The following is the campaign log for the eleventh 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.
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The PCs are:
- Dalziel,
son of Bleys of Amber. A scientist.
- 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 the dashing Prince Bleys, and his extremely clever sister Fiona.
There's
a few new NPCs as well, such as Brute, which is a huge and opinionated intelligent pig that works for Abn Haram. There's also this mysterious black unicorn that keeps getting attacked by the standard white unicorn that Amber reveres.
Setting the Scene: When last we saw our heroes, most of them were in Amber. Nix was preparing to leave the castle, David had been given command of a guard unit whose top officers didn't come back from a wedding, Medore and Dalziel were hiding the black unicorn in a bedroom. Elsewhere, Abn Haram sailed the seas of the Golden Circle with his mother and his entourage, and Maarit was exploring a mysterious staircase between worlds with auntie Fiona.
Campaign log: Session #11: 18 January 2021, turn by turn
Scene 1 - Nix trying to go home.
Tasked by Random to go get troops from Oberon's Loupe, Nix begins his journey home, only to encounter barriers. He's unable (or unwilling) to get a silver sword from the Armorer, unable to contact Fiona, and unable to walk the pattern (what with recovering from his Weir attack). He decides to seek out some of his father's men in town, or some merchants heading out, to see what he can learn and see if he can gain passage through Forest Arden to Oberon's Loupe.
Scene 2 - David goes to survey the troops
David surveys the troops and tries to find the "expendables" who might be useful but not that great. He sends some troops on a reconnaissance mission, then heals while his troops are exploring.
Scene 3 - Medore and Dalziel chillin
After Maarit left, the Black Unicorn gets up and looks for comfort. The unicorn wants to leave the room, Medore and Dalziel encourage her not to. Dalziel suggests it might not be a real unicorn. It wanders over by the medical supplies, then over to the bed. Medore and Dalziel start to doubt their plan. Encouraged by the unicorn, Medore sets up a Saline solution drip for the unicorn. It goes back to sleep.
Scene 4 - Abn Haram on a boat
Having vested the ship and its sails with conjured power, the ship remains ahead of the storm despite worsening seas. While Abn Haram is putting energy into increasing the size of the new turtle, Brute and Nykae get into an argument, which Haram has to go break up.
Brute's POV: Your mom's just a jerk. She loves reminding me that she's a Lady of a Chaos, and your mom, and that I'm just supposed to do what she wants because she's so important. It's just like when she tried to get me to go rob the dungeon in Amber. I won't do it. She's not my mom. Not my boss. I ate the finger of a king! I don't have to listen to her.
Nykae's POV: Two tons of pig knocked my map on the deck, and stood on it. That map is vitally important. Maybe a ship like this isn't a good place for a swine!
Haram checks to see if Brute has been enchanted. It seems as if she has not, even if something ultimately IS wrong. The ship stays ahead of the storm, but Steward reports from the crew that the storm doesn't seem so bad.
A ruckus happens and Abn Haram joins the crew on deck, where they're looking at the remnants of a ship, wrecked and floating, with people sad. Haram learns that they're the crew and passengers of the Medusa, sailing from Ikseth, bound for Begma. Haram encourages his mother to sail on, leaving the people to their doom.
Scene 5 - Maarit on The Grand Stair
In a big blue space with big stairs, and Fiona. Fiona reminds Maarit that there is a gangster somewhere nearby. They use a string to retrace their steps, then stop for a moment as Fiona thinks she gets a call but isn't able to connect to it. She considers that she might be able to connect if she really made an effort. They reflect a bit on the mathematical implications of the space. As they proceed, Maarit uses her necklace to try and track the man with the gun; it doesn't go so well. Fiona leads Maarit back to the gunman's platform.
As they position themselves where they can see the gangster. Maarit scrounges through the go bag and find's Medore's travel makeup. Maarit suggests the ol' "throwing the distraction" trick. Then prepares for battle.
Scene 1b - Nix goes to town.
Nix recruits two of his father's men who are on leave to return with him to look for Julian. He asks them to get any other men they can (they get three more) to ride into the forest. He gets a horse and a sword (and talks with the town constable), and tries his cards to reach Julian and Fiona once more each. He leads the five men into the forest to go to Julian's fortress. On their ride through the valley of Garnath, he spots a wounded messenger bird and rescues it, finding a Blood-stained Bird-Note. It's one of Julian's messenger birds, impaled on a silver-headed arrow (like what Nix passed to Julian yesterday). The wound is fatal, and the bird gave everything it had reaching Nix.
Scene 2b - David and the Chain-Of-Command
David meets Lord Denesh and discusses with him the state of the troops. Danesh clears the room to talk with David privately. David asks if he should continue focusing on the Eastern Stair. Danesh says that Random and some soldiers are going to handle the ongoing problem in Rebma. As Danesh leaves, he makes it clear that David is now the second in command of the castle until Danesh returns. David learns that most of the big names have gone on the battle, and that only royal nephews and nieces might still remain; he asks them to find out.
3b. Dalziel and Medore take a horse for a walk
Dalziel has eaten chickens and is feeling much better. When there's a knock on the door, he goes up. In talking to the steward, he learns that the King is marching on Rebma and has left the castle mostly empty. The consider whether leaving the castle might make sense. Dalziel and Medore look at the location card Dalziel took from Dworkin. Medore opens it up and allows the Black Unicorn to go through the card, following behind Dalziel. They encounter a local herding geese; the geese are afraid of the unicorn. The shepherdess is astonished at the Unicorn, and at Medore, and reveals some mad martial arts skills. She hasn't seen horses, but has seen Moose. She warns them about the Thing From The Lake that will eat them if they don't honk louder..
5B. Maarit stairs battle.
The stairs gangster is sitting eating steak and drinking wine. Maarit throws a plate from the messkit in the go-bag, which makes a clatter, and distracts him. He looks at the noise, and Maarit and Fiona run down 1 flight and up 2 flights of stairs unnoticed. As Fiona runs down another flight (now being a single level away from the gunman) the gangster turns and opens up. Fiona hits the deck and is pinned down. Maarit throws the camp cook kettle from the go-bag and hits the guy in the head, knocking him over. He sprays bullets up at Maarit's position. Though the door looks like the same flimsy construction as the floor panels, the bullets bounce off the door but tear the floor to hell. (Maarit concludes the doors being interdimensional portals makes them extra strong.) While the gunman is distracted, Fiona rushes down the stairs at him, slides beneath the table, and wrestles with him out of view. Then she scuttles back. The gunman stands back up, pushes the table out of the way (and one chair falls into the void), aims the tommy gun square at Fiona and "click"... it's either out of ammo or jammed.
Maarit rushes down the stairs now and charges the gunman, who clutches his side and winces in pain before she even gets to him. She bowls him over easily so he's about a third over the edge of the platform, and starts pummeling him. She asks "are we going to play nice?" and like the cartoon villain he is, he spouts back "I ain't surrendering to a dame!" She hits him some more. He gets two strikes back at her, with the spurs on the backs of his hands giving her defensive wounds. But he's also bleeding profusely from his side, and starts spitting up blood. Maarit concludes that auntie Fiona must have had a hidden knife. The man is quickly subdued, but succumbs to his wounds almost immediately thereafter. Fiona acknowledges she stabbed him, but that his internal organs must be different than human, as that cut should have taken hours to bleed out.
4B. Abn Haram at Bleys's Fleet.
The storm is closing in, and then suddenly goes away. 200+ warships are now where the storm was, flying a banner with a Golden Sun on a Red Field: It's Prince Bleys's fleet. Abn Haram decides to contact them with semaphore and ask to ride to Amber. He, Brute, and Steward row a boat over. Bleys won't allow Brute aboard his ship, claiming it's against some sailor's superstition of the Men of Avernus who make up his crew. Abn Haram trumps Nykae, and passes Brute to her. She's not happy about it, but promises to keep his pet safe.
Abn Haram and Steward climb aboard one of Bleys's ships. There's a little bit of posturing, but Bleys makes Abn Haram retract a borderline insult he made in front of the men. "There are several ways I can take you to Amber, but I think we'll both prefer the version where you're in a comfortable room, drinking good brandy, and feeling that you have some freedom. He's takes all of Abn Haram's cards except his own (which Bleys does verify is Abn Haram and not a twin or shadow) and a location card in Chaos. So Abn Haram can escape if he needs to, but would be leaving Steward as a hostage.
Bleys and Abn Haram go below decks, drink good alcohol, and talk.
3C. Medore and Dalziel vet trip
Medore and Dalziel shadow walk to a world where there are no monsters, and there is a convenient emergency veterinarian. Along the way, Dalziel finds buried treasure, and takes some (but not all) of the rolls of cash he Patterned into existence, leaving the rest here for whatever shadowling buried them. At the vet, they see a llama in a cone of shame, and are surprised that the vets take their unicorn in stride. The prognosis is not good, at one point the doc saying he gives the Black Unicorn at best 30% odds to live, and they should prepare for the worst. It is compartment syndrome, caused by some sort of severe blunt trauma that fractured bone and caused internal bleeding (plus unrelated wounds from at least two different animals!) Horse tranquilizers, X-rays, and transfusions, and invasive procedures to find the bleeder.
Medore stays with her during the procedure, but Dalziel heads down the road to the local "Hotel 3".
5C. Maarit at the Doors
They stand on the platform, next to 4 brightly colored doors (purple, cyan, yellow, and orange) and a wine rack.
The thug is dead, so they take his pistol and wallet and shove his body off the ledge. They still have 3 chairs, so they prop them under the handles of 3 doors to keep them closed. They wash some of the blood off with wine, so the situation is confusing for anyone stumbling across it (such as new gangster guards coming to take over later). Fiona grabs another bottle of wine for the road, and they turn the nob of the purple door.
4C. Abn Haram and Bleys Drink
Bleys says his son Dalziel is soft, and far too concerned with understanding laws of science that don't matter because the universe will always rewrite itself to align with his desires. "The laws of science are what I say they are." Bleys is full of himself, and insists that he always gets what he wants, and that there's only a handful of people who don't do exactly what he wants them to, nearly all of whom are blood relations. Abn Haram has a ton of questions about this, but Bleys really does seem to believe it all, and think very highly of himself. He says all of life is either war, business, or love, and claims to be supremely good at all three. It seems Abn Haram defines business very differently than Bleys does, but the elder Amberite doesn't explain what the difference really is.
They play a long game of actual chess, which Bleys wins, but Abn Haram doesn't get totally creamed. Bleys seems very willing to sacrifice pieces for the long term strategic advantage.
Eventually, an officer comes to tell them that they are passing Baylesport, and almost to Amber. Bleys and Abn Haram head above decks.
3D. Dalziel calls Bleys
In the "Hotel 3" (it's half as nice as the last hotel he'd been in), Dalziel watches some local news. Top story: tomorrow is the 8th Anniversary of the death of The Thing From The Lake, and everyone is thankful to the President for defeating it. What The Thing is, exactly, remains mysterious.
Dalziel calls Bleys, who is on a deck of a ship. The conversation is mostly one-sided, because Bleys is within earshot of Abn Haram, so speaks in brief terse sentences that conceal the nature of the call. He focuses a bit at one point, and gets some wordless communication through. He gives the impression to Dalziel that battle is about to be joined, and Abn Haram is nearby. Dalziel warns Bleys that there's more going on than he realizes, that Random is marching on Rebma and there's no royals in the castle. Dalziel says that something about it all seems suspicious to him, but he can't quite say why or what it means. There are definitely more forces at play than just Caine though. Wordlessly, Bleys seems to be asking if Dalziel thinks he should abort the attack, but Dalziel doesn't. Bleys also wordlessly indicates he's considering murdering Abn Haram right before they go into battle, but Dalziel thinks that's a mistake. He feels like Abn Haram and Nykae aren't part of the big plays going on, and seem at worst neutral towards Amber. At that, Bleys says "I'll be sure to let him know that you just saved his life."
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The Quotes Of Chaos
Medore, in a sentence:
"Medore, being a fashion whore, saves the day."
Things Said On The Boat
“She’s not my boss, Dad!” - Brute
"Do they look like they're particularly well fed on human flesh?" -Abn Haram
Nike: "We could leave a bucket of food for them." (Them being the starving people stranded on the raft out at sea.)
Abn Haram: "We could, but why would we?"
Fiona and Maarit:
F: "I'm not the tactician that any of my brothers are, but I think if I come down that staircase as fast as I can, after the first few feet I'll have defillade from the man with the tommy gun..."
M: "I don’t know that word, but I assume it means ‘cover’
Conversations about the many Goose of Oosland:
It’s a wonderful day in shadow and you are a terrible goose. - Kaylin
Do it nae honk then?
“Doesn’t it take more than one chicken to create a population explosion.
Not if you try hard enough… Nature finds a way… You find a Jeff Goldblum and you mate with that.”
About your crazy theory that this black unicorn might be Deirdre transformed by magic.
“I will stroke the horn lightly." - player
"It doesn’t appear to be loose.” - GM
Bleys and Abn Haram:
B: “I find that the worlds do what I want them to."
AH: "All the time?"
B: "All the time."
AH: "That must be nice."
B: "Well, it is good to be me."
...
B: "Give it a few years and see what you grow into."
AH: "I’ve had quite a few years."
B: "Well then, forget what I said, and Despair."
Everything is either war, business, or love. - Bleys
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