From: aaron@atlantis.uucp Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MI/MG] Briefing Date: 11 Feb 93 00:28:58 GMT Characters involved: Alfvaen, Moriarty, Urcohea It was close to noon by the time Alfvaen and Moriarty reached the Mage Guild. Moriarty had ended up getting drunk after Thorn left the party at the Diplomatic Residence, and Alfvaen had been forced to drag him home. And if it hasn't been for the fact that he didn't drink, Alfvaen would've been inclined to join him. His mind had been running on one track all morning. Who was this guy that Delmara had gone off with? Elstree had been patiently explaining that this was what he had to deal with when he was dating a priestess of Aditi. Lassiviren had injected his own snide misogynistic comments, finally revealing when pressed that one of the reasons he had left the Underearth on his world was due to his inability to deal with the female drow in charge of everything... Moriarty sighed when they got into the building, out of the bright sunlight on the otherwise cold day. "Alfvaen and Moriarty, here to see Nijorik," he said. The receptionist nodded and pointed them to the correct door. They stepped through it and they were in Urcohea's extraplanar "office". He looked up on their entrance, annoyance visible on his face. "You're a bit late, gentlemen. I was about to send out the Guards to see if you'd been murdered." Moriarty winced as he spoke. "That might have been kinder, all things considered." "Well, we watched this Thorn guy all last night," Alfvaen said. "He looks a bit of a charmer--went home with the daughter of the Fifth Merchant." Urcohea raised his eyebrows. "Well. Have to see if we can use that against him. Not likely, though--Archmages don't come up on morals charges too often. Anything else?" "Yes, he spent a lot of time talking with this one guy--dressed in black, salt-and-pepper hair." Urcohea swore. "Ornigan. I should've guessed that Thorn would be interested in him. Still, with the way Rivy was badgering him, I would've thought he'd be too paranoid to give anything away to Thorn." Alfvaen snorted. "Well, maybe he was drunk, then. 'Cause he wasn't holding back a lot to Thorn's questions. I couldn't catch much of it, but something about 'labs' and 'Castle Maybold' at one point. They seemed to be getting along quite well, although Ornigan left a lot earlier." "Hmmm. This changes things." Urcohea sat lost in thought for several minutes. Finally, Moriarty lost his patience. "Urcohea, Mr. Archmage sir, what the hell are we supposed to be doing? The original assignment was to watch out for this Amaan guy and make sure Thorn didn't do anything to him that might cause an incident. Now Amaan seems to be totally out of the picture--he came to Generica as a basket case, he didn't show up at the party, and I hear that Thorn has him almost entirely under his wing. So what's going on? You want to enlighten us?" Urcohea looked up at Moriarty's outburst. "Oh--yes. I suppose you are overdue for an explanation. It's just that I didn't expect either Amaan's condition or Ornigan's presence. Not to mention this Dariel fellow. "Ornigan first. Ornigan is a very notorious name in the history of magic on Nexus. Did you know that?" Alfvaen and Moriarty shook their heads. "Obviously not. Well, a certain Ornigan, Count Ornigan IV of Maybold in the Great Heath, was a very powerful and very unbalanced mage. He was in power approximately 180 years ago, and Maybold suffered under his rule. The Maybolders still speak the name with fear. "In the Heath, the Mage Guild has little power, and the mages form into looser organizations of shifting alliances. We have our operatives there, of course. And we did then. Apparently we were ready to step in and do something about this Ornigan fellow--if we could manage it. He'd done experiments in necromancy to increase his power, and had succeeded to a large extent. "He was finally deposed, by the local peasants and a few heroes, one of whom went on to become the next Count of Maybold. But Castle Maybold has many secret passages and such built into it, and Count Ornigan IV was the last person who ever knew all of them. His secret laboratories, which contain the secrets of his magic, have not yet been found. But they have been widely coveted. "The current Count of Maybold, Thoric, deposed the previous Count and married his daughter. To legitimize his sons' claim to the title, he named them after previous Counts. And he had the misfortune to name his youngest son Ornigan. "Imagine our surprise when, without warning, an Ornigan of Maybold shows up here. Another mage named Ornigan of Maybold. Some people are getting very nervous. Others are trying to squeeze the location of the secret laboratories out of him. And that's probably what Thorn was trying to do, though how he got the boy to talk... "I think that it would be dangerous to keep you following Thorn right now. Instead, I think that you should try to befriend Ornigan. He's going to be taking some classes and such here, and has been spending a lot of time here and in the Great Library since his arrival in Generica. He is apparently also acquainted with Dariel, and others on board the Arcas. His closest acquaintances seem to be Mistletoe and Bronwen, also from the Arcas, and a warrior named Maleiu, who has been involved in recent goings-on with Kron and such in the Low City." "I think I might know Maleiu," Alfvaen broke in. "Or, at least, I know someone who does." Urcohea looked at him shrewdly, guessing his meaning. "Good. That might give you an opening of sorts. "As for Dariel, I can't help you. Delalle doesn't tell me everything, and I can't always ferret out what I may need to know. But he seems to be on our side for the nonce, and he is of sufficient power that I don't think you'd be able to do much for him anyway." Alfvaen nodded. "So we watch, and try to get to know, this Ornigan guy. Then what. Do we try to get him to tell where the labs are? Or do we just make sure that he doesn't tell Thorn?" "The latter, I would think," Urcohea said. "Rivy tells me Ornigan isn't the sort to reveal that kind of thing casually to anyone, especially on short acquaintance. Which makes his behaviour with Thorn particularly strange... If you get any clue as to why he's so friendly with Thorn, I'd appreciate that as well." "Great. Well, we'll keep you posted, as long as you keep us posted," Alfvaen said. "C'mon, Moriarty. Let's go meet us a mage." -- ---Alfvaen(Eagerly awaiting "October's Baby") "Clocks don't bring tomorrow--knives don't bring good news." ---Bruce Cockburn Current Album--The Jesus & Mary Chain:Honey's Dead Current Read--Sean Stewart:Passion Play