John Cleland's Amber Diaries

Harlequin Diary - Volume Four

27-Sep-92 The results of my previous trump tests with Michel - the spy method works only if there is a person to resist the contact, there is no result of the subject is dead or shielded. The blocking method works anyway but there is some debate about the uniqueness of trump and trump w.r.t. shape changers. Neither Michel or Merlin are sure. The next morning Calvin wakes up with yet another scullery maid. He is rather fortunate that Michel and I decided to forebear any of the nasty party tricks we had in mind, for the benefit of Amber and all that guff. Although he seems to have forgotten, Gerard is there bright and early to remind him that he wanted to visit his fathers tomb. Having prepared in advance I wake at 9:00, feeling top of the world after a cup of coffee and an anti- hangover spell. The sight of a few other sufferers does much to buoy my mood. Samrel arrives with Helena, the Saxon girl, then goes to wake Lokerai and fetch a steward to find some dresses for her. Since I'm going to a wedding she might as well come along. We practice a few dance steps before I go down to breakfast. Julian and Samrel are in the hall so I walk with them, asking about Calvin's betrothed. Other than the usual gossip with Flora over breakfast not much happens until the wedding at noon where I see Caleb, who introduces us to his daughters, I introduce Samrel. Finally we take our seats. Calvin arrives looking rather poofy in white with hints of green, then the bride is led down the aisle by her father. She is gorgeous, intelligent and charming, not to mention being a lady of the courts of chaos. Far too good for the likes of Calvin. If such women didn't scare the crap out of me I'd marry her myself. The ceremony goes off without a hitch and is followed by a reception in the garden. There are numerous formal introductions which keeps the bride and groom busy for quite some time. Next comes the dancing, everyone takes a twirl with Anna although peasants like myself have to wait a while. As usual Michel takes twice as long dallying with the ladies as everyone else, much to Calvin's consternation. The newlyweds retire at 11:00 but the party continues for a while. The next mornings gossip is interrupted when Random gets a message, he confers with Julian who rushes off. I give Cal and Anna their present then we go upstairs to meet Random. There has been another attack on Arden, we are to begin investigation immediately. Since we don't have a clue what to do next and the trump of drake isn't finished next I suggest to Random that Michel, Lokerai and I begin investigating while Cal goes to a fast shadow for a quick honeymoon. I take off to see how Michel's work has been progressing, he has almost finished a trump of Anna and Drakes trump. I will call at 7:00 as he should be finished by then. I tell Lokerai I'll call in under 30 mins to get a lift back to Amber after taking Helena back to Arabia. He doesn't answer when I call so I piss off to get a hang-glider. Just before I port home someone trumps me. Its Lokerai but he acts strange and hangs up. I've had enough of this bullshit so I refuse the next call and take a trump to the Amber - Arden road and begin walking. Pretty soon a patrol comes by and takes me to Julian. 400 troops had attacked Arden along the road. Julian is going back to Amber soon so he will not be able to trump me back to Arden tomorrow so I take the hang-glider with me and trump back to Michel. The picture is almost finished so I wait while Michel completes it and abuse Lokerai when he arrives. Perhaps there was something in it when Calvin said he couldn't be trusted to carry out instructions. We test the block comparison method - it works, but we get no hits on Drake's trump. As mentioned earlier this may be inconclusive w.r.t. to shape shifters. There is no response when we try Drake. Dumb messages start arriving from Calvin so we send dumb replies. With a massive team effort we just get through. The contact is weak and there is no picture except for half a fire lit face. He says something about chaos and "the horror". He looked pretty wasted so I just managed to pump through an invigoration spell before the contact broke. We feel like death warmed up so rest seems like a good option. It is not long before our vegetation is interrupted by the ever welcome Calvin. He has returned from his honeymoon early because someone left a note in his room saying that his s on was a prisoner in chaos. There is a strange symbol at the bottom of the note. We decide to give Merlin a call to ask about shape shifters and the symbol but there is no answer from him or Mandor. WE go and see the King to tell him of Drake and ask if anyone has a trump of chaos so that we can get closer for our next attempt to rescue Drake and Calvin's son. Sleep. I rise early to store up some spells then gossip over breakfast as usual. Fiona has gone on holiday. After some more mucking around and spell storing contact is made and Merlin comes through. The glyph means "lords of the 12th quarter, which has been captured by Tares, son of Daeglin. None of the information about chaos trump is of any use, but we do find out that Anna knows Merlin. We are to meet tomorrow at noon to take off to chaos and rescue Drake and Cal's son. Merlin drops by before leaving to say that "the horror" reminds him of a movie. I go and disturb Michel to get a trump of earth so I can check up on this movie, but several hours of research and a hair raising cab journey later has revealed lots of info but nothing promising. I trump back to Michel and join dinner halfway through. The photocopies are handed around and everyone begins reading. Several hours later we give it up and go to bed. The next morning I give Lokerai the trump and send him off to earth to find an expert who can tell him about the movie. Lokerai's return trump manages to destroy the spell that I had almost finished along with the better part of the door and half a rug. After pissing around with hints and charades for a while we eventually find that the movie is Apocalypse Now. Pity that I've never seen it.

5-Oct-92 We discuss the meaning of the movie & what to do for a while, then leaving instructions for a return trump trip I teleport back home to have a talk with Dad. He is in bed as it is late in Arabia, so I wait in the study for him to arrive. Knowing that this may be the last time that we meet I tell him that Samrel is safe with Gerard. After asking if he would hear dangerous knowledge I tell him what I know of Amber and shadow, of the workings of sorcery, what I know of trump, Logrus and pattern. He is interested in the trump and knowledge of the Amberites there depicted. I show him Finndo, my father, and he admits that his wife dallied while he was away. He asks who is who and how the players stand, the lines of succession, the kingship. He appears not to like Caine or Oberon and is interested by Michel and Random. He appears to come to a decision, and after swearing me to secrecy opens a secret panel and leads me up a stairway that leads through shadow to a secret room without windows. There he wears his true guise as Finndo. His skill with shape shifting must be great to have deceived so many people for so long. The Master, who resided as Kasreyn and his lieutenant were here to try and expose Finndo, they got Samrel y I escaped just in time. He warns me that I cannot trust even Samrel, foolish though it may be I shall trust him until he proves false. He knows Drake as Drakus and suspects that he was mentioning a place, perhaps where the enemy are now marshalled. He finishes by saying that his secret is now out, this shall be the last time that I see him. We say out good-byes then go to say farewell to mum. I try to make the leaving swift so things don't get overly sentimental. She gives me a jewelled Arabic dagger which I wear at my belt. Calvin responds to my trump and brings me back. To my evident surprise he has a blood bird at his shoulder. The bird carried a note that said it would lead him to his destination. A servant informs us that Michel has been looking for us so we cruise over to his ro om. He has finished the extra trumps. After a brief discussion we decide to leave from the courtyard in 30 mins. I find Samrel to tell him that we are leaving then go to my room to get my gear together. He comments on Calvin's blood bird, the enemy armies used them to lead them through shadow, after some more questions it appears that the time coincides with Calvin's loss of blood. Cal asks Michel about trump defence after wondering at her strange reaction to him giving her his trump, but since he has no skill the trump would be of little use to him. Michel trumps out then pulls us through to a fairly central shadow. We saddle up the horses then Cal releases his blood bird and we begin to follow it through shadow. We follow for a day then stop while Cal and Luke go to get more horses before travelling on for another 12 hours. The bird is leading us towards chaos at speed. The terrain is starting to get weird, first humid then barren and desolate. When I ask Cal about how he got the bird he shows a note which asked him to leave a pint of blood at the gate if he desired assistance, the note was signed with a different chaos glyph. We are just about to stop when I get a trump from Random and Fiona. They ask for more info about the various blood creatures and tell me to trump Fiona if we find anything that Amber can send her forces against. We rest for 3 hours then send Cal and Lokerai to get more horses. About an hour later they call to come back since they can't find any horses, I tell them to find any suitable mount. A while later they trump me for a lift back with a huge riding lizard in tow. The creature is uncomfortable to ride and to unstable to surf on so we endure an unpleasant journey through an increasing amount of vegetation and the occasional village until our path is barred by a group of king's guard with pikes. We drive the lizard around them and I am forced to shoot them with Ulysses when they draw bows. Shortly the plants begin to grow upside down. As if that bloodshed weren't Cal leaps off the lizar d to kill a merchant for the scant few coins in his pouch. For some reason he wanted to check the figure minted on the back of the coins. A large carriage drawn by bird lizards and driven by a giant comes motoring down the road, it is too wide to go around so we stop, only to be confronted by another two giants with blunderbuss. They lower their weapons and a lady emerges after Cal lowers his crossbow. When Luke offers them his canteen they pour out the water then eat it. After much meaningless talk and miming we go back to their castle, all but Michel who rides the lizard accept, a bit unwillingly, the hospitality of the carriage, which amounts to some strange clear stuff in a jar. As usual we soon end up inside the castle with the main gates closed. As we walk across the courtyard Lokerai decides to make matters worse by mind zapping one of the giants and possessing it. The woman and guard run away and Calvin attacks it since Lokerai has slumped to the ground. He gets a broken arm for his troubles as he tries to parry a giant sized fist. Just as things start to get rather trouble some a human comes out, he invites us to explain matters to the king. We wait in a room while Lokerai bandages Cal's arm, in return Cal abuses him for his stupidity. Quarter of an hour later the man returns to offer us refreshments and say the king will see us soon. The wine must have been drugged since we all flake out except for Cal who didn't drink. I awoken by the human, chained to the wall and naked in a small cell. To my consternation neither magic not power words seem to work here, trump must also be blocked since pathfinder has not called me. He represents the Master, who proposes a council of the children of the eldest to rule Amber. The five are to be the master, Cal, Samrel, Mentor and myself. He denies that they hold Drake or Cal's son then leaves for me to think upon my answer. When he returns I say that I do not desire to rule, he says that I am to be a member of a democratic council. They have seven other children of Am ber with lesser bloodlines. He argues rightful succession and asks what the kings of Amber have ever done for the children scattered through shadow. Although I agree with some of his words they could easily be a cunning deception, besides I have sworn to Random as king, not just to Amber, I will not break my oath, especially since my new allegiance would probably have to be broken when I discover their treachery, making me twice forsworn. He does not appear overly concerned by my refusal but soon after his departure I hear screams as they torture Lokerai and Michel. So much for his promise of freedom. I knew that they couldn't be trusted. A while later Michel's beast in the shape of a snake slithers in with pathfinder in its mouth. It covers me as armour as Pathfinder changes to a sword to cut my bonds. It then snakes inside the lock to break it and we creep down the hall to rescue Calvin. I cut off a piece of chain for him to use as a weapon then the snake breaks the lock to the next room as we burst in to rescue the others. They are on the rack with torturers in attendance. Cal and I fight them while the snake works to break them free. Cal's chain has no effect on them and my sword only makes small cuts. One of them manages to hit me and the force of the blow breaks my arm like it was a dry twig. The others are freed and we fight along the wall towards the door. When I open a larger wound I see that the stone creatures are molten inside. Cal moves to my side and we make it to the door, More giants are coming down the hall but the beast changes to a giant shark and blocks their way, but takes some fearful wounds in doing so. Down the stairs and to the left we flee only to about face as more guards come running towards us. At the end of the corridor there are two empty rooms with windows to the outside. I extend my grapnel and we climb down and begin sprinting across the desert. Magic and pattern still fail to work. Michel's horse helps us make speed as he trumps out to open a gate which we use to escape this unf riendly shadow. He has bought us to his Swedish giants, and as usual has collapsed from the strain. We set limbs and tend to our wounds before beginning to discuss what each of us were told. The dude made much of rightful succession and the children of the eldest. This could mean that the master is a son of Osric. Given that Eric's kingship was dodgy it seems that much of what he has been saying were clever lies, especially the bit about Samrel being ready to aid them when the time comes to move. Unfortunately it is far too plausible for comfort.

11-Oct-92 Michel and I rest while Calvin goes to retrieve his weapons and find some clothes. When he returns he feels a strange trump-like sensation but no actual contact. Before he gets around to waking us the sound of gunfire does it for him. There are dozens of cybered up white dudes with plasma rifles out there blowing holes in the house. Since all of my gear is gone I shape pathfinder into a ring and set him to shifting against the hi tech then release the sun spear spell. Unfortunately for me this attracts fire and I take a hit to the arm which knocks me halfway across the room. It is probably a good thing that I am far too busy staying alive to worry about trivial things like pain and blood loss. Sliding sideways I open the gate, more problems as the damn thing nearly burns my hands off until i fashion a handle to keep me a bit further away from the business end. Michel trumps out to save his bacon and Lokerai is busily ripping up floorboards to find somewhere to escape to. The plasma rifles continue to blow holes in the walls and although I am sweeping the ground and turning it to ash they don't seem to be worried. Suddenly the wall on my right bursts in and three tigers begin to advance on me. Nailing them would be easy if the sun spear would turn a little more easily. Funny how little things like inertia, margins of error and radiation don't show up when you're testing, only when your butt is on the line. Between Lokerai who is sweeping about with floorboards an I manage to keep the cats at bay, but then the roof falls in. I use the gate as a shield above my head to avoid getting crushed but Luke is buried nearby and is probably a trifle squished at the moment. I quickly release an armour spell so that the molten rock will not cook me then begin to cut my way out. I get three trump contacts and accept the third. It is Michel and Lokerai, they offer a quick exit but I haven't finished killing these cat bastards yet so I say good-bye. I must have underestimated the power of their plasma weapons si nce one of the little fuckers shoots me in the back through a couple of yards of solid rubble. I leave my hole and dodge around the rubble while sweeping the area and trying to shift so their weapons won't work. There must be someone using pattern to help them as my shifting has had no effect and Michel said someone was interfering with his trump. They are starting to close in and more cats are approaching from around the rubble. I give it another 2 seconds before porting out to my pre-set escape hole - a 1970's earth like place - and immediately drop pathfinder who obligingly burns a hole in the carpet, floor and several yards of soil. Sorry about that old dude. I run a cold bath to soothe my burns and bandage the hole in my arm, then drag the phone over and sit in the bath while I wait for the doctor to arrive. The doc is baffled by the wounds, he wants to get me to hospital and perform some tests but I insist on some quick field surgery telling him that he doesn't want my enemies to come looking for me in his home town. When he has left I retrieve pathfinder and port to Amber to warn them about the attack. I send the nearest steward running for Random and a doctor. Benedict is the first on the scene and he is stunned by the amount of radiation damage that I have taken. It must have conducted through pathfinder who is still highly radioactive. The rest of the attendant elders arrive but before I can tell them much more than that we were attacked by cybered white dudes with plasma rifles and that the others may be in need of help they zonk me out with a large syringe full of some very potent chemicals. I come to about 3 days later, not much recovered and mostly blind but still alive. Before I use that spell again I must perfect the tolerances and get my ranges right. There is a full turnout for the debriefing. Michel was offered the throne, which he of course refused, or a quick death if the rest of us assisted. When I ask about our rescue by his beast he doesn't look pleased but tells that when we were searched it wrapped around the leg of one of the giants and got a lift when they trumped us to another shadow. Lokerai awoke on the rack. They tried to convince him that Osric is the rightful ruler. His recalcitrance earned him another inch or two of height. Calvin's experience was similar to mine, but emphasising him as rightful heir to king Eric. I mention the other 7 minor children that they said were helping them and their denial of holding Drake or Calvin's son. I also suggest that we should try to find the blood bird and try Drake's trump again. Their accusations against Samrel are also discussed and generally considered to be bollocks. They plan to shift us to a fast high tech shadow to get us back on our feet. Benedict assures us that his agents will be sufficient to keep us alive. AN unspecified time later I awake in a flotation tank so that they may test my recovery. My vision is still a bit fuzzy but should return to normal in a while so I don't seriously consider the cyber replacements that they offer. After a few more hours of regen they decant me from the tank and I get to sleep in a more normal fashion. When I finally regain my senses I am greeted by the amusing sight of a rather pisses off looking Calvin bemoaning his shiny pate. It seems that the regen causes temporary hair loss. I don't mind being bald, it will remind me not to be so careless in future, but Calvin's vanity soon had him looking for a wig. Michel arrives with some very stylish red coveralls, which improves Cal's mood further, and returns a decontaminated pathfinder. We discuss where to go next. Michel has a creature from the giant's castle trapped in one of his trump. We beam down to a desolate part of the planet and I do an anti magic screen so that we can avoid mass destruction and stop it from teleporting away as soon as it is released. Michel gives Cal a blaster and warns him not to look at the trapped trump. Cal wants to know what the trump depicts but eventually gets the idea that the picture is unimportant since he would be dead lo ng before he got to see it anyway. We take up positions to get the creature when Michel releases it but to our disappointment it is just a man. Pretty fast though. from a position of total surprise he manages to evade all of our prepared attacks except for a solid hit to the back of the head from Cal which he hardly notices. I lash with my cord but he rolls away into the grasp of Lokerai. They engage in psychic combat, Lokerai must have lost because he starts to move in the way of my blows, taking several shattered ribs for his trouble. He rises and Krolaks me as I prepare for another strike. Cal's shot hits him in the arm however. He grabs Lokerai and they roll around on the ground together so we cannot get a clear shot. Then they split and run away, both looking like Luke. Fastest bit of shape shifting that I've ever seen, can't have taken him more than 5 seconds. I cut the legs off the one on the right and smack him in the head until he stops moving while Cal blows the other one's legs off. He must be getting a trifle worried, or maybe it is just Cal's psycho bloodlust, because he shoots Lokerai in the head, exposing a mass of pulsating brain, as he tries to crawl away then blows the arm off of my captive as he begins to shift back to his normal shape. I step in his line of fire and tell him to stop but the asshole continues to blast the severed limbs as they wriggle on the ground. This boy is loopy. If he continues to be such a wanker I'm going to have to kill him myself. It is bad form to kill family but the others would probably applaud. Even when I tell him to stop Lokerai from bleeding to death he takes his time to blast a few more fragments before helping. I stand guard over the captive while Michel trumps Fiona, we need someone tough to control this dude since he has already shown that he can turn Lokerai to mush. Fiona arrives and actually loses her composure for a moment when she sees what has happened to Lokerai. If my sorcery screen had not been up Cal would probably be charred ash by now. I drop th e barrier so she can staunch Luke's wounds and pump him full of spells. I warn her about the strength of the captive so she zonks it before turning to Luke as he comes round. The dude used a power word to help break through and control him. He must have a pretty impressive psyche to have nailed Luke so fast and I have never seen anyone shift so fast, he must have been practising Luke's form for years. Michel retrieves his trump and contacts the station, five to beam up. Fiona interrogates Luke while the doctors prepare him for the regen tank then we head off to question the prisoner. A substantial amount of abuse is levelled at Cal by the three of us with Fiona taking the lead. I get the feeling that Cal's life wont be worth living if she ever gets a free hand. Fiona begins the interrogation as she means to go on - in a rather direct and brutal fashion. Calvin should be taking careful note and preparing his defences. Our prisoner is Cypronus Orelius, son of Carolinus, master of the rift, third in line for the throne of Darus, he is the same sorcerer that blasted Cal at the castle of the stone giants. The master is known to them as Abel (Caine and Abel?), a son of Amber and his numbers are legion. Mentor is Tarus, son of Daeglin, now ruler of the twelfth quarter. He doesn't know who killed Kal or who kidnapped Drake, but says that Calvin's son is known as Karek and has grown to manhood, he is with Abel. Cypronus works for the Master??? and the white cats work for Tarus. There is a third power hidden in shadow who is helping (or pulling the strings of) Tarus and the Master. The Master has his troops hidden in the desert when none may find them save by the assistance of the Master. The castle where we were held prisoner is a primal shadow of the Master??? Tarus. Calvin was bled by Mentor and the blood used for creatures to lead his troops through shadow. He doesn't know how they find us so quickly in shadow. Samrel was recruited by the Master and Akeem, who is just a shadow dweeb but probably dangerous none the less . Karek and our gear is probably in the 12th quarter. I am reviewing his story trying to find inconsistencies that will provide me with a second round of questions when Brand walks in dressed as a doctor. He uses a cardiac arrest spell on Calvin then shoots an energy weapon at our captive. I dive and roll to the attack, managing a nick to his shin as he dodges aside and releases an anti magic spell which fizzles Fiona's counter attack. My second cut passes through empty air as he trumps out. His speed was remarkable, the trump and spells must have been prepares in advance for him to work them so swiftly, but like all other clues this one is suspect because it is so obvious.

18-Oct-92 There is no blood on my blade from the cut that I gave him so either his armour, of which I saw none, was stronger than pathfinder or his body was that of a shifter and shed no blood. Either way we have nothing to prove whether it was Brand or not. Fiona says the magic and aura matched but that is not conclusive given that we have been fooled over trump before, our enemies can shift like the sands. The captive turned crystalline when the blaster bolt hit him. I ask Fiona how they could have found us and discuss the possibility that the captive was trumped, but in that case why didn't they just pull him out? I don't thick it was really Brand, but I've been wrong before. I voice my suspicions about Bleys and advise that Amber take action against the twelfth quarter and Cal seek the blood bird while Michel and I go looking for Drake. I give Cal my trump so that he can contact us and am just about to put some questions to Fiona when she leaves abruptly. When I search for her later I find that she has left the station. I set an engineer to making another sun spear gun for me, this time with more accurate parameters and a significant amount of insulation and radiation shielding. Then I prepare some spells and try to trump Fiona. Michel is off somewhere doing his own thing. I get a tech to check out the prisoner, but none of their instruments can touch him so I spend a while checking the video tape. His crystallisation was almost instant and he has not moved a fraction since then. I think that he has shifted to one of his primal forms to protect him from the ray and is now stuck there until he recovers. Whatever he has changed into it is mighty hard, even pathfinder cannot scratch the surface. I try to call Fiona again, then several of the others but get no replies so I call Michel to see if trump is working normally here or if someone is blocking. I want to send the captive back to Amber because it is not safe to leave him here. A while later Michel tells me that there is a major attack on Amber, which is probably why I was not getting any response. He suggests I send the body to Cal's wife, but she may be allied with the enemy. Cal trumps me, he is back in the land of Michel's giants and wants a rad suit and Geiger counter so I call him back in a while to send him the gear, suggesting that it should work there, especially if he uses a bit of pattern. After some searching he finds the dead bird among the rubble. The techs finally finish my gun and Michel has done trump of the captive and the two shadows with the castle of the stone giants. I go through the family trump again trying to fins someone who will take rock-man off my hands. Finally I get Gerard and pass the package through. We bid Gerard and Samrel good-bye then trump to where our travels were last interrupted then I start to shift us toward chaos. I see some humans in the distance, heading our way, then get a trump from Cal and bring him through. The people flee in terror. He got a trump from his son but the stupid gormless idiotic fuckhead shot him with a blaster before he could speak. The fool! I should have killed him long ago. Now any chance of reconciliation between father and son is gone. A possible ally of great value, privy to the plans of our enemies, has been set firmly against us by a foolish and unthinking (but totally in character) action. I feel like screaming. I have barely finished berating him when a group of dudes, mounted and dressed like the three musketeers, come riding towards us at speed. They turn out to be the kings witch finders and accuse us of being witches. They must have been near at hand for the peasants to have reached them so swiftly. One of them begins to roll his eyes and do some mumbo jumbo which looks like the shadow of a spell. I am prepared to take action in case his magic is real but any action on my part is forestalled as Cal swiftly slays them all with throwing daggers. Michel touches my arm and speaks mentally, he thinks that Cal is acting even more bloodthirsty than usual, he may be another impostor or men tally coerced. I will prepare a spell to detect if he is a shape shifter to test him later. We begin to shift again and travel for 4 hours, changing mounts occasionally. When we stop to rest one of the bird-lizard mounts eats a chunk out of Cal's horse. I tell him to kill it, the rest of the creatures chow down on the corpse. Riding on the sky begins to whiten then darkens to brown until our path ends at a bridge guarded by a fully armoured knight. He asks who we are and what we seek. I say we seek Drake and Mandor. We wait 15 mins before he asks our names - Harlequin, Michel de Angelo and Carlos. Another 10 minutes of silence passes before he motions us to the side of the road then dismounts and draws a circle in the middle of the bridge with his blade to enchant a barrier. He asks of the 12th quarter and Cypronus Orelius, who he demands as price for our passage. I stand aside and trump Gerard to retrieve the crystal dude which I drag forward to give to the knight. When I ask about the crystal he suggests that I come and study in chaos, when I am ready I should go to the sixth quarter and ask for him, Tarbek. They are not friends of the 12th and he is happy to give us a description so we may travel there more easily. I lead my mount through the circle which gates us deeper into chaos. The flux of shadow disturbs me, it will make sorcery very difficult. Suddenly a shadow storm erupts behind us and we flee for our lives. After much effort and some shifting on my part we begin to make ground on it, passing through daisies and then a swarm of giant roaches. Calvin picks up the king roach and bears him to safety. My efforts with shadow appear to be safe but I suspect it was Cal using Pattern which caused the storm. The roach wants to be put down but Cal ignores him. He complies a while later which is probably fortunate (for him anyway) as the roach seemed to be doing something with magic or the Logrus. Further down the road a short thing in a shawl approaches. It is a Lert and wants to buy a mount with some shiny blu e stones. When we accept she drags the mount away and her fellows appear out of the zebra grass to devour it. We stop to rest at a mill occupied by a beautiful woman. Michel calls Mandor, he says the crystals are Lert shit. Mandor is of the royal family rather than a lord of a quarter. He also says that shadow storms are often set off by strong use of the pattern. The only way he knows to easily use magic in chaos is to have Logrus so you are attuned to the changes. He does not seem pleased that we used his name to gain entry, but warns us to be careful of the shadows in chaos and gives us directions to the 12th. They seem to match those given earlier. I try my spell on Cal while he sleeps. It is really him but he still may be under a compulsion or just totally nuts. We rest and I wake while it is still dark. Michel kicks Cal awake, then has a good laugh. the Chaos food has turned him dark blue. He looks really punk now. Michel and I eat a bit to get a blue tinge, that way we don't look to human. When Michel sends his beast to investigate there is no one in the mill, it is not even fitted for habitation. The mounts are torpid from the cold but we check the saddlebags for unwanted visitors then ride on quickly, not wanting to stay here any longer. Michel and I quietly discuss Cal's son, what skills he is likely to have. Being of Amber blood he probably survived the blaster bolt, especially if he has learnt to shift. I ask Cal to stabilise and monitor the shadow. Immediately another storm rips open the sky as I curse Calvin's lack of subtlety and flee for my life. Cal streaks by lashing blood from his mount then slowly fades as our shadows diverge. 5 minutes later we see him behind us as we slow to let him catch up. He appears drunk as he rips off his armour and pulls a squashed slug like thing, blue with red spots, from his back. He continues to act strangely, dancing on his sword then slaying his mount and finally juggling daggers and looking completely psycho. Michel steps close enough to imprison him in a trump but even this small use of power opens yet another rift in shadow. We fuck off to avoid destruction for the third time and later slow to discuss what to do with Cal. I try to find his Armour but only manage a substandard set. Michel releases Cal and I zonk him out before examining his mind for any compulsions, but he is too freaked out for me to examine him. A momentary exertion shuts him down so that he won't disturb us for a while and a few loops of rope ensure that he will remain in the saddle while we flee yet another mini rift caused by his release from trump. Our trail passes through a land of yellow bunnies and then into a desert where our way is barred by a river of fire. the only bridge is guarded by a beautiful woman, naked with tiny bat wings. She halts us and demands our papers. It is a crime for such a beauty to act the petty bureaucrat. She proposes a trade - 3 pints of blood for passage across the bridge. Succubi have a taste for human blood it would seem. After discussion with Michel we offer her 2 pints of Calvin's blood which despite the taint of his madness has an acceptable flavour. Another of out mounts completes the deal and we ride on. A few hours later we rest in a cave. I try a detox spell on Cal then give him food and drink before resting for the night. By morning he should be fine, what with the spell and his Amber constitution. In the morning I check out Calvin, he seems to have recovered from his hallucinations and I can find no trace of compulsion in his mind so I release the block and allow him to return from the darkness. We tell him of the madness and warn him against using pattern. Michel and I wait a good distance away while he shifts to find his armour. This time there are no storms, perhaps the 6th quarter is especially sensitive to power. We follow him and end up in an asparagus forest where a little brown man with massive ears hassles us about coming to steal his crops. I get sick of arguing and ride on only to be confronted by a giant wielding a tree sized asparagus as a club. He is looking for contraband which serves as a handy excuse for stealing anything that he can eat. I am getting highly sick of having every person (or thing) that we meet try to interfere with us. Things like this have a tendency to try my good nature. If we weren't in such a dangerous place I would be tempted to treat some of them with similar courtesy. When the giant has finished poking around we travel on with Cal shifting and I keeping watch. Before long the ground starts to undulate then the hills turn blue and the sky umber. Our surroundings show we have arrived in the twelfth quarter.

25-Oct-92 We look down into the valley from the ridge line. It looks like an abandoned marshalling ground. There are about 2000 troops left out of an estimated 300,000. There is a boundary river between this quarter and the next. It is of course heavily guarded, but there appears to be a flip-side to this plane, just visible through the chasm. We are approached by a talking snail - Fwillip - who offers to guide us to the other side for the price of a few mounts. This is probably the best offer that we'll get all day, but Calvin refuses and manages to offend fwillip. A wolverine thing takes the mounts as fwillip leads us off into a tunnel heading for flip-side. We tell Cal that we will call him later. It takes a while to catch a suitable filmy but finally we gain the other side. While Michel and I are discussing tactics and deciding whether to call Cal yet I get a trump from Selina. She got chased by some cats while trying to back track them. The three of us head on after failing to reach Calvin via trump. Three hours later we find a return fissure and begin to creep up it, with a somewhat disgruntled Calvin in tow, as Michel had to be a bit heavy handed in asking him to join us. I hear a faint noise at the other end, so with gesture and sign language we arrange to ambush the two pale guys that are on guard. There is a commotion as Pookie wraps up one of the enemy and the rest of us charge to the attack. A few blows later and Cal and I have dispatched it, the other lies entangled on the ground. It either can not or will not understand our instructions so dies as Pookie tries to crush it back to a humanoid form. No prisoners. We hide the evidence then begin to scout deeper into the quarter, dodging patrols. From the top of the foot hills of a mountain range we see the continuation of the marshalling yards. My estimate is increased to 500,000. We continue to follow the curve of the mountains, having to freeze or take cover as airborne patrols sweep overhead. Six hours later the spires of a castle begin to com e into view. As we approach ever more cautiously a tiger leaps from the underbrush. I duck the beast but Calvin crashes into me sending us both sprawling. I push him off, rolling to my feet and drawing my sword. A cut down the side than another to the hind legs as it makes an attack at Calvin, who easily dispatches the beast as it turns to flee. This foe proved little trouble but the conflict was seen. A harpy swoops down then flaps away gaining height for a second pass. Cal and I both shoot, I retrieve my arrow and shoot again as Pookie takes bird form and distracts it long enough for my arrow to find its mark. The harpy plummets to the ground, leaving a foul smelling smear on impact. I get Cal to remove his bolt so as not to leave any evidence. We hurry away from the scene in case any more creatures come to investigate, finding a high vantage from which to observe the castle. Except for the ten thousand troops encamped nearby the castle looks like something out of a Disney film. Michel says that Pookie could fly us there one at a time but I ask for a recon flight, with the intention of porting us there. Michel checks his trump for activity. Pookie returns, there are lots of cats, rock giants and armoured soldiers in the castle, the chapel is distinctly weird. We plan to move in after dark. In the mean time I check out the shadow and try a spell. This sets off some kind of alarm so I do a quick scan with the binoculars I conjured then dissolve the spell. I see Kasreyn run out of the castle as dudes begin to mount up on flying carpets. We high tail it up the ridge as the alarm pulse stays after the spell is dissolved. Several large war carpets, eight men and ballistae, fly toward us. Cal takes off on the glider while Michel trumps his dragon and I take up position behind a large rock with my bow. The dragon accounts for quite a few of the enemy, Cal works at picking off the drivers and I finish off any who fall below my level. Cal and Pookie lose their dogfight to a carpet mounted ballistae, so I get nasty and sh oot the drivers up through the bottom of the carpet, then yank Calvin out via trump so that he doesn't end up as a pretty design at the base of the mountain. Eventually we account for them all and Michel sends the dragon home. I move to the other side of the ridge and try Drake's trump. The contact is immediate, but he fights me. he appears to be totally insane and I cannot get anything useful from him. I am just about to go through and retrieve him when something assaults me mightily through the trump. I hold a defence and release a power word and prepare a spell, then Michel comes to my aid. With the addition of Selina we manage to break the contact. The method of attack is familiar. it was Kasreyn and the method he used is the same that assaulted Michel at the Pattern. We flee the area in case he send out more carpets. We theorise that he may be using the missing children as batteries to fuel his sorcery. They are probably controlled by the drug that has driven Drake insane. We rest in a cave till dark, then creep back toward the castle as we plan how to gain entry. The consensus is to glide in using Pookie, but to use trump if there is any trouble so that none of us will be stranded. I fly in first, then Calvin, Selina and finally Michel. The whole delivery process takes almost an hour. The magic from the chapel is awesomely strong. Only a major absorption screen would have any chance against it. Calvin is lowered head first down the side of the building to look in through an open window. It is dark so he creeps inside, after fumbling around in the dark I tell him to black the window and search the place properly. He sends up some papers and a diary written in a chaos script, and finds a strange crack in the wall behind a dressing table. On a table are 12 coins with the images of the elder Amberites, except Fiona. Michel and I work at the Logrus seal with our blades and eventually overcome the binding. Inside is a small lit compartment containing a knife, a deck of trump (Cal's old set, with his card blaster burned). We put the stuff back and examine the safe that was behind a painting of Karek in his chaos form. The safe opens easily enough despite a minor panic as we thought that the ticking was a booby trap. Inside is a blowpipe, some fly shaped darts and bottles of what is probably poison. Cal takes the stuff and leaves a note for his son then we climb back up to the top. Some bastard lets off a nuke. Cal calmly gets out his rad suit as I stumble around blindly. Just my luck to be looking straight at the blast. Now seems a good time to attack, while their attention is elsewhere. We advance across the roof towards the chapel as the power output increases sharply and the end of the chapel is blown off and hundreds of cyber dudes in armour rush out. Pookie does a quick recon as Michel sends his dragon into the fray. We leap down to the broken edge of the chapel and advance, ready to fire. There are two pillars sheathed in lightning flanking a bubbling pool of blood. My arrow glances off his shield, even the absorption spell only temporarily reduces the power, then he reaches out with a tendril of pattern power and attacks me psychically. I try a neural disrupt, naming him Kasreyn, but it has little effect so I set up a bodily defence spell to mitigate the worst of his assault. His eyes erupt lightning as I dodge toward him with my sword drawn, getting only slightly singed by the bolt. Behind me I hear the crash of a giant shark landing on Tarus and Cal, but cannot spare the time to look as I hurriedly enchant an armour spell and zig-zag forward. He does another spell and attacks psychically again, with this energy behind him there is no way that I can win, but his concentration is broken by Pookie savaging him from behind. I gain a moments respite as he sheathes in lightning and teleports to the left. I follow dodging his bolts and closing to give him a lesson in fencing. His will slows my movement to a crawl as I feel him drawing in energy from the pool, then Selina hurls a spell, calling him Abel, he falters and I lunge forward, impaling him through the chest. He explodes from the combined force of the energy he has absorbed and the impact of Julian's plasma bolt from behind. Pity that my hand was in the way as I am blasted back across the room, sans hand. Julian arrives with his hell hounds, ostensibly to complete the mop up operation but I think that his main reason is to make sure that the enemy are thoroughly dead. He shoots a helpless Tarus and sets the hounds to consume the remains so that there is no chance of his ever talking. Pity, because they did seem to know each other quite well. There are five people in chairs along one wall, they have tubes and wiring connecting them to the pool of blood. We free them after I fix my arm and do a quick healing spell on Calvin to stop him bleeding all over the floor. I talk to Selina, Abel was her brother, he disappeared about 20 years ago, probably about when he first started to appear in Arabia. Julian sets up a nuke, probably to make sure that all the evidence is destroyed. Everybody begins to run like hell, except for Cal, who goes to his sons room to get some more of his personal effects. I trump him out at the last moment the we all take the gate back to Arden. Selina ports away, she obviously has no intention of staying in Julian's sphere of influence. Julian says that he met Tarus during the Patternfall war, and even then he was knowledgeable about Amber. Flora waits to trump the others to Amber but I want to stay and find out how Drake is. Julian insists that Drake is his son, it makes sense but with Amberites who can tell. Julian is insistent that I keep quiet about Drake and the other captives so I leave with the others. We meet with Random, Benedict, Fiona and the others, they of course want to hear about everything, as usual. They are not happy with the bio-cyber dudes. People found visiting that particular shadow will most likely receive a sharp slap on the wrist. Fiona is also interested in analysing the stuff that Calvin found. I fill in a few gaps in the stor y and reluctantly show Random my sword when he asks. Michel adds some details, skipping around any details relating to Pookie, which Benedict fills by whispering in Random's ear. Then Cal slips up in a big way by mentioning Drake, and ploughs ahead even when I try to gloss it over. The possibility does exist that he did it on purpose, and damn the consequences when Julian finds out. Later in the hospital both Michel and Calvin freak out. Somehow they have both been poisoned. Possibly in the fight against Tarus. Fiona zaps Michel and I freeze Calvin as it is the only suitable spell that I have left. Fiona does some pattern conjuration to prepare an antidote for Michel then goes away to analyse the poison properly. I fill in time by doing a detox spell on Cal, which holds him until Fi returns with a full anti-toxin 45 minutes later. Fi forgets to jab Cal before I release my spell (such a pity about Lokerai's injuries wasn't it?), so he gets a couple of bruises and broken fingers as I hold him down for Fi to jab him in the neck. The next morning Julian shows up and invites us to a party at his place after the official celebrations. Benedict was most impressed with the success of Julian's attack, although I think that he is more than a bit suspicious. I send my condolences to Selina and thank Michel and Pookie for their help, god I'm glad this is over. A couple of days later we have the main celebration. The three of us are in the ante-chamber with Julian awaiting, out official entrance, when he gets a trump call, he goes to the door to talk with someone. We eavesdrop as a matter of course. Bleys is there and he has Cypronus Orelius, and probably a good deal of circumstantial evidence besides. He seems in high humour as he threatens to disclose Julian's little plots to the King. He taunts Julian and slaps him, trying to goad him into drawing his blade, by all accounts Bleys is the finer swordsman. I get the impression that Bleys would just love Julian to give him an excuse to finish the matter here and now. They noti ce us listening, the others pull back into the room but I open the door and greet my uncle Bleys, who says to give him a call if Julian causes us any trouble then trumps out. There are a few tense moments as Julian tries to swear us to secrecy, Calvin is antagonistic as usual. We all march into the grand hall to receive our commendations from the King and the assembled nobility, Julian of course heads the honours list. Very ironic, at least I have not totally lost my sense of humour, despite having to wave and shake left handed. Despite all the celebration I don't feel like we have won anything at all. A while later I get a cryptic message to meet in the hall in three days time. I arrive at the appointed time and get escorted to the pattern room by a steward. G�rard is in attendance for Samrel's attempt to walk the pattern. I stand near the edge as I will my brother to succeed. It looks like he will never make it, the struggle seems to take forever, but finally, exhausted and drenched in sweat he reaches the centre, and with a wave bids us good-bye. Now I finally have something worthy of a celebration.

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