A Horse Of Another Timbre, Log 19

   The following is the campaign log for the 19th 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... nearly a year later, as I've not been updating this blog... 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 Fiona, who always seems to know more than she should, and Corwin, whose main schtick is essentially the opposite despite being exceptionally well read.

Some NPCs are unique to this campaign, such as "Blinky" (real name Argos) who is a dragon with extra eyeballs all over his body and is guarding Dworkin's cave: sort of an upgrade from Wixer (the griffon doing the same duty in the books). Bellantine and Armistaud are "Acquisitions Specialists" from a library world called Oberon's Loupe: they may be operating on special instructions from the dead king.

 Campaign log: 10 May 2021, turn by turn

1. Abn Haram in the library:
Abn Haram sneaks away back to his suite of rooms and focuses on his authorial endeavors.


2. David and Maarit in a cave:
At the mouth of a cave is a mess of wings and eyeballs in dragon form. (Implied, but never stated explicitly that this is Blinky.) Maarit gets a stray thought in her head, externally placed there. (David also gets a stray thought, likewise externally placed. They may not be the same thought.) Maarit tries to encourage the dragon to let them by with her pendulum, and David thinks they should leave. They back away slowly.  As they back away, it sends its message to their heads again. Maarit says she'll "take it away" and the dragon turns away.

As they leave, Maarit reflects on the idea that if they leave they haven't found the King. They decide to search for another entrance. Maarit's pendulum points directly at David when she asks if there's anything she should know. They return to the Amber Duplicate Oddly-Colored Castle, which doesn't seem to have any light sources, but is still diffusely illuminated.

Maarit asks if the dragon "spoke" to David. He reveals that it did, through direct foreign thought. They discuss what they heard. It told David to leave or it would treat him roughly. It was more welcoming to Maarit. When they return to the stairs, Maarit uses her pendulum again and asks it for the shortest route to King Random and for what they need to know to get to him.  Just before they go back to Amber, the pendant points at another door. When she opens the door, it's bricked up on the other side.

David kicks the wall and it doesn't budge. They examine the wall and find it to be paper thin on the edge. She closes the door, then leans over and opens it from the other side, finds the same problem. Maarit comes back to the other side and presses the pendulum against the door like a key...


3. Dalziel and Medore and Corwin on the beach (with Eggman):
Corwin had seen peasants revolt against royalty (on Earth). He hopes that sort of thing hasn't surfaced here. Corwin mentions that he hopes if reform does make its way to Amber, it arrives by the pen rather than the sword (or worse, the guillotine).  

Down at the beach, two waterfalls with a gap between them lead out to the sea. Corwin watches the horizon (and mutters "I hope that thing has a bottom and fills up very soon.") Dalziel has the pattern in mind and looks out at it with his lens and learns that the water isn't just falling down, but the space where the stairs should be has been bent or torn higher-dimensionally; looking at the hole makes it feel like it has a kind-of magnetic pull. Dalziel imagines that perhaps Random succeeded in tearing apart reality but didn't do so very elegantly. The place where the two waterfalls come together also supplies a kind-of crease that runs out of the water and into the woods. The lens follows the crease into the woods, where it leads him to a wooden pallisade where a bunch of dudes in green have been murdered (is this Julian's outpost?) and then deeper into the woods past that. Dalziel snaps out of his reverie.

Medore watches Corwin pick up a piece of driftwood. Corwin unfastens his cloak and offers an end of the cloak to Medore. Corwin holds the other end and moves out into the water. He uses the driftwood to put the seaweed out by the edge of the waterfall. Corwin steps out one more step and gets tugged by the current. He makes his way back. Corwin says that moving away from the waterfal wasn't just fighting the water current, there was a resistance that felt a bit like the veils of the Pattern. Medore suggests this shouldn't be a mystery, and Corwin says Random isn't answering. Dalziel suggests it would be good if they were there when someone arrives, that they should return to the castle.


4. Nix and Fiona head for the Blueprint room

They head for the blueprint room and start looking at the sub-basements and basements of the libraries in the world of Oberon's Loupe. Nix notices a suspicious thicker wall between two rooms in the plans, the floor by floor reveal of that space looks like it could be a stairwell. As they approach, we hear Bellantine asking "are you okay?" Nix asks if she's okay, and what's going on. The guy on the floor is looking under each book, like he's lost something. Nix tries to reach out with Psyche to the bewildered man. I find his mind clouded, and a dark stain on his soul. Nix is reminded of stories I've read in peoples' diaries about how minds were befuddled during the Black Road Wars. Nix sends the guy to the infirmary with a guard.

Nix asks Belle if the door was open when she walked by. She says it was open, but makes an excuse for the befuddled man. When alone, she accuses Abn Haram of causing the problems. Nix asks if she had brought in Random's book about kingship or the family. Bellantine reveals over-concern for Armistaud delaCroix St.Ambrose, who may have been caught out in the storm. Nix sends Bellantine out to organize the pages to find any missing books.

Nix and Fiona find the stairwell and take a candle down the stairway, where Fiona says there's magic residue. Nix leads the way down with his defensive shield ready. Nix asks Fiona to check the doors. She says the spell has been used, but broken on the magic door. A lot of power was discharged recently; there must exist a code-phrase that someone could deactivate it, but that wasn't used. Nix pushes open the door and sees a massive storage room for lots of old books.

They explore the big room in the hidden room and Fiona takes a couple of the books (ones that she wrote). Nix and Fiona have a minor battle of wills about whether she's taking the books out of the library. She does take them.  When they leave the room, they close the door and work together to re-enchant the door with CARDIAC ARREST spell.


1b. Abn Haram makes a book:
After Abn Haram creates his book, he uses his card to reach out to Nykae , who is far away and difficult to reach. Nykae is remote, and distracted. She's with someone who has a big army. Abn Haram tells her "pull me through if you want, or I can pull you through." She estimates that the person she's with has about 12,000 men. She is near OSRIC. He doesn't want to over-exert himself so he withdraws the "call."

Abn Haram decides to implement phase two of "project improve the library," then do some science on the cards. He finds the cards are very resistant to being tampered with. So he goes to drop off the book on the shelves near the family history section of the library, then he goes looking for Steward. Steward is discovered to be annoyingly helped by a library page. Abn Haram secrets the Gehenna card against his sleeve and keeps it at the ready. He returns to his suite to continue attempting to tamper with the cards and wait for morning.


2b. David and Maarit try to open the door:
Maarit uses her pendulum to try and open the door. The door rattles and seems like it's about to open.

Meanwhile, Nix and Fiona see the inconsequential door next to the magical door start to shake. Fiona suggests that Nix opens the door. They open the door and jam a handtruck in the door to prop it open. She says the wall in the door means it was sealed by Oberon himself before he died, and that it would take significant energy and finagling to break his seal, but that proping the door open will help make sure nothing can get through even if they have that power.

Fiona notices a big shelf of Tarot cards, says she'll have to come back.

Maarit stops as the door starts to rattle so fast it appears to be failing. They go back to try and find an alternate route, climbing the stairs and trying to get oriented. David follows Maarit.


3c. Dalziel and Medore on their way back to the castle:
As they make their way through the castle, an officer/guard sees them and heads over, letting Corwin know they can't find King Random. Corwin tells the guard he should just turn over the report that was for Random. The guard says no, at the orders of Lord Denesh. Corwin interrogates the guard about his absence, Dalziel joins in.

The guard mentions that the storm freed several of the guards who'd been taken captive. They were at a wedding, and held captive, and they heard Duchess Karm and Baron Chantris arguing, and he thought it was treasonous, perhaps. The guard says he's looked everywhere for the King. Corwin reassures the guard that the King is fine, and resting.

Corwin tells Dalziel he can go study the other science thing. Dalziel and Medore discuss whether Martin might show up soon and attempt to crown himself King. Dalziel suggests that they go to the Dungeon to survey the pattern. Medore intimidates the guards to let them go down to the dungeon. They arrive at the pattern and discover it, seemingly, unharmed.


4. Nix and Fiona head back up the stairs
Fiona says they have to assume he's gained access to things he wasn't supposed to have access to. Nix suggests that perhaps Haram isn't to blame, but maybe he is. Fiona suggests that the books are shadows of other worlds. They lay out a plan:

    To keep the door downstairs open
    Perhaps move the archive to a different secure place

Fiona reminds Nix of the list of books she'd been reading. She says "several members of the family are not themselves." She wonders if "House Moen" or "Osric" is behind it, and Abn Haram has links to both of these top suspects. She says the special bond among her siblings has been absent since the war. She says "we think we won the war" but perhaps that is not the case. She suggests that perhaps he was taken by the shape-shifters. She says there was a large battle in the Bay with a doppelganger fought by a doppelganger. And Abn Haram rode in the fleet with one of them.

Recruit some guards to watch the archive door, and to guard the collection room. Each Nix and Fiona recruit some guards so neither group can be compromised. Fiona indicates that it's nearly impossible to discern when someone is a doppelganger. If Osric has had legions of children with Chaos, they could have been infiltrating for a long time. Fiona suggests Bellantine could be involved. Nix asks if Fiona could be the one who changed.

Fiona shares the complicated history of Amber, and admits she was on the wrong side at one point or another. She said both of her full-blooded siblings turned because of her.

The Quotes of Chaos

Session 5/10/21

Dal: "That's it. We'll bed the servants one by one and two by two until we solve the problem." 

Medore: I might increase the numbers and speed it up a bit.

I’ll leave Corwin to his bureaucracy - Dal

I mean it’s a diceless RPG so the demons can’t get in -Andrew

Or maybe they can’t get out - Peter

“Actually, it’s my assumption that Abn Haram, based on this letter I’m reading, wants to kill me” -David
“Well then, you definitely shouldn’t let that happen” -Maarit

I can make a horse box later - Kaylin

“I will lie to myself and say he avoids AMBER like a plague” - Corwyn about Martin