Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Some 60-70 years ago the worlds of Ahnel and Derris were hit by violent storms. The result was the movement of mountains and strange animals appearing across the worlds. The people of Derris saw this as the answer to their prayers and proceeded to kill the animals because that's the sort of people they are.
Some four years ago the Enchanted Earth also suffered from similar violent storms and had similar experiences of changes in the world and animals.
Ten years ago Godofos was climbing a mountain in his homeland to sacrifice a lamb to the god Gemile, unfortunately he dropped the lamb, killing it, and had to return home. Then a storm occurred, and the nearby volcano then erupted and wiped out most of the village. Godofos was therefore blamed for not completing the sacrifice. Ever since he has lived alone and has been hunted for by his former people.
In Amber it has been 12 years since the Elders went away. Times have been hard since then, as the shadow paths had been cut therefore little food has been coming into Amber. Some of the forest of Arden has been cut down to make farmland. The Regent, Gerard, has been relocating the shadow paths to the lands that provide food for Amber as well as trying to maintain order in Amber itself, but recently something has been destroying the food convoys coming in.
Gerard calls Gilgamesh (a green fairy knight) to him and tells him he has come up with a plan. He says the solution lies with other, younger Amberites. He has sought visions in the sky city of Tir-na Nog'th, at the last full moon, and has cast the Trumps looking for a solution. He has gained information about five of these, who may hold the solution to Amber's salvation. He gives Gilgamesh small painted busts of the five of the five - these have been made by the lady Vialle, who assists him in ruling Amber. Gilgamesh agrees to go and find the five, he refuses the offer of soldiers to assist him but does take his squire.
Gilgamesh saddles his horse (which is green) and rides off through he Forest of Arden, fighting off a few of the "things" there, and after a while arrives in Bergamer.
In Bergamer, Godofos has been hunting and is now making his dinner, pheasant pie. Outside he suddenly hears two horses approaching, he takes his sword and goes to meet the horsemen. Gilgamesh introduces himself as Gil, and tells Godofos that has come with a quest for him, plus he has news of his true family, not the people he grew up with. Gil shows Godofos the figurine of him he has. Gil is invited for dinner and accepts; he decides to call Godofos -"Dolf". Dolf is told about Amber, the Regent's visions and that they want Dolf to assist. Dolf finally agrees on condition that he can return to Bergamer if he wants.
Dolf is given the squires horse to ride and the two set off over the hill followed by the squire. Dolf tells Gil he is fifty years old, all about the accident with the lamb and his life. Gil says he lost his memory a few years ago and doesn't know how old he is (about 1000 he thinks).
As they ride over the hill Dolf realises that they are no longer in Bergamer. Dolf is upset by this. Gil replies that Dolf should follow him "To adventure and excitement and all things beginning with a and e and other vowels". They continue to ride across what is now the Enchanted Earth towards the encampment that is blockading the City of Aix.
Inside a farmhouse nearby the leader of the army now blockading the City, Etienne D'Orleans, is making some French onion soup. Gil rides up to the house and asks the guards to tell Etienne that her cousins wish to speak to her. Gil tells the squire to put up his tent. Etienne agrees to speak to the visitors. Gil tells her that he and Dolf are her cousins and that she is an Amberite, he also tells her about the Regent's visions, and she is shown the figurine of her. Etienne says that she has her own dreams and they tell her that she must lead her people against the Byzantians. Gil says that he will defeat the Byzantians for her and then she can come with them. Etienne says that she wants to defeat the Byzantian sorcerer Julian Magnus herself. Gil says for her to get her horse and follow him then.
Etienne gets her horse from the stable. It turns out to be a white winged horse, capable of flight, called Electra. As they ride towards Aix they can see that all the Byzantians are no longer there, and all the local peasants are looting the Byzantians homes. Gil say he got rid of them all with a click of his fingers. Dolf says that there is no such thing as magic or dragons etc. As a dragon flies over in the distance.
The three of them, followed by the army, ride into Aix and into the castle. Inside the Great Hall the windows are covered by black curtains, on the floor is a large magic circle with Julian in the centre chanting. Etienne tells him to give himself up, he declines so after a brief (and fairly one-sided struggle) Etienne brings forth a column of fire and burns him to a crisp. Dolf finds this a little upsetting. They all now decide to have some dinner, in the castle kitchens there are huge pots of onion soup and other delicacies awaiting for them. Gil then does his speech about pursuing adventure and all things beginning with vowels.
The three of them (plus squire having packed up the tent) mount up on their horses again and start to ride, Gil gets out the third figurine of a slight, slim, attractive woman with short cropped hair. As they ride the terrain changes again and Dolf and Etienne realise they are no longer in the Enchanted Earth. Gil remarks that he is surprised that they hadn't visited each other before as they lived so close. Dolf and Etienne look at Gil with some scepticism.
Their destination, the world of Derris, is extremely hot. There are few animals, only reptiles (some very large - dinosaurs) and large amounts of insects. There are open plains with patches of dense tropical forest, from one of which a small band of locals emerge in ambush and try to kill them. They are thus killed for their trouble.
They continue towards the nearby hills. Inside a cave at the very top of the range of hills lives Caitlin. She has just cooked some meat and hears voices approaching. she goes to the opening of the cave and sits on top of a large boulder eating, watching the strange group approaching her home. They arrive and Gil asks if they can enter the cave. Caitlin shrugs agreement and they enter, inside the cave there is nothing except a large fire with meat roasting over it. The food is offered, Dolf accepts. Gil repeats again his story about Amber, they all being family, the Regent's visions and that their help is needed. Caitlin agrees to come on condition that she doesn't have to come back to Derris to live. Gil them looks at the last but one figurine, and Caitlin recognises it as Jihx. She tells them that Jihx is from another world that is found the other side of a great portal that opened many years ago in some old ruins near the cave. She says that the people from her land and Jihx's land had a war, but now are at peace as long as the people of Derris are allowed to go to Ahnel to hunt for food (they have killed all the animals on this world except lizards which they consider to be sacred).
Caitlin says she will pack her stuff, she picks up a blanket like cloak and puts out the fire. She leads them over the hills to an area with some ruins. Inside the ruins is a large alter with an arch. The inside of the arch is a shimmering silver curtain, which Caitlin says you have to step into to get to the world of Ahnel where Jihx lives. Dolf looks at the back of the arch, it is black and appears to be solid. Caitlin steps into the portal and the others follow.
The world of Ahnel is a very pleasant land with rolling hills and green pastures. The area in front of the portal is now surrounded by fortresses and Caitlin tells them is now called the Lizard people plain. Caitlin sits down and waits, the others make camp, the poor squire yet again puts up the tent. Very soon Jihx rides out to meet them. Caitlin goes to meet him, she tells him about the green fairy and others that say that they are needed to assist a magical world called Amber. The pair are both very sceptical but are very bored having lived in their various worlds for some seventy years and thus because they don't age have become rather isolated by their people. Jihx agrees to go. The squire is ordered to put the tent away. They all go to Jihx's castle (really more of a fortified manor house) for food and to allow Jihx to wish his people farewell. Much vegetarian food is eaten while they wait for Jihx.
When they are all ready, Gil decides that he will take them to Amber before looking for the fifth Amberite. He produces a playing card with a picture of a courtyard which Gil says is Amber. The back of the card is a silhouette of a golden unicorn on green. Gil tells the others to all link hands and concentrates on the card. The card appears to open up and they all step through it into the courtyard. As they enter the courtyard they see that there are many crossbow slits around it - it appears heavily fortified.
As they come through Godofos' horse goes mad with fright, bucking and rearing. Godofos wrestles it to the ground and when it doesn't stop, knocks it unconscious.
Once things have calmed down, Etienne notices that Amber is much lower in magic than anywhere else she has ever been.
A guard calls out and Gil answers. The gate across the courtyard opens and a guard walks towards the group and greets Gil, calling him Prince Gilgamesh. Gil tells everyone that they are all royalty in Amber. Everyone but Gil are lead to rooms to clean up before visiting Gerard. The assorted horses are taken away to the stables.
Gil goes and sees Gerard. He tells him that he has found four of the young Amberites and they will be brought to him soon.
Jihx goes to his room but soon asks to be shown around the castle and is lead up to a tall tower to take in the view.
Caitlin has a look around then has a bath and gets new clothes (she refuses to wear the dresses offered but agrees to shirts, trousers and large boots),
Etienne bathes and dresses in new clothes.
Dolf has sex with the (female) servants, eats, has a bath and then has sex again.
Jihx reaches the top of the tower. He sees that the castle is roughly a mile wide and half a mile deep and backs onto a mountain. Below it is a huge city filling a plateau some miles in extent, and below that a harbour and the sea. To the south he sees a grey tower rising from the sea and a forest with some smoke rising from it. Close to the castle is a great cathedral with no spire. After taking in the view for a while Jihx goes back down the tower.
Servants are sent for everyone, and they are all led off to see Gerard.
We are all lead into a huge throne room, through huge bronze wood doors, carved with intricate mythological scenes. It has huge stained glass windows along the south wall, a vaulted ceiling, pillars, tapestries on the other walls, banners hanging from the ceiling, and a red carpet leading to a dais on which is the throne. There is a large throne and a smaller chair below and beside it. On the wall behind them is a huge unicorn banner in gold and green. In the throne sits Gerard, the regent of Amber; in the smaller chair sits the Lady Vialle. Gil introduces us all to Gerard and he explains.
Gerard tells us that Amber is the centre of the universe, and that some 12 years ago there was a great war. The Primal Pattern had to be re-drawn because of the damage caused by a traitor to the realm. The Pattern allowed travel to the world were food was obtained for Amber, but with its re-drawing the paths to them shifted. Although many of them have been relocated, lately some of the food convoys have been destroyed. Gerard consulted the "Trumps" (cards like the one Gil used to transport everyone back to Amber) and sought the future in the sky city of Tir-na Nog'th. In this he saw visions of five Amberites (the four who have been collected, plus one other). From his descriptions the Lady Vialle made the figurines, and Gerard then sent Gil to find us all, to save the Realm before the food situation become too dire.
He tells us that we are all from Amber, and are all members of its Royal Family, and that because of that we all have the power to walk the Patterns. If we assay the Pattern then we will be able to use it to walk through shadows, the endless worlds which reach from Amber all the way to the Courts of Chaos at the other end of the multiverse, all of which are merely reflections or shadows of the real world of Amber.
Gerard says that the members of the family of Amber plotted and schemed amongst themselves a great deal. He suspects that our parents secreted us on different worlds before the war to protect us from being used as pawns in the struggles between different family members. Gerard believes that our parents are still around somewhere, still at the Courts of Chaos perhaps.
Attempting to explain more about the origin of Amber and shadow, Gerard tells us that in the beginning there was raw seething Chaos, out of which worlds and other things appeared and disappeared. Dworkin, oldest of the line of Amber, apparently drew the Pattern which somehow introduced order into the multiverse, forming all the stable worlds of shadow with Amber forming the centre of this order, surrounded by Chaos, with every other possible world in between. Every descendent of Dworkin has the potential power of the Pattern in their blood and can travel between the worlds after walking it.
Gerard asks Gil to take us to the Pattern to walk it to the centre, thus linking us to the centre of reality and fixing the Pattern in us all. Gil leads us down a long spiral staircase (it takes about 25 minutes to walk down) to a central chamber, and then down a tunnel to the heart of the mountain. At the door of the seventh opening (about 15 minutes walk from the bottom of the staircase) there are a number of guards.
Gil asks them to open up, and one of the guards takes a key from his belt (though there is a hook on the wall by the door at the end of the tunnel) and opens the door.
Inside the room is of a black shiny stone which despite its slick appearance gives sure footing. Burning on the floor is a swirling lace-work of blue-white lines 150 yards long and 100 yards wide, which seems to be the most substantial thing here, somehow making everything else seem insubstantial. There seems to be a starting point close to the door. Etienne can feel that there is no magic at all in this chamber.
Everyone looks at the Pattern...