DRAFT Run Log for 971014
Present:
Tia - Cassandra
Dave R - Malachai
Lori - Celeste, tormented
Dave K - Ilk, logging
Andrew - Osric
Ken - Norton
------------
Cassandra is in Pearl, talking with Random.
[Anyone who was present then and wants to help out a logger who
sometimes doesn't show up early enough...]
------------
Malachai is relaxing in a bar with Tazik. Tazik says that finding Serena
is more important than letting her rest, so they head out.
------------
Fade to Black
Celeste is in a bar in Faerie with a not-Brand.
Celeste complains that someone changed her so that she hates "all of
them, even you". "Brand" offers help, and asks her to open her mind to
him. She does so.
Celeste has just opened her mind to all that is Faerie.
A while later, Celeste is lying on a familiar blanket. It's the blanket
she was on before she was given an offer by Darkstar. But there's no
Darkstar, and she's in the arms of her lover. She's positive that it's
really him. It's a beautiful morning. Celeste thinks about breakfast,
and two birds fly down from a tree with a cloth held between them, fly
apart, and drop the cloth, revealing breakfast.
Brand wakes up, smelling the food. "Breakfast in bed?" He reaches for
Celeste.
(fade to black)
Breakfast happens.
(fade to black)
They frolic in a lake.
(fade to black)
A squirrel acts oddly, and Celeste is puzzled. "Of course. You're the
center here. You can do that when you have Pattern."
They dress. Celeste looks through her trumps. They're all of Zack and
Ivy. She takes Brandt's trump and tries it. She contacts Zack. They
chat. She doesn't mention Brand.
Celeste and "Brand" go looking for Faythe, arm in arm.
They return to the bar. Kermit the Fog is there, chatting with some very
unresponsive hoverbikes. They chat briefly with the fog, and then
Celeste enters the bar.
She wanders around and asks if anyone has seen this girl... nothing
useful. Brand sits down and starts playing with something that looks
like a trump deck. There are pictures of all of the people in the trump
deck, but they don't seem trumpish. He casts a divination, and claims
that it seems like Corwin is a possibility.
Celeste trumps Zack. Celeste asks if they can be brought through. Zack
is confused about the use of the plural case until "Brand" puts his hand
on Celeste's shoulder and joins the contact. Brand and Celeste go
through to Zack.
Zack opens a Faerie gate and leaves to try to contact Corwin.
They wait and chat.
----------------------------
Norton is playing with his flying magic-hunting leeches, training them
to frenzy at the scent of something not found in nature (Brut), and to
stop at the scent of undead flesh.
----------------------------
No Matter How Subtle the Wizard...
Ilk acquires a cunning plan, and starts fraying himself into many tiny
Logrus tendrils, indistinguishable from the hundreds of thousands of
tendrils currently attacking Toram. The Logrus is happy with him for
doing so - Ilk's been spending too much time with other Logrus.
["I'll spend a while making nice with the Logrus."]
Osric tries to transport out of this place, and fails. He squeezes out
of his shell, and sees Mikail's shins and feet, slowly disappearing as
if they were being erased from the top down.
Osric looks around. There are these two cocoons, around the corner there
is a Clarissa fighting with Toram, an Andron clutching his various
wounds and doing something, and there is an awkwardness around
Toram. Toram's moves are supposed to be smooth and graceful, but he's
moving jerkily and clumsily, like a caricature of himself.
Osric stays behind his shield and keeps an eye on what is going on
around him. He forms some of his energy into a form of weapon, something
similar to a pike, and takes up a defensive posture.
["My power may be beyond him; I'm not"]
Osric looks around. It's a laboratory. No sign of any damsel in
distress.
Ilk is now completely Logrus-tendri'd.
[Tendri'd is a new and exciting word, recently invented by da GM.]
Norton notices that there is obviously some activity over in the
direction that he just came from. The Ilk in him can see lots of Logrus
energy over there. Norton heads in that direction.
Something pops in directly behind Osric. It appears to be an
Ilkandacian-shaped individual with a bunch of fish floating nearby.
Norton: "Osric? How goes the fight?"
Osric: "Not too well."
Norton peers around the edge of Osric's shield.
Norton asks Osric if he can move his shield closer to Toram, so the fish
will attack Toram instead of any of the good guys.
Osric advances his shield.
Norton, shaped like Ilk, jumps out from behind Osric's shield and
releases a blast of power at Toram. Toram returns the favor. Norton
releases a cloud of ill-smelling gas, dives behind the shield, and
the red fish swarm all over Toram. Toram becomes very busy.
Ilkandacian reappears immediately behind Toram with a large, nasty
blade. Norton really wants that sword. Osric doesn't want to be anywhere
near it. It drinks souls.
Ilk drives Blackwand, a Morganti great weapon, directly between Toram's
shoulderblades.
Toram disappears. All of the fish, Logrus-defenses, and the Morganti
go with him.
Clarissa sighs and sits down.
The two cocoons have also disappeared. Ilk believes that they were
placed in storage by the lab's Logrus-defenses before they left to chase
Toram.
There is a somewhat piercing whistle coming from around the
corner. Norton and Ilk investigate, and discover a teakettle. They
waffle about what to do with it. Finally, Ilk moves the teakettle to the
side, and it stops whistling as he moves it off the hot spot hanging in
the middle of where the kettle just was.
As Ilk pours the water into a nearby beaker crusted with sugar, it
becomes coffee. He pours the coffee from the beaker into a nearby cup,
and it remains coffee. Norton, Osric, and Ilk chat and drink
coffee. Osric doesn't touch anything.
----------------------------
Malachai re-enters the tavern and asks if anyone has a horse to
sell. The musketeer that killed his opponent sells Malachai his
opponent's horse, cheap.
Malachai teaches Tazik to ride and they head off into shadow.
--------------------------
Bitter Partings
Zack returns to Faerie. He says that there is war in Amber, and that
Benedict yelled at him for not tracking down the locusts. Zack offers to
take Celeste out of Faerie with him, now.
"I do agree that if we split our forces we might have a better chance at
finding our daughter."
Zack bugs his eyes a bit. Celeste tries to look incredulous, and bugs
out with Zack.
Celeste ends up in that grey space with Titania. She winks and waves,
and then Celeste is outside.
Zack looks at Celeste and says, "I hope that was a faerie
construct." "I have no idea." "It had Pattern." Celeste faints.
Celeste wakes up with a foul-smelling cloth being waved under her nose.
Celeste trumps Brandt. His hand has moved all of six or seven inches
since she last called. Celeste tells Brandt to find Corwin and Random,
hands him their trumps, and tells him to be discrete. Brandt is
sarcastic.
Celeste insists to Zack that he put her back. Zack opens another Faerie
gate, and Celeste goes back through. There's the field. No horse, no
Brand, no Zack. A gate opens behind her. Zack steps through, and says,
"You sure about this?" "They're not here any more." "Of course not. Hey
- he stole my horse!" Zack entices her to leave. She does so, no grey.
It occurs to Celeste that she is no longer drawing upon her matrix
crystal to maintain her body, and hasn't since she woke up on the
blanket.
Zack tries to hit Celeste up for information on Brand as they head
back. They fly Amberwards on his shag carpet. Celeste curls into a ball
on a corner of the carpet and sobs.
Zack is hanging spells as he flies and shifts.
---------------------------
Quest for Serena, Part N+2
As Malachai is riding, he spots a flying carpet with Zack at the helm
coasting by. "Zack!" Zack pulls the carpet into a holding pattern, and
they chat. Celeste leans over the side of the carpet, with a bottle of
wine in one hand.
Zack chats Malachai. "Yes?" "I found her with Brand. Yes, the
Brand. In Faerie." They discuss what to do with Celeste. Zack asks
Malachai if he can incorporate Celeste into his mission, and he replies
in the affirmative.
Malachai asks Celeste if she would be willing to help with his quest,
and she agrees. Zack mentions that Faythe is probably... hopefully with
Random. He says that Random and himself were called in as backup, and
Random disappeared with Faythe.
Zack lands the carpet, pulls a horse-stick out, and hands it to
Celeste.
Malachai hands Celeste Serena's trump. She connects. Serena is obviously
ensorcelled - her mind seems to be in a jar, with her body in the field
of view. Serena screams at Celeste in relief. Celeste shushes her, they
chat. Celeste drops a hand on Malachai's shoulder. Malachai concentrates
on Serena's surroundings, to better walk to her. The annoying kid is
sleeping on a bed of air nearby. They reassure Serena that they are on
their way, then drop the contact.
Malachai paces while Celeste works on a trump sketch.
There is a clatter of hooves, and the four musketeers that Malachai met
earlier come riding up. They decide to join forces, and prepare
fortifications against the Cardinal's patrols. One of them starts
cooking a chicken.
The chicken is almost done, Celeste is almost done, and they are about
to be under attack. The opposition is seven or eight of the Cardinal's
troops, wearing red tabards. Malachai wonders if the four are even from
this shadow; the Cardinal's troops are fairly pitiful, and are a head
and a half shorter than Malachai's companions.
Celeste and the chicken are done; Celeste conjures another bottle of
Darkoven wine. They eat.
Celeste opens the trump gate. Malachai leads the way into the
room. Celeste notices the ward being set off as soon as they enter.
[Malachai's playing Donkey Kong!]
--------------------------
Searching Suhuy's Realm
Ilkandacian invites Clarissa to join them in coffee and searching for
prisoners in Suhuy's workshop. No prisoners, but many oddities.
They suggest that it might be best to look elsewhere, but Clarissa wants
to stay put and ... wait for REN and Rainbow to reappear. Sigh.
Andron, Osric, Norton, and Ilk head to the dungeon. They find the
cocoons of Merlin and Bella in the cells. Norton shifts the cell doors
into snakes to pull out the cocoons, and puts them back loyal to him.
Ilk floats the cocoons behind him on tendrils.
They reach the meditation chambers. They've been inverted into an
agitation chamber, and they have lots of nasty hooks all over for Suhuy
and Logrus in general. Norton and Ilk make a thing that will evolve into
a Suhuy-ish thing to set of the traps and poke it in. A while later they
look inside, and there are grease spots, bits of flesh, and a chamber
that is mostly meditation again. Ilk leaves a note for Suhuy explaining
the traps and apologizing for the damage.
They go to the next place, which is Suhuy's bedroom. The bed is
mussed. There is a woman chained to the wall. She has traces of House
Chanicut and House Phariban on her. There is a black unicorn's horn
protruding from her forehead, and in place of her eyes are traceries of
cracks like shattered crystal.
Norton looks under the bed and finds a passageway down. Ilk shifts a
piece of himself to not be himself and hands it to Norton; Norton shifts
it into a bug with infravision, etc., and sends it down. It sees a pile
of bones and starts losing its flesh.
The next place is a stable. Many people in it, including Mandor, Imagio,
Snarsht, and many others.
--EORun--