The Marraketh Connection: "City of the Darned"

        By Technician Brynhild, VRDET R&D

        Segment 10 of ?

o/~ I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my 
home o/~
                - Green Day, "Welcome to Paradise", _Dookie_

"Ooooh, scary, boys and girls! Are you scared? Count Floyd was 
scared!"
                - Count Floyd, _SCTV_

	Suffice to say, I told my long story. Everyone from the 
other sea group managed to pay attention, despite the fact that 
we had so rudely woken them up, but nobody commented at all once 
I finished the story. *Not even a "Wow, weird"? I shouldn't be 
surprised. Nothing in the Jihad is weird anymore.*
	After I finished, Maru began telling the story of how the 
rest of the sea group had fared. It was a good story, as funny as 
you'd expect from a group like the Rangers. *ph33r us! We have 
the penguin and eggrolls and anime and ramen and sporks! No army 
can stand against those!* Just as Maru was finishing, I heard 
sounds behind me, like something very large and very airborne. I 
whirled around...
	... to see the rest of the rescue squad coming towards us 
on the back of a large, jet-black dragon. *Egad! Does Marraketh 
even have native dragons, or is this an offworlder? Does it 
matter? Am I supposed to flee now? Never mind... if it took them 
that far, it must be friendly. That's cool.* Soon the dragon came 
in for a landing, and the rest of the group met us by the gate, 
to cheers and greetings. Once everyone settled down, Nexxus began 
speaking.
	"Good to see us back together, boys and girls. First of 
all, I'd like you all to meet Shad." She pointed at the dragon. 
"He's just kind of along for the ride here... he has other plans 
here."
	"Now that we're all here in Rhye, we still have to get 
through the city and storm the castle." *So close and yet so 
far!* "As for the city... let's just say we have a little 
diversion planned. We're going through there as one big group. 
The castle's another story. We're going to have to sneak in, so 
we're going to do this in groups of three. I'll get to that 
later, though."
	"Anyway, are we all organized?" We nodded. "Good. Be 
careful out there, and let's go." We quickly gathered up our 
things (we really *were* organized, for once) and stepped through 
the gates into the city of Rhye.

<Background Music: Green Day, "Welcome to Paradise", _Dookie_>

	*Man, talk about trashed!* Rhye looked like the kind of 
place that you'd expect to be run by the Wyrm. The architecture 
was disturbingly bland, and it was usually in decrepit shape. The 
streets were full of potholes and detritus in random places. All 
in all, it appeared not to have seen any cleaning or repair for a 
long time.
	The people on the street weren't much better. There were 
spongin, of course, in the trademark nagenta and sickly green, 
playing in small groups. Most of the crowd, however, looked like 
normal citizens; they were dressed in neutral colors and seemed 
mainly to be trying to avoid the spongies. *Good sense, there.* 
Lastly, there were the guards, who appeared to be heavily armed. 
*Stay low-key. You look weird enough, no reason to get the guards 
angry at you.* I could make out a good chunk of what people on 
the street were saying, but none of it was that exciting - mostly 
petty arguments and B'harnist rhetoric from the spongin.
	We made our way slowly, taking mostly back alleys so as 
not to be seen. After all, our clothing was bizarre, and I may 
have been the only one who could speak any Marrakethian - 
assuming that's what the Druids had been speaking. The walk was 
fairly uneventful... until about fifteen minutes into the city, 
when a guard post about two blocks away from us burst into 
flames.
	*What in the name of St. Dino is happening now?* The 
flames grew higher, and I was beginning to get panicked. The 
citizens themselves were doing just what you'd expect them to do, 
namely running around and screaming, even though there wasn't 
really that much property damage. I looked up to see the same 
dragon who had been by the gate gleefully looking menacing and 
spitting fire ever so often. *OK, I guess this qualifies as a 
'distraction'... but what ever happened to "Look! Halley's 
Comet!"?*
	Nexx motioned to us. "This is our chance. We need to get 
through here while Shad's still serving as a distraction and get 
to the Castle. Move!" We began running through the streets, but 
no one noticed. Big surprise.
	While I ran by, I noticed a strangely familiar voice 
speaking in Marrakethian: "<No need to panic, folks! I'm sure the 
Master has it all covered! Meanwhile... Carrot sticks! Carrot 
sticks! Get them while they're nice and Healthy!>" I stopped, 
confused. A street peddler was wandering amidst the chaos, 
selling carrot sticks, celery, and milk to frenzied spongin.[1]
	A spongie walked up to him. "<Mr. D, sir, this milk 
doesn't taste right. Are you sure it's Healthy?>"
	"<Would I sell something that wasn't? May I grovel before 
the Master first! Tell you what, boy, here's another glass of 
milk and a carrot stick. Bet they're better.>" The spongie 
took the food hungrily and wolfed it down.
	"<Hey, that's still not ri ... wait a minute! Where am I, 
and why am I wearing these silly clothes?>"
	"<Good man. Go find the tailor; he'll give you better 
clothes and advice. Be careful!>" The spongie, now presumably 
an ex-spongie, wandered away. *This must be Dibbhalin. There 
can't be another street vendor in the town with spiked Healthy 
Snacks.*
	I walked up to him. "<You're Dibbhalin?>"
	"<Grovel-Before-the-Master Dibbhalin, that's me. What can 
I help you with, my diminutive friend?>"
	"<Sorry, I don't have any money you'd accept. I'm not 
from around here.>"
	"<Where you from?>"
	"<Dewpoint.>"
	Dibbhalin looked confused for a second, then regained his 
composure. "<Dewpoint, eh? You know a friend of mine there named 
Kend->"
	I cut him off. "<Kendren? Yeah, he sent me to talk to 
you.>"
	He looked shocked again. "<Wow... you must be something, 
then.>" He leaned over to me and whispered, "<What do you need? 
We can get it, whatever it is.>"
	"<Not much,>" I whispered. "<Just need a message sent to 
another friend of mine - Petro Jahnin.>"
	"<The tailor's boy? I can do that.>"
        "<Tell him that I was in town, but I couldn't stay long; 
I'll try to get back later once my job is done. I might have 
trouble with the travel arrangements, though. I'm sorry I missed 
him and I send my regards.>"
	"<All right. You have a name?>"
	"<Um ... Amanda.>" *That should be the name he 
recognizes, at least.*
	"<OK, will do. Tell you what, you want something to eat? 
On the house.>"
	"<Sure.>" I took a celery stick from his tray and bit 
into it. Like I thought, it was heavily spiked with sugar. *All 
the better, eh?* "<Many thanks. I gotta go catch up with my 
group, now... keep up the good work.>"
	"<Same to you,>" he said as I rushed to catch up to the 
others.
	It took me a good few minutes of running, but I managed 
to catch up finally. Maru looked at me as soon as I returned to 
the group. "Where were you?"
	"Sorry, got a little sidetracked. Anyone else notice?"
	"Not really. No one's been looking back. Just keep up 
from now on! You never know when Nexx will do headcount."
	"Roger that." 
	Fortunately, it wasn't much longer to the Castle. Chaos 
still reigned in the streets, as spongin gibbered at the dragon 
and the occasional flaming building, while the average citizens 
just tried to get out of the way. Guards were attempting to keep 
some order and failing miserably. In other words, the distraction 
was working perfectly.
	The Castle loomed before us, thick-walled and mysterious. 
Inside was Katze... and the wyrm minion running the show... and 
hundreds of spongies... and who knows what else? Nexx turned to 
face us, smiled, and spoke.
	"_This_ is where it gets interesting."