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
