From alt.pub.dragons-inn Mon Jan 23 19:03:33 1995
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From: djb6@woodlawn.uchicago.edu (Dennis Brennan)
Subject: [Dougl] Article 39 (part 1)
Message-ID: <1995Jan20.222312.23885@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 22:23:12 GMT
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Dougl was shocked.  In the two days since he had spoken with the guard
officer named Aloysius, he had come to understand the level of corruption
and unscrupulousness in Generica.  Merely by walking through the marketplace
or along the docks Dougl could clearly see how criminal gangs and thugs
demanded protection money from merchants and shopkeepers.  Most of the
guardsmen had been bribed into indifference.  At best, there seemed to
be some form of perverse toleration of criminal activity.  At worst there
appeared to be instances of active collaboration between the underworld
and the Generican government.  The Guard had virtually given up law
enforcement in the Low City altogether, and nearly every neighborhood
in the city (save the Bismanian community) was to some degree in the shadow
of the underworld.

Dougl wondered how the criminal presence in Generica could be tolerated,
since it was often so obvious.  He saw with his own eyes the dread and
terror which the vile Low City street gangs inspired among the citizens.
But Dougl also noticed a more subtle level of corruption, which evinced
itself among the trading halls of Merchants' Hill, the courts of law at
Glorshanned Keep, the customs officials and administrators and scribes.

It just seemed to be taken for granted that some people were beyond the law.

And Dougl resolved to be a part of the effort to stop it.

(To Be Continued)


-- 
Dennis Brennan                        "Understanding is a three-edged sword."
djb6@midway.uchicago.edu                                University of Chicago