DONATED Run log for 991109

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Major Events:


Characters represented by players at this run: Cassandra, Celeste, Jean, Neville and Norton.

Credits

Mostly from Jean's player, with special mention to Cailin's player, Auricle's player, and da GM.


Pre-Run Star Wars Jokes

"Come on Ingold, let's blow this thing and head for home!"

"Princess Chandra will have that shield down, we've just got to give her more time!"

"The odds against a Chaos Beastmaster running across the Pattern wielding a Logrus blade are..." "Never tell me the odds!"

It is opined that the screaming, charging Warrior's Guild are probably scruffy-looking types in Corellian clothing.

It's too bad we didn't bring Brand. "When last we met, I was but the student. Now, I am the master." "Only the master of evil, Brand."

Norton borrowing the Logrus blade from Suhuy ... "I'll bring it back, not a scratch on it." "Why do I have the feeling I'm not going to see it again?"

"Doing this without Osric, would make this the shortest offensive in history"

On Ilk coming in the fish, "You came in that thing? You are braver than I thought!"

Gwen: "If you strike me down I'll become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Ingold to Cassandra before taking over her mind to raise her father's Patttern in the room: "Kiss me once, for luck."

Mandor and Norton on opening the door: "We need a human sacrifice." "She's no good to me dead." "Chaos will compensate you for your loss if she dies."

When Cailin lost his limbs. "Great Hunter, great. Always thinking with your stomach."


Amaranth has a bath, a massage, and a manicure

Amaranth gates from the Gwen shadow to just outside the council chambers. She encounters the diversionary force, on its way out. She is cordially invited to join their suicide mission, and equally cordially declines.

She enters the Council Chambers. The room is almost completely empty; those who aren't participating in either attack have left to hide, scream, or write their last will and testament. (The Old Lords have gone on a suicide mission!)

Corwin is there, on his throne, either sleeping or resting his eyes. The Warlord is lying across several chairs and very asleep. Jean is sitting on his chair, being stoned. A jester's hat sits under one of the tables, where Dworkin dropped it. There are a couple of Etiquette guild members cleaning up, and going through the trash for useful information.

There are actually two Jeans (both primes) in the room. One in Ilk's chair, the other scribbling with crayons on the wall, trying to depict one of the "Doom" games going on.

Mandor is still there, as is Andron, but Andron is looking rather distracted. The Beastmouster is also still there. Mandor offers Amaranth a place to relax in.

Amaranth also gets a drink from one of the Etiquette guild memebers.

Corwin greets Amaranth. They chat. Corwin suggests that Amaranth call a recess, which she does. Corwin requests that he be contacted when the Council is brought back from recess, and goes off to take a nap.

Andron asks Amaranth to be notified before that, so he can make sure the chambers are secure, and can raise the defenses again.

Amaranth has a chat with an Etiquette Guild member, who offers her a staff. Amaranth accepts; she's granted two members at any given time, with the capability of calling upon more if it's required. A rather competent-looking Etiquette guild member comes over to Amaranth and introduces himself as E'kon, a generalist.

Amaranth leaves the chambers, and is escorted to Mandor's place of refuge for her. Mandor and the Beastmouster also leave. The Barcajeans are outside the chamber and looking weird; spikes are appearing and disappearing on one, and spiders are crawling all over another barcajean. Amaranth fails to get involved.

The room is remarkably nice, plush carpet, fully stocked wine bar - decadence in a rather large box. Ilonna, a bodyservant, arrives, and introduces herself as "a gift of your father's house". Amaranth accepts. Shapeshifter masseuses have as many hands as required, Amaranth discovers. Amaranth draws a bubble bath.

["How come she's in a bath while Cassandra's hip deep in blood?"
"You're both in your element."]


Gwen's dead, baby. Gwen's dead.

Auricle was trapped in Gwen's lab. Auricle was about to get tortured, when Gwen waved her hand through her own head. Auricle unloaded on Gwen, defending her life (something she's got a lot of practice doing).

[Auricle's attack and Jean's state of mind were the things that allowed her door-guards to be on automatic, and hence defeatable by the "ritual magic in a non-magic-environment shadow" that Mandor has spent some major points on.]

As mentioned last session, the invasion force forced open the door, and entered.

Cailin un-birds, recasts his arm and legs, and throws two volleys of arrows at Gwen, all of which bounce off her shields. The first volley is before Osric's first attack, the second is after.

Osric enters, through the Void. Osric sees Gwen and fires a burst of his energy. Since she had discovered a way to block it last time they fought, he attempts to modulate its frequency to throw her off.

The lance of Fringe power shatters against her defenses, and destroys the cage next to Auricle.

Auricle clamors to be freed; Cassandra (and others) recognize her voice. Cassandra tells Osric to free Auricle, which he does. The other cage denizens clamor to be freed. After a quick consult, Osric starts zapping cages.

[Osric destroys the cages under orders of Cassandra, under the theory of "My Enemy's Enemy is my Ally".]

Some of the freed denizens flee. Some attack Gwen physically. Some do things that are not immediately apparent to the PCs, who don't really care that much. Those that charge in and attack physically fry.

The so-black-it's-pink dagger is freed from its cage at this point. Half the cages were blue, half green. Only the green cages are shattered. No one in the room recognizes the blue force as Matrix energy.

[There are other attacks being launched at her, her lab also has defenses up in various places that are attacking the troops as they try to get at her. The Warriors Guild members have dedicated themselves to making sure that the main group (Cassandra, Ingold, Norton, Neville, Osric, Caine, Raven, et al) is not disturbed from their focus.]

The White Company have deployed in a more general formation, and are trying to take out anything that looks like it might aid Gwen. Their fight does end up taking out two allies of Gwen that did show up during the fight to assist, along with some of the wolves.

Cailin and others (possibly Norton, or am I dreaming?) try to pick up cage shards and hurl them at Gwen. All of these are unsuccessful. Osric asides that they're probably ineffective against Gwen anyway.

Caine goes left, Raven goes right, Norton and his werewolves circle towards the rear. Norton is momentarily tempted by a cache of high-tech weapons, but is warned off them by Cassandra. "If she's not going for them, neither are you."

["It's a trap!"]

Gwen fires a vortex of curdled hate at Cassandra's group. Ingold takes the hit, reels, stays up. Cassandra can tell he used his Sith training to do that. After Ingold takes the hit, the area becomes noticeably more Real (to those who notice that sort of thing).

Auricle jacks into the computer. Neville notices the Machine getting distracted, and takes advantage of it. Auricle notices the computer slowing down, and takes advantage of that. Auricle starts hunting through the computer for Gwen's files.

Osric looks for a Fringe gate. He doesn't find one, but he does find a large milky white globe connected to the Fringe. It's a definite source of power for Gwen. He shields it, cutting her off from that power source.

Cassandra initiates a Pattern attack against Gwen, using SuperPattern. (Or Corwin's pattern?) Ilk crosses the streams using Logrus.

Cailin starts trying to block Gwen from power sources.

Neville reaches Auricle, and suggests that Auricle use her control of the machine to start rerouting power away from Gwen. This strikes Auricle as a good idea. Those who can, notice the lines of power in this area shifting away from Gwen and towards Neville.

Neville plugs fully into the Machine. He realizes that he's staring into the center of Gwen's mind, and she's staring into the center of his. Neville uses his newfound power to pound at Gwen using the shadow as a focus. "SURRENDER."

Norton and Mandor try to slip the Happy Helmet on Gwen.

Auricle's hack engine finds Gwen's true name and passes it to Neville, who then broadcasts, "SURRENDER, DOROTHY" (the name being condensed to Dorothy because it is unpronounceable). The broadcast is through every molecule of the shadow, so everyone hears it.

Cailin knows instantly that it is Gwen's true name, and immediately conjures a silver arrow and inscribes it with the name, and fires it at Gwen's heart. The arrow reaches Gwen's shields and slows down, but does not stop or change trajectory.

["Stay on target..."]

Via the mechanical part of Neville's mind (who knew?) Auricle routes him even more power.

Jean fills Gentleman Suhuy in on this situation. Suhuy wanders into Jean's consciousness to see what's going on. "Remind me to teach you how to do this," he tells his apprentice. "Stay here a minute... I'll be right back." He walks out of Gwen in the room, looks around, and walks back in. "Don't worry", he tells Jean. "Your problems will be solved soon."

Neville summons a living Pattern incarnation (the Primal pattern, I believe). Ingold likes the idea and summons a living SuperPattern incarnation.

[Look! Up in the sky! It's a squiggle! It's a pattern! It's SuperPattern...]
[But did he draw it with a Kryptonite Jewel of Judgement?]

Cassandra makes mental contact with Ingold, and asks him to show her how to do that. Ingold says that he can't tell her how to do it, but he thinks he can do it through her. Cassandra accepts, and feels her mind pushed out by Ingold. Before she loses contact with her body, she feels Rainbow cover her body as a fine film.

Ingold summons a CorwinPattern through Cassandra. Auricle asks her Gargoyle how they're doing that. The gargoyle is of the opinion they're summoning what they do best through themselves. Auricle asks it to talk her through it; the Gargoyle does so. She summons a Pattern incarnation.

Ilk hides.

[Ingold asks for the use of Cassandra's mind, and Cassandra grants it to him. Rainbow covers her body with his, as a fine film, so he is protecting her body while her mind is otherwise occupied. Gargoyle 6.7 does an analysis of what they did, and uses that to inform Auricle how to do what she needs to do.]

[Ilk was somewhat hiding before that. Now the Ilk in Norton is sitting in the gibbering corner with the broken mini-Celeste, and the possibly partial copy of Gwen's daughter. Celeste is the most sane of that corner crowd. The physical Ilk has found a corner about as far away from it all as possible and is hiding there, as drawn in as possible.]

Once the CorwinPattern is summoned, Cassandra's mind returns to her body, and she presses the attack.

Cassandra is attacking Gwen's front, Caine is to her left, Raven is to her right, Norton is working his way around behind her. Caine and Raven are using Logrus blades, Cassandra is using Darhyse, and Norton is using Greyswandir. First blood is left upper thigh. Second blood is right upper arm. First one is dripping, second is smoking.

Neville tries to force Pattern in through the physical breach in Gwen's body.

Norton tries to tap on the blood of the Serpent still in him to push his attack forward. Everyone else but Norton senses a malevolent force, directionless but definitely present.

Cailin's arrow is slowed, the attacks continue. The Pattern lance that Neville sent in through the breach in her skin caused by Darhyse is working against her, the arrow finally gets through after more attacks. Norton is also trying to put the happy helmet on her head at the same time.

Auricle tries to make a Jewel of Judgement lens, focused on Neville, combining the four patterns in the room. Osric notices, and helps the crystalline structure form. Glowing into existence around Neville is a crystal.

Jean tells Gentleman Suhuy that he should see this. He describes what's going on. Suhuy says, "Oh, a Jewel of Judgement? I have one of those." Jean isn't fazed by this, but comments that he's never seen one being made before. Suhuy strolls back into Jean's mind, out Gwen, and over to Norton.

Suhuy talks to Norton about his choice of power, and informs him that he's got the Serpent up. Norton isn't quite sure to get the Serpent back down. Suhuy helps. Everyone feels the malevolent presence dissipate - the Serpent is no longer paying attention to the battle.

(Second blood happens here, by my notes.)

Jean looks through his set of spells and finds one that the name will fit into. He locks & loads. Gwen turns bright pink, and grows a bright blue baboon ass, which splits her pants.

[First we invade your shadow, then we kill your daughter, then we break your lab, and now we take your dignity.]

["I thought you were stoned?" "Trust me." "A little higher...!"]

Gentleman Suhuy wanders over to Neville to examine his proto-Jewel. Auricle sees Suhuy's pattern, and asks him to add it. "Oh, I'm just observing." Neville points out that there's a bit of a battle going on here. "Oh, don't let me interrupt you, please, carry on."

Caelin's arrow hits Gwen, and penetrates. It doesn't smoke or bleed "because it's silver". Caelin now has a power connection to Gwen, and uses the new spell he learned to make her sad. Caelin concentrates on redistributing the silver material inside Gwen's body, and aims for organs.

Norton mimics Gwen's daughter's voice. "Mom, help me!" Gwen swivels. Norton has her attention. Cassandra has her back as a target. Cassandra scores third blood with Darhyse.

Gargoyle warns Auricle that the structural integrity of the room - in fact, the mountain - is failing. Auricle asks how long we've been in a mountain. She is informed. She informs Neville of the imminent failure. Neville redistributes some of his power towards reinforcing the structural integrity.

["Come on baby, hold together."]

Jean sobers up, instantly. Jean asks Random for more drugs, quickly. Gwen sobers up. She focuses. Her defenses are re-set up. She prepares to attack.

This was the last draw on what was left of Clarissa's Matrix crystal.

Random sticks Jean with a golden needle. The needle seems to melt into Jean. Gwen turns icy pale. The environment around all Jeans slows down (apparently a subjective effect). All Jeans go offline except one, even the ones in other realities.

[Not offline as much as no inputs/outputs. The one still recieving/giving input is the one trapped in the wall in Rebma.]

[Jean's player's note: not receiving input/output is basically offline. Jean can't access any of his other bodies, and doesn't remember anything major happening. A good sign that a large number of him just died, as far as he's concerned.]

Gwen gets hit a lot. Cassandra turns her into a Pez dispenser, Neville hits her in the eye with the magic-eating, soul-eating Morganti blade, Cailin gets the silver threads to her (now stopped) brain and sets them to "puree".

Cassandra gets the strike because Raven made a sacrifice to give her the opening. Cassandra was determined not to let the sacrifice be in vain.

Neville also causes his Pattern-lance to shred her heart.

The incarnate Patterns in the room disappear. Their work here is done.

["Who was that masked pattern?"]

Those who can, confirm that Gwen's soul is Morganti lunchmeat.

Neville has root access to Gwen's shadow, and access to her detailed files. Auricle gets a copy. Neville gets Dara's location, and a full list of collaborators.

The files have details on their alliance with Clarissa. Gwen's tie to Clarissa's power base was one of her major power sources during the battle. Fiona was involved as a willing puppet (quisling?). Brand and Celeste are listed as puppets.

Neville realizes that Dara is still connected to the machine, and being held in reserve with troops and powers: Gwen never had a chance to call her in. Neville concentrates on feeding her bogus status reports.

["We're all fine here... how are you?"]

They also get other information about cabal groups that they fail to share. They get a recipe for casting Bluecite, and confirmation that Gwen stole that particular ability from Llewella.

The dagger in Gwen's head is now seven inches long, and is sticking out of her head through the same spot that the green door was in Celeste's head. It is no longer moving - the dagger is sated and sleepy. Neville puts it back with its friends, who check up on it.

Those in the room hear a dice-rolling noise.

["I thought this was a diceless game?"]

Three grey spheres roll out and melt, revealing three bodies. One is Malachai, one is Bleys, and one is Jean. Cassandra checks Malachai's pulse, and finds one. No one checks on Bleys. No one checks on Jean, but this is most likely sandstone Jean.

[Suhuy has his Logrus blade back. There is a small piece missing, though, a deflector-shield shaped chunk of the quinnilon]

Jean was taken to the council chamber. I think they left Bleys' body on the floor, and Malachai was passed through with White Company, dead and alive.

Meanwhile, Amaranth is having a manicure.

Neville realizes he has root access on a very Real shadow.

There are six members of the Warrior's Guild still standing, eleven members of White Company, the two Dzur, the two cats, and eleven werewolves.

Most of the members of White Company that died, died around the cats. The more experienced members tended to live through it; Benjamin, Jance, and the Master at Arms are all still alive.

Raven is bleeding out; Norton is too tired to fix him. Neville offers Norton a power tap; Norton fixes Raven in a jiffy.

Cassandra trumps Darkstar using her trump of Corwin, and gets Corwin, since he's left the council chambers. Corwin is asleep, and remarkably self-posessed. He wakes up, and is in his castle, next to the recumbent form of Titania. "She's good for my nerves."

["She doesn't sleep. Good for her."]

Norton offers to animate the bodies of White Company to make the evacuation easier. Cassandra ignores him, and passes back Malachi, the White Company corpses, the cats, and the surviving members to Corwin.


Celeste and Brand Die in the Defense of Darkover

A Very Brief Council Meeting

Amaranth is informed that both altercations are over, and that the survivors will gather at a place of her choosing. She suggests the Council chambers, and asks that Andron be informed. She looks for something appropriate to wear.

Ingold decides to go for a walk in the Void to recuperate. He said something about resting for a bit before undrawing his Pattern.

Norton Logrus-pulls to Chaos. Ilk rolls in the Logrus.

["Roll, roll, roll in ze logrus..."]

Cassandra finishes the Pez cut and decapitates Gwen. There is a precedent, after all. (Toram.)

The other survivors of the main attacking force (mostly) gate back to Chaos, outside the council chambers. The barcajeans have collapsed into heaps of immobile saucers, and look somewhat tragic.

Norton goes home. He chats with Felice, Faythe, and Brandt. Norton changes into a nice Armani suit. Faythe is still recovering from fixing her mother.

Cailin catches clue and uses his own true name to conjure himself new limbs. It works.

Osric gets the ball o' Fringe energy and gates out to a Fringe gate. He remembers Cailin, and does a location check. He finds that Fringe Cailin is poking around, and dispatches a car with a note.

"Get in -- Osric."

Cassandra debates changing, but is persuaded that showing up dripping Gwen blood is a better motif. She marks the contract completed with a bloody palm print.

Amaranth is informed by Jean's bodyguardee that Jean has apparently all stopped moving. There is no sign of life, but the bodies do not appear to decay. Amaranth requests that Random be summoned to the Council Chambers to discuss this issue with her.

Snarsht arrives outside the council chambers. Two members of the Warriors' Guild arrive, and bow to Cassandra. They present her with the after-action report - the pluses, minuses, survivor's benefits's paid, people honored, and people shamed.

Cassandra is listed in the "honored" category. Rainbow is listed as being under the protection of the Warriors' Guild. Several names have question marks next to them. Cassandra fills in most of the question marks, being that she knew all the troops.

Neville makes printouts of the lists of collaborators who are still alive, sorted by organization. He distributed those before the meeting. The Healer's guild gets the Poisoner's guild stack. He checks to make sure he doesn't give the printouts to anyone whose name is on the list. The Etiquette guild was not compromised, incidentally.

Auricle follows Cassandra (the only person she recognizes) into the Council Chambers. She looks for the person who thought Auricle was "Lord Kirin", but fails to see them. [Note - that's Lord Talos of the Torturers' Guild]

The guild roll call as the meeting forms up:
Ambassadors:    Present
Assassins:      Absent, shows up later
Bards:	        Present
Beastmasters:   Present
Crafters:       Present
Dancers:        Absent, shows up later
Etiquette:      Absent, a few functionaries but no representatives 
Healers:        Present
Herbalists:     Present
Mages:	        Absent, shows up later
Mathematicians:	Present
Philosophers:	Absent
Poisoners:	Demoted
Psionicists:	Absent
Shifters:	Absent
Torturers:	Absent
Warriors:	Present in the person of Cassandra

There is an Opening outside of the council chambers. Jenoir, Princess Chandra, and Pharaban arrive - the survivors of the suicide mission. (The Mages' and Assassins' guilds are now represented.)

The council is reconvened. As his possibly last action as King, Corwin asks for a full report.

Cassandra places Gwen's severed head in front of Corwin. Corwin comments on preserving the head on a shelf - only Cassandra can hear him. Cassandra reports on the action, giving credit where credit is due.

Corwin thanks Neville for his role, and deeds Gwen's desmene to Neville. He requests that he (or his successors as King, a concept Corwin is clearly unused to) be informed of any matters of interest to them. Corwin regrets that he cannot commend Jean for his role or turn his seat back over to Ilk. Corwin thanks the other participants.

[Rainbow poured out of Cassandra later in the council meeting, when Corwin first started to step down, and Silver Lyra came out from the back room where she was waiting, as prepped by the Etiquette guild.]

Princess Chandra reports on the diversionary attack on "a place once known as Darkover". Darkover was apparently Gwen's secondary seat of power, after the shadow with her lab and the Machine. They thought that Shiryu's work was unfinished, and that they faced Clarissa in battle.

Apparently, they actually faced the combined might of Brand and Celeste. They now believe that Celeste and Brand were defending their home, not actively collaborating. They mourn Celeste's and Brand's passing and acknowledge Celeste as King in Amber.

Princess Chandra, Jenoir, and Pharaban are the only confirmed survivors from the attack. Imagio and Morganthe (guild second of the Crafter's guild) sacrificed their lives tying the Overworld to the ground world, so that the attack could be carried home.

Princess Chandra specifically commends Pharaban for doing things that even she had long considered impossible.

Celeste, Brand, and everyone in the shadow are dead. Fiona, Rhiannon, and Mikail are also dead, bodies confirmed consumed from within grey spheres.

[The remaining redheads are in Norton's house.]

Neville reveals that there is still a member of Gwen's cabal at large. Corwin decides not to step down quite yet. Neville reveals Dara as the surviving member. Corwin decides to definitely step down in Silver Lyra's favor, and the Warlord pronounces the state of war concluded.

Cassandra, with appropriate ceremony turns the dagger and the paperwork over to Corwin. Corwin also explicitly returns Cassandra to Princess Chandra as her apprentice. Cassandra then goes and takes her chair back by Calin and Princess Chandra.

Silver Lyra offers Mandor and Amaranth the opportunity to take personal revenge by orchestrating the attack on Dara. Both decline, but Mandor announces Dara as his mother (which I had missed, but that may just be me).

Silver Lyra declares Dara fair game, and gives the council ten turnings to come up with a plan to deal with Dara, or she'll start picking people at random to see if they can solve it. She asks Amaranth to dismiss the council, which Amaranth does.

When Random finally arrives, Amaranth interrogates him about the Jean Problem. Random explains that Jean wanted to be out of his mind, so Random gave him something that did that. All they have to do is to find his mind in order to fix it.

Osric checks Mellor that were previously statued, and finds that they are now lifeless lumps.

Norton Logrus-pulls to Celeste's body, which is under the few actual stones left in Darkover. The Celeste in Norton's head breaks down and runs screaming. Celeste does not deal with her own death very well.

["We can rebuild her. We have the Logrus."]

Norton realizes that the Nortons in Celeste and Brand are both dead, as is the Corwin in Celeste.

There's nothing really Norton can do with the body - she had so much life energy moving through her, that she's much more dead now than he can affect. The remains are more of a monument than a corpse.

[Sort of, Norton looked at the body.

She had more life energy passing through her than anyone else he's ever seen, and then died. It's more of a monument than a corpse. Nothing he can do with the body.

He was told, "that is the most powerful life-mage you've ever known, and in her last minutes channeled all of the power of a dying Darkover through her. No chance, she's a corpse, dead dead dead"]

Norton realizes it would be easier to build a new body and put the broken, crazy Celeste in his head into the new body. Since he doesn't want to tell his fiancee her mother is dead, and since he doesn't want to set up his wedding by himself, he'll try to bring her back.

[Gwen can create blucite but can't control or understand it, and isn't controlling its power center]

[Dkap has confirmed that Ubermerlin is a smear, and Oberon has all of his Pattern artifacts, and his staff.]

[Neville and Auricle also know that there were four cabals all trying to grab power at the same time. One was led by Gwen, another Toram, a third has Llewella as a member, and the fourth lists Oberon as a member.]

[A comprehensive study of the organization of the files, as doen by Gargoyle 6.7 does show that it must have been someone else keeping tabs on the other cabals, for the information seems to be simply placeholders/reminders for her to check with someone else (someone unlisted, which means probably a really high member of this cabal) ]

[Fiona was listed in Gwen's reports as initially a conspirator, later with the "green door" notation, and later as a pawn, then finally as a grey sphere.]

[Neville and Auricle now know the Blucite magical recipie, but can't uncreate it or understand it. Confirmation that the blucite is Llewella's power also happened.]

--EORun--


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