[Road to Amber] [Golden Hunter] Lilliput: 3, Amber: 0
Moxon's snarl is immutable, and it isn't hard to divine what's got him in a mood; he looks like he tried to take his pet wolverine to the vet, and failed. He's tossed his old robe over his armor, perhaps as much to hide his shame as keep comfortable. The horse responds to his commands, at least, and he does most of his duty from the saddle.
Quinlan is definitely getting the hang of this flying thing; the mage rides along on his Leaf as if it were his own Alhambran flying carpet. He's a touch wary of this bad mood of Moxon's. Not a good idea to annoy the tracker, after all. But he's keeping up well enough.
Dirk is walking along with his usual hyperness more subdued. He's a footsolider and is following Moxon.
Moxon leads the trio out of Arden, fore-and-back through different nearby versions of Amber itself; the Hunter must be closing on his target. Technologies, magic, societies -- nothing the group can't cope with, though the differences may give one pause. Oddly enough, things start diminishing in size. The landscape ... shrinks, even as the walkers do not.
Quinlan blinks at the shrinking worlds. "...Cyndre can't be responsible for this," he muses. "She gets bigger, not smaller."
Dirk is walking along with his usual hyperness more subdued. He's a footsolider and is following Moxon quietly being observant. As things get smaller he watches his feet. "Maybe we are getting bigger and we don't notice it yet?"
Moxon dismounts to check the soil, grunting more than usual. He considers the lay of slightly-off Amber, where Kolvir is merely an impressive hill, not a staggering ur-mountain. "Not trackin' Cyndre," he murmurs, ease in his voice for his friends. "... she's easy to find. Follow the smell of sulphur. I'm takin' you to where the Hunter is as he gets closer to /us./" He adjusts course, moving through various tiny Ambers.
Quinlan nods. "But he's hunting Cyndre, still," he notes. "Maybe this is some kind of shortcut." He peers at the tiny Amber from over the side of his leaf. "Or maybe it *is* time to tell the military about the Hunter. Are we very far from Amber now? I mean, the regular sized one?"
Dirk quiets down and listens "sorry I can't be of more help."
Moxon says, "It's gonna depend on what other changes happen. Small Amber underwater is still further from regular Amber than small Amber fulla air."
Quinlan gives Dirk an odd look. "Who says you're not?" he asks. "You're with the army, right? That hasn't changed?"
Dirk nods" yeah?"
Moxon chuckles. "Don't call yourself useless when nothing's happened yet, Dirk."
Dirk shrugs "this seems like smart educated stuff, I am all about the crazy stuff."
Quinlan nods agreement with Moxon. "You really think we won't need the Army or the Navy before this is done? It's your call, when we start letting the uncles know about this. You've got soldiers."
Moxon interrupts navel-gazing. "Ah. Semi-reduced bamboo Arden. It could be selecting for the forest? Better than the sea, if you ask me."
Dirk says "I like the water better than the woods."
Moxon says, "... or worse. Not sure."
Quinlan smiles. "I'll go with Forest. Ships are so easy to destroy. And once you hurt the ship, all aboard can die. Forest is much easier. Are we close, then, Moxon?"
Moxon nods. He has quieted some. "Song's starting. We've got a little distance, but not much."
Dirk says, "are there going to be giant pandas in the pack?"
Moxon says, "... what roosts in bamboo? Army of pandar-bears?"
Moxon snerk. "Jinx. You owe me a drink."
Dirk laughs. "okay."
Quinlan frowns. "...I don't know," he admits. "I kind of avoid Jade. So many preconceptions, so many rules." He directs the Leaf so as not to give mini-Amber a hugely overcast day, looking around for the Hunter. "You're right. I can hear it. He *can't* be gathering the Hunt in a place like this though. What good would it do him?"
Dirk says, "maybe its a mini hunter for a mini shadow?"
Moxon shrugs. "If he moves through the right Shadows, he could have microbes in the pack."
Quinlan blinks. "....Interesting thought," he admits. "A hunter that uses diseases. I'm not sure we've got enough - what, Vitamin C? to deal with that."
Dirk stares "what do we need today? tea, coffee, rum?"
Moxon says, "All the rums. Light, dark, the kind with scorpions in it ..."
Dirk says, "gator rum?"
"Shh," says Quinlan quickly. "Listen." And if the shushing happens, it's not hard to hear. Anybody who's been in Amber recently would recognize the sounds of battle. And fireballs. The mage's Leaf rises higher into the air, to get a better view.
Moxon quiets and follows.
Dirk quietly listens.
Quinlan offers direction by the relatively quiet (though hardly subtle) method of causing an illusory arrow to appear in the air before the other two as he flies up and overhead. And indeed, it seems Mini-Amber has about the same troubles as the full sized version. There's very definitely a war going on between miniature versions of the Elders. Only...as they near the battle, the players are very different and it isn't that hard to see why. The Golden Hunter stands large as life - well, at least, as large as he usually stands - and his Hunt consists of Caine and his littler ships, and Julian and his littler Rangers, trying to rip Amber apart, with Benedict's armies more or less the only visible defenders. Or maybe they're just the front line.
Moxon says, "That could actually be ... problematic."
Dirk smiles "can i try something?"
Quinlan floats down on his Leaf to more or less conversational distance. "There's a king, or a regent, but I can't see who it is," he says. "But there's little Hounds defending the Palace. So...sure?"
Moxon says, "Have at."
Moxon stays at a respectable distance on horseback, and loads his bow with an experimental arrow. He seems perfectly content, if undisturbed, to spend all the time he needs to aim.
Dirk walks towards a Prince who is closest to him.
It's hard to be a giant on a battlefield and not get noticed. Once Dirk actually wades into the fray, everyone on every side seems to feel he's the enemy. Arrows and spears zing toward him from all over.
Quinlan stays decidedly fray-adjacent, still studying the sides in play from above.
Moxon looses his bone-tipped arrow at the Hunter.
Dirk is looking for Caine and holds up his arm to protect his face.
Caine is among the ships of his half of the Navy; the flagship seems well defended, surrounded by other ships of the Fleet.
RPG: Moxon challenges a difficulty of 10. Moxon chooses Grace and the gift SKL-QM. Moxon almost succeeds.
RPG: Dirk challenges a difficulty of 10. Dirk chooses Wits and the gift BLD-OB. Dirk succeeds.
Dirk reaches over to see if he can find Caine.
Alas, the Hunter is not sufficiently distracted by the interesting battle around them; a golden hand reaches out to snatch Moxon's bone arrow out of the air, snapping it in half. He raises his trident, pointing it at Moxon. While the little princes seem sufficiently self-aware that it takes more than a pointed weapon to send them after Moxon, a fair chunk of their forces are not so strong-willed. Ships turn in the water to broadside the Ranger - and little Rangers add arrows to drive him off.
Meanwhile, Dirk manages to dodge more of those mini-flaming-balls-of-pitch the ships launch to look over the crew of the flagship...but is it any surprise that Caine is nowhere to be seen on board?
Quinlan calls down, "I don't see Bleys or Fiona anywhere. But Brand is on Benedict's side, watch out for fireballs!"
Dirk shakes his head and keeps looking for uncles. as he does so he statr
Moxon's face falls. He curses, wading into the pint-size war and kicking furiously with his steel-soled boots. ""F*** _you,_ an' _you,_ never liked _you_..."
Dirk shakes his head and keeps looking for uncles. as he does so he starts to find where those annoying flaming pitch balls are coming from and does his best to take them out.
Moxon calls over, to Quinlan, "What's on these **** arrows?! Curare? It stings!" He swats at his own face, sweeping away little toothpicks.
Moxon kicks out the blades hidden in those soles with a mighty *ch-chak,* from the perspective of his prey, and starts sweeping his legs. It's gonna get mighty slippery over here in a minute.
RPG: Moxon challenges a difficulty of 8. Moxon chooses Force and the gift STY-UN. Moxon almost succeeds.
Quinlan does what he can to help - namely, wrapping Moxon in wind to make it a little harder for arrows to hit him. "Like I've ever been here before!" he calls back. "I think Eric's in charge of the Palace, here! Is that good or bad?"
Dirk pulls out his sword and pokes holes in the nearest ship below the waterline to give people a bigger problem to worry about.
Moxon overextends, slipping and falling. Grrreaaat. He is soon swarmed.
Moxon says, "SON OF A --"
Quinlan yells over to Dirk, "Hey, quit dealing with your parental issues a moment and give Moxon a hand! We need to get out of here!" The mage, it seems, does not want to set fire to family, even miniature echoes of family. But he does try to use strong winds to blow some of the attackers away from Moxon.
Dirk yells "roll over on top of them!"
Moxon says, "Ackpth! Ptth!"
Moxon flails.
Quinlan isn't exactly so skilled on his leaf that he can do clever intimidating swoopage. But he can cast while flying, and does so - sending out gusts of wind that bowl over rows of attackers. "Dirk, come on! I can't carry him off and magic doesn't depend on size! They bring Brand in here we are *all on fire*, can we avoid that please?"
Moxon scrambles for a place Trump.
Moxon says, "I think I just swallowed one!"
Dirk heads over and offers moxon one hand up while using his sword to whackamole mini relatives. When Moxon mention swallowing Dirk cracks up laughing.
Moxon rises, all cape and-fuck-this-place.
True to Quinlan's unhappy guess, soon enough full sized fireballs start aiming for them from the direction of the palace. The very first one knocks Quinlan, yelping, right off his Leaf. This isn't great news for the three or four people he and his Leaf land *on*, but Quinlan's too busy putting out the fire on himself to focus on the cuts at first. "We gotta get out of here." Statement of the Obvious, Gold medal contender. He charges toward Moxon and Dirk - not to fight, just to make sure all three of them shift out of this crazy.
Moxon storms off, pissed but quick. His heels go clangclangclang on the city as he beats a retreat.
Dirk heads off after moxon but makes sure to stomp on a redhead or two
Moxon says, "Let's. just. go."
Moxon says, "... I swear I'll never call you Didi again -- just don't breathe this to a soul."
Quinlan just hangs onto his Leaf as an impromptu shield, and runs after the other two, shifting shadow as fast as he can to get away from the crazy mini-relatives. Panting for breath, and patting his singed clothes, he says, "Education could stand to be more boring."
Dirk nods "deal."