DRAFT Run Log for 980428 Present: Tia - Cassandra, Damia Andrew - Osric Dave R - Malachai Lori - Celeste Sam - Jean Dave K - Ilk, logging Ken - Norton --------------------------- Major Events: * Kashfa. Status, Berserk. * Bucephalus Meets Beldan, his Son. * Jean: Cross-Reality Transit System * Rescuing Suhuy * Brand Acquires a Giant Jewel of Judgment --------------------------- On Grand Tour Ilk, sandy Corwin, sandy Jean, flying saucer Jean, and Norton without Brand are doing a grand tour around Chaos. The flying saucer is going at hypersonic speed and bowling paths through the demons. The heat is fusing the demons at the holes, making it hard for more demons to re-enter the space. Ilk is acquiring Vlad bits as they travel, and assembling a battle barge on pontoons from hard demon bits. Ilk decorates the barge in the colors of House Cara, and waffles about the House rank to display. -------------------------- Kashfa. Status, Berserk. Malachai and Osric are walking along the shadow paths to Kashfa. They don't see any Gwen shrines. They don't see any people, either, so they head to the nearest major city. Osric tries to shift himself to make it look like he is a person riding a horse. Malachai - "I can get you a horse!" Osric - "This is more fun." Malachai - "...embarrassing when you try to get off the horse." Osric - "You've got a point... okay, I'll walk." Malachai finds Osric a horse. They see abandoned food carts with no food in them, abandoned hay carts with hay in them, and old corpses that look trampled. They reach the city gates, which are closed. It sounds like either a riot or a very big birthday party with bludgeons is in progress. Osric shifts part of himself through a crack in the gate. It's a riot, not a party. Malachai throws a rope over the wall and climbs up. Osric joins him. They can see the riot; there are no guards on the wall. There are only peasants in view, and they appear to be fighting each other. Malachai goes fishing with a rope. The first peasant is pulled up too slowly and gets pummeled. Malachai lowers him to the ground and fetches another. As he is hauling the second peasant up the wall, he gets a trump call. It's Ingold. "Greetings. Are you busy?" Malachai says that he is not urgently busy in the short term, but is doing something in the long term. Ingold tells Malachai that he is looking for people to go on a quest, but should not tell Malachai about the quest over an open trump link, or if he is not going. Ingold says that this quest is not for the good of Amber, but is a personal favor. Ingold says that he will call Malachai back if he needs aid. Osric took the rope when Malachai took the trump call, and has finished pulling the guy up and is holding him in mid-air by the rope. He's thrashing and flailing. Malachai grabs his arms. The man keeps screaming despite their efforts to calm him, and his screams seem pre-linguistic. There don't seem to be any organized groups in the fighting below - everyone is just pounding on the person closest to them. Malachai suggests that they might be ensorcelled. Osric checks, and confirms Malachai's suspicions. There's a blanket of sorcerous power across the land as far as his eye can see that has a signature similar to that white statue-thing. They descend the wall and loosely bind the peasant. As they ride off, they can see the peasant free enough of himself to start banging on the wall. They head towards Vain, the next kingdom in their route. ------------------------------- Entering Princess Chandra's Presence Cassandra, Ilkandacian, and Gil are about to walk into the Presence, when Cassandra gets a trump call. She excuses herself from the etiquette guild member accompanying them and takes the call. It's Ingold. "Did Gil give you the pitch?" "What pitch?" "I'll talk to you later, then." "Wait!" As they get into the entranceway, there is someone in full Sith regimentals holding out a pair of Sith regimentals for Cassandra. The regimentals are perfectly cut to fit. As far as Cassandra can tell, they are identical to the set she wore in Princess Chandra's presence. Cassandra bows to the Sith, from superior to inferior, and accepts the uniform. The Sith steps to the side, revealing a shadowy niche. Cassandra walks into the niche, and the niche is bright, but everything outside the niche appears to get dim. --------------------------- On Grand Tour Norton eats the first Vlad bit. "Stop that!" "That's how Snarsht does it!" Ilk and company are on their fourth visit. There is a polite individual present, dressed in something that looks like Assassins Guild garb, waiting patiently. Jean thinks that there is someone there, but he isn't sure. After Ilk's business there is done, he gives the assassin his attention. She asks him if it might be best to keep his appointment with a certain young lady. Ilk waffles over how to best respond without revealing his multiplicity. "I would never miss an appointment of that nature." The assassin turns and catches the edge of the hypersonic saucer just enough to be thrown out and over the demons, where she disappears. Ilk asks Jean if he can spiral around the houses, to help build demon walls around them. Jean in the flying saucer makes long, elliptical curves, dipping into the demons at one edge, and rotating the ellipse to cover all of the regions of the house. [Demonic spirograph!] ------------------------- Bucephalus Meets Beldan, his Son. alt: Vain. Status, Contaminated. Malachai and Osric reach Vain. They spot the local king in a swan-boat near the border. Malachai greets the king by name, and Kal Roderick greets Malachai as a fellow Kal. They exchange greetings, and Osric checks for and fails to find any hint of Gwen magic. They chat. Malachai accepts a lunch invitation, and the king sends a duckling-boat to shore to take them aboard. A crew member comes up to the king's table and tells him that they have encountered yet another invisible barrier in the water and that it might take some time for them to clear it. Osric goes off to look over the bow of the boat. Many peasants are levering out huge bars of what look like solidified smoky water out of the river. One or two of the peasants touch the smoky water, scream, and disappear. The king is annoyed when he finds out that someone is stealing his peasants, and starts yelling. Malachai and Osric take a duckling boat to shore to examine the bar. Malachai touches it gently with Galantine, and it reverberates painfully. Osric gathers a tiny bit of Fringe energy and pokes it at the bar. *zot* Osric mentions the connection with Flora's bonds to Malachai. Osric sends a tiny probe of Fringe energy forward along the river. It hits something about a quarter of a mile ahead of them. He checks past that, and doesn't find anything else. He can't find anything behind them. They speculate on the reasons behind the barriers. Malachai trumps Corwin. Corwin is at a desk with Prospero. Prospero is reading back to Corwin a proclamation that Corwin wrote, and Corwin is commenting on it. Corwin tells Malachai that he has discovered that there is an eavesdropper on the trumps. Malachai says that he'll call him back with a note. Malachai writes a note, trumps again, passes the note through, and is told that Serena considers Corwin a poor Malachai substitute on the throne - he doesn't agree with her as often as Malachai. Malachai notices that when he stopped concentrating on the trump, the eyes on the trump stopped glowing red. Osric comments that the eyes were glowing the entire time. They return to the ship and report on the next barrier to Roderick. Roderick sends some peasants forward to clear out the next barrier. They load up on heavy foods and say their goodbyes, then Malachai starts shadow-walking towards the smoky frozen water. Osric feels discomfort, like he is moving towards his opposite. The hills around them get taller, they are walking down a slope, the slope has taken on the connotation of stairs, and it is getting darker. Osric keeps a gate ready, Malachai holds Corwin's trump in his hand, and they continue. Between one step and the next, the air shifts into water around them and they're walking down Failla-Bionin. Osric realizes that he's underwater, but he's still breathing fine. Malachai briefly tells Osric about Rebma and Tir. There are people walking towards them. It's Damia, Vialle, Bast, two babies, and an honor guard of soldiers. Bucephalus seems very happy to see the crowd in front of him. Damia looks at Bast, who slips her a wink. The guards are wearing that same bird-feather armor that Cyndia was wearing. Malachai notices that Vialle is walking with her mother in law, and each of them are carrying babies. Damia sees two men on horses riding towards them. Malachai stops and dismounts. The groups exchange greetings. There is a well-maintained Damia corpse following the group. The Damia with whom they are talking is not in her body. "How are things in Rebma?" "They seem well enough." Regarding Corwin: "He's made a partial recovery from being dead." Bast seems to be having a conversation with Bucephalus and is holding the child up for inspection. Malachai inspects the baby. Damia tells Malachai that "Beldan, whom Bast is displaying, is the child of myself and Brandt and Bast and Bucephalus" "You seem capable of ... more combinations than I had thought possible." "When my present difficulties began I was with child." Malachai clues, and expresses sympathy. "Yes, grandpa. or would you prefer uncle?" Malachai prefers uncle. "and this is your cousin Shannon", Damia says, pointing at the baby being carried by Vialle. "Do you know where my son is?" "Your son?" "Random." "Oh, that son! Random's in the castle." "Do you know where one could find Celeste?" "Last I saw her with Norton." "Ah, then if I search for one, I find both." The difficulty of tracking people down is discusses - as soon as you find out where they are, they move. [The Brand Gambit: Wipe the board clean and start over] They prepare to part company. Vialle turns to Malachai as they pass and says, "Do try and take care. My rooms were disturbed." [Moving the furniture in a blind woman's quarters. Petty, and cruel.] Vialle tells them that she did not encounter her aunt, or the queen, or any other members of the court. They trumped in. Vialle gestures, and a servant opens a trunk and exhibits a sculpture of her room. Bucephalus nickers to Damia as she walks by. He looks smug. ------------------------------- Jean: Cross-Reality Transit System Rescuing Suhuy Brand Acquires a Giant Jewel of Judgment Norton turns to Ilk, and invites him to come along into the overworld with him. Ilk expresses surprise that they aren't waiting for Clarissa to finish her nap, but agrees. Brand wills a door to appear in the tower, and one appears. Ilk and Norton exit. They're in a smoky plane. They're standing on nothing. It looks to Ilk like the place that was there before chaos. Brand makes a trump sketch of Norton for Ilk. Norton and Ilk concentrate on Jean, and Brand draws a sketch. Ilk tries the trump. Jean is getting a trump call. All of them. Jean takes it. All five Jeans are in contact with Ilk. Ilk sees five overlaid scenes. Ilk tries to convince Jean to pull Norton through to the place with Suhuy, and ends up agreeing to teach him magic. Jean is bouncing on the bed when he pulls Norton through. The observers are astonished. Norton ... [?] Ilk notices the Pattern in the Jewel. He goes to sit in the corner. Jean asks the newcomers to look through the hole in the wall. Ilk looks through the hole in the wall. He sees mist. Norton looks. He sees large herbivores, jostling and looking for snacks. Brand says that he needs to take over the body. Norton isn't very okay with that. Augral points out that Norton is losing his shape. Ilk casts a translator spell, and discovers that the fluid language isn't the dominant language of this shadow. But he can hear the tower grumbling about the ache in some of its stones. Augral tells Ilk that he was once briefly in a place run by him and one other person. He was spontaneously created, then decreated. Ilk says that, given the nature of that place, that would not be impossible. Jean introduces Augral to Ilk. Norton shapeshifts an LCD screen onto the palm of his hand and displays the animals on the other side of the hole for Augral. Augral sees mist on the screen. Ilk sees mist. Norton sees animals. Ilk notices that there is Logrus here, and that it is trying to leak into him. He resists. [The giant Jewel. It's like the Blarney stone, but bad] Ilk goes into the hallway outside the room to avoid the massive amount of Pattern energy building up in the room. Jean joins Ilk in the hallway, where they encounters the majordomo, who looks like Brand. Ilk distracts the majordomo by asking for a tour of the tower. The tour starts at the top of the tower. Norton and Mandor are chatting in the box in Norton's head, There is an annoying popping sound. Norton senses that his outside seems untenanted. Norton goes out to tenant it. There is now a Suhuy standing next to him. Norton is Norton, and there is a very large hand starting to pull the Jewel out of the ceiling. About half-way through the castle tour, Ilk notices a hole that wasn't there before, about giant-hand sized. Suhuy looked at Norton, nodded, and then fell over on the bed. Norton contemplates poking Suhuy, then looks for a stick, and finally makes a little blood-bird and sends it to Ilk. Ilk sees a bird flutter out of the hole in the floor. It's Jewel-red. Ilk dodges. It flutters around Ilk's head, peeping. Augral says that the bird is trying to contact him, something about get here now. Ilk looks through the hole and sees Suhuy on the bed. He grabs Jean and dives through the hole. They see infinite space between the floors, then are past it and on the bed. Ilk trumps Jean. Sandy Jean in Chaos walks over and slaps Ilk, trying to beat the Ilks to the core dump. Ilk throws Suhuy through to Ilk in Chaos along with a core dump. Jean is most impressed. Celeste is getting a trump call. It's Norton. It's really distant. Mandor is giving Norton a lot of power to get through. "I seem to have misplaced Brand." Norton pulls Celeste through. Norton explains that Brand took over his body, got a Suhuy out of a huge Jewel of Judgment, and then became big and took it. Celeste trumps Brand. It looks like Brand. He seems to be carrying a staff of office and is coming through the door. He says, "What is this in my mind?" Celeste dumps the contact. The majordomo complains loudly about the hole in his ceiling. Celeste introduces herself to the woman and to Brand, speaking in a differently accented version of the fluid tongue. This Brand's name is "Marking on Cow". Celeste succeeds in keeping a straight face. Norton tries to get into mental contact with Celeste. She gives him a tiny box in her head to talk in, and puts up mental shields. Norton examines the shields. He's never seen shields that powerful before. "Do you polish them?" "Regularly." Celeste decides that the group should go in search of Brand. Now. The group, currently lacking a short-term goal, assents. Augral disentangles himself from the woman and drapes himself over Jean. The Augral collective is now in trump contact with the Jean collective, and Ilk is in the corner. There are apparently several million Augrals, and they're all over the place. The pipe is being hosed. Ilk is annoyed. They leave the tower through the front door. They can all see massive footprints, and Celeste can spot a massive trail with her matrix crystal. Norton turns into a dragonish-flying thing that Celeste can ride on. Ilk pops wings and grabs Jean with one arm. They flying off after the giant Brand with the giant Jewel of Judgment. [Yes, Ilk, of all people, is using Jean, a Pattern-user, as a shield against the Logrus] ----------------------------- In Chaos Ilk and Cassandra enter Princess Chandra's chamber. Ilk bows. Cassandra bows and is shown to a seat. Princess Chandra thanks Ilk. Ilk bows again and leaves. Ilk spots Gil trying to carve her way through the wall next to the door, and a dead Sith. Ilk convinces Gil to stop chopping at the wall. Ilk tries to leave, but Gil doesn't want to be left alone. Ilk and Gil leave the chateau, and Gil starts killing the nearby demons. She's very happy about that. She doesn't kill Ilk. Ilk gives Gil a magical contact device, leaves the boat moored, and leaves. Ilk contacts Ilks and checks messages at House Cara and Suhuy's realm. The Ilk at House Cara is now a full Ilk, and he knows that he wasn't a full Ilk before he went to sleep - no matter how tired he was, he would never be that weak. Suhuy is home. Fresh barriers are up around Suhuy's realm - Ilk can't even get close enough to check his messages. Ilk prime prepares to go to Darkover, where he plans to wait long enough for Clarissa to be freshly woken up, and then shift into a Mikail near a blue gem. [Note - plan changed to have Ilk prime wait for Suhuy's inevitable summons at House Cara, and have the Ilk currently there grab sandy Jean and head to Darkover to wait for Clarissa to wake up.] --EORun--