From alt.pub.dragons-inn Sun Oct  9 10:03:52 1994
Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7787
Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!news.ucdavis.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.kei.com!ub!csn!yuma!lamar.ColoState.EDU!not-for-mail
From: arsmith@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Alan Smith)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [NTY][YAT] A commission
Date: 6 Oct 1994 22:25:50 -0600
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
Lines: 101
Message-ID: <372ike$3bk4@lamar.ColoState.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lamar.acns.colostate.edu

ADMIN: This is the kickoff post of [YAT] and includes some halfway important
stuff for [NTY], though it won't be obvioius for a bit.  Apologies to the
rest of the [NTY] team for not bouncing this off them first.

[YAT] Is looking for coauthors, so if you want in send email to 
arsmith@lamar.coloastate.edu and I'll set you up.

____________________________________________________________________

  Let us, for the moment, follow a waif.

  Like thousands of his compatriots in the city of fountains, this waif
has lacked an obvious home for quite some time.  That, and the strain
of the home he DID have have told on his frame, making him thin and
grubby, with an unnatrual habitual silence and wariness about life.
Over the past year he has been befriended by a pair of patrons of the
Dragon's inn, which helped his thinness and grubbiness somewhat, but
it is in the nature of DI regulars that they periodically leave
for long stretches of time and risk their necks on foolish quests.
  Both patrons are in town, and while one has tended towards unexplained
brooding of late, the other has found him an appointment in her new-formed
company, and has allowed him to supplement his income by performing the
same service for the Veduilin toyshop next door.
  In short, he is an errand boy.

  In pursuit of his duties, this errand boy has visited a mansion on
merchant's hill, there to collect the payment for recovering a crate of
Cathayan Imesgee that had been stolen by dockhand thieves.  Then the errand
boy visisted a home in the elven quarter, there to pick up a set of puppets
that needed repair.
  The puppets delivered, the errand boy travells next door to FarPoint
Adventures, and deposits the purse of gold on the desk of Ja'nis of
Threeweeds, proprietress.
  "Thank you." Ja'nis says, opening the purse and pitching a silver coin
to the errand boy.  Then she returns to her task, saying "Jorma, what's
your full name?"
  Jorma knew that this is the question they ask you if they're about to
do a background check on you, and that always meant being arrested and thrown
in the dungeons of the town hall, assuming the Watch didn't beat you to death
in the street.  He merely stared blankly at Ja'nis, the one who had first 
taken him into the inn.  Betraying him, now...
  "Pal wants it.  He says there's going to be a law saying all shops have
to submit a list of all the people working for them." Ja'nis explained,
"Personally, I think it's kind of silly, but I don't want the watch to
come in and arrest me, niether..."
  "You get 'rested if don't have my name?  Oto Caldan Salabic Haffle
Slimea Hux Dan Jorma."  Ja'nis whistled and asked to have it spelled a couple
times.
  "Why so many names?  Pal only has two."
  "Pal halfbreed.  Me fullblood Otomanian."  Ja'nis remembered what Pal had
told her of the eight tribes of Bismanian natives, a race rapidly dwindling
in the face of the growing numbers of halfbreeds, people of both Native
and Exile ancestry.
  "I THOUGHT you were Oto." A voice hailed from the doorway of the shop.
"I'm Iffle and Bism, myself."  The voice belonged to Palandun Lintesul,
the other of the protectors of Jorma, who had taken to brooding and stopped
wearing his grey cloak.  "I'm also halfbreed." He smiled.  Ja'nis looked
between the two.
  Pal was maybe a quarter century old, with the charactersitic olive skin
and dark hair and eyes of the Bismanian islanders.  His tan was somehow
lighter than Jorma's though, and he stood taller than it seemed the eleven
year old Jorma ever would.  Palandun was somewhat finer-featured, and
seemed the very few lines of care that should be in his face weren't.
  "What brings you by?" Ja'nis said, dismissing thoughts on intraracial
variations.  Palandun dropped a coin-filled purse on the desk.
  "I have a job for you." He replied.  "It's kinda long, and you'll need
a big team."  Ja'nis looked attentive.  "I want to find out what brought about
the fall of Old Generica."
  "For gods' sakes WHY?" Ja'nis asked, "And why don't you consult a historian?"
  "I did.  This is what I got." He pulled a notebook out of the bag he carried
and flopped it on the desk.  "It's location sealed so you can't open it until
You're thirty leagues from the city walls.  When you finish write your report
in the notebook and reseal it at the same distance.  I contacted you because
I need somebody to go to what was the country of Kirender and dig through the
archives.  You may find nasties on the way."
  "What kind?"
  "I haven't the foggiest.  It's said there are gnolls in Glorshanned Keep."
Ja'nis opened the bag and looked at the amount of gold inside.  "It might
take you a while." Palandun explained sheepishly.
  "Thanks Pal.  I'll assemble my team and get right on it."  Ja'nis bent her
efforts to designing a poster advertisin for adventurers.  Meanwhile Palandun
decided to do an errand that had been sitting around in the back of his mind.
  "Jorma, I talked to a clerk at the town hall today." Palandun said, sitting
down and addressing the young Bismanian.  True to form, Jorma shrank back in
fear.  "Don' worry.  I just told her you didn't have a family, and could 
something be arrainged."
  "Don' wan' 'nother fam'ly." Jorma replied.  "Fam'lies bad."  This gave 
Palandun some pause, as in HIS experience families were very good.
  "Well, um...How 'bout this.  If the clerk comes up with something, will you
just try living with them as roomates and if you like them, you can become
family?  Please?"
  "Um...Hokay." Jorma said.  "Gots ta run an errand for the Veds." he said,
dashing out the door towards the toy shop.  Palandun stared after him.
"Did you get that list?  I want to run a background check on him." Pal told
Ja'nis.

  Jorma spent most of the next day hanging posters throught the city of
Generica, asking for adventurers willing to go on an extended trip to
the lands between the Kirender and Ceruputhon rivers.  All interested parties
should meet in an upper room of the Dragons inn in a few days...