"Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again"

SESSION 2.8 : A Result, Definitely A Result


Session 2.7   Index   Session 2.9


Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.


Everyone has desert. There is still no sign of Arun. Etienne asks the servants to bring some chocolate covered anchovies. The servants give her a funny look, but obey. After a while a plate of them is delivered. Godofos tries some. His seem to be off. Etienne (despite having ordered them) and Caitlin refuse to touch them. Jihx wants to know what they are before trying them. Caitlin tries to convince him they're some kind of vegetable, but Etienne, against Caitlin's wishes, tells him what they really are, and Jihx too refuses them.


Off in shadow, Arun flies invisibly towards the city on canals in the shape of the Pattern that it looked like the Moonriders and their army were about to attack. It's about twenty miles away. It doesn't take him long to get there. As he approaches he can see that it is a walled city (with guard towers along the walls), circular in plan, and about half a mile in diameter. All the buildings seem to be built out of some black stone (marble?), and are generally tall and thin, with many spires, in an angular Arabic sort of style.

He flies over the wall, noting the armed guards and the alarm bells there, and on over the city. The streets below are narrow, and either wind to and fro, or follow the canals that make the shape of the Pattern through the city. As he flies on, he can see a taller, more ornate building in the centre of the city, where the centre of the Pattern would be. He decides this must be where the leaders of the place are, and heads for it. He circles about for a while, then picks a window (more of an arrow slit, really) and slides in through it in a very thin shape.

Inside the place is walled with black stone and lit by torches. Tapestries hang here and there. Arun wanders about for a little while seeing people in black clothing going about various tasks, then turns off his invisibility spell, and appears before one of these people.

The servant is alarmed at this (unsurprisingly), but Arun convinces him he comes in peace, and tells him that he wishes to speak to their leader. The servant agrees, and leads Arun off to meet the Theocrat, who rules this place.


Back in Amber, Godofos 'enjoys' more anchovies, this time with various toppings on them. Eventually they are all gone, and the servants bring in some nice deserts, which everyone eats.

While they wait for Arun, they decide to try some more of the Trumps they took from Lillian, and trash some more Moonriders.


Arun is lead along high black stone corridors. Eventually he and the servant reach two large plain black wood doors with a guard standing to each side, dressed in black robes and carrying a large halberd. The servant whispers to one of the guards. After a moment the guard nods, and the servant pushes one door open a little way and slips in. After a little while, the servant comes out again and asks Arun to enter.

He does. Inside is a tall, dimly lit vaulted octagonal room, lit by torches and moonlight coming in from tall, thin windows near the top. Guards stand around the walls, looking the same as those outside. In the centre of the room, on a plain black wood throne on a raised dais, sits a tall, thin person in long grey robes. Their gender in indeterminate. The servant who led Arun here walks about halfway to the dais then lies on his face on the floor. Arun does not follow suit.

The Theocrat (for that is who is on the throne) asks Arun, in a whisper, what he wants. Arun tells them that their city is vital to the stability of the realm of Amber, and that they have destroyed the leaders of the army threatening the city. The Theocrat whispers that The One True God is protecting them, and this place, Hexilunar. But Arun and his comrades may be sent by God even if they don't know it. Arun gives the Theocrat a coin of Amber as a token of their protection of this place and wishes him all the best in protecting the city. Then he casts his levitation and daylight flare spells, vanishing upwards hidden in the glare as the chamber is filled with light.

He goes up to the tall, narrow windows at the top, and lands briefly on a cleaner's balcony while he figures out how to open them. Then he flies out of the window, closes it and off up into the sky.

Once he is at a goodly altitude, he pulls out his Trump of Etienne and concentrates upon it.


Back in Amber, everyone else goes out into the main courtyard of the castle again. Fifty of the castle guard are summoned again, and the four of them concentrate on the Trump of the Moonrider named Cadmus. After a bit of a struggle, they force the link open. Cadmus seems to be in a night-time woodland with three other Moonriders. Etienne paralyses him with the force of her will and they all pile through the Trump link and attack the others. Caitlin clubs one to the ground. Jihx runs one through with his sword. Godofos punches the last one in the head, then grabs the luckless Moonrider and starts unscrewing his head!

At about this point, Etienne feels the tingle of a Trump call coming on. However, if she takes it, she'll let the Moonrider she's paralysing loose, so she doesn't. She has enough of an advantage over the Moonrider to be able to move a little, and very slowly starts to bring her arquebus to bear on Cadmus.

Caitlin clubs Cadmus unconscious, and Etienne relaxes. The head of Godofos' Moonrider comes off to loud tearing and wrenching sounds; the Moonrider pours forth moonlight and starts to quickly fade.

Now that she is free to do so, Etienne takes the Trump call (which has been continuing the whole time). It's Arun. Etienne brings him through to her. He briefly reports on his mission.

As he does so, Etienne, with her new sensitivity to shadow, has a chance to feel what this shadow is like. It is, in fact Ghenesh. She tells everyone this. From what she can tell, Ghenesh is about three times faster than Amber, and in fact seems older than Amber. Strange. When she tells the other this, Caitlin speculates that Ghenesh is perhaps a place made by Oberon and Dworkin on their way to making the Pattern itself.

Now that they are in Ghenesh anyway, Etienne decides to use this opportunity to check the place for shadows of the Pattern. She kneels and starts praying. Arun sits down and begins to re-rack some spells. The others look around. Around the clearing, close to where three of the Moonriders were standing, the combination of shadows and moonlight falling through the trees implies the shapes of a dog, a sword, and a shield. In fact more than implies - they seem half real. Caitlin, Jihx and Godofos destroy them.

As they are having to wait anyway, Caitlin sneaks off into the forest and sets lots of traps around this clearing, using her great tactical skills to put them in all the best places. Then she comes back.

Time passes.

After a half hour or so, Etienne has prayed for about a sixth of the time she thinks is necessary. Arun has a spell about two thirds racked. Something triggers one of the traps.

Jihx activates his sword and heads into the dark and moonlit woods to investigate.

A second trap goes off.

Caitlin slips into the shadows. There is a brief sound of combat off in the woods. Then it stops.

An arrow flies out of the darkened woods and takes Arun in the chest. Fortunately, his heart is nowhere near there, so it just hurts. He gives up on spell racking for now.

Etienne gives up her praying and deploys her glowing gem, throwing it into the woods. Moving figures are glimpsed in its light. And Jihx, unconscious with a big lump on the back of his head a little way into the woods. Arun starts preparing to cast his Daylight Flare spell to take advantage of the Moonrider's aversion to bright light.

Caitlin can hear about a dozen people moving about in the woods. A brief excursion collects the unconscious Jihx, and a bit of first aid has him conscious again, though with a headache, quite quickly.

Caitlin sneaks off into the woods. The Moonriders there have no idea where she is as they move in towards the clearing. Caitlin starts picking them off from behind, and Godofos and Jihx from the front. Between the three of them they manage to kill and incapacitate the twelve Moonriders who were approaching, though Jihx is a bit bruised and Godofos is bleeding from a few minor cuts by the time they are done. Caitlin hasn't been touched.

The dead Moonriders start fading away into moonlight and shadow.

At this point Etienne senses another group of Moonriders coming up through the woods behind them. She warns everyone else. Arun casts his Daylight Flare spell, and suddenly the clearing and the woods are filled with bright sunshine. Etienne feels the Moonriders behind her moving rapidly off into the darkness.

Arun has the magic sun he has just created move up into the sky, becoming as bright as the sun and blocking out the moon. Sunlight illuminates the woods for miles around.

Those of the first group of Moonriders who are not dead, just incapacitated, are killed in cold blood.


A bit of discussion ensues. In the end everyone decides to return to Amber. They all Trump in to the arrival courtyard, then off to a sitting room.

Godofos says he will draw a Trump sketch of this place just in case. He's not been able to do that before, as far as the others are aware. Etienne intends to put the 'detect shadow of the Pattern' spell into an item, preferably a crystal ball, elsewhere so it can be used almost immediately once they return to Ghenesh.

Caitlin volunteers to find a crystal ball for Etienne, and heads off through the castle into the abandoned attic where they found the 'Pattern-stones' before. She attempts to use the Pattern to make the thing she wants appear, forgetting that this does not work in Amber. She searches on in the conventional manner. After a while, at the other end of the attic where she and Etienne had not looked before, she finds a small display case with a (dusty) crystal ball on an ornate red bronze stand. The faded label says that it is the Orb of the Red Mage of Mallen. She undoes the case and takes the Orb and its stand. She also takes a sparkly rock she found while searching. Then she goes back to the others.

Caitlin gives the Orb and the sparkly rock to Etienne. Etienne calls in a servant and asks her to go to the library and look for information on this 'Red Mage'. The servant exits.

It is decided that Etienne and Godofos will Trump off to Vitesse. Godofos wants to draw Trump sketches. Etienne wants to check out, and modify, the Orb.

The others, now that Arun is here, will go to the shadow of the Undying Storm and deal with the obelisks there.


Etienne and Godofos Trump out.

Caitlin, Jihx and Arun use the Trump they took from Lillian and Trump off to the beach, with the storm visible in the distance. Arun can feel the wild magic permeating the place, and how it could easily send his spells awry if he's not careful. Regardless, he wades into the sea then turns into his shark-like water-breathing avatar form and swims away, following directions from the others as to where Etienne felt the other obelisks to be, heading for the one opposite the one on the beach.

Jihx starts excavating the obelisk from the sand. Caitlin watches.

Arun swims at speed under the centre of the storm. As he goes he notices that the lightning in the storm above him is arcing and striking in the shape of the Pattern, slowly rotating. He swims on at high speed, passing under the eye of the storm, and reaches the point where the opposite obelisk should be after half an hour or so. He casts about with this form's sonar, and after a while picks the obelisk out, embedding in the sea bottom.

At about this point, Caitlin and Jihx decide to see how Arun is doing. They concentrates on Arun's Trump. Out at sea, Arun feels the Trump call coming on. He tries to resist, but Caitlin and Jihx together are just too strong, so he gives in to the inevitable and accepts the call. He tells them that he has found the obelisk, and will now blast, and hopefully destroy it.

Deep under the sea, he slots home the linchpins of his 'Ray of Sun' spell. As the spell activates, he feels the wild magic of the place pulling the spell out of shape. Not one bolt of solar plasma is created, but hundreds, radiating out in all directions from next to Arun! He sees the obelisk shatter, but is himself impaled on a number of the beams. He passes out. The Trump link goes down.

On the beach, Jihx and Caitlin feel the power imbalance start to build up. Jihx activates his sword and armour, and prepares to blast the obelisk on the beach. Caitlin runs for cover. And keeps running, over the dunes and away. Jihx fires. The main purple beam is as usual, but it is surrounded by a large cone of purple lightning! The obelisk explodes into fragments that ping off Jihx's armour. The sand around the obelisk has been melted into a glassy crater. Caitlin, behind a couple of sand dunes, is entirely untouched, and comes back as the noise of the explosion dies down.

The two of them decide to Trump Arun again.


In Vitesse, Etienne sits down at a table in the bar of the auberge and examines the crystal ball. It can scry at range within the same shadow and cast spells at range through that link. It can also rack up to twelve spells within it.

She starts to work her magic on it, modifying it for her purposes. This will be much quicker than creating a similar item from scratch as all the hard work has already been done. She wants the Orb to search for shadows of the Pattern, but also retain the abilities it already has and make them useable in a wider range of shadows.

As she does this, Godofos sits nearby and sketches. He creates a Trump sketch of the clearing in Ghenesh, then starts on a sketch of Etienne.


Back on the beach, Caitlin and Jihx both concentrate on Arun's Trump. Arun does not respond. Caitlin is not at all sensitive or sympathetic - "Arun is dead, let's go home," she says to Jihx! Jihx is less convinced about this.

In the depths of the sea, Arun eventually regains consciousness. He is badly wounded, feeling very poorly and missing a fin, which seems to have been burnt off. He is also somewhat tired. He concentrates on healing himself and repairs his various wounds, as well as replacing the fin.

Caitlin uses the Trump of Arun and just keeps concentrating on it. Eventually she gets through, and the situation is discussed. Arun denies that he has had any real problems!

Arun re-orientates himself, then swims off in the direction of the next obelisk. As he goes, Caitlin convinces him that he'll have to destroy the remaining four obelisks on his own, with a bit of very fast swimming in between to avoid destroying the shadow by accident. Arun eventually agrees with this, but is not in favour of using his magic to blow up any more deep-sea obelisks. It is decided that when Arun finds them, they'll be sent through to Jihx, on the beach, and he'll blow them up.


On the beach, Caitlin is feeling a bit hungry, so she catches some of the crabs that are scuttling about and eats them, raw. Jihx does not follow suit...

After a bit, Caitlin Trumps Arun again, just as he reaches the third obelisk. He touches the obelisk, and together Caitlin and Jihx pull the obelisk through the Trump link to the beach. The Trump link is dropped, and Arun swims quickly away in the direction of the obelisk opposite this one.

Caitlin and Jihx wait on the beach. Caitlin catches and eats some more crabs.

Arun searches around and finds the obelisk. He Trumps Jihx, and passes the Obelisk through to him and Caitlin. He drops the link and swims on.

Caitlin flees for cover once more as Jihx prepares to blast the two obelisks. He fires; the blast is as before - the usual beam and a cone of purple lightning - and the obelisk explodes. He repeats this on the other obelisk; it too is destroyed. Jihx and Caitlin can feel the imbalance or power, which had been increasing, become less once the two obelisks are gone.

Out at sea, Arun finds the fifth obelisk. He Trumps Jihx and it, too, is passed through to the beach.


In the auberge in Vitesse, Godofos finishes his Trump sketch of Etienne. He then draws a sketch of the auberge courtyard (the same place as the original Trump shows). Then he goes off to bed. Ellen, the wench he was sleeping with previously, helps him into bed...

Eventually he sleeps. When he wakes, he goes back down to the bar (with Ellen), and eats, watching Etienne at her work. Finally, after eight hours or so of work, Etienne is done. The Orb will now detect shadows of the Pattern as well as do all the things it did before in more shadows than it did before.

She looks around and sees Godofos watching her. She tells Godofos that she has succeeded, and that the Orb is now renamed 'The Eye of Saint Claire'.

With Etienne's permission, Godofos tries the Trump sketch of her he's drawn. He concentrates upon it, and it seems to work when Etienne accepts the call, though he's not sure how many more time's it'll work. Etienne joins the link, and is now in Trump contact with herself! It is rather strange, but doesn't seem dangerous.

Now that they're done, Godofos and Etienne concentrate on their Trump of Jihx.


On the beach, Jihx feels a Trump call coming on. He takes the call. It's Godofos and Etienne. Jihx brings them through to where he is. The situation is explained.

Out at sea, Arun finds the sixth obelisk on the sea floor. He Trumps Jihx, and Godofos and Etienne watch as the last obelisk is passed through to him and Caitlin. Then Arun comes through as well, and his shark-like form reverts back to his human shape. Arun is exhausted, having swum something like a hundred miles in a couple of hours, which has got to be tiring, even for a shark!

The imbalance of power can be felt building up. Another Trump link is quickly opened up, this one to Ragasa, and the last two obelisks are passed through. Jihx follows and uses his sword to blow them to smithereens, along with the one buried in the ice there from when they first came to Ragasa.

As the obelisks vanish through the Trump link, the imbalance of forces at the beach vanishes entirely. Very slowly, the Undying Storm starts to move off along the coastline.

They decide to leave the Storm intact, rather than destroying it as they have other things used in this way.


Caitlin decides to go back to Amber to see what has been found out about the Red Mage of Mallen. She concentrates upon her Trump of the arrival courtyard, and as the link opens, steps through. She asks the first servant she sees whether anything has been found out, and the servant hands her a page of information.

Apparently, the Red Mage was an advisor to the King of Ibath, a highly magical Chinese-style shadow of jade and silver pagodas and a green jade-coloured sky, in the Golden Circle. As well as humans, Oriental-type wingless dragons live there, and are venerated by the people. The King of Ibath rules from the capital city of Mallen, and it was there that the Red Mage lived. Thousands of years ago, the Red Mage came into conflict with Princess Fiona of Amber soon after she first walked the Pattern. After a prolonged battle she killed him, and she took all of his books and magical items, including his scrying orb (the greatest treasure), as her rightful prize.


Caitlin gives the piece of paper back to the servant, and Trumps Etienne. Etienne takes the call, and brings Caitlin through to the beach. Caitlin tells Etienne what has been found out. Etienne receives this news and is happy.

Everyone decides to go to Vitesse for now. Godofos concentrates upon his new Trump sketch of Vitesse, and everyone steps through to the place, to be greeted by the innkeeper.

He leads the group to the best table in the auberge. Food and drink are provided. Godofos and Caitlin have wild boar (one each). Etienne has bread, cheese and wine. Jihx has an aubergine on a bed of lettuce (he gets funny looks from the staff of the auberge when he orders this!). Arun just staggers off to bed and collapses into sleep.

Once they have eaten, the others also sleep.


In the morning, everyone wakes up, much refreshed.

Everyone comes down and eats breakfast.

Arun wanders off, out of the auberge and off through the nearby woods, and through shadow, meditating and racking spells as he goes.

Etienne tests the new Eye of St Claire, then begins re-racking some of her spells.


Caitlin, Godofos and Jihx decide to deal with another of the obelisk sites and get rid of another line of cold. They look through the Trumps taken from Lillian and decide on the one she named as 'The Heart of the God' - a (biological) heart-shaped rock, in a cave, engraved with a three-dimensional representation of the Pattern that glows blood-red. They concentrate on the Trump, and before long it opens up. The only light comes from the Pattern-thing on the Heart, and reveals that it is surrounded by six hexagonal black obelisks. It hums faintly, but there is no other sound.

The three of them go through the Trump link. As quickly as they can, they (well, Godofos) uproots the obelisks in pairs and pass them through the Trump to Ragasa. When this is done, they leave, back to Vitesse. They decide to leave the Heart intact. Jihx Trumps to Ragasa and destroys the six obelisks there, then returns to Caitlin.


He and Caitlin decide to go to Ahnel and Derris to dispose of the obelisks that have been stored there, in Caitlin's cave and one of the Ahnelian fortresses. They Trump to Caitlin's cave, and Jihx destroys the obelisks there while Caitlin takes cover. Then they Trump to Ahnel, outside the fortress closest to the gate to Derris. The Commander of the fortress welcomes Jihx and invites him inside. Jihx has the obelisks there brought outside away from the fortress, then destroys them, too.


Godofos, in Vitesse, decides to test the durability of his Trump sketches, as he is not sure how many trips through other Trump links, or uses, they will last. He Trumps back and forth between Vitesse and Amber with the sketch of the auberge courtyard. He finds that it lasts for six journeys through Trumps, three actual uses as a Trump. He goes back to Vitesse.


In Ahnel, Jihx attends to some administrative matters in the fortress. Caitlin Trumps off to Amber to check on the lines of cold. When she arrives and asks, a servant tells her that another line has gone and none have, as yet, returned. Also, Amber itself seems to be warming up, and the Pattern is getting brighter. Result!

Caitlin decides to go down to the Pattern, to check it for herself, and have a talk to Lillian.


In Vitesse, Godofos draws more Trump sketches, mainly of Vitesse.


Session 2.7   Index   Session 2.9

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