DRAFT Run Log for 970114 Present: Barb - Cathryn Kevin - Zack Chris - Auricle Dave K - Ilk, logging Tia - Arielle -------------------------- Named NPCs: Theraat - non-present PC Benedict Flora Stormy - non-present PC Mandor Kane Penny Logan Nicky Julian Random -------------------------- Unconscious Women Cathryn is lying on the ground near the edge of Bleys's shadow, in a vaguely-Cathryn-shaped puddle. A reconstituted Flora has been thrown over Benedict's shoulder like a stole. Benedict, Zack, and Theraat follow the old servant out of Bleys's keep. Benedict: "I'll go left, you go right. if you find her, get me by trump." Theraat is following Zack like a well-trained soldier/guard-dog. [pit-bull puppy] Zack spots the edge of the shadow. It's unusually ragged, so he points it out to Theraat. ----- Cathryn regains consciousness while being hoisted over Benedict's shoulder. Her first sight is Flora's face. "I can walk..." Benedict lowers Cathryn off his shoulder, and she flows to the ground. Her cohesion seems to be a bit low, but she insists that she can walk, and can carry Flora as well. Benedict hands off Flora to Cathryn and sprints off to catch up with the others. Cathryn whips out her Stormy trump for another hit. She can't suck power out of it, and the contact doesn't get any farther than the edge of this shadow. She picks Flora up, barely - Flora is heavier than expected, and she is weaker than she expected. Cathryn slowly trudges off after Benedict, following his deliberately left behind footprints which weave in and out, following the edge of the shadow. Theraat spins around, and falls over the edge into the whirling mass around her. Zack notices that she spun around because Benedict is approaching quickly, and that she's now in the middle of a cyclone. He creates a rope and throws it to her; she grabs at it, wraps it around herself, and ducks into a ball. Zack tries to pull her out. Whatever is holding her is pretty strong - he's barely making headway. Benedict arrives and adds his hands to Zack's, and the speed approximately doubles. Zack notices that the resistance he was pulling against increased when Benedict joined him. Zack conjures a winch, and starts jacking Theraat out. Theraat pops out, unconscious and bleeding from her nose and mouth. Benedict sighs and picks her up. They head off to join Cathryn. Benedict moves very fast; Zack is moving at about two-thirds of his speed. The group reconvenes. "Ah, lady Cathryn, are you well?" - Zack "Can we leave now?" - Cathryn Benedict says they have to head out that way, pointing away from the edge. He takes Theraat from Cathryn, "to better balance his load". Zack and Cathryn follow him, and shadow starts shifting around them. Six or eight shadows out, Benedict stops, points out a nearby paved road, and asks Zack and Cathryn to waylay them some form of transportation. Cathryn tries yet again to trump Stormy, and actually succeeds! "Hi, I'm stuck still." - Cathryn "Stuck where?" - Stormy "... well, I'm still not back where I want to be." - Cathryn Cathryn notices a wooden feel to the contact. "There is another here who needs to get back as well." - Cathryn "We'll deal with that later, and you're needed here now." - Stormy "Okay." - Cathryn "Done." - Stormy Cathryn disappears in a rainbow effect. Zack, watching, isn't sure if she went willingly or was forcibly trumped out. "Benedict, what happened?" Benedict replies that she was most likely grabbed by some enemy. They speculate as to who could have grabbed her. It could have been someone from Omega, maybe that chained Oberon got free, or it could have been that Logrus-user that she mentioned earlier. Zack pulls out Arielle's trump. --------- Arielle gets a trump call, it's Zack. There's a tinge around her that is familiar to Zack - she's in Faerie. They chat. Zack - "... and one of our party has just disappeared by trump." Arielle - "Who?" Zack - "The lady Cathryn." "Where are you?" "Outside a blue sphere." Arielle turns to put the sphere into her view, and Zack recognizes it as the sphere he went through to get back into Omega from Faerie. They chat some more. Arielle - "Demon? - we're looking for a demon." Zack - "Which one?" Arielle - "The one that claims to own Auricle." Zack - "Auricle? you've found Auricle?" Arielle - "She was missing?" Zack - "It seems that only a full moon ago, there was only one reality. and a year before that, there was no Courts of Chaos, only Amber." Arielle - "You're expanding like a franchise." They chat about ways of convincing the demon to relinquish his claim on Auricle. Zack says that a demon from Faerie could easily control some nameless, faceless mortal from out of shadow, but someone of Auricle's caliber would be a different story entirely. Arielle is snide about Zack's turn of phrase. They try to come up with a loophole; Arielle presents Zack's idea of sanctuary with them to Auricle. "... he is with Benedict. Not my Benedict, not your Benedict, the third Benedict." Auricle joins the contact and explains that they are going to pummel the demon into submission and retrieve Arielle's table. There is the sound of marching shod feet approaching. "Julian? What's that?" "An army, about 15,000." Arielle tries to peek around the people guarding her, Auricle grows tall eyestalks to see over their heads. They see a flag unfurl, and on it is written in a fancy script, "Auditor" Arielle starts handing the group through the trump contact. Penny goes first, then Kane, then Nicky followed by her hunk, and then Auricle. Julian and Logan argue over who goes next; Logan loses and goes next. Julian goes through, with Arielle close behind. Julian concentrates on closing the trump gate; but it remains open. Zack passes his hand over the trump, and it still remains open. Arielle puts up a one-way magical barrier over the gate; Benedict starts cutting down saplings and throwing them through. Julian says, "Hey - give me that." Zack hands over the trump, Julian concentrates, and the trump and the gate melt. Arielle gives Zack her last trump of herself and takes the melted one back from Julian. They chat about the possibility of the demons tracking them. Arielle pulls out her trump of Arden's Spire. They talk about going to Amber, but decide not to - this Amber's Julian and Benedict "abandoned" King Random; he might still be upset at them. They trump to Arden's Spire. There is one more of them than was there when they left. There are now two demons - one with tall eyestalks, and one that looks like her without eyestalks and missing an arm. Auricle shifts into a non-demonic form to reduce confusion. Julian: "And you are?" Demon: "About to reclaim my property!" Julian: "[rant rant rant] ... and why is there a Faerie gate being forced through into my domain?" Zack struggles to close the Faerie gate. Benedict looks for things to throw through the gate; Arielle warns him not to throw furniture into Faerie. The demon moves to grab Auricle, and Arielle steps between them. The demon pauses, reaches for Arielle, and its hand falls off. Logan, standing between the demon and Arielle, claws extended, grins. The demon bends down and tries to pick the hand up with its teeth, unsuccessfully. Auricle starts eying the demon's wings hungrily, and Kane starts maneuvering to get behind it. Zack has finished closing the Faerie gate, and conjures up a contract that predates the demon's. He greets the demon, who recognizes him, and says that Auricle is his property. Julian has been handed a glove by his staff now, it shimmers like mercury. Arielle recognizes it as Faeriebane; it makes Zack feel queasy. Julian picks up a fallen demon bit, and it sizzles. He walks over to the demon, "Shake on it?" The demon leaves. Auricle proclaims,"Give me that!" Zack hands over the contract; Julian hands over the glove. She puts them both inside of her, but the contract sizzles and burns when the glove touches it. The glove is shifting like mad inside of her, trying to match her constantly shifting innards. [Great - her internal organs are playing Simon Says] -------------------------- Pattern-Jesby v Logrus-Jesby Stormy: "I've got a surprise for you." Ilkandacian: "What?" Cathryn appears in the council chambers next to Ilk and Stormy. She recognizes the room, and notices that many people are there, including many people that shouldn't normally be there. And that sitting in Jesby's chair is someone from one of the cadet lines, wearing the ring of Jesby, which she still has on her hand. The only way that that person could possibly be Jesby would be if Cathryn's entire line was dead. When Cathryn arrives, Pattern-power begins collecting around her. Cathryn starts stalking towards the person in Jesby's seat. Ilk notices that the room is flooded with Logrus-power. Cathryn and the imposter shout at each other. There is a surge of Pattern around Cathryn. Ilkandacian recognizes that the Logrus-power was due to Mandor, who is looking at him significantly, and follows suit, adding his Logrus energy to Mandor's. Cathryn feels the cold hand of death on her for a moment, and then it subsides, and she is buoyed upwards by a vast amount of Power, even more than after taking a hit of Stormy. She reaches out with a Logrus tendril and wraps it around the imposter's throat; a surge of Pattern strikes the tendril, making it difficult to squeeze. Almost everyone that was in the room has left or is at the wall. Only Mandor, Ilkandacian, Snarsht, Cathryn, the Stormy-stick, and the imposter are still next to the table. Snarsht is deciding on a different form - a Blood Hunter, a creature that is as deadly to living bodies as a Morganti blade is to a soul. He is focusing on the imposter. There is a shimmer behind the imposter, and Dara steps out and starts disarming Cathryn's Logrus. Mandor looks surprised, and starts playing with his balls. Ilk counters Dara. Combat ensues. The fight goes on for about half of an hour, when there is a small disruption directly in front of Cathryn. Suhuy walks through it, lifts his hand, subsumes all of the Logrus energy in the room, and forms a cage around the imposter and Dara. Mandor's balls, which had been attacking Dara, drop to the ground. Stormy disappears with a mental touch to Ilk, "back in a few minutes" Suhuy looks at Cathryn, looks at the imposter, looks at Cathryn, looks at the imposter, and says, "We should solve this like civilized beings." He turns to Cathryn and says, "A simple contest - let me see your ring." Cathryn takes it off, and hands it to Suhuy. Suhuy then turns to the imposter and says, "Let me see your ring." she starts taking it off, looks surprised, and flashes out in a burst of Pattern power. Suhuy tosses the ring back to Cathryn, says, "That was simple", and disappears. There was something in the imposter that reminded Cathryn of Bleys and Mikail. There was lots of Pattern energy in that fight; Ilk suspects that there was probably an Advanced Pattern user and a Pattern artifact involved. There is a pounding on the door. Ilk pokes a Logrus tendril through the door and looks - it's the Warlord. He opens the door with another tendril, and the Warlord and her apprentice, a young girl in a 12-year old humanform, enter. The Warlord walks to Cathryn, exchanges bows, and says, "My condolences... your Ways are no longer contiguous with the Courts." She turns to Ilk, and says, "My condolences." "?" "Pieces of your cousin were found." "What were the circumstances?" "Pieces of him were found nailed to the doors of various Houses." She turns to Mandor, and says, "My condolences." Mandor raises an eyebrow in response. "Your holdings are on fire" He sighs, says, "you will excuse me?", and folds himself up and disappears. Snarsht is gone, and Ilk and Cathryn aren't sure when he left. The Warlord turns to her apprentice and says "Don't touch that!", and the little girl doesn't touch the pile of white dust. Ilk and Cathryn looks at it; the Logrus reveals nothing, but when the pile is touched with Magic, it grows. Ilk advises Cathryn not to touch the powder, especially with magic, and recommends that they leave the room. Ilk Logrus-searches for House Jesby and fails. Ilk and Cathryn head out. ------------------ In Arden's Spire Food is served. Zack, Auricle, and company eat. They chat; Kane and Auricle trade demon-killing tips After the first helping, Zack gets seconds and heads over to Julian, who is picking the meat out of the vegetables on the sideboard. Logan joins the conversation on dismembering demons. Julian hands Zack something blue and watery. Zack drinks it; it's nice. Zack tries to copy one of the wines Stormy showed him, a starshine wine. Julian declines to taste it, on the grounds that it would be rude to his hostess. While talking about travel plans, they decide that heading to another dimension will not remove them from the reach of the decency police. [NOTE: any instances of Caine in this plot thread should have been replaced with Kane.] Julian recommends not dealing with King Random - they should use Tir or Rebma's Pattern. Zack heads to Benedict, who is spoon-feeding Flora and Theraat. Auricle tries to analyze Arielle's healing; it workes on this Julian, but not Auricle. Arielle says that she does empathic healing - she takes the wound on herself and then heals herself. Benedict's travel plans are to leave for Tir as soon as he's done feeding his accessories. There is a loud knock at the castle door. Julian goes down to deal. He argues loudly with whomever is at the door; the others can hear part of the argument "No, no - nobody else went over the wall." Zack conjures a stack of Benedict-signed passes and hands them around, then heads to the first floor. He hands one to Julian and says, "I think you dropped this". Julian, without looking at it, hands it to the decency cop, who looks at it and says, "This pass is forged" Logan, listening, says "we're out of here". Arielle trumps her room in Omega, and the gate opens into the back of the decency police vehicle sitting downstairs. She closes the trump connection. Auricle sneaks tendrils to everyone, acquires a description of Tir from Benedict, grabs a table, and teleports out. Everyone but the Amberites from the other universes (Zack, Theraat, Benedict, and Flora) is at the base of the sphere. The decency cop isn't moving - Julian is holding him in the air by his neck. "Maybe if the cop wakes up, and we're home..." Auricle takes the cop from Julian, and asks Arielle to trump her back to Ardenspire. --------------- Zack feels something touch his ankle, Julian grabs the decency cop, and they disappear. The vehicle shimmers out, tardis-like. It's quiet upstairs. Zack runs upstairs - there's Benedict, his two accessories, and servants cleaning up spilled things. Zack tries to trump Arielle - it doesn't work. Auricle and an unconscious decency cop step through into Ardenspire. zack tries to mentally conctact the cop; no contact. Auricle tries to cut into the decency cop with Benedict's surgery tools, they fail. Auricle says, "It doesn't work" Benedict takes them back, throws one, *ching* it bounces. Benedict pulls his sword, pokes, swings, and knocks the cop across the room, unharmed. Zack hands over the Morganti, and Benedict slowly pushes it into the cop, who dies. Benedict hands the Morganti to Auricle, who starts cutting the thing. It's no longer magical, it's just a normal human varient. Zack takes back the Morganti, and Auricle resumes cutting with normal tools. There is a knock at the door. "We are here to arrest Auricle of Amber. If you turn her over, you will not be arrested as well." The voice is identical to that of the cop they just killed. Benedict pulls his sword, shatters the wall, and dives out with his two burdens. Auricle jumps out, and part way down, flying gets comfortable. She's turned into some kind of leathery batlike armored thing. Zack jumps out and floats to the ground. Benedict has landed on his feet, sinking to his knees in the soil, with one woman on each shoulder. Benedict is running off, Auricle is flying, Zack is running in the rear. -------------------- If It Only Wasn't for those Dratted Birds... Cathryn tries to find House Jesby with the Logrus and fails. The exit the building to find an angry mob of demons outside. Cathryn states her intention to go to Random's, and Ilk recommends that they not walk there, possibly bringing this mob with them. He teleports them to Random's in two hops. Martin is in the front hall with a bunch of small birds. There are multiple big birds in a magical cage outside. Martin is trying to entice the small birds to eat from his hand. "Announce us." "He's busy. He's with some others who are looking for Benedict." "Interrupt him." Cathryn hands Martin a note, and tells him to tell Random that it's Cathryn, and it's an emergency. Cathryn tries to trump Benedict, blocked. She tries Random, blocked. She tries Merlin, and only feels the cold. Martin comes back with a gash over one eye, hands back the note, and says, "I'm not going to try to deliver that again". The birds attacked him when he tried to get into the room they were in. Cathryn heads upstairs, and Ilk follows, trailing a bit behind her. Ilk experiments briefly, and discovers that those birds seem unaffected by Logrus - they don't have Pattern, but it's something blueish and vaguely Pattern-ish, and it really disturbs him. The birds stay between Cathryn and the door, regardless of what form she takes. They seem to be acting under the direction of one of the birds. Even when she goes gaseous, the birds blow her backwards with their wings. She tries the Logrus on the birds, and fails. ----------------------- Benedict and Four other Amberites Fleeing from One Cop Zack looks back for pursuit. Only one person is pursuing, and he looks just like the guy they dissected, and he's carrying some form of firearm. Auricle flies down, "The gentleman we just dissected is chasing us with a gun. Quickly" The decency cop is actually gaining on them. Zack pulls his Morganti in one hand and the jar o' fun (containing a hungry mouth) in the other hand, and magically tries to camoflage himself. Benedict tells them to make for those trees there. Auricle notices that there are three horses staked out in the specified grove. Benedict puts on a burst of speed, reaches the grove, and ties the wrists of his adornments to one of the horses. When Zack pulls up, he asks Zack to unpicket the horses. They mount up and head off, galloping or flying towards Tir. Zack conjures a frisbee-shaped explosive and wings it at the cop; he blows it out of the air. Zack proceeds to conjure simpler and less deadly ones and throws them; the cop shoots them as well. The fleeing Amberites start to gain some ground. They reach the steps of Tir. -- EORun --