DRAFT Run Log for 970826 Present: Tia - Damia Andrew - Osric Dave K - Ilk, logging Dave R - Malachai Lori - Celeste Ken - Norton Kevin - Zack --------------------------- Locusts Zack is flying off with Random, following the never-ending line of locusts off into shadow. Zack follows Random and works on a magical cuisinart. Zack asks Random if he knows where Cathryn is. Random thinks that Cathryn is off in Chaos somewhere. Zack experiments with the locusts. They shear through normal steel, and then eat the remaining pieces of metal. These locusts seem similar to the nasty ones that Zack encountered in Faerie. Zack continues to work on a dancing swords spell, and makes more Real swords. The locusts are ignoring Zack entirely. --------------------------- House Barimen Allies with House Cara Ilkandacian summons the representative of House Barimen to the council on the roof. Upon arriving at the roof, the representative falls to his knees and begs for his life. After a few "forgive me" and "don't kill me"'s, he looks up and looks surprised that House Cara has not been squashed by the enemy. He looks even more surprised that the heads of House Cara, Jesby, and Sawall are sitting around having tea, along with the head of the Dancers Guild. "Is there something that you wished to discuss with us?" The representative starts claiming that there is a debt between House Cara and House Barimen because House Cara is claiming a member who was never released from House Barimen, then holds up a hand, and says that he is receiving a trump call. After a few moments, Lord Barimen steps through the trump contact. Bella rises and nods to Barimen as the head of House Jesby, from a greater House-head to a lesser, and "Mandor" mimics her. Barimen nods to the group from the reverse position. Ilk nods to Barimen as head of House Cara. Lord Barimen proclaims that their House has been trying for some time to reconnect with their cadet branch, and asks if House Cara could possibly contact that branch through the member of House Cara that is in that lineage, effectively relinquishing all claim to Zack. Ilk replies that he would be willing to relay House Barimen's intentions to the appropriate individuals. Barimen thanks Ilk, comments that he seems to be assembling a counter-council, and asks to join. Barimen says that a number of the Houses that are allied with the enemy did so because there was no alternative, and that they might be convinced to change sides. Ilk accepts the alliance with House Barimen, and sends Barimen off to organize a meeting in neutral ground. Ilk then sends the Barimen representative off to chat with the minor Houses to enlist their aid as well. Norton trumps Zack, and they chat. Norton asks for reinforcements, and Zack asks after Cathryn. They have a very indirect conversation. Random and Zack encounter some derigable-sized hornets and start herding them into the locust line. The hornets decide that they like eating hornets. Zack sets up a sugar line suspended in mid-air from the hornet nest up and down the line of locusts, and many hornets come out to play. Norton trumps Zack back, and asks Zack to ask Benedict and Corwin to invite the Warriors Guild to the party. Ilk looks for familiar members of the Mathematicians Guild, in the hope that they might be interested in examining, studying, and disassembling some of the Logrus magic mucking up the Courts. After a while, he finds one and leaves a message, but doesn't receive a reply. --------------------------- Dear Diary - Today Never Happened. subtitle1: Damia and Celeste visit the Amber Hillbillies subtitle2: Celeste becomes Clarissa. subtitle3: Damia, Celeste, and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Damia goes back to her rooms to try to figure out how to get to Rebma. Celeste goes to the courtyard to laugh at Caine's locust problem. She ices a step beneath his feet, and he doesn't even seem to notice. Celeste throws up a magical shield around Caine. The bugs go right through the shield and take it down, generating a backlash. Caine rests briefly as some gaps in the locust stream reach him, and he credits Random with the aid. Brandt goes off to walk the Pattern. Celeste and Flora discuss fashion. Celeste heads to the Pattern room to stop Brandt. She accidentally kills a guard en route. The guards at the bottom of the steps stop her, stating orders from Benedict. She trumps Benedict, and is blocked. SHe trumps Flora, and is blocked. She pushes, and gets contact. Flora is in Rebma, watching Flora walk the Pattern. Celeste realizes that she doesn't know what message Damia wants to give Benedict, and starts scrying for Damia. Damia chases off after Brandt, first to the courtyard, then to the Pattern room. Brandt avoids the notice of the guards outside the Pattern room, as does Damia. Damia catches up to Brandt just as he passes the last line of guards. The guards disappear, and a dead guy chained to the door appears in front of them. Damia asks Brandt for a lift to Rebma. Brandt asks her to get into his mind. They flirt. Damia kisses him, and gives him an image of Rebma mid-kiss. They get wet. He's good. They kiss some more. Guards are approaching them. The guards are wearing uniforms with unfamiliar insignia - a single red splotch in the middle of an orange field. The guards say something in a language that is not Thari, and ready their weapons. Damia tries to trump Corwin, and fails. Brandt takes them to outside the Pattern room. She tries trumping around, and fails. Rebma's Pattern room is too far or it's not here. They try Damia's rooms - they don't look like that. Brandt tries bringing them home, and can't. They go through the door into the Pattern room. It's not Damia's Pattern. Brandt tries to go various places, and can't go anywhere. He starts crying. Damia tries to trump Cyndia, and all of her trumps are warm. Damia comforts Brandt. fade to black Celeste's psychic contact to Damia fades - she's in the same location as Brandt. Celeste shows the guard the writ she acquired from Benedict. The guard asks if she wants an escort, and she accepts. Celeste and two guards go down through the rift and see six guards in an old uniform pointing weapons at her and a dead man chained to the wall. Celeste tries to block the guards magically, but one of them drops back and starts countering her efforts. Celeste is displeased; she retreats into the Pattern room with her two guards. ------------------ Gil walks into the room with Osric. They chat. Gil says that Celeste and her son could get to Pearl with her assistance. Gil looks like she went through a meat grinder. She is showing through countless rents in her clothing, and she is oozing from hundreds of little cuts and scratches. She acts like nothing is wrong, though. ------------------ Damia and Brandt are in flagrante delecto. Celeste and her two guards step into the Pattern room, facing away from the two-backed beast. Damia notices and spins darkness around them. Celeste notices the missing piece of her vision. Brandt and Damia dress, and Damia lets the darkness dissapate. The five encounter the hillbillies. They piss off Dworkin, who begins a massive magical attack. Damia and Celeste start shielding, Brandt compares their shielding to Dworkin's attack and runs. They follow him outside, and the door slams shut behind them. They encounter the headless Brand. Celeste faints, and Brandt catches her then throws up himself. Hillbilly amusement happens. Celeste, Damia, and Brandt flee. They go to Faerie, and find themselves facing someone who appears to be Celeste's opposite. She introduces herself as Tiella, and insisted that she needed to oppose Celeste. Brandt takes them "home". They're in a tower, built with crude stonework. There is a small matrix crystal in the center of the room that doesn't have any power. It's very Celeste. Celeste can feel the edge of this place rolling away from her. It reaches a boundary and splashes against change. She tunes into the tiny blue sliver of a matrix crystal and starts feeding it power. It slowly grows. There isn't a planet beneath them. There's just chaos, except for a bit of land on which an insectish creature is sleeping. Celeste thinks that the creature is Darkstar, and tries to bring him here. She fails - this place isn't Real enough. Celeste tries to make this place more Real, and her self spreads. She stops, and goes down to the bug. She's in a desert, about twenty feet in each direction. There are stars above them that look vaguely Darkoverish. There is change lapping at the desert, and also lapping at the stars. Celeste wakes the bug, who says that he just crawled out of the Sea of Chance. Celeste and the bug chat. --------------------------- Interlude The hornets are doing a fairly good job of eating locusts. Zack and Random continue tracing the path towards the source. Zack trumps Benedict, and gets through. Benedict is watching Flora walk the Pattern. Benedict says that he is watching to make sure that she doesn't turn back to Dara, and that if she does, he will kill her on the Pattern. The next step is to see if the arm that supposedly belongs to Gerard is actually his. Zack gives Benedict an update on the locusts. Zack asks Benedict if he or Corwin would care to intercede with the Warriors Guild on behalf of House Cara. Benedict is upset when he finds out that Ilk hired the current Amber castle staff. Zack tries to convince Benedict that Ilk and House Cara are trustworthy and should be helped. Benedict gives Zack a note for the Warriors Guild, after Zack assures Benedict that the war in Chaos will keep Ilk busy long enough for Benedict to investigate the castle staff. Ilk and Norton trump Zack. Zack hands Ilk Benedict's note, and Ilk hands Zack a copy of the note that he sent to Amber with Dutch's men. They discuss the situation in Chaos, passing notes back and forth through the trump contact. Ilk tells Zack about House Barimen and mentions their intentions to reassimilate the Amberites into the House. Ilk teleports one of his shifters through to the Warriors Guild, carrying Benedict's note. Zack trumps Corwin. Corwin is also in Rebma, staring at Flora. They chat, mostly about Osric and how the House that Osric claimed some association with is fighting against the Houses that are friendly to Amber. Zack also mentions the House Barimen thing. ---------------------------