A Horse Or 10

    The following is the campaign log for the tenth session of my current Amber Diceless RPG campaign, entitled A Horse Of Another Timbre. One of my players keeps a log of the scenes, and another maintains a quote list.  As usual, I have combined them with a few extra notes of my own after the fact.  I post them here several months after, which allows me to add in a few little clarifications without worrying too much about spoiling future plotlines for my players.

You can also Start from Session #1 or just pick up at Session #9.

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The PCs are:

• Dalziel, son of Bleys of Amber. A scientist who has been in Amber for several months.
  
• Maarit, daughter of Sand. An orphan with a magic pendulum.
• Spinturnix, (aka Nix), son of Julian. Grew up in Forest Arden.
  
• Medore, nonbinary offspring orphan of Dierdre
  
• David Weyreth is a retired officer from the militaries of Amber.
  
• Abn Haram, the human-shaped son of Lady Nykae of Chaos, and the long-dead Prince Osric of Amber 
  

Most of the NPCs are from the novels, such as Prince Caine, who's currently not getting along with King Random.   In this session, I also put the Spotted Men of Gahmery on screen for a scene, and they are a classic Amber deep cut that I don't think I'd ever used in 6 previous Amber campaigns.

There's a few new NPCs as well, such as Jinna the Scullion, a servant who keeps showing up at the peripheries of shenanigans in the castle. And then there's this mysterious black unicorn wandering about.

Setting the Scene: When last we saw our heroes, Dalz, Medore and Maarit where hiding a black unicorn in the castle. Nix and David were on the beach with Caine, and about to fight a bunch of werewolves that used to work for the deceased King Eric. 

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Campaign log: 4 January 2021, turn by turn, Session #10

Scene 1 -  Dalziel, Medore, and Maarit hanging out with a unicorn.
Maarit fetches some snacks and supplies from town as they establish a base of operations. Dalziel, who is injured, reassures Medore that he can help bandage the wounded unicorn, which seems to have been attacked by the other unicorn. They debate the medical efficacy of potential treatments, and potential ways they could escape if attacked. Dalziel asks Medore to pack a "go bag" for him. Medore grudgingly agrees.

Medore pokes through Dalziel's notes. 

Scene 2 - Abn Haram goes on a journey with his Mom
Abn has prepared for the journey, so they're heading off on their sail, but he picks up his turtle before they go. Someone at the dock shouts at Nykae rudely. The shouter, a spotted man of Gahmery, is a different species, acts and looks pretty rude. He thought Nykae would be a cat. Their names are Jeddick and Narvis. They get very rude with Abn Haram, then shove him. So he tells Brute to go after him and Brute knocks the obnoxious one down and hurts him badly. In response, his pals pull out swords and menace Abn Haram.

Haram defends Brute, isn't looking to kill people, but will be non-lethal if it's convenient. The fight begets more fighting and soon there's a brawl going on. Haram badly wounds one of the men, their leader, who refuses to back down in any way, and Haram ends up killing him. The thugs are mostly wounded, in retreat.

They get the boat underway, and Haram pulls one of the thugs aboard. Haram and Nykae discuss whether the thugs were targeted assassins. Haram searches the pockets of the thug and finds a drawing that looks like Nykae in multiple forms, used purple and black to highlight her shape.

Scene 3 - On the beach with some weir and Caine - Nix and David
Caine's men form into a line with him. The wolves charge Caine while others try to flank the line of men to get behind the line. David goes to defend while Nix gathers spears. 

David successfully mangles the hand of one of the wolves.

Nix tries to intervene as a wolf kills one of the guards, the wolf springs at Nix and is impaled on the harpoon, swiping at Nix's face from atop the harpoon. It gauges Nix's arm, then David hacks at its neck and leaves it bloody and spraying blood all over Nix. The wolf backs away, trying to dis-impale itself.

David riles up the other werewolf, then returns to help Nix. Nix rolls up, following the harpoon to keep it between himself and the wolf. He casts BODILY DEFENSE, which causes a bright orange shimmer and gives more magic than would be expected in Amber. David decapitates the wolf menacing Nix, then turns to help the scrum.

Nix tries to call Fiona on the card and she's busy in the middle of something and got only sound. He disconnects. Next he tries to call Eric, who offers escape. Nix takes his hand and alerts David, then sends through the wounded soldier.

David engages the other wolves, teaming up with Caine to incapacitate the wolves using teamwork. After the foot-soldier wier are dispatched, the leader wier says "take me home now" and vanishes by means of Tarot. Caine throws a dagger after him and laments it.

Caine goes about killing and shredding the incapacitated weir. Nix sends the strongly wounded men through to the castle, thanks his uncle. David collects the dropped gauntlet, and he and Nix return to the castle through Random's card .

Scene 2b - Abn Haram 
Reveals to Nykae that the King suspects Caine of treachery. They sail into a storm and things look bad, but Abn Haram speaks with the ship's master and starts using magic to alter the ship for their benefit.

Scene 1b - Maarit in town, Medore in the castle, Dalziel recouperating
Maarit buys supplies, then calls Medore to let them know that things are going a little strange in town, then goes to investigate. She wanders toward a street preacher/ speaker who is identifying vessels in the port: "knife in the dark," the "lancer," the "vile venom." Maarit learns that out in the bay that a bunch of ships have put on signal lights at the same time, looks like an invasion fleet, so Maarit returns to the castle.

Scene 3b - David and Nix on the beach again
Caine warns that he's planning to invade Rebma and invites David to join him. David demurs and goes with Nix back to the castle. They arrive with four men in really bad shape, plus a badly injured Nix, They help with the triage.

A page comes running in to tell Random that there are "236 ships." Nix and Random (and David) discuss Julian's disappearance, and the weir attack. The King takes Nix and David to the kitchen to further discuss the events. David shares the events from the beach, including Caine's potential treachery and Medore's escape. Random worries about Rebma and scowls about Caine. 

They eat the meal Random prepared. (EDIT: David prepared.) In a discussion of the military, David suggests that perhaps the younger generation can help raise armies and defend Amber. Nix offers to bring troops from Oberon's Loupe, and Random agrees that this would be a good thing to do. Random tells David he'd like him to be in charge of parts of Random's military. He also considers recruiting Maarit and Dalziel as army leaders too.

Nix heads to Oberon's Loupe, David takes command of the 2nd regiment. 

The ships off shore look menacing but no invasion happens. They stop near Rebma.

GMs Addendum to Session 10:

Scene 1c - What to do about Rebma and/or the Unicorn - Maarit, Medore, Dalziel, Llewella, Corwin, Black Unicorn

Maarit calls Llewella to check in. Llewella is certain that Queen Psamathe of Rebma must be dead or captured, as its been enough hours that even if the Queen had been fighting the Tritons this whole time there almost has to have been an opportunity to slip off for a moment and call. Llewella will need to raise an army to try to retake the city, but this is difficult because it's outside her skillset and also there's that whole bit she was telling Maarit about the other night where someone keeps putting traps and puzzles in Llewella's way in shadow.

Medore has an army, however. Maarit brokers Medore offering their army to supplement Llewella's. It's a tech-based army but should retrain easily because underwater takes strategies similar to zero-G which they trained in. Medore's terms are basically that Llewella will later have to protect an unspecified 3rd party who helped defend Rebma earlier this night. Being a bit desperate, she agrees. Now, how to get the Army to her? Medore isn't ready to travel right now (as she has a badly injured unicorn), but she offers to give the army to Maarit to lead. All agreed, they hang up.

But how to get Maarit out to the army. They think of 4 ways: 1) walk the pattern 2) sneak through Arden 3) sneak past Caine's fleet 4) trump a family member who's far away.  Maarit writes all 4 on a piece of paper, along with: 5) something else. Her pendulum swings to something else. They try to brainstorm, but can't figure out what the else is with certainty.  A knocking sound happens in the hall way, draws closer, and eventually happens inside the wardrobe in this room. This starts creeping them out, as it might mean there's going to be an attack from the wardrobe.

They call Corwin, who is outside smoking in the dark. They consider going to him, but think better of it as that would be 4) not 5), and the Pendulum insisted 5).

Maarit draws a new diagram. It says A) Corwin  B) Tapestry/Door in the Turquoise Dining Room  C) Knocking. The pendulum swings back and forth between B & C, in rhythm with the previous knocking sound.  They decide maybe that means the knocking and the tapestry/door are the same thing somehow. So Maarit leaves the room, and heads to the Turquoise Dining Room.

Scene 4: What's Behind Door #2? (Maarit and eventually Fiona)

There's two people there, re-hanging the tapestry. They are Jinna the Scullion and Jeeves the Janitor. Jinna has lots of enthusiasm and questions for Maarit about the mysterious door, which only opens to a recess in the wall when Jinna opens it, but a few hours ago (after the unicorn appeared) opened to a mysterious foggy place where Fiona had cautiously gone to explore.

After much trial and error, Maarit is able to figure out how to open the door using her pendant. She calls out to Fiona in the fog, and gets a reply. There's some amusing banter as Maarit tries to ensure that this isn't some doppleganger or fog monster, and then Fiona does the same. Fiona says the place beyond is full of doors and stairs, an "Interstitional Space", a "Liminal Place", and the "Trough of the Sine Wave of Reality", the "Grand Stair" and "The In-Between". She's been seeking it for years, and tonight gained access for the first time. She would like Maarit to help her explore it, but they'll need some twine to mark their way in the maze.

Maarit sends Jinna the Scullion for twine, and she comes back with a bag full of knitting needles, spools and balls of yarn, and a half-finished miniature sweater for a yorkshire terrier. Fiona and Maarit send Jinna and Jeeves away. After some tests to ascertain that they'll be able to open the door again from either side, they both go into the In-Between, tie a good bit of yarn to the lock, and walk a bit from stair to stair until they find one with a good-sized landing at a door, where they can both sit down and talk, so there's no chance that what Fiona tells her will make Maarit fall into the foggy emptiness.

Here's the important bits of what she says:

• This space was probably made by Dworkin, maybe Oberon. Trumps don't seem to work when you're here.
  
• Fiona's been trying to access it for many years. Tonight is like the witching hour, samhain or all hallow's eve. For metaphysical reasons, the doors are easier to open tonight.
  
• She had a vision that she would gain access to the door by having dinner with Maarit in that particular room, so she may have pulled a few strings to make that happen. Or maybe she innocently bumbled into Maarit, and instantly knew on seeing her that she was the woman from her vision, so then suggested dinner in that room. There's definitely a note of manipulativeness, but for a good cause.
• The only person that Fiona knew had access to this place had been Brand, and she'd been trying to access it because.... (drum roll)... she believes that Brand engineered Sand's dissapearance, and used this place to do it. "So we might be able to find your mom!"
• There is a hitch, in that Fiona saw, and fled from, a man on one of the millions of landings. A man with a Tommy Gun who shot at her, but didn't chase her. She'd been keeping intricate records of her walk before that, and got lost because of the attack.
• A man with a gun means the mystery lies that way. Either he's a goon of Brand's, or an unknown enemy of Amber, or just a guard posted at an important door. Whichever way, that's worth a poke.

They move the string from the Amber door to this larger platform's doorknob, so that if anything goes wrong and the enemy is able to backtrack the route it doesn't lead them to Amber, but instead several doors off the mark. And then they head into danger/adventure.

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 The Quotes Of Chaos:

Session 10: 1/4/2021

I have an understanding of medicine but mostly theoretical. I can show you a few things and between the two of us we should be able to keep it stable. -Dal    (Note: the “it” in question was a horse, so everyone assumed it was an intentional pun)

Werewolves are just the fishes of the forest. -Rolfe

You said Caine was with you… (to offscreen: Guards! More Guards) -Random

He arrives a half a second before his entrails do. - Rolfe

No…  nothing has changed, but I, however, must! - Medore


If there are too many dishes, I got to a shadow with fewer dishes! - Andrew


“(question about stats Abn Haram would clearly care about)... I’m asking for Cindy.” -Peter

“I had no idea he was one of the younger ones. No wonder nobody likes him.” - Jeremy, about Julian


(If you're looking for more quotes that used to be in this post, they were incorrectly labeled as being part of this session, but were actually part of Session 11 and have been moved there.)