Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
For the last twenty years Arun has been doing a number of things.
He has helped his home world of Eridos to recover from the shadow storms which devastated it (and others shadows in that area) after the destruction of Ghenesh. This devastation included tidal waves, islands sinking into the sea, new lands rising up, terrible storms, plagues of disease and various types of creature, and similar unpleasant events. By now Eridos has largely got back on its feet.
He has set up a incestuous breeding program to overcome the problem of making shadow more egalitarian - if he cannot find people in shadow who are able to walk the Pattern and thus be the equal of the Amber Royal Family (having tried it with one or two especially promising people over the twenty years; they died within two feet of the start of the Pattern), he will breed them.
The result of this so far is two infants by different mothers, one male named Darnia, now aged four, and one female named Lanex, now aged five. He has moved them and the two villages (now combined into a single settlement) in which the mothers of his children lived into Dakar, a special shadow he has found in which time flows five times faster than it does in Amber, which is resistant to the Trump, has restricted access to people walking the Pattern, and which is guarded by huge, powerful and intelligent dragons.
Arun has also done some research into the laws of Amber, mainly to check on exactly how they will view what he is doing (in particular regarding Oberon's prohibition against incest inside the family!). He has found that some laws contradict each other - Oberon seemed to make things up as and when he felt like it. In the course of this he also comes to feel a sort of attachment to the library and its contents, as he becomes aware of the vast amount of knowledge it contains.
Arun also tries to find the Courts of Chaos, but although he has found various similarly-named places he has not found the real Courts as yet.
Arun, in his shadow, decides he needs to go back to Amber to spend time with his favourite library books! He also has some beer for Gerard. He leaves the shadow and shifts to a place where the Trumps work. He pulls out his Trump of the Amber arrival courtyard, and Trumps there.
Upon arrival he asks for Gerard and is informed that he is missing, and that his cousins have been back, summoned by Vialle to find Gerard and the other missing Family members. Arun has one servant carry the beer and a second lead him off to see Vialle.
Etienne and Jihx are moving fast through shadow from Vitesse back in towards the Golden Circle, specifically shadow Garramoth. Etienne is flying on the back of Electra; Jihx rides on his horse, which has increased its speed to double that of a normal horse and races along with blue sparks flying from its hooves as they strike the ground.
In the inn in shadow Vitesse, Skyrie sleeps after walking the Pattern, and Caitlin eats, then plays cards with the innkeeper and some of the other patrons of the place.
In Amber, Arun meets with Vialle in her office. She tells him of the missing Amberites and the newly discovered Skyrie, who she hints may be related to Prince Caine. She also tells him that the other, non-missing, Amberites, his cousins, have started investigating the troubles in the Golden Circle, as they are where Gerard was heading before he disappeared, and to see if the troubles are related to the disappearances. Arun decides to contact the others and join the search. Vialle wishes him luck.
Arun leaves Vialle's office and Trumps Etienne.
She receives the Trump call as she and Jihx are still racing through shadow; they are currently in a desert shadow, as Garramoth is a world of gem-dust deserts. The pair of them stop and she accepts the contact. When Etienne reveals that she is talking to Arun, Jihx also joins the contact and they all exchange news. Arun decides to join them on their journey and comes through the Trump to where they are.
Seeing the desert scene around him, Arun decides that his fish-like avatar form is not appropriate from this environment. He changes into his dragon form instead and the journey continues.
[OOC: It is commented that Arun is 'Inappropriate Shapeshifting Man - he disables his opponents with displays of side splitting inadequacy!']
In Vitesse, Skyrie wakes up, starving hungry from his exertions. He spends half an hour maintaining his spells and magical equipment, then goes downstairs. While sleeping he has had an insight into the use of the Trumps, triggered by his walk around the Pattern and has figured out how to create Trump Gates.
Caitlin is still playing cards with the locals. They agree to join the others. Caitlin Trumps Etienne whilst Skyrie orders food.
Etienne lands again to receive the Trump and passes on the news. They agree to Trump Caitlin when the party arrives at shadow Garramoth.
Caitlin and Skyrie continue playing cards whilst they wait and Skyrie eats a large meal. Skyrie summons his 'assistant' - an intangible football sized green-glowing ball of light that hovers in the air by him. Caitlin starts to win the game, with Skyrie close behind.
In the desert, the sand becomes finer and starts to glitter and show swirls of gemstone colours. The sky overhead becomes bluer and the air becomes warmer. The sun becomes a hot blue. Ahead, a city of tapering spires with ropes slung between them comes into view. The city has wisps of smoke drifting up from it and some towers show signs of damage. There are no city walls or obvious defences.
This shadow is of similar time flow rate to Amber. Magic works here to a normal level.
She and Jihx having arrived in Garramoth, Etienne Trumps Caitlin.
In Vitesse, Caitlin takes the call and she and Skyrie step through the Trump link to join the others. Skyrie's assistant vanishes. Caitlin is surprised to see Arun (in dragon form). Skyrie is surprised to see a large greenish-red (green in some lights, red in others) dragon that then transforms into a human.
Skyrie summons another assistant - a bluish one this time.
Caitlin and Arun exchange pleasantries and she introduces him to Skyrie.
Etienne opens another Trump link to elsewhere in shadow and pulls through a bag containing her magic items. This includes Arun's magical crown that she placed there to preserve its magic whilst they moved through shadow at accelerated speed.
We discuss tactics. A cautious approach is agreed upon, but Jihx and Caitlin favour abandoning this quickly if it does not provide results.
Skyrie produces a mask of a person none of the rest of us has ever seen and concentrates on it as if it were a Trump. In fact it is a Trump, just not in the usual form of a card. It takes a long time (from Skyrie's past experience) for the link to open up, but eventually it does, and he contacts Precursor Alexian, his deputy back in Xanusia. Skyrie asks Alexian about the mobilisation status of his armies, and is told they will be ready to move in three days. He then closes the link. The rest of us take distinct interest in this exchange. Skyrie says that his armies are at the disposal of our mission if they are needed.
Etienne gives Caitlin a ride on Electra as we carry on. Jihx gives Skyrie a ride on his horse. Arun does not want to be a dragon (for the sake of subtlety) but there is no room for another person on anyone's steed, so he turns into a hamster, shedding most of his body mass in a rush of air. Jihx takes the hamster and passes it to Skyrie, who looks not best pleased but places it on his shoulder. The hamster finds the air a little cooler and fresher around Skyrie than elsewhere in this desert.
Etienne and Caitlin land about half a mile from the city and dismount to walk the rest of the way in. Jihx, Skyrie and the Arun-hamster catch up. The hamster leaps from Skyrie's shoulder and runs around in little circles until it realises how far there is to go, at which point it makes a mighty leap back onto Skyrie's shoulder. The Skyrie's assistant sits over the hamster to conceal it.
As we get closer to the city it is clear that some of the towers have recently collapsed. People are moving about. Large black blobs can be seen deeper in the city. Closer inspection reveals these to be piles to be ashes. Some towers can also be seen to be flying dark blue banners with a golden 'T' symbol on them.
Skyrie asks what the other missing Amberites look like (he has already seen a Trump of Gerard), so we show him Trumps of them.
There is a shout as we approach within a few hundred yards of the city.
Half a dozen people come out of the closest tower and approach us. They are humans, dressed in desert robes with (fairly crude) tabards over them in dark blue bearing a gold 'T' symbol, armed with swords and knives. They block the path ahead of us. Etienne dismounts and introduces us as 'Princes and Princesses of Amber', and states our goal of looking for Gerard.
We are told that we are welcome here if we obey the laws. Etienne agrees, but asks for an update on the status of the law. They state that the law has changed 'Towards a more just society. We have overthrown those that oppressed us and punished them.' They indicate the piles of ash in the city - they are the remains of the eagle people, who they have exterminated!
With reference to Prince Gerard, the guards say there have been no 'strangers' in the city since the Holy Revolution. Etienne asks to see the leader of the coup, who the guards name as Minister Belmon. She is directed towards the capital city of Meldar, two days ride away. She wishes their new society 'all the success that it deserves'.
Caitlin asks why we are investigating this shadow when the 'not yet revolting' shadows of Cilanar and Belanoth are, in her opinion, more likely to have been of interest to Gerard. It is agreed that we would investigate this shadow for now and consider our options again afterwards.
We leave. A small magical globe detaches from Skyrie's assistant and follows the guards back into a tower. They notice it. Etienne leads us through shadow on a direct route to Meldar. The assistant and it offshoot go 'pop' as we shift out of Garramoth. As we arrive back in the shadow Skyrie brings a new, reddish, assistant into existence.
Meldar is a similar city to the one we just left, but on a larger scale and has apparently suffered more damage. The bodies of several eagle-men are hanging from the ropes connecting some of the towers, and as in the other city there are dark blue banners with golden 'T' symbol's hanging from many of the towers; one building in the centre of the city flies a particularly large one of these banners. As we approach the city we can see people looking out at us from some of the towers, and before long we are greeted by guards in a similar manner to before.
Etienne requests an audience with Minister Belmon. The guards want to know why. Etienne tells them we are looking for Prince Gerard of Amber and two of them go off into the city. Skyrie and Jihx express growing frustration with this unhelpful behaviour. Etienne turns on some magical charm and asks the remaining guards to speed up the process. They decline, in a slightly more conciliatory tone, saying they do not have the power to make those kinds of decisions. Skyrie and Jihx start to drop threatening hints in comment and action.
Etienne turns up the political pressure on the guards. They defer completely to Minister Belmon.
Jihx activates his armour, which flows out over his body, his horse's armour which flows out over its body (and under Jihx and Skyrie) and his sword, which turns from pendant to sword form. His horse gets skittish and start to huff and paw the ground. The Arun-hamster drops from its hidden position under Skyrie's assistant to the ground and transforms into dragon form, sucking in sand and air to gain the mass required, leaving a crater behind. The dragon grows and grows until it is around fifteen metres long. Etienne uses the Pattern to summon dark clouds which roll in from all directions at once, making a closing cordon of shadow around the city. They swirl around the city, rumbling with thunder and casting dark shadows, leaving the city in an ever-decreasing spot of sunlight.
The guards are suitably cowed by this demonstration. As the clouds completely close over the city Etienne asks if they are sure that the procedure cannot be sped up? A guard, very nervously, declines once more. A massive clap of thunder accompanies bolts of lightening that rain down behind us, silhouetting us against their light. A second clap of thunder precedes a huge and sudden downpour of rain, localised on the city.
Jihx points his sword and blasts one of the banners with its energy beam. "I am getting very impatient," he says. One guard screams in panic and flees. The others follow after a brief pause.
We follow them into the city. Bowing to the power of the Pattern, the rain mysteriously parts in front of us and closes in again once we have passed. People are rushing for cover from the rain and then peer out from the towers as we pass. The dragon breaks into a canter and the rest of us speed up to keep up. Jihx blasts occasional banners with his sword. As we get to the building flying the largest banner, Jihx blasts a large burning hole in it, taking some of the building facade behind it away at the same time.
At the door of this tower the dragon morphs into human form, shedding all its excess mass in a whoosh of air. Jihx and Skyrie, and Etienne and Caitlin, dismount to enter the building. The rain stops at this moment, but the clouds continue to swirl menacingly overhead. Arun approaches the guards and states that we have made an appointment and do not like being kept waiting. "Take us to your leader," he demands.
The guards do not have orders for this and thus do not know what to do. At this moment a door opens at the rear of the tower's lobby and someone in more expensive-looking robes comes across and whispers to the guards. This minion bows, then asks us to follow him. We assent to this, and he then leads us off.
We follow the minion up a set of stairs which spiral around the inside of the tower's outer wall. As we go up, Arun quizzes the minion. He says he has not personally killed any eagle-men but has organised many of the 'holy works' of the new regime. He considers the eagle-men an abomination. The stairs and corridors we pass in the lower part of the tower are fairly cramped and dark, but about halfway up they suddenly become much larger, lighter and airier - presumably we have gone from the part of the tower where the humans lived into the part where the eagle-men once lived.
Also as we climb we discuss our plans. Finding Gerard is agreed as the prime aim, finding out what is going on here may be part of that. Putting what is going on here right again is controversial - Jihx supports doing so, Caitlin does not, and the rest of us remain neutral for now.
We are shown into a large room that takes up most of one of the upper floors of this building. Large unglazed window openings look out in all directions over the city and the desert beyond. There are around thirty guards in the room standing around and in front of an old, thin and wiry man in a tatty desert robe with a fanatical gleam in his eye who is sitting in an oversized throne, ornately carved of stone with signs that until recently it was encrusted with gems. The impressive effect of this assembly is reduced by the fact that the room and many of its occupants are dripping wet from Etienne's storm.
Arun demands information about Gerard from the old man, who is presumably Minister Belmon. The old man states that he has not been here, though of course they know of Prince Gerard of Amber. When quizzed about the reasons for their revolution he gives no better answer than restating that the eagle-men were 'an abomination'. Minister Belmon states that his mission started when a light spoke to him in the desert, telling him what to do and what would result. He believes the voice to be that of God. Hearing this Etienne sidles off to one side and kneels to pray.
Etienne prays, and quickly feels the presence of her God; this is unlike the case in the Enchanted Earth, where she can feel the presence of God always, even without praying. She asks her God if He is here. He is, and when asked He agrees that it was His will to slay the eagle-men. However in this shadow He does not have a son 'at present'. God wants to know why she is asking these questions (a boom of thunder accompanies this).
Jihx suggests, out loud, the they execute 'this moron' and get out of here. At these words all thirty guards draw their weapons and advance.
Skyrie has been playing with a rubber ball he drew from a pocket. Now he throws it. It is a rubber ball which bounces randomly across the room, landing by one of the guards and spraying him with a jet of boiling acid which dissolves the head off one of the guards. All the other guards rush towards us.
Jihx put his sword into wide-beam mode and cuts down a large number of guards with a swathe of blue fire. That having dealt with all the guards who are too close to the rest of us for a wide-beam shot, he then switches to narrow-beam mode and begins taking out guards one by one, occasionally using the sword in a more conventional manner when they get a bit close.
Caitlin finds a shortsword in her bag and cuts one guard in two with a single blow. She starts to dispose of other guards as they converge on her, each in a particularly messy manner.
Skyrie's ball bounces randomly around the room spraying boiling acid and bits of guard around as it does so. Skyrie stands back to observe for a while, dodging acid, guards, swords and plasma bolts.
Etienne stands back and watches, also dodging acid at times.
Arun runs towards Minister Belmon. A number of guards stand in his way, but he 'combat morphs' into a liquid-type form and simply flows around them (ignoring the sword blows of the guards) to approach Minister Belmon. Arun begins to question and lecture the Minister, who does not take this too well. "Die. In the name of God, die!" shouts Belmon. A bolt of lightening flashes from his finger and blasts Arun across the room and into the far wall.
Seeing this, Jihx tries to target the area of the Minister with his sword but is generally blocked by guards. The Minister continues to curse us, accompanied by rumbles of thunder from the sky outside.
About half of the guards are dead by this point. Skyrie mumbles a couple of words and casts a 'Lifeforce of the Divine Shadow' spell. Anyone who is hurt (but who will actually get better) is healed by a wave for life energy which the spell produces, but all the dead bodies have their flesh consumed in a frenzy of rotting, maggots and so on, and the rush of life energy animates the skeletal remains into a cadre of undead skeletal servitors, under Skyrie's control. The skeletons shamble towards the Minister on the throne.
At this stage even Etienne starts to assemble her arquebus.
Arun, how had very quickly healed the effects of the lightning bolt even before Skyrie's spell, returns fire in the direction of the Minister. A sun-bright plasma bolt in the shape of a narrow cone shoots out from his mouth in a dragon-like manner and toasts a number of guards, several skeletons and the Minister, who screams in pain.
At this point Skyrie's bouncing ball of death randomly bounces out of a window. It bounces off in search of more tabarded victims (those being who it is specifically targeted against).
Following Arun's plasma blast Jihx finally gets a line of sight shot at the Minister and blasts him through the throat as he topples off the throne from the force of Arun's blast. Skyrie mumbles a few more words and Minister Belmon sheds his skin and rises as a skeletal warrior, but stands still. Skyrie is not best pleased with this result (he had hoped Minister Belmon was alive and could be taken prisoner). The other skeletons, still operating under the command Skyrie gave them previously, grab the skeletal Minister and drag him back to Skyrie.
The remaining guards lose heart and flee the room. There are faint sounds of screaming from the streets below. "I must put an off button on that," mumbles Skyrie to himself.
Etienne looks down from a window and sees the ball spreading acidic death. She returns to praying and asks God to put an end to Skyrie's spell. The acid ball ignites with a bright orange flame which burns away the magic in it. A small thoroughly molten rubber ball falls out of it to the ground.
At the same time, not realising that it has been dispelled, Skyrie sends the skeletons out to fetch his acid ball. He tells us that if we had left the minister alive he could have taken him to the spot in the desert where he had his original vision from God and looked into the past to witness it. He then goes out to assist his skeletons. His assistant buds off a small mini-assistant which remains in the throne room.
Caitlin fishes a packet of steak sandwiches out of her pack and settles down to tea.
Jihx investigates the room and throne in particular. The throne appears to be made for an eagle-person, although it is not in good condition anymore from this and previous attacks on it.
Etienne continues her praying to God. She asks if the Minister was following His will. He is angry that she doubts Him and insists that she 'HAS FAITH'. She then asks Him if he knows of the whereabouts of Gerard. He sates that he (Gerard) has not been to this realm. He asks her why she is troubled, and she asks why the eagle-people could not have been converted. "THEY COULD NOT," is the only response.
Down below, Skyrie has reached street level and discovered the fate of his acid ball of death. He is now pulling people off the street and asking them questions about matters here.
The luckless individual who he has collared tells him that the Minister did not arrive from the desert with anyone (except 'God'), and that as far as he knows the Minister heard the voice in a cave in the desert but no-one seems to know exactly where, though Skyrie's prisoner thinks the priests might. The priests are in the tower Skyrie came from and wear the more ornate tabards.
Skyrie lets his victim go, allowing him to live because they answered his questions. He returns to the tower and starts looking for priests. The skeletons are commanded to assist him in this.
The little assistant left in the throne room with the rest of us writes 'Please find me a priest' on the wall. It goes on to explain what and why. Caitlin and Jihx go off to do this thing, down the stairs and through the building, kicking open doors as they go.
Jihx kicks down an office door and inside finds a fat man in a richly embroidered tabard who is putting gems into his pockets. Jihx grabs him and drags him (protesting, attempting to bribe him and finally threatening him all the way) back to the throne room.
Skyrie, searching upwards through the tower, sees this through the mini-assistant and returns to the throne Room. He demands to know where the cave is. The priest has never been there but the Minister described its position several times. He asks if he will be allowed to live if he tells us. Skyrie promises that the priest will not be killed by us if he tells us what we want to know, so the priest describes the route and location - four weeks journey away, in the highest cave of a mountain like a gigantic twisted version of one of the spires of the cities.
The skeletons are commanded to bring the priest along (he looks not terribly happy at this) and we depart the city of Meldar for the caves.
As we leave the tower Etienne uses the Pattern to disperse the clouds and lets the sun shine down on the city again; a pure blue rainbow forms in the sky. She also brings the desert into bloom with millions of little white flowers visibly blossoming across the gem-sands.
Etienne leads the party through shadow towards the described mountain. Skyrie's assistant vanishes and the skeletons collapse into heaps of bones as we start to travel through shadow.
The city is lost to sight behind us and the mountains appear ahead of us as we make our way across the sands, getting much, much closer with each sand dune we climb. One huge mountain, looking roughly like one of the city spires but vastly larger and twisted about its long axis, stands out from the mountain range. We approach this mountain, which rises sheer out of the glittering gem-sand.
Etienne summons Electra using the Pattern and she flies down from the sky. Etienne climbs up onto her back, and also takes Caitlin on board. Skyrie states that he will bring the priest and goes invisible (Etienne and Caitlin can still sense him though, psychically in one case, physically in the other). He drags the priest off, into the air. Arun changes into large dragon form again, absorbing more sand to do so, and gives Jihx a lift.
After a long near-vertical flight, passing various wind-carved caves in the nearly sheer mountainside, some of which are occupied by what appear to be hermits, the highest cave is located in a sheer and very hard-to-reach part of the mountain. The priest Skyrie is carrying faints on the way up. The cave mouth is too small for Electra and the Arun-dragon. Skyrie, however, does not have this problem and enters the cave with the unconscious priest. Caitlin leaps from Electra and tumbles acrobatically onto the rock face before climbing over into the cave.
Etienne floats off Electra into the cave using one of her magical items. Arun turns on a magic flight spell and hovers, wings folded, outside the cave with Jihx on his back.
Inside the cave there is a small altar and a 'T'-symbol banner similar to those we saw in the cities. It is quite cramped in here with four people present.
Skyrie explains the 'seeing through time' spell, which he calls a 'Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulation', to Etienne. It will give a vision of everything that has happened in the cave over a defined time period, but all at once, everything interlaced with everything else. This will need a strong mind to interpret and understand without being overwhelmed. Skyrie suggests that Etienne is the best person to manage this task. Etienne is a little unsure about this, but eventually decides to allow Skyrie to cast the spell on her.
We bring the priest round and when asked he tells us that Minister Belmon had his vision two years ago. Therefore Skyrie sets the spell off with a three-year time span, going back from the present. The magic washes over Etienne in a manner noticeably different from the 'Power of God' that she is used to.
Suddenly Etienne simultaneously senses everything that happened in the cave in the last three years. She gradually focuses in on the area of interest by picking out the presence of god from the 'noise' of everything else. She also senses a form of survival spell - presumably used by the hermits to survive out here in the deep desert. Then she picks out a burst of white light and energy at about the appropriate time. She sees Minister Belmon, alone in the cave, being spoken to by a booming voice from the bright light which seems to be hovering outside. She cannot make out the words as it appears to have happened over most of a night. She can however sense the presence of her God during that time and also at one or two times before that.
After the visions she sees Minister Belmon leaving the cave, a fiery gleam of determination in his eyes. Looking further back she also sees that he was a hermit in the cave right back to the beginning of the spell - at least a year before 'God' spoke to him.
She passes on what she has seen to Skyrie and the others, that is, events seem to have been much as Minister Belmon described them. We (talking back and forth from the cave to Arun and Jihx floating outside) discuss the implications of this news. The general agreement is that investigations should continue on another shadow - shadow Belanoth, the shadow of vast pillars rising from deep ocean is chosen as our next site of investigation.
Etienne suggests that a flying boat is our best solution to both getting there and travelling about once we arrive, so Jihx is dispatched to get his flying ship (his gift from Etienne) from shadow Cove, where it is kept. He Trumps away.
Etienne summons Electra and she and Caitlin jump onto her back from the cave mouth. We all fly off, leaving the unfortunate priest behind in the holy cave, heading for a round-topped mountain visible in the distance which is judged to be a good place to board the flying ship.
In shadow Cove, Jihx rounds up the crew of the Golden Swan and they put to sea within ten minutes or so, taking gently to the air. As the ship flies up Jihx Trumps Etienne. She is not ready yet (time in Cove move twice as fast as it does here) so she explains this, then cuts the Trump link.
She Trumps him back when we are at the mountain top and we all assist in dragging the Golden Swan through the Trump link to the mountain top. This is very hard work, but do-able.
And we board the Golden Swan and sail off through the sky towards shadow Belanoth...
Session 3.1 Index Session 3.3
Skyrie's Diary for This Session