ROUGH DRAFT Run Log for 970610 Present: Rich - Ferro Laori - Celeste Tia - Cassandra, Damia Dave K - Ilk, logging Dave R - Malachai Kevin - Zack Barb - Cathryn Ken - Norton ---------------------- Faerie Trek III: The Search for Corwin's Soul Malachai, Celeste, Cassandra, her three bodyguards, Lazy, Zack, Darkstar, the marsipan hand, and Titania just left Faerie. Titania turns to Zack and asks where the separation occured. Zack mentions that the wound happened in Arden. They head to Arden. Malachai steers them around the minefields. Zack lends Malachai a hunting horn; Malachai summons rangers. A troop of mounted rangers arrives and leads them through the minefield. They go to where Corwin was blasted; there is one mine placed in the center of the slight declivity marking Julian's position, just in case he returns. Cassandra draws Greyswandir; Titania puts her arms around Cassandra and places her hands on Cassandra's hands. As Cassandra draws Greyswandir, Celeste hears a drawn breath in her mind, as if something just stopped laughing. Cass turns bone-white and seems to become very stiff, paper-stiff. As far as Zack can tell, Titania didn't do anything. Malachai questions Zack. Zack and Celeste don't see anything unusual. Malachai can also perceive a slight shimmering around Cassandra. Celeste brings up Clarissa-sight. As far as she can tell, both Titania and Cassandra have had the lifeforces sucked out of them. Greyswandir just looks like a hunk of metal. Malachai asks Titania what is going on; she lets go of the sword and backs off. The shimmering seems to intensify. Malachai asks Cassandra to move away; she does so. The shimmering that Malachai perceives disappears as she leaves the declivity. Celeste looks again; Cassandra looks fine now. Titania still appears to be missing a life force. However, she's using Clarissa magic to look at Titania... They discuss the ramifications of Malachai entering the zone; he decides not to risk experimenting. Titania tries again, outside the circle o' doom. Nothing appears to happen. --- Ilk and Damia are standing on the wall of Castle Amber, acquiring servants. Ilk notices something odd happening Ardenways. He asks Damia for permission to observe into Arden. "How?" "Magically." "Okay." He casts some bugs over Arden, sees the group, and identifies that particular spot. He tells Damia that Malachai and Zack and a number of others are in Arden, and that there's lots of magical activity happening around them. He spots magic, some bits of Logrus, some nasty bits he doesn't recognize, and some Pattern bits. --- The group discusses options for continuing. Cassandra and Titania move back into the epicenter. Malachai sees the wavering increase gradually over time. Titania advises Celeste to stop that; she does so. Malachai notices a pulsing in the wavering; it seems to be throbbing in time with his heartbeat. It matches Malachai's heartbeat, not Cassandra's, and he can't observe any range effects. Cassandra offers a hand to Malachai, he touches her. They experiment. Cassandra sticks Greyswandir into the ground outside the effect, no major differences. Malachai takes Greyswandir and moves away from Cassandra. Darkstar cracks a smile. Malachai asks, "What's so funny?" "Greyswandir is laughing." Cassandra takes Greyswandir back. Malachai enters the area. Malachai notices a residual hum. Malachai draws the Wand of Not Yet. It says, "NOW" He continues to hold the Wand, and it unfolds into a wood-like door while he holds it. Malachai, Darkstar, and Titania see the door, and Cassandra can sorta see it. Malachai orders the wand to open, and the door opens. There's a study on the far side of the door. It looks like Ingold's office; the room in which Malachai found the wand. Nothing is physically different, but the point of view is somewhat focused. Malachai asks someone to trump him if he disappears. As Malachai steps forward, the door moves with him. Malachai moves so most of him is outside the room. He looks around - he's looking from Ingold's eyeheight, and he looks like Ingold when he looks down. Malachai pulls the desk over and riffles through it. There's a kiddie bow in the drawer where he found the wand. Zack tries to trump Malchai; he gets a headache and Cassandra's trump of Malachai vibrates. Malachai grabs the bow; the wand says, "SHOOT ME". Malachai steps back through, moves to the center of the circle, strings the wand, and starts rotating, looking for directional cues. When Malachai came out of the door, Ilk's bugs went out, as if something just slurped the power and said, "Thanks" Ilk offers whatever ate the bugs some more power. Damia notices Ilk disappear. Ilk appears at the former position of his bug, about 100 yards above the Amberite mob, sprouts wings, and starts drifting groundwards, completely drained. The wand is vibrating on one particular bearing, about 30 degrees elevation from the horizon. Malachai fires the bow. Lazy, Darkstar, Zack, Celeste, and Malachai disappear. Cassandra, her bodyguards, Ilk, and Titania don't disappear. The ones who disappeared have hellrode before... picture a hellride at supersonic speeds. Cassandra advances on Ilkandacian with Greyswandir drawn. Ilk cradles his head in his hands and says "ouch". Ilk introduces himself, and Titania verifies his identity and claims him as a friend. Ilkandacian and Cassandra chat. She doesn't kill him, and offers him some wine. Malachai can't handle it, and passes out. Zack has big blotches behind his eyes. Celeste has a massive headache, wants to scratch behind her eyes, and seems on-fire warm. ---------------------- Cathryn trumps the local Random. He's playing with a dog. They chat. Jesby gates them around. Temporal weirdness happens. They enter Arden, and decide to waylay Julian for kicks. They do so. He falls off his horse. Cathryn goes rope, and starts tying him up. The visor falls open, and the occupant isn't Julian. "Who the hell are you?" "Rolf, Mam." "Why the hell are you doing that?" "Because Julian's holding the sword pointing at your head." Cathryn finds herself being poured back into her normal form. There's a silvery Greyswandir-ish blade pointing at her. "Does Corwin know about this?" "Corwin seems to have lost this along the way. I've made a few additions. We don't treat invad..." and Julian falls over. Jesby emerges from a bush, picks Julian up, and hands him to Cathryn. Jesby mind-reams Rolf, making him think that he is Julian, and Rolf leads the Rangers away. Jesby and Cathryn proceed towards the castle, carrying the statued Julian. -------------- Malachai, Celeste, Zack, Lazy, and Darkstar have completed their supersonic hellride. Zack is putting himself out, and realizes that he's in the same firy place he had visited before. However, there's a cool spot nearby. Lazy is in the center of it. It was apparently too much effort to find a cool spot, so he just made one... Zack pulls Malachai over to the cool spot next to Lazy, and tries putting him out. Darkstar is looking around saying, "Merlin has got to be around here somewhere". Darkstar is in a fire form. Zack asks Darkstar if he could take the form of a fireproof gazebo to protect them. Darkstar says that he'll go off and find the way out, and leaves. a flame wanders by, says, "you're not god!" and wanders off. Zack's been working on his defenses, it's only mostly unbearably hot. Malachai starts acquiring consciousness. He's in a world of hurt, mental hurt. They chat. Zack spots the bow and grabs it - it feels cool, compared to the rest of the shadow. Zack tries to jury-rig something to fetch the Wand. Zack touches the wand to Malachai, and Malachai's charred skin starts healing, spreading out in waves. Malachai can feel that, it feels good, nice and cool. The wand doesn't seem to be saying anything, and it seems to like the direction down. Darkstar returns, and says that he couldn't find Merlin. Malachai says that the wand likes the direction down, and Darkstar sinks into the ground. Zack conjures some gatoraide in a bottle next to Lazy with a straw. They drink. Malachai tries to trump Cassandra... wow, that feels nice, but connection fails. The others join in the fun. Celeste pulls out five trumps; they all grow cold. One of them connects. Darkstar says, "what?" Darkstar (and Celeste, via the trump) see a block of something that looks like a humanoid inside a block of something that looks ice-ish. Darkstar recruits flames to bring the block up to their level. Darkstar tried to trump them out, and failed. They can't teleport - they don't know where they are. Malachai suggests that, although it does seem to be out of style these days, they could Pattern-walk out. Zack asks if Lazy could give them a ride. Lazy stands up with a minimum of effort, managing to catch all of them on his back. Zack tries to lead them out. He can't make it any cooler or make the flames go away, but can sculpt the flames. Zack opens a Faerie gate; there's a shimmering, silvery curtain in front of them. Lazy saunters through; it gets a lot cooler. As Celeste goes through, there's a moment of no time, and Titania is standing in front of them. "So, have you come to accept my offer?" Celeste explains that she hasn't had time to deal yet, and that they're just waystationing through. They're at the top of a tall, thin, vibrating crystal spire. The clouds start converging, and weirdness happens. Zack brown-noses a cloud. Malachai hands him a tissue. They wander. The cave of Agraba greets Malachai. They chat. Zack opens a Faerie gate, and they go through. Celeste replays her previous conversation, word for word. Zack keeps an eye on things, and notices a tiny little pulse in the gate as they leave. It feels like they're in a closet. Zack and Celeste chat about Celeste's conversations with Clarissa. Malachai trumps Cassandra. ------------ Ilk and Cassandra chat; Ilk sends a note back to Damia, via Cassandra and a ranger. Ilk says farewell to Damia, teleports Home... and ends up drifting down towards Cathryn and Jesby in a wrong Arden. He greets them. Cathryn asks him if he would like to join them on their quest, and Ilk replies that he's a bit low on power at the moment. Cathryn gives Ilk some power from the Jewel. He feels much better. He asks them if they would like a lift home, and Cathryn says that they have that covered. Jesby and Cathryn chat about Ilk's suitability as a possibly ally in front of him, and Jesby asks him if he would like to come along, as he is heir to House Cara. He agrees, but not as heir - he has a way to recover his cousin. An ambassadorial party comes out of castle Amber and approaches them. Jesby conjures three chairs. They sit down. The ambassadorial group sends some people back to get two chairs. Cathryn chats with some of the ambassador types, and tries to get them to bring out Bleys for an audience. The amabssadorial party raises defenses, and Ilk raises his as well. The ambassador says that since negotiations seem to be over... and he calls down a bolt of lightning. Jesby sidesteps it, and Cathryn turns into a lightning elemental and slurps the power. "Amatures". Jesby turns the ambassador inside out. Jesby turns to the next, and says "you are now promoted to the head ambassador" That one wanders over, and calls down another spell. Ilk notices that this one is an unrack, and teleports himself and Cathryn out of the effect. The ambassadors seem to have annoyed Jesby - she's enormous, and growing. Many spells are converging on her; they hit a shield around her, convert into raw magic, and she absorbs it and keeps growing. The ambassadors are smears on the ground. She holds up the last one, tells him that he is now the senior ambassador, and tosses him at the castle to relay a message to Bleys. He goes splat on the inner walls. Ilk and Cathryn return to Jesby's location, resume their seats, and Cathryn fetches them something cold to drink. Jesby continues to tower. Jesby mutters something, reaches through a gate that opens in front of her, pulls out two huge knitting needles, and throws them at the castle. They seem to hit an invisible wall, and seem to push it back. She throws more needles, and the wall is forced back. Jesby pushes the wall forward physically, and shadow is ripping apart around them - the wall is connected to places. Ilk asks Cathryn for some power and uses it to unweave the wall. Jesby sees what Ilk is doing, stops pushing, crosses her arms, and waits. Ilk eats the power, and converts the power into multiple foci - a pearl necklace. "Oh, how nice." Ilk offers it to Cathryn; she puts it on. Jesby reaches down, picks Cathryn and Ilk up, and sets them down at the gate of the castle. Cathryn knocks. A guard tries to pour burning tar on them, and Jesby flicks him with a finger. He hits the sky and goes splat. Bleys walks into the courtyard, growing and expanding as he walks. Ilk notices that the expansion is just an illusion - Bleys is really normal size, and walking towards them. Ilk connects Bleys to Logrus and ducks. Bleys has a horrified look on his face and disappears. Cathryn - "Where did Bleys go?" Ilk - "Oops ... I think he's walking the Logrus" They chat briefly. Cathryn is annoyed at the loss of her Beys. Another Bleys enters the courtyard, clapping. He and Cathryn chat; he claims no knowledge of or concern for their House, and no concern for Julian. Cathryn breaks Julian and keeps a few pieces as souvenirs. Bleys asks if she wants to keep an eyeball as well. People seem to like eyeballs... Cathryn turns around, and walks off. Jesby lowers her hand; Ilk and Cathryn enter the turbo-lift that is Cathryn's mom. Ilk and Cathryn notice that they are losing life force. Cathryn uses her Jewel to try to block the draining, and Ilk teleports himself and Cathryn over a few shadows. The drain stops. Jesby starts pounding, and doing serious damage to the castle. Ilk brings up a viewer so Cathryn can watch the show as well, and conjures popcorn. They sit back, eat popcorn, and watch Jesby destroy Amber. After most of the castle has become misshapen and mostly rubble, and Jesby has even squashed the courtyard in on Bleys, she shrugs her shoulders, turns, and walks off. Ilk teleports himself and Cathryn to in front of Jesby. She picks them up, and continues walking and shrinking, passing through Arden and into shadow. As she reaches humanish size, she puts Jesby and Cathryn down. Cathryn trumps Stormy. He seems a bit vague, as if she is talking to more othan one at once. "We went on to the next project, sorry." The "next project" is looking for House Jesby, but it will take a while. Cathryn reports that they are looking. Jesby and Cathryn talk in veiled terms about returning the thing they found to Corwin, or taking it home with them. Jesby argues in favor of taking it with them, where they could find a trusted smith. Ilk opens a trump gate home. They go through. They're on the far side of their Abyss from their Chaos. Jesby and Cathryn fly over the Abyss; Ilk pulls across. At the center of the height of the crossing, there is a disorientation for Jesby and Cathryn, but it passes. Cathryn realizes why most people don't fly over the Abyss. The demons are four stories high now. Jesby and Cathryn try to knock demons back into the Abyss, with limited success. Jesby and Cathryn acquire a barge and start poling across the demons. Ilk starts Logrus-pulling alongside them, then conjures a pair of water-skiis, hangs a tendril on the back of the barge, and then drops a tendril on the front of the barge and starts pulling the barge along faster. Heads poke out over the surface, and rumors start spreading through Chaos. Cathryn makes disparaging remarks about minor houses having to get attention any way they can, and Jesby reminds her that House Cara is a major house, albiet a lesser one. Ilk pulls up to the barge, and mentions that he shouldn't reappear in the Council chambers representing Cara again, or certain assumptions might be drawn. Jesby suggests that he could arrive with them, as her aide. Ilk declines the honor, and Logrus-pulls off towards Snarsht's chambers. There is a squad of warriors' guild folks clearing a hole outside the council chambers. Jesby and Cathryn enter. The Warlord greets them in the antechamber. "Good day Jesby, Cathryn. I'm afraid that I must ask you to wait." She explains that there is some debate as to the House-status of Jesby. However, Mandor is making an argument on their behalf. Cathryn gives her a few more reasons to add into the argument on their side, and the Warlord enters the inner chamber to convey their presence and Cathryn's message. ------ Ilk reaches the mid-point of Snarsht's tower, above the demons, and knocks. A harried-looking groom comes out, and says that Snarsht is personally working on the shaping of horses that can run over the demons, and that they aren't done yet, and come back later. Ilk asks if he can talk with Snarsht. Is it important? Yes. Snarsht is not in cat form, but vaguely feline-equineish. Snarsht allows acknowledgement of Ilk's presence to reach him, and continues shaping the horses in front of him. Ilk says that someone is making undead cats with Snarsht's face. Snarsht is upset, waffles between honor and duty briefly, then demands, "SHOW ME". Ilk teleports into the courtyard of Castle Black; Snarsht beats him there. Ilk goes Hawklord. They are greeted by Teldra, and Ilk thinks that Teldra has made a mistake - she has given Snarsht a very formal, but partially familiar greeting. She mentions to Ilk that Morrolan is in the party. [Wow, Ilk's managed to unsettle Teldra. Neat.] Snarsht looks around, and seems uneasy as they walk towards the party. Norton recognizes Snarsht, and Snarsht and Norton chat. Snarsht - "We thought you hadn't survived." Norton - "Survived what?" Snarsht - "Walking the Logrus." Norton was one of Snarsht's more promising apprentices, a Shaper, then he took the Logrus and disappeared. Ilk chats with Morrolan. Morrolan is upset, and claims that whenever weirdness happens, Ilk is at the center of it. Ilk blames the presence of weirdness on Zack. Morrolan goes off to take a short nap, complaining about Zack's friends. [Zack doesn't have bad stuff -- he has PCs!] Norton and Snarsht travel to Norton's home, and Norton explains the undead thing to Snarsht. Snarsht says that Norton has taken a branch that he hasn't explored. Norton demonstrates embracing a human, then comes to the realization that he doesn't need to go through that ritual, unlike the others of his clan. Norton searches for one of his missing people that was taken by the slavers and recovers him. Snarsht offers to take Norton home, to Tralannan. Norton has a project to deal with here, so Snarsht says that Norton should return home in a hundred years or so. Snarsht shapes one of Norton's assistants into something that can be used to contact him. Snarsht says that they (Dragaerans) are mixed, they are not their original breed. It looks like another of his missing apprentices handiwork. ----------------- Ilk goes Home to finally rest. Snarsht appears in front of him. ----------------- Norton starts settling in, and he sees a magical gate open in front of him. Sethra is on the other side of it. She waves at him, and holds up a note that says, "This is visual only" she holds up a second note "What happened? You disappeared?" Norton creates a note, "Wait a minute", and pulls to Dragaera. He chats with Sethra. They decide to run power through the Necromancer and see if she twitches, and go skipping off, arm in arm through the halls of Castle Black, in search of the Necromancer. --EORun--