"Now These Her Princes Are Come Home Again"

SESSION 1.3 : Playing With the Pattern


Session 1.2   Index   Session 1.4


Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.


The group are all on board the Unicorn's Flight. We start to cross the sea, heading out from Amber. Dolf suffers from seasickness very badly. Caitlin has never seen a sea before and feels a bit off at first. Etienne, Jihx and Arun find sea journeys fine. Gil suffers a little.

We sail on, passing from shadow world to shadow world. Dolf feels worse and gets suggestions from some of the sailors on cures such as a piece of bacon on a string which is swallowed and then pulled back up (this doesn't help but the sailors get a good laugh).

Gil paints. Etienne flies Electra around a bit. Dolf continues being sick. Caitlin winds up Jihx about being his sister. Dolf's horse is also faring very badly from the sea journey.

We decide to practice our powers. We start by Dolf using the Trump card for Gil and making contact via the card.

Dolf, Jihx, Caitlin, Etienne and Arun have a private chat. They discuss whether they should be working for Gerard and Gil or whether we should try to find our parents instead. Possibilities of Gerard setting us up against our parents, and whether Gerard really the good guy are discussed. We decide to stick with the convoy for now, but to be wary of doing anything against people until we are sure what is going on.

We decide to test our other powers. Etienne flies off on Electra to do so on her own. Dolf, Jihx, Caitlin and Arun go off in a small boat. They manage to produce a small island with volcano and large lizards before it is destroyed by a huge fire then a giant wave. Then they proceed to have a fight with rubber mallets and custard pies. Jihx then produces some sandwiches.

After a while we get bored and Dolf imagines us back near the ship. Unfortunately we find we are then being followed by three sharks which Jihx imagines away. Eventually we get back on to the ship.

Gil is quizzed by us all about the powers and what we can and cannot do, and about the sharks etc. When asked about the portal between Caitlin and Jihx's worlds he says that Brand could perhaps have done it as he is apparently very powerful. Gil soon gets bored of us asking him questions and contacting via the cards and disappears off to paint in another world. Dolf begins to feel better, but his horse is still poorly. After a number of days Gil returns with one Trump of each of us. They are passed between us so there is a way of contacting us all between us. Gil also gets unicorn signet rings for us all (the same as the one he wears) - they act, to some extent, as identifying marks for the royalty of Amber.

After eight days we reach the world of Kashfa, the sky is greenish white in colour, with a golden sun. We sail on to the city of Teshan, and into the harbour. The city, which spreads up over the slopes around the harbour, is made up of single storey bamboo houses. There are many floating bamboo jetties where many bamboo boats are docked, as well as a few clippers and other 'alien' boats which are already there.

There are a number of agents wearing unicorn tabards waiting on the jetty for us. The agents come on board the ship and are greeted by Captain Christian. The agents recommend a number of hostels to us and we decide to go to the 'Sailor's Rest' while they talk to the Captain.

We all go the 'Sailor's Rest' and are given the best rooms. We see that the people in the city are dressed in very plain clothes (apparently they are farmers), very bright clothes (nomadic buffalo followers, a cross between gypsy's and native Americans) or intermediately bright clothes (sailors and fishermen, the natives of Teshan).

Jihx decides to visit his homeland. He gets his horse ready and rides off towards the woods nearby. He imagines the changing landscape and after a number of hours eventually reaches Ahnel.

Caitlin spends her time in the square outside the 'Sailor's Rest', watching the people, and being watched by the people. Dolf explores the town and enjoys the company of the local wenches. Gil spends his time in the local pub getting drunk. He is later joined by Dolf. Etienne wanders around the city. Arun goes for long walks using the Pattern, and eventually gets to a world where gravity barely exists. He drifts around considering his magic spells. The trees are kilometres high and spear-like with jellyfish-like creatures flying around.

Jihx finds that he has been away from Ahnel for over two months (ten days for us). He explains to his people that he will be away for long periods of time and gives then orders to follow etc.

Time passes.


A day and a half later a sailor calls at the 'Sailor's Rest' and says that the ships are ready to leave. Caitlin goes into the street and using her Trump card contacts Jihx and he returns on his horse through the card. This causes a stir in the street. Caitlin and Jihx then go back to the ship, the crowds parting in front of them. Arun and Etienne drag Dolf and Gil from the bar and return to the ship.

On reaching the 'Unicorn's Flight' we see that it is the last ship waiting, the others are already waiting outside the harbour. The captain greets us and we also set sail.

The convoy sails on, crossing shadows as it goes. Two days pass. On the evening of the second night out of Kashfa a cry is heard from the sailor on watch. We all go up onto deck. In the dimly luminous grey swirling sky we can see some black shapes heading towards us. We can also hear a sight throbbing noise.

Arun casts a light spell (a pinpoint of light which grows hugely as it rises into the sky) in the direction of the objects to light them up. The objects remain black in colour and as they near us we see that they are huge airships, roughly 500 metres long and 80 metres in diameter. Suddenly lights appear from the ships and focus onto our ship and a number of others in the convoy.

Finndos Symbol 1Eventually we see that there are twelve airships in all. On the red tail fins tails of each of them is a white circle with a black unicorn's head facing to the left. On each side of the nose of the lead ship, above us, there is an additional symbol, a silver wolf's head facing to the right on a black circle in a larger blue circle.

Lillians Symbol

Then suddenly purple flickering is seen from the underneath of the airships and bullets impact across the deck of our ship.


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