DRAFT Run Log for 970408 Present: Jody - Cyndia Dave R - Malachai Tia - Cassandra, Damia Dave K - Ilk, logging Chris - Auricle Laori - Celeste Rich - Ferro Barb - Cathryn Kevin - Zack ------------------- Named NPCs: ------------------- Time Out in the Shifters' Guild Ilkandacian is tracking down Theresa in the Shapeshifters' Guild. He tests his standard grounding spell on one of the stoned shifters. It drains off the stoning spell, but it will be a while before the victim recovers. The spell was anti-entropic, and has been getting stronger for some time. Ilk moves to within shouting range of Theresa. She's stoning some, frying some, and kissing others. The ones that she kiss melt. "Theresa!" "Theresa?!" She hucks a stoning spell at him, and he grounds it. Ilk tries to convince her to try a more diplomatic solution, and she continues to fry attacking shifters as they talk. She finally agrees to leave and give him one hour to find Carlton. As she walks out, she just teleports attackers away instead of killing them. Ilk searches for higher-ups in the guild, and fails to acquire any information. He keeps looking. ------------------- Theresa arrives in the Warriors' Guild, with ash and demon ichor dripping from her. She tells Damia that she was in the Shifters' guild, looking for Carlton. She met this person who claimed to be from them, and agreed to give him one hour before coming back. Damia asks if it was Ilk, and she describes him. Yup. Cyndia, Natasha and Blaze are still out cold, resting after the recent battles. "He said that someone named Benedict was going to be my backup?" Damia takes her to an introduction. Damia introduces Theresa to Benedict. Damia - "This is Theresa" Benedict - "Ah, my g-g-granddaughter." Damia - "I thought the two of you might want to compare notes." Benedict - "You have some intelligence to report?" They start talking shop. Damia goes inside and continues tending to wounded. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Following Marsipan Mice through Castle Amber; Introducing Celeste; The Word You Never Wanted To Hear Clarissa Say: "Oops" Malachai is in castle Amber. He hears a Clarissa-type noise. He can't quite make it out, but it sounds powerful - the walls are reverberating. Malachai starts looking for her, heading in the general direction of the throne room. Ferro is cleaning a very messy storeroom that has half-made horses and men in them. He hears the reverberation, becomes annoyed, and heads towards the noise. He splits up into mouse-sized bits, and scatters. Malachai sees a couple of marsipan mice run past him. Ferro finds the focus - it seems to be outside a bedroom. Two red-headed women are doing something. One is banging her head on something. He starts re-coalescing. Malachai sees the mice back run past him towards the elders' bedroom wing, and follows them. Ferro coalesces, turning into a marsipan man, and then into a blonde-hair, blue-eyed, 5' 2" man who is looking a lot like Oberon. Malachai sees this, sees a redhead sitting on the floor, and sees Clarissa banging her head against something that is just beyond where Brand's door was. The twisted door is lying on the floor. Ferro picks up the door, and starts re-attaching it to the frame. Malachai - "Is there a problem?" Clarissa - "No problem, we're just trying to get in." Malachai - "What do you want?" unknown redhead - "I'm trying to get something." Ferro walks into the room, and starts cleaning it. Clarissa goes back to banging her head on the doorframe. Malachai pokes his hand at the door - it's solid. The redhead starts pointing at things, and telling Ferro to get them for her. Malachai - "Pardon me, who are you?" Redhead - "Celeste. Could you get that?..." She continues pointing, and Ferro's pile continues to grow. Malalchai - "Do you know the dearly departed prince?" Celeste - "Yes." Clarissa - "She's one of my grandchildren, by your Uncle Bleys." Celeste points out things. Malachai - "Items of sentimental value?" Celeste - "Yes." Celeste continues to point out things. Ferro exudes more and more arms, and shrinks as he does so. Celeste - "Oh, I like him. Do you know him?" Clarissa - "No, I don't. You are?" Ferro - "Ferro, my Lady. Is that right? My Lady, I mean?" Malachai asks Clarissa if she's queen currently. Malachai, "So, Ferro?" "Yes." "Are you in fact the person who was created by Dworkin from marsipan?" "Yes. Is that a problem?" "No, just curious." Ferro is leaving Pattern-shaped fingerprints. Celeste - "And you are?" Malachai - "I am Malachai" Clarissa - "Heir apparent" Celeste - "Oh, how nice for you." Ferro cleans up the room, folding up spells and other things and putting them away. Celeste - "Who is around?" Malachai - "Caine is around. Have you been in the castle?" Celeste - "Yes, dear. I grew up here." Malachai asks Celeste if she's from another Amber - she says No, why? Malachai mentions the visitors from other Ambers, including three Oberons. Clarissa asks if he could arrange... but they'd squabble too much. Never mind. Clarissa says that one time Dworkin convinced her he was the court jester - it was unpleasant when she found out otherwise. One shouldn't treat one's father-in-law that way... Malachai on the topic of Bleys's trump - "...it doesn't seem dead." Celeste - "That's too bad." Malachai - "Not fond of him?" Ferro - "George is Duncan's guardian. Do you want to go see them?" Malachai - "At some point." Malachai and Ferro chat. Malachai mentions that for lack of anyone else, he is in charge. Clarissa - "Oh, this is the king, dear." Celeste - "Nice to meet you, your majesty." Malachai tries to deny being king. Malachai asks Clarissa if she knows anything about... and a guard comes running up - "Invasion! Demons! Gates!" Clarissa looks at her hand, where she is holding a small, grey rock. "Oops" [The word you never wanted to hear Clarissa say: Oops.] Clarissa gives Celeste the short form of the rock story, and hands it off to Malachai. He doesn't accept it. [Is it dirty? Ferro, regarding da rock] Ferro tries to take the rock, but Clarissa doesn't give it to him. Clarissa - "... but the details are rather long. And there is an invasion." Ferro - "What's an invasion?" Clarissa - "Very messy." Ferro - "That sounds bad." Malachai asks Clarissa to help, and she reluctantly agrees. Celeste offers to help after she puts her clothes away, but then decides to leave it here until after the battle. Ferro slides under Celeste's pile of stuff and moves it into Brand's room, forklift-style. He calls in all of his pieces to help with the potential mess at the castle walls. -------------- Zack's marsipan hand departs his shoulder, and starts shadow-shifting away. He pointedly refuses to follow it. -------------- Discussing the Rock Clarissa mentions that Ingold created the rock, and bound every demon within a two mile radius in Pattern chains linked to it. Malachai pulls out the wand of not yet; it still says not yet. Malachai - "Would they be coming here through shadow?" Clarissa - "No, they were probably dragged here in excruciating pain, and they're trying to leave." Clarissa - "... given to me by the Lady Cathryn, she was with Paulette." Celeste - "Paulette?" Clarissa - "You know, kinda funny looking, queen, ..." Clarissa asks Malachai if she is free to leave. Malachai - "Under the circumstances, of course. Feel free to come back any time. Without the rock." Clarissa - "When's your wedding - Flora is sending rumors all throughout Chaos." Celeste - "Flora's in Chaos?" Clarissa - "Yes, she's in the Courts, dating someone named Rainbow, in the Shifters' Guild." Clarissa - "Oh, and if you see Zack around, smirk at him for me." ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Alongside Corwin's Bier Cassandra goes to visit Corwin. He is laid out in state on a bier, being attended by guys in robes. Lots of memories return. Cassandra pokes at his, and sticks a finger in his throat. "But he's..." Not quite, according to the experts. They chat briefly. Burke, her guard, says that the experts are optimistic. Cassandra sticks the newly awakened memories in a box to study later. Some guy approaches them. She recognizes him from the cave, and backs away. "Don't be afraid - he's blind." The guy says that he's here to take her to her tutor. Burke says that he's coming with her. The sorcerer rases his hands, mutters, and a gate is carved into the air in front of them. ------------------- Attempting to Conclude a Successful Quest Cathryn and company has just been greeted by the guards outside the castle in Pearl. Her guide raises her hand, says, "Wait a moment", and a shadow gate opens in front of them. Cathryn - "A greeting party. How nice of you." Cassandra walks forward to greet her tutor and stops - this isn't them. Cathryn - "I was successful in my quest" Cassandra - "Congratulations" Cathryn is annoying and insulting. They chat. Cathryn eventually does introductions. "May I introduce my mother, Jesby, and Cara. Cassandra, daughter of Corwin." Cassandra nods to them both, and replies, "Welcome to Pearl". Cathryn - "She's not quite herself these days." Cara - "Who is she?" Cathryn - "She's not sure - it's a memory thing." Cathryn suggests that Cassandra go to Malachai. Cassandra says that she has a team out looking for him. No, that won't work. He's in Amber. In the castle. Cassandra summons the fast kitty. It starts heading inward. Cara - "It's a prophalactic barrier... it prevents passage." Cathryn asks after Sethra; Cassandra asks a servant to determine her current position and condition. Cassandra asks the servant to bring out some wine. The servant comes out with the wine, and says that Sethra will be along soon. They chat. There is a black blur on the horizon, approaching. Cassandra asks the blind sorcerer what their final destination is, and he doesn't respond. Cara stretches out a finger and pokes the sorcerer. Huh? He says that he was told to bring them here. The cat is on top of the gate, Cassandra asks mentally it if it can go through the barrier. It itsn't aware of the presence of any barrier. Sethra comes out, brushing powdered sugar off of her. "Well, thank you for your assistance, my quest was indeed successful." "Good, good. Here, eat this." Sethra hands Cathryn a disk covered in white sugar. The guide starts walking off, they follow. --------------------------- --------------------------- Groovin' Towards Tremere Zack and Auricle are riding their shag flying carpet towards Tremere. The marsipan hand is running off in another direction; they continue onward. They chat about Zack's recent aging. Auricle says that she probably took energy from him, as she took energy from the other Pattern she walked. They keep riding along in the shag carpet - Zack shifts up to a heckride. They approach tremere. Zack whips up a disguise in the golden circle next door to Tremere, and they head in. Zack realizes that he isn't sure where the Gwen statue in Tremere was, and trumps Malachai to ask. --------------------------- Squishing Demons Malachai is rushing off to deal with the invasion. Celeste is following. Ferro has already left to see what this mess is. Malachai thumbs out Caine's trump as he goes, and concentrates while he runs. Caine is sitting on top of an barrel, in front of another upended barrel. Someone is upended in the barrel. Malachai - "We apparently have another invasion." Caine - "Neat!" Malachai - "Demons." They chat. Malachai explains that the demons were chained to a rock that Clarissa brought with her, and that she didn't bring the demons intentionally. Malachai reaches the walls. His people are there defending the walls. Well, actually, the demons are mostly lying around groaning in pain. A few are trying to scale the wall or otherwise attack. Malachai orders his soldiers to fight the demons that are actually fighting them, not the ones that are lying on the ground groaning in pain. Malachai trumps Zack, and contacts him before Zack trumped Malachai. Malachai says that Amber is being invaded by demons. Auricle tries to talk Zack out of going to help. Zack offers to leave the carpet with Auricle and she'll go get an army... they argue for a bit. From Malachai's point of view, it sounds like Zack is arguing with himself. "We've become very close of late." Auricle goes through the trump, in standard androgenous-type form. Zack follows her. Malachai introduces them, "This is your cousin, Celeste". Zack remembers her funeral. Zack and Celeste chat briefly as Malachai starts directing the invasion. They aren't taking the invasion very seriously. Zack looks around. There are demons carpeting the slope of Kolvir, but most of them are lying on the ground groaning in agony. The siege engines are actually well made. Ferro has shifted into many brooms and is sweeping demons up, to the tune of the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Zack goes to the nearest catapult and conjures a barrel of Corwin's Amazing Amber Powder and a fuse. Zack taps Auricle's Pattern glow, and Auricle steps off the castle wall and shifts into a rock, landing on one of the demons. Demons catch fire as Auricle touches them. Malachai sees Martin at the far edge of the field, poking demons with Werewindle. Malachai doing leader things and killing demons. His sword isn't as effective as Werewindle or the bouncing Auricle. [From the AD&D run to the toon run] Celeste joins the killing squad; Zack finishes off the siege engines and joins the fun. ----------------------- ----------------------- Preparing to Invade The hour is almost up. Damia wakes up Cyndia, and hands her a cup of something refreshing. "Well, the hour is almost up." "The hour?" "Theresa returned, and apparently she met Ilkandacian, and gave him one hour to get Carlton back." They wake up the ones that would be terribly upset to miss the fun - that turns out to be just Blaze. Theresa is out front preparing with Benedict. They wake Maria, then she says that she'll be the second string, and goes back to sleep. ------------------- Disgusted Ilk, in the Guild, with sniveling morons. No success - the only people left with a reasonable level of power are hiding behind hordes of cannon fodder and refusing all contact. Ilk gives up in disgust. He checks his note at Suhuy's, no response yet. He tries to check on the status of House Cara, but the relay is down here. He then heads out towards the front, planning on shooing the demons away and examining the scene of the *boom*. ------------------- Incoming... Theresa is out front arguing with Benedict. Damaia - "What's up?" Theresa - "He doesn't want to use magic - he wants to use brute force." Cyndia to Theresa - "What's the plan?" "The last time I entered the guild, I killed everyone I encountered until I found someone who was willing to talk to me. I gave him an hour. Then I'm going to go back inside and continue." Cyndia - "And what's your strategy, father?" Benedict - "Pretty close to hers, except that she wants to use magic." Theresa - "...the terrain was a bit rough... it wasn't really survivable." Benedict agrees to her tactics - at least at first. Benedict says that he should go through first, and hands Cyndia a trump of him. Benedict pulls out a trump of the front of the Shapeshifters' Guild, and says, "I've been intending to use this for quite some time." Everyone goes through. --------------------- Ilkandacian Locates Carlton; the AD&D Run Trumps Away Ilk sees the mob appear, and greets them. "Hi, guys. I didn't have any luck - have fun." Ilk asks if they have any mages that would care to join him in checking out the site of the boom. Blaze agrees to help. Cyndia asks Benedict if her form of combat was considered honorable. He says that it is, and they talk shop. Damia joins in, using her knowledge of anatomy. Corvall (Cyndia's rook) is feeding her things to say. The NPC invades. Ilk finds an odd teleport trace that doesn't seem to go anywhere. He points it out to Blaze; she says that she saw it, too, but it looks like it failed. Ilk Logrus-searches for Carlton, and it goes in an odd direction, and ends up somewhere where he can't reach. However, he can narrow down his location with a reasonable amount of accuracy. Ilk writes a note with the coordinates of where Carlton is located and the circumstances and Cyndia dispatches a rook with the note to Maria. The others see Cyndia say "oh, shit", pull something out, and disappear. Cyndia tries to trump Carlton. It connects. She's in a grey, fluid place. Carlton is there, looking like Carlton, but somewhat bloated. He greets her. The man who was fixing him is inside him, repairing the last pieces of the poison. Cyndia says that they've been tearing the place apart looking for him. Carlton was singed by the translocation; the master shifter was even more scorched than he was. They will be done in another 10-15 minutes; they only got here a few moments ago. Cyndia points out that a full day passed in the outside world. Cyndia trumps Damia. -------------- Now We're All Lost... Benedict is looking at the space where Cyndia was, and suggests that they all trump Carlton at once. Ilk moves out of range. They call Blaze over. Ilk suggests that they call off the invasion of the Shifters' Guild. Benedict declines, saying that it would necessitate his entering the Guild, and gives Ilk a note for Theresa, telling her to cancel the invasion. Damia trumps Carlton, and ends up in the same grey area. Benedict and Blaze are with her. Ilk checks - Damia is in the same vicinity as the others. The rooks are flapping around in an uncoordinated fashion, and consider joining Theresa. The mob attempts to coalesce. After an indeterminate amount of time that is different for each of them, they are reunited. They chat. They blame their current location on Maria, and hope that she doesn't trump them... ------------------- Stopping the Invasion Ilkandacian heads into the Shapeshifters' Guild. It's decimated. Even the decorations and non-sentient furniture are gone. Ilk heads in, being wary. Ilk encounters a mandrake root. It's the only thing moving in the Guild. He greets it, and it asks if he's seen their friends. Ilk describes Damia, the only herbalist that he knows of in the group, and it agrees. Ilk agrees to take them until he can reunite them with their friends. The root whistles, and some others come in, dragging a pack behind them. Ilk grabs the pack, and heads after Theresa. The roots have a touch of Logrus in them. This reality's Logrus. Two of the reinforced areas he saw earlier have been flattened. Theresa is at the third, blasting away with a wand. When it points at things, they cease to exist. Ilk resolves to not let that wand point at him. Ilk - "Hi, Theresa." Theresa - "Ah, reinforcements!" Ilk - "I have a message from Benedict." He edges up behind her and hands her the note. She glances at it, pulls out her trump of Benedict, looks at it, then says that she can't concentrate here, calls out, "Follow me!", and runs. Ilk follows. She rounds two corners, and then creates a wall behind them. She sits down, and pulls out a trump. She hands Ilk the wand - it burns. He hands it back. "Ah, it must be anathama..." She concentrates. Benedict holds up his hand and says "Hold up a moment, I'm getting a trump call. It's Theresa. Theresa - could you give us a trump gate home. How? Hold out your hand..." Benedict starts passing them through. First Carlton, then Blaze, Damia, and, holding cyndia's hand, he steps through himself. Ilk hands Damia her mandrake pack. "They missed you." Theresa tosses Cyndia the wand. On the edge of it is written, "In case of emergency - Love, Alia" ... Carlton - "Who's the big gentleman?" Cyndia - "Didn't you meet him? This is Benedict." Carlton - "Dad!" They chat. Ilk mutters something disparaging about the shifters. Benedict agrees with him. Carlton says that since he now has the cure to the poison, he should head back to Cobalt. After some waffling over how to get back home, he decides to head through the mandrake backpack. Ilk asks if he asked the master shifter if he wants to go, and Carlton mentions that the shifter in him was incorporated into him by the translocation, and that he is dominant, so they have to stay together. Carlton turns into a mandrake and dives into the bag, after agreeing on a code word. The run heads to Random's in order to head to Amber, escorted by Benedict. --EORun--