Session 3.14 Index Session 4.2
Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Whenever it appears, Tir-Na Nog'th remains bigger and brighter than it was before the Eater was unleashed.
A period of civil unrest and disruption, plus economic disturbances, spreads through all of shadow. The Golden Circle, many of whose shadows depend on Amber for trade and as a trading hub, suffer particularly bad economic depressions, which sometimes leads to civil unrest, which Amber often has to intervene to suppress; Jihx plays a leading role in dealing with this unrest.
Gerard, who has now grown a beard to distinguish himself from all the other Jihx-bodied people around, ABSOLUTELY PROHIBITS the creation of any more gods or similar entities, regardless of how useful their creators think they might be, under pain of severe penalties.
Etienne attempts to find out about the Real power that caused her so much trouble in Rebma (the Eye of Peace). She sends spies and thieves into Rebma, along with intelligent but psychically neutral fish-spies, and also finds a close reflection of Rebma to operate in/from named Ebram. She finds that the source of the Real power is the Eye of Peace, but is unable to steal it or stop it working. All of her agents, even the fish-spies, are eventually captured, and she learns no more from them...
In 'God's Garden', Etienne is creating shadow paths linking up all of the shadows there. However, one can only use the paths if one is genuinely baptised as a Christian. Otherwise, any moving through shadow (with the Pattern or otherwise) leads one to an Oubliette shadow of Destiny. She also ensures that Trump does not work anywhere in the Garden.
Keeping to the letter of her treaty with Amber, Etienne is not currently spreading God anywhere. However, she is seeding preachers and prophets throughout shadow, and researching (in an isolated laboratory shadow) a new form of God. This she hopes will be something spread from person to person as a kind of immutable meme, living in the hearts of the people so affected, rather than a God which inhabits the very structure of shadow. Obviously this form of God will not be as powerful as a God of the entire shadow, but still, Etienne considers this better than nothing.
After attempts to steal and spy on it, Moire booby-traps on the Eye of Peace.
Following on from Vialle's example, Moire obtains an Amberite body from Arun, based on a mix of her old body and Arun, so that, physically at least, she is now her own daughter by Arun. With this she is considerably younger-looking than she was before, and has walked Rebma's Pattern.
She has many more children with Jihx over the fifteen-year period. In early 44 PPF she gives birth to twins, Nuala and Eamon, who are now thirteen years old; this was when she was in her original body. In 47 PPF she gave birth to another pair of twins, Guinevere and Beron, who are now ten; they were born after she obtained her Pattern-blooded body; they both appear to be shapeshifters. In 53 PPF she gave birth to triplets, Iseult, Gervaise and Evadne, who are now four. In 55 PPF she gave birth to yet another set of twins, Rhiannon and Palidor, who are now two. This many births in so short a time, let alone so many multiple births, is absolutely unprecedented in Amber's history. The children are being raised much as Connor and Nemain were. That is, when they are between seven and eight years old Jihx takes them off to his home shadow of Ahnel to have them raised as normal people, rather than as a Prince or Princess of Rebma/Amber; they all seem to have been somewhat spoiled by this point, though... Moire does not allow them to remain on Ahnel full time, though and after this they alternate their time between Rebma and Ahnel (note that Ahnel is a fast-time shadow so in Amber terms their times in Ahnel are short).
She is also interested in learning Trump from Godofos. Godofos is happy to teach her, and while he gives lessons in Rebma he is kept in the lap of luxury, entertained and waited on by various attractive handmaidens.
Moire insists on the creation of a joint Amber-Rebma ruling council consisting of two members, Moire and Gerard, who must both agree on anything in order for it to happen. Each city will remain much as it is, but external relations will be handled jointly. There will also be increased trade between the two cities. Gerard seems to feel that he has no choice but to agree to this, given that she basically saved everyone and got them out of Hell... After some ideas of having a meeting place built halfway between Amber and Rebma it is instead decided to alternate meetings between the castles of Amber and Rebma.
As part of this, a road along the coast linking Amber to the top of Faiella-Bionin has been built; there is a good deal of trade passing along it, more than has ever gone between Amber and Rebma before. Rebmans living in Amber are becoming a noticeable minority. Christians in Amber remain a majority in the city, and are an essential component of the city's economy. As such they are not discriminated against, but they definitely remain separate from the original population, and those who have immigrated to Amber from the Golden Circle. They distrust the native Amber population, who are not, generally, Christians any more, and who are in general much more physically and mentally powerful than them (although the Christians from shadow do breed much faster than the native inhabitants of Amber); the Amber population dislikes them because of their involvement with the invasion.
Gerard and Vialle create a number of new Noble Houses in Amber to replace those who were decimated or exterminated during Etienne's invasion and occupation; these come mainly from military and merchant families, and all are stringently assessed for loyalty before being ennobled.
Large areas of Amber City remain ruined and uninhabited, though thanks to Godofos the city's population is now back to roughly its pre-invasion level, including large numbers of imported Christians, living in rather more cramped conditions than before the invasion. Controlled and monitored immigration is being allowed to build up the population too, however. At least one ruined area has been put aside for a planned Memorial Park, though as yet no effort has been put into turning it from an area of ruins into a park.
Lillian conducts various magical and other investigations in Amber, apparently attempting to learn about the afterlife (if any) in Amber. She does not explain why she is doing this, though there is some speculation that she would like to restore Finndo fully to life, not just clone him. Meanwhile, she is also raising the clone-baby of Finndo which Arun provided for her, mainly in the shadows of De'Alund, where she seems to be spending a considerable fraction of her time.
She also looks into the creation and destruction of God-type entities, though she does not create any such entities. Allegedly.
Skyrie now has fourteen children, all of them born not long after the treaty with Etienne was finalised. Their mothers are various women from the Fourteen Empires. None of them have walked a Pattern yet. Eldest first, they are:
Skyrie is quite secretive about his children, doing his best to ensure that no one will know about them until they all show up one day to walk the Pattern. In fact, for preference, Skyrie would like to sneak them into the Pattern room and have them walk the Pattern without anyone else knowing about it...
The children all spend the first few months of their lives in the Fourteen Empires, as Skyrie wants to stagger their apparent ages by a little more than a few weeks.
Then, time in the Fourteen Empires being about three times slower than in Amber, Skyrie finds a shadow named Pathat-Naar that is guarded and has a somewhat faster rate of time-flow than Amber. It is a round world with one sun and two moons. It is not a shadow that is guarded against Trump, Skyrie not wanting a place he cannot get into and out of himself. The place is months of normal shadow-shifting away from Amber. Skyrie uses Super-Trumps to get there. The people Skyrie is mainly guarding his shadow against are his cousins. As such the place is sufficiently well guarded that even a group of Amberites would have trouble getting in - there being no point in guarding against a threat that his children are perfectly capable of dealing with anyway!
Skyrie does try to find a shadow that is only accessible by Trump. However, he finds that such places are quite hard to locate using Pattern! He does think that when he knows enough about the Pattern he may be able to make one. However, in the process of searching for such a shadow, he does find a few shadows into which he simply cannot get; these feel artificial. Skyrie makes trumps of nearby shadows, and goes back and studies these inaccessible places from time to time.
The children are all raised together. Skyrie is going out of his way to make sure they understand, co-operate and be friends with their siblings and their father. However, Skyrie's rules for the rest of the universe (Skyrie is boss, do what Skyrie says or suffer the consequences and so on...) do not apply to his children. He's very keen on them having the childhood he would have wanted for himself, so they have to be allowed to make a lot of their own decisions.
They know that they are the elite, that there are great dangers out there (Skyrie letting them encounter one whenever they need reminding...), but also that the universe can be their oyster if they're clever. He also ensures they know that everything has an order and a hierarchy, and that the most important thing is to keep an eye out for each other.
Skyrie has been slowly introducing them to the knowledge of their Amberite heritage. They know there are other people with skills like their own and powers like Skyrie's. He has been introducing them to shadow shifting by taking them on expeditions (including a lot of weird stuff), and showing them what the Pattern can do and how they have to adjust their magic when in different shadows. Skyrie's intention is to have them as well prepared as possible for what they're going to be able to do and who they're going to meet before he takes them to walk the Pattern. He intends to take them all off on a shadow-shifting expedition after they've walked the pattern as well.
The children are generally being raised like nobility, under a strict but fair regime, emphasising discipline, co-operation and lots of hard work until they started to become fully grown. Once this point was reached, Skyrie spends about half of his time with his children and half away (these would be relatively long periods). While he was absent, the elder children were expected to go enjoy themselves, but also to keep an eye out for and help their younger and still studying siblings (there are also responsible locals on Pathat-Naar who are also keeping an eye on the children and making sure nothing bad happens to them). While Skyrie was present, he would take the elder children away on shadow 'field trips' and give everyone with any interest or aptitude lessons in Sorcery, Empowerment and Trump. The trips out into shadow (all carefully scouted and prepared in advance) were intended to expose his children to the variety of different worlds and environments, and to provide them with little 'trials' (designed not to look like deliberate tests), which generally require teamwork and intelligence to overcome.
Skyrie does not rule Pathat-Naar, instead taking the role of a powerful Duke, nominally answering only (as if!) to the Priesthood. His children are of the mage caste, possibly aiming for the priesthood or artificer castes. However, once they are old enough, and Skyrie starts taking them out of shadow, he slowly explains that the world they live in is but a tiny fraction of the universe, and the concepts of caste and priests and artificers can go out the window.
Pathat-Naar is effectively a magocracy. Even citizens who didn't make magic artefacts or use magic routinely have several empowered items. There is a huge slave population (which Skyrie views as far less efficient than using the un-dead, but never mind...) who do the hard work, and are rewarded by being regularly culled so that their spirits can power magic items. This gets his children used to the idea of being near, but not quite at, the top of the pecking order. If any of them were to decide to try and change their society, Skyrie would not interfere (it is, after all, exactly what he did) and would be quietly proud. The only times he is likely to intervene are to prevent direct conflict between his children. None of his children have yet tried to overthrow society on Pathat-Naar, but one never knows what the future may bring...
As far as his children are concerned, Skyrie neither approves nor disapproves of the idea that killing vast numbers of normal people for their convenience is a perfectly fine thing to do. He lets them make up their own minds...
In the Fourteen Empires Skyrie finds that the people alive there now will be the last generation unless something is done - there are no more live births in the Fourteen Empires as the Eater appears to have stopped reincarnation there, as well as seriously disrupted magic. In discussions with Etienne, Skyrie persuades her to revert the place to its former state. This she does, so that life will continue and magic works again, though there are subtle differences between the old and new Fourteen Empires... Skyrie removes the Precursor Alexiun and a few others from the Fourteen Empires when Etienne is stripping and rebuilding the place, ensuring that his upper echelons are entirely as they were before, even if everything else is subtly different.
Etienne uses this as an opportunity to investigate how one might generally undo what the Eater did to shadows. Unfortunately, she has no real success in this; it seems to have left no traces of power behind, only evidence of a psychic 'vacuum' effect. The only way she is able to restore shadows after the Eater is done with them is to totally rebuild them, from the very lowest level up, a process that takes a day or two per shadow.
The Fourteen Empires is now largely ticking along under Precursor Alexiun. Skyrie is rarely in the Fourteen Empires any more, the Pattern and his children occupying most of his time. The Precursor Alexiun is doing a good job in running the place in his absence. He seems to be one of the few people not messed up by Etienne.
In early 44 PPF Nemain gives birth to twins, Cassandra and Royce. She does not seem to be too cut out for parenthood, and leaves their raising mainly to nursemaids, nannies and so on, so that they end up being raised with Nuala and Eamon, who are roughly as old as them.
Not long after the birth, she and Connor have a major falling out for some reason. However, as the years have gone on, they seem to have become close again.
After Moire obtains her Pattern-blooded body, Jihx (not that he really cares) checks the law of Amber relating to incestuous relationships. He finds that what remain of the law books of Amber only forbid the direct children of Oberon having 'relations'; others are not specified. Good. The laws of Rebma do not seem to include any restrictions of this nature.
Jihx also spends a good deal of his time tidying up the shadows of the Golden Circle after the war against God. He is not burning churches or throwing out Christians, but he is stopping coercion and religious persecution wherever he finds it.
In case of future need, Jihx raises an army of a hundred thousand troops in Ahnel and trains it in cross-shadow tactics and operations. This army is a foreign legion, made up of approximately fifty percent Ahnellian citizens, with the remainder being, in descending order of numbers, Rebmans, Derrisians, Amberites, citizens of various shadows of the Golden Circle and citizens of 'lesser' shadows.
Over the fifteen years, Godofos also becomes involved in this, working from a heavily guarded workshop-bunker in shadow Ahnel, and makes thirty Trump-based power sources to equip them with vehicles and weapons which will work in the vast majority of shadows. Many of these are a generic motor/power source that can be fitted into a wide range of vehicles (after some modifications to the vehicle). He has some installed in hidden, non-specific vehicles so that he can, if necessary, use the Pattern to instantly specify the type of Trump-powered vehicle he wants now. For security reasons, Godofos makes a Trump of each of these power sources so that they (and the vehicles they are attached to) can be recovered in case of need.
Godofos' favourite Trump-powered vehicle is a Trump-power high-tech Harrier-type jump-jet (his 'Trump-Jet'); this is very fast and manoeuvrable, heavily armed, with some armour, good sensors, two seats and adaptive camouflage, with the capability to take off and land on water as well as land.
The Ahnelian army is heavily based on cavalry, but also has infantry and the various Trump engine forces. These last are divided between ten jump-jet type aircraft (armed with machine guns, purple Trump-powered lasers and kinetic-energy bombs), ten main battle tanks which also function as armoured personnel carriers (armed with projectile weapons and lasers), four combined attack and transport helicopters (armed with machine guns, lasers and kinetic-energy bombs), four self-propelled artillery pieces and two small, fast attack hovercraft (armed with lasers). All of their projectile weapons rely on kinetic energy rather than explosives to do damage. All are as enhanced as possible even before being modified to run on Trump power, so they are all self-replenishing in supplies, very tough and so on.
Godofos re-walks the Pattern, and spends time learning more of Trump. He has now learnt the full power, and in the process the strength of his mind has increased significantly. His new Jihx-clone body has one blue eye and one brown eye.
Most people who Godofos knew in Amber are dead now. He spends some time in shadow seeking out the inhabitants of Amber who Etienne deported after her invasion. He finds two hundred thousand of them, spread over a number of shadow which were formerly part of God's Garden. Unfortunately, the other half-million appear to be within the current borders of God's Garden, and there is nothing he can do for them. Those he does find he returns to Amber, and they are most grateful to him for doing so.
He has also fathered some children, and killed at least one of them. One quite fast-time shadow he had some attachment to had been taken over by an Evil Overlord when he returned there some years later. Confronting the Overlord and attempting to persuade him to change his ways failed, and they fought, being very evenly matched. It was only after Godofos had killed the Overlord the he discovered that he was in fact his son, born, unbeknownst to him, to some woman with whom he had a fling years before...
He has four other children that he knows of:
Godofos is attempting to give them all a normal upbringing; it remains to be seen how successful he is in this...
Whippoorwill returns to The Tunnel and using the Pattern acquires for himself the position of Prime Consul For Life, a position which has vast power in the event of an emergency, but which allows the day-to-day government to be delegated to the Senate. He also does his best to ensure that the shadow has a continuous cycle of conflict so that the population are in a constant state of high readiness, well-practised in the arts of war, and exhibit little of the flabby decadence that overtakes the populations of more peaceful shadows.
As he can now do so, Whippoorwill also returns to his original home shadow of Idyl. However, he does not visit for very long or very often, since it reminds him too much of the innocent happiness he can never know again.
Whippoorwill also spends time out in shadow finding various strange shadows, including mobile ones. These include Refuge, The Building, The Web, Pandolfa, Grogil and The Hospital. He also takes over a Real, well-guarded shadow to use as a base of operations, which he names The Lobster Pot.
He fights wars and meddles in the politics of various shadows both for fun and to teach himself things. Caitlin assists in some of Whippoorwill's wars, and as she has been fighting wars for longer than Whippoorwill has been alive, tends to win when she opposes him, even when her side is handicapped in various ways. Whippoorwill learns quite a lot from her in these wars.
He also learns about firearms and other weapons that do not exist or work in the Tunnel, and becomes (among other things) a spaceship pilot, aircraft pilot, and able to drive many different kinds of vehicles.
Caitlin is spending time out in shadow searching for the Amberites she thinks are her parents - Brand and Deirdre, and just wandering about. She does not find Brand and Deirdre. However, in a few places she does find some rather strange mobile shadows moving through their more static neighbours. She also hones her Pattern skills in her travels, learning how to sense the properties of shadow, and radiate Pattern about herself for offensive and defensive purposes.
Caitlin begins to rebuild Amber's army and defences, including some Christians in non-combat roles (they may not be as good as the original inhabitants of Amber in physical and mental strength, but intellectually they are entirely equal), though not so many as to give the Christians effective control of the military. However, she becomes tired with this after a while, and leaves the completion of the work in other hands, wandering off into shadow.
And eventually, very far out from Amber, further than she has ever gone before, she comes upon a region of what seems to be 'shattered' shadow, extending roughly perpendicular to a line going out from Amber. This region seems to be almost impossible to navigate. There is a 'reality gradient' that makes it hard to navigate towards this 'shatterzone' (not unlike shifting shadow close to Amber) and it is very hard to navigate through, as one has to feel ones way - no smooth shadow shifting is possible, one instead having to 'jump' from shadow fragment to shadow fragment; those without some Advanced Pattern would immediately be hopelessly lost here. One does not have to go very far in before one begins to encounter fragments of shadows which, although clearly created by Pattern, do not feel as if they were created by the Pattern(s) of Amber...
Caitlin and Jihx spend some time rebuilding Ahnel and Derris into roughly their former states; Caitlin gets bored with this quite quickly and wanders off. Perhaps because of this, some Derrisians seem to want to retain the agriculture they were forces into when ruled by God, and continue to live an agricultural lifestyle in heavily fortified farms, causing some serious social disruption. However, Caitlin could care less about this...
Vialle has had her mind transferred to a sighted Amber-blooded body, a clone of Nemain. As such, she has walked Amber's Pattern, spent some time in shadow, and after a year of showing she is a responsible person, Arun has also taught her shapeshifting.
All of this has not stopped her continuing her duties in Amber.
Arun spends lots of time out in shadow...
At one point Whippoorwill, Godofos, Jihx and Caitlin discuss the mobile shadows they have found, and their use as mobile fortresses and infinite-capacity attack vehicles. The only slight problem is that they have no real idea how to steer such a thing. Godofos does create a Trump of one, and finds that it does continue to work, even as the shadow moves about.
The Golden Circle shadow of Belanoth suffers an eco-catastrophe, apparently caused by Arun's introduction of fish to the place. These had a huge population explosion, wiping out the shadow's jellyfish, upon which the entire eco-system depended. Some of the shadow's population died of starvation, but most fled in both directions along the shadow path running through Belanoth, becoming refugees there. The shadow's ecosystem is showing some signs of recovery, but it will be a long time before the shadow can support a significant population again.
It is spring in Amber in the year 57 PPF. It will be the start of the full moon in Amber tomorrow and as no-one has been before there is a plan among certain of the younger generation who have not done so before to go up to Tir-Na Nog'th when it appears over Amber.
Out in shadow, Caitlin is picking a passable route through shattered zone of shadow and is not interested in the Tir-Na Nog'th expedition, although she does ask them to give her a call if they find anything interesting.
Elsewhere in shadow, Whippoorwill is in a hospital shadow recovering from a nerve gas attack which killed everyone else on the planet he was on; he was affected by the gas, but was able to stagger through shadow to this hospital before collapsing unconscious. He is recovering remarkably quickly and is now just feeling a bit sick. The doctors think he will be fully recovered tomorrow (though do not know how he has recovered so quickly).
Whippoorwill is watching the many channels of cable TV from his bed whilst attractive nurses tend to his needs.
Godofos is in his workshop bunker in the heavily guarded gate valley in Jihx's shadow, Ahnel, manufacturing Trump-powered engines. He has recently completed one and is just starting on the next; although it is possible for this production process to be stopped for while they do degrade quickly if left incomplete for too long. His pride and joy, a technically sophisticated, heavily armed, amphibious, two-seater, VTOL 'Harrier Trump Jet', is parked outside the bunker.
Jihx is in the new Castle Amber Library, rebuilt after the war, researching Tir-Na Nog'th. From the remaining (often damaged) books in the library he finds the following:
As Jihx is sitting there reading a strong smell of roses wafts over him. He looks around but sees no one and certainly no roses. He investigates and finds that the scent seems to lead out of the library. It leads towards the remains of the old Library, where rebuilding work is still going on this afternoon. He follows the scent to one side of the library, where a lot of rubble is being cleared.
He has the workers move aside and sorts through the rubble, where some badly damaged books seem to have just been revealed. One book does seem to have survived better than the others - a large tome bound in silvery red leather bearing two embossed designs on the cover, one above the other. The top one appears to be the design of a small Pattern, but not one he recognises. The bottom one appears to be a large creature like an armoured, headless, worm coiled up on itself. The book has no title on its cover. As he gets close to the book, it becomes entirely clear that this is the source of the scent of roses.
The workers watch curiously as Jihx picks up the book, leaning on their shovels. Jihx opens the front cover. Unfortunately, the pages inside prove to be are wet and damaged by being under a pile of rubble in a burnt-out building for sixteen years or so, and the ink has run so it cannot be read. It appears that the workers cannot smell the scent of roses coming from the book.
He tells the workers to go back to their excavation and leaves to take the book to the new Library.
En route he Trumps Godofos and Whippoorwill.
In shadow, it is the next day (time in this shadow is faster than Amber), and Whippoorwill is released from the hospital with a clean bill of health.
He heads back through shadow to his spaceship (a rather 'Millennium Falcon'-like vehicle) and rockets off into the sky. He heads back to the pirate base to see if any of his colleagues have survived the nerve gas attack.
In Ahnel, Godofos feels the Trump contact, identifies the caller as Jihx and answers. He smells a scent of roses over the Trump link.
Jihx tells him about the book.
Godofos decides to abandon his barely-begun latest Trump engine and comes through to Amber instead. They head off towards the new Library together. Both of them can sense some magic in the book, but Godofos can tell that there is no Trump power in it.
Jihx then calls Whippoorwill, who takes the call, still twitching occasionally from the previous nerve gas attack.
Like Godofos, Whippoorwill smells a scent of roses through the Trump link. Unfortunately, Whippoorwill has never smelled roses before - the closest thing to this in his experience is some kind of chemical attack. So he instantly dives for his gas mask on smelling the scent of roses.
Jihx reassures him that it is not in fact a poison attack and removes his gas mask. They exchange news, and Whippoorwill also joins them in Amber. Whippoorwill thinks it curious that the book smells like nerve gas.
The book is taken to the new Library and shown to the Chief Librarian there. He examines it, and says that he vaguely recognises it but can remember nothing specific about it, though he thinks that it is a very old book. He is not sure if it can be restored, but says that they will certainly try their best to do so. He suggests that the more powerful magics and/or technologies available in some of the Golden Circle shadows may be able to help.
We consider this. Jihx tells the Chief Librarian that the restoration of the book should be made a priority, but that it is not to leave Amber at this time.
It is now four o'clock; Moon-rise is six o'clock and sunset is at 5:30. The three of us decide to go to the castle kitchens for tea, then head up Mount Kolvir to await the appearance of the stairway to Tir-Na Nog'th.
In shadow, Caitlin continues to explore the zone of shattered shadow.
After a while she finds a dead tree that appears to contain some kind of Real powers. The power is not Pattern, Trump or magic; the nearest equivalent would seem be the Eater's powers. The tree appears to have been killed by the shadow it was fracturing right through it, leaving its two halves in different worlds.
She breaks a small branch off the dead tree; the wood is reddish brown inside.
She decides to Trump Godofos to exchange information, and concentrates on his card. This is quite difficult considering how far away from Amber she is, and she has to put a lot of effort into the link.
Just as Godofos, Jihx and Whippoorwill and approaching the castle Kitchens, Godofos feels a very weak Trump call coming on. He fans out his Trumps and identifies the caller as Caitlin. It is most unusual for Caitlin to use Trump, and Godofos answers quickly, with some concern, using his own power to 'boost the signal' of the call. The link opens up and he talks to Caitlin.
She tells him about the shattered shadows and the tree that she has found. She passes the branch from the tree through the Trump link to Godofos.
The three of them examine it. Godofos and Jihx get similar feeling of power from it to those that Caitlin did. Whippoorwill thinks its just a bit of wood. He tries to break it and succeeds easily.
Caitlin asks them to join her where she is; as she is on a shadow with the same time flow rate as Amber, they agree to join her for a while and we all step through the Trump link.
The four of us examine the tree and the shadow fragment it is in. Or rather the two shadows fragments that it is in - it is cut in half by a shadow veil.
Whippoorwill decides to wander around the local shadows. Caitlin warns him that it is difficult here. Whippoorwill attempts to walk off through shadow, attempting to turn the land marshy as he goes. Unfortunately, he fails to do so and walks into solid air about ten yards away from the tree as he reaches the boundary of the shadow fragment - the shadow here is really a tiny pocket. Beyond the shadow boundary, the landscape of rock-dotted grassland appears to continue off into the distance, dropping down in front and behind, and rising up to left and right, but is in fact much like a scene 'painted' on the shadow boundary. He gets the impression that shadow here is unusual - the differences between shadows appear to be discontinuous, rather than the gradual changes between shadows that allow normal shadow-shifting using the Pattern. Whippoorwill pushes hard against the shadow veil, both physically and with the power of the Pattern, and attempts to make a significant change - to huge ferns in a prehistoric landscape, dimly light by light filtering down through the canopy of leaves.
Godofos examines the leafless branches of the tree for seeds or other fruit, but cannot see any. He then searches the ground under the tree, but again finds no sign of seeds or fruit.
He shifts shadow around to the other side of the tree. In this case he does pass through the shadow veil, to find the other side of the tree and a very similar view of the landscape, though there is no sign of the others behind him (as he is seeing the walls of this shadow fragment and not back into the other shadow fragment). He climbs the tree.
Jihx and Caitlin discuss the shattered shadows, the tree and how she found them, while Caitlin eats and drinks some of her supplies to get her strength back after the tiring Trump call. Godofos can now no longer be seen as he is outside the shadow fragment.
Suddenly Whippoorwill stumbles forward through the shadow veil and, from the point of view of the others, disappears. He stumbles forwards onto muddy ground under a canopy of large tree ferns and is faced by a dozen metre-high black-and-white striped dinosaurs. They are startled by his sudden appearance and flee, making worried 'meeping' noises, to bounce off another nearby shadow veil, panic, and then mill around.
Godofos gets quite high up into the tree on his side of the shadow veil but stops when the branches beneath him begin to make alarming cracking noises. He climbs back through the shadow veil up in the tree branches, and reappears in the original shadow fragment. Soon after the branch he is on breaks and he falls. Several more branches break as he falls into them but he lands on a stronger branch and stops, breaking his fall with his groin. Ouch.
Jihx laughs at him.
Godofos climbs carefully down and the three discuss the shadows again.
In the other shadow fragment, Whippoorwill breaks off a large fern frond and takes it back to the dead tree's shadow. It again takes a lot of effort to force his way through the 'jump' in shadow, but he soon pops back to join the others.
He explains to them the difficulties he had in moving through shadow here, and gives the fern to Caitlin.
She thanks him, but obviously has little enthusiasm for the gift.
We discuss whether an accident or a war could have caused the shattered shadows and whether they may have something to do with the Elder Amberites.
Whippoorwill wonders whether he can manipulate probability here. He imagines that he will find a locket containing a picture of a hippopotamus in the ground by the tree. He digs around and soon finds a silver locket engraved with a twining rose design on the outside with a small picture of a woman with dark red hair on the inside. He is confused by this, as it is not what he specified, and shows it to everyone else.
Caitlin vaguely recognises the woman as someone she has seen in a picture in Castle Amber, but she cannot remember who, or where.
Godofos decides to manipulate probability to find a seed from the tree, but despite his best efforts does not succeed. He decides to sketch a Trump of the tree before we all leave instead.
While Godofos does this Whippoorwill decides to manipulate probability again to find a box of artefacts belonging to this woman buried by the tree. Jihx decides to dig by the tree and find another copy of the book that he recently found in the old Library.
After a while, they have both found something, but not quite what they were after...
Whippoorwill finds a metre high stone obelisk, which appears to have been deliberately buried. There are inscriptions in Thari down the sides, which Whippoorwill works on uncovering.
Jihx finds a cloth wrapped, book shaped bundle smelling strongly of roses. He lays it down carefully and unwraps it. However, the cover sticks to the cloth as he does so, and it falls apart in his hands. The covers seem reasonably intact, but the pages seem to have turned entirely to mush. The covers do seem to be the same as those of the book from Amber, though.
Whippoorwill uncovers the obelisk and is able to read the inscriptions carved into its sides. They say:
"King Oberon caused me to be made to commemorate the planting of the tree of Ygg, according to the treaty of Awarcon, to mark the border between Amber and Chaos. Beyond me to the North shall be Amber's. Beyond me to the South shall be Chaos'."
Caitlin hypothesises that this tree is so Real that it is effecting the shadow around it, making it so 'inflexible'.
Whippoorwill resets the Obelisk on the surface of the ground by the tree.
By now Godofos has finished his Trump sketch and all four of us decide to return to Amber.
We put all of our psychic power into the Trump to make the journey as easy as possible. Despite this it is still hard work; Caitlin (already tired) contributes the most, then Jihx, then Godofos, then Whippoorwill. But eventually the Trump link opens up, and we step through it into the Amber Arrival Courtyard. Jihx brings the remains of the book with him, and Whippoorwill brings the locket.
The Arrival Courtyard guards greet us. Whippoorwill orders food to be delivered to the Tapestry Room in the castle. The two sets of armoured gates out of the Arrival Courtyard rumble open and we step out into the Main Courtyard and begin to make our way to the Tapestry Room.
When we get to the Tapestry Room, there is a large trolley of food and drink waiting for us. Godofos Trumps Gerard, who, when he takes the call, appears to be down at the docks.
Godofos tells him about the book.
Gerard says that he has seen the Tir-Na Nog'th Pattern and may be able to identify the Pattern on the book if that is the Tir-Na Nog'th Pattern. He comes through and joins us in the Tapestry Room.
Jihx sends a servant to retrieve the first book from the Library.
While we wait for it to arrive, we have refreshments and bring Gerard up to speed on the shattered shadows, tree, locket, obelisk and book remains. Gerard finds it all quite strange. Whippoorwill shows him the locket. He examines it, opening it and looking at the picture of the woman inside. He comments that Corwin's symbol is a silver rose, but does not recognise the woman in the picture. When asked, he says that Corwin did not have a wife or notable long term partner.
Caitlin states that she saw a picture of a similar face in a picture hanging on a wall somewhere in the castle, perhaps near the Family quarters. A servant is summoned, then sent off with the locket to find this picture.
At this point a servant returns with the book Jihx found earlier. The servant reports that the librarians have had insufficient time to find anything about it or do any restoration as yet. Gerard turns his attention to the book. He states that the Pattern depicted on the covers of the book is not the Tir-Na Nog'th Pattern. He does not know of any other Patterns apart from the Primal one and its three reflections in Amber, Rebma and Tir-Na Nog'th.
On the fracturing of shadows Gerard says he has no experience of similar events. The nearest thing he can think of is the area around where a shadow has been destroyed, such as around Ghenesh, the home of the Moonriders. However he suspects that even this is not quite the same, as around a destroyed shadow any fragments would be of the shadows that were already there, rather than a seemingly random agglomeration of parts of many different shadows.
The suggestion that this is something to do with the Counts of Chaos is discussed.
Gerard thinks, from what he was told from those who went there, that Chaos was not as different in form as our description of the zone of shattered shadow implies.
Caitlin is asked about the shattered shadows.
She states that they appear as a straight line across shadow, at right angles to a line leading outwards from Amber. She went along parallel to this line for a while in each direction, hoping to find a way around, but when she saw no sign of their ending decided to try and go through instead. She declares her intent to continue these explorations.
Godofos expresses an interest to accompany her occasionally.
Caitlin agrees to this.
Jihx asks her to be careful.
We discuss things some more, and a plan to put some 'base camps' in between Amber and the tree of Ygg is made to make it easier to get from one to the other is put forward. This would involve going in a series of short trips by Trump from camp to camp rather than via a single very hard long trip.
Gerard wishes us well in our visit to Tir-Na Nog'th and asks to be kept up to date with what we get up to. He advises caution as Tir-Na Nog'th can be "quite distressing at times." He then departs, leaving us to it.
Caitlin decides to go and assist in the search for the picture, as well as root around among all the stored-away things in the Castle attics, something she always enjoys.
Whippoorwill, Godofos and Jihx head off to ascend Mount Kolvir to wait for Tir-Na Nog'th to appear. This involves a horse ride up Mount Kolvir to the summit.
In the Castle attics, Caitlin finds lots of old portraits, mostly of various of the Elder Amberites, but none of them resemble the woman from the locket. However she is still convinced that she has seen it somewhere. There are tapestries, weapons, chests, statues and all kinds of things up here, though due to the invasion rather less attics with such things in are present than before.
There are a few examples of the rose emblem - it does appear to be associated with Prince Corwin. One thing Caitlin finds is a picture of him in armour with a silver rose insignia clasp on his cloak; on another he seems to be jousting, with the silver rose emblem against a black background on his shield.
Eventually she leaves the attics, not having found too much of use. As she leaves a servant comes running up, claiming to have found the picture she was looking for in with Prince Corwin's belongings.
Caitlin is led off to the find.
She quickly arrives at a storeroom full of the belongings of various of the Elder Amberites, which seem to have been packed away either until their return, or while the Castle is being renovated. The servant leads her to a small portrait that is indeed the one that Caitlin remembers. When she sees it she remembers that she saw it in Corwin's quarters when wandering through them one day. It does indeed closely resemble the picture in the locket. The name on the nameplate on the frame of the picture is Lorraine. Lorraine is attractive but not beautiful, with rust-red hair containing a few grey strands in it, very blue eyes, a slightly pointed chin, clean, even teeth, and freckles. She appears to be perhaps older than her real age, but has an intelligent look and appears slightly awkward, perhaps embarrassed, by the pose. She is also wearing a locket that looks like the one Whippoorwill found. She is wearing a medieval-style dress, and seems to be sitting on a castle balcony (not of Castle Amber), overlooking the main courtyard where a few blurred people can be seen doing ... something.
Caitlin thanks the servants and sends them away. She then searches through the rest of Corwin's belongings looking for more information. She finds the silver rose emblem in several places in a chest of clothing. However, she finds nothing about Lorraine.
Meanwhile, Whippoorwill and Jihx have collected their horses from the stables, and Godofos has managed to control the horse the stables have given him, and they have ridden up the trail to the summit of Mount Kolvir.
From the top of the three admire the view of Amber, the forest Arden, the sea and the sun sinking behind the mountains inland. The sky overhead appears clear and mostly cloudless, which bodes well.
While they wait for the sun to set and the moon to rise, Godofos Trumps Caitlin.
In Amber, Caitlin feels a Trump call coming on. She accepts it, and tells Godofos and the others about the portrait she has found.
It is agreed to contact her again later, so that she can hold the Trumps of those going up to Tir-Na Nog'th in case they need a quick exit from the place, and drop the link.
That done, Caitlin asks around about Lorraine. She finds nothing initially so the librarians are set on the task of finding her in the records.
Caitlin goes to show Gerard the picture, and finds him and Vialle in their office.
He has to think about this for some time and eventually remembers a shadow called Lorraine, but not a person. He does not recognise her from the larger picture either. However, he says that he would not be surprised if Corwin had a relationship with someone and kept it private from the others, as they would most likely have tried to take advantage of it if it had become known.
Vialle wonders if this may be who Corwin was mourning when he returned from shadow when she first met him; she says he did not say it as such, but she had a feeling he was in mourning for someone.
Caitlin returns to her rooms to settle down for the evening.
She has the servants light a large roaring fire and bring in a large meal on a trolley, consisting mainly of meat, then props up the portrait of Lorraine nearby. She eats curled up in a chair in front of the large roaring fire, wearing her fur coat and hat against the 'cold' of Amber.
The sun sets behind the mountains inland from Amber, and a little later the moon begins to rise out of the sea to the east of Amber. As the moon rises higher and higher above the horizon, a shimmering begins in the air and out of it the sky-city of Tir-Na Nog'th slowly shimmers into existence, though it remains difficult to focus upon, and seems more clear when looked at out of the corner of the eye than when looked at directly.
As it becomes fully visible and the moon continues to rise a stairway extends down from the city. It drops down onto the summit of the mountain at a rock formation that appears to form the first three steps of it.
The three of us step up to the staircase and begin the climb towards Tir-Na Nog'th. The climb is long but we seem to make magically fast progress up the staircase. We notice that stairs appear to be transparent when we look down and focus on them - so we avoid doing that!
And shortly we arrive at the top of the stairs and step off into the sky-city of Tir-Na Nog'th...
Session 3.14 Index Session 4.2