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Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 12:03:17 -0500
Dear Paula,
Humdinger of a game last night . . . where to begin?
Okay, here's a quick summary. In an attempt to lure the fake Benedict
(now in Chaos) back to a trap in Amber, Eric has ordered Caine and Corwin
to assault the Castle. Caine attacks the Castle by sea, and Corwin has
captured the city and is also bombarding the Castle using zepplins. (Since
Nagataka rewrote the Pattern, technology works in Amber!)
My character, Dairmaid (a.k.a. Willis) was hanging out in Corwin's camp.
As a Rebman, he doesn't know much about boats, other than how to put holes
in them, so he was more useful to Corwin than Caine, even though he's Caine's
squire. Anyway, this really ancient, rickety, reeking old man had showed up
to enlist. Well, even though he was dressed in rags, he'd been riding a
pretty nice horse, and reeking, ancient old men don't just wander into a
game unless they're somebody else in disguise, so Willis kept a sharp eye
on him. Finally he got tired of being followed around, so he said, "How
are things in Rebma, Ennis?"
Now, this is a whole other story. During the Amberite occupation of Rebma,
Dairmaid and Nerene hid out in the Verdant Circle, which was under tight
control by Rebma (and thereby Amber). Nerene fell in with a bunch of
revolutionaries, because what else would an exiled princess with time on
her hands do? Anyway, one of these guys was a mysterious character named
General Hugh, who was supposed to have died in the Nailati war, a long
time ago. But there he was. Dairmaid (who was calling himself Ennis at
the time) observed several inconsistencies in Hugh's behavior, and followed
him one night, and discovered he was none other than Gerard, who was pushing
some weird socio-political-metaphysical theory that it was unhealthy for
any state to have too much power, and was seeking to relieve Amber of some
of its surplus. Wacky, huh? Well, when Gerard was confronted, he admitted
what was going on, but Ennis/Dairmaid/Willis never admitted to being
a shapeshifter. I thought the old man might be Gerard, but I figured I'd
be the one who sounded all clever and coy when I revealed my knowledge.
Those Elders. They're cagey.
He was all evasive and wouldn't outright admit to being the REAL Gerard. All
I could nail him down on was that he'd walked the Pattern. ("Are you
a son of Oberon?" I asked. "Now, that's a hairy subject." "How so?"
"Oberon's a pretty hairy guy.") I decided that whether he was an imposter or
just playing games with me he was still a functional facsimile of Gerard, and
I'd grant him the trust and respect due to an elder Amberite. Hey. Stop
snickering.
For a while, Will (who plays Maximillian, a demon who's off in Chaos and
has his own Plot that, I confess, I didn't play much attention to) had
me convinced that the old man was Oberon, not Gerard. But you'll see that
his theory, which seemed almost rock solid in light of our conversation,
didn't play out.
Princess Dori (a PC, descended from Osric), bored with her relief efforts
in the Golden Circle, was trying to sail back to Amber, but Caine's blockade
stopped her. She jumped ship and tried to swim for shore, but they scooped
her up in a net. Then things got nasty. They wouldn't let her go, and
she used conjuration to nail the ship's captain's hands to the rail. She
told him to trumped Caine and demanded that he instruct the captain to let
her do whatever she wanted. Well, Caine trumped the captain, who admitted
that yes, Her Highness had nailed his hands to his ship. The captain got his
instructions from Caine, nodded, and ordered his first mate to knock Dori
unconscious, which he did. Lucky for him, he moved fast enough that she
didn't have a chance to conjure a spike through his head. I wouldn't call
Caine "protective" of his men . . . just possessive.
The siege was pretty boring to the Man in the Trenches (i.e. Lazarus (a PC,
Brand's son) and Willis) so we started goofing around with Brand's body.
(Last session, Brand trumped to Lazarus from a rather nasty-seeming place very
far away, babbling about all the voices in his head and getting rather
worked up until they put him under.) The medicos were worried about using up
all the sedatives on Brand -- what if there were any wounded? Willis
suggested a large rock (talk about heavy sedation) but then offered to
shapeshift Brand a tranquilizer gland. I was pretty proud of the idea -- it'd
keep a continuous stream of sleepy-juice in his system, and I'd put it close
to the skin so if they wanted to revive him and I wasn't around, they could
just cut it out. But implementation was problematic -- it's kind of crowded in
Brand's noggin right now. Lazarus resorted to acupuncture, instead.
It was about then that all heck broke loose. Morgan, Llewella, and Eric,
who were seeing to the Castle's defense, discovered that there was a Trump
barrier around the Castle, and that they were somehow physically barred from
leaving. Now, Morgan had an inkling that things were going sour last
gaming session. He's attuned to the Jewel of Tirna N'goth, which lets him
look into the future. Well, none of the futures he could look into included
the fake Benedict showing up, and some of the futures where blocked -- he
couldn't see them. Well, who pops to mind when we encounter blocked doors,
blocked memories, or blocked Trumps? Our favorite block-head grandpa, Oberon!
The Big Man himself showed up, told Eric in no uncertain terms that he was a
bumbling fool, took the Jewel, and chucked him into a corner. Morgan asked
Oberon if he was interested in sharing his plans with the rest of us, and
Oberon, of course, declined, and strode off into the Castle. Eric picked
himself up, shook himself, and did what any self-respecting son would do --
charged after the old man with his sword drawn. Morgan and Llewella debated
what to do as the Castle began shaking again. Caine's bombardment had ceased,
but Oberon and Eric were picking up where he'd left off. Llewella suggested
that they subdue Eric somehow, thereby preventing Oberon from killing him
outright, AND scoring some points with Dear Old Dad, but Morgan was more for
doing Oberon in.
Back in Corwin's camp, Willis was watching Lazarus convert Brand into a
pincushion. Corwin asked Willis to come speak to him, and they had a private
pow-wow in Corwin's tent. Corwin intimated that he couldn't reach Eric or
Caine. Willis trumped Buddy, the Big Red Bird (tm), who he'd left on Caine's
aircraft carrier. Anyway, Willis told Buddy to go find Caine, expecting that
he was somewhere on the ship. But Buddy took off and started shifting shadow.
(Yes, Buddy can shift shadow. Buddy is a big, scary bird.)
Then weird stuff started happening. Corwin drew Greyswandir and told Willis
to call Buddy back. Willis demanded to know why and Corwin snapped that he
didn't have time to explain. My first thought was to recall Buddy by bringing
him through the Trump. Buddy made a mess of Bleys one time, before Willis
called him off. Let's see how Corwin deals with a tentful of very protective
bird. But Buddy was over the ocean with nowhere to land, and I wasn't sure
how the mechanics would work out. So Willis told Buddy to come to him and cut
the contact. Corwin asked Willis how his shapeshifting was doing (his ability
had been temporarily impaired) and Willis grudgingly admitted it was almost
back to normal, eyeing that Pattern sword and thinking of past paranoia about
Chaos shapeshifters infiltrating Amber. "Good," Corwin said, and shouted for
guards. Again, Willis demanded to know what was going on, and again Corwin
said he didn't have time to explain. When the guards arrived, he told them,
"Take this man into custody. He made an attempt on my life."
According to John (who plays Morgan) the look in my/Willis's eye said, "Not
yet, but one will be forthcoming." Corwin's statement struck at Dairmaid's
professional pride. Dairmaid does not make *attempts*. He makes corpses.
But Willis allowed the guards to take him to the "stockade," which consisted
of a tree. His wrists were tied together and he was hung from one of the
branches, along with the deserters and thieves.
He dangled for a little bit before deciding that Corwin couldn't have been
serious about confining a shapeshifter this way. So he shapeshifted out of the
ropes and hit the ground running, losing the guards in the forest. He trumped
to Buddy, who was a little ways out in shadow, and then tried to trump Caine
and Eric. Neither worked. Then he trumped Gerard. Well, Gerard didn't have
any idea what was going on either, except that Corwin had announced that
he would take the Castle in the morning. (As Eric said during the assault,
"I can't fault my brothers for enthusiasm.") So Willis and Buddy went after
Caine. They found him lying face down in a pool of his own blood in the
middle of Shadow. For the SECOND time, Willis patched him back up and got
him medical attention (but this time he knows better than to expect gratitude.)
Unfortunately, the closest hospital was one of Princess Dori's.
Britt
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