at it. It might prefer to attack you. And hurry. It may lose patience." The Sack stirred and looked in all directions. Everybody else looked at the ground. "The other Kaligin will obey Magrondar, but not for long. Good luck!" Elpenor and the other brigands, except Magrondar their captain, ran away and disappeared behind a rock formation. "Follow me," said the hermit. The Sack, Magrondar, and Snakey followed him. The others ran into the cave and got their bundles. "We will bury the priest when we come back," said Preg. "If we come back," corrected Fulfur. ----- We followed the hermit, the brigand, and the demons. Compass and I kept an eye on the murderous healer, but he didn't do anything suspicious. Everybody prepared for the fight to come - Compass put a lead ball into his sling, Preg bent his bow, Ziemi got his speed herbs ready. We reached a small plateau surrounded by rocks. At one end there was a cave entrance. Fulfur looked askance at the hermit. The hermit nodded. Compass looked around and goggled. His lips formed "Sir Arni?" The knight had disappeared! Compass fumed. He and Tarik sneaked to the entrance and climbed above it. Ormgwen, his heat protection pendant around the neck, stepped forward and openly approached the cave. The rest hid behind various rocks, weapons ready. Then a lot of things happened in quick succession. When the burglar had barely stepped down on the plateau, The Sack overtook him and rushed into the cave, swinging its morningstar and shouting "RUUUUUUUU!!!!!". A second later a cloud of steam came out of the entrance, then The Sack returned, followed by a huge yellow reptile. The dragon didn't fly as I had expected. It crawled on its belly. It didn't even have wings. It looked like a fat crocodile, but the head was different, the legs were different, the tail was different. In fact everything was different, but nevertheless it looked like a crocodile, except that it did have a neck and could moves its head. It ignored Ormgwen, and Ziemi who had joined him in the meantime, chewing his herbs, and pursued The Sack which ran along the plateau. Not long and they would disappear from sight. Spears, arrows, lead balls, hammers were shot and thrown. Fighters ran after them. At my side Sir Arni materialized and swore in Alban at Almes the priest. The knave came and joined him, and both turned on their heels and went away in the direction from where we had come. Fulfur translated, "It's not a dragon. It's a lindwurm." I didn't have time to think about it, since a naked giant, in his hand a large boulder, followed the dragon, or lindwurm, in big leaps and overtook all the followers, even Ziemi. In the meantime Compass's missile had missed the lindwurm and instead hit The Sack. The Sack had fallen to the ground, and the reptile was on it and took a hearty bite. But now a boulder crushed the monster from above. The giant was helping us! One more deus ex machina. Ziemi joined him and hacked into the beast with his axe. Two more boulder hits and it was obvious that the lindwurm was dead. The giant turned around and smiled. It was Tarik the merchant, twice his normal size! His empty and torn clothes still lay where I had seen him last. "I tried the unknown potion," he boomed. ----- The peasants rejoiced and threw their caps in the air. This had gone much quicker than everyone had expected. Nobody had died, except the lindwurm. And The Sack. Something that looked like sand ran out of its wounds. The wurm was bleeding out, and Ormgwen stood at its side, eyed the carcass, and seemed to try hard to think of something. The hermit was laughing. Tarik returned and sat in front of the cave. He picked up the remains of his armor and shouted, "I guess I can throw that away." "From the hoard you can buy hundreds of these," Preg answered. "I fear not," said Fulfur. "Lindwurmer don't have hoards that are worth that name." "No?" "Want to guess why Sir Arni suddenly wasn't interested any more?" Almes nodded. "He called me a deceiver. We have lured him here under false pretence, he said. 'I'm a knight, not a vermin exterminator' were his words when he left this place just now. Lindwurmer are beneath his dignity, it seemed to me then." "That slimy bastard!" cried Compass. "I never met such a... a..." "Slimy bastard?" I suggested. "Right. I never met such a slimy bastard before." "We could at least take a look in that cave," I said. "Who knows." The hermit was laughing in the background. Meanwhile the brigands had come. They gaped at Tarik sitting in front of the cave and kept at a safe distance. Their chief joined them and talked to them. Beuaark, the one with the mysterious horns on the head, seemed to be angry... Compass and I took our backpacks and entered the cave. All the others were talking and rejoicing and looking at the dead wurm. The hermit was laughing. ----- The cave was dark and stank. It was only when it curved to the right and there was no light from the entrance anymore that I had the idea to light a torch. I was still a bit confused. At first we found nothing but rocks and lindwurm excrements. The cave got broader. Bones lay on the ground. In a big niche to the left Compass found a human skull and a sword. "So it did eat humans after all!" "One human. But not one from the village. Nobody is missing. Who may this be?" "It looks like he retreated into this niche and fought but the dragon got him." "The lindwurm." "Let's take a look at the hole over there." I squeezed myself through a narrow opening - Compass didn't have any difficulties following me - and stood in a sort of short corridor. There was no chance that the lindwurm had ever been here, except maybe as a wee young lizard. There was an opening to the left and another one a few steps further to the left. I took the first one, Compass the second. Beds. No, no real beds made of wood, rather soft spots with furs and straw. (So Ormgwen didn't miss anything.) Five of them. To the left, one more opening. I went there and found another room with racks at the walls. A chest was there. In the middle of the ground - a hexagram. Compass stood behind me. I gave him a knowing look. He gave me a knowing look. The brigands. They must have once lived here. The lindwurm had taken their lair and killed at least one of them. We went to the chest and opened it. Oops. If there had been a trap on it we would have fallen for it. Luckily the brigands apparently didn't have much time to think of such things when they left. Well, here was a hoard, though not a big one. Still, it was more than I had seen till then. Coins, a goblet, a chain, a few pearls, a ring, a jewel, a scroll. The scroll only had a picture on it, depicting a bearded bloke with a staff and a dove. The dove had apparently lost a foot. How uninteresting. The chain looked nice. Tiger's eye and amber by turns, glittering prettily in the light of the torch. I slipped it over my head. -- Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, apprentice mage aka Lifilis Kloote, conjurer and artist aka Thomas Kettenring