From: John Pepper <trissana@aol.com >
Date: Tue Jun 25, 2002 12:27
am Subject: [DL-T] A Methane To His Madness
Dalmar
(Evening, hatching party)
Dalmar sat alone at a table, watching the festivities. He'd never been much of
a partier, and at the moment his real longing was to go back to his clinic and
finish cleaning up the mess that Rover (and, he suspected, Zareena) had made of
it. But, as Telnor's semi-official dragonhealer, he also knew that he had a
duty to make an appearance here. He also had decided that he could use a short
rest after his earlier dealings with Nhorit and Dargen. Both somewhat unusual
cases, particularly Dargen...he would definitely have to do some research into
that one, which would probably result in his having to question the
easily-offended Zareena about certain aspects of her ancestry. Well, he'd
already been sneezed on by one dragon this evening, and shocked by
another...being scorched or bitten by an irate queen couldn't be much worse.
He hadn't mingled much, and had finally found a table in a relatively quiet
corner of the boisterous dining hall. Since tomorrow would no doubt bring yet
another spate of draconic patients, he was beginning to think he should just
slip out of the party and just rest up tonight. He'd clean up tomorrow in
between patients. He was just on the point of getting up to slip out of the
party when he saw the young rider Fal'k doing what appeared to be a performance
of some sort. Intrigued, he sat back down to watch.
/snip from Jason's post/
Raising his the wand he had brought for just such a purpose he flipped the
switch in the handle, lighting the small bit of pyrotechnics in the end. The
loud bang, and release of confetti cloud arranged most of the viewers attention
on him.
He was about halfway into his act when it happened. He first thought that he was
seeing things. Perhaps exhaustion was getting to him. But there was a slight
shimmer of steam rising from one of the cracks in the floor near him. And the
room was getting much much hotter.
His vision blurred, just as he heard the gasp of the crowd. His last thoughts
before he blacked out, were (I have got to stop ending these party's like this.)
/end snip/
Dalmar's first impression was that Fal'k's fall was just part of his act. But
when the young man hit the floor, he did so with a "thud" that Dalmar knew
couldn't be faked - if the fall was part of Fal'k's act, something had gone very
wrong.
He leaped up from his chair and hurried over to where Fal'k lay. A crowd had
begun to gather around him, but he had surprisingly little trouble in pushing
his way through it - in fact, as he reached the prone Fal'k, he became aware of
something else - a number of people were down on their knees, some holding their
hands over their mouths and noses.
And it was then that the smell hit him, a curious smell not unlike rotten
eggs...looking around he saw steam rising from a crack in the floor, just as he
felt what he *thought* was a shudder in the floor beneath him. The huge room
seemed to sway around him, and he was at a loss to know whether it was real or
imagined on his part - because he was sure now that some sort of gas was
poisioning the air around them. With a great effort, he got the unconscious
Fal'k into a sitting position, and began to pull him away from the crack in the
floor that was venting its poisionous smoke into the room.
*Zareena!* he called out mentally.
[What?] asked the queen, with what seemed less than the ire she usually
displayed when dealing with him. He guessed that she was beginning to receive
some very confusing messages from other dragons in the warren, who were in turn
passing along what they were getting from their riders.
*There's gas venting into the dining hall!* he cried. *Tell all the
dragons...have their riders get out...and to get the message to the unjoined as
well...anyone who stays in here may die!!*
And with that, he began to drag Fal'k to the nearest entrance.
(Jason, back to you!)
NRPG: Just a short one to keep the action moving. Clearly, this action happens
at the end of the party, after the interchange between K'vrey and Sarilyn.
Just a note, I'll be out of contact for the next couple of weeks, so everyone
feel free to use Dalmar as needed for the next couple of weeks until I have
computer access again.