Introduction

A full set of Players for this session. Taala did indeed walk the pattern so I'll need to go back and do the retrospective edit on the last session log. The True spirit of Amber surfaced this week as the characters started to squabble amongst themselves. We'll see how things develop.

Carnelian - Taking stock

With Cordelia unconscious in the Infirmary and Taala, Ion, and Daida sleeping the sleep of the pattern exhausted, Sorcha and Charity spend the rest of the day and night catching up on events and histories.

It is the early hours the following morning before Taala and Ion awake. They make a foray to the kitchens where the night staff sort them out an early breakfast. Ion gets a breakfast sent to Daida's room.
After they've finished eating Taala goes in search of Fiona and Ion to find out where Daida is. Finding him still comatose he eats his breakfast before going to find Taala.

Taala enters the pattern room to find Fiona in her customary position in the middle of the pattern and Sorcha and Charity discussing matters under Drasil. Ion arrives a little later and after a short discussion they are about to adjourn for breakfast when a sound like multiple rolls of thunder rolls was over the castle. Ion and Taala race for the roof of the keep whilst Sorcha and Charity head for the Royal dining room.
The thunder rolls turn out to be a mortar barrage.

Daida wakes about this time and has a new breakfast brought to him, before joining the others plus Vialle in the royal dining room. They then visit Cordelia, and Daida tries Chi healing with no discernable affect.
As time passes Ion and Taala grow more and more restless, Ion wants to leave for Amber immediately but Daida wants to wait and see if Cordelia recovers.

Frustrated Ion goes to the pattern room to confront Fiona. She reads him like a book then tells him there's nothing he can do to help. The group decides to go see Vialle to sort out who's in charge in the Castle. It turns out Fiona is, although most of the military decisions are left to General Hammond. In the discussions that follow, Vialle runs through her Braille trumps detailing which of the family were last known to be alive.
After the meeting all except Ion return to the infirmary to see if there are any trumps amongst Cordelia's things. Daida detects a minute change in Cordelia's condition. He starts Chi healing and encouraged by the initial results pours energy into Cordelia until his head aches from the effort. Taala then takes over using Life Force power words. After several hours Cordelia recovers consciousness.

Meanwhile, Ion goes off the the town to kill himself a wadge of demons, and barely escapes, crawling back via the cleft gate to sleep off the paralysis poison in the infirmary. Charity searches Cordelia's room and backpack and locates a trump deck amongst her things. When she returns to the infirmary Cordelia is awake. A short discussion of events takes place before the group disperse. Charity goes to inform Fiona that Cordelia is awake.

Carnelian - Departure

Early the following morning Cordelia discharges herself from the infirmary, holding a short conversation with Ion, who's now mostly recovered from yesterday's combat. The group meet up for breakfast, then go in search of Cordelia.

Finding her in the middle of the pattern, emulating Fiona, they decide that they have no choice but to go it alone. They requisition supplies and weapons, and depart the castle via the cleft. Ion leads the way, retracing the steps Cordelia took to bring them here. After a couple of hours tramping through the forest they realize the path is not the same as the one they walked with Cordelia. Ion tries to manipulate shadow but without success. After an hour of walking and failing he tries to build a mental image of the pattern in front of him as he walks but fails in this also. After half an hour of failure, he stops, sits down and concentrates. After three quarters of an hour he succeeds. The others are growing restless. Walking slowly so as to maintain the image of the pattern, he tries manipulating shadow again. Two hours pass by and with no discernable results he stops and sits down to think. Another hour passes. Charity becomes bored and draws out the courtyard trump. Whilst she can get the card to change, the sensation caused breaks her concentration and she's forced back to square one. The others sit about and wait.

Ion realizes he's missed something, clears his mind and extends his perception. It takes about three quarters of an hour before he can dimly perceive the structure of shadow, and a further hour of trial and error before he works out the technique for manipulating it. Leaping to his feet in a burst of Euphoria, he sets off the others trailing in his wake, although he's forced to stop after 40 minutes because of the pounding in his head and pain between his eyes. He starts to explain the process to Taala. Charity goes back to playing with the courtyard trump.