Last Time in Amber
"My own role sometimes makes me want to strangle the author"
- A bonus of 1 additional point per hundred words (up to a maximum of 5) is available to any player who sends us a short summary of what happened last time.
- These should be clearly either an in-character summary or an out of character summary.
- Summaries will be published here!
Sebastian's report to Benedict
Please note that your characters will not be aware of this report, but it's an excellent summary for you as players of what went on last time!
Sir, I know that I have already given you what I had experienced during the recent mission to locate and bring back those who failed to return their first Pattern walk, however as instructed I have written a report including my assessment of various aspects and why I reacted the way I did.
As you can recall, my arrival next to a previous unknown Pattern in what would pass as an otherwise peaceful valley was unexpected to both of us. One end of the valley lay some peaks the other a lake of some significance. There was no immediate sign of a threat nor what happened to the missing members of the family.
After you had passed through those who had been assigned to help, namely Bastian, Declan, Dracon, Shade, and Juanita, we started the initial search of the area after the link between us was cut. Of the group, only Declan I knew to any great extent and have work with him without issue. However, with exception of Dracon, the others were on the wrong side of the events concerning the missing Regalia of Rebma. This might have proved a problem with such issues as resentment and distrust towards Declan and I. For my own part I tried not to be too agonistic. I did however hand out a copy of my trump to those who lack my own. Risky yes, but we had to try and stay in touch with each other.
There was a bit of a discussion of how this Pattern resembled the one in Castle of Amber and it differed. It was mainly Bastian and Shade asking those who had. Of course, I struggled here having only just walked it once, although Juanita was able to provide more background and mentioned something about a ‘Primal’ one during the discussion. There was also some unresolved speculation as to when it could have been drawn.
Using my familiarity of the scents of both Morgan and Nathan, I discovered that both had been in this glade although only around a specific spot, where some other distinct scents of varying detectability could be made out. My assumption was they had rested after completing walking the Pattern for the first time, as that was what I needed to do. It was odd that no trails though which led me to suspect they were trumped or carried from the valley and suspicious they rested in same spot more or less. I can’t have been the only one to notice the lack of any signs of conflict either. Anyway, it was an opportunity to rest which I took. Dracon did some sort of sorcerous check and announced the time flow was about the same as it was Amber.
A more expansive search was then carried out with Bastian searching towards the lake and nearby treeline, Shade checking the other direction in the valley towards the peaks. It wasn’t so much an organised search, more that they wandered off in opposite directions without telling anyone else what they were going.
Dracon conjures up from nowhere a flock of bird like creatures and they fly off in numerous directions and he concentrates on them to some degree. Sometime later I found out he could see what they saw and could communicate through them, at least that what I suspect that Bastian meant by ‘talking birds’.
This leaves Declan, Juanita and myself by the Pattern itself. We discuss the merits of someone bringing up Pattern to see if he or she can get any sort of direction on where our missing relatives went. Declan offers and fairly measurement steps slowly walks away in the direction that Bastian went, pausing for a while before moving on again.
Dracon perhaps no longer to needing to devote his attention to his birds asked for trump of Corwin and with some reluctance I handed my copy to him. I went as far to ask him for a receipt somewhat I admit in a flippant mood, he somewhat cockily conjured one out of thin air. However, his attempt to use did not meet with success.
We went through the same routine when he asked to borrow Corwin’s Trump as he returned Merlin’s one to me. However much to my surprise, Merlin answered. Much of the conversation was beyond my understanding although the most important thing that had relevance latter on was the fact that Merlin did not recognise this Pattern and he had seen several.
After the conversation had come to a bit of an impasse, Merlin announced he wanted to stay and study this Pattern for a while. I was tempted to veto the idea but already knew that the moment we left the place, Merlin was the sort of person who reappear immediately to carry on his study and was capable of doing so. His reputation of seeking and looking for trouble already is a thing of legend.
Since I had lent the Trumps to Dracon, I suddenly had an idea where he could return the favour. I had him use his well-let’s-be honest-here chicken-like servants to acquire a literal bird eye’s view of path of this Pattern and while I have no idea if it is of any use, a copy of this view is attached to this report in case it is useful.
Around this time, it should be noted that Declan had walked far enough away from the Pattern to detect something of note, a Shadow gateway, and Bastian had seemingly noticed it as well. After saying farewell to Merlin, the three of us still in the immediate vicinity of the Pattern walked with purpose to join Declan and Bastian. On the way, we were also joined by Shade who seemingly just appeared from behind a tree. We were greeted by Bastian asking Dracon if the bird standing there was his.
According to Bastian, the reason why it was detectable was that it had been used repeatedly in the last few days and was likely the reason it was still present. I was able to find a scent using my heightened animistic senses, it was not too obvious but it was there. A single person had come and gone numerous times, the last time being no more than a few days. Perhaps the repeated trips were the reason why any trace remained. It was an unfamiliar scent. It suggested of course that those who were missing were carried off as they appeared one by one.
Given there was seemingly no other way to go, we all crossed through the veil. What meet our eyes was something of a contrast to the place we just left, a sprawling busy city. While the city was different to Amber, a Palace or great hall rather than a Castle, the architecture more 18th or 19th century rather than medieval, there was an echo or some sort of resemblance. I am sorry I don’t have the words to encompass what I am trying to convey here.
One thing was evident was the fact that there were no outlandish signs of who run the place, no statue of a king, queen or emperor and when the locals were asked who was in charge they simply referred to him as ‘the Lord’.
I ran a brief check on Trumps. Many of those of the missing people showed flickering signs of contact, apparently too far to be used and yours however, did not work at all.
Declan arranges for a convenient medical emergency on some affluent-looking passer-by via the use of magic, and while helping the victim, I noticed that he also helps himself to the victim’s wallet which contains local currency and some calling cards. The first thing he does with his newly acquired funds is purchase a local newspaper, the Times. I have managed to acquire it and again it comes as part of this report. I am informed that this is a generic name for a newspaper throughout, and it neither goes into great detail about his ‘Lordship’ nor mentions my erstwhile cousins. The victim is carted off to hospital.
The city is something of a trading port, so while we are clearly not locals, we do not stand out too much either. Unfortunately, it is also a large city and in order we could cover more ground quickly, we split up to see if we could find any trace of those who were missing. Yes, I agree it was a risky move but as time was seemingly of the essence. Besides, we had trumps of each other if we need back-up or a get out. We divided up the search as follows; Shade and Juanita the docks and harbourmaster, Declan the higher-class eateries and bars, Bastian various merchants, I took the lower-class inns and hostelries. Dracon would search arcanely.
I got nothing for the dives except challenged on occasion, although nothing more than that. I decided to check the religious district and there were many faiths represented here, including that of the Unicorn which was something I was surprised by. Declan trumped me saying he had secured rooms at an establishment called the Blue Boar and gave rough directions. Also, I thought it would be prudent to ‘mark’ the location of the Shadow veil in case we even here again.
The results of our labours were mixed.
I had drawn a blank, Bastian commented his ‘Lordship’ had been seen yesterday buying a smooth wooden club, this turns out as I later discovered a baseball bat for Rosie and I honestly don’t know what to say about that. Declan had required the rooms, Shade had visited the Harbourmaster and found that all the possible trading posts that dealt with the City had unfamiliar names. Juanita announced her ship would be in harbour the next morning and would be ready to sail on the following tide. The fact she could get her boat here is of great interest.
Dracon however had the more critical success, he had found traces of our people in the local Hospital as of previous day. He wanted to investigate further, I went with him to keep an eye over him. This is when I realised that Dracon is a bit of a liability, for he obviously believes that magic is the only way to do things having a spell for everything or so it seems and the only way get information from an organisation is to get those in charge and rip the information out of their mind using magic. Yes, he undoubtedly knows his stuff but he isn’t subtle and something of a one trick pony.
The information he got was good but most of it was available but other means. Our missing lambs were checked into a private ward on consecutive days and they are regained consciousness (or the nearest equivalent to it), all at about the same time with his ‘Lordship’ sitting in the room. He then took them all to a nearby restaurant for a meal. I checked the records and all had ‘standard’ medical checks and you know that can cover a multitude of sins, although the records stated that Aiden was treated for burn damage.
How the one things Dracon did drag out the poor administrator was an image of this ‘Lordship’ and on first examination it could have been Corwin, you know the black and silver, even a rose clasp. Dracon stated as such but I was not convinced for two big reasons, the earlier conservation with Merlin and this whole place didn’t feel like it was Corwin’s. I understand that Corwin had created his own Pattern during ‘the troubles’ but nothing here suggested that this place was his.
Dracon repeat the whole magic mind-dump thing on the Maître d’ of the Eatery without learning anything of great use. All we really found out, the meal happened and the State paid for it.
It was one thing to do what he did in the hospital but another in the restaurant as well, I think here is Dracon’s more telling weakness, he needs to know every detail, but is unconcerned to constraints of time and of situation. Sometimes you just need to act without having perfect information.
Anyway, eventually we returned to the Blue Boar where we informed other of the findings.
There was a debate as to our next move, whether we had time to visit the Palace or not? For my own part, I was tired and needed rest before we sailed tomorrow. I wasn’t sure what could be gleaned from the Palace. Some of the others had different ideas.
Declan was of a similar mind to me and Juanita wanted to sort out matters on board her ship. Shade, Bastian and Dracon would try their luck at the Palace. It was decided we would leave in the ship and the others could catch up.
So early next morning those of us who didn’t wish to go the Palace went aboard Juanita’s ship, and she ordered her crew to make sail. The others returned in short order with mixed levels of success. Shade found out that the Lord was not in residence but he was yesterday, Bastian said there was a Pattern located underneath it, Dracon drew a blank, for he had encountered a power far greater than magic and that was bureaucracy.
Juanita, it has to be said runs a tight ship, so it felt prudent to leave her to run it the way she normally does. Once sufficiently away from port, she began manipulating our journey with use of the Pattern. I recalled you mention the term ‘hell-riding’, well this was I suppose was ‘hell-sailing’. Juanita was concentrating her efforts on finding Rosie, undoubtedly the most distinctive of the those we had come to retrieve.
When Juanita started to show signs of flagging I offered to try my hand with this hell-riding, after all you said I had to practice these disciplines. Not knowing Rosie as well as Juanita, I sorted out her Trump from the deck I received from Random and use that to focus my thoughts. It helped and while I felt we maybe had slowed slightly, we were still moving forward with a clear objective.
Rosie, I confess would not have been my first choice of contact, but it seemed counterproductive to change from Juanita’s choice at that stage.
It was during my ‘hell-riding’ stint that Bastian had manage to make some sort of Trump contact with the lost souls, my attention was only half aware of what was going on board ship so I couldn’t make out the details of Bastian’s sketchy contact. In fact, I can’t be sure whether Bastian had made the call or was the receiver although I thought I saw Juanita in close proximity to him, so she was possibly assisting Bastian.
Shortly aware becoming aware of this, there was what I can only describe as a sense of arrival, the ship was now travelling downstream in a wide river, located in some forest or possibly jungle area and on the bank the group we had been sent to find. That said I had to have enough wits about me to stop what I was doing in a hurry otherwise the ship would have ploughed onwards into part of the river which inexplicitly rose and boiled like some barrier impeding further safe travel. Juanita and her men, brought the ship to a halt and dropped anchor.
The wayward group made it on board and thus we were in one place. As instructed I proceeded to hand out the other Trump decks to their intended targets, the reactions I received in doing this ranged from Nathan who recoiled as if I just handed him a live grenade to that of Rosie who accepted her deck with a glee of a small child having just received a gift from Santa.
Out of the five wayward souls, the only one who I was never seen before was Felicia, apparently the granddaughter of Fiona, and I was forced to make my own introductions. She showed all the signs of this being her first significant outing, a mixture of relief and excitement. To complete the fivesome, there was Aiden, Crown Prince of Kashfa, someone who I had come across during the affair where Martin had been embroiled in a murder of an important Golden circle dignitary and whose allegiances I still didn’t trust, and Morgan someone who I had worked with previously on a couple of occasions with some measure of success.
We began getting testimony from the others. All had seemingly finished walking the Pattern in Amber under the supervision of Gerard, was transported from Its centre and fell unconscious somehow, and all had awoken at approximately the same time in the same ward in hospital to find ‘Corwin’ sitting there awaiting their return to consciousness. So far confirming what we already knew. He treated them to a meal and enlisted their help to deal with a group who had designs to destroy his Pattern and the shadows associated with it. He asserted that if this group were successful in their aims, the destruction of his Pattern would have dire repercussions for Amber. It might have been better if an orderly recounting of their tale took place but this never happened.
The details of their journey after they left the city and some of their exploits emerged, although what they deemed important varied on whom you asked. Although some important details were common to most as far as I could make out. There was both surprise and relief at our arrival because of the fact that beyond the boiling water barrier lay nothing, the shadow that once laid beyond it destroyed. The groups carrying out the destruction were Chaosians and they were doing this in stages, how I can’t be sure, although through the confusion of voices and tales, I heard someone say the words ‘Primal Chaos’. One story that was related on a number of times, included the detail that these Chaosians took on the forms of a mother Tiger and her cubs, and how this group had killed with some ferocity a male tiger.
There was also a trump card of this ‘Corwin’ doing the rounds, when I studied it brief, there was something immediately amiss with it. Perhaps it chimed with all we had encountered which suggested that we weren’t dealing with Corwin, or the personality that exuded from the card felt wrong, was it his stance one I had seen many times before but not from Corwin, initially I struggled to understand why I had these doubts, then I realised what was missing. There was no Grayswandir.
Corwin is as you know many things to many people, but that blade is as much as a part of him as it is a weapon, and no formal Trump would even be drawn of him without his precious blade.
I voiced my opinion that Trump was not Corwin to the others and pointed out the lack of that blade. This prompt a wave of activity and the Trump was taken from me as others now fuelled with doubt as to its authenticity wanted to examine it again.
Felicia starts talking about the “Treehouse of Impending Doom”, and while many including myself are confused by the reference, it prompts Dracon to cast something, I caught he doing this out of the corner of my eye, he even starts to projecting an image what he is seeing from afar. Not all present take the time to witness what Dracon was projecting.
“It’s Osric”, I heard someone yell out, might have been Morgan but my focus was elsewhere.
Dracon summons up images of five people, four in a circle around the fifth. The presumed Chaosians were involved in a ritual as far as I come tell but I could not hear what they were charting. The one of the middle seemed to be leading proceedings. I positioned myself behind Dracon and realised he was completely oblivious to me being there. Details were hard to make out as the power build up interfered with Dracon’s spell.
The arcane energy builds for a time then perhaps just before the point of conclusion Dracon cuts the vision. Perhaps it was prudent that he did so given what happen next.
The next few seconds are a bit of a blur and confusion reigns. People start yelling “Incoming” and “Run”, and a few even disappear. There it hit, a shockwave of immerse force, laced with energy I had never witnessed before. The Pattern within me flared when I was caught in the blast. And there it was over as quickly as it had begun, and while I was still conscious, parts of me wished that I wasn’t.
I surveyed the scene, many of the group unconscious or groaning, Juanita’s crew all unconscious, the ship while still afloat in a river, the surrounding area while similar had changed. The ship had broken free and was slowly drifting. I forced myself over to the helm and made sure we didn’t run aground. The ship was still our best way of getting around quickly and in more or less one group.
The shock of the Energy wave was replaced by a panic brought on a frenzy of Trump usage, including people coming and going, Juanita announcing she was getting a Trump call from some unknown source and fending it off. The fact that people were still groggy may have worsened the situation. For my own part, I stayed at the Helm, needing a true course. Knowing that if I was attacked via Trump I would be easy prey, I tried that trick you suggested about concentrating on the Pattern. I suppose it worked as I wasn’t aware of any Trump contact but that could have simply been the fact that no-one tried, I would have not known either way. Eventually some of Juanita’s men regained consciousness and took over controlling the ship.
Eventually the unwanted Trump calls and the panic subsided, as we all reqrouped as one big happy family. Time to reflect. Osric had yet again misled others to do his bidding, this time by getting the group believe he was ‘Corwin’. The mechanisms of how he managed to get all five to his realm was far from clear, especially given the day gap between each individual Pattern walk. I am willing to concede that neither Aiden nor Felicia who were in Amber during the coronation in Rebma. However, I would of like to hope that Morgan and Nathan would have most sense assuming they had any choice in the matter. As for Rosie, she seemed to be convinced be the fact she was present with a baseball bat.
I can understand why Osric chose not to advert his involvement this time around after the last time, and there may well be truth to the claim the Chaoians were attempting to destroy his Pattern. While the claims that it would have dire effects for Amber were not proven, but these methods used by the Chaosians here at the very least could repeated against Amber itself. Their mission needed to fail. I therefore quietly cursed the fact that I was obliged to help Osric on this occasion.
Something of an altercation between Dracon and Declan flared up, as to the reason why I couldn’t say. The sudden movement caught my eye. It involved Declan attempting to hit Dracon over the back of the head, and Dracon would have had no idea about it, except a flash of power and Declan’s blow hit some sort of barrier.
Declan informs that an agent of Osric awaits two shadows from the those behind the destruction. Someone inquires why the agent is two shadows away, Declan replies because he is smart sarcastically. Declan forcefully asks everyone if they are coming through to do so now. Declan was clearly in a determined mood. We stepped through the Trump link.
Bastian does something and we shift again, we now standing looking at the five Chaosians a little way away and they are going through the ritual again.
Upon arrival, I wasted no time and took on my demonic form to the shock of some of my cousins. “How is it going in the courts?”, Aiden asks almost sneeringly. “What Courts?” I growled back. “Good answer”, he replies.
My sword is drawn. While I made no words to explain my intent but my sword was drawn and you know I do not ever unsheathe it lightly.
Not waiting for acknowledgement from nor approval of the others I leapt towards the nearest Chaosian, engaging in swordplay, and knew if we had left to our own devices it would have been close between me and my opponent, however we weren’t alone. Thanks to my companions, it was over quickly, I left the opponent unconscious for questioning later.
Then there was the explosion, I has hit by such a force I backed out instantly, I was too close to the ground zero of the blast, the backlash of energy their leader lost control of manipulating.
I became aware to myself again to a short while later looking the scene of devastation, every cell within my body ached and throbbed, a headache from hell, lying flat on the ground. The signs were there I was fighting for control of my form and identity. It was difficult but I was holding it. I couldn’t be sure that I slipped into the Primal form for a while in response to the explosion.
Dimly I was aware of the others and they were in various states of shock, pain and injury.
Shade came over and made an offer of help as he had admitted he had some shapeshifting healing. I declined though thank him for the concern. What I needed was to rest and not be shapeshifting for a while, and I could not be sure that my body would perceive any shapeshifting induced by Shade as hostile or not. It was a chance I didn’t want to risk.
What remains to tell is the clean-up, three Chaosians dead and one in the centre vaporised, the fifth the one I left unconscious, his mind would be most unlikely to ever recover.
We regrouped on Juanita’s boat, and as I was shattered I let the others do the work this time. The boat was soon returned back to the valley that contained the first of the previously unknown Patterns and once there my first thought was to I call you because of Osric’s involvement.
I have a number of concerns;
- How and why the five previous ‘missing’ family members were all sent to Osric’s Pattern on their first Pattern walk? And how did Osric know that they would be there to recover them?
- Whether these five have any lasting compulsions planted there by Osric while they were in his hospital?
- Whether Osric is in possession of any ‘samples’ such as blood of the five again that could be used in rituals against them or Amber?
- Who were the Chaosians because as far as I was aware I do not know who they were?
- Where is Osric’s Pattern in relate to Amber and the one apparently drawn by Corwin? The Chaosians got there somehow.
- What happened to Merlin, he was brought by Dracon to Osric’s Pattern via Trump but was not there when we returned? I did actually try to Trump him at one point while on Juanita’s boat but got no reply.
No doubt there will be some sort of debrief and questions you or the King for that matter may have, and of course I will make myself available when necessary.