From: kring@efes.physik.uni-kl.de (Thomas Kettenring)
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1992 20:34:53 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [DQ] Kloote: Which of these dragons do you want?

  Kloote showed his nostrils to the party, one after another.  A greying,
scar-covered fighter-type; a tanned muscular youngster; a red-haired young
ranger of sorts; a strange dwarf/gnome/whatever with a square shaped face and
a flat nose - when Kloote studied the humanoid, the surfer spoke.

    "Wow, I thought Kloote would be a much younger man.  Greetings, oh
     estimable conjurer dude, I'm 'Raelf.  I'm a travelling mage,"
  (Mage?  This half-naked savage?)
  "this is Lancos Erredan,"
  (Probably coming straight from a meeting with the wild boars.)
  "Valgar,"
  (Looks like everybody he meets chews on him for a while.)
  "William, the magic potter,"
  (A workman.  Uninteresting.)
  "and this is ShockWave, a DiamondSword currently occupying the body of
SunStorm the Giant, who is..."
  "SunStorm the WHAT?"
  "He has been shrunk by a mage who didn't like his size."
  (Oh my!  What a loser.  Like a thief without hands.)
  "SunStorm's soul has been abducted, so ShockWave had to take over his body.
  (And without a head.)  "Now, do you have an accurate image of this dragon
you want to get back?"
  "I'm afraid not."
  Lancos jumped in.  "Er, William made a sculpture looking very much like
TrueSilver."
  (Ah!  So he's an artist!  Well, well, well!  Perhaps at least one half-
sensible person in that bunch?)

  They gathered around the half-TrueSilver-half-Elstree sculpture.  Kloote
shook his head.  "I can't do it.  You see, if I draw a picture of this...
thing, even with you helping by describing the tint, and use it for summoning,
we will get the one dragon in the multiverse that most closely resembles the
picture, and that may be not your one.  With a human, I'd try it, but I don't
want an unknown monster running around.  No no no no no.  I won't do it."
  (Artist!  Ha!  That looks more like a woman than a dragon.)

  'Raelf was already shaping an image out of smoke, air, and void that got
more and more dragon-like.  "I'm working on a xerox of that sculpture," he
explained.  "Then we may be able to increase the accuracy.  My material is
more expressionable."
  (A sea rocks?  What is he talking about?)
  Another TrueSilver (or better: FalseSilver) generated, and the onlookers
occasionally said things like "No, the muzzle was a bit darker!" - "Yes,
that's better!" - "No, I think it was more close before."
  (Sigh.  Miserable witnesses.  I'd look at the animal with one gaze, and
give a better performance.)

  When everybody agreed that the image was very close, Kloote again shook
his head.  "No no no no no.  This won't do.  Not for a dragon.  I'm sorry,
but it's not accurate enough.  I suppose we are at an impasse.  I can't
help you."  The conjurer's nose went down, and he turned around, lifting it
again.  "Is my breakfast ready?"  He swaggered away, occupied an empty table,
and Serene brought him a dish.

  The DragonQuestors were silent for a moment, then sat at their table.


--
Lifilis Kloote, conjurer and artist
with a bit of help from others, especially Stephen Hutchison and Mike Sander

--
(aka Bakr ibn Ja'far ibn Musa al Mekneshi, apprentice mage
aka Thomas Kettenring)