Session 4.14 Index Session 4.16
Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Whippoorwill brings his army through shadow towards the Courts of Chaos. As he goes closer to the Courts, the ground underfoot becomes more and more blurred while the stars in the sky overhead begin to twinkle and more. The coloured half of the sky changes from a single colour to shifting bands of different colours.
When he is one shadow away from the Courts of Chaos, his forward scouts bring news that there are sentries over the ridge ahead.
Whippoorwill goes up ahead of his army with his twelve original troops arrayed out around him to spy on the encampments ahead. Peeking over the ridge he sees that there are watch posts and sentries dotted over the landscape in a very competent arrangement, all of them containing about half a dozen people and all in sight of at least two others. After observing them for some time, he judges that it would be difficult to get a large force through the barrier, although a small force - such as himself and his twelve soldiers - could probably get through unnoticed.
Julian moves out of the cell to join Benedict and Bleys.
Back in the Courts of Chaos, Caitlin senses Pattern in Bleys's sword.
As Godofos says hello to his father, Bleys raises an eyebrow slightly and winks at Godofos in such as way that Benedict cannot see him do it, but shows no other signs of recognising him as his son.
"Drop your swords and get down on the floor," demands Bleys.
We protest, asking if they can't sense the blood of Amber in us.
Bleys agrees that he can sense this, but states that there have been traitors with the blood of Amber before, such as Brand, and Dara.
Godofos repeats that he is Bleys's son.
Benedict looks at Bleys questioningly.
Bleys sighs and agrees that he is indeed Godofos' father. He reduces his demand to our just placing our weapons on the floor.
We agree and do so, though there is a slight hiccup when Caitlin doesn't put down her throwing broaches as they are not swords. When 'swords' is expanded to 'weapons' she complies.
Caitlin then gives Julian, Bleys and Benedict a brief history of Amber since the Elders left. In particular the Armageddon worms (the Vadgaon) and our pact with the Spaceshifter Coterie are included in this briefing.
When Caitlin explains about our agreement with Timandra, Julian once again explodes with indignation at our 'treachery'.
There then follows some discussion about what we are actually doing here.
We tell them that the Elders have been away for sixty years, Amber time.
This surprises them, as only a couple of weeks have passed from their perspective.
In return, the three Elders tell us that they have defeated the Courts of Chaos on the battlefield. They then entered the Courts to find the place simmering with unrest, and perhaps may have helped to trigger a rebellion amongst the Commoners, which caused the storming of the various Coterie Ways and Fortress Gantu, and a great deal of death and destruction. The Amberites let the rebellion run its course, then stepped in to restore order and mop up.
And with things in Chaos settling down, they are apparently considering returning to Amber shortly.
With all of this information exchanged, Bleys invites us to come and meet the King of Amber to discuss matters. The new King, Random.
This is news to us but we agree to go along.
Benedict asks for details about the Coterie members Trumping away.
We tell him what was involved there.
It is interesting to note that he knows about what happened despite not, apparently, having spoken to Julian about it.
Caitlin decides to Trump Whippoorwill to invite him to speak to the King along with the rest of us. She tells the three Elders this and they agree that this would be a good idea. She pulls out his Trump and concentrates on it.
One shadow away from the Courts of Chaos, Whippoorwill feels a Trump contact coming on. He accepts it.
It is Caitlin, who explains the situation to him. He agrees to come through, and appears with the rest of us.
Whippoorwill introduces himself to the Elders, and is brought up to speed on since he saw us last.
Bleys Then tells us will take us to the rest of the Family. He pulls out a Trump then steps behind Julian and Benedict to concentrate on it.
He seems to get through, and we overhear a brief description of what - and who - he has found.
That being done, Bleys holds out his hand and invites us to go through to their command centre in the Citadel of Chaos. We all accept this invitation, and are passed through the link with himself, Julian and Benedict following behind.
We have been brought through the Trump link by a short red-haired woman we recognise as Princess Fiona (Etienne's mother). She greets us as we come through.
We are in a large dark room made of swirled black and red stone that has some visible evidence of battle damage in it. The room is lit by multicoloured balls of fire drifting in the air close to the ceiling. There are chairs and tables scattered about the room, and a large circular table in the centre of the room covered with papers and maps.
Around the table are various people we recognise from their Trump cards. The allegedly dead Prince Caine, Princess Florimel (Arun's mother), Princess Llewella (Whippoorwill's mother), King Random and a young man who looks a bit like Random, and who is taller than him. All look around at us as we arrive.
Whippoorwill introduces us all to the Elders present, stating our names and relationships to them.
"Whippoorwill, darling!" says Llewella and approaches to hug him.
Whippoorwill accepts the hug stiffly. "It has been some time and I have suffered much at your hands, madam!" he says. He disentangles himself from her.
She is not put off by this and states that she is pleased that he has grown up healthy and strong.
Whippoorwill protests at her parenting methods, but she is unrepentant.
Introductions over, we bring King Random and the others up to speed with events at Amber over the last sixty years.
Fiona in particular looks a little shocked at mention of Etienne's attack on Amber.
Whippoorwill also tells them about the attack by the Spaceshifters, the possible attack of the Vadgaon worms, and about how we assisted them.
Random asks how his wife, Vialle, is.
So we also tell them about how she and Gerard are, and about the changes to Vialle since Etienne's attack on Amber. In particular how she can now see, and is an Amberite.
Random looks pleased at this.
He then tells us about the a huge battle on the edge of the Abyss, about the defeat of Brand and Chaos with Corwin's assistance, about Caine helping and not being really dead (it was just a shadow of himself who died, he tells us). Random then tells of the Commoner's uprising, of the Elders assisting it, and of keeping the remaining Coterie members prisoner until they decide what to do with them. He also mentions the death of Deirdre, taken hostage by Brand and, when Caine shot Brand in the throat, dragged into the Abyss by him. Corwin was very upset by this.
Brand was carrying the Jewel of Judgement when he fell, but the Unicorn of Amber came out of the Abyss carrying the Jewel, and gave it to Random who on this basis then became King.
A huge funeral procession of many kinds of creatures and beings then came from the direction of Amber, and headed along the remains of the Black Road into the Courts of Chaos. In its centre was Dworkin, with Oberon's coffin on a cart. They have not seen either since then.
We ask what they want to do with the Spaceshifters Coterie, and whether they want to discuss what is now going to happen, for example perhaps let them stay in the Courts.
The Elders consider this, then Random asks us to speak with Timandra on the subject. He also gives permission for us to look at the Chaos prisoners to see if any of the missing Spaceshifters are there.
Godofos agrees to speak to Timandra while Whippoorwill goes to look at the prisoners.
Godofos Trump Timandra, and when she accepts the call, tells her about what has happened. He tells her that she should come and speak to the King.
She agrees to consider this.
Godofos agrees to get back to her as soon as is possible, and drops the Trump link.
Fiona leads Whippoorwill off to look at the Chaos prisoners.
Noting that he is missing, we ask where Corwin is.
Random tells us that he is off keeping a lid on the fighting; apparently there is still unrest in some parts of the Courts.
The young man who looks rather like Random is introduced as Martin, Random's son. We remember being told about the scandal associated with his birth - Random's seduction of Moire's daughter, Morganthe, her giving birth to Martin, followed by her suicide, leaving Martin to be raised partly by Vialle. Random's unwilling return to Rebma with Corwin and Deirdre, pursued by the forces of Amber, and Random's being married to Vialle for a year as punishment, during which time he seemed to change and come to love her.
Jihx suggests that their arrival back in Amber and Rebma could be rather a problem, given Moire's low opinion of Random, and what Gerard has said about him in the past which lead us to believe he also does not rate Random too highly.
The Elders in general think things could be sorted out once they return.
Jihx then asks about the Unicorn. It is the heraldic beast of Amber, and apparently also Oberon's mother. It has occasionally been seen near Amber, particularly in the Grove of the Unicorn, but this is rare, to say the least. Its appearance at the Courts is unprecedented.
Some of the Elders go back to examining the papers on the tables.
Soldiers turn up with food and drink.
Whippoorwill is lead by Fiona out of the room, into a corridor of similar design to the room we arrived in. She leads him along this corridor and through a large set of doors apparently of petrified flesh, with Amber guards to each side, down a set of steps onto a wide plaza. She tells him this in the Plaza at the End of the World, on the far side of the Courts to Amber.
Whippoorwill can see that the Plaza ends in an un-railed drop to the Abyss. To one side there is a large amphitheatre-like structure of black, which Fiona tells him is the Cathedral of the Serpent.
Behind him, he can see that the Citadel of Chaos, from which we have just emerged, is a large building looking rather like a solid flame of red and black stone. Parts of it, away from where we emerged, appear to have collapsed in rubble.
Fiona leads him across the Plaza to a building of bile-green stone with many Amber soldiers stationed around it. She signals the soldiers, who nod, and then shifts shadow into the building, which appears to be an entirely separate shadow from outside. Whippoorwill immediately senses that this is a non-magical area.
Inside are more guards and Chaosites in tattered clothing grouped into a variety of areas around the floor of a large cathedral-like structure. Some glaring at others, some (few of them priests) are praying, some are just sitting or standing around aimlessly.
Whippoorwill begins his search, looking for the Spaceshifters.
There are roughly a few hundred Chaos prisoners here, plus a thousand or more guards.
Fiona tells Whippoorwill that she will just watch, and lets him go about his search alone.
Some of the Chaosites stare at Whippoorwill as he wanders around. He nods back to them.
Whippoorwill approaches one Chaosite, a tough-looking middle-aged woman, who has dark brown skin which appears to be armoured or leathery, eyes of solid mirrored silver, and hair which is also metallic silver. He asks her about the rift between the Spaceshifters and the other Coteries.
She tells him that they would have won the war if the Spaceshifters had assisted them. Then she says that she hasn't seen him here before and asks who he is.
Whippoorwill tells her, and says he is not there to gloat at her.
When he asks, she points out the Spaceshifters, in an area not too far away, and introduces herself as Rhodanthe, of the Finders.
Whippoorwill asks what that means, and is told that they are pit divers - they dive into the Abyss for treasures to be found in its depths. Interesting...
He thanks her and wanders over to the Spaceshifters. There are not many people in 'their' area; there seem to be twenty-four of them, the number we are looking for minus two.
He asks them if they are the Spaceshifters.
One of them, apparently their leader, asks why he is interested.
He tells them they may be part of an exchange and asks for their names.
They tell him. The man he is talking to is Acarnan.
Whippoorwill ticks off all the names of the missing Spaceshifters, apart from two, Kharran and Caldrin. He doesn't tell Acarnan what is going on, but does tell him that hopefully they can meet in better circumstances next time. Ready to leave, he looks for Fiona.
Fiona has apparently been talking to some of the other Chaosites. Perhaps one of her, Bleys and Brand's co-conspirators from the time when they attempted to take over Amber?
Whippoorwill rejoins her, and they leave the prison and return to the others in the Citadel of Chaos.
In the Citadel, there has been some social eating and drinking going on.
Caitlin can sense they are all Amberites. Godofos and Jihx can sense that they all carry Trump decks, and Godofos can tell that Fiona has Trump power in her head.
Drinks are passed around.
Whippoorwill returns, and tells the rest of us that he has found all the missing Spaceshifters apart from the two, Kharran and Caldrin. He also tells them what Rhodanthe said about the Spaceshifters.
Godofos concentrates on the Trump power in Fiona's head, looking at her interestedly.
She asks him about what he is doing, so he tells her. She says she would help him learn how to do this - store Trumps in ones head - in exchange for a favour.
Godofos is amenable to this, and shows her what he can do, what he is willing to teach. He changes into Gerard.
Fiona appears to be interested.
Julian stomps over and accuses Godofos of being a Chaosite again. "I'll be watching you," he growls to Godofos, Jihx and Caitlin in a menacing fashion, and stomps off again. He does not appear to include Whippoorwill in his list of un-trusted younger Amberites.
Whippoorwill Trumps Timandra, and quickly gets through.
Fiona joins the Trump link, but Timandra sees this, and objects strongly.
Whippoorwill asks Fiona to desist, and she does so.
He tells Timandra that we have found the remaining members of her Coterie apart from the two.
He also suggests that she sends one of the Trump-powered homunculus bodies to negotiate with the Elders, for safety.
She asks that the Coterie members be returned first, and not be used as hostages.
Whippoorwill agrees to ask about this, and they drop the Trump link.
He asks Random if he would be prepared to release the Coterie members as a sign of good faith. He looks at the other Elders. Bleys shrugs, Benedict says no, and Julian says we could hunt them down.
Whippoorwill tells them that he feels that we four have a good relationship with the Spaceshifters now, and that releasing the others of their Coterie as a show of good faith would be a good thing for any negotiations.
Julian and Caine go off to one side and talk quietly.
It is suggested that we could, after all, always attack them with the Trumps if things went badly.
After this argument, Random agrees to release the Coterie members as, indeed, a sign of good will. Of the other Elders some agree, and some do not. Julian appears to be coldly angry.
Random sends Fiona to release them from the prison.
Llewella looks on with pride at Whippoorwill.
He in turn ignores her completely.
While we wait, Florimel, Bleys, Random and Martin come over to talk to us and ask about our pasts and what we see as our futures. "How are things in Bergamer?" Bleys asks Godofos.
Caitlin and Jihx tell them about their parents, Deirdre and Brand, and their worlds, Ahnel and Derris. Up until now they have been keeping the identities of their parents secret, but have now decided the time has come to reveal this knowledge. Godofos and Whippoorwill also tell about them about their upbringing.
Florimel, Bleys and Random, though they disapprove of Llewella's methods, do seem to think that Whippoorwill's upbringing has made him strong.
At this point, Llewella comes over, and says she is very proud of Whippoorwill.
He tells her that revenge is one of the attributes she has endowed him with.
Florimel warns him to be careful of Blood Curses if he plans revenge...
As she comes close to him, Godofos notices that Llewella, like Fiona, also has Trump power in her head.
After a short while, Fiona returns with the remaining Spaceshifters, who all look rather nervous.
"You are all about to be exchanged for good will," Whippoorwill tells them.
He then Trumps Timandra. When she takes the call, he tells her that we are returning the prisoners. He also states that we want this to be considered as the end of our agreement.
Timandra disagrees, stating that she wants us to stick to the spirit, rather than the letter of our agreement. She wants to know what has happened to the remaining two Spaceshifters - if they are proved to be dead, or returned to them, then the agreement is complete. Until then we are required to continue searching for them and rescuing them if necessary.
We begrudgingly agree to this, and the prisoners are passed through.
They and Timandra thank us for this as they go through the link, and when they are all through, the link goes down.
"And now we wait to see what their response is," says Random.
While we wait, Godofos attempts to make a Trump link with the tree of Ygg. However, despite its being a superTrump, he cannot make contact.
He tries a point near the tree of Drasil, next to Corwin's new Pattern, instead.
This takes some effort, but after a while the link does open up. He decides to take a trip to Drasil, to see if he can Trump Ygg from there, and passes through the link.
From there he attempts to Trump Ygg. From here he can open the link, though again with some effort, and he goes through and finds himself at the tree of Ygg, in a shadow fragment. He then Trumps Gerard.
Back in Chaos, Whippoorwill regurgitates all of the Amber family history from the time the Elders left to the present, in as much detail as he knows.
This proves very popular with all the Elders, who gather round to listen.
His history includes Arun, Skyrie, Tir-Na Nog'th, Moire and Jihx's children (Random looks slightly guilty at mention of Moire), Etienne's garden and the agreement with her.
While they listen, Caitlin observes the Elders. She senses that Benedict, Llewella, Caine and particularly Fiona have more powerful minds then her. Bleys and Martin are similar in mental power, whereas Random, Florimel and particularly Julian are weaker.
We can all sense that all of them except Martin have magic around or on them and that all are carrying Trumps.
Julian's armour is Real, not just magical.
Random has something in him that makes his Pattern imprint different. This is similar to, but not the same as, the way Jihx's Pattern imprint is different to the rest of us because he is attuned to the Eye of Peace. Caitlin concludes that this is probably a result of attunement to the Jewel of Judgement.
Fiona and Bleys also have different Pattern imprints - primal Pattern imprints. Llewella and Martin have the imprint of the Rebman Pattern.
From by Ygg, Godofos opens the Trump link to Gerard, who quickly answers.
There is some confusion as the link opens up at Godofos' new (or rather old) face, but once things are cleared up, Godofos tells him the news of the Elders in Chaos.
"Bloody Hell!" exclaims Gerard.
Gerard tells Godofos that it has been three years since we left.
In return, Godofos tells Gerard about Caine, Brand and Deirdre, and then about the Unicorn, Jewel of Judgement and Random. "Random's King!" he adds.
"BLOODY HELL!!!" repeats Gerard, with more force, when he hears this.
Godofos then asks about progress with the defences against the Vadgaon worms.
Gerard tells him that Lillian and Moire seem to have cracked the meaning of what Corwin was talking about in his book, and from what is there have created a set of devices - small obelisks - which will protect the Patterns of Rebma and Amber from the worms. Apparently they also intend to place them at the Primal Pattern if they can get there.
Gerard also tells Godofos that his daughter, Greta, walked the Pattern in Rebma about eighteen months ago, and has gone off into shadow. The second pair of Jihx's children, Nuala and Eamon, and Jihx's two grandchildren Cassandra and Royce (Nemain's children) also walked the Pattern in Rebma at the same time and have also gone off into shadow.
There is also some news of a rather strange event. Apparently a group of a dozen or more people shifted into the Amber Pattern Room and walked the Pattern there, teleporting away. This was not discovered until a little some time later, when the residual resonance of someone walking the Pattern was noticed by Lillian, so they do not know who it was.
With news exchanged, Godofos breaks the Trump link and reverses his journey, finishing it off with a Trump call to Caitlin.
In Amber, Caitlin feels a Trump call coming on, and accepts it. It is Godofos, who at his request she brings through to Chaos.
Random asks what news he has of Amber.
Godofos tells all.
We hypothesise that the Pattern walkers were Skyrie and his children, perhaps the ones we saw in the Tir-Na Nog'th vision. Other possible alternatives are discussed, including Arun and Etienne. However, as far as we know, Arun does not have the Pattern skills required to shift directly into the Pattern room, so we suspect either Skyrie of Etienne.
With (we hope) enough time having gone by for the Spaceshifters to reach a decision regarding negations, Whippoorwill Trumps Timandra to organise the peace conference.
When she takes the call, Timandra tells him that she has concluded, from questioning the released prisoners, that the final two Spaceshifters are most likely dead. They apparently were caught by mobs as the Spaceshifters fled through the Courts, and were not seen again. This being so, she agrees that our agreement is at an end.
She then requests that she and Anaximander attend the peace negotiations in homunculi form.
We pass this on, and explain who Anaximander is, and Random reluctantly agrees to Anaximander's attendance.
With this agreed, two sarcophagi, looking much like the ones we saw in Amber, are passed through the Trump link. These are checked for dangerous magics and for Trump traps, and found to be clean.
That being so, Whippoorwill opens them up.
Two homunculi, looking exactly like Timandra and Anaximander, step out.
They are introduced to King Random.
Introductions over, Whippoorwill summarises the position.
The question is, what do we do now?
He asks what the Coterie of Spaceshifters want.
Timandra says that they would wish to reinstate the old Coterie system (as opposed to the corrupt one that has recently been overthrown). She suggests that the main question is, in fact, would the Amberites allow the Courts of Chaos to exist as a state in its own right?
She does not want them to come under the thumb of Amber and be a mere offshoot of Amber.
Random states that their original plan, before we and the Spaceshifters turned up, was to introduce a meritocratic government in the Courts, with Amber as a caretaker government in the meantime. They intended that Coterie members would be questioned regarding their various powers, so that Amber could defend against them if necessary, then go into exile in sealed shadows of their choice.
Unsurprisingly, Timandra does not like the sound of this plan.
Whippoorwill suggests three possible courses of action:
In the end he seems to be going for option three in some form.
There is some discussion. Random, Fiona and Bleys seem to agree that option three is the best way forward. Caine, Benedict and Llewella seem to be not too bothered either way. Julian opposes the idea.
Timandra and Anaximander are obviously in favour of option three.
So option three seems to be the basis of a way forward. However, it does have several problems to be ironed out, such as getting the other Coteries and the Commoners to agree to it...
King Random and Timandra shake hands on the preliminary deal.
Session 4.14 Index Session 4.16