From alt.pub.dragons-inn Wed Dec 7 09:38:45 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7927 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!gumby!yale!yale!cosby From: cosby@greatwall.cctt.com (Coz [John Cosby]) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [WIZARDS THREE] Arrival Followup-To: alt.pub.dragons-inn, cosby@greatwall.cctt.com Date: 4 Dec 1994 03:07:17 GMT Organization: Anarchy, Ltd. Lines: 91 Sender: cosby@greatwall.cctt.com (John Cosby) Message-ID: <3brbp5$3ej@babyblue.cs.yale.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: greatwall.cctt.com [ADMIN: A week or so ago, Heather Sexauer posted a "last gasp" note. I was one of the people who responded; the result, a new contributor to a.p.d-i (me), and three new characters of mine. This thread will get them to the Dragon's Inn in Generica, and let everyone get acquainted with them (and let me do some research before I screw up someone else's scenarios!) After that, they'll be available for participation in others' threads. I'll try to post the journey fairly quickly; I'll be away from the net between Dec. 22 and Jan. 4, and I want to have it finished before I leave. All comments and criticism are welcomed. Until then, enjoy this, the first tale of the Wizards Three.] A sunny day. Birds chirping, a river winding, and a tiny speck of _something_ swelled into being beside the river road. A globe forms, swelling to a diameter of several meters, then s. The figures revealed cringe from the light, then stand, calming their rearing horses. "Damnation. You messed that one up royally, Talvis." The speaker, a wizened figure, held his horse's bridle and leaned on his cane at the same time, giving the impression of complete exhaustion. The person he was speaking to looked as if he were about to make a bitter comment, then swallowed his anger. "Yes, well, we're out of that deathtrap tower of yours." The elderly man looks startled for a moment, then apparently decides to drop the subject and starts looking around. "Exactly which continent did you intend to set us on, Talvis?" The other mage looks around as well, then looks up, startled. "Plane, actually; a continent wouldn't have been far enough away to lose them. I was aiming for Occienta; unless their sky's this color, I missed." "Sky? Well, just so. Missed your target plane, then?" The third human member of the group, a teenage boy working towards manhood, looked around eagerly. "Another _plane_? I thought we were just trying to escape the tower! Wow!" Talvis shook his head as though shaking off an errant fly. "Taberd, get the horses ready. We can't stay here forever; make sure their packs and saddles are set." "Yes, sir," the apprentice said, and busied himself with the animals. "You have a chore for an old man, Talvis?" "Yes, Gothis. I want you to perch yourself up on that horse as soon as Taberd has it ready. There's a road, so this isn't a wilderness; somewhere downstream there will be civilization." "So?" the old man asked. "So, you have time to help me figure out what went wrong with that Working. I know the Vormers were fighting our spell, and I know you gave some kind of burst that finally broke us through. Figure out where... and when... that took us. Quickly, before we run into a merchant or get to a city and have to start learning languages. That always made your head hurt." Nodding, the old wizard walked over to his mare and, with Taberd's help, mounted. Talvis in the lead, the three moved off down the road. "A new plane. Wonderful!" Talvis thought to himself sarcastically. "Talvis, you've done it to yourself this time. That burst of power from Gothis must have thrown us across half the multiverse." Fortunately, he considered, it would also throw off the Vormers. They wouldn't be able to track them in the backwash from that blast. "Well, looks like you're stuck, Talvis. Just when you thought you could sit back and rest," he muttered. "What's that, Master?" Taberd asked. "Nothing, boy. You're Master's just approaching senility, like his old Master before him, eh, Talvis?" Gothis cackled. Talvis said nothing. He just sat up straight in his saddle and kicked his horse to a trot, heading along the road, downriver. --- Coz (John Cosby) - cosby@greatwall.cctt.com - cosbyj@nefarious.saic.com