Introduction

Although I wanted 5 players I've only got 3 so we'll have to see how its goes. Eddy Black is playing Daida, a General/Philosopher from a 22nd Century Earth like world based along the lines of Feudal Japan, Alan Tidy is playing Charity Winters, a Genetics Engineer from a mid 21st Century parallel Earth, and Tristan is playing Taala, Princess of The Court- a medieval earth like world with a culture reminiscent of Romany Gipsy culture.

The auction order, by random draw using a pack of playing cards, turned out to be Warfare, Strength, Endurance, Psyche!. All bidding was done by secret ballot and I'm not revealing the results yet. The only attribute the players have any definitive knowledge of probable ranking is Psyche, where either Alan or Tristan is first and the other is second. Watching Alan destroy his previously crafted character was entertaining. As they are wont to say " No predefined character in Amber survives contact with the Auction! "

The tendril the players see - read the Thirteenth Hour character intro - is sent by the Living Logrus to summon the Children of Amber into its presence. Each character is grabbed in turn and pulled across shadow in the grasp of a tendril until they find themselves approaching a tower, on top of which sits a huge Blue crystal. The tendril pulls them through the walls of the crystal and they now find themselves in a pentacular prism with 100m long walls, 60m high. In the center of each wall is a 50mx40m 'living' painting. In the center of the floor is a geomantic construct. The construct consists of 3 concentric circles spaced 7 and 49 cm apart such that the inner circle has a radius of 21m. Inside the inner circle is constructed a 5 pointed star, forming a pentagram at its center. Between the Outer and Middle circle are 5 sets of seven symbols. Between the Middle and Inner circle is an inscription. In the center of the pentagram is a huge shifting thing of energy, deep blue in colour which is shot through with deep reds and sky blues that ripple across its surface and out along numerous tendrils like the ones holding the players.

About 30 seconds after the third of the players arrive (they all arrive within the space of about 15 seconds), one of the tendrils flashes and intense bright blue and vanishes. A further 30 seconds pass, and there is a blinding flash and the players are unceremoniously dumped on the floor. When they recover their senses, there is a black haired female figure in a vibrant green dress and black knee length boots lying unconscious in the middle of the pentagram. Whilst the others talk amongst themselves and investigate the room Taala takes a look at the woman and tries to heal her. She is hurled 50 feet across the room for her efforts. When the woman recovers she summons a banquet which appears in the room and introduces herself as Dierdre. She then tells them of the reality of their inheritance and briefs them on the current situation in Shadow. As the thirteenth hour draws to a close she sends them off with no resistance to the person who used Pattern Defense to block her tendril.

Having not slept properly for 72 hours, and having had to block one Logrus tendril already, and then having three people appear at the ends of Logrus Tendrils in your cramped 25ft x 20ft survival shelter does nothing to aid one's temper. So when the PC's are deposited into such a setting things could have got interesting. However faced with a figure in heavy armour carrying, what even those unfamiliar with the concept of guns managed to work out was a heavy weapon of some description, they chose to be polite and make no sudden moves.

After a certain amount of asking pointed questions, the figure in question who eventually introduces herself as Cordelia Chan, manages to extract sufficient information to know they were telling some semblance of a version of the truth about what's happened to them and the events of that evening, and they are most likely 'cousins'. Given there were now three body guards about she decides to get some sleep. Taala does likewise curling up under the table in the survival shelter hoping that she'd soon wake up from the dream she was having. The other two are left standing and wondering what it is that requires such a heavy door to keep out.