DRAFT Run log for 981110

Major Events:

• Fixing Faythe

In Amber

Ilk drops Cassandra, Celeste, and Cailin off on the roof of Amber castle. He mentions that the Logrus blocks around Amber have been upgraded, and that he killed one of the Logrus users on the way through. Darhyse tells Cassandra that she killed the Logrus-user, not Ilk. Cassandra snipes at Ilk, and Ilk is mostly indifferent.

Cailin - "I build instruments, they make music, it's an art form."
Cassandra - "What's that?"

Celeste and Cailin explain the concept of musical instruments to Cassandra. Cassandra warns Cailin that it would be best if he was not carrying any currently, but refuses to explain.

They discuss weapon use briefly. Cassandra grills Cailin on his recent sleeping and eating patterns, then decides to take him down to a practice room and beat some sense into him.

[Chaos warfare, the lot of you]

"I'm going to go off and talk to some people. When you get bored, look me up." Celeste leaves.

[It'll take more than five minutes just to walk to the practice room.]

Cailin asks Cassandra if there is a branch of the Assassins' Guild that uses magic. She reminds him that her business is to teach him how to recognize, use, and avoid the pointy end of weapons.

Celeste tracks down Neville's room, and finds two mages meditating outside the room. She walks through one of the mages' wards and taps him on the shoulder. He bows to her, they chat, and then the mage goes in to disturb Neville. She enters, and finds Neville covered in wood shavings. They head off to resume Neville's quest in the garden.

Celeste looks around, and spots lots of magical activity in the area. One of Neville's mages creates a magical lens that filters out all but two magical trails. She looks at the two trails.

[The GM passes the player a note]

Celeste asks Neville for some details regarding their quest. Neville says that those two violated an area that was supposed to be inviolate, and that they are looking to discuss the motivations behind their trespass and possible reparations. Neville clarifies that they trespassed on realms that were pretty much under their [Helgram's] control.

Celeste continues grilling Neville. He tells her that it is a Chaosian House thing, so she should not be concerned with the details, and she responds that at least one of the trails belongs to a member of House Amber, so it is her concern.

One of the mages suggests holding a meeting at a neutral location. "Possibly we could reconvene court and ask your patron..." "Grandmother" "... for a good location?"

"You see this trail that goes down the mountain? If you follow it down the mountain, across those meadows, and into those trees, you'll find the person on the other side of that trail. I'll catch up to you." Celeste heads off towards the castle; Neville and company head towards Arden.

Celeste trumps Zack, chats with him briefly, arranges for the use of House Cara as a neutral meeting ground, and heads back after Neville.

Celeste tells Neville and company that the person they are following, although normally in that forest, is currently in Arden, is currently in Chaos, and that if she arranged for the Savior of Chaos to arrange for a meeting place. She goes on at great lengths about the Savior of Chaos, but Neville and company express a lack of knowledge about the identity of that person.

The mages open a gate and they go through. They create another gate, go through that, create another gate, go through that one and arrive at home.

Celeste trumps Ilk, pushing for a local one. She acquires contact with the Ilk on the primal Pattern. She can see Dworkin walking along the Primal Pattern and shifting into Toram. They exchange a few words, and then Celeste disconnects.

She tries again, and gets the one on the roof of House Cara. That Ilk notices a massively powerful contact incoming. He asks Zack for backup, tries to create some mental channels to prevent his mind from exploding, and takes the contact. It's Celeste. Nobody explodes. Zack introduces himself as Ilk's messaging service.

Cassandra is taking Cailin to a practice room, when she is intercepted by Flora. Cassandra introduces them. A cat fight occurs. Cailin smiles and nods. A competition and Dutch are mentioned.

They fail to encounter Dworkin and Jean on the stairs. They do encounter Lord Rein, however. Lord Rein and Cassandra spar, verbally.

"The Amber House whore, if you please."
"But K'rin isn't even on the list!"
"I was referring to Florimel."
"If she offered, wouldn't you accept?"
"Not with your dick."
"It worked at the time."
"I'm surprised that it still does."

They arrive at the practice rooms, and find a practice shirt lying in a pool of blood in the center of the room. "I guess that I forgot to clean up after my last student."

Cassandra notices that the blood is still liquid. She removes the shirt, and the blood begins steaming again. Towels don't remove the stain. Cailin looks at the blood - it's bound to someone magically, and that person is trying to find out who is disturbing her blood. The blood will turn into a scrying pool fairly soon. Cailin shares, and describes the signature, which is unfamiliar to him. Cassandra advises Cailin to leave the room, and settles down to wait and watch. Cailin hangs out in the hallway.

Cassandra becomes certain that someone is watching her through the blood and waves hello. "Who are you, and what do you want?" Cailin pokes his head around the corner, notices what is happening, and tells Cassandra that it can't talk back. Cassandra continues to study the pool, and tries again. "Sethra - I'd like my practice room back."

Cailin tries to disrupt the seeing, and waves start forming on the pool.

They give up, and go to a different practice room. Cassandra starts showing him how not to accidentally hurt people with a variety of simple weapons, then starts showing him defensive shield work.

Norton and Faythe, Stuck on the God Channel

Norton is getting to know Faythe very well. She's a natural-born healer - she takes the pain of others onto herself and then heals herself. Faythe tells Norton that she only woke up a short time ago.

Faythe offers to help fix Norton. Norton declines the offer until she is back in her body. She asks after her body, and is told that her body is still in one piece.

Norton and Faythe chat at great length. Norton describes his hospital, and then Faythe starts describing some of the places where she has been.

Planning a Meeting With a "Neutral" Arbiter

Neville arrives at home through a circuitous route. His superiors seem distracted, but pleased to see him. They're busy plotting attacks. Neville tells them that the trail led to Amber, where they were hindered from going any farther. He says that one of the residents of Amber claimed to know to whom the trail led, and that person arranged for a meeting place in a neutral location to be arranged by the Savior of Chaos.

"Savior of Chaos? Has it percolated that far north already?"

They're not entirely sure who has been spreading the rumors. Neville mentions that he ran into Ilkandacian in Amber. He also mentions that he saw Lord Rainbow, who is involved with a Princess Floramel there. They tell him that he should put any thoughts about Amber being special out of his mind, and that it is just another shadow.

Neville claims that the only reason he survived was that he had the protection of the Queen of that place.

They tell Neville that his old mage has been determined to have defected, and have taken a contract out on his head with the Assassins' Guild.

Neville makes arrangements with the Etiquette Guild for a meeting to be relayed with Ilk.

A member of the Etiquette Guild asks the demons for permission to pass between them. It is granted, and he approaches Ilk and Zack in House Cara about the arrangements.

Zack goes around the corner and starts riffling through his trump deck. "Zack" trumps Random. Random tells Zack that his son, Martin, has been running around Chaos wearing a loincloth and waving a Pattern-blade. Zack fills Random in on the matter, and Random expresses his delight at the meeting.

"Zack" trumps Caine. Caine is delighted at the prospect of meeting with the ones responsible for the locusts. Caine and Raven come through. Caine looks Zack over, looks around, and says, "Nice digs. Yours?" "No, they belong to my friend Ilkandacian. You know him?" "We've met." Raven salutes Ilk with his Logrus blade; Caine's Logrus blade is vibrating at his side. Ilk is amused.

Zack decides that he should be neutral and removes his House Cara insignia. Random shows up, carrying pies.

Ilk wanders over to the Etiquette guild member, and informs him that the meeting will be in a certain meeting room in Thelbane, soonest. The Etiquette Guild member leaves.

A demon Jean and "Zack" eat pies offered them to Random.

The Etiquette Guild member arrives at House Helgram and relays the information.

Fixing Faythe

Celeste walks to Cassandra's practice room. She is greeted by a guard, who claims that she looks like one of Bleys'. The guard is annoying, refers to Celeste as one of the dead ones, and says that he was hired by Ilk and was given a list of Amberites.

Celeste pushes the guard through the trump contact to Ilk and cuts the link. "My king!" The guard bows to Ilk. Ilk dumps him somewhere out in shadow in the general direction of Amber.

Celeste opens the door. There is nobody in the room, but there is a puddle of steaming blood in the center of the room. Celeste trumps Cassandra.

Celeste - "Did you have to wipe out another apprentice?"
Cassandra - "I didn't kill him - I just moved him."
Celeste - "Without his blood?"

Celeste goes in to shut down the scrying pool. She sets up a tap to the source of power on the far end of the pool and shuts down the scrying pool. Celeste now knows what time it is. When she realizes what she is connected to, she drops the link.

Celeste trumps Cassandra back, and they chat as she wanders towards the room. Celeste informs the guard outside the room that the other guard isn't going to be working there any more, then enters the room and explains to Cassandra that she lost Norton.

"Well, I don't know that he's trapped as much as taking over."
"Is that bad?"
"A number of people, including Clarissa and Verra, like using it."
"Who's Verra?"
"I don't know, but she's really possessive of that gold thing."

Cailin informs Celeste that he was informed how to not use his shield.

Celeste looks up on the god channel, and gets a low level ache. There's nobody speaking directly. She pipes up. Somewhere in the depth of Cailin's mind, he hears a "hello", and responds, "what was that?" Cailin gripes over the channel about someone being in his head. Celeste expresses attitude, then tries to reach past Cailin. Celeste and Cailin both hear a gentleman's voice "Are you deliberately trying to distract him farther..." Cailin questions the situation out loud. Celeste responds over the channel. "Who are you?" "Suhuy."

Suhuy starts describing the god channel to Cailin. He is completely lost.

"Since you inherited it from your grandmother, and Dworkin seems to have taken a hand in activating it in times of stress..."

Celeste admits that she is looking for someone lost on the channel -

"The gentleman who is Snarsht's apprentice... you lost him on the god channel?"

Cailin realizes to whom he is talking, and exclaims, "Celeste! That's you?" "Cailin - that's you?"

Celeste - "What are you doing in the channel?"
Cailin - "What are you doing in my brain?"
? - "What are you doing in this room?"

Celeste makes a beacon. Norton notices, and taps it. Celeste notices that the beacon is being tapped. Norton starts slurping his way up the beacon, and Faythe tries to follow his singing.

Norton is now in Celeste's head, having crawled up her life force. He tries to poke his head back out on the god channel, but fails. The life mage tries to figure out how to get the vampire out of her head.

Norton suggests that he could flow out through some blood.

Celeste pulls out a knife and cuts herself. Cailin thinks that it is blood magic, and is horrified. Cassandra yells at Celeste. Cailin turns into a yeti and runs off, yelling "Blood magic!" Norton tries to flow out through the blood, and succeeds. Cassandra can see a Norton slowly dripping into place. "Hi, Norton." Celeste pokes more holes to bleed faster. There is now a six-inch tall undead Norton.

Celeste picks him up and puts him on her shoulder. "Could you call a guard over?" She does so, but decides that this one is polite. Norton calls over his pig. It arrives at a gallop. "I need mass!" The silver arm carves.

Cailin returns.

Norton reaches inside himself, pulls out a torso larger than himself, dusts it off, and appears very pleased.

Celeste - "What's that?"
Norton - "It's the rightful heir of House Cara."

Norton pops a head for Ilk, and asks the Ilk to tell Ilk that Vlad is safe.

Celeste looks for the Norton in her head. "Norton? What are you staring at?"

"You have lovely ganglion."

Celeste falls over laughing. "For that, you can stay."

Norton notices lots of cards, and starts flipping through them. He notices one of Faythe, every time Celeste blinks. He trumps Faythe, and gets through. They chat, but Faythe cannot hear Celeste.

They head out to find Faythe's body, Norton riding his pig.

Celeste trumps Ilk. Ilk places a hand on Zack's shoulder. "Hello, this is Ilkandacian's office." Celeste is not okay with Ilk's answering service. She asks Ilk for a Jean.

"Hey Jean - want to go to Celeste in Amber?" "Sure." Ilk sends a demon-Jean through to Celeste.

Cailin sees a demon appear in front of him, turns into a Yeti, and runs off. He returns sheepishly shortly.

They wander, as Jean tries to find Jean.

When they find Faythe and the Jeans, there are four Jeans sitting with their arms crossed surrounding Faythe, who is kneeling seductively, dressed in pink footy pajamas.

Norton and Celeste touch, Norton chats with Norton, and they establish trump contact with Faythe.

Celeste notices that the brain remnants in Faythe are Brand-ish.

Norton starts trying to fix Faythe's brain. Celeste notices that the Brand in Faythe is being erased, and asks Norton to stop and preserve the brain bits. Norton suggests preserving the brain in his pig.

[A kneeling, submissive pig]

Norton stuffs the kneeling, submissive part of Brand in one of the gargoyles.

The more Norton shifts Faythe's brain, the more quickly that Faythe flows through Norton.

Norton starts shifting towards Faythe. Ilk in Norton's head and Celeste start trying to maintain Norton as Norton. Celeste and Norton trump Ilk in Norton and tell him that they have a backup in case they lose the main one. Ilk points out that if they lose all of their Nortons, they won't be able to put Faythe - or Zack - back in their bodies. They warn Norton to stop - but it's too late. There is now an undead Faythe standing next to the kneeling pink Faythe. Norton pours Faythe's life force into the body. Faythe wakes up.

Celeste - "Faythe, how are you feeling, dear?"
Faythe - "I'm wearing pink."

Faythe says that they broke her body, and that they need to go off and fix it.

Faythe - "...and the child I'm carrying within me is an abomination"
Celeste - "Why?"
Faythe - "Because it's undead."

Norton suggests that he might be able to fix it.

Celeste - "Let him touch you."
Norton - "Do you remember me?"
Faythe - "You're the one that is going to be my husband."

Norton notices that the fetus is about three months along. He tries to fix it, and Celeste helps. They manage to make the body alive. Norton feels unclean.

Somewhere in Amber, a Jean tugs on Flora's arm and says, "Mom? There's a baby in Faythe. How did it get there? Cassandra said that you would explain. Celeste's just drooling."

Celeste opens a trump gate to Bellview with the help of the the Norton in her head. Norton goes through.

--EORun--