From: bfish@sequent.com (Brett Fishburne)
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 92 16:21:36 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [KQ] Captain [Alley] Avhast ye scurvy thug!

Characters: Captain, Azzar, Colin, Thk, and Kron Questors

[ADMIN: OK, three in one day is a personal best.  I'm trying to keep up
with you speed demons.  Please excuse the mistake, due to Captain's 
unfamiliarity with such a large group of fighters, he mistook Colin for
Rhoan in his previous post.  Er, maybe that was my fault?  Gotta hate
character/reality confusion :)]

>Enroute to the Joystix Drug Lab, The KronQuestors are accosted by
>a stereotypical band of Low City thugs.  Their leader attempts to
>harrass Lady Azzar, but Captain cuts in viciously:
>
>He pulls out his sword and grabs the rogue with his free hand, slamming 
>him against the wall and putting his sword to the youth's throat.  "As 
>Lady Azzar's sworn sword, I must ask that you apologize for your behaviour.  
>Or you're going to have two grins above your shoulders."

The boy stank.  Captain realized that he probably was no bed of roses and
could smell the smoke from the morning around him in his clothes, but,
somehow, he didn't seem to be paying too much attention to anything but the
scrawny, little, would-be thug in front of him.  His jaw was tense and he
could feel each tooth as it smashed up against its mate, but the threat to
Azzar seemed too real to calm down.

The blood flowed out of the youth's face amazingly fast.  He had certainly
not planned on this type of response.  Perhaps he had spoken too quickly.  He
turned his head to draw in his team (they called themselves "the Durangos").
Captain's scarred hand had gathered most of the front of his tunic and balled
it up into a wad which kept his neck pinned against the stone of the alleyway.
He had hurt his head as he turned it and could feel a thin line of blood
tracing itself down his scalp.

Before the Durangos could move in on thier prey, the prey sprouted some very
sharp and generally dangerous sidearms.  Giving up thier leader for dead, the
band melted back into the Low City and regathered at thier "headquarters".  
This shell of a building hardly hid them from the sky, but it was 
defensable and that was what was important in this section of town.

With a searing assuredness Captain carefully memorized every line of the
young man's face.  In a low voice which the others could not hear, Captain
said, "You have no idea what a terrible mistake you have made.  If you come
up with a way to apologize to the Lady for your suggestions, then perhaps you
will live to see your next birthday.  On the other hand, if your apology is
inadequate, I will hunt you down and leave you in no better condition then
your buddy Creft."  With that, Captain threw the boy down to the gutter.  His
head hit with a resounding thud and he was not awake to see the party 
continue down the alleyway unmolested.

Several hours later, missing most of his clothing and all of the personal
possesions he had taken with him to meet the "Creft Killers", the head of
the Durangos staggered into "headquarters"...

[ADMIN: Feel free to pick up on the Durangos if you are so inclined.  They
don't seem to be good or bad to me, just another side effect of the Low
City.  If no one handles them, in a little while I will pick up the story
line for at least one more encounter with Captain and, possibly, Azzar]

>After witnessing the Captain's reaction, Thk muses to himself, "Humans!  
>Typical mammals.  Always courting and flirting and mating with one another, 
>without any regard to the proper season for such activities.  They are 
>worse than rabbits."  He snorts contemptuously, twirls his Trident
>like a baton, and focusses on the battle to come.

Captain fell back in with the questers and got a look from Azzar he had
never seen before.  Thk's reaction was to twirl his trident and Captain 
mused that he saw himself as some sort of band leader.  The humorous
picture of Thk with assorted floats and wagons tumbling in his wake as some
form of parade forced a half smile on his face.

-- Captain