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From: ignacio@snapdragon.cs.odu.edu (Anthony Ignacio)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [Merc]
Date: 6 Apr 1995 12:55:00 GMT
Organization: Old Dominion University, Department of Computer Science
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Morning sunlight filtered its way past drawn window curtains to rest
insistently on Kelanen's face.  Rubbing his eyes, he sat up in bed
and glanced around.  His tunic and pants still lay on the paneled
floor where he had discarded it carelessly the night before.  Yawn-
ing, he got up and quickly dressed and snatched up his sheathed
sword blade from beside the washbin where it had been left to lean.
Slipping silently out of his rented room, Kelanen headed downstairs
to the main floor to catch what tidbits of news and gossip circulat-
ed about this new day.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Wisps of conversations drifted about the hiring hall...

"I'm tellin' ya, that wily ol' trader is makin' one last run up
Teliron's Pass to make a profit sellin' wools in Mirathe.  I hear he
be lookin' fer mercenaries to help guard his goods!  Ten gold coins
per head!"

"He's crazy to try to reach Mirathe.  The winter Wyverns are waking
this time of year.  No amount of money is worth losing your life for
by having monsters eat you alive!"

...

"Have you heard?  Lord Fallon's daughter has run away.  They say she's
mageborn..."

"Aye, they say her mother was mageborn as well.  Why Lord Fallon ever
took her as his wife I'll never know.  Damned are the souls of the
mageborn, so says the Church."

"Bah!  They're people just like us.  I met one once, a mage.  Scrawny
little bugger, was a healer for his village...sure didn't look like no
hellspawn to me."

"These mageborn, they make a pact with the Devil trading their im-
mortal souls for Power!  It ain't natural I tell ya."

...

"Looks like good weather today, eh?  Not a cloud in the sky!"

"Trust me, lad...there be a big storm a brewin'.  I can tell by the
ache in my bones.  It''ll be nasty one and I'm willing to wager on
that too."

"A wager, eh?  So how much you ready to part with ol' timer?"


-- Anthony