![[previous]](gu-prev.gif){kind=small}
![[next]](gu-next.gif){kind=small}
Back to the index.
Ilk and Norton chat in Norton's head after Norton removes his Frogdallorian helmet.
Snarsht settles down for a cat nap, wrapping himself around the Dworkin-ball. After a while, Norton modifies the weather patterns to form a cloud over Snarsht. Snarsht is shaded and rained upon briefly, and awakes. Norton creates an umbrella over Snarsht, and apologetically says that he needs to tell him some things.
Snarsht drags a claw through the air, obviously exerting himself, and tears a hole. He pushes the ball through the hole, then passes a claw across the area again, closing the hole.
Norton tells Snarsht that Masque, one of Darhyse's kittens, was damaged and he couldn't fix him. Snarsht pats Norton on his head then coils and leaps, landing next to the Abyss in a single bound. Norton follows Snarsht. Snarsht stops, and Norton can tell that he is talking to someone. Norton walks around to Snarsht's head to see what is going on.
Shiryu is yelling at Snarsht. It's in a language that nobody in the head understands, except for Mandor, who catches a few words and refuses to understand the language. When Shiryu finishes, Snarsht looks somewhat contrite and slinks across the Abyss. Snarsht looks better when he reaches Chaos, and heads towards Norton's house at the normal pace for a Old Lord, which is rather stately. As they move, Norton briefs Snarsht on the happenings during the last Council. While they are talking, the mouse delivers its notes, and Norton gives that report as well. After a while, Norton notices that they are heading towards House Cara, not House Hendrake.
Those at or near House Cara see Snarsht arrive. Snarsht stops a short distance from the ghostly Suhuy and nods; the gentleman Suhuy nods back. They talk.
Ecto-Suhuy's side of the discussion is that he doesn't think that he is ready for a body yet, but he thanks Snarsht for the offer, and he is glad that his mad little brother is safely tucked away and not dead. They have a somewhat protracted discussion about what the body would be like. Snarsht turns towards Gentleman Suhuy's apprentice and comments that it is most amusing that Ilk seems to be able to move from protoplasm to tendri and back again, but cannot shapeshift while protoplasmic.
[Ecto-Ilk, who hasn't tried to shapeshift yet, hadn't actually noticed]
Osric greets Snarsht and asks if he could be of any assistance. Snarsht asks Osric if he knows of any fields of catnip; Osric agrees to help him out when he is done with his duties here.
The quest for the Easter Bunny continues. Cailin levitates himself and Bun-bun; the ferret jumps repeatedly at Bun-bun and misses. It babbles and swats on Cassandra's dark saber. Cassandra tosses the ferret at Bun-bun; it misses and hits the ground. As they progress, the ferret is continuously distracted by everything.
The journey is long and arduous, mostly due to the antics of the bunny and ferret. The Dzurlords fail to kill the furry critters. Finally, they reach a gigantic thorn bush. As they move into sensory range, the thorns turn and orient towards them.
Jean asks Cassandra if she would mind if he tried to light the bush on fire. She orders her troops back. When Jean ignites the bush, all of the thorns launch in his direction, but fall well short of the rapidly fleeing saucered Jean and yeti.
It's a greasy, nasty burn. As the bush burns down, a white statue is gradually revealed.
Cassandra tries to trump her father and fails. She passes the card to Jean, who tries. Jean succeeds.
"Hi, Corwin."
"Hello?"
"It's Jean."
"It's awfully noisy."
"I have that effect on people."
"Your daughter wants to talk with you. Pull you through?"
"Now?"
"Okay." Jean pulls Corwin through. There is now a naked Corwin, en-flagrante, near House Cara.
"That was a question..." Norton hands Corwin a cloak. Jean tries again, and Corwin appears in front of Cassandra.
Corwin complains about Jean's timing. "I am so dead..."
Cassandra pretends to be curious. "Who was it?"
"Let's just say that I don't expect to see my castle standing when I get back."
"A reconciliation?"
"It was in the middle."
"Blame it on me; she'll forgive you."
"But she was close, though."
"Thank you for sharing."
"It was an endurance thing."
Corwin finally notices the statue and is annoyed.
Corwin orders Jean to walk that way for a bit until he finds a tree, then reach into a bole and pull out Greyswandir.
Jean returns with Greyswandir, and Corwin announces his pleasure at being armed once again. Jean gives Corwin advice on his love-making technique. Corwin rebuts the commentary. Cassandra joins the conversation. "Shut up!"
"Sorry - I learned under Fiona." [GM - Should this be Flora?]
Cassandra is indignant and self-righteous, until Corwin mentions Mikail. She quiets up quickly.
Corwin asks Jean to contact Norton; he does so.
Corwin asks Norton via Jean if he knows of any Logrus blades. Norton replies that he doesn't have any of those, but he does have a Pattern blade. "Nah - I've got one of those; they're not very good."
The discussion continues. Osric overhears and is contrite, realizing how Gwen got to the other side of the Barrier.
Ilk asks the Logrus for a blade. One appears. It doesn't seem like the Logrus-blades that he's seen before, but it does seem to be Logrus-ish.
Osric makes a blade out of his power and has Jean pass it through.
Ilk that is Savior of Chaos takes the Logrus blade and asks Jean to take him to Corwin's group. Jean tries repeatedly, but can't get Ilk across the barrier. Ilk reluctantly hands the blade to Jean to pass across.
When Jean touches the blade, every one of the Jeans get a nasty blinding headache, and the ones that have Pattern are in really bad shape. Jean drops the blade, which drifts like a feather until it is close to the ground, when it falls straight and clangs.
Norton and Ilk discuss passing the blade across the Barrier. Norton creates a gollum to carry the blade. The gollum takes the blade, says "daddy?" and shifts its face to match Jean's. Norton notices that it no longer has his signature; Ilk notices that it now has the same signature as the Logrus sword.
Osric sheaths the Logrus-blade inside a bubble of his power and receives a feeling like fingernails over a blackboard. Jean touches the gollum and passes it through to Pearl. The gollum dissolves immediately and the shielded sword hits the ground. Jean tells Osric that the sword is on the other side, and Osric stops concentrating on the shield.
Cassandra notices a disruption in the local reality appear in front of her, and there is a sense that the universe itself was holding its breath. Corwin also seems to have noticed, but not anyone else. Jean has no memory that the Logrus blade ever existed. Ilk doesn't remember creating the blade; most of the rest don't remember the blade at all.
Jean tries to pass Ilk through again, sans sword this time, and succeeds.
A Dzurlord advances on the thorns, and throws a handful of pebbles taken from his pouch into the bush. The thorns shoot off in his direction, falling short. He grabs a thorn and picks his teeth with it, then advances into the bush and his hidden from view.
Jean, saucered and orbiting above the bush, can see that the Dzurlord took scrapings from the statue, was careless, touched them, and ended up as white stone sitting in lotus position around the statue along with about fourteen other figures.
Another Dzurlord enters, throwing a handful of stones in front of him to trigger the thorns. The thorns re-arm and fire on the Dzurlord when he is half-way through. He manages to block most of them but takes a few minor wounds. He reaches the center, pats his comrade on the head, sees his hand start to change, swings his Morganti at the statue, and freezes with his sword resting on the statue.
Another Dzurlord walks up, tosses pebbles at the thorn bush until it fires, takes a thorn, sticks it with the Morganti, shrugs, and tosses the thorn and continues. He weaves his way into the center, not touching anything, and carefully pulls his Morganti sword. He looks at the statue, reverses his blade, and throws it. It sticks into the statue where the heart would be on a human. There is no visible effect on the statue.
The Dzurlord returns, and Cassandra hands him the Fringe blade. He hefts it, asks if he can spar with it for a few minutes to become accustomed to it, and calls over another Dzurlord. The Dzurlords spar for a few minutes, Fringe blade against sheathed Morganti. Cassandra can tell that it is a careful kata designed to test a new blade.
The Dzurlord approaches the bush again, reaches the statue, turns and sprints away at a dead run, diving and rolling just out of range of the thorns.
Bun-bun pipes up "I found the burrow." He's approaching, dragging a patch of the invincible bunny fur. When asked why he didn't take any more, he replies that he has enough for his purposes, and lies down on his newly acquired rug.
The Dzurlord borrows a flash-stone from one of his companions and approaches the bush again. He tosses the flash-stone and the thorns fire at the flash-stone. He continues to run in, throws the blade which cuts off the head of the statue, and returns at a dead run.
The head of the statue is curdling, and the neck of the statue is also beginning to curdle.
Osric hitches a lift to Pearl from Jean, leaving "Vlad" in command of his army at House Cara.
Osric shields himself and approaches the statue, thorns pinging off his shield. Osric starts preparing to place the statue in a bubble and notices that the pedestal goes all of the way down to the edge of the shadow. Osric starts grinding his way through the pedestal where it exits the shadow, taking physical damage from the conflict of forces.
Ilk notices a sudden concentration of Gwen signature within the thorns. "Incoming - we got her attention!" Osric asks Jean if he can get a lift out, shifts into a running form, and brings one of the Jeans into his shield. Jean relays two questions to Princess Chandra - can Cassandra kill the white statue thingy, and can Rainbow come out to play? Princess Chandra replies that the white statue is not a worthy foe for Cassandra to lose to, but she will be arriving soon with Rainbow. She suggests that Jean invite the crowd at House Cara.
Jean at House Cara invites the mob there to come to Pearl to fight the white statue thingy. Snarsht orders Norton to stay here - he doesn't want to lose him. Everyone else suddenly becomes less enthusiastic about joining the fight.
Ilk asks Jean to bring the Ilk in Pearl back to Chaos; Jean does so. Jean asks Ilk if Gentlemen Suhuy might want to watch. Ilk asks, and Gentleman Suhuy and his apprentice discuss the travel, as, being non-corporeal, they cannot use the Jean-band.
In the air in front of the group in Pearl, a shining box is repeatedly unfolding.
The box has unfolded to head size; Jean thinks that he recognizes the box as his father. He waves; the box winks. The next unfolding reveals Princess Chandra. She steps out, thanks Rainbow, and bows to Cassandra as master to student.
Many Jeans run up to hug his father. Rainbow hugs them all back.
Rainbow sticks part of himself into Osric's shield. Osric can feel Rainbow shifting him at a faster rate than he has ever shifted before. It makes the pain more bearable, but doesn't remove it entirely. He thinks that it might take another hour or so to finish.
Cassandra fills Princess Chandra in with all of the information she has on Gwen. Princess Chandra tells Cassandra that not only can Cassandra not defeat this foe; but she herself cannot handle it at this time and place.
Princess Chandra tells Corwin that she is leaving and taking her apprentice with her. She recommends that he isolate any places where these intrusions are found.
Cailin yetis and heads for the hills.
Osric looks for and notices a Fringe gate on the exact opposite side of the thorns from the Gwen magic. As far as he can tell, it is closed, yet there is power flowing through it.
Bun-bun says, "But we were hunting the Easter bunny!" Princess Chandra looks down. "You're still alive?" She reaches down, pats the bunny on his head, and picks him up by the ears.
The ferret is dragging a thorn towards the group. Princess Chandra puts her arm around Cassandra, opens a magical gate, goes through it, and it closes behind them. About a thousand gates open and the battalion of Dzurlords stumble forwards, then the gates close behind them.
Corwin turns towards Rainbow. "How did you get here?"
Rainbow grins. "I have my ways." He looks around. "Flora hasn't been here."
"Yes."
"Good."
Corwin, Rainbow, Osric, and Jean decide to stay until the bitter end.
Corwin notices Bun-bun nearby, reaches down, grabs the rabbit, and places its' throat against Greyswandir's blade. The bunny fails to make trouble. The ferret is jealous, and wraps itself around Corwin's ankle. Corwin walks across shadow to Cassandra, and the Jeans outside the shield follow him.
The mob is on the hill where the werewolves recently ate the Sith. Cassandra talks with Princess Chandra about the Sith sabers buried around here. Princess Chandra refers to sabers as clumsy weapons - they don't work everywhere. Jean digs up the sabers and finds eleven sabers. Cassandra recognizes them as ten sabers and a mock-up. Jean asks if he can keep one; Cassandra hands him the mockup. Jean activates it and plays with it. He chops the front of the puppet's foot off, but doesn't seem to care. Cassandra tries to teach him Saber 101; Jean has problems understanding the material.
Jean hands the saber to the ferret, who wraps himself around it but finds it too heavy to lift.
Ghost Suhuy and his apprentice are still discussing how to get to Pearl.
Upon some reflection regarding Osric's revelation that the statues' pedestals extend past the edge of their local shadows, Ilk speculates that the conduits extending from the statues through shadow could be causing stress on reality itself, and causing the cracks in reality. He decides that the Realms Master would probably be interested in investigating that line of reasoning, and goes looking for Shiryu.
Ilk that is called Savior of Chaos finds Shiryu standing near the Abyss, looking out over Chaos. Ilk bows, low. Shiryu turns towards Ilk, curious.
Ilk tells Shiryu that he has an idea regarding a possible cause of the cracks in reality, and explains.
"Why hasn't someone told me about these statues before?"
"The statues have mostly been confined to the other end of reality until very recently."
"Okay."
[Hey GM - I'm unclear on the ordering of the four following topics of conversation, and whether or not they came before or after the trip to Begma. Do you remember?]
Shiryu mentions that Ilk seems to have part of a mark placed upon him by another Realms Master; Ilk responds by describing in brief his recent journey to the reality from which Toram was acquiring his mind-washed cannon fodder and his encounters with their proto-Amber council and their ex-alternate-Andron Realms Master. Ilk fails to mention the Serpent's involvement in his transportation back to this reality.
Ilk mentions that one of the statues was a focus for the attack on House Cara; he nuked the shadow in which it resided with Primal Chaos, and the attack just shifted to another statue. Shiryu expresses his displeasure regarding the Pattern in House Cara; Ilk says that he was not present at the time and that that defense was chosen by those present at the house at the time, and that he is as horrified as anyone at the idea of Pattern in his House. Shiryu gives Ilk a few thousand turnings to remove the Pattern.
The topic of multiple Ilks comes up. Ilk tells Shiryu that he has recently come to the understanding that the Ilks are different people that just share many common characteristics. Shiryu states that, although he is not as absolutest regarding the rules as Ferethyn, he is indeed glad to hear that.
Shiryu asks Ilkandacian if the rumor at the last Council meeting is true. Ilk is horrified when he hears that the rumor involved him taking over Shiryu's position, and vehemently denies his capability for the job and his desire to usurp him. Shiryu says that Ilk could not usurp the position, and that some of his recent actions demonstrate his concern for Chaos and his willingness to assist in caring for it. Ilk agrees to the concern and the willingness to learn what he can, but declines any such ambitions. Shiryu says that they will talk about it later, then, in a thousand or a thousand thousand turnings.
Shiryu asks Ilk to show him a statue; preferably one in a Real place. Ilk tells him that there are many in the foothills of Kolvir. Shiryu suggests that they leave; Ilk tendri's out. Shiryu asks Ilk why he is going the long way; Ilk resolidifies. "Kolvir is one of my gardens, too." Shiryu does something, and then Shiryu and Ilk are standing near the peak of Kolvir, overlooking the Primal Pattern and the sparse greeneries and trees around it. "Do you like it?" Dworkin left this place barren; I had to replenish it. Ilk mentions the joy given to him by that tree that he hid behind from the Pattern during part of his last visit here. Shiryu seems surprised that Ilk would be discomforted by the Pattern, and says that they'll take a different way down, then.
Shiryu starts walking. As Ilk follows, he notices a warping effect as the distance that they are traversing seems to be less than the distance that they are covering.
When they approach the castle, Ilk warns Shiryu that there is an insane and hostile Benedict from another reality in the castle that is killing all who approach. Shiryu's response:
"Nobody notices the gardener"
The mines in Arden don't detonate as they pass.
When they reach Begma, everyone visible is fighting randomly. Shiryu is displeased at many of those still fighting despite being dead. "You are dead", he tells them. They fall down.
Shiryu advises Ilk to tendri out in case they attract adverse attention. He does so.
Ilk warns Shiryu, "Look out - it's contagious."
Shiryu moves the shadow away from the statue then tosses someone down the shaft, and they aren't turned white by the pedestal.
Darkness swirls around the statue, and then engulfs the entire shadow. Ilk is tendri'd out in a dark place filled with nothing; the ground is bare, rocky, more Real than the Primal Pattern, and slopes downwards towards the Sea of Chance. Shiryu is standing next to the stub of a pedestal sticking out of the ground. Shiryu says that it is safe here - nothing can enter this place now, and only he can leave. Ilk notices that he cannot reach the Logrus from here - the only Logrus energy he has is that which he brought with him. Shiryu places his staff on the pedestal and sits on it. Ilk notices colors traveling along the pedestal, and, gradually, a few lone blades of grass spring up out of the rock, circumscribing a crude circle. Shiryu stands and enters the circle. Ilk joins him, still tendri'd. Shiryu apologizes to the plants for leaving them to die, and departs, taking Ilk with him. They appear on the promontory from which they left Chaos.
[More conversation here?]
Shiryu asks Ilk to have those others who have information regarding the statues contact him, and gives him a small green jade origami dragon as a communications device. Ilk thanks Shiryu for his time, and heads back towards House Cara.
Back to the index.