"A Day in the Life" - A Drag/NET Story
By Arthur Levesque -- bs@boog.org -- http://boog.org

     Steve got home from school and turned on his computer.  He booted up his
ASCII Express terminal program, and called up a bulletin board called
"Drag/NET".  He typed in his user number and password, and watched as the
opening messages went by...

     The Shadow, a mediocre fighter in the small town of Dragnet, woke up.  He
saw the notice Obmar the Tax Collector left on his door and tore it up.  Over
the last two days, seven different adventurers attacked and defeated him, taking
his gold and weapons away.  Now, however, he was ready to fight back.
     First, he went into the bank and withdrew 200 gold pieces, the last of his
money, which he had won in last week's jousts.  He went to the square and bought
some cheap armor and a cheap weapon.  He challenged a young thief to joust, and
beat him two matches out of three.  He put the 28 gold pieces he won into the
bank, and then went to track down the vartlets who had stolen his other weapons
from him.
     He found Mad Hatter in the Tavern and started arguing with him.  A brawl
ensued, and several people were knocked out before the Shadow stopped it and
asked Mad Hatter to step outside.
     The Shadow noticed that Mad Hatter was using a poisoned blade, and so
backstabbed Mad Hatter quickly so that the ruffian could not use his foul blade.
Normally, the Shadow preferred not to stab others in the back, but as Mad Hatter
was dishonorably using poison, it didn't bother him much.
     The Shadow headed back to the square to sell Mad Hatter's weapon, but
encountered Dr.  Scary on the way.  Dr.  Scary had enhanced his speed and
strength by means of magick, and the Shadow only persevered because he was using
Mad Hatter's poisoned sword.
     As the Shadow stood over Dr.  Scary's body, 50 gold pieces richer, he
thought that maybe poison did have its advantages after all.  He kept the sword,
and used 26 gold pieces to pay the cleric at the hospital who healed his
grievous wounds.
     Finally, the Shadow sought out his third victim.  Due to the strange laws
of the town; which, rather than outlawing duels and murder, limited each person
to three killings a day, the Shadow could only call out one more of his
adversaries.  It didn't take him long to chose his next opponent.
     Back Slash was leaving the temple where the Minions of Cthulhu had just
met.  The Shadow waited in an alley for the others to leave, and then attacked.
Back Slash, however, seemed ready for him.  After thirty seconds of quick
parrying, Back Slash had the Shadow against the wall and his sword to the
Shadow's throat.  Before the Shadow could protest, Back Slash slit the Shadow's
throat and threw him to the ground.  The last thing the Shadow saw before
darkness closed over him was his opponent relieving him of his money and
weapons...

     "Damn," Steve muttered as his modem clicked and the words CARRIER LOST
appeared on his screen.  "I'll never make it to third level."