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/                           Paragraphs 137-147                                \
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137) Bound in chains upon this lonely Isle of Woe you find the dark queen Irkalla, Mistress of Magan.  The chains are made of enchanted silver, and she is unable to move.  "Topsiders!" she snarls when she sees you.  "It's always the same.  The water level rises, your toilets back up, and everyone rushes to the Underworld for help!  Well, I have problems of my own, as you can see.  That filthy halfbreed Namtar chained me here, and gave the key to the one creature who owes me no favors."

Irkalla regards you.  "Perhaps you could be of some use," she says, her tone suddenly becoming incredibly suductive.  "Find the Silver Key and set me free...you will be richly rewarded.  Namtar is our mutual enemy. Serve me, and I shall serve you to defeat him!"

138) You stand at the edge of the Isle of Woe, looking out across the dark waters, and are convinced nothing is going to happen when a sudden flight of bats overhead heralds the arrival of momentous events.  An ominous ringing fills the air.  A few yards offshore the dark waters part, and offered up from the depths you see the legendary Sword of Freedom.  Forged from dwarven steel in the fires of hell, powered by the essence of the legendary hero Roba, and tempered in the Apsu waters that underlie creation, the most powerful artifact Oceana has ever known has been reborn!

139) The dwarf has the engine running in no time.  With a shudder and a cough, the ancient airship lumbers aloft, and for the first time in centuries something other than a dragon plies the airways of Oceana.

After several days journey to the west, you spot an uncharted island.  At the center of the island is an odd ring of standing stones, and in the center of the ring you see...

140) You are up to see the dawn as the sun's rays brilliantly spread across the waters of Oceana.  Nights on the trail have their own sort of beauty, but you can't hope helping it won't always be like this.  Someday you will no longer be an outlaw.  Someday you will sleep beneath a roof like other people, and at last be considered a true citizen of Dilmun.  You won't always be poor - this is just a phase.

141) In the next chamber, you see fires identical to the first.  "Very good," the voice intones.  "You have potential, but I detect a flaw in your form. Please negotiate this wall of fire for me, that I might study your finer points."

142) "Now you are learning.  Not everything is as it seems," says the voice. You enter a chamber occupied by a stone gargoyle.  The gargoyle's gaze is fixed on the door through which you must exit the room.  "To be seen by the gargoyle is to know death," says the voice.  "Yet the gargoyle sees the exit.  What to do, what to do...?"

143) "Now you have learned to listen.  Excellent...you are half-way home," says the voice.  You detect genuine admiration in its tone.  "This college exists in the rarified atmosphere of the true academis, but not everyone you will encounter appreciates the Art.  You must learn to deal with such ruffians."  Out of thin air, a hugh warrior appears, wielding a sword in both hands.  "I'm gonna split yer lobe, highbrow!" he snarls.

144) "I'm sorry that was so brutal, but I had to prove a point," the voice explains.  "Some people can't appreciate Art...in such times, you must rely on mere direct measures."  You find yourself in a chamber over which is suspended a hugh block of granite.  The block is hung by a cable...the cable trails to a wall and down to the floor, where it stretches across the floor as a trip-wire. It doesn't take much intellignece to figure it would be unhealthy to trip on the wire.  The voice is strangely silent.

145) "That was novel.  I don't think I've seen that solution before."  Across the room you see you mysterious host.  "I an Utnapishtim, also called the Faraway.  I have been you teacher, now you must teach me something.  I want to see something novel and new.  Give me your best shot...you go first."  The wizard waits for you to act.

146) This time it is Utnapishtim in the flesh who greets you.  "Well done!" he says.  "Having learned to listen to me, you've learned you don't have to listen to me.  Lanac'toor could not have done better."  The old wizard shows no concern when you tell him Lanac'toor is death.  "There's death, and then there's death.  I wouldn't worry about Toor."

Utnapishtim shows you to a cabinet, within which are three magic items.  "For completeing my gauntlet, you may select one item.  I offer you the Soul Bowl, the Laugh Staff, or the Sing Ring.  Which will it by, my friend?" The wizard looks at you with a hint of impatience.  From the way he introduced the items, you judge he does not want you to select the Soul Bowl.

147) You emerge from a narrow pass and look out on a hidden valley.  The valley is narrow and wet and confined on three sides by mountains and by te sea on the fourth. The swampy mass of the valley floor at first appears to be moving...until you look closer, when you realize the valley floor is covered with a mass of living creatures, crawling one atop another as far as the eye can see.

To venture into the Dragon Valley is to invite certain death.       

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