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Compactifying The Mysticalities

or

Damien 2.0

Notes : Session 4.4


Recorded for Posterity by Iain Walker.


Session 4.3   Index   Session 4.5


130 PPF


We stand around Finndo in the shadow university campus, by the now-immobile psychometric resurrection supercomputer that was taken over and animated by a fragment of Anurerishkigal trapped in a Soulstone.

Ibrahim begins to dismantle - that is, chop up - the thing using Chrysanthir. From close up it appears to be a large computer bank that has mutated and shapeshifted itself.

Tamarind points out the Trump power source it uses, and Ibrahim cuts it out. This proves to be a football-sized purple crystal with electrode connections extending from it. Removing this breaks the link with the creature/device so that it is no longer drawing power from it.

However, when Tristan reduces the level of his Pattern emanations, the thing starts moving again. It appears to have a back-up power source of some kind. Damn.

Tristan radiates Pattern at it again while Ibrahim excavates inside it for the Soulstone at its heart.

He finds it quite quickly, near to where the Trump power source was. He uses Chrysanthir to dig it out, then radiates Pattern at it to try and suppress it.

Tristan stops radiating Pattern, and the mutant supercomputer does not move.

Ibrahim lowers his suppression too.

The supercomputer remains stationary. Phew.

As we do this, Phoenix suddenly realise how she can shift her vision to see life-force. She does this, and now has her own built-in life-force lens. With her new perception she can see that the Soulstone is dying, fading away.

"We need a Stone Binding spell," says Tristan.

"I think I have one hung in the spare spell rack in Corvallin," says Damien.

Tristan thus summons Castle Corvallin, which hoves into view over the skyscrapers.

It floats down, the ramp lowers, and Damien runs inside.

He quickly finds his spare Spell Rack, Trumps back to Tristan and Ibrahim stops radiating Pattern at it. Damien quickly casts a Michelangelo spell (not quite a Stone Binding, but close enough for our purposes) on the Soulstone, and it freezes into stasis with just a smidgen of life left in it.

While Finndo is unconscious, Tristan searches him. However, he only finds a (large) Trump deck, which he gives to Tamarind.

At this point there is a wail of sirens and a screech of tyres as the police arrive.

Large numbers of uniformed officers pile out of their police cars, form a line, and point guns at us. "Move away from the Emperor!" orders an officer over a megaphone.

Damien is already stooping to put smelling salts under Finndo's nose.

The police shoot at him.

Damien dodges.

All of the police officers open fire.

Phoenix shifts into demon form.

Tristan decides that he will not be hit in this storm of largely random gunfire, and so is not.

Tamarind quickly Trumps into Castle Corvallin, then begins Trumping all of us at once.

Ibrahim hides behinds the remains of the supercomputer.

Damien positions himself between Finndo and all of the flying lead.

We all feel Trump calls coming on, and accept them. It proves to be Tamarind. We all come though to him, Damien bringing Finndo with him, vanishing from in front of the perplexed police officers in four purple rainbows and cleverly managing not to collide as we all appear at once.


Castle Corvallin rises up into the air and Tristan shifts us all off to somewhere less high-tech and less hostile.

But as we Trump into the constant magical environment of Castle Corvallin, where the magic is different to that of Finndo's shadow, the Michelangelo spell on the Soulstone instantly dissipates, and the Soulstone is now truly dead.

Oh well.

After a short while, Damien finally manages to wake up Finndo.

He sits up. "Thank you," he says groggily.

"Hello Finndo, your life now belongs to me," says Damien cheerily. "Literally."

"Well done on the aggression of your subordinates," Ibrahim sarcastically compliments Finndo.

"I mentioned my experiments in psychometric interrogation..." says Finndo by way of an explanation.

"You mentioned it, but I didn't understand it," says Tristan.

Phoenix, who understood perfectly, is obviously a little (more) disillusioned with Tristan.

"I admit that the Soulstones do have a tendency to grow out of control in the psychometric interrogator," says Finndo. "But I had always been able to deactivate them in the past. Although deactivating them has been getting harder..."

Hmm...


Tristan shifts Castle Corvallin back into Finndo's shadow.

Having had a good look through them, Tamarind hands Finndo's Trumps back to him.

"I should be able to track the other Soulstone from within the same shadow," Finndo says.

As we cruise over the city once again, Castle Corvallin is buzzed by what seem to be police helicopters.

Finndo pulls a small radio from his belt and, via it, tells the helicopters to back off.

By now we are hovering over the park where we fought the first animated supercomputer. Damien goes out onto the end of Corvallin's entrance ramp, and so out of the constant magical environment that Corvallin carries with her, and casts a Hell-Fire spell down onto its wrecked remains. It burns.

Finndo joins Damien at the end of the ramp and casts a locator spell.

"The other Soulstone is underwater some two hundred miles that way," he says after a moment. "Burrowing into the ocean floor."

"Could the different Soulstones have influenced the different behaviours of the two supercomputers?" Phoenix wonders.

"I think the Soulstones just picked up different aspects of the Anurerishkigal, rather then determining the resultant behaviour," says Finndo.

Corvallin heads off towards the ocean, in pursuit of the rogue supercomputer.

As we go, Tristan decides that it is likely that it will blunder into some molten magma.

"It's now heading back to the surface," reports Finndo. "I can bring in some of my people with nukes to get rid of it."

Phoenix is less than enthusiastic about either Finndo's people or their over-liberal willingness to resort to the use of nuclear weapons.

Instead, Tamarind creates a Trump Gate to send the rogue supercomputer into the heart of a star in another shadow.

Finndo assists him in directing the Gate to the precise location of the supercomputer, but once this is done, the supercomputer is Trumped into oblivion.

Tristan and Damien are keen to go to the shadow of the star to ensure that there is nothing left that could be a danger in future.


We acquire space suits from the capacious storerooms of Castle Corvallin, and we all put them on.

Then Tamarind Trumps us from Castle Corvallin into space in orbit around the star.

Finndo casts his locator spell again. "It's still alive," he says after a moment. "But in trouble. Oh. It's gone..."

"Could you clarify that?" we ask.

"It is no longer in existence," replies Finndo. "And it does not appear to have escaped."

"If by changing the shadow, could you sense whether the AI had escaped and left a distortion in shadow which might be easier or harder to change?" Damien asks Tristan.

"Since the Soulstone is Real," ponders Tristan. "It would be harder to change. But it would take several hours to make sufficient changes to detect the resistance if it is there at all."

"I'll just dive into the sun and look for life-force," decides Phoenix.

She heads off into the star under her own power.

Tamarind Trumps her and via this link guides her to the location where the rogue supercomputer appeared. She finds the correct volume of star, but there is no life-force there, just the elements of the supercomputer, dissolving into the star.

She emerges and rejoins the rest of us.

"We came to consult with you about Anurerishkigal," Tristan tells Finndo as we hover in space about Tamarind's star.

"I have the locator spell," Finndo admits. "But otherwise I have little new to use against it."

Oh.


That being so, we Trump Brand who, when he takes the call, proves to be in the shadow on the edge of the Farm.

We go through to him.

"Did you notice Fiona listening in when we went to Finndo and came back?" Tristan asks him. "I don't want her to know we're on her doorstep."

"No," says Brand. "I think I would have noticed if we did."

"Could we tap into whatever Anurerishkigal uses to draw up life-force from within the Farm, and send the memory fragments down the same route?" Ibrahim wonders.

"We need it to be within a life-force warded cage to ensure that it does not just escape back to the Land of the Dead," Damien points out.

We do have such a cage with us, in compact form.

"Would a diversion help us as we try and sneak into the Farm?" Phoenix wonders.

"I could send a creature of desire," Tristan suggests.

"I think we'd need something more like a Family member to provide sufficient distraction," Phoenix comments.

"Could we imitate Oberon coming into the Farm?" Ibrahim asks. "Pattern imprint and all. That would be a good distraction."

"I could give it a go," says Finndo with a slight grin.

"I have a plan," says Tristan. "I think I can slice gradually into the Farm using a series of shadow pockets, each one changed to match the next perceptible part of the shadow barriers around the Farm."

He explains this further with the aid of a picture.

Tristan's method of traversing the shadows of the Farm

Key to Shadow 1

Shadow 1

Key to Shadow 2

Shadow 2

Key to Shadow 3

Shadow 3

"Perhaps we should keep Finndo-as-Oberon with us for the meantime," suggests Damien. "And spring him at whatever seems the best moment."

No-one disagrees with this as a plan.

Brand Trumps away to acquire some armour. Just in case.

He quickly arrives back, encased in a suit of what seems to be dark red crystal armour.

Tamarind tests him to see at what range he can sense the Jewel of Judgement.

As someone not attuned to it, Brand seems to be unable to detect it beyond a range of a hundred yards or so.

"I think we can risk taking it with us," Tristan decides.

He begins to create an initial shadow pocket while the rest of us rest and hang or maintain spells.


Once he has created a shadow pocket, Tristan alters the environment of the pocket to match that of the shadow nearest to the Farm. Once he feels he is close enough, he opens a hole in the shadow veil between his shadow pocket and the first Farm shadow.

Through the hole, we can see that the other shadow is foggy, and that there are small things moving quickly through the fog. We suspect that the environment within is not overly conducive to health. Tristan can certainly tell that the shadow is anti-magical, and very low technology.

"Could you sample the atmosphere?" Tristan asks Phoenix.

She extends a tentacle through the hole in the shadow veil. "It's nerve gas," she tells us after a moment. "Very potent."

She finds that the flying things bite, too. They seem to be flying needles. And are also poisonous. She withdraws her tentacle.

"I can help with the poison," Phoenix tells us after analysing what she has found. "But not with the flying needle things."

She briefly takes back everyone's healing patches and teaches them how to cope with the horribly poisonous atmosphere.

Tamarind pokes a finger of his armoured glove through the hole into the poison shadow. The flying needles penetrate it despite its being bullet-proof. So armour will not protect us.

Tristan checks the needles and finds that they are not alive.

"I think we might hide in the circular Trump Gate so that the needles are Trumped from one surface to the opposite one," Tamarind suggests.

"Can you alter the immediate shadow without affecting all of it to render the needles inoperative around us?" Damien asks Tristan.

"I think I can do something similar with Probability Manipulation," Replies Tristan. "It is possible that there are areas that the needles simply do not occupy..."

Tamarind creates a Trump with which to form the Trump Gate, just in case, and activates it.

With all of us inside the area protected by the activated Gate, Tristan lets the gas and needles in and merges our shadow pocket with the Death Shadow. He and Damien leave their spell racks behind at this point, as the anti-magical nature of the Death Shadow will destroy their contents anyway.

We move across the Death Shadow protected by Tamarind's Trump Gate until we reach a convenient point to access the next shadow. Once there, Tristan slowly snips out part of the Death Shadow into another shadow pocket, then adjusts its environment to remove the poison gas and flying needles.

This takes quite a while. The effort of keeping us protected tires Tamarind out before Tristan is done, and he asks Finndo for help. This is given.


Once we are safe, Tristan opens a hole into the next shadow.

Those of us who can do so immediately sense that it is full of vast numbers of different micro-environments, as if each one was a tiny shadow pocket with its shadow veils removed, leaving its properties intact. The vast number of different shadow environments present in the same area makes it impossible to sense the overall properties of the shadow.

In addition to this, the place is cold, pitch black and in a hard vacuum.

With some suggestions from Damien, Tristan creates a larger shadow pocket, the surface of which mimics the variety of micro-environments.

As he does this, Phoenix alters those of us who need it, granting us some shapeshifted life support. She gives herself radar vision at the same time.

When Tristan is done, he lets the vacuum in, merging our shadow pocket with the multi-environment shadow.

Carefully merging the micro-shadows into our shadow pocket at the front and un-merging them at the rear allows Tristan to move the environment we are in along through the shadow as a whole. This is slow and complicated work. It is cold and dark.

Then Phoenix sees figures approaching on her radar vision, while Damien senses approaching vibrations underfoot. They seem to be humanoids with swords.

Phoenix tugs at Tamarind's arm, and he Trumps her.

She feels the call coming on, takes it, and explains the situation.

Tamarind Trumps each of us in turn (calling all of us at once taking more energy than he is prepared to give at the moment) and as we take the call explains the reason for it to each of us.

As the sword-wielding figures approach, Phoenix and Finndo begin modifying people to give them radar vision too.

The figures begin to engage us in combat.

Damien simply blind-fights. Tristan flails wildly.

Those who can see, can see that there are hundreds of the figures. Tamarind announces this to everyone else over the Trump.

As he engages them, Damien finds that they are not too fast compared to us, but they are strong. They seem to be made of stone. To those who can see, now that they are at close range the figures prove to be faceless sword-wielding statues.

Tamarind attempts to use a Trump Trap on them, but discovers that they do not have minds. Thus Trump Traps will not work on them. Damn.

As he closes with them, flailing wildly until Phoenix gives him radar vision, Tristan senses that the statues seem to run off the magical properties of the overall shadow. He radiates Pattern at them. Those around him fall over.

Tamarind's Trump blade grows to some ten metres long and he waves it at and through the statues. Although slow and very unwieldy, it proves quite effective at this.

"Can you check the next shadow!" Tristan asks Brand.

Brand nods, and concentrates.

"Hot, non-magical and Trump-barred," he says calmly after a moment. "And I suspect the alarm has been raised now."

"We should summon creatures of desire to leave here," suggests Ibrahim. "To make it look as if this was a diversion, or at least not an incursion by us."

This sounds like a good plan. Tristan and Brand put it into action. Tough amoeboid crystalline creatures appear out of shadow, and the statues fall on them.

While they are so distracted, we slip into the nest shadow.


The next shadow is indeed hot. There are volcanoes, and the air is hot and smells of sulphur. The ground cracks underfoot as one walks on it, or if one stands still for too long, displaying lave under a thin crust as it does so.

We run onwards over the surface, which cracks and collapses into the lava behind us as we go.

Brand trips and falls. Phoenix helps him up and they run on.

He seems to be concentrating as he runs. "There's a problem!" he announces. "The next shadow is nothing but solid rock filled with small holes, like a honeycomb."

"Can't we bypass it?" Tristan asks.

"It would take hours to create a shadow path to connect this and the honeycomb shadow," replies Brand.

We discuss this as we run over the collapsing lava.

Eventually we all vote in favour of abandoning subtlety.

That being so, Tristan uses the Jewel of Judgement to create a shadow path rather more quickly than would be the case with Pattern alone.

After some tens of minutes a cliff face of honeycombed rock appears out of the volcanic fumes and heat haze ahead of us.

"It's likely that a volcano will throw out a lava bomb large enough to gouge a hole in this cliff face," Ibrahim suggests.

BOOM!

A massive chunk of solidified lava hits the cliff face ahead of us, gouging, as desired, a hole into the cliff face. The damage to the cliff is sufficient to give us all handholds so that we no longer have to run around on the crust of the lava.

Once suitably secure, Ibrahim uses Chrysanthir to chip a bigger hole in the rock.

When it is large enough, we all wriggle in, and find that we are now in the honeycomb shadow.


"The next shadow," Tristan reports, concentrating on feeling its properties. "is highly magical, and alive."

Hmm...

Tristan opens a hole through the shadow veil into it, revealing a shadow that looks very much like the inside of a body cavity. More crystal amoebas of desire are summoned and sent in.

The shadow blasts them with magically powered white fusion flames, leaving only scorched spots on the ground.

Tristan concentrates on the Jewel of Judgement to suppress this. It seems quite effective, as the next set of amoebae to be sent in are not blasted into oblivion.

The shadow gives the impression of being frustrated.

Through the hole in the shadow veil we see the walls of the 'body cavity' there bud off giant centipedes which attack Ibrahim's crystalline amoebae.

Tamarind reaches through the hole, stabs the ground in the other shadow with Nexus, and begins to suck the spirit of the shadow into the blade.

It quickly becomes apparent that its mind is too big to do this quickly, so instead Tamarind and Brand use Nexus as a link to attack the mind of the shadow.

While the living shadow is so distracted, we enter it and Tristan begins sensing for the next shadow.

The centipedes are largely ignoring us.

By now Nexus is starting to become hot and glow from the sheer amount of spirit that it has absorbed from the shadow. Concerned that this might go horribly wrong if left unchecked, Tamarind uses the sword to open a link into an empty shadow somewhere and begins to drain the spirit of the shadow out into it.

Tristan slowly opens a hole through the shadow veil into the next shadow.


The shadow on the far side appears to be a city - or at least an alley in a city - lined with little box-like houses. It is dirty and dark, lit by luminous plants, and smells terribly. People can be seen shuffling about. Tristan can sense that magic is strong there, technology is non-functional, Trump works inside the shadow but not through the shadow veils around it, and time flows some five times faster than in Amber.

Some more of Ibrahim's amoebae of desire are sent through the hole into the other shadow. They plod off in a straight line, into the nearest house and crash out through the opposite wall. Screams are heard from within.

With this distraction in place, we go through the hole into the shadow and head off in the opposite direction.

We quickly see that this shadow appears to be a vast three-dimensional fractal structure, with housing on every surface. The little houses are packed in at all angles above, below and around us in a highly claustrophobic manner.

The people around us are thin and vaguely elfin or anime in appearance, dressed in rags. We very much stand out from the crowd. However, the people we pass avert their eyes from us.

Tristan peers through the life-force lens at the inhabitants. He sees that everyone has lots of life-force and so is naturally very long-lived. Though the conditions here might seem to imply otherwise.

There is a sudden cry of grief from a house, and we see a metre-long snake-like creature with a dragon-like head and a cluster of six insect-like legs just behind the head flit out from the houses above us through the wall into the house from which the cry came. It reappears out of the house and carries off a glowing ball of life-force up and away and out of sight.

The life-force carrying snake-thing

Now that we have noticed them we begin to see the snake-things flying about everywhere. We can sense that they have animal-like minds are not sentient, so they have no life-force.

Ibrahim and Damien check the magic of shadow here in case they need to use it. They find that although the magic here is powerful, it also seems to be keyed, so that something beyond merely understanding how it works is required to make it function. They inform everyone else of this.

"Is there a way of 'jamming the lock', so that no-one can use the magic?" Ibrahim asks.

"I could blast the magic of shadow with the Jewel," says Tristan. "That might do the trick..."

"Now would be a good time to be Oberon," Damien points out to Finndo. "What with all of Jewel energy flying about."

Finndo nods, and changes, and is Oberon.

At the same time Tristan uses the Jewel to blast the magic of shadow, 'jamming' the 'lock' so that now no-one can use magic here.

We continue on down a narrow and filthy alleyway.

At a convenient junction, we go one way while 'Oberon' goes the other to create a suitable diversion.

We head in the direction that the snake things carrying bundles of life-force seem to be heading.

As we proceed, the direction of gravity changes every so often, staying roughly perpendicular to the surface we are walking on. It changes abruptly rather than continuously with the angle of the ground.

The crowds of listless people filling the alleyways are significantly hindering our progress, so we take to the rooftops and head along them instead.

Not long after this, we discover that the Empowerment magic on the folding cage warded to prevent spirits escaping to the land of the dead has been destroyed by our passages through the various shadows on the way here. Damn.

We continue anyway, hoping that the memory fragment projector will work fast enough to kill Anurerishkigal outright.

Tristan, who is very tired by now, hands the Jewel to Ibrahim.


Not long after this, Tristan senses the shadow beginning to change. Someone is trying to turn the magic back on, and make other changes too. He mentions this to everyone else.

Damien and Ibrahim stop and concentrate and find that they can also sense this.

Tristan attempts to change the shadow back to how it was. However, whoever is doing this seems to be both more powerful and more skilled than he is. "Could you help?" he asks Brand.

Brand does so.

Tamarind quickly draws a Trump Sketch of a point as far in the distance as he can see in direction that the life-force carrying snakes are heading.

A few minutes later a cloud of black snake-creatures, differing from those we have already seen only in colour, descend on the area and begin ripping apart everyone they encounter, stopping only to collect the life-force thus liberated. Some head for us. Others seem to be heading in the direction 'Oberon' went.

Tamarind quickly Trumps us out to his prepared location. Then to another point in the distance. Then to another.

The black snake-things follow us.

Phoenix turns into a long wingless Oriental-type dragon and carries us instead.

"I think Fianurerishkigal and I are evenly matched," says Brand, beads of sweat on his forehead.

Bearing this in mind, Tristan tries to change the shadow so that elements of technology begin working.

These changes do not seem to be resisted, so that after a while, although Tristan is now very tired, gunpowder and radar begin to work here.

By now we have been flying and Trumping for over an hour, still following the course of the life-force carrying snake-creatures.

"The life-force is not leaking out of the shadow," Damien notes.

He shoots one of the snake-creatures with Wilkes, but the bullet passes straight through it to no visible effect.

Instead, Phoenix flies over and when she is close enough Ibrahim leans out and slices at the snake with Chrysanthir. It vanishes in a small puff of energy and (to those who can see it) the ball of life-force simply hangs in space where it was released. As we watch it does not begin to fade away, as occurs in most other shadows, so we conclude that it is being held here by the properties of the shadow, not by anything the snake was doing.

From this we wonder whether we might not need the warded cage after all...

"Perhaps you should reinforce this property," Damien suggests to Tristan.

Wanting to find out where it is going, Tamarind draws a quick Trump sketch of one of the snake-creatures and forces the Trump contact with it.

As the link opens up and he burrows into its tiny mind, he receives an image of a vast structure of spikes upon spikes in some sort of cavern. However, there is not a clear psychic impression of the place, so he cannot use the image as the basis of a Trump. When the image is passed on to the rest of us, though, Ibrahim thinks that it is close enough for him to use the Jewel of Judgement to teleport us there.

Before we go we experiment further on killing the flying snake-things.

We find that they can be killed, but only by Pattern weapons or by things with life-force in them - such as claws, teeth or bare hands - or which can interact with life-force - such as the life-force draining spikes.

The snakes squeak piteously when we kill them. We do not let this stop us from doing so.

As he attempts to adjust the shadow to reinforce its holding of life-force, Tristan discovers that the shadow is very slightly permeable to life-force. However, it also looks as its permeability has already been decreased as much as possible. Oh well.

With all of this done, Ibrahim uses the Jewel to teleport us to the cavern of the spiked structure.


As we appear we see that it is not really a cavern, more of a vast opening or bubble in the inhabited fractal structure that seems to fill the rest of the shadow. From what we can see, the open space is some one hundred miles across. Some hundreds of thousands of the snake-things bringing in life-force are visible. The spiky structure itself appears to be some ten miles across.

By now Brand has stopped concentrating on fighting over the shadow. "I want to rest a bit," he comments.

Phoenix offers him an energy transfer, but he politely refuses. She is suspicious of this, but it seems likely that he is just being manly. Or something...

From where we have appeared, Tamarind draws a series of Trump sketches, each one of which transports us closer to the spiked structure. Before long we are among the vast spikes protruding up from it, but our progress is blocked by the mass of smaller interlocking spikes that fill the spaces between the larger ones. There is no gravity here.

We consider this. Before long we come up with a plan to bring the structure down by altering the local gravity and using this let the weight of the structure tear itself apart.

However, before beginning to implement any such plan, Ibrahim uses Chrysanthir to chop a hole in the interlocking spikes that form the surface of the ... thing.

We peer in through the hole. Inside we can see balls of life-force flying down through the black spikes to ... a gigantic black sphere in the centre. We can see the glow of life-force down below, at a level equivalent to that of millions of people.

Ibrahim enlarges the hole and we look in through it.

We can see that there is a large cable or conduit running down this particular gigantic spike, with balls of life-force flying down it.

Much further down we can make out banks of huge crystals thrumming with life-force. More cables or conduits go down through them to the sphere at the very centre, and other such run up from the sphere to the crystals.

Having seen what we have to destroy, we attempt to find some explosives. However, regardless of how we try, we cannot find any explosives using Probability Manipulation.

"I can manufacture some," volunteers Phoenix.

No-one disagrees with this as an idea, so she uses her shapeshifting to change air into explosives which, as they are part of her, she can trigger at will.

When she has done this, under Damien's direction we place small charges over the spiked structure in such a way that their detonation will break it all apart.

As we complete this, deep into the spiked structure and quite close to the black sphere, two flying black jellyfish creatures swim up through the air to our hole and begin to fix it, extruding new material to repair the hole out of their own bodies. Because we were busy setting explosives we did not see where they originated from.

When they are done, they descend back to the inner sphere and merge with it. We follow.

As we get closer, to within the range of the life-force lenses, we abruptly realise that the inner sphere is alive. Filled with black life-force. In fact, it seems to be Anurerishkigal itself. And it is rippling...

"Err... Now?" we suggest to Phoenix.

She concentrates briefly.

BOOM! Go the explosives as they detonate.

Nothing seems to happen.

Then we see the gigantic crystals, cables and bracing structures begin to slowly move out of alignment.

As we see this, we also see the surface of Anurerishkigal ripple and boil as it spews out a horde of flying centipedes that flap up towards us.

Tamarind grabs Brand with Trumps down with him to the surface of the Anurerishkigal-sphere. Once they are there, he sticks Nexus into the sphere, the two of them concentrating on making it work against the powerful mind of Anurerishkigal.

Damien bounces towards the sphere to protect them from the centipedes.

Phoenix flies towards them, picking him up en route.

Ibrahim begins to absorb as much Jewel power as he can.

Tristan keeps an eye on the quality of shadow here.

Damien uses a pole with a life-force draining spike on each end to fend off the centipedes, while Phoenix simply burns them with her fire.

With sufficient power summoned, Ibrahim begins to use the Jewel of Judgement to immolate Anurerishkigal.

Tristan, sensing nothing going on in the shadow at present, Trumps Finndo.

Finndo quickly takes the call, and comes through the link, carrying a large box. He scans the scene below. "Neatly done," he comments.

Anurerishkigal grows tentacles beneath Tamarind and Brand and attempts to grab them. Phoenix slices them off with her fire.

The black liquid flesh of Anurerishkigal then begins to shrink away beneath Nexus. Phoenix grabs Brand and Tamarind and carries them down after the retreating surface.

"What's in the box?" Tristan asks Finndo.

"A nuclear bomb-type thing," replies Finndo casually. Oh.

Phoenix, Tamarind and Brand find themselves in a deepening pit as Anurerishkigal continues to shrink away below them. Phoenix prepares to form a protective shell around the others should Anurerishkigal try to close over them.

"Err... Why not just move the sword sideways?" Damien asks from above.

Oh yes. Doh.

They do this thing, moving steadily sideways along the surface of Anurerishkigal while maintaining Nexus in contact with it. This seems to force the pit to move with them rather than continually deepening.

Larger black tentacles emerge from the black mass and attempt to swat Tamarind and Brand away from its surface.

Phoenix fries one of them, while Damien kicks off some drifting debris and uses the momentum thus acquired to yank Tamarind and Brand out of the way of the others.

Tristan sends Finndo down to help the others.

He moves down and peers at Anurerishkigal, leaving his box with Tristan.

As he moves over the rippling black surface of Anurerishkigal, Damien senses something with Pattern in it inside the blackness. Perhaps like the tetrahedral object we removed from the Fiona-thing that fell into our 'immortality device' trap.

"Burn it out!" Damien shouts up to Ibrahim.

Tristan, now close to Ibrahim and one of the gigantic life-force storage crystals, makes contact with the Jewel of Judgement and uses its resonance to send a message to Damien. "Channel the power we send you," he suggests via the Jewel.

With no disagreement from Damien, Tristan inserts a life-force receiver spike into Ibrahim, and a transmitter into the life-force storage crystal. Life-force begins to flow.

Below, Phoenix forms a protective Phoenix-egg around Tamarind, Brand and himself, turning herself into a solid shield, flaming on the outside. Only Nexus protrudes through.

Tristan and Ibrahim concentrate on the Jewel of Judgement.

Damien feels Jewel power rushing into him, and focuses it into the black blob in the area where he felt the Pattern-thing, creating a very intense point of energy rather than an area effect. He slices the point about, cutting through the substance of Anurerishkigal and - hopefully - the Pattern-energy source too.

Finndo moves over to the others and grabs hold of the end of Nexus protruding from the Phoenix-egg, adding his efforts to theirs.

Phoenix envelops him too.

As he moves the point of Jewel energy about, Damien feels the Pattern-energy source suddenly dissipate.

Tamarind and Brand feel Anurerishkigal's mental defences crumble. Finndo assists in this.

With Anurerishkigal's defences breached, memory fragments surge from Nexus into Anurerishkigal.

There is a hideous scream in what sounds like a massively loud version of Fiona's voice.

Through the life-force lens, Tristan sees the life-force within the black blob wink out. There is a mind left, but no spark of life. It is a beloved zombie blob.

Damien continues burning it with the Jewel, though he is feeling somewhat tired by now.

Tristan Trumps Finndo and, when he takes the call, passes the bomb through to him.

Phoenix quickly lets him out of her shell.

Ibrahim turns off the flow of Jewel power to Damien, then spends a moment absorbing sufficient life-force from the crystal to bring himself back to one hundred percent before removing the spike from his chest.

Finndo sets the timer on his bomb, then slices open the blob and pushes the bomb in.

"Can I stop being a shell now?" asks Phoenix.

"Er, yes, sorry, of course," says Damien, remembering his manners.

"Thank you," says Tamarind, remembering his.

Tamarind then Trumps Tristan and, when he takes the call, passes everyone up to him before coming through himself.

"Does anyone need a life-force top-up?" Tristan asks.

"Er, two minutes!" says Finndo, indicating where he inserted the bomb.

Oh yes.

Tamarind Trumps us to the edge of the one hundred mile diameter cavity in which the spiked structure sits.

We can see that the structure is now in pieces.

None of the local inhabitants are visible. Sensibly, they seem to be hiding.

BOOM!

The central spiked structure disappears in a white flash and a huge cloud.

"We should stop the debris from impacting on the locals' homes," Tristan says, using the Pattern to do what he can towards this end.

Brand casts his Black Hole spell which proceeds to mop up the remaining debris.


With that done, we discuss what to next.

"I want to kill the snakes," says Tristan.

"I think that's unnecessary," counters Damien.

Others point out that intangible life-force carrying creatures might be useful.

"I just don't like the snakes," says Tristan, eventually acquiescing.

The snakes are permitted to live.

When they have sucked in enough debris, Brand dispels his Black Holes.

From there we Trump back to the location at which we entered this shadow, in the alleyway.

And once there, we rest on a convenient rooftop, the roof of the upside-down house above us within touching distance.

We are waiting for the people with Advanced Pattern skills to unbar the shadow against Trump.


Tristan can sense that the shadow we are in is roughly one cubic light year in volume, wrapping round on itself at the edges, and much the same as this throughout. The only light comes from the luminous flowers, which, along with fungus, are also the only source of food.

Given the apparent population density here, he estimates that the total population must be some 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (10^46) people. Which means that given the number of people dying per second and the rate at which we saw life-force arriving, this place has probably not been set up like this for very long. From this he also calculates that this set-up requires some ten times that (10^47) of the snake-things to carry life-force about.

[This is based on the following. A cubic light year has a volume of (3x10^8 x 3600 x 24 x 365.25)^3 cubic metres. That is, (9.47x10^15)^3 = 8.49x10^47 cubic metres, say 10^48 cubic metres. Assuming 100 cubic metres per person (a cubic volume of 4.64m on a side per person), that adds up to a population of about 10^46 people. Assuming the people have a lifespan of 30 years, 1/30th of the people die every year, or (1/30)/(3600 x 24 x 365.25) per second. Which is 1.06x10^-9 of the population, or roughly 10^37 people per second.]

Tristan decides that when the time allows, and should we survive, he will modify the place to spread the place out and so reduce the population density, as well as making the crops more fertile, more varied and more palatable. He will also loosen the 'weave' of the shadow so that life-force can escape back to the Land of the Dead rather than building up here. And up. And up.

As we rest on the rooftop, some of the locals emerge from the house it is part of. "What are you doing on our roof?" they demand.

"Sleeping," says Ibrahim.

"We can pay you," Tamarind tells them.

They look confused. "What's 'pay'?" they ask.

"We can give you food," we tell them, changing track.

This seems to be more on their wavelength. "All right," they say, nodding.

Tamarind climbs down from the rooftop and hands out purple energy bars.

"You look weird," he is told.

Tamarind enjoys a brief conversation with the locals below before returning to the rooftop. From what he can tell they have no real concept of visitors, an outside, or the measurement of time. They seem to be very, very bored.

But having gained permission to use their roof, we rest until Tristan feels up to some shadow manipulation.

He begins making the improvements he thought of earlier.

Then realises that this is a shadow some one hundred metres across, rather than the light year across it was previously. And the shadow veils around it are dissolving.

White light filters in, and the hovels begin to burst into flames. People scream around us.

The entire shadow seems to be dissolving.

Ibrahim summons energy from the Jewel of Judgement and, using it, attempts to teleport us to the Amber Arrival Courtyard.

We disappear in a burst of red Jewel energy.


To reappear in the Arrival Courtyard.

Ibrahim sways a little from the exertion involved, but remains on his feet. He takes the Jewel off.

The guards challenge us, as usual, but seem perhaps more vigilant than normal.

We ask about this.

"A black, blobby thing tried to kill this King," a guard tells us. "But the younger Princes and Princesses drove it off."

Tamarind quickly Trumps Octavius who, when he takes the call, proves to have his left arm in a sling.

At Tamarinds request, Octavius brings us all through.

We ask what happened.

"A black, amorphous thing appeared in the Throne Room," Octavius tells us. "And started throwing black daggers about. One hit Random in the chest, but he's OK. I took one in the arm."

Ibrahim looks at him through the life-force lens, through which he proves to not be infected or drained of life-force.

"No-one else was seriously hurt," Octavius tells us. "But several guards were killed. Random is in the infirmary."

That being so, Tamarind attempts to Trump the King.

However, he does not get through. He can tell that Random is resisting the call.

We walk down to the Infirmary instead.


Upon arrival at the Infirmary there prove to be guards on the door, which is not normally the case. However, they let us in within any problems.

Inside, we are directed to a private room to one side. Inside, Random is sitting up in bed with one shoulder bandaged. The Children are here too, guarding him.

We greet him and them.

With his permission, Phoenix fixes his shoulder.

Through the life-force lens, Ibrahim sees that Random is down some one or two percent of his life-force.

Damien then borrows the life-force lens from him to check everyone who was involved in the earlier fight. They are all clean.

"The creature Trumped in," Random tells us. "But the knife it used is no longer here. It seems to have been part of it."

"It said 'You made it so. You made this so!'" he continues. Hmm...

"Angelique, Beatrice, Carl and Duncan attacked it. But when Esmée, Margot and Deirdre arrived and Esmée, Octavius, Eleanor and Luther tried to attack it psychically it Trumped out. Flora has reported that someone tried to Trump her who she thought was Fiona. But she managed to hold the call off."

Tamarind checks his Trumps. That of Finndo proves to be active, but otherwise the Trumps are quiet.

With that sorted out, he Trumps Flora.

"We should warn Rebma too," Phoenix suggests.

After a moment, Flora takes Tamarind's Trump call. She seems to be in her office. "I have a headache," she complains. "Can this wait?"

"This is important," says Tamarind. "Can you come through?"

Flora nods, then breaks the Trump contact. Which she not have been able to do. At least not as easily as that.

"Flora may be Fiona!" Tamarind yells to the room at large.

He, Brand, Phoenix and Octavius quickly concentrate on Flora's Trump, while Random and Finndo attempt to Jam that of Fiona. Eleanor is summoned in from the next room and begins to help with our contacting Flora.

Phoenix, although not contributing a vast amount to the Trump contact, draws on the power of the Jewel of Judgement to assist her.

Ibrahim stands ready to hit things should it be required.

Damien and Tristan run for Flora's office, Damien pausing only long enough to toss the life-force lens back to Ibrahim.

Those attempting to Trump Flora can tell that she is resisting the Trump contact, but that this is engaging a great deal of her concentration.


As they run, Damien requests Tristan's life-force lens.

Tristan tosses it to him.

Arriving at Flora's office, Damien kicks in the door and he and Tristan rush in.

Inside, they see Flora sat at her desk with a small fire in front of her, concentrating very hard.

Through the life-force lens, Damien sees that her life-force is solid black.

He leaps over the desk and kicks Flora in the head, as hard as he can.

She slumps over the desk, unconscious.


Those trying to Trump Flora feel the incipient link cut off abruptly.

Phoenix drops out of the Trump link and attempts to Trump Damien.


In the office, Damien passes the life-force lens back to Tristan.

He looks through it at Flora, groans, and then puts out the fire on the desk.

At this point Damien feels a Trump call coming on, and accepts it.

It proves to be Phoenix.

The situation is explained and everyone apart from Finndo and Octavius come through the link to Flora's office.

With the fire out, Tristan examines its remains. It seems that Flora was burning a set of accounts.

"I think we need everyone else who was present during the attacks here," Tristan states.

As people consider this, those with advanced Pattern abilities sense that there is another Pattern device in Flora. In the middle of her head.

Upon learning this, Phoenix, with psychic backup from Tamarind, quickly attempts to shapeshift it out of Flora's head. Flora does not resist this, and the top of her head opens up like a flower, exposing her naked brain, which also opens up in a bloodless but gross fashion. It takes quite a lot of work and concentration, but Phoenix manages to untangle the device from Flora's brain and extract it, handing it over to Ibrahim before beginning the laborious work of closing Flora's brain, and then her head.

The object she has extracted is a tetrahedral arrangement of spheres, appearing identical to the one inside the part of Anurerishkigal that attacked us in shadow Steelcliff.

Tamarind checks the Trumps. That of Flora is inactive in a manner indicating that the subject is unconscious. That of Fiona is inactive in a manner indicating that the subject is at a great distance. He jams Flora's Trump, just in case.

While all this takes place, Tristan Trumps Esmée, and, when she takes the call, practically drags her through to join the rest of us.

Once she is through he checks her with the life-force lens. She is clean.

Then she sees the state of Flora, with her head and brain still open, and gapes in horror.

"I could use you help here," Phoenix tells her. "You know Flora better than I do."

Esmée continues to gibber.

"Now, Esmée!" snaps Phoenix.

Esmée swallows hard, moves over to Phoenix, and begins to assist.

Tristan then Trumps Margot and, when she takes the call, brings her through too.

Like Esmée she proves to be clean.

Then he Trumps Deirdre.

Damien Trumps Angelique.

When she takes the call, Angelique proves to be with Duncan, Beatrice and Carl. At Damien's request they all come through and join us in Flora's office.

Eleanor is also Trumping someone. After a moment, Luther appears out of a purple Trump rainbow.

All of the new arrivals prove to be clean.

Phoenix and Esmée attempt to repair Flora's brain and restore her to health. While they do this, Phoenix adds a little something to keep Flora unconscious.

"Can you add something that will kill her if not dealt with in five days?" Tamarind asks Phoenix.

Esmée and Tristan object to this suggestion. "Something debilitating," says Tristan firmly.

"All right," nods Phoenix, and puts in something debilitating and then fatal, if not dealt with in five days. Esmée, her shapeshifting skills not up to spotting this, is none the wiser.

As they repair Flora, Phoenix notes that Flora's body has been altered. The nervous and circulatory systems have been made more efficient in some ways. The changes made to her nervous system would allow her to be remote-controlled. All of her higher brain functions have been disconnected, with connections to the tetrahedron taking their place. Nasty.

Tristan then attempts to Trump Julian. However, his call is not answered.

Acting on Phoenix's observations, Tamarind concentrates on Flora. He can sense that there is another mind in her, unconscious under the 'visible' mind.

"Could you check on Julian?" Tristan asks him.

Tamarind does this. He finds that Julian's Trump is in a strange dualistic state that he has never seen before, as if the subject is both conscious and unconscious at the same time.

"I Trumped him after the attack on the King," says Margot. "He was in Castle Arden and seemed normal enough at the time."

Tamarind then scries Julian's Trump. He finds that Julian is mounted on Morgenstern, at the head of an army, heading out from Amber. At his request Margot joins him in the link. "That's shadow Redin," she says, sounding surprised.

From what the two of them can see, Julian seems (even) less animated than usual. Not good.

We begin making plans to go after Julian, but then decide that we need to check on the other members of the Family first.

Tamarind scries Gerard's Trump.

Gerard too seems to be less animated than normal as he sails his ship, surrounded by what seems to be a major portion of the Amber Fleet, somewhere out in shadow.

He too does not reply when Trumped.

Tamarind then scries the other members of the Family:

Tamarind begins Trumping Owen, on the grounds that, given his location, he is in a position to do some damage to Amber.

The rest of us notice that Brand is radiating Pattern about himself.

"I'm trying to block a self-destruct signal from affecting the tetrahedron," he tells us through gritted teeth. "I can sense others out there too. The signal is some kind of Pattern resonance, I think," he concludes.

"I reckon it would take me about a minute to remove the device in an emergency without permanent damage to the patient," says Phoenix after taking a moment to consider her experience removing the tetrahedral device from Flora.

We consider this, then decide to go after Owen next, as we know that (as of the last time it was tested, at least) he has a very weak mind.

Before doing anything else, Tamarind also checks on Beltaine and Chalice. Neither prove to be in this universe.

Benedict, on the other hand, also seems to have been taken over, as Tamarind discovers upon checking him next...

By now Phoenix and Esmée have patched Flora up.

Esmée moves to assist Tamarind with forcing the Trump contact on Owen. Random does likewise.

As they concentrate on Owen, Phoenix, Tristan, Damien, Ibrahim, Angelique and Beatrice all use the Jewel of Judgement to teleport to where Owen was when Tamarind scanned his Trump. We disappear in a flash of red energy.


As we reappear in the street of the diplomatic quarter, we see Owen not far away, standing in the street concentrating hard.

We all rush him, our various blows knocking him off-balance and causing his psychic resistance to crumble. He is quickly knocked down and out, and Phoenix begins emergency device-removal surgery on his head which. Like Flora's, his cranium begins to open up like a particularly gory flower.

Various passers-by faint, gawk, vomit or walk away, some staggering, as this goes on.

After a minute or so, Phoenix has done the best job she can on removing the device from Owen's head, and hands it to Tristan.


That being done, Tamarind, watching over the Trumps, Trumps Damien.


In the street, Damien feels a Trump call coming on and accepts it.

It proves to be Tamarind.

Through him we all return to Flora's office in the Castle, carrying Owen and the device with us.

Once there we discuss what to do next.

After a short while of this we reluctantly decide that we need to take on Benedict next.

"Unless," Phoenix points out. "We can use the Pattern resonance effect to locate the control point."

Brand joins Tamarind in scrying the Trumps.

"I think Benedict and his army are heading from Avalon towards Amber," he says after a moment. "And is about half-way here. It's close enough that we can Trump him effectively from here, and the shadow they are currently in is magical."

Tamarind invites Damien to join the link and bring his military expertise to bear. He does so.

Over the link, Damien sees that Benedict's army appears to be probably a million strong, consisting of human troops armed with medieval weapons, and currently arrayed for marching at speed. He shares this information with the rest of us.

"How many of these devices can we collect and still suppress them all?" Tristan wonders worriedly.

"I think we should sacrifice one of them," suggests Damien. "Let it self-destruct and see what happens."

"Good idea," nods Brand.

He Trumps a location in shadow and, when the link opens up, tosses one of the tetrahedral devices through.

We all watch through the Trump link.

After a moment, the device bursts into white-hot flame. It would appear to be safe if you are standing next to it, but most definitely not if it is in your head...

Before we do anything else, Tamarind gives Damien a return-to-Tamarind Trump Trap.

Which Damien does not look at. He also does not show it to Tristan.

"I can suppress the remaining device," says Deirdre unexpectedly.

Although surprised, no-one disagrees with this as an idea, so she begins radiating Pattern at it.

Then, with Tamarind remaining in Amber to lead the group attempting to force a Trump contact on Benedict, Brand Trumps the rest of us as well as Angelique and Beatrice to Benedict's current location, remaining behind himself.


We pass through the Trump link ... and arrive.

Damien rolls and grabs his spell rack from a clump of grass.

We appear to be at the head of Benedict's army, on a grassy slope. We are also right next to Benedict, who is tensing as the Trump call presses onto his brain.

Then we hear Benedict say a word, and there is a flare of magic.


In Amber, Tamarind and the others feel the Trump contact break up and fail.


While Benedict is still distracted, Phoenix leaps for him, claws out. At the same time Damien hamstrings his horse.

Benedict leaps nimbly off the horse as it falls, screaming. However, Phoenix remains attached to him.


Brand joins Tamarind, Random, Esmée and the others as they attempt to restart the Trump link with Benedict.


Benedict tears Phoenix from him one-handed and throws her off, narrowly missing Damien. He is much stronger than she is. However, Phoenix has managed to inject some toxin into him before her abrupt removal.

Damien moves in and engages Benedict.

Tristan keeps out of Benedict's reach and does his best to guard Damien's back from the numerous bodyguards who are present, and reacting to our attacks.

In fact, most of the others present on our side decide to guard Damien's back. His back has never been so well guarded. His front, however...

Benedict's sword clashes with Damien's. Benedict looks surprised. Damien is as fast as he is, though not, it seems, as strong.

Damien adopts a more aggressive stance. Benedict parries this, but is briefly open to one side. Phoenix takes advantage of this to leap in again and claw at him once more, this time in the neck, pushing more toxins into his blood while her hands remain embedded in him.

Again Damien attacks, attempting to stab Benedict in the torso. He dodges most of this attack, taking a slight scratch. He steps back, and a sweep of his blade takes both of Phoenix's hands off at the wrist. She falls back.

Pressing Benedict, Damien manages to wound him again. Phoenix's hands remain embedded in Benedict's neck, their flesh growing into him.

Ibrahim leaves the bodyguards to Tristan, Angelique and Beatrice and joins Damien and Phoenix in attacking Benedict.

Tristan quickly checks Benedict with the life-force lens and finds that he is as filled with solid black life-force as Flora. Fortunately! He returns to keeping bodyguards off Damien's back.

With his next attack, Benedict manages to use his greater strength to his advantage and disarms Damien.

Ibrahim throws Chrysanthir to Damien, who catches it and, in one smooth move, chops off Benedict's sword hand.

Phoenix throws some blood darts at him. Most of them miss. Most of them.

Damien tries to cut at Benedict's legs.

Benedict grabs Damien's sword arm with his remaining hand, so Damien changes Chrysanthir to his left hand and attacks regardless. However, Benedict parries the blow and attempts to close with Damien physically.

Ibrahim picks up Benedict's discarded sword and attacks Benedict with it.

Benedict dodges this blow, but his doing so allows Damien to run him through the chest.

As Damien does so, Benedict punches him out cold in a single blow that also breaks his jaw. Unfortunately for Benedict, Damien retains his hold on Chrysanthir long enough to rip open Benedict's chest, badly injuring him.

Everyone piles onto the badly injured Benedict.


Back in Amber, the others press the new Trump contact with Benedict.


In shadow, Benedict slows, and falls...

Ibrahim takes advantage of this respite to put the boot in. Repeatedly.

Angelique also leaps in, hits Benedict a couple of times, and then returns to defending the rest of us from Benedict's bodyguards.

Damien is thoroughly unconscious at this point. Benedict is only stunned.

Tristan rushes over to Damien and picks him up.

Phoenix, a semi-amorphous mass, drapes herself over Benedict and begins burrowing into his brain to get to the tetrahedral device there before it self-destructs.

The bodyguards open up on us with crossbows.


In Amber, the Trump link to Benedict opens up as Tamarind and the others finally force their way through. They quickly pull Benedict and Phoenix through and back to Amber, keeping Benedict mind-locked all the while.

Brand radiates Pattern to suppress the device in Benedict's head while Phoenix works.


As crossbow bolts zip past us, everyone else clumps around Tristan, who then looks at the Trump Trap of Tamarind.

It immediately activates, and we abruptly find ourselves back in Amber, beside Tamarind.

After a minute or so of work, Phoenix extracts the tetrahedral device from Benedict's head and gives it to Brand, then withdraws, re-acquiring her hands en route. Then she curls up and begins to deal with the trauma she took in the fight.

Brand hands the device to Deirdre.

Esmée moves in and begins patching up Benedict so that he will not die.

Ibrahim searches Damien and, finding his own smelling salts, waves them under his nose until he wakes up.

Phoenix, now looking calm again, straightens up and comes over. She uses her shapeshifting to heal Damien's broken jaw. "Neatly done," she comments to him.

"Thank you," he replies.

While this takes place, Tamarind scries the Trumps of Julian and Gerard. He finds that they appear to still be doing what they were doing before.

"I think I know what the fuss is about now," says Phoenix, looking at her newly-reattached hands.

"Ah," says Damien.

Continuing to scry the Trumps, Tamarind next concentrates on that of Merlin. He proves to be in what appears to be a naval base, also looking as if he is under the control of Anurerishkigal. "Perhaps we should try and take him using Trump alone?" Tamarind suggests after describing the scene.

On the base, Merlin seems to look around.

For the benefit of everyone else, Tamarind describes the base.

"That sounds like one of our bases," says Random. "The one in shadow Shalir."

"Merlin, as a shapeshifter, will present problems removing the device," Phoenix points out.

We consider this, then decide to leave Merlin for the moment and go after Julian instead.


Given her links to the Rangers, Margot volunteers to come with us.

Random writes us a warrant authorising us to take Julian into protective custody. This is to avoid us having to fight his men.

And with that, the Trump team concentrate on Julian's Trump.

Margot uses the Jewel of Judgement to teleport us to shadow Redin, where Julian and his army were located.

In Amber, the Trump team find Julian's mental defences to be quite weak, and quickly batter them down and force a contact with him.

We appear out of the red glow of Jewel energy just in time to see Julian disappear in a purple rainbow of Trump energy. Morgenstern rears as this occurs, and turns to attack us. Damien quickly pulls Tristan out of the way of the flying hooves, though he could have avoided them himself.

In Amber, Julian appears out of the Trump link.

Brand quickly uses the Trump link to render him unconscious, then radiates Pattern at him to suppress the device in his head.

While Brand does this, Tamarind Trumps Phoenix.

In shadow Redin, the rest of us, led by Margot, take command of Julian's army. Margot orders the troops back to Forest Arden.

At this point Phoenix feels a Trump call coming on, and accepts it. It is Tamarind, who invites us to return to Amber. Phoenix passes this invitation on to the rest of us, and we all pass through the link back to Flora's office as the Rangers begin to head back to Arden.


In Amber, we discuss why Julian was so easy to apprehend. We wonder whether our efforts are weakening the controlling impulse, or whether he was still resisting the control of Anurerishkigal.

Phoenix allows Esmée to remove the control device from Julian, he being her father and all. However, once it is out, she surreptitiously adds her own control switches to allow Julian to be 'switched off' should it become necessary.

With Julian dealt with, we go after Gerard next.

Again, he proves easy enough to overcome using the Trump and pull him back to Amber, but this time the device in his head activates as he is pulled through the Trump link.

Brand and Deirdre radiate Pattern to try and prevent this, but it is too late. There is a hideous smell of burning flesh and smoke issues from Gerard's eyes, nose and mouth as his brain is fried. Gerard is dead.

"Shit," says Random.


We decide that we need a new plan.

After some discussion we conclude that we need people right beside the target radiating Pattern to suppress the device from the start.

The first person we try this on is Altair.

From Tamarind's Trump scrying she is on the HMS Porcupine, leading a fleet through shadow, so Brand quickly draws a Trump sketch of the ship while Random prepares another writ which he hands to Ibrahim.

With that done, we use Brand's Trump sketch and appear next to Altair on the deck of the HMS Porcupine. Tristan immediately begins radiating Pattern about himself to suppress the device while Damien quickly knocks her out.

With Altair unconscious, Phoenix sets about removing the device from her head and Ibrahim reads Random's writ to the crew. He orders the ship and the others in Altair's fleet back to port.


With the device removed from Altair we return to Amber with her.

Then we repeat this process with Caleb.

Again, it seems to work. The only difference is that Caleb is too physically strong for Damien to render unconscious, and Ibrahim has to do this job instead.

We repeat it again with Merlin. Although we are able to immobilise him via the Trump, his shapeshifting abilities make it harder to render him unconscious. Harder, but not impossible. Eventually the job is done. In the background the naval base in shadow Shalir is burning.


Then we Trump to a shadow closer to Castle Rosa of which Tamarind has a Trump.

From there, Tamarind Trump scries Corwin.

He proves to be leading an army through shadow and once again does not look quite himself. Damn.

With this discovered, Tamarind Trumps Brand and, when he takes the call, brings him through to our location. We explain the situation to him.

It becomes clear that we are going to have to take Corwin down the old-fashioned way, by jumping him, since from out in shadow where we are, we cannot Trump him and radiate Pattern at him at the same time.

"Perhaps Deirdre would be better than Brand," Phoenix suggests. "She's faster and stronger."

A fair point.

Once Brand has provided us with a Trump sketch of Corwin's location, he Trumps back to Amber to ask Deirdre to join us.

After a few minutes, Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on. Identifying the caller as his mother he accepts the call, and Deirdre comes through and joins us.


And with that, we Trump in to beside Corwin, Angelique and Beatrice accompanying us once more.

Corwin looks surprised when Damien runs him through the gut with Dashwood, but not so surprised as to be unable to quickly riposte with Greyswandir.

Damien dodges this counterattack while Ibrahim kills Corwin's horse.

Corwin rolls off and to his feet, his gut wound not appearing to be bothering him too much at this point.

Phoenix jumps for him and manages to get a grip, clinging on with her claws while wrapping herself around him and injecting toxins.

Damien runs the thus distracted Corwin through the chest.

He violently tears Phoenix from him, ripping her apart. She leaves bits of claws in him.

Ibrahim goes for Corwin, who parries his attack.

Phoenix begins pulling herself together.

Damien slashes Corwin's right leg.

In return he cuts Dashwood in half and gashes Damien across the chest.

But in doing so he leaves himself open. Ibrahim chops his sword hand off with Chrysanthir, then slashes his uninjured left leg.

Phoenix leaps back into the fight and lets herself go berserk. A shapeshifting blur surrounds Corwin, hacking and slashing at him.

Corwin pulls off a handful of berserk Phoenix and throws it at Damien.

Ibrahim uses this opportunity to cut off his uninjured arm.

By now Deirdre and Tristan have had time to begin radiating Pattern about themselves. They do so, suppressing the device in Corwin's head.

Damien catches the bit of Phoenix heading for him. It begins to attack him.

He quickly whips off his coat before it gets a grip on him, wraps it around the part of Phoenix and throws them both back into the fight. The coat lands on Corwin's head.

Ibrahim whacks Corwin over the head with the flat of Chrysanthir.

Corwin topples over, unconscious ... and Phoenix stops.

She rolls off and curls up.

Tamarind concentrates on her Trump and, once he has forced a contact with the still-berserk mind within, forces Phoenix into unconsciousness.

Corwin is gathered up. Tristan and Deirdre take him off with the rest of us following. Ibrahim brings along Corwin's severed hand and arm. We leave Corwin's army behind in shadow.

Once away from Corwin's army, Tamarind attempts to gradually bring Phoenix round.

She slowly surfaces, looking very confused.

"We got Corwin," Tamarind explains.

She goes over to him and carefully removes the tetrahedron from his head. At Ibrahim's request she also reattaches his hand and his arm and inserts her usual backup control switches.

Damien patches himself up and uses the Pattern to locate his coat and an intact Dashwood.


With that, Tamarind concentrates on his Trump of the Amber Arrival Courtyard, and when the link opens up, transfers us all through. There is some juggling of the tetrahedral device between Tristan and Deirdre to ensure that it is kept suppressed by the Pattern as much as is possible.

Angelique is looking at Damien with new respect (or renewed respect, as Damien prefers to think).

"We should contact Llewella and tell her what is happening," Phoenix suggests as we leave the Arrival Courtyard. A fair point.


We make our way to Flora's office, which is, by now, very crowded.

Esmée is tending to the various bodies, which have all been clapped in irons, including Gerard's corpse.

Tamarind checks the living ones. There is a sense of a suppressed mind being present in all of them.

We have everyone - prisoners and all - transferred to a larger conference room nearby. Only Gerard is treated differently, his body being moved into Eric's tomb, up on the slope of Mount Kolvir, where there is already a hole back from the Land of the Dead. We see no point in potentially allowing a hole to be made in the heart of Castle Amber.

"I can sense two more of the tetrahedral devices out in shadow," Brand suddenly chips in.

We briefly wonder who these other devices might be associated with. Beloved zombies? Dworkin? Fiona or Anurerishkigal itself?

"I think we could try and triangulate the position of the remaining ones using the devices we've captured," says Brand.

"I'll just go and check on the Abyss Guns," says Random, and makes for the door. Duncan and Ibrahim accompany him.


The rest of us go off into shadow with Brand to locate the other tetrahedrons.

From Amber, Brand Trumps us and one of the devices to a floating circle of grass in a blue sky full of regular geometrical clouds.

Once there he sits down cross-legged on the grass and begins to study the tetrahedral device. Tristan and Damien study what he is doing in the hope of learning something.

Tristan can sense an emanation of some kind from a couple of directions. Damien can just sense a lot of Pattern energy. Tamarind, on the other hand, can sense Brand doing something with the Trump.

"Bloody hell!" exclaims Brand after a while of this. "Look at this!"

He casts a spell that projects a three-dimensional image in the air beside us. It shows a tetrahedral device in a red environment. A very big device.

"They are both like this," says Brand. "They are booster stations. Probably. Both of them are in very hostile shadows that are also Shadows of Destiny, whose destiny is to be avoided."

"This might actually be a job for the Abyss Guns," says Tristan consideringly.

"I want to travel and see whether there are any more ordinary tetrahedrons further out into shadow," says Brand. "Beyond the two boosters."


Back in Amber, Random uses the Jewel of Judgement to teleport himself, Ibrahim and Duncan from the Castle to next to the Primal Pattern.

Dworkin pops out of his cave as we arrive.

Ibrahim looks at him through the life-force lens, and sees that he has no trace of black life-force contamination about him.

"I need to check out the parts of the Abyss Guns," Random tells Dworkin.

Dworkin nods and leads the three of them down into his cave and into his kitchen. He rummages around in a cupboard and pulls out a tin of peaches, which, when opened, reveals the two activator crystals of the Abyss Guns. It is a warded tin of peaches, naturally, so the crystals cannot be detected until the tin is opened.

"In case you hadn't already guessed, by the way," Random tells Ibrahim. "You're now heir to the throne."

Ibrahim receives this news without enthusiasm.

With the safety of the Abyss Guns confirmed, and the activator crystals hidden away again, Random uses the Jewel to teleport them back to Amber.


Meanwhile, Brand Trumps the rest of us to a large bubble in a shadow that seems to consist of an infinite sea full of large and small bubbles. Large fish are visible swimming in the water outside.

From here he concentrates on the small tetrahedral device again, generating the same Pattern and Trump emanations as before.

"There are two booster stations," he says after a while. "And several other tetrahedra back at the Farm. It was only a portion of Anurerishkigal we destroyed before. There are several other bits of it there too."

He concentrates further.

"There are several adjacent shadows making up the Farm," he continues after another while. "All much the same. In the centre is another shadow with a big hole to the Land of the Dead in it. And a massive memory-fragment processor associated with it."

We consider this. It certainly does sound like a job for the Abyss Guns.

From the shadow of bubbles, Brand Trumps us back to Amber, and from there we make our way back up to Flora's office, from which we are directed to the larger conference room in which everyone is now assembled.


"The Abyss Guns are safe," Random announces.

We report our findings to the King and the others assembled there.

And based on that, we discuss what to do.

After some talking back and forth, a plan emerges. We will get the Abyss Guns, then use them to destroy the relay/booster stations. From there we will attack the memory-fragment processing facility and then go after the Anurerishkigals.


With this agreed, Random uses the Jewel and teleports us back to the Primal Pattern to see Dworkin again.

When asked, Dworkin hands the crystals over to Random without any objections.

"I don't think Anurerishkigal is making memory-fragment weapons," comments Dworkin apropos of nothing. "I think it's trying to learn."

Hmm...

From the Primal Pattern Random teleports us back to Amber, and thence to a dimly lit location that from the feel of the place seems to be somewhere still in Amber. Random lifts a stone in the floor and pulls out a box from underneath it. He opens the box and looks inside. "Everything is there, and nothing has been tampered with," he says with a nod.

We take the box and Random teleports us back to the conference room.

He hands the box and the crystals to Brand, who begins re-assembling the Abyss Guns.

"I think we should hit the two relay stations simultaneously," Ibrahim suggests.

"I want Llewella to be checked on before we proceed," says Random. "Just in case."

That being so, Tamarind Trumps her.

After a moment she answers the call. Tamarind can see that she appears to be in a command centre in Rebma somewhere. "May we come through?" Tamarind asks her, with Ibrahim close in the background.

She nods and holds out her hand, bringing Tamarind and Ibrahim through to her in Rebma.


Upon arrival in Rebma, Ibrahim uses the life-force lens and peers are Llewella, who proves to be clean.

Llewella appears to have a similar life-force lens of her own, through which she scrutinises the two of them.

"An oily black thing attacked me yesterday," she says in response to our enquiring looks.

Tamarind explains what has happened, following which Ibrahim describes the tetrahedral devices.

Llewella, in a spirit of unapologetic self-interest, offers to help.

Tamarind and Ibrahim agree that they will pass this offer on to Random.

Then they Trump Tristan and, when he takes the call, ask to be brought back. This he does, and they slosh through the link and arrive back in Amber, dripping wet.

"I think we should take the tetrahedrons we're extracted away from Amber," suggests Ibrahim. "In case they blow up when we hit the boosters."

Fair point.

"I'm reluctant to let Llewella in on the fun," Tristan puts in. "She'd find out about our horrible toys."

Also a fair point.

We discuss the situation and finalise the plan. We will take out the booster stations, then attack the central memory-fragment processing facility on the Farm. Our logic to this is that there is no point in chasing parts of Anurerishkigal through the other shadows. Instead it is better to let them come to us. In any case, we reason, the most important part of Anurerishkigal will probably be in the central area...

Brand has now reassembled the Abyss Guns. He hands them to Random.

Random hands one of them to Damien and returns the other to Brand.

We demand clarification of the rules of engagement under which we might use the Abyss Guns.

"I suggest that they are not a weapon of last resort," says Damien. "But of preference."

The logic behind this is agreed by everyone present. We agree that we will only hold back on their use if using them would interfere with the main objective of killing Anurerishkigal permanently.

Tristan, Damien, Phoenix, Tamarind and Ibrahim will form one squad. Brand, Deirdre, Margot and Esmée will form the other to go the second relay/booster station.

Everyone else will remain in Amber and guard the fort.

Damien borrows Greyswandir. No-one objects to this, least of all Corwin.

Random hands the Jewel of Judgement to Tristan.

We decide to use resonance between two Pattern swords to co-ordinate the two assault groups. To that end, Damien lends Greyswandir to Brand.

And we are ready to go.

Brand hands a Trump sketch of a shadow adjacent to one of the booster stations to Tamarind, and pulls out a sketch of the other for himself.

Brand and Deirdre also pick up the tetrahedrons to take with them, so that they do not blow up in Amber. If they blow up.

And off we go...

Tamarind Trumps us to our location, while Brand Trumps the other group to theirs.


We appear out of a purple Trump rainbow to find ourselves in a barren wilderness of flat rock under a blazing sun. It is very hot and the air feels deadly dry.

Tristan begins work to open a hole through the shadow veil into the adjoining shadow, where the booster station is located.

Damien sets the Abyss gun to the explosive Order/Chaos mix.

Ibrahim monitors Chrysanthir for signals from Brand.

As Tristan opens the hole through the shadow veil, Ibrahim receives the signal from Brand through Chrysanthir.

Visible through the hole is the vast tetrahedral structure in a red shadow.

Damien points the Abyss Gun through the hole and fires. The device beyond is blown apart into its constituent spheres, which begin moving apart. Damien shoots these too.

As the device is destroyed, Tristan feels a huge wave of Pattern resonance wash through us all. Chrysanthir vibrates in its scabbard.

At this point Tamarind feels a Trump call coming on, and identifies the caller as Brand. He accepts the call, and Brand and the others of his team come through the link and join us.

"What happened to the removed tetrahedrons?" Tristan asks.

"They exploded quite nicely," Brand says.

Good.

"Oh, yes, this is yours," says Brand, returning Greyswandir to Damien.


With that done, Tristan uses the Jewel of Judgement to teleport all of us to a non-descript location in one of the Farm shadows.

Once we have appeared out of the red glow of the Jewel, Brand uses the Pattern to shift us through shadow to the Factory complex.

This seems to require some considerable effort, and the transition is abrupt. There is a sensation like a 'pop' as we pass through the shadow veil, and we are there.


We are floating in white space, which seems to be the main thing making up this shadow. Visible to one side is a huge black hole from which memory sparks are emerging. These are visible even with our own unassisted eyes.

Surrounding the hole is a gyroscope-like structure made up of three rings each at right angles to the other, rotating about each of its three axes. There is a cluster of needle-like spikes on each intersection of the three rings. Memory sparks seem to be being collected by them. Some black objects are flitting about the rings.

The shadow is awash with magic, of the 'keyed' variety that was present in the Farm shadows. Tristan attempts to jam the 'lock' using the Jewel of Judgement.

As the ring structure rotates beneath us, a hole becomes visible in one of the rings, with light streaming out from inside. It looks like that location has been the centre of an explosion. Perhaps there was one of the tetrahedral Pattern devices there?

With her life-force sight, Phoenix can see a black dot of life-force near the site of the explosion. She passes this information on to the rest of us.

Tamarind draws a quick Trump sketch to take us closer.

He concentrates, and when the link opens up, we go through.

From our new position, closer to the ring structure, Damien shoots the junction of the rings to one side of the explosion site, while Brand shoots the junction on the other side of the explosion.

The two explosions of violently reacting Order and Chaos detach that section of the ring and the arc of its structure, with Anurerishkigal, floats away towards us.

Tamarind quickly draws another Trump sketch of the surface of the drifting ring section and, using it, we all Trump down onto its surface.


Making our way along the arc of ring, we enter through the damaged section, finding ourselves in corridors seemingly made of organically-built metal. There is some gravity in here, so we are no longer floating around.

Phoenix can still see the black blob of Anurerishkigal's life-force, and directs us in its direction. "The third level down and along," she tells us.

As we make our way through the corridors, magical things race towards us. They appear to be some sort of animated shards.

Damien switches his Abyss Gun to the Order setting and shoots at them.

Several shards freeze in mid-air. The rest dodge past the trails of pure Order that now cross-cross the corridor and speed towards us.

Damien draws Greyswandir.

Phoenix covers Tristan who, despite her best efforts, takes a flying shard in the arm. Tristan concentrates and there is a burst of energy from the Jewel of Judgement that dispels the magic on those shards in his vicinity. They fall out of the air.

With Greyswandir, Damien chops shards from the air.

Brand radiates Pattern about himself, and those shards close to him fall out of the air and bounce off of his armour.

Margot and Damien move to defend Esmée who, as the slowest of us, seems to be having the worst time of it.

Phoenix has several shards stuck in her. As she expels them she realises that they are life-force draining. She shouts a warning of this to everyone else.

Damien quickly uses Greyswandir to knock the spikes out of Esmée.

Tamarind fills Nexus with Trump power, and uses it to Trump Trap shards away.

Ahead of us, something is coming down the corridor towards us.

Using the Jewel, Tristan fills all of us who are attuned to it (that is, everyone except Brand) with Jewel energy. Radiating from us, this dispels the magic on most of the remaining shards, which fall out of the air.

Not waiting to see what is approaching, Ibrahim uses Chrysanthir to chop a hole in the wall of the corridor.

As it comes closer, the approaching thing proves to be a juggernaut filling the cross-section of the corridor with a rotating spiked and bladed front face. It feels very Real.

Tamarind generates a Trump Gate in the corridor in front of it in an attempt to dispose of it, but a surge of Pattern energy enables it to chew through the Gate and onwards.

Damien switches his Abyss Gun to the Chaos setting and shoots it.

The juggernaut grinds to a halt.

Ibrahim peers into the adjoining corridor through the hole he has made. There is a juggernaut approaching there, too.

Tamarind draws a quick Trump sketch of the far end of the blocked corridor.

"Fiona is trying to turn off the Trumps!" says Brand.

"Make her stop," cries Tamarind in anguish.

The Trumps are still working when Tamarind finishes his sketch, and he quickly opens the link and we go through.

Once beyond the juggernaut we run in the direction that Phoenix's life-force vision indicates.


Before long we arrive at a large metal door, not unlike that of a bank vault. Tristan, Damien and Ibrahim can sense Real power from beyond it.

Tamarind switches Nexus to generate a Trump Gate and attempts to use it to cut through the door. Unfortunately, as the Gate contacts the door there is a hideous explosive feedback effect, and the Trump Gate goes down as Tamarind is blown back into the wall, stunned.

Ibrahim stabs at the door with Chrysanthir. The surface is barely scratched - it is clearly very tough.

Tristan gathers others who are initiated into the Jewel of Judgement and together they concentrate on burning through the door using Jewel power.

Slowly, the door begins to glow red hot.

When we judge it to be sufficiently hot, and so softened, Ibrahim stabs the door again. This time, Chrysanthir penetrates it, and he is slowly able to cut a hole through it to the space beyond.

On the far side of the door there seems to be a spherical room with another sphere hanging in its centre.

Phoenix can see a speck of black life-force to one side of the central sphere. Peering through the hole he has made, Ibrahim can see a black figure at that point, working at a console of some kind. It appears to be a Fiona-shaped oily black mass some ten feet tall.

Now that we can see where we are going, Tristan uses the Jewel of Judgement to take us through into the spherical chamber.


We appear out of a red glow of Jewel energy some eight feet from Anurerishkigal.

Those of who can tell such things can sense that it has lots of (black) life-force, magic, Trump and a Pattern imprint.

Damien uses his Abyss Gun to blast the console it is standing at with a jet of pure Order.

Tamarind, Esmée and Deirdre attempt to use Nexus to make psychic contact with Anurerishkigal. Phoenix covers them while they do so.

Brand is attempting to keep the shadow constant and stop Fianurerishkigal from altering it under us.

Ibrahim slices at Fianurerishkigal with Chrysanthir. The more magically-inclined of us feel some of the magic on Fianurerishkigal be dissipated by this.

Tristan checks around us with the life-force lens. There is no life-force on the inner sphere, but Fianurerishkigal appears to consist of four distinct clumps of life-force, as if all of it had come back together again. "It's all here!" Tristan tells the rest of us.

Fianurerishkigal's oily black face looks annoyed. "Don't you ever give up?" it demands.

It raises a hand.

Damien attempts to chop it off with Greyswandir, but the blade passes through it like water, the flesh flowing back behind the blade, and in doing so Damien catches a glimpse of a Trump Trap it is holding. And disappears in a purple rainbow.

Seeing this, everyone else looks away and/or radiates Pattern about themselves to stop any such thing from affecting them.

Phoenix grabs the arm and tries to shapeshift around it, to control it. The arm begins attempting to shift around her in turn.

Tristan begins to direct Jewel energy towards Damien, in the hope that this will be of use.


Damien appears in a place of pure white flame. And begins to burn.

As he feels himself dying, Damien reaches out for the Jewel of Judgement, and meets some Jewel power coming in the opposite direction. He grabs it, and teleports out of the shadow of flame.


The rest of us see Damien appear in a red burst of Jewel energy and then fall over, seriously crisped. His healing patch that Phoenix gave him is trying to fix him, but it is badly damaged itself.

Brand seems to relax. He joins Tamarind and the others in trying to force a psychic contact with Fianurerishkigal.

Esmée flicks some blood from herself over Damien. As it hits him it begins flowing over his charred skin, trying to keep him alive.

With Chrysanthir, Ibrahim slices into more of the magical parts of Fianurerishkigal.

As Esmée's blood flows into his charred eye-sockets, Damien begins to be able to see again, though his world is now very red-tinged.

Ibrahim takes a chance at cuts at the inner sphere. He finds that Chrysanthir penetrates it relatively easily, like ordinary metal. Nothing much seems to happen. Then he goes back to attacking Fianurerishkigal.

By now, Phoenix has managed to detach the hand with the Trump Trap from the rest of Fianurerishkigal. In doing so she and Fianurerishkigal have become intertwined on a physical level, and she feels Fianurerishkigal probing at her psychically.

So Phoenix opens the Box of Angst in her head, where she has isolated all of her worst memories, and pushes it into Anurerishkigal with a tasty does of life-force as an appetiser.

"You can look now," she tells the others.

Tristan begins using the Jewel of Judgement to cut this chamber out of the surrounding shadow and close all routes from it to the Land of the Dead.

The detached hand is now a blob, crawling back towards the main body of Fianurerishkigal.

Tamarind, taking a moment from attempting to force psychic contact with Fianurerishkigal, senses for other Trump Traps within it. After a moment he finds a number of them in and around it, and shouts out their locations to the rest of us.

Damien, now back on his feet, if still very charred and held together by Esmée's shapeshifted blood, shoots the crawling hand/blob with his Abyss Gun (which seems to have survived the shadow of white flame rather better than he has) set on Order. The hand freezes in a crystalline mass.

Ibrahim uses Chrysanthir to stab at the other Trump Traps within Fianurerishkigal's body.

Phoenix's Box of Angst has had only a little effect on Fianurerishkigal, but does seem to distract it somewhat.

"Is there anything I can do to make you lot bugger off?" Fianurerishkigal demands in an irritated manner.

We do not reply.

Damien moves to shoot the inner sphere.

"No!" shouts Tristan, not wanting his job complicated any further. He has now largely closed off the shadow pocket from the Land of the Dead.

Damien refrains from shooting the sphere, and instead wanders over to Tristan as he radiates Jewel power and lends him some power of his own. As much as he can spare in his current injured state, anyway.

Phoenix is extricating herself from the substance of Fianurerishkigal.

As the psychic assault by Tamarind, Brand, Deirdre and Esmée continues, they feel Fianurerishkigal's psychic barriers begin to break down.

"Stop!" is shouts. "I'll give you anything. Any knowledge. I'll tell you how to bring Eric back," it says to Ibrahim.

"All that means," replies Ibrahim. "Is that bringing Eric back is possible, so eventually I'll work it out myself..."

Anurerishkigal looks even more annoyed, and explodes. The blast throws us about the room.

We can sense a large cloud of black life-force hovering in mid-air, trying to seep out into the Land of the Dead.

Unfortunately for it, Tristan has closed up the weave of the shadow enough to largely stop this, although we sense that bits of it are escaping. He uses the Jewel to just seal the shadow pocket off from the Land of the Dead temporarily, in the same way that we have used it to seal off holes to the Land of the Dead in the past.

The rest of us see him going faster and faster as he does this. Then he falls over.

Phoenix attempts to fix him up, even trying to transfer some of her life-force into him.

Damien removes the Jewel of Judgement from about his neck.

Tristan begins fading fast.

Damien hastily puts it back.

Phoenix uses the Jewel to channel more life-force from herself into Tristan.

While she does this, the others insert Nexus into the drifting cloud of life-force, and Tamarind activates the memory-fragment weapon. Black memory fragments pour from the sword into Fianurerishkigal. Loud and piercing psychic screams echoes about the chamber. Then they fade...

"Is it gone?" asks Tamarind into the silence.

"It's gone," confirms Brand.

Ibrahim scans the chamber with the life-force lens. He sees that Tristan is down to some twenty percent of his normal level, while Phoenix is at about thirty percent. Damien is also down a great deal. Ibrahim takes the Jewel away from them when it becomes clear that Tristan has been stabilised, and that continuing to use it is causing more harm than good.

"The place has been sealed from the Land of the Dead," says Brand. "But only temporarily. Fianurerishkigal has seeped back, but it is a mindless, lifeless zombie now."

With things a little calmer, Phoenix begins replacing Damien's charred skin with lots of little healing patches. She sees that Esmée's blood, while good enough in the short term, was very much a stop-gap measure intended to get Damien back on his feet for a while. It is definitely not a long-term solution to his injuries. That being so, Phoenix continues work. She first grows back Damien's eyes.

Tristan wakes up. Everything around him seems to be tinged with red, and moving rather slowly. To the rest of us, he moves somewhat faster than normal.

"Thank you," he says to Phoenix and Damien.

With Phoenix having done most of the proper healing, Esmée takes over and finishes patching Damien up.

Tamarind collects and neutralises the remaining Trump Traps from the bits of Fianurerishkigal splattered about the chamber.

We seem to be done here now.


With that being so we shift from this shadow pocket back to the original Factory shadow.

The ring structure is still rotating about the hole from the Land of the Dead. Everyone attuned to the Jewel of Judgement apart from Tristan, who is generally considered to have used it enough today, combines their energies and in a massive shared effort closes the hole down as far as it is possible to go.

With that done, Damien uses his Abyss Gun to blows up the rest of the ring structure. Pieces drift off in all directions.


From there we return to the Farm shadows and check them all.

We find that there are some half a dozen of them. They all have similar structures consisting of massive fractal urban overcrowding, but different races inhabiting them. They all have identical life-force collecting systems.

We make use of these to top up our various drained life-forces from the vast storage crystals there.

And then, satisfied with a job well done, we use the Jewel of Judgement to transport ourselves back to Amber.


Session 4.3   Index   Session 4.5

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The pictures of the soul-snake on this page comes from Volume 8 of 'Inu-Yasha, a Feudal Fairy Tale' by Rumiko Takahashi. It is used here, without permission, for personal game use only and not for profit or commercial gain.