From alt.pub.dragons-inn Wed Dec 7 09:38:46 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7938 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] Where and How Date: 6 Dec 1994 22:05:36 GMT Organization: Anarchy, Ltd. Lines: 102 Sender: cosby@greatwall.cctt.com (John Cosby) Message-ID: <3c2n7h$fir@babyblue.cs.yale.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: greatwall.cctt.com ====== LAST EPISODE: The wizards Gothis and Talvis and Talvis's apprentice Taberd had appeared in Nexus, escaping an attack on Gothis's tower in their home plane. The three are travelling downriver toward Generica. ====== Evening found the three wizards tracking off the road, looking for a suitable campsite. They had passed other travellers and merchants travelling down the road and Talvis had used his art to extract knowledge from them as they passed; only the surface images, of course. He now had a grasp of the local language, and knew that somewhere ahead was a great city, Generica. As Taberd scouted ahead Gothis dozed and Talvis pondered. Their dress wasn't too different from that of the locals; Gothis was wearing a robe with old, comfortable boots, and carried his short staff tucked up in his old rope belt. Taberd was in shirt and pants with dagger and sword, and Talvis wore his customary dark shirt and pants with travelling cloak; his ironwood staff, all seven feet, was slung across his back. They had more of the same sort of clothing in their packs, along with money and supplies for several weeks in the wilderness. They wouldn't stick out too much; on the contrary, from some of the locals he'd seen and the images in their minds, the three wizards would be mundane. His musings were interrupted by their arrival in a clearing bordered by great oaks and a small stream; they had found their campsite. While Taberd set up the camp, Talvis sat down with Gothis and grilled him on his actions back in the tower, just before they had been propelled to Nexus. An unpleasant surprise was in store. "I cast four spells, two cantrips, and a Minor Holding when you opened that gap for me, Talvis. I don't know which did what!" "You mean you just... winged it?" "Well, the Vormers had all the conventional avenues covered. You know they've been studying our arts for centuries. It was going to take something new and original to break that barrier they were holding!" Talvis just shook his head. "And where did you draw the power from?" "Why, from somewhere out there, outside the bubble! I think I actually caught a Vormer in the suction!" Again, Talvis shook his head. Just when he thought he had a mastery of the Art, Gothis went and invented entirely new concepts. "Just how did you release all those spells at once?" "Well, I tied one to your release of the gateway, and daisy-chained two others off it, and the Minor Holding held open a second bubble where we had been; I figured it would take them a couple of seconds to figure out we were gone, and the Holding collapsed after .73 milliseconds, so they should have all fried in the backwash, too!" "So you know where we are?" "Absolutely no idea, I'm afraid. In fact, I tied the collapse of the Vormer's barriers to your propulsion charm, so when their barrier collapsed we should have gotten an extra kick. The only way to know how far we went is to go back and ask their ghosts what they were sending at your shield when it collapsed." "Masters, the fire is laid." Taberd's interruption gave Talvis the opportunity he needed to regain his composure. The amount of magic that spell had tapped was on par with a volcanic eruption! They were probably so far from home... Talvis stopped. What was waiting for him back there? His tower? In ruins. Gothis's? The backwash from their departure probably levelled every structure for miles. Taberd? His family? Dead in the last invasion. The other wizards? Were probably either dead at the hands of the Vormers, or soon would be. He was shaken from his review by the sound of Taberd's steel striking flint. "Taberd! Don't you know the fire charm yet?" Taberd looked shamefaced. He'd been studying the charm for weeks, but had never gotten it quite right. "I'm sorry, Master." Before his master could say more, the apprentice bent to the tinder, muttering and gesturing ("his gestures are too large! still!" Talvis thought). Taberd ran through the two-second charm, closed his hand, and pointed. As the smoke settled, Talvis looked at Gothis, rolling on the ground, shaking with laughter. The apprentice was sitting up from where he'd been hurled by the blast. The horses, used to this sort of thing, calmly ate their fodder. Talvis thought for a second before speaking. Once again Experience, that greatest and most deadly of tutors, had both taught Taberd and spared him. "Remember, we're on a different place, Taberd. The magic coefficient's different. Build the fire from the embers, then meditate and come up with a way to calculate that variance," he said as he walked towards the stream to wash the soot from his face. --- Coz (John Cosby) - cosby@greatwall.cctt.com