A Horse Of Another Timbre, Session 8 Log

  The following is the campaign log for the eighth 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 #7.

December 7, 2020: Session #8 

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, son of Julian. Grew up in Forest Arden.
  
• Medore, nonbinary offspring 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 Julian, Fiona, and Dworkin.

Setting the Scene: Caine's ships continue to assemble out in the bay, raising the specter of war. Abn Haram is still in the dungeon, having been put there by Random who was trying to placate Caine. Medore chased a mysterious Black Unicorn into the castle via a mysterious portal. The default white unicorn appeared, and attacked the black, but Medore helped it escape. Now Medore and Maarit are trying to understand why the unicorns are fighting. Nix is talking with the King about Abn Haram's magic pig. Dalziel met Dworkin near the Primal Pattern, and convinced him to take a vacation.

Scene 1: Medore and Maarit on the stairs,  Nix and Random in a courtyard

Medore checks in with the guards at the top of the stairs to the dungeon, and Maarit's magic pendulum points downstairs but the guard won't let them go, because they have a recent prisoner down there. Tells her to go find the King. They go to find the King; some servants tell them that the King is by the stables.

Nix attempts to "mind touch" the pig inside the castle, but can only detect its basic emotions of being afraid and injured, but can't get much more. (GM's note: The Pig is named Brute, and it's a powerful creature belonging to Abn Haram. Like its owner/father, Brute is currently being held prisoner in the castle.) 

 

Medore augments the magic coming from the ruby, which increases the connection for Nix to Brute. Nix learns Brute is afraid. King Random starts hearing slurred language and begins moving rapidly. Nix tries to reassure Brute then breaks the connection with it. The King takes off his necklace and its magic slows down. (GM's note: The ruby necklace is of course the Jewel of Judgment from the books.)

Medore and Maarit suggest that perhaps the phenomenon of the two fighting unicorns might be related to the pig, then they relate that the black unicorn was friendly and the white one was aggressive. The King says that if the unicorn was trying to keep someone out of the dungeon, that's something to pay attention to. He sides with the white unicorn in general, but orders all unicorns shouldn't be harmed. Maarit asks if she can investigate in the Dungeon.

As they all begin walking toward the dungeon, Medore suggests working as a diplomat for King Random with Caine. Random considers it and then  suddenly changes his mind. He tells Medore that "you and Caine are bad news." Medore asks "why?" and Random indicates that there was bad blood between Caine and Medore's mother. Random reveals that Medore's mother was killed by Brand. (GM's note: while this does sound like a reasonable summary of book five, Random's sudden change of mind and insistence that Medore and Caine not ever be in the same place was intended to be suspicious and imply there's more to the story.)

The King invites Nix and Maarit to join him on the journey to the Dungeon where they can talk to the "hogfather" (Abn Haram) and investigate. Medore also agrees to join them.

Scene 2: David on the walls, looking for the Unicorns

David goes to the roof because he wants information. From the top of the castle, he can see the town well, and catches a view of a black steed racing away from the castle. David notices a painter's easel on the roof while he watches the unicorn; on the easel is a spyglass, which David steals.

David watches the black steed run faster and faster, and he follows it with the spyglass as it runs through a park and out into the valley of Cym. As the Unicorn runs further and further away, the horse appears to be running toward Rebma, where a series of underwater torches highlight the stairs to the underwater kingdom. As David waits, he hears a disturbance going on in the courtyard, particularly King Random shouting.

From the lights near Rebma, David gets the impression of a lot of motion around the stairs. He sees some people coming up out of the water. The first person David sees emerges from the water and crashes into the sand and lands, unmoving. The second runs from the shore to the trees. The third person almost makes it out but then SOMETHING GRABS THEM AND DRAGS THEM BACK INTO THE WATER.

After assessing that the distance to the site of the battle is too far for him to intervene soon, David goes back to investigate the easel and paints and spyglass. The Easel is damaged and the brushes are excellent, and there are no paint splatters.

David sees Random, Medore, Maarit, and Nix walking toward the dungeons and jumps down from the roof to "join" the group. He bows down immediately as Random startles, then David bows to everyone else. David reports to the King that there was a unicorn chase, and reports on the path of the black unicorn (very efficient run through the valley of Cym, across the river, toward Rebma, taking shortcuts through town that imply the black unicorn has a strong working knowledge of the layout of the city). He reports that "a number of beings" are coming up from Rebma and there's a conflict on the beach.

King Random checks to see if it could be Caine landing ships. Then asks Medore to go to the beach, intervene for the good of the realm, and report back via a tarot card. He asks David to go with Medore, to shadow and protect Medore (esp from Caine). Medore tries to use the card to connect to Llewella (gets a zap and can't use the card). The King tells them to go get horses from the stables and head to the beach, and to feel free to commandeer City Watch. "Report back when you know the situation is stable."

Scene 3: Dalziel looking at paintings

Dalziel examines the rest of the paintings in Dworkin's appartments. There are some bodies, there's a white unicorn holding a ruby pendant, there's a black unicorn with an arrow in its leg. Dalziel notices the hand reaching out of the painting and decides NOT to touch it. 

 

Dalziel goes back to the large collection of Tarot cards, then takes a variety of cards he knows, and at least one card to a nice-looking place he doesn't know. The cards look like they were painted a while ago -- the closest one is Nix who looks much younger in the card than he looks now. Dal exits the cave.

Margholo calls out "Brand?" so Dal comes to see that Margholo is, perhaps, hiding something. Then Margholo returns to a repetitive greeting. So Dal goes back out and grabs a good spot to do a sketch of the pattern.

(GM adds: This was in my plans and notes for the session:

If he says anything to her, she responds with a joyous "Brand!?" and turning, has a smile on her face. Then when she sees you, her voice goes neutral and blank instead. "Would You Like To Play A Game?"

"Moves may only be initiated by Power Users. Please submit your credentials."

Most likely his failure to do will cause her to reset: "Hello, I'm Margholo with an H. It's very nice to meet you. Would you like to stay and wait for someone to come back? I'm sure he'd be very proud of you for making it this far on your own."  Point out this is almost exactly what she said when they first met during the previous session.)

At one point, Dal takes his eye off the pattern to stretch and rest his eyes, and he notices a little white horse (unicorn) watching him from the forest. He inclines his head to it (with a nod).  When it heads into the forest, he feels compelled to follow it, away from the Pattern, down the slope, through the forest, toward the shore. It walks into the water in the place where the stairs to Rebma would be in Amber.

Dal tries to weave shadow, discovers that it doesn't work. Dal tests to see if the Tarot cards are waterproof, finds that they seem to be. He wraps up his belongings and head into the water.

(GM adds: Dalziel specifically has the card of Maarit (he'd found in Dworkin's studio) ready in case he needs a quick escape route.)

Scene 4: Abn-Haram is chill in the Dungeon.

Abn-Haram tries to continue befriending the guards. He makes a show of failing to befriend the more-gruff-but-secretly-friendly guard. Haram hears three people outside (King Random, Maarit, Nix). The guards at the top of the stairs corroborate Maarit's story. Then the King checks to be sure the pattern is guarded, then sends a guard to get more guards, doubling the guard load again (making it 4x the usual amount), assigning several guards to the pattern chamber. Then introduces Nix and Maarit to the guards. 

Maarit has her crystal (a crystal with gold thread through it on a leather string, wrapped around her wrist) out, pendulum style, which then swings/leads on a course toward the staircase. Random notices that her pendulum works, and is bothered by that. He checks for a tiny pattern inside her pendant, but doesn't seem to find one. He notices that it's pointing in a direction, and the group follows it partway down the stairs, just past where she'd been and then it goes crazy. Once the King and Nix have left to go further down the stairs, the pendulum stops vibrating and leads her up to the dining room...

King Random gets an update from the guards, including a list of all the player characters who came by. The King is surprised that David visited, and puts extra emphasis on the guards recording David's visits. He also asks the guards to record any other "unusual requests" in the log, and should report all visits and requests to the King, Queen, or Lord Hendon.

The King asks about the other Chaosite, the Steward, whom they searched and confiscated a card from. The person depicted on the card is a cat person with four arms and a card in his hand. Random wraps it up and then tucks it into his doublet, but not before asking if any of the others know who the person on the card is.

The King and Nix arrive at Abn-Haram's cell, where the King asks about "The Ambassador," then comes in with Nix, a couple backup guards, and the secretly sympathetic one. They discuss the wounds of the pig and the potential rebellion among the fleet. The King returns Abn-Haram's Tarot, then suggests that perhaps they should leave and are in danger. Random and Abn-Haram trade barbs. Random suggests that Abn's mom was engaged in spying and/or weapons testing while she was here.

Random suggests that Abn-Haram wasn't the target of the assassination. Random explains the political situation: 
- Random is King here because he's the least objectionable.

- He doesn't think Caine is there to overthrow him, just hates Nykae (or possibly just hates Chaos in general)

- Oberon wasn't very nice, was a bad father. Random tries to make things better.

- The King suggests that he can perhaps open up some more liberality, but needs to go slowly slowly

- GM adds: Random also eventually reveals that his own son, Martin, is in cahoots with Caine. That's a big factor in why bloody murder is not a solution to Caine's posturing. He claims Martin's motivations are complicated: partly pro-Amber, partly stinging from a bad break-up with a Chaos woman, and mostly upset that Random intervened to keep Martin from becoming King of Rebma after Queen Moire died. Random had required him to refuse the Coral Crown, allowing third-in-line Psamathe to become Queen. Random claims he didn't want Rebma to just be a puppet state to Amber. Noble aspiration perhaps, but a terrible parenting mistake.

Random and Abn-Haram discuss the frank, dangerous political status of the Kingdom. King Random leaves with the guards and Nix to get Steward, who can shepherd Brute back to Abn Haram's cell. They leave on a kind of detante.

Scene 1c: Medore and David get to the stables

They requisition two combat-worthy, shadow-friendly, fast steeds to run through the card. They ride through the city and recruit a couple city watchmen on horses. Medore's bird reports that there's a battle raging among Tritons.

Scene 3b: Dalziel into the water

Dalziel starts swimming, sees the unicorn prancing along as though it's not underwater. He swims down to the stairs and finds that the stairs feel real, and that he can breathe the water while on the stairs. The spots where the torches are in Amber are not lit as torches in this world. Until the Unicorn passes them, and then they light.

Scene 4b: Abn Haram doorway

Lord Denesh and guards bring Steward, Brute, and all of Abn Haram and Nykae's belongings. This includes the bracer that Random took off of her injuried arm, which he could tell somehow protected her from the Pattern while in Amber. Denesh has been told to inform them that Random knows what it does, and had his wizard (does that mean Nix?) examine it.  Denesh seems to think this is a bombshell revelation, like "we're on to you", but Abn Haram counters with the (obvious in hindsight) "do you think my mother would come all this way only to let the world itself destroy her? We wouldn't go to a land of poison without a gasmask. Why does that surprise you?" Denesh says "I will let His Majesty know what you said."

The guards then leave to guard the Pattern chamber, while Abn Haram makes his "escape". They think he's going by Card, but he actually walks across the hall, inserts the key Dik gave him, and opens the door. Instead of leading to another prison cell, it opens into a bombed out city on another world. On the far end, the door is in a section of wall that didn't collapse. It appears to require the key to open from either side.  Abn Haram now has a portal direct from his personal shadow world Gehenna to the dungeons of Castle Amber, and no one knows but him, Steward, and Brute!

Scene 3c: Dalziel battling on the stairs

Dalziel follows the Unicorn past the lights on the stairs, and is suddenly on the Faiella-Bionin, where Tritons (fish men) are attacking fleeing Rebman civilians with harpoons. He subdues and captures one, but takes several scratches in the process.

He figures out the White Unicorn is now above him on the stairs, closer to the shore. It is dodging fishmen, making its way further up the stairs to the Black Unicorn. The Black is actively fighting fishmen, and trying to protect people on the stairs. Dalziel, being nimbler and dodgier than a horse on a stair case, is able to make faster progress, and gets to the Black, which he calls "Aunt Deirdre". The Black seems to react to his words, but at just that moment the White reaches as well and tries to skewer the Black. Dalziel's not fast enough to stop it unless he just jumps in the way... which he does, and takes a deep goring. This interferes with the White's movement enough that it finally gets struck by a harpoon. Wounded badly, the White panics and heads deeper down the stairs toward the city.

With his last bit of strength, Dalziel draws forth Maarit's card.

Scene 1d: Maarit gets her card (oh, yeah, and like, saves Dalziel's life or whatever)

Maarit is puzzled at her first ever incoming tarot call, and especially the horrific scenery on the other end. She can feel the caller is in excrutiating pain, so she pulls him to her. 3 gallons of saltwater and a shocking amount of blood pour through the card, but she eventually pulls Dalziel into the hallway outside the dining room. 

Guards are called, and apply first aid. Bleys has a chirurgeon on his staff, so they move Dalz to his own room and send for his dad's doctor. Before passing out a second time, Dalziel hands Maarit his belongings, and asks her to try to save his waterlogged notebook.

She reads his notes while separating out the pages for drying, including the notes about the chessboard and Dworkin's abyss paintings. She also thumbs through his new collection of cards, which includes ones of herself, Dalziel, and Medore, and a friendly-seeming location she's never seen before.

Scene 1e: On The Beach

Umbra reports that ships have moved into position just to each side of the Faiella-Bionin. Caine's ships. David and Medore hurry down to the beach.

The Black Unicorn is out of the water now, but even more wounded and wobbly. A half dozen Rebmans, armed civilians, have formed a semi-circle to defend it from the Tritons. Most owe their life to the Black Unicorn protecting them from the Tritons when they were sitting ducks on the steps.

David runs the Tritons down, nearly clearing the beach entirely on his own. Medore tends the wounds of the Black Unicorn again, and it leans on Medore.

The big ships are dropping cannonballs and grapeshot over the decks at the places where the Tritons had set up their harpoon lines. It's more of a terrain-denial / displacement effect than truly weaponized, but the nuisance effect disrupts the Tritons effectiveness, allowing more people to escape. Caine and 3 platoons come aground on skiffs. 1 platoon sets up a defensive cordon around the Rebman survivors. The other 2 platoons, lead by Caine and with David in their ranks, make their way down the stairs. It's bloody and perilous, especially before they get out deep enough that the ships are providing nuissance cover, but they retake the staircase step by step and rescue lots more Rebmans.

As they approach the gates of Rebma, and new horde of Tritons burst out, but rather than a berserker wave charging them, it's a rout! Maybe it's all those bulging fisheyes that give the impression, but the Tritons seem to be fleeing, not assaulting, and many of them flee off the sides of the staircase even though that pressure change has painful consequences.

The Quotes of Chaos: Night 8  12/7/2020

"I will accept there is a possibility that my white privilege is making me favor the white unicorn." -Random

"I guess I’ll have to live with that. I said it and my wife wasn’t here to stop me. If I need to prove it let me know." -Random
"I’ll let you know…" -Medore

“I’m pork curious” - Brendan

“Amber is just Call of Cthulu with more white privilege” - Andrew
 

Abn Haram: "I’m sorry you’ve gotten in over your head"

Random: "Listen kid, you have no idea… I roll with the punches and come out on top, and part of the way I do that is by making those blessed psychopaths out there not want to kill me any more than they are naturally inclined…"

Abn Haram: "Keep your chin up.”

“I hope you’re not wearing white.” -Dal, bleeding profusely as he says it