DRAFT Run Log for 970506 ---------------------- Present: Chris - Auricle Jody - Cyndia Tia - Damia, Cassandra Kevin - Zack Barb - Cathryn Dave R - Malachai Dave K - Ilk, logging Laori - Celeste ----------------------- Named NPCs: ----------------------- Darkstar Desires Malachai's Blood Malachai is in what seems to be a trump. It feels like he's cycling through a trump, again and again and again, as if someone placed a trump gate right next to the exit of a trump gate. When he is in the air, not the trump, he hears a voice talking to him. It takes a while to parse it, as it's rather jerkey. voice - "Malachai? Malachai? Can you hear me yet?" Malachai - "Yes" voice - "Sorry to bother you this way, but I need your assistance" Malachai "Who are you?" voice - "Darkstar, of course" Malachai - "Of course. How silly for me to ask." Darkstar asks for Malachai's help in finding Corwin, and tells him to reach out and take his hand. Malachai reaches out and takes Darkstar's hand. As he makes contact, there is a brief image of Oberon before Malachai flits out. He's in the center of a Class 2, maybe class 3 crater. Darkstar is in the center, and he arrived a bit off center. "Sorry for the decor, but this took quite a bit of energy." "Time is of the essence - I think that he's dying." "What do you want me to do?" "Well, you have a connection to him, don't you?" "I don't know - I'm at least his adopted son." They discuss the ramifications of Malachai's parentage. "However, if you want someone who is more likely to be his biological child, you might want to try Cassandra or Merlin." "I need some of your blood." - Darkstar "How much?" - Malachai Darkstar explains that if Corwin isn't Malachai's father, then his father will die. And if he's dead, he might come back to life. "I am, however, willing to risk the life of a father that I do not know and have never known in order to save Corwin." - Malachai "But I'm not sure that I am" - Darkstar Malachai tells Darkstar that Cathryn of Jesby has supposedly just returned from Pearl, and that Cassandra is alive but missing her memories. Darkstar starts preparing; he flips Malachai a chair pulled from a trump, then tosses him a differnt trump. Malachai checks out the trump - it leads to a storeroom cooled by technology. Malalchai pulls out some food and works on his journal while he waits. Malachai gets this uncomfortable feeling, as if something is decending upon him. Nothing is visible. Directionality is towards him. Something might have attached a line to him and be reeling that line in now. Malachai warns Darkstar about his premonition, and waits, alert. ------------------- Fire, Fire, Fire, Burning All About Cathryn is the first one who can react; the environemnt is extremely inhospitable. There seems to be no oxygen, but combustion is happening anyway. She takes on an elemental fire form. Auricle can react next. She's currently shaped like a giant paisley ball, like a big gerbil ball. Now Zack can react. He conjures a little James Bond-ish breathing device. Auricle moves to englobe Zack to protect him from the fire. Cathryn looks for Random; he's directly below her, on fire. She grabs him and Logrus-reaches for someplace that isn't on fire - she reaches and reaches, but can't find any place that isn't on fire. She pushes Random into the hamster globe. Auricle tries to pop the group back to Amber, but can't reach. There is a concentration in the fire, as if it is looking at Cathryn. She waves, and it starts moving nonthreateningly towards her. Zack and Auricle chat about escape. ["Is my clothing flameproof?" "What clothing?"] Zack conjures some abspestos long-johns with little footies. Random is a charred, barely breathing husk in front of them. Zack tries to spread healing salves and unguents on Random; Cathryn yells at him, accusing him of attempted murder. Cathryn chats with the flame that approached her. "Flame - where is this place?" "Home." "Is there any place that isn't home?" "God." "Where is god?" The flame points at her. Zack and Auricle try to escape while Cathryn chats with the flame. Auricle tries to shift through shadow; not much is happening, but the flames are changing colors. There are more flames around, and they're worshipping Cathryn, who is following them. Cathryn reaches with the Logrus, and gets the feeling that they are going around in circles. Auricle puzzles over the problem - Random disappeared when he touched the Pattern. Zack notices something vaguely Pattern-ish in front of them. He pokes Auricle to get her attention, but she can't see it. Cathryn is reaching out, and hits something in front of them that doesn't feel like Pattern, but it's orderish - it's blocking her Logrus. Auricle - "Zack - is that our Random?" Zack - "I don't know - I think that all of the chemicals in his system combusted." Cathryn tries to go around the order-splotch. It's not giving her a Pattern headache; it's just blocking her Logrus. As they chat, Random begins to regenerate. Zack tries to explain the story of walking the Pattern in the alternate Tir to Cathryn; she raves paranoid at him. Auricle - "Zack? Do you have your Jewel of Judgement?" Zack - "Yes" Auricle - "Do you think that it might help?" Cathryn's tendrils are getting weaker, as if she is using up a power source. She stops reaching around. Zack's Jewel is floating around inside Auricle - the chain burnt through. Zack and Auricle discuss using the Jewel to escape. To Cathryn, the order-thing looks like a snapshot of flickering flames. To Zack it looks like a series of parallel bars, a kind of maze with doors that swivel in different orientations, inscribed on the floor. Auricle worries at the problem, and rolls up to the order-thing, which she still can't see. She pops out Zack on the side towards the order thing. Zack notices that it's really hot out here. Zack has a vague feeling of familiarity, not as if he's been here before, but he's been in a similar situation. Cathryn notices that some of the walls of flame are sliding, changing the design of the toy in front of them. Cathryn asks a flame what that is. "Dead flame" "How did the flame die?" "Like this" - and the flame throws itself onto the structure and dies. Zack notices the structure just become stronger. Zack draws power off the structure. A few more flames say, "Look, space for us to die!" and throw themselves onto it. Zack and Cathryn discuss the implications of this. Civilly. Wow. Random groans. The three conscious people chat. Zack whips up some magical defenses against being drained by the magical well. Random looks at Zack and groans. The group discusses walking the Pattern in altered states. ---------------------- Passing Time Ilk leaves the room in which Norton and Sethra are making undead vapids and sees Random thropwing up in a corner. He doesn't seem to be able to handle the show. Ilk conjures some breath mints for him and leads him out towards the courtyard. Random is the only Pattern-weenie in sight. Ilk Logrus-reaches Homeward to contact his troops in House Cara, while vaguely listening to Random talk. ---------------------- Nightmares Celeste's grandmother is placing her hand on her shoulder, and it's as if she is waking up from a bad dream. She goes back to sleep. In the morning, she chats with Faythe. Faythe says that Celeste's dreaming called her home. Finally her grandmother, unable to restrain her curiosity any more, asks her why she is wearing that band of mourning. "Always" "Since when? ""Since the war" "Which one?" "The one we watched. You showed it to me." "... the war between Amber and the Courts." "I didn't think you were alive then." "What?" "The one when Dworkin left the Courts." ... "When are we?" Celeste, confused, alters her line of questioning. "Where are the boys?" "Boys?" "My sons." "Sons? That must have been one hell of a dream" "It was" "Good. Maybe you should rest some more." "I have to speak to someone" "Who? I'm here for you" "I think that I might still be sleeping" "Then you would be sleeping in your dream. So come have a cup of tea instead." Celeste goes to make a cup of tea. When she looks up from the tea, her three children are looking at her. Brandt is about five. He calls her over and shows her something that he just made. Celeste's point of view bounces around through time so quickly that the logger gives up on keeping up. Celeste gives up, too, and bursts into tears. When her eyes clear, she's sitting in a forest somewhere on the back of a horse. Her body is just beginning to go through the change. It looks a lot like Arden, and shadows are shifting around her. She doesn't seem to be doing it, though. It becomes more and more familiar, and then it looks like aileron (?) She turns around to head back, and then she's back in the tower. [Hey GM -- aileron?] She lies down to go to bed, and then she's lying on the grass, and Darkstar is standing over her, offering her a trump. Celeste asks Darkstar to tell her not to do something stupid next time. "As far as I can tell from you Amberites, your next breath is innately stupid." Darkstar asks her if she has any shapeshifting ability, and says that she was looking like Corwin for a moment. After Celeste's denial, Darkstar says that he should go look for Corwin. She asks if she can help. "Can you redirect power?" "Yes" Darkstar sends her to a power source. She's standing in something that feels like the inside of a whale. SHe sends him vast amounts of power for about 20 minutes, then the power around her wanes and dies. In front of her is a single pearl. She takes it. Inscribed on the pearl is, "God commanded for me to be made" ---------------------- Dead Pigs Traying Through Amber It's dinnertime. They prepare for dinner. Ilk has contacted Home. He checks up on the status of House Cara. The house is stabilizing; Cara has not yet returned. Ilk tells his troops that if Cara returns, they should tell him that he is in Amber trying to acquire a Pattern mage. He heads towards dinner with Random. Damia reaches the dining hall, and sitting on the center of the table is a dead, cooked boar with chunks sliced out of it. Every now and then, it stands up, rearranges itself to look more appetizing, and sits back down again. Damia asks Natasha to dispose of the pig; she throws it and the tray it was sitting on out the door. The tray, thoroughly caked with lard, goes sliding down the hallway. Ilkandacian and Random notice the pig traying past. Ilk reduces the friction under the tray slightly as it goes by. They enter the dining room. ---- Norton and Sethra have run out of vapids. They send some zombies formerly known as vapid looking for demons to kill. ---- The door to the dining room is flung open and two zombies enter the room. Damia yells, "Guards! Remove them!" There are no guards. The zombies look at them and say, "Are you demons?" "No.", Ilk replies. The zombies leave the room. Random hits on Cyndia and discusses his prior sexual conquests. Random's rhetorical query of "Have you ever slept with a shapeshifter?" is met with a chorus of yeses. ---- Norton sees Martin climbing up the stairs. "Random's son" "Random. The altered one. Likes things with beat." Martin takes Norton and Sethra with him to dinner. Norton takes a guard with him as dinner. ----- Martin, Norton, Sethra, and Owen enter the dining room. Norton asks for permission to shlurp the guard. Norton - "May I drink your blood?" mind-controlled guard - "Yes, Master" Norton - "Am I controlling your mind?" mind-controlled guard "No, Master" Cyndia conjures a goblet filled with fresh human blood for Norton. Natasha is delighted, and tries to conjure a goblet. It looks more like a skull, but would probably hold water. Norton tells Damia of his plan to kill all of the slavers in Tremere, and exhibits the mind control device he took off one of his people. Cyndia ask Maria to look at the device, and Maria tells Cyndia to ask Alia. Norton explains to Damia that he doesn't mind control people; everyone just wants to be his friend. "Do you want to be my friend?" "I have no wish to be your enemy." Random plays with the device, closing it around his neck, Damia's neck, and his head, with no visible effect. Ilk is receiving little bits of Logrus-insanity that is spilling over from Norton and Sethra. He blocks it, and decides to toss a little more feedback into the loop. Norton decides to take over Amber, and starts pulling people into the rooms into the basement. Ilk looks - they're screaming. "Do they like that?" "Of course. Would you like to feel it?" "No thanks" Sethra creates a tree in the center of the room. It's growing rapidly. Ilk stops enhancing the Logrus-insanity and starts damping it. Sethra and Norton start calming down; the tree stops growing. Damia checks out the tree - it reaches the next floor down. Maria checks out the tree. "Wow - it seems to be drinking Pattern energy." Dinner happens. --------------- Malachai, Darkstar, and Celeste Travel to Pearl There is a turn and a twist, and Caine is standing in front of Malachai. He is holding the Wand of Not Yet in one gloved fist. They chat. Darkstar comes over to them - "Interesting stick you have there." "It's his", Caine says, and tosses it to Malachai. It says "not yet". Malachai says, "Ingold made it" Darkstar holds it, and *bang*, he's thrown across the crater. "Insulated glove", Caine says. He hands it to Darkstar who grows a hand, puts on the glove, and takes the wand. "Nice" "It damps all energy fields." "Ah, perhaps that's what happened to my power source." Darkstar trumps Celeste. She comes through after complaining briefly about the dark and damp and hands Darkstar the pearl. They chat. Caine wanders off, allegedly to find something. Darkstar and Celeste talk about Celeste's experience. "What did you do, tell it to take you to your past instead of now?" "Err... maybe" There is a dappled green and brown smudge on the horizon. It's Trialla. Trialla arrives and starts rubbing against Malachai. "I have generally found Trialla to be friendly towards everyone but Julian." - Malachai "Then she has excellent taste" - Celeste Darkstar grows a cat face and talks to Trialla. He says that she says that they're going to Pearl, but they'll have to ride in her mouth. [housecat (hous'kat), n. A cat who eats houses.] [Note to myself - look up how to do those u-shaped thingys over a's in html at some point] They climb in. Malachai spots Peekaboo walking through one of Trialla's legs as he enters her mouth. Trialla's mouth shuts, her lips close over her teethe, and it gets dark. Darkstar starts bio-luminescing and suggests a game of cards. ---------------- Meanwhile, Somewhere Warmer,... Zack puts up a ward against draining. Random groans again and sits up. Auricle says, "paisley" and starts dripping paisley water. Random crawls over and starts lapping at it. It sorta feels like petting caterpillars to Auricle. Zack hands a sample of his gatoraide out to Cathryn; Auricle drinks it as it passes through her. Zack scolds her and passes another glass-full through. Auricle drinks the cup, and gatoraide sprays on Cathryn. On the next attempt, Auricle concentrates on not absorbing the cup, cup and drink pass through successfully, and she stops feeling drugged. Cathryn tests the fluid, says that it "tastes acceptable", and passes it back. Zack pours it down Random's throat; he spits up some smoke. Random says that he was just visiting the ambassador to Chaos. "Don't you mean you are the ambassador?" "Cool - I got promoted?" "Who is the ambassador to Chaos?" "My younger brother." "Who's king?" - Cathryn "Eric's king." - Random "I told you it wasn't our Random." - Auricle [There can be more than one] Cathryn tries to trump Stormy; it doesn't work. Zack tries the Castle Amber trump. It's nice and cold, but he can't quite reach. Zack siphons power off Auricle, and manages to open a gate. Zack hesitates before passing them through - the troops on the other side are pointing bows and arrows at the gate. Cathryn objects to going into another wrong Amber; her objections are overruled. They pass through the gate, sending Random through on the carpet first. Cathryn goes through next. The guards are running down from the walls, expressing concern for Random. Cathryn trumps Stormy, and he hooks her home. [And we don't have Cathryn - that's what's really important] Auricle and Zack pass through the gate to hear the guards calling Random king. This Random enjoys being king, and resists the idea of being dragged to the Pattern to return to his own reality. He bestowes guest privileges on them and the guards help him to the royal chambers. Zack and Auricle make a beeline for the Pattern. # They arrive at the Pattern; it doesn't look much at all like # theirs. They decide to wait until moonrise and try Tir's Pattern. # # [I think that's what happened, but it's not in my notes. GM?] ----------- Miss Manners Would Disapprove Damia and Cyndia are discussing plans to take over Amber. Random turns to Martin and says, "So, have you seen Cathryn?" and on the word Cathryn, Cathryn appears, out of breath and flushed, directly between the two of them. Ilk gets a headache, as if a message was directed at something next to him. Norton makes some butterflies from the blood in the goblet given to him by Cyndia. Cathryn eats them - they're good. Natasha makes Norton a corn dog. He bites into it, and his face explodes. "See? I can make things that change, too." Norton plays with the broken bits of his face until Damia asks him to put it back the way it was. Ilk asks Cathryn if she can contact Stormy. She trumps Stormy, and extends the contact to Ilk. When she does so, a surge of power travels from the card to Cathryn, and the contact breaks. It feels like a tongue poking at a missing tooth. Ilk tries; same sensation. Cathryn tries again, but the trump is drained. Dinnertime amusement happens. Cathryn Logruses off to deal with that mind-zotted guard. ---------------------- Riding in Trialla and a Reunion in Pearl There is a nasty sense of dislocation, as if being pushed up to and through a brick wall. Celeste goes pale and falls over, and Malachai has the stuffed-head cut-off-from-Pattern feeling. Trialla's mouth opens. They're at the grassy hill overlooking the courtyard. Darkstar jumps out, asks Malachai to turn his back, and stabilizes his form. Malachai throws Celeste over his shoulder and heads to the castle, where he chats with the master at arms. Darkstar says that it will take him about twenty minutes to prepare to contact Cassandra. When they stop chatting, Darkstar is missing. Malachai and the master at arms spar. The master at arms is better than some of the guards that Malachai has faced, but he's not even up with the top of the Lancers. Celeste woke up during the sparring match. Twenty minutes after Malachai started chatting with the master at arms, Darkstar has returned. Darkstar looks at Malachai and the master at arms, and says, "Ready?" They walk over to Darkstar's drawing in the sand. Cassandra is getting a trump call. It's Malachai. And Darkstar. Darkstar starts pointing out the holes in Cassandra's mind to Malachai. Malachai tells Cassandra that it's a matter of life and death - Corwin's. Cassandra goes through to them. Darkstar says that he needs Cassandra's blood, and they introduce her to Celeste. Darkstar explains. Corwin's spirit settled itself over Celeste during a moment of her not being in her body. They go into Cassandra's rooms to chat. Darkstar wants to go to Corwin's body, so they can use his blood, which would be even more effective than hers, and Cassandra says that she knows the location of Corwin's body. Darkstar says that they can fix Cassandra. "It's just scarring in the brain. Do you have a competant surgeon around?" Darkstar wants to move Corwin's body to his Pattern. Cassandra trumps her tutor. She says that Darkstar is here, and that he says that Corwin's body is separated from his spirit. Her tutor points out that Corwin's spirit being on the wrong side of the Barrier could be a problem, and agrees to transport Corwin's body to his Pattern. Cassandra calls the fast kitty to her. They all hold hands, Cassandra touches the cat, and she asks the cat to take them to Corwin's Pattern. It takes them on a very horrid hellride. It takes about a minute and a half. Sitting at the edge of the Pattern is a bier with Corwin's body on it. There is a postulant in robes kneeling at each of the four corners. There is a woman sitting at a table nearby; she looks like a distant shadow of Corwin. --EORun--