A Horse Of Another Timbre, Log 18.

  The following is the campaign log for the 18th 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 check out the index of my Amber articles.

The PCs are:

•     Dalziel, son of Prince Bleys of Amber. A scientist.
•     Maarit, daughter of Princess Sand. An orphan with a magic pendulum.
•     Medore, nonbinary orphan of Princess Dierdre .
•     Spinturnix, (aka Nix), son of Prince Julian. Grew up in Forest Arden.
•     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 Rolf, who is canonically a guard in the dungeons of Castle Amber. (You may have noticed that the guard's name is quite similar to my own, Rolfe.) Rolf works with another canonical dungeon guard, Roger (whose name is the same as that of the Amber novel's author, Roger Zelazny.) Every time those two show up, the game gets really meta.

Some NPCs are unique to this campaign, such as Bellantine, an "Acquisitions Specialist" from a world named "Oberon's Loupe". Belle was created by a player in his answer to an Amber "Character Quiz" question... but it's slowly become clear that there's more going on beneath the surface here than what was laid out by that player in that Quiz answer. As it turns out, if you name your Archive/Library world "Oberon's Loupe", the GM may just decide that Oberon himself had a hand in the creation of everything there.

 

Campaign log: 26 April 2021, turn by turn

Into the Randomverse

Scene 1a: Medore returns from Tir-na Nog'th with Corwin

Corwin takes Medore down to the dungeon and demands four lanterns and the keys to the Western Tunnels. When the guards (including Rolf and Roger) refuse, the guards let him know that the King has forbidden it (and taken precautions). Corwin, like Tom Petty, won't back down. He demands the lanterns and then heads on his way anyhow.

GM's self-referential sidebar: Random put 6 guards at the top of the stairs, including Roger and Rolf, with instructions.

Corwin rounds the corner and says "Gentlemen, we'll need 4 lanterns, and the key ring for western tunnels."

Rolf says: "We can't do that sir. His Majesty the King told us to let none pass, especially not Prince Corwin. He told us that if Corwin looks like he's going to resort to violence, we should pre-empt it by telling him these 3 facts... I took notes:

1) He, His Majesty the King, took the key to Corwin's old cell, so it's not worth the effort. He said you'd understand the meaning and significance of that. I assume that's why you wanted the western tunnel ring.

2) Once the process has begun, the Cards will be temporarily deactivated as a defense mechanism to prevent anyone interfering with the limnal efforts, so that too is a dead end.  -- Now, in regards to this, I didn't think at the time to ask if he meant Limnal which would mean his efforts have something to do with lakes or reservoirs, which seems unlikely given there's none nearby, or if he meant the homophone Limnal which would mean his efforts involve drawing or are like an illustration in some way, or the near-homophone Lim-i-nal which relates to thresholds or boundaries. He was in a hurry so a verbal contraction is possible, and he had already told us that you'd understand the meaning of fact 1.  Plus he was visibly angry at the time, and fact 3 was rather attention grabbing, so I missed the opportunity to request a clarification on fact 2...

Roger interrupts: "Narrative and pacing, Rolf. Prince Corwin wants the story, not your world-building minutia."

3) Sorry, I go a little overboard sometimes. Fact 3 then: His Majesty the King asks you to respect his wishes. It's his life to risk, and he feels he owes the universe this attempt. He refused to elaborate on in what way or towards what end his life was being endangered. I, we, tried, and he said he didn't have time to explain, but in about an hour we should ask someone who'd been outside. Have you been outside?

Medore asks what the plan is. Corwin reveals that the plan is to stop Random from killing himself, traveling by the shortcut in the dungeons. Medore mentions Dworkin's Cave, and this spooks Corwin, who now has to puzzle out whether or not this entire situation is some clever scheme that Medore has hatched. Medore invokes his mother Deirdre to suggest he should help. Corwin demands the truth of how Medore knew about Dworkin's cave. Medore reveals some but not all of what he knows. Medore has to try and persuade Corwin to let him come along to meet Dworkin, offers all the information he knew. Corwin is intrigued by these details, and invites Medore to stay.

Next is the door. Medore tries a spell that doesn't work. Magic seems to be "off." They finally break the door down and find a prison cell (Corwin's old cell?), but the path out doesn't work. Corwin seems sad, leads Medore back toward the staircase, sadly. Corwin mopes. Medore shames Corwin and eventually they go back down the stairs. They go back into a dank back part of the dungeon, where Corwin traces an ancient illustration on a wall, asks for Medore's guarantee that he won't kill Random, then disappears.  Medore follows into a rainy terror world with a huge storm.

GM's Clarification: In case it was missed, the first room Corwin led Medore to was intentionally not the right place. Corwin was for a time, really on guard against Medore. Medore had let it slip that they knew about Primal Pattern Land, which raised the possibility that Medore was trying to trick Corwin into helping her gain access to that place, at a time when Random would be very vulnerable. Wary about that, Corwin tried to give Medore the false impression that this secret passage into the Primal Pattern had been destroyed. Only after Medore called him on his bullshit, did Corwin cave in and take Medore to the real place. I wasn't sure from the text above if that was understood.

Scene 2a: Abn Haram complains about a beautiful place

He asks the Oberon's Loupe supervisor for a card catalogue, but they don't have one. He waits for Bellantine to return, and the pages return to him regularly. Abn Haram sends the pages off on wild goose chases, and they keep returning with the books he is asking for.


Scene 3a: Nix and Fiona go Into the Woods

Fiona pays attention to the message in the clouds, so does Nix. Fiona says she wants to leave so Nix and Fiona go through a "rainbow smear" (and a sense of freefall)  Fiona grabs Nix's arm and pulls him through a card to Nix's favorite reading nook on Oberon's Loupe.  She gives him the card. Nix recalls the end of the Black Road War as having something similar to Random's message.


Scene 2b/3b: Abn Haram and Nix meet

Nix goes looking for pages, meets up with [Bellentine]. Belle tells Nix that there is a secret collection (the FOAMBARITE? FAUXMBERITE?) of books that was commissioned by Oberon long ago. The books from this collection are sequestered in the vault, which is administered by Armistaud delaCroix St.Ambrose, another collector. Someone has been trying to find out a lot about the family.

Belle leads Nix to Abn Haram. Nix and Haram exchange pleasantries and talk about Haram's purpose, which is to visit the library to learn about IF I WERE KING by Random and about David from military history. Nix starts to lead Abn Haram to the part of the library where Amber Royal books would be, when they stop by the Acquisitions room, which Nix tells Haram he cannot visit, but Alsalock whispers to Haram that the books he wants are in there.

SScene 2c/3c: Random's voice appears in the sky and a storm starts.

Nix sets Haram up in a suite of rooms, sets up Jobber in the stables, and they agree to meet for breakfast to look over the books just added to the collection. Abn Haram heads back to his suite, where he tries to conjure a book and finds the magic shaky, then gets up to other misdeeds. Nix meets a sobbing page, who thinks the king is dead. Nix heads off for dinner with Fiona.


Scene 4a: David, Maarit, and Dalziel, oh my!

The three are stuck in the castle, with the storm raging outside. They discuss going through the magic door in the wall. ... Maarit leads them to the door behind the tapestry (in the Turquoise Dining Room), which Dalziel opens but there's just a wall behind the door. Maarit opens the door and finds a raging hurricane blasting on the other side of the door.

Dalziel tries to use his pattern lens to center his perspective and look down at the pattern from the rocks outside Dworkin's cave. The center of the pattern is anchored to the ground, but the rest of the pattern is whipping around, shifting about. The storm is passing through the rock of the cave, as if superimposed over the cave.

David felt a sense of someone watching him while Maarit was doing her magic stuff. He detects that Medore and Corwin are coming through the storm. Dalziel tries to use his tarot for Medore, finds the Tarot cards unresponsive. Dalziel powers through to make a connection.


Scene 1b: Medore and Corwin get wet

Medore and Corwin struggle through the fierce storm, from room to room and door to door. Medore realizes that they're being watched for a bit. Corwin draws his sword and the filligree on the blade separates and dances around. Medore senses the watcher return, calls out "who's there?" and hears a growl.

As Corwin steps away to prepare for combat, Medore feels a magical power, like the pattern. Corwin exerts himself and leads them through the storm, then they find themselves face to face with the many-eyed dragon, Blinky.  Corwin's sword calms down, then the storm does too.

They find themselves face to face with Random. Medore secretly tries to make a connection with their mother's card, planning to use their compact to show mom what's going on with Corwin and Random. As Medore tries to call their mother, they receive a call instead. Medore pulls Dalziel through the card.

GM's clarification: Nope. Corwin shouts "Random" repeatedly, but he's just trying to find him. Random is not at the Pattern.


Scene 2d: Abn Haram violates the trust imbued in him by the earnest library guardians

Abn Haram goes to the door of the acquisitions room, sneaking to avoid being spotted. Two library denizens are eluded, distracted by an argument about Random's message in the sky. Haram opens the door and befuddles the person in that room. He searches the room for a secret passage or hidden door. He finds a bookshelf door, which pops open, the latch breaking in the process.

Haram makes his way down the secret stairway, carefully. There are two doors. The first is a heavy door protected by runes and sigils, embued with magic (but currently weakened). Abn Haram tries to use conjuring to "heal" the heavy door and remove the sigils, but gets hit with a "live wire" of magical protection, which was also weakened by the wonky magic of the world.

Through the unprotected door, Haram finds a massive trove of books, like the Warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Abn Haram finds a deck of Tarot cards hidden behind a shelf and takes it. He leaves and checks behind the other door where he finds just a blank wall.


Scene 3d: Nix and Fiona have a nice meal

Nix and Fiona have dinner and talk about the strange things going on. Fiona offers warnings that all people have hidden faces, she says sometimes you might think you know someone, only to find that they are something else entirely underneath. This can happen even with your closest confidants, or someone with whom you shared a womb, or it can happen with someone you barely know because they spent their days far away playing with their boats. They worry about what's going on with Julian. They decide that when the universe is finished being rewritten, they can do some spells to try and find him, though pushing too hard on a card can be bad too. She talks cryptically about two times when this has happened. The GM says this is important.

On the topic of using cards during the storm, she says not only is it dangerous because the cards might "detune", but also that "the universe is full of cages and cells and pentacles, and you never know what might come out if you rattle the bars too hard."

Fiona and Nix detect a shift in magic that is worrying. They discuss how the pages are misinterpreting the message Random left in the sky, especially Derin duPont St.Peter and Nix tells the pages to keep an eye out for anything strange. They decide to try and find the hidden archive being collected by the collectors. Fiona detects it in a sub-basement lower than she'd ever gone in the library.

Nix has a squad of guards meet at the circulation desk and takes her to the blueprints room to find the archive on those plans.


Scene 1c/4b: Medore and Dalziel join Corwin on the field with the pattern

The pattern is changing or changed a bit. Dalz and Medore follow Corwin to the outside as he shouts for Random. Dalziel goes up to get a view of the Pattern from his favorite ridge. There's clearly nothing on the Pattern, not the Jewel of Judgment, and certainly not the body of a dead King. Medore tries to quietly call Deirdre, but there's no answer.  Corwin is not happy to see Dalziel here, but Dalz claims to be working as the King's Minister of Science, so they don't come to blows. Corwin tries Random's card, but no answer. He tries Vialle's card, also no answer. Dalziel says that's what he was afraid of. "What, you think something's happened to both of them?" No, Dalziel thinks Vialle has been turned into a unicorn. Corwin says it's nonsense. He starts telling them that he no longer trusts Tir-na Nog'th because of something he saw up there, but Medore cuts him off with a lie about how painful it all is, the implication being that the unicorn may have died on the Pattern.

The Pattern here looks a little different than they'd seen it last. Medore thinks maybe it's a different shape then when she walked it in Tir-na Nog'th. Dalziel thinks its the right shape but the wrong color by just a shade or two. Corwin says it looks the way it did in his youth. (But any player who has read the books knows Corwin was not here in his youth.) They make a few conjectures about what Random did.

Corwin says "this was a terrible storm, like when Dad did this... but when I made my own, it was all cherry blossoms and old memories, not a storm. Why is this different, and what did Random do?" Dalziel asks Corwin for more info. He says he has his own universe, and can walk to it, but it's uncomfortable crossing the boundary. He says that ever since he made that, this Universe keeps trying to reject him. When he's in the land of his birth, there's a constant pressure as if reality were trying to push him away, and he has to fight against it at all times.

Dalziel mentions Rebma is gone, and Corwin needs to see this with his own eyes. But he's not willing to leave them alone here with the Primal Pattern. Dalz and Medore HATE this, but he makes them leave with him by way of the trump to the Muster Field in Amber.

In the field, Corwin notices a particular statue is missing. It's a commemoration of the Xandria campaign (see Old Wars). So it could be Random editing things out to remove some of Amber's imperialism, or it could be Random waving a rude finger at Caine who ascended to the Admiralty in that war. Dalziel makes a legit complaint about Amber's many genocides, and it hits a nerve. Corwin looks like he's about to punch him, so Dalz shuts up and backs off.

They walk, and after a bit Corwin says "no, you're right, I am a monster. I fought against Hitler but with in other wars alongside others who were just as were awful." He then paraphrases Robert E Lee, which neither PC has the context to decode in-character. Mopey Corwin suggests the universe is right to push him away, and maybe he should leave. "I should go tend to my own garden, rather than file endless complaints about other people's horticultural skills." Dalz and Medore tell him to stop being so melodramatic.

They walk across town, down to the beach.  Medore slips off to releive herself in the woods, but actually calls Deirdre instead, and actually gets her this time. Medore conveys what's happened, including that Corwin lied. Deirdre is suspicious and asks if it's possible Corwin intentionally failed to get to Random in time. Medore's assessment is that Corwin was just being too paranoid and that wasted time, but that Corwin was legitimately trying to help/save/dissuade Random.

As they approach the double falls where the Faiella-Bionin used to be, Dalziel turns on the Pattern Lens.


Scene 4c/5a: David and Maarit explore The Grand Stair and The Cave

A custodian mops up the turquoise dining room. Maarit goes to change clothes again. David spies on Jinna the Scullion, who is clearly trying to stay near the dining nook to keep an eye on the goings on. Is she just curious, or is she someone's agent? It's unclear. Maarit returns, David intimidates Jinna into leaving, Maarit opens the door.  It's less foggy to her eyes now, but inpenetrable to David's. Maarit guides David by the hand into The Grand Stair. The steps are wet, there's no handrails, it would be very easy for them to murder eachother with just a little shove.

David asks about the fog. "Can you see through it because you're an Amberite?"  

Maarit says "Maybe, but it could just be because I've been here before."

David asks "Is this how Amberites walk between shadow worlds?"

Maarit says "No." but doesn't elaborate.

Her pendant guides her to the platform with the four colorful doors, which no longer has the wine rack, table, chairs, or bloodstain. Good storm, that.

They enter the Oddly-Colored Castle, noting how it's similar to, but painfully incongruous with, the dungeons of Amber. The Pendant knows the way to the cave, which is good because Maarit couldn't find it on her own, this place is just too disorienting.

In the cave, the lanterns are out, and all is damp, but there's some light at the far end. Maarit can tell she's probably missed the door to the apartments stumbling about in the dark. At the cave mouth, a huge dragon with many eyes stands in the way, growling. Blinky, we meet again...


Scene 2e: Abn Haram's exit

Abn Haram leaves up the stairs with his set of abandoned forgotten cards. He contemplates trying to fix the secret door latch with conjuration, but it will take over 5 minutes so he decides against it. In the acquisitions room, the man he befuddled with entropy is crawling around on the floor looking for something. Abn Haram exits, and starts walking away casually. His plan is to stash the card deck he got, then go to the Amber History section that Nix had told him about, and be there loudly and prominently to cover his activities. 

The Quotes Of Chaos:

His majesty said not to let anyone through, especially Prince Corwin. -Guard Rolfe

Fact Three? - Medore

 “She definitely would do it if you asked her to.” Medore

That doesn’t sound like the mad my mother described to me. - Corwyn

“You're on my awkward." - Fiona

“Where did you get that” -Nyx  (about a card of a place in Nyx’s home)

“Who’s to say?” -Fiona

“In my family, secrets are like hugs.” -Nyx

Abn Haram: (to 'Nix) "I've picked up, in my travels, a somewhat violent madman, and it might be best if he were kept away from your staff."

We of chaos are made of sterner stuff. -Abn Haram

“The man we get back might not be the man he was before this ordeal…

… you have such lovely books here.” -Fiona

“The universe is full of cages, and cells, and pentacles. You never know what might break free if you rattle the bars hard enough.” - Fiona

Rolfe: "What have I told you about narrative and pacing, Rolf?!"

"I literally had to run the length of the Universe last time." - Corwin

"It would be so much better if no one from our family ever came here again." (5 minutes later) The whole family shows up    

Hey! I'm his majesty’s science advisor, I am allowed to look for this stuff - Dalziel