DRAFT Run Log for 970819 Present: Tia - Cassandra, Damia Andrew - Osric Rich - Ferro Lori - Celeste Dave K - Ilk, logging Dave R - Malachai Ken - Norton ------------------------ Ferro lends Suhuy small amounts of power to speed his escape. They chat about his Pattern. Suhuy is dead, and noncorporeal, too. They each confuse the other regarding Pattern theory and celestial mechanics. "You seem to draw Patterns a lot." Suhuy finds Ferro's Pattern very one-dimensional and straightforward. -------------- Continuing Trumping [note - this occurred chronologically before the dinner party that happened at the end of the last run] Gerard - not tried Rhiannon - same sensation as Flora and Bleys Celeste trumps Connor and stops moviong. No breath, no obvious motion. Flora tries calling her name - nothing. Flora trumps Corwin. They chat. Corwin says that Connor is a statue in the garden, and that, as far as he knows, nobody has tried to trump him before. Corwin recommends trying Zack. Flora trumps Zack. -------------- Benedict Calls for Backup [note - this also happened chronologically before the dinner party that happened at the end of the last run] Benedict trumps Malachai and asks for support. Malachai can see that Benedict is under heavy siege. He is on a small rocky rise, there are armies at his back and sides that are in what looks like green laminated armor, and the army in front of him looks demonish. The demonish ones are wearing armor that makes them look like demons - they're just mutated-looking humanoids beneath the armor, with a few daemons scattered about for good measure. Benedict pulls Malachai through. It is easy to see the edge of the armies behind Benedict, but the armies in front of him have no visible end. This is Begma, a Golden Circle kingdom. The green troops are not local troops - they's significantly better muscled, etc, than the locals. Benedict says that he is holding the enemy, but that he needs another pair of eyes to scout and determine where the enemy is coming from. Malachai trumps Zack, goes through, explains briefly what is going on, then runs to the stables and grabs Beucephalus's reins. All of the horses in the stable are being quickly and carefully prepared. Malachai trumps Benedict. Benedict doesn't bother to fully connect, but just pulls Malachai through. The enemy is in a column about a mile wide with no end in sight. Benedict says that the enemy is coming from shadow to fill that column. Malachai goes perpendicularly to the column then parallels it, keeping the edge of the army in sight. About an hour and a half later, Malachai realizes that Benedict has made an error. The enemy is not coming through shadow - there are a group of mages gating them in from the back of the column. The mages look very intent on what they are doing. There is a line of mages, with one every four feet, stretching for the full mile in width. Malachai tries to trump Benedict, but he's not receiving trump contacts. Malachai trumps Corwin, who receives. Corwin is in a hospital bed out in shadow. Malachai fills Corwin in on the situation. Corwin disconmnects to trump Benedict. About twenty minutes later, Corwin trumps Malachai back. Corwin is on a horse at the head of an army comprised of mongoloids wearing fuzzy hats. Corwin says that he couldn't trump Benedict, so he found an army. They start passing troops through. Corwin comes through fairly early, and says that one of the troops is holding the gate open - Malachai should get his trump back from that one. He's returning to his hospital bed - the army will follow Malachai's orders for six weeks, at which point he may have to renegotiate their contract. -------- Trumping, Continued [note - this occurred chronologically before the dinner party that happened at the end of the last run] Flora is trumping Zack. She tells him that Celeste has stopped moving. "She trumped Connor" "That is a bad thing. Scold her when you break her out of it." Zack tells Flora to whack the trump out of her hand with something non-organic, like a brick or a rock. Flora complains that bruises would disrupt the color scheme for dinner. Flora sends a servant to fetch her a pair of silver ice tongs. Once she is properly equipped, Flora grabs the trump with the tongs and yanks it out of Celeste's hand. There is an arc of what looks like physical power shimmering between the little gem hanging around Celeste's neck and the trump in Flora's ice tongs. Celeste is still frozen. Flora takes the trump away, walking quickly but gracefully down the hall. One of the servants passes her, intersects the line of power, screams, and dusts himself, all of his life force heing absorbed by the contact. Flora goes back and drops the trump on the ground next to Celeste. She trumps Zack back. "How did it go?" "It didn't work." Flora explains, and they chat. Zack makes a diamond hemisphere with a handle, and puts some warding power into the hemisphere. Flora covers the trump with the dome. Celeste feels someone hit her between her eyes with a ball-pen hammer. Flora and Celeste chat. Flora summons wine, and Celeste goes into a side room to sit down. ------- Osric occupies himself scrying. ------- "It's not gopher? What do you eat, then? Mud?" Suhuy says to Ferro that they are ready to go. He reaches out plasmatic hands to Ferro and Dierdre, and the three form a closed circuit. Ferro suggests that they go to his Amber for a formal dinner - Dierdre will certainly appreciate the food. Ferro brings them back to his rooms, and they actually successfully arrive in Oberon's former chambers. Damia is in Oberon's quarters when Ferro, a ghost, and a dirty teenaged girl appear. The girl looks at Damia and says, "You're female. You're grown up." They chat. Dierdre doesn't understand the concepts of baths, changing clothes, or non-gopher based food. ------ Jesby Requests Sanctuary from House Cara Norton and Ilkandacian are on the roof of House Cara. Norton tries to reach Jesby to ask her about the recent events in House Jesby and if the war has reached that region of the Courts. Norton shifts towards Ilk to make it past those Logrus blocking, and shifts Pattern to burrow through the Logrus barriers. Ilk watches the Pattern and Ilk-ness clash in Norton. The tendril connects, and Norton conjures a note on the end of his tendril. There is a quickly scrawled phrase on Norton's note. Norton doesn't recognize the language, and relays the scrawl to Ilk. Ilk recognizes the language. It's an ancient high formal tongue, and the message is addressed to Ilkandacian. Jesby is asking for emergency sanctuary from House Cara. Sanctuary is normally asked for and granted when someone in a minor House is trying to survive the destruction of their House by joining another. When a head of House makes the request, she is offering all that is under her control, her entire House, in return for the sanctuary. Ilkandacian has never heard of a major House requesting sanctuary before. Ilkandacian writes out the appropriate counter-response, and Norton adds it to his note. "We accept your unconditional surrender." "Done." Norton encases her in his Pattern-wrapped Logrus tendril and pulls the former House-head formerly known as Jesby to the roof of House Cara. She is carrying a hand attached to a forearm. The hand is wearing a ring. The ring is the ring of House Sawall, and the arm belongs to Mandor. The arm was removed carefully and bound neatly. She collapses onto the piece of the roof nearest to her, rocking the arm in her arms. She seems more frustrated then injured or exhausted. "Does Lord Mandor need assistance?" "I believe that Lord Mandor is beyond assistance." Norton sends a tendril out looking for Mandor anyway. Jesby offers Norton a raw power tap, access to more power than he has ever had available in his life. No trace of Mandor is found. Ilkandacian asks Bellahquist what happens, and she states that, as he knew, House Jesby had been given six turnings of the sky to prove that it was still a major House. However, a group representing Swayville, Chanicut, Ganda, Darbin, Yigrin, Helgram, and Arantantic entered her House... your House... at the head of an army, and stated that they were not only no longer considered a major House, they were no longer considered worthy of survival. Luckilly, they decided to head off and crush her nonexistant army, which they thought must be massing in one of the wings, instead of just torturing her to death, enabling her to escape and be rescued. The group also gave her Mandor's arm. The houses represented by those that confronted Jesby: Swayville Chanicut Ganda Darbin Yigrin Helgram Arantantic Norton calls out for Snarsht, and nothing happens. Norton notices a group heading through the demon forces which is not being attacked. One of Ilk's shifters flows up the wall and tells Ilk that six people claiming to be from the Ettiquete Guild want to talk to the head of House Cara. The shifter demonstrates the forms of each of the visitors in turn - they look like journeymen. The Ettiquete guild rarely sends out journeymen, and never more than one at a time. Ilk flows down the wall and greets the group of journeymen. They say that most of the Guilds have decided to withdraw their aid from all of the Houses until the Houses settle down and resume normal behavior. A few Guilds did not respond to their proposals, and they refuse to discuss three of the Guilds. They say that the Philosophers Guild is officially supporting Jance, the king. However, Jance has not been heard from in quite some time. Ilkandacian states for the record that his House was attacked without provocation, and has been acting in self defense. They say that all of the Houses have claimed just that. Withdrawn: Ambassadors Guild Assassins Guild Bards Guild Crafters Guild Ettiquite Guild Healers Guild Herbalists Guild Torturers Guild Not responded: Beastmasters Guild Dancers Guild Mathematicians Guild Shifters Guild Warriors Guild No comment: Mages Guild Poisoners Guild Psionicists Guild -------------- Osric continues to look around. -------------- In Amber Celeste is eating. Just before the headache disappears, she hears "oh, my" over the god channels. "who are you" laughter, then it fades. Celeste looks at Velaria's trump - she doesn't know who it is. Flora tries - it's blocked. That's the last trump. Celeste trumps Llewella. She gets drenched. The shark tries to take off her face. She breaks the contact. That water is Real. Really Real. More Real than Amber Real. "There's nothing more Real than Amber." "Ask Zack." Flora trumps Zack. It's blocked. Ferro spots Flora and starts coalescing. Dinner happens. However, the first person of this group arrives after Benedict, Corwin, and "Flora" have already left for the Pattern room. Ferro, the young Dierdre, the ghost of the wrong Suhuy, and Celeste. Damia arrives a bit later. [Zack is the only one that is trumpable through the barrier around Amber] ------------------------- Rescuing Benedict Malachai comes up with a cunning plan while trumping the army through. Plan: attack the mages. He loses 5-7% of the force in the first wave of the assault and gets nailed with a few nasty spells but copes. There are spots in front of his eyes and he's pretty sure that something inside of him has been ruptured. The mage line has been taken out and now they're trying to deal with the nasties chasing them. Malachai leads them into a trap, then starts nibbling away at the rear of the army. Malachai sends a scouting party to report to Benedict, and equips them with some events from his Pattern party to validate the report. They return. The green troops seem to have retreated yet again, they're holding them at a pass that his troops could not approach. Malachai continues, leading off optimal chunk sizes and then slaughtering them. Occasionally he cycles troops in and out to rest. He tries trumping Benedict periodically, and fails. Occasionally, he recieves a faint trump almost contact, which he cannot grasp. He notices that the contact he is reciecing feels kinda like the way he fails to reach Benedict. -------------------- Dinner Party in Amber Damia is arriving, Ferro is there with Dierdre and Suhuy, Celeste is also arriving at that time. Flora and Theraat show up. There are a number of empty places at dinner, two. (Benedict, Random, and Corwin punted. Theraat showed unexpectedly.) They eat. Damia refuses to talk to Ferro about the custody of Oberon's suite. Celeste chats with the ghost of Suhuy. Celeste tells Suhuy that Ferro is made of marsipan. "I'm not certain about this marsipan thing... is it a title?" "No, it's a confection" Damia takes a servant outside and scolds him for not properly serving marsipan to Suhuy for Celeste. The servant thinks that Ilk is king of Amber, and refuses to accept corrections. Damia finally ends up agreeing that she is being married to Ilk and Oberon, to convince the servant that she is in charge here. The servants at the edges of the room gossip. "She's married to Ilk." "Really?" "Ilk's king, you know." During conversation, it came out that Flora (other Amber) arrived at Flora (this Amber)'s request, when Celeste asked why this Flora had no memory of raising her either. The present Flora then located the other Flora as being at Rebma's Pattern, by what she was wearing and how her hair was arranged. ----------------------------- The Beastmasters, Dancers, and Shifters Guilds Ally with House Cara Ilk and Norton are on the roof of House Cara discussing the situation in the courts with the former House head formerly known as Jesby. Ilk invites the former House head formerly known as Cara to join them in the fun. Something that looks like one of Ilk's troops flows up the wall and says that his message could not be delivered. It's REN, shaping away while Chaos burns. REN greets the recent arrival. "Bella!" She gives him a confused look, then responds, "REN!" He makes some very inappropriate remarks, completely misinterpreting the sociopolitical situation on the roof, until Ilk hands him the note on which Jesby scrawled her request for sanctuary. REN is shocked, disbelieving the note until the former House head formerly known as Jesby confirms the situation. The group on the roof continues their discussion. One of Norton's bloodhounds returns. It's a messenger from the Beastmasters' Guild, who says that although Snarsht could not be found, the guild second has decided that they are to render aid to any member of their guild threatened by the current situation. When asked if he knew where Mandor had died, he replies, "Mandor had spoken to Snarsht and was on his way to somewhere else when his ways disappeared." REN pulls out a butterfly and starts mauling it until it says, "Hey - quit it!" A few moments later, Rainbow folds himself into view. When he is shown Mandor's arm, he examines it, shudders, and says that they might not find a soul. He then declares that he is honor bound to revenge Mandor's death, and that he is honor bound to avenge the loss of Mandor's cellar for Flora, and offers an alliance on the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It is apparent that Rainbow is speaking for the Shifters Guild as well as the Dancers Guild. The representative of the Beastmasters' guild chips in and says that they cannot form an official alliance, but one under the table. A number of their members will find their way here, to testify on Norton's behalf for his interview to join House Cara. Also, some of the demons that the incoming troops are casually pushing their way through will somehow become much more tough. Norton mentions the efforts involving shifting into dead Amberites and suggests shifting into Mandor. All of those present except for Ilk express astonishment, including Rainbow and the Beastmaster representative. Bella gives an exact image of Mandor to Norton. Norton manages the entire shift and there is no spirit there, but he has some very interesting insights into magic, most of them culinary in nature. Ilk writes a note explaining the situation in the Courts and addresses it primarily for Benedict, Corwin, or Zack, and gives it to a few volunteers from Dutch's squad that was trapped in Chaos when everyone else left the carpet through the Faerie gate. Ilk teleports the volunteers to Amber, avoiding the rift over Arden. -------------------- Dinner at Amber Brandt arrives at the dinner party. Damia is given Ilk's note, and waffles about what to do with it. She excuses herself from dinner, saying that she needs to find family members, especially anyone who knows where Benedict or Corwin are. Brandt offers to take her to Ingold, but a stray thought crosses his mind as he takes her hand and gazes into her eyes, and they arrive in a boudair. He is embarrased; she is flattered. After a few minutes to compose himself, Brandt takes her to a corridor. Damia walks around the corner and spots Ingold. Ingold has these huge tendrils of magical energy reaching into a hole in the castle. Damia walks forward, hits a glass wall, bounces, and curses. Brandt rushes around the corner and offers to help. Brandt starts doing some incantations, and Osric gets a prickling in the back of his skull - someone is tapping him for power. He tracks it back to the source, and heads off towards the tapper. Damia notices that Brandt is doing lots of theatrical incantations. When Brandt notices that Damia notices, he starts hamming it up even farther. Osric rounds a corner and sees the tapper, Ingold, and a cute woman dressed formally and wearing a circlet. The tapper is a redheaded kid in formal dinner wear. Osric approaches, bows to Damia, and they chat. Brandt apologizes, saying that he didn't think that he was alive - most power dumps are inanimate. Osric doesn't know where Benedict or Corwin are, either. Brandt starts tapping someone else. Celeste notices a tap, and heads in that direction, unintentionally acquiring Theraat and Theraat's Flora, the ghost of the wrong Suhuy, and the young Dierdre when she leaves. Celeste and entorage arrive. Dierdre starts playing with Ingold's ward, leaning on it. Suhuy starts playing with the ward, passing his hand through it. Osric can't see Suhuy, so Suhuy inhabits Osric, says a few words, then leaves. Suhuy passes through the shield and tries to get Ingold's attention. He succeeds, then moves back out. Brandt and Damia flirt. The mob leaves, with Damia staying behind until Ingold can finish wrapping things up a bit more. Celeste invites Osric into the dining room. The group chats, with Brandt relaying Suhuy's end of the conversation to Osric. They discuss cosmology, unsuccessfully. Ingold comes out of his working. Damia reads the note to him, and he says that Corwin is at Rebma's Pattern. ---------------- Ilk and Norton are getting allies. --EORun--