Amber Game Log: Session 2
Session 2: 5/7/2009
Still in a meeting room at Argolin Castle in Jason's Shadow of the Realm, Talon attends to his prisoner (a vermik) and interrogates it. Discovers that the gods had been to its home shadow and recruited some of its people recently. And it's hungry.
Jason is concerned that the activation of the crystal will call something nasty to his shadow, and asks Sheenakri to check the borders and boost the security patrols, since he had determined it probable that there were military exercises going on.
Meanwhile, Leo and Jason examine the crystal. Jason discovers a latent afterimage of the woman's psyche, and Leo attempts to use that to create a Trump Sketch. Jason maintains control over the device, to make sure it isn't accidentally activated again, while looking for other controls/uses for the crystal. The woman is not recognized by anyone.
It is decided to take Talon's creature somewhere it can hunt/feed. Such as Sheenakri's shadow (reluctantly). Sheenakri discovers she can't Trump anyone back at shadow Wilder, nor the shadow itself. Then Talon can't reach his shadow by Trump. They decide to put the creature in a wildlife preserve under guard for now.
Concerned, Leo finds he can Trump to Amber and back. The group consider tracking down Torin, and pay a visit to the Hightowers, but Sheenakri's concern over her shadow wins out, and they try to pool their Psyche to Trump shadow Wilder. A connection opens, but Wilder isn't there. Instead, one of the connecting shadows is reach, on the shadow path to Wilder.
The group travels there, but the shadow path leads right past wilder. Like it isn't there. Then they are attacked by 6 of those creatures. Leo drops back to try and Trump Amber - but they are far enough out that it takes a moment. Jason steps back to defend him by sword.
Talon takes on a couple of creatures, clearly outclassing them by sword. Sheenakri similarly bashes and stabs a few combatants, while Bryce releases a lightning bolt spell he had ready to knock his opponent off its feet.
Jason tries to quickly shift local geography while backtracking, leading his opponent into grass concealing a rut in the ground. The creature stumbles, but Jason's attack is expertly blocked. Using the opportunity, Jason makes eye contact and shuts down combat quickly, appearing as one of its gods.
While the lightning bolt fries one, Sheenakri throws one of hers into the other, finishing them off. They have the dagger cards. Talon's refuse to surrender, and he makes short work of one, and the other makes a break for it. Talon follows discretely.
Jason's captive recalls being gathered by a tall man in full armor, face hidden by a black sugarloaf helm from its home to a nearby shadow, and delivered to a young man, with brown hair and a flaming dagger symbol. It is this dagger man who ordered them to attack, knowing where the Amberites would be.
Talon finds the 'staging area' for the attack, but there aren't any others still there, but they left recently. Leo abandon's the idea of Trumping back to Amber (but verifies it is still Trumpable) and soon thereafter Talon reaches him with the trail. The others come through, and Sheenakri finds some horses for them to follow.
Jason takes point, and leads the hellride after the young man (hopefully). The trail leads towards Chaos and is moving fast. Then it splits off, one track widening as if leading a group (or army) parallel with the original track, which remains. Sheenakri, Talon and Bryce continue on the current path, while Jason and Leo split off to follow the 'army'.
The army moves towards Chaos, just passing the midpoint, then disappears. Figuring a cover up, Jason heads farther towards Chaos, and tries to backtrack, but can't pick up anything after it disappears. Pulling up Pattern defense, he tries to barrel through, as if someone tried to pull the shadows over his senses, and he eventually breaks through, finding a little trail back towards the original track. They head back to the original group as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile the others make it to a valley where a single tree stands aways off before a stone wall cutting off the valley further down. They see someone ride up to the wall and dismount. They have a conversation with the Tree, Ygg, who has a little to say about beings who have passed by recently. Sheenakri is intrigued, and wonders if there is a connection between Ygg and her shadow. There is a storm (shadow storm?) brewing over head - over the wall.
The others catch up, and head to the wall. A tall man, in full black armor and sugarloaf helm blocks the door. He says they may not pass - yet. Talon disagrees and walks forward to attack, and gets his lights knocked out, repeatedly. The others try to help, distract the man, etc, but he does not relent. The storm peaks, there are thunderclaps, and the man steps aside, walks to his horse, and takes off.
Helping Talon, they enter the door to find an area walled off like a ceilingless room, containing a bluish-silver Pattern, and something else. A young man, brown hair, holding what looks like a shining ruby stands in the center of a new pattern, glowing red, panting and tired.
Leo conjures a crossbow and tosses it to Talon, who is too weak to shot it. Sheenakri takes it, aims, but the fellow pops out of the center, and reappears at the start of the new, writhing red Pattern. The groups tackles him, and Jason grabs the jewel away, searching for the flaw to verify it is what he thinks it is.
The man is Torin, and he is gleeful, saying he did it. The storm increases in intensity and the red Pattern pulses, feels like it is moving before your eyes. created a Pattern, he is asked. Now, smiles Torin, a Logrus!
And something comes out of the stormfront - a gigantic serpent flying towards us. Torin says we don''t have much time. Jason says he has even less, and stabs Torin in the heart. Leo takes the body and he and Jason toss it on the new logrus. Instead of erasing the lines, the blood seems to energize it, taking on the same red glow, and blotting out the lines into a large puddle, that seems to destabilize the Logrus. It seems to pull on the nearby Pattern, drawing energy from it and shifting it towards it.
The serpent gets nearer, and Jason tries to use a quick Pattern defense, to keep the two structures separate - pushing energy like a Pattern wall between the two. The Logrus swallows the energy, and the serpent is almost there.
They make a run for it, but the hellride gets barely past Ygg when the serpent catches up It is blind - that isn't Amber's jewel, but the other eye, recently stolen. Jason exchanges words with the Serpent, letting it know they saved the jewel from the one who stole it - without them it could have been anywhere by then. It owes them. The serpent grants them their lives, and only wrenches Jason's shoulder as it takes the eye back. It leaves back towards Chaos.
They wander back, and the pattern is being drained, and slips towards the damaged Logrus. Nothing they try seems to stop it. Sheenakri talks with Ygg to try and find out if it can do something to the ground to disrupt the Logrus. No good. The other four decide to walk the dying pattern, hoping it will accept them, and they can bolster it as they walk, renewing it.
They walk in series, with Talon who is too weak otherwise in the middle with Leo who has never walked before. It's different than the usual walk, but the same. Sheenakri joins in before they reach the center, but it is already starting to recover. s she reaches the center, the Pattern brightens, and it pulls back from the Logrus, drawing the energies back. It swallows all of the Logrus, absorbing it's energies and causing the Logrus to vanish.
The storm reaches them, but it isn't as bad, and breaks now that the new creation isn't there to sustain it. They wait it out in the center of the revived Pattern.
After a rest, Talon has the Pattern send him to the woman from the crystal, and he reappears in a room somewhere in Chaos.
Leonardo wants to stay in the Pattern, absorbing the feel of the area, so he can draw it later, and resting after his Pattern walk. Jason takes the others to the center of the Primal Pattern to wait out the storm as it crosses through Amber. The griffin comes out to see if Jason has any food. Not this time.
Still in a meeting room at Argolin Castle in Jason's Shadow of the Realm, Talon attends to his prisoner (a vermik) and interrogates it. Discovers that the gods had been to its home shadow and recruited some of its people recently. And it's hungry.
Jason is concerned that the activation of the crystal will call something nasty to his shadow, and asks Sheenakri to check the borders and boost the security patrols, since he had determined it probable that there were military exercises going on.
Meanwhile, Leo and Jason examine the crystal. Jason discovers a latent afterimage of the woman's psyche, and Leo attempts to use that to create a Trump Sketch. Jason maintains control over the device, to make sure it isn't accidentally activated again, while looking for other controls/uses for the crystal. The woman is not recognized by anyone.
It is decided to take Talon's creature somewhere it can hunt/feed. Such as Sheenakri's shadow (reluctantly). Sheenakri discovers she can't Trump anyone back at shadow Wilder, nor the shadow itself. Then Talon can't reach his shadow by Trump. They decide to put the creature in a wildlife preserve under guard for now.
Concerned, Leo finds he can Trump to Amber and back. The group consider tracking down Torin, and pay a visit to the Hightowers, but Sheenakri's concern over her shadow wins out, and they try to pool their Psyche to Trump shadow Wilder. A connection opens, but Wilder isn't there. Instead, one of the connecting shadows is reach, on the shadow path to Wilder.
The group travels there, but the shadow path leads right past wilder. Like it isn't there. Then they are attacked by 6 of those creatures. Leo drops back to try and Trump Amber - but they are far enough out that it takes a moment. Jason steps back to defend him by sword.
Talon takes on a couple of creatures, clearly outclassing them by sword. Sheenakri similarly bashes and stabs a few combatants, while Bryce releases a lightning bolt spell he had ready to knock his opponent off its feet.
Jason tries to quickly shift local geography while backtracking, leading his opponent into grass concealing a rut in the ground. The creature stumbles, but Jason's attack is expertly blocked. Using the opportunity, Jason makes eye contact and shuts down combat quickly, appearing as one of its gods.
While the lightning bolt fries one, Sheenakri throws one of hers into the other, finishing them off. They have the dagger cards. Talon's refuse to surrender, and he makes short work of one, and the other makes a break for it. Talon follows discretely.
Jason's captive recalls being gathered by a tall man in full armor, face hidden by a black sugarloaf helm from its home to a nearby shadow, and delivered to a young man, with brown hair and a flaming dagger symbol. It is this dagger man who ordered them to attack, knowing where the Amberites would be.
Talon finds the 'staging area' for the attack, but there aren't any others still there, but they left recently. Leo abandon's the idea of Trumping back to Amber (but verifies it is still Trumpable) and soon thereafter Talon reaches him with the trail. The others come through, and Sheenakri finds some horses for them to follow.
Jason takes point, and leads the hellride after the young man (hopefully). The trail leads towards Chaos and is moving fast. Then it splits off, one track widening as if leading a group (or army) parallel with the original track, which remains. Sheenakri, Talon and Bryce continue on the current path, while Jason and Leo split off to follow the 'army'.
The army moves towards Chaos, just passing the midpoint, then disappears. Figuring a cover up, Jason heads farther towards Chaos, and tries to backtrack, but can't pick up anything after it disappears. Pulling up Pattern defense, he tries to barrel through, as if someone tried to pull the shadows over his senses, and he eventually breaks through, finding a little trail back towards the original track. They head back to the original group as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile the others make it to a valley where a single tree stands aways off before a stone wall cutting off the valley further down. They see someone ride up to the wall and dismount. They have a conversation with the Tree, Ygg, who has a little to say about beings who have passed by recently. Sheenakri is intrigued, and wonders if there is a connection between Ygg and her shadow. There is a storm (shadow storm?) brewing over head - over the wall.
The others catch up, and head to the wall. A tall man, in full black armor and sugarloaf helm blocks the door. He says they may not pass - yet. Talon disagrees and walks forward to attack, and gets his lights knocked out, repeatedly. The others try to help, distract the man, etc, but he does not relent. The storm peaks, there are thunderclaps, and the man steps aside, walks to his horse, and takes off.
Helping Talon, they enter the door to find an area walled off like a ceilingless room, containing a bluish-silver Pattern, and something else. A young man, brown hair, holding what looks like a shining ruby stands in the center of a new pattern, glowing red, panting and tired.
Leo conjures a crossbow and tosses it to Talon, who is too weak to shot it. Sheenakri takes it, aims, but the fellow pops out of the center, and reappears at the start of the new, writhing red Pattern. The groups tackles him, and Jason grabs the jewel away, searching for the flaw to verify it is what he thinks it is.
The man is Torin, and he is gleeful, saying he did it. The storm increases in intensity and the red Pattern pulses, feels like it is moving before your eyes. created a Pattern, he is asked. Now, smiles Torin, a Logrus!
And something comes out of the stormfront - a gigantic serpent flying towards us. Torin says we don''t have much time. Jason says he has even less, and stabs Torin in the heart. Leo takes the body and he and Jason toss it on the new logrus. Instead of erasing the lines, the blood seems to energize it, taking on the same red glow, and blotting out the lines into a large puddle, that seems to destabilize the Logrus. It seems to pull on the nearby Pattern, drawing energy from it and shifting it towards it.
The serpent gets nearer, and Jason tries to use a quick Pattern defense, to keep the two structures separate - pushing energy like a Pattern wall between the two. The Logrus swallows the energy, and the serpent is almost there.
They make a run for it, but the hellride gets barely past Ygg when the serpent catches up It is blind - that isn't Amber's jewel, but the other eye, recently stolen. Jason exchanges words with the Serpent, letting it know they saved the jewel from the one who stole it - without them it could have been anywhere by then. It owes them. The serpent grants them their lives, and only wrenches Jason's shoulder as it takes the eye back. It leaves back towards Chaos.
They wander back, and the pattern is being drained, and slips towards the damaged Logrus. Nothing they try seems to stop it. Sheenakri talks with Ygg to try and find out if it can do something to the ground to disrupt the Logrus. No good. The other four decide to walk the dying pattern, hoping it will accept them, and they can bolster it as they walk, renewing it.
They walk in series, with Talon who is too weak otherwise in the middle with Leo who has never walked before. It's different than the usual walk, but the same. Sheenakri joins in before they reach the center, but it is already starting to recover. s she reaches the center, the Pattern brightens, and it pulls back from the Logrus, drawing the energies back. It swallows all of the Logrus, absorbing it's energies and causing the Logrus to vanish.
The storm reaches them, but it isn't as bad, and breaks now that the new creation isn't there to sustain it. They wait it out in the center of the revived Pattern.
After a rest, Talon has the Pattern send him to the woman from the crystal, and he reappears in a room somewhere in Chaos.
Leonardo wants to stay in the Pattern, absorbing the feel of the area, so he can draw it later, and resting after his Pattern walk. Jason takes the others to the center of the Primal Pattern to wait out the storm as it crosses through Amber. The griffin comes out to see if Jason has any food. Not this time.