ROUGH DRAFT Run Log for 970812 Present: Tia - Cassandra, Damia Dave K - Ilk, logging Laori - Celeste Rich - Ferro Kevin - Zack Barb - Cathryn Ken - Norton -------------------------- Note: During this run the characters were bouncing around too quickly for me to cleanly partition this log into sections. -------------------------- Ferro sends a mosquito through the rift in the basement of Castle Amber. It doesn't come back. He tries to follow, but the guards won't let him - Benedict's orders. Ferro goes to complain to Benedict, can't find him, and starts a methodical search of the castle. Flora is organizing a dinner party. Things are going well. People are regarding her with the respect she deserves. There is a gap between her memory on who should be here and who really is here. Ilk receives a note from Mandor, which states that his staff mentioned that Ilk was trying to reach him earlier. Mandor seems to be offering aid personally to Ilk, as opposed to the House. Ilk invites Mandor to stop by and meet the Beastmaster's lost apprentice, who has possibly been found. Mandor offers to bring tea. Zack is wandering through a significantly changed Faerie looking for Darkstar. He takes two hundred of the Sidhe warriors and sends them off looking for Darkstar, and continues searching himself with the remaining forces. He also offers an award for whomever finds Darkstar and delivers him, safe and unharmed. After an hour, Darkstar has not been found. Zack makes a Faerie gate into Arden and goes through with about nine hundred Sidhe, after chatting with the Cave of Wonders and his friend the Fu-bird. Zack is greeted by the rangers. There seems to be a problem with communications - they send messengers up to the castle, and they get deputized into other jobs. And there's something wrong with the river - it's very sluggish, and keeps getting thicker. Zack leads his Sidhe troops away a bit. As he moves through Arden, Zack notices that the forest really is quieter, it's almost holding it's breath. Zack leaves about eight hundred Sidhe here to help defend the forest, and takes about a hundred with him to the castle. Zack tries to trump Benedict, blocked. He tries trumping Malachai, who receives. Zack hands the remaining Sidhe through, and follows himself. Malachai fills Zack in on recent events, and warns him not to use his castle trump - it's been booby trapped. Ferro chips in with some more information about the rift in front of the Pattern room. Malachai asks Zack to see if Serena is in Arden - he has been ordered to stay in the castle, but Serena is with Tazik, missing, and not trumpable. Zack gives Malachai some authority over his Sidhe, and trumps down to Arden, leaving a hundred or so Sidhe behind. Upon arriving in Arden, he gathers six Sidhe, and sets them to searching for Serena. Ilk is shaken awake by Mandor. He is resting on a purple couch, on the roof of House Cara. He asks his troops when he was moved from down there to up here. "Safer" Mandor, Norton, and Ilk have tea, looking out over the sea of demons. Flora notices translucent warriors, some on horses, riding through the walls. She stops some, and tries to interrogate them, with little success. She picks out a particularly competent servant and starts training him as her personal assistant. He mentions that he was hired directly by Ilkandacian and Queen Paulette. The training is going well. Celeste, Brandt, and Gil are standing on a beach. It's a very nice beach, but it's not Manhome. About half-way to where they were going, it stopped existing as he envisioned it, and so he stopped rather than ceasing to exist as well. They chat briefly, then head towards a drift wood hut, digging clams as they go. A hair clip is possibly doing something strange to her hair. They have a strange dinner. ------------------ Tea with Mandor Tea with Mandor happens. Pleasantries are exchanged, and then Mandor mentions Dara's coat rack situation, and asks Norton for his professional opinion on the chances of recovery. Norton looks around and sees that House Cara is not alone - the other houses within sight, both minor houses, also have forces arrayed against them. The enemy forces are carpeting the area, but are mostly demon troops. There are few real troops in sight. shamballa, minabe - minor houses Norton takes on the form of a few of the enemy - they seem to be fairly high powered war demons, some on a rough par with Ilk's shock troops, some better, some worse. --------------------- Watching Eric Burn Ferro has determined that neither Benedict nor Serena are in the castle. Ferro heads back for the rift. He goes through in the same place he went before. As soon as he crosses some invisible line, he sees the corpse of the guy chained to the door. He turns around, and none of the guards are visible behind him. Ferro decides to go upstairs instead of going into the Pattern room. On his way past one of the cells, he sees a fairly nicely dressed guy talking to one of the prisoners. They shut up as he approaches. The guy looks like Lord Rein, except for a long puckered scar across his face. In the cell is Eric and Flora, chained to opposite walls of the cell. The floor beneath them proves that they've been chained there for quite some time. Ferro tries to open the door, and notices that it is woven shut, as if it was a part of the wall. Lord Rein says that King Oberon sent them here to be forgotten. Ferro drains the Pattern from the door and opens it. It wasn't his Pattern, but it was less powerful than his Pattern, so he could absorb it. Ferro frees the two of them, and asks after the small pile of bones in the center of the cell. They say that it is their child, Melvin [name to possibly be corrected later]. Ferro tries to encourage them to leave. "Where is beyond the reach of King Oberon?" Ferro takes them to the Pattern room. The Pattern in the room is the one that the Dworkin hillbilly was sitting in. When Ferro opens the door again, there is a rock overhang and a nice spring day outside. Eric steps out into the sunlight and catches on fire. Flora continues cradling the bones of her dead child as the father of her dead child burns to ash. Ferro looks outside - the hut is there, as is his Pattern. There is a flicker near the center of his Pattern. Ferro tries to give Flora a brief explanation of this place, with no visible success. Ferro sees the magical equivalent of an upside-down rake in the doorway and doesn't step on it. He leads Flora towards the hut, avoiding booby traps as he goes. Brand leaps out from the bushes and throws what looks like corn starch at him, which turns into caltrops in mid-flight. Ferro scolds Brand, who says that he is responsible for Dierdre's disappearance. She followed him right after he walked that glowing thing and disappeared, and she was supposed to be his. Ferro offers Brand this Flora, and Brand leads Flora off, chattering. The last thing that Ferro hears from Brand is, "You know, I could make some great wind chimes out of those." Flora, still immersed in her stupor, reaches out and rips Brand's head off. She looks around, staring back and forth between the headless body of the little boy and the bones of her dead baby. She starts stuffing the bones down the severed neck of the corpse. Ferro walks his Pattern. There is a shimmering around the center. When he enters the shimmering region, he sees Dierdre chatting with Suhuy. Dierdre introduces Ferro to Suhuy. Suhuy says that he is gradually leeching life energy from Dierdre, and that when he has accumulated enough, he will be able to leave. Dierdre says that Suhuy is going to take her with him. Suhuy says that he will have to clean up a bit in his father's castle when they get back to the Courts of Chaos. He left them in the midst of an experiment (which has probably long since gone bad) to follow up with this pattern thing and then Dworkin killed him so he couldn't go back and finish up. Ferro offers to help, being that he is good at cleaning. Ferro tries to go home, and fails. Ferro complains to Suhuy about the shimmering barrier, then starts explaining the alternate reality thing. Suhuy says that a member of the Philosophers' Guild was saying something about that - something about going down the wrong trousers leg or something. Ferro waits. ----- More of Celeste's Misadventures Celeste has finished her clams. Brandt expresses worry about the old man - it's almost sunset, and he's not home yet. They start looking for the old man, Celeste walking one way down the beach and Brandt walking the other. They encounter each other after a bit. They look for the old man, and fail. And Brandt learns something about timeflow for those that aren't immortal - he thought that they only experienced time when he was around. Celeste tries to trump Corwin, and hits a nasty block. She tries Darkstar, and fails. She tries to get Brandt to take her to the site of the battle near the Abyss, and fails. She goes into Castle Amber, front courtyard. She can't get there. She goes back into her room, and is back in the vacuum. Brand's room - can't get there. Corridor outside her room, she's there. She tries to open the door to her room and fails - there's a lot of pressure behind it. She waits for Ferro. Brandt is looking around, and Gil heads off to look for Corwin. Celeste points Brandt off at Brand's room, and he goes off to try to open it. A servant comes up to Flora and says that there is a female redhead and a male redhead sitting in the hallway looking for Ferro. Flora summons another servant and sends him off to find out who the redheads are and if they should be included for dinner. A servant comes up to Celeste carrying two chairs. They chat, then Celeste heads off to find Flora, leaving Brandt looking for a way into Brand's room. Flora and Celeste meet each other, and chat. Celeste is a bit put out at Flora's loss and volunteers to help her in any way she can. An explosion happens, and a servant runs off to investigate. Six or seven burning servants come running up towards them Celeste conjures water and sprays it at the servants. Flora waves a hand, and the temperature of the flames drops dramatically before the water even contacts the servants. They head down the corridor towards the site of the explosion. It looks like a bite was taken out of the castle. There is nothing inside it. Flora tries to trump Benedict - nothing. Flora throws a piece of rubble into the dark space, and hears what she thinks is it hitting the ground. Flora tries to trump Zack. ----------------------- Zack has been down by the stream for some time. The water itself is going through a cycle. At its thickest, it is like duck sauce, and at its thinnest, it is more like mist than water. He trumps Malachai and gives him an update. Zack takes his carpet downstream. The frequency of the cycles appears to decrease as he travels, but the amplitude remains constant. On his way down, Zack gets a trump call. It's Flora. She complains about the bite out of the castle. Brandt rips a finger off the servant and throws it into the dark spot Instead of hearing a squish as it hits the ground, they hear bones clatter. Flora pulls Zack through. This energy looks familiar to Zack, almost Logrus-ish. Zack trumps Malachai and pulls him through. They chat. Zack tries to trump Benedict - it's blocked. Celeste manages to reach Benedict. She feels a sliding sensation, as if she was about to reach her target and then it slid. When she reaches the target, it screams briefly then fades. She has the faintest image of Oberon's face, grinning. Celeste pulls the contact through, and ends up with a metal arm. They continue to chat. The arm wrenches itself out of Celeste's grasp and starts dragging itself towards Benedict's rooms. Celeste picks it up and heads towards Benedict's rooms. Flora follows. Zack clears the scene, and starts working on the bite. It seems Logrus-ish. Zack trumps Malachai and fills him in. Zack tries to drain energy from the bite, focusing through the Jewel. The hand does something strange to Benedict's door and it opens. Another arm leaps out and they start arm-wrestling. "Seven on the one that came from Benedict's room" "Done" Flora and Celeste go off to handle flower arrangements, leaving Brandt watching the fight. As they head back, they hear a very loud conversation between Gil and Corwin. "Yes she is and no I won't" "...." They turn around to take yet another path, and hear the distinctive sound of steel being drawn. They discuss flowers. ------------------------- Ingold comes up behind Zack and taps politely at his shields. Zack's efforts have been having no success. Zack and Ingold chat. Ingold suggests that he will just borrow a Logrus master temporarily, and something similar to the hole in front of him opens behind Zack and Ingold goes through it. A rift opens on the roof of House Cara, and Ingold walks through. Ingold asks Ilk if he can borrow some of his Logrus mages. Ingold assumes that Mandor is one of Ilk's subjects; Ilkandacian introduces Ingold and Mandor. Ingold invites them to come to Amber and look at something that appears to be from this end of reality, and Mandor declares that this is his first formal invitation to Amber, and that he would be pleased to accept. Norton decides to come along. Ilk says that he has duties here that constrain him from leaving this place. Ingold reaches into his coat and pulls out a small treasure chest, and tosses it to Ilk, who catches it and looks quizzically at Ilk. "A restorative". Ilk opens it, and inside is a small bottle filled with an amber-colored liquid. Mandor's eyebrows rise as he sees the liquid, and he asks Ingold, "Where did you find that?" Ingold and Mandor start talking shop. They go through the rift, still talking shop, and Norton follows. Ilk treats the liqueur with the reverence that it deserves. Norton, Ingold, and Mandor re-emerge from the rift behind Zack, about fifteen seconds after Ingold left. Norton looks at the dark patch using Ilk-stuff. There's a Logrus ball in there, and it has the same magical signature around it as the ones launched at them in the Courts. Mandor reaches into his pocket, pulls out three balls, and sets them spinning around the sphere. One dips into the sphere then comes back out, another dips in further and comes back out, and one goes even deeper and doesn't come back out. Mandor looks pale and drained. Norton hands Mandor a glass of water and a chair. Mandor sits down. Ingold opens a rift, reaches into it, pulls something out, and hands it to Ingold. It looks like an eight-ball with a pacifier on it. [There are only six left, according to Ingold. Mandor only knew of two remaining.] Mandor recommends not tampering with this, and says that knows exactly who did this. He says that he will take this up with some people when he gets back to Chaos. A silver arm approaches with Brandt in tow. They start bricking up the area around the bite. Norton starts pulling in bricks. Zack recognizes some of them - he conjured them into Amber city. "Hey - put those back!" Norton starts reaching farther, and complains that those were the only Real bricks in the area. Zack and Mandor conjure wall stuff. Ingold starts weaving the Pattern from the walls into the new sections of wall, making then indistinguishable from the old sections. The pig complains to Norton that the silver arm is ripping bits off of it. Zack trumps Malachai, who is blocked. Norton admits to Mandor that he really isn't a member of House Cara, and Mandor expresses interest in Norton's status. Mandor says that according to the histories, Norton was Snarsht's most promising apprentice in all of recorded history, and that Snarsht actually introduced him to the Courts. Mandor, Norton, and Zack chat. Zack gives Norton a trump of him "for the House"; Norton gives Zack a Jewel of Judgment in return. Zack trumps Caine. Caine is covered with insect guts, and he is using something that looks like a vorpal fly swatter. Zack heads out front. Ingold takes Mandor and Norton back to the Courts. ------------------ Flora and Celeste do trump stuff. Trump Caine - fighting insects. She invites him to the dinner meeting. Trump K'rin - no answer Trump Fiona - sliding feeling (Celeste gets, Flora doesn't) Bleys - same as Fiona. Llewella - Flora contacts a strange mind, very predatory, very hungry fish. "Llewella, what's wrong with you?" Flora notices parts of Llewella in the mind, but most of it is predatory. She cuts off the contact, and her dress is wet. She sends a servant after a new one. Trumps Julian - nothing at all. Trumps Random - he's downstairs, playing drums. He seems mostly sober. Random hasn't heard of the events. Flora fills him in. Random is shocked. he is stuck at the concept of Gerard's arm being ripped off. You know, it's much easier talking to you when you're stoned. You ask fewer questions. Celeste gets to trump Rhiannon, Connor, and Velaria. Cathryn's trump is blocked. -------- Ingold tells Norton that they are traveling through the Rift, and when Norton tells [?] They arrive on the roof of House Cara just as the first sheaf of arrows is bouncing off the outer defenses of the House. Mandor chats briefly with Ilk, then Mandor reaches into a pouch and pulls out about 27 pea-sized silver balls. They start describing a globe around an empty space, then Mandor is in the center of that globe, and then Mandor levitates off, and the arrows that intersect the globe turn 180 degrees and head back at eight times their original speed. Norton tells Ilk about their experiences in Amber. ---------------------- Flora starts getting a trump call. She takes it. It's not really talking to her, but she can hear it. "Ah, they're beginning to trust you. You should take over soon" and then it fades. It feels very normal and right. Apparently responses were being made, but she didn't hear her side of the conversation. Flora trumps Corwin. He is much too busy to resist the contact. He is fighting for his life. "Do you need assistance?" He doesn't have the concentration to spare to respond, as he is trying to disarm his opponent without hurting her, and his opponent is trying wildly and desperately to kill him. She pulls Corwin through, and he immediately collapses. He carefully sets Greyswandir down on the floor beside him. The cut on his chest has started oozing this nasty grey stuff. Flora tends to him, but it's not very effective. Flora takes Corwin to his rooms. They aren't in the best of shape. Most of the stuff is missing, and they don't look very lived in. She settles him in his bed, and he asks her to lock his door after her. She does so, and goes back to arranging things. Five minutes before dinner, she gets another trump call. It's Corwin. "Corwin, how are you feeling?" "Most strange." "Describe most strange." "I'll tell you at dinner. Pull me through?" She does so. Corwin looks somewhat better. The cut is dressed nicely. It looks like he went off to a hospital somewhere in shadow. --------------------- Zack reaches the front gates and sees Caine playing ginsu with his fly-swatter. Malachai is not in evidence. Prospero turns to Zack, and they chat. Prospero says that Benedict was in trouble and trumped Malachai for help. Malachai placed Zack in charge before he left. Zack goes over to try to help Caine. Zack tries an insecticide, it doesn't work. He tries a flamethrower, but only those few bugs at the mouth of the flamethrower ignite. There is a set of daggers sitting point down on the ground, stacked neatly with compressed locust corpses. The locusts keep going for Caine's head and face, trying to suffocate him. They are coming from over the ocean, and off in the distance they appear to be a green line. Zack tries to get some Sidhe warriors to attack the bugs. Their weapons go right through the bugs without contacting them. Zack goes back to Prospero. Prospero says that there is a guy selling popcorn, peanuts, and programs. Zack goes up to meet him. "You don't remember me? Your old companion? Tally-ho?" It's Paolo. He was a vapid for a while, but it got boring, so he wandered off. Paolo says that he got a message that he thought was from Mikail, saying that he hadn't escaped his wrath. Zack warns Paolo that Gwen is back. He says that there is a statuette of her in the garden, and asks Paolo to tell Clarissa that her old playmate is back. Paolo replies that he is also hiding from Clarissa, because he might be responsible for Mikail's disappearance. Zack trumps Corwin. Corwin is arm in arm with Flora, walking into dinner. They chat. Corwin says that the dinner will be very important, and that Zack should attend. Flora isn't hearing Zack's half of the conversation even though she is in contact with Corwin, and doesn't know that it is unusual. Zack tries to convince Corwin to help him with the locusts, Corwin tells Zack to ignore Caine and come to the meeting. Zack breaks the contact. Zack trumps Random. Random is in a bath. Zack convinces Random to come along. Random gets out of the tub, dries off, puts on a robe, and comes through. He pulls out a pin in the shape of airline wings, shakes it, and it unfolds into a glider. Zack unrolls his shag rug, Random prepares his glider, and they head out towards the horizon. They cruise into shadow, following the line of locusts. -------------------- To be Flora or Not to be Flora Benedict is the only other person at dinner as Corwin walks in with Flora. Benedict turns to the doorway and says, "you can come in now". Flora walks into the room. Benedict and Corwin explain their suspicions of her and her story. "Especially when you answered this trump", and Corwin flips a trump on the table. It's a trump of Dara. Flora tells them of the Llewella trump and the strange trump contact. Corwin suggests that they walk the Pattern. Flora says that the the Pattern is screwed up. Benedict reaches over, picks up the trump, concentrates on it. Flora is getting a trump call. It's Benedict. He flips her a trump card. It's Flora's trump. She doesn't pick it up. "Not quite willing to find out?" The other Flora goes into a self-glorification rant, claiming that there could never be too many Floras. They start trooping towards the Pattern in the basement. Corwin and Benedict look the guards up and down. Benedict reaches backwards, ostensibly for a stone, and then shoves a guard suddenly, who falls backwards and disappears. The second Flora goes through her trump deck and finds a trump of Rebma's Pattern. The first Flora walks the Pattern in Rebma, and survives. She's thinking about what happened during the time that she can't remember as she walks. About half-way through her walk, there is a tearing sensation in her mind, as if something is being ripped away from her. She feels a lot weaker, but she makes it. Dworkin is sitting in the center of the Pattern. He says, "Ah! I've been waiting for you." Dworkin says that he helped her walk, and that she would have died without it. The tearing was whatever she was before being ripped away from her. It was imperfect. "Don't worry. You're almost Flora." Dworkin is very happy. "Now I'm going to make more. I just need to find more shifters." "I was a shifter?" Dworkin takes Flora back to the drawing room outside his lab. There is a large painting of a daisy on the wall. There are six large rats in cages. Four are running on their wheels, and the other two are pressed up against their cages staring at each other. Dworkin says that he trimmed away all of the extra that was not Flora. Flora tells Dworkin that he should know about the conspiracy - it might be detrimental to Amber. "There was even an explosion in the castle." "An explosion? In my castle? Where?" And Dworkin bamfs out. There are no doors in this room. Inside the safe is a frog, a daisy, and some papers. The papers are written on the study of n-dimensional cracks. She takes them. She tries her trumps. They're all warm. It's just a deck of cards. She reads the paper. It takes several days. As she eats the fruit, she notices that it replaces itself. There is a chamberpot under a couch. She tries to escape, with no success. After several days, Dworkin pops back in. This Dworkin is insane and paranoid. At one point, Dworkin, with the help of Flora, drops a note through a hole. "Help! I'm trapped in Dworkin's lab! - Dworkin" He makes a hole large enough for Flora to pass through. She crawls through it, and is in front of the Primal Pattern. She walks it, and returns to her rooms. --EORun--