Introduction

Owen was away this week so Alfred was in NPC mode. This was actually quiet useful as it meant he had time to recover from his injuries, practice his shapeshifting, and inscribe the runes he wanted on his dagger.
I introduced Sorcha at the start of the session amongst much suspicion from some quarters. There's still not a concensus on what they want to do and Duncan is realising that not selecting powers at the start can be a bit restrictive - but then he's new to Amber and didn't know what he wanted.
Overall they're making progress and have some ideas of what they want to do later.

A Port somewhere in Shadow

As a circle clears Allagahn and Charity sense a power surge, one they've felt before. A huge logrus tendril arrives and discorges, as if giving birth, a naked unconscious female, a pile of rags and metal and a sword.
Sensing the growing hostility in the crowd they chuck Alfred on his horse, the female in fornt of Charity on her horse, and ride out of town shadow shifting as they go. By the time the reach the town gates the world is peaceful and none of the events of the previous hour have happened in this reality. They turn around and ride back to a very similar inn to the one they spent last night in, where they have rooms waiting.

By the time they reach the inn the female is sufficiently conscious to tell them her name is Sorcha, that her mother, Dierdre sent her, and give them a little more information imparted to her by her mother. She also reveals that her mother saved her from three of the demons that exist in the 13^th Hour.

After a few hours rest they set off again, in search of an abandoned cart, two wheel, in good condition with a pair of good well nourished horses, carrying a mixture of supplies and weapons - spears, polearms, bows, and arrows. Allagahn is leading.

After 10 hours of travelling they come across the cart but its stuck axle deep in a boggy section of road. They spend a couple of hours unloading, hoisting it out, an reloading what they want, before setting out again. Both Charity and Sorcha make use of their shape shifting abilites to avoid sinking upto their knees in the quagmire.

Travelling with the cart is much slower than riding and Charity begins to figdet at lack of progress. She makes the decison to start hellriding but is concearned about the horses reaction. She decides to obtain blinkers, and arranges for them to pass an abandoned stables stocked with the items she needs.
Whilst she's familiar with the principles of hellriding she's never done it and starts out conservatively. Whilst this means thay travel slower than an experienced Amberite would they are now making better progress toward Nancheng. To cover the hellride Charity darkens the skys, making them full of rain, and puts the horses into a canter. In the two and half hours it takes the horses to tire they make about 10 hours of distance towards their destination. There is a single intrusion of the 13^th hour but no demons are encountered. Charity sets Orac to attempting to learn more about this strange intrusion of an alternate reality.

With both Charity and the horses tired they are force to stop for about six hours, to get some rest. Rested they resume, with another three hours hell riding followed by a three hour rest. Both Charity and the horses are really starting to feel the strain so they shadow walk normally for a couple of hours to bring them to an inn for a nights rest. The inn has a distinctly oriental feel about it.

Their nights sleep is interupted by another intrusion of the 13^thHour, and due to his paranoia Allagahn wakes as the world freezes. He they proceedes to wake everybody, although both Alfred and Sorcha are annoyed by this. Interestingly Orac has managed not to be frozen this time. This allows him to calculate that the intrusions are occuring every 16 hours when measured in Amber time.
The hour passes without disturbance, although Orac senses presences moving beyond the walls of the inn. With morning they commence travelling again, and put in another long day. Night sees them an another inn and another peaceful 13^thHour intrusion.

With the dawn of another day Charity and the horses are completely rested and another two blocks of three hour hellrides seperated by a three hour rest ensue. With the pallible closeness of Nincheng Charity pushes on at normal pace for another hour bringing them into the city itself.

Nancheng 22 Qiyue gui-chou

Having arrived in the city they find themselves an inn and book in, paying for four nights. Allagahn departs immediately wanting to be well outside the city and on his way to seek his sword before the next 13^thHour intrusion. The rest settle themselves into the inn for a well deserved rest.

Meanwhile out in Shadow

Allagahan rides for a couple of hours developing a forest theme. With the 13^th Hour looming he finds an inn, turns his horse over to a stable hand, and makes it inside just as the 13^th Hour intrudes. He then spend the next 15 minutes running up and down the stairs for no apparent reason.