AmberCon UK 2002 Game

A Chaos Game

This game could be considered as a follow-on to the 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness' game which I ran at AmberCon UK 1999.

This page divides into the following sections:

• Setting and Plot
• Game Structure
• The Serpent Trap
• Notes on the Game
• Non-Player Characters
• Character Generation
• Chaos Geography (on a separate page)
• The Houses of Chaos (on a separate page)
• The Logrus - in this game (on a separate page)

Click on the section headings on this page to return to this list.

SETTING AND PLOT

Despite those of Chaos being the favoured of the Great Serpent, somehow the apostates of Amber, with the help of their unholy Unicorn and despite the assistance of the Great Serpent, are winning the war. The Final Battle of Patternfall, on the Plain of Alyrios, by the edge of the Abyss, rages outside and when it is over, Amber will have won, and will destroy Chaos utterly.

You, for some reason (age, injury, cowardice?), are unable to attend the battle. Instead, Lady Sorenica Minobee, the Head of that House, who has publicly stated that she will not live to Chaos destroyed by the scum of Amber, has invited you all to a Final Ball, one last glorious fling for the non-combatants of Chaos before the inevitable End, before the iron heel of Amber destroys all that you know and love. It has been made quite clear that not attending this Ball is simply not an option...

It is rumoured that some guests, including your hostess, will commit suicide at the end.

The Amberites have somehow reinforced the Black Road with Pattern to stop Chaos dispelling the route they are using to attack by. This should be impossible. They have done it anyway.

Chaos has tried to end the war with a Duel of Champions, but the messengers were returned dead and dismembered. Attempts to surrender to Amber have been met with similar contempt. Now there are factions amongst the noble Houses. Most will fight, regardless of it being inevitable that they will lose, as that is the honourable thing to do. A minority would like to flee and try to make a new life elsewhere. A smaller minority would like to surrender, as much to get it over with as anything else. The Guardians of Purity of the Church are on the Plain of Alyrios for the last battle of Patternfall; this is a desperate measure on the part of the Courts...

The Final Ball begins at Redsky, to signal the mourning nature of the event (red being the mourning colour in Chaos).

The Ball is held in a huge, vaguely potato-shaped chamber of vaulted iridescent red and black rock, taller than it is wide, inside House Minobee. It is reached by a series of organic-seeming passages through the House. One wall of the chamber is made up entirely of windows looking out onto the Plain of Alyrios, giving a very good view of the battlefield. The chamber is lit by balls of 'fireflies' that drift and swirl through the air. Balconies are dotted here and there up the walls, and floating platforms with people on them drift through the air. The acoustics in the ballroom are such that in some places one can hear and be heard from everywhere in the room, in others sound stays discretely close.

Chaos nobles in gorgeous eighteenth-century style clothing swirl about. Many are wearing red, the colour of mourning, and none of them look very happy. Music plays, different in different places about the Chamber, a mixture of the mournful and the nostalgic. Demon servants move unobtrusively about with trays of food, drink, drugs and poisons.

There are not actually that many people there. There are the PCs, a number of isolated individuals (whose numbers become fewer and fewer as the time goes on and they commit suicide), and a small group of other Chaosites including a female Bishop in the Church of the Serpent.

Sooner or later the PCs will probably approach this other group, who seem to be talking amongst themselves a little more animatedly than anyone else in the room. If they do not do this then after a while Bishop Cassandra Helgram of the Church of the Serpent will approach them.

Cassandra Helgram has a plan. She intends to summon the Serpent of Chaos , bind it with power, drain it, and use the power released in doing so to smash those using merely the power of its stolen eye and restore Chaos to its rightful glory. She is recruiting Logrus Initiates for this plot, and that includes the PCs (she has a few thugs too, but mainly wants Logrus initiates). However, given the conservative nature of Chaos she is not claiming this idea as her own (which it is) but is instead claiming to have found an ancient prophesy which describes it.

The PCs will eventually find out about this plot in some fashion. Then what do they do? Do they go along with the plot, and save Chaos at the expense of its God, or save their God, at the expense of Chaos?

"Amber's forces are simply too strong," says Cassandra in a very reasonable, logical voice. "Their Unicorn fills them with Unholy strength, whereas for our weakness in allowing Amber to be created in the first place, the Serpent has turned His righteous back on us. Only by reclaiming the Strength of the Serpent can we hope to prevail against the apostate scum of Amber. And if the Serpent will not give us His blessing, then we shall have to take it..."

"There may be a way to save us. A way described in prophecy ages ago. But only the strong, those stronger than our so-called leaders, will be considered for this. Can take this route. I am recruiting an elite group of Loyal Logrus Initiates who possess the strength and the will to help me save the Courts from the Scum of Amber."

GAME STRUCTURE

The overall structure of the Game is as follows:

1. Everyone arrives at the Ball. Announced by a major-domo demon, meet Lady Sorenica.
2. Describe the scene at the ball. PCs talk to one another. People become aware of the Scheme; they either notice the plotters not looking as depressed as everyone else and approach them, or are approached directly by Bishop Cassandra.
3. The plot can split at this point, into working with or against the Scheme (note that the party could quite easily split here, too). So PCs can:
   1. Join the Scheme; in this case there are various things for them to do:
      • An Initiation; some form of loyalty test.
      • Meetings in the Undercity.
      • Casing the Ritual site in the Chapel of Ascension, and the Cathedral of the Serpent.
      • Kidnapping Priests and gathering the other artefacts needed for the Ritual.
      • Kidnapping High Priest Bances.
      • Noticing that NPCs are investigating the Schemers.
      • An NPC Schemer vanishes (taken by NPC investigators for interrogation).
      • Eventually they will be told Cassandra's plot. One of the kidnapped priests overhears and goes on about how it will be irrelevant if the Courts survive physically if the cost is its Soul; religious PCs might figure this out on their own too. The priest tries to persuade the PCs to stop the plot. They have to choose...
   2. Investigate the Scheme and the Schemers; there are various things to find out:
      • Priests of the Serpent are vanishing.
      • Other people in Chaos are being recruited; their initiations may also be found out about.
      • The conspirators are meeting in the Undercity.
      • Thugs are being hired.
      • The Chapel of Ascension is being cased (for the ritual), as is the Cathedral of the Serpent (for the kidnapping of Bances and the theft of the various required artefacts)
      • Ritual Preparations are taking place, including the collection of various required ingredients.
      • High Priest Bances is kidnapped.
      • And eventually they will learn of Cassandra's plot. They have to choose what to do...
4. The plot will come to a conclusion in the Ritual in the Chapel of Ascension. Hopefully the PCs will be either trying to stop it, or trying to complete it while NPC investigators try to disrupt it. There could be some kind of 'inside man' disruption too...

Note that the plot could go somewhere between these extremes. For example, the PCs could be interested in saving the Courts, but still tell the King or the Church (as happened in the playtest). The King can be persuaded to go along with the Ritual, if it means saving the Courts. After all, what has the Serpent done for Chaos recently?

THE SERPENT TRAP

Several Logrus experts from House Helgram are involved in the plot, along with others from other Houses. Bishop Helgram is planning a great Ritual to pull the Serpent from the depths of the Abyss and drain its power to save Chaos.

A number of the sacred items and royal regalia of Chaos are need for the ritual. These include:

• The Chalice of the Serpent from the Cathedral of the Serpent; it stands on the altar in the Cathedral.
• The Shed Skin of the Serpent from the Cathedral of the Serpent [a snakeskin cloak which moulds itself to its rightful wearer (the King) like a snakeskin, leaving the face exposed; non-rightful wearers are poisoned by it and die; it is only used on high church days and otherwise hangs on the wall of the Cathedral, by the altar].
• The Book of the Serpent from the Cathedral of the Serpent; it stands on a lectern by the altar in the Cathedral.
• A bottle of Abyss-stuff (needs a bottle).
• The Crown and Sceptre of Chaos, which are on the King [the Crown is a nine-headed serpent of red gold wrapped about the wearers head, with heads looking in all directions; the body of the Sceptre is a snake's body with nine heads at the top, looking in all directions, and nine tails at the base, also looking in all directions, also of red gold].
• A child of the Royal Line of Chaos.
• One priest of the Serpent per participant.
• The High Priest of the Serpent, Bances Amblerash.
• The Singing Heads of all of the former High Priests [whose bodies go into the Abyss, but whose heads remain in the crypt of the Cathedral to sing the praises of the Serpent].
• And the Power of the Logrus.

As part of the preparations for the ritual, these artefacts have to be properly arranged. Bances is wrapped in (but not wearing) the Shed Skin, the Crown on his head, the Sceptre in his hand.

For each person involved in the Ritual there is a Priest of the Serpent bound in front of them, plus the High Priest of the Serpent in the centre. The people involved weave a 'web' of everyone's Logrii as they stand in a circle, from each into the centre, impaling the priest in from of them on their Logrus tendril(s), and between people too, from those who can summon multiple active tendrils. Everyone's tendrils also impale the High Priest in the centre and merge inside him, to burst out of the top of his head, spraying blood and brains everywhere. From his twitching, impaled but still-living body a thick woven tendril of Logrus leaps out, up, and down into the Abyss to snare the Serpent.

The serpent, wrapped in this woven tendril, is slowly pulled out of the Abyss to hang, writhing, before everyone involved. It is a vast and hydra-like beast, iridescent black, kilometres long, each of its nine heads dotted with hundreds of eyes like the Jewel of Judgement, in a multitude of colours.

If the Ritual succeeds, the power of the Serpent drained out of it and through Cassandra with the aid of everyone else involved, can easily smash the armies of Amber and reach across shadow to destroy Amber itself, and all of the Patterns. However, if this is done, the Serpent will be drained almost to nothing, and could even die if those involved are unwilling to stop.

Also, once the Ritual is over, Chaos itself will be greyer and lessened by the ritual - it will live, but something has definitely been lost or is missing. Also, King Swayvil will be vastly aged, to a point near to death, and every copy of the Book of the Serpent in Chaos will crumble to dust and blow away. All of the artefacts shrivel to dust as the ritual works.

But Chaos will survive...

NOTES ON THE GAME

Unless they are a Trump Artist, PC's each have only three Trumps - the entrance to the Courts (the Great Gate), the entrance to the Ways of their House, and a person in their House; if they have Good Stuff then this person is even still alive...

It may be necessary to have Mentors for stiff-necked PCs, to, perhaps, get them to go along with the plot a little and find out things about what is going on. There should also be clues for priestly or religious characters so that they can find out more. For example, that

Everyone's reason(s) for not being on the battlefield need to be checked, and reject ones which might cause problems with the plot should definitely be rejected...

In case the PCs try to contact them, the Amberites are bastards and do want to wipe out Chaos. They will try to kill any PCs who try to contact them.

Logrus tendrils, even those of Advanced initiates, suffer bad feedback when they touch an Amberite, even without the Pattern to mind. Likewise, Chaos Trumps also give feedback when used against Amberites, even when drawing them.

People are committing suicide all over Chaos. In particular people are throwing themselves from Rim at the Plaza at the End of the World and into the Pit.

NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS

• Bishop Cassandra Helgram (F) - quiet, intense, charismatic and extremely beautiful. She is tall and impressive with black-tinged matt silver skin, sapphire-blue eyes and metallic black hair. Her demon form is a six-armed snake-centaur with silver and silver-black scales, heavily clawed and muscular in the basic demon form, but lighter, sleeker and more attractive in social demon form. Her avatar form is a fire elemental. She was one of Suhey's best students in the Logrus.
  She is known to give doom and gloom sermons on the state of Chaos and the war. She objected to the co-operation between House Helgram and the red-headed Amberites, claiming 'it will lead to the downfall of us all'; because of this she lost all of her House support. She was very religious, but since the war has turned from the Serpent. She claims to have found an ancient prophecy which is the basis for her scheme, and has a copy of it, including details of the Ritual. Her claim to have found it is a lie though - it's really entirely out of her own head, but she thinks she is more likely to be believed if it is considered something ancient rather than something new. Because of this the 'ancient parchment' can be found to be a fake - it is very old (having been aged by magic), but the parchment and ink are modern.

• Sonargaon Helibore (M, Cassandra's second) - He is of average height and build with pale skin and a rather forgettable face. His hair is purple-tinged black and his eyes are scarlet. He carries a lot of Empowered equipment, including a self-reloading crossbow whose bolts are very stealthy and which can aim themselves back at the target if they miss. He has the Helibore 'Ghost' power, and is a Trump artist. His demon form is tall, chitinous and spindly with clawed cat-like legs and many long razor-edged 'feathers' extending out from its spine to either side; in colour it is purple-tinged black. His avatar form is a water elemental.
• Zornash Helgram (M) - short and thin, obviously quite an old man; he is vaguely sinister-looking with matt black skin, spiky metallic silver hair and mirrored silver eyes. He wears immaculate black silk clothing with silver embroidered decoration. His demon form is very spidery, a hairy black six-legged, two-armed spider-centaur. His avatar form is of mist. Carries various drugs and poisons.
• Eliona Caryx (F) - obviously quite young, in mid-to-late teens, she is quite tall and big-built, but rather gawky too. She normally has dark brown skin, very long curly black hair and luminous green eyes, and wears deep green clothes trimmed in black; however, the style of these definitely implies that she is dressed by servants rather than by herself. She is young and rather geeky, scared and wants to live. Her demon form appears to be a mass of greenish-black centipedes, which actually join into a single mass in the centre, more like a huge multi-armed armoured starfish than anything else; these 'centipedes' can cling to one another with a multitude of razor-edged legs to form a humanoid shape, but individual centipedes can unlink from the mass to extend out, form tentacles and so on. Because each 'centipede' has its own bright green jewel-like eyes, spaced all along its body, this form can see all around itself at once. Her avatar form is a blob of liquid metal.
• Hammarion Swayvil (M) - a bullying thug. He is of average height but very broad and muscular with light gold skin, royal purple hair and black eyes; his demon form is a heavily armoured golden-scaled thing like a four-armed, long-tailed cross between a dragon and a gorilla. His avatar form is a rock elemental of gold, purple and black granite.
• Jasra Mordau (F) - A tall, russet-haired woman with dark eyes. She was trained by Sawall in magic. She has a taste for power and the good things in life, being rather a power-hungry opportunist; with Brand and Cassandra, to ensure she is on a winning side. Wears lavender and blue clothing. Her demon form is a tall, thin and angular fairly 'conventional'-looking demon with bat-like wings, in lavender with blue eyes. Her avatar form is an air elemental.
• Ranghel Hendrake (F) - a tall, thin woman with hair of red flames and corpse-coloured skin. She is Borel's child, and despite this is an honour-less Hendrake. Her avatar form is a fire elemental. Her demon form is an armoured insectoid thing with no head, only a cluster of eye-tipped jointed limbs, a cluster of long, thin, jointed arms on each shoulder, a 'fur' of small similar limbs down her back and along a jointed tail, and cat-like legs, all in red-tinged grey chitin.

• Lady Sorenica Minobee (F) - a beautiful mature woman, regal in bearing, but, under the circumstances, very melancholy too. She has long, elaborately style royal blue hair, bright green eyes and pale grey skin, almost like alabaster. Her demon form is a smooth radially symmetrical form like a streamlined chess piece with tentacles, in pale silver-grey with irregular blue-green tiger stripes; however, for this occasion the striped have been changed to mourning red. Her avatar form is a water elemental, looking much like herself in a long flowing gown, but all of crystal clear water.

Note that the NPC's above (Sonargaon, Zornash, Eliona, Hammarion, Jasra and Ranghel) could have second thoughts and go to the King/Church to stop the PC's doing the ritual, as opposed to the other way round...

CHARACTER GENERATION

The characters are all members of the Courts of Chaos, built on 75 points, with Basic Shapeshifting and Basic Logrus for free, who for some reason are not on the battlefield by the edge of the Abyss. Statistics start at Amber Ranked, but can be bought down below that (intermediate ranks between Amber, Chaos and Human are possible). Psyche and Endurance can be bought down as far as Chaos; Strength and Warfare as far as Human. No statistic can have a value higher than 101 (this is possible if other statistics are bought down). Stuff is limited to 5 points in either direction. No contributions are available. The powers available are Logrus, Shapeshifting, Trump and Magic. Note that in this game the main Chaos power is the Logrus. However, it becomes weaker the further one goes from Chaos, until eventually, at a distance from Chaos given by one's Psyche, but always less than a quarter of the way to Amber, it deteriorates into what is effectively the Black Pathways power (one of my Alternatives to the Logrus).

Extra character points are available as follows:

Note that I do not intend to run a separate game for each player character; as such, characters who can and will co-operate with each other in the game would be greatly appreciated.

Go to the Courts of Chaos Page.

The 'Comes in the End Despondency and Madness' game, which could be considered a prequel to this game.

Or go back to My Amber Page.