Another reduced week as Marcus left early to avoid issues with road closures. He did stay long enough to sort out what Isocrates was doing for the next couple of days, game time, which mean both he and Damon are significantly ahead of the rest of the party. With Marcus and Isocrates out, Waleed felt there was little Damon could do, which is true enough.
This left Fane, Allanon, and Kohaku, to escort Cordelia and Sorcha through castle Amber...
Cordelia leads the decsent off the plateau down to the roof of her tower. Finding the door unlocked they go inside and descend to the top floor. Cordelia explains that they're on the top floor of her 3 floor apartment, and that they should be safe enough either here on on the floor below which is her bedroom. She then explains that she needs to find out exactly what the situation is in the castle, especially in regards to getting into Dworkin's tower.
Allanon asks why they didn't just land on the roof of Dworkin's tower. Cordelia explains that she wouldn't attempt to enter Dworkin's tower by anything other than the front door.. any other way is simple too dangerous. Fane suggests he should go with her, which she accepts, whilst when Allanon makes the same offer she makes a sarcastic retort. However, she does accept his offer of the cloaking spell he used earlier.
Fane and Cordelia head down the stairs away from her apartment. Not being able to see each other, of hear each other move, Fane collides with her on a couple of occasions before she suggests this isn't going to work and tells him to wait in the stair well. She returns several minutes later to tell him that getting into Dworkin's tower that way wasn't going to work.. there were simply too many guards and patrols.
They return to the others and give them the bad news. Sorcha asks Cordelia about her pool, and Cordelia responds by saying its a trump construct. With Fane fretting over delays they head out again, except Cordelia turns the opposite way this time. They head down several floors. Cordelia then exits into a gallery and immediately begins running. Fane follows her, then Allanon, followed by Kohaku and Sorcha. Allanon sprints past Cordelia and unleashes a chain lightening spell into the oncomming demons. It stops the first in its tracks, before richocheting into the others, one of who cannons into the back of the first one, causing them both to stagger.
Cordelia now passes him slashing the demon across the head. Fane grapples one of the others, and failing to penetrate its' armour throws it bodily over the walkway. Cordlia kills the first demon then mule kicks the one behind it to stop it regaining its balance. Fane moves in to grapple the other and throw it after its compatriot. Cordelia drops the other with a pair of sword blows. She then races for the top of the stairs as shouts of intruders echo through the castle. She keeps up a high pace until they're about 70 feet from the base of the stairs.
She then asks Allanon if he can cast his light spell about 70ft out into the darkness and about 50ft down. He's not sure. Rather than take the risk she takes down one of the lanterns which provides small pools of illumination on the stairs and hurls it out into the darkness. A few seconds later there's a crash, and a mini-fireball which lights up the area close to the bottom of the stairs revealing the 8 demons waiting for them. She starts down the stairs at a run. The party follow her.
About 20 ft from the bottom she vanishes, appearing a fraction of a second later behind the demons, rolling away from them to take the force out of the drop. Sorcha drops off the edge of the stairs in demon form to provide yet another distraction. Fane sticks close to the wall, taking on the demon closest to it. Allanon steams into the middle and Kohaku unleashes Scarlet at the pair of demons closest to Fane.
Cordelia's distraction draws the two demons off the rear and she deliberately backs up to draw them off further. Sorcha gets bundled by the demon she's facing and goes down, Fane finds he's evenly matched by the demon he faces, Allanon gets pummelled by the pair of demons he's facing and he back up, then jumps off the edge of the stairs, one of the pair follows him, whilst the other heads up the stairs towards Kohaku. Scarlet breathes fire onto the pair closing on him, but he's forced to back up in response.
Out of sight Cordelia badly wounds one of the demons, but gets knocked off her feet by the other. Sorcha tries to get out from under the demon but realises its more than a match for her. Fane tries to feint the demon he's facing but it doesn't take the bait. Scarlet breathes on the demons again, giving them pause for concern. Kohaku deploys Static to stop the demon closing on her. Allanon backs up trying to get enough room to cast his meteor spell.
Cordelia regains her feet and turns the tables on the second demon. Sorcha uses a submission feint to trick the demon into trying a single killing blow, then uses it's own momentum to impale it on her sword. Fane pulls a similar stunt on the demon hes facing, allowing him to grab it then break its hold, before slowly turning the tables on it in a brute battle of strength. Scartlet finally incinerates the pair of demons he's facing, whilst Static wounds the demon coming up the stairs. Allanon starts to cast his spell causing the demon to pause in response.
Scarlet attempts to bite the demon Fane is facing but finds his teeth don't penetrate it's armour. Cordelia kills the wounded demon then determines where she's needed next. Fane forces the demon he has hold of the the ground, whilst Allanons meteor frys the demon, within its blast radius. Static wounds the demon further, whilst Sorcha extracts herself from under the demon.
Cordelia kills the demon Fane's locked down, whilst Static kills the last demon on the stairs.
Gathering everyone up Cordelia heads for the cell block, dispatching the jailer on the way. She unlocks the cell her father had been imprisoned in and begins to examine the trump sketches drawn by Dworkin. Satisfied they still hold power she begins to carefully clean the study trump so that she can activate it.. she instructs the other to keep watch. A nervous 20 minutes pass whilst she completes her work.
With limited space in the cell getting everyone through and into the cramped study is painfully taxing, and Codelia finally trumps through covered in sweat. Allanon now exhausted by all his spell slinging slumps in a corner whilst Fane stands guard near the door into the castle. The party carefully search the study, but find nothing much of interest, although Cordelia does stash 2 books in her pack. Not finding anything of use, and still troubled by a disparity between what her father describes in his diaries and what she finds Cordelia raises the pattern and examines the room, then kicks herself when she realises the exit to the foul cave is actually a trump gate, and the brick under the map is some sort of trump key. Taking the brick block out of its slot she studdies it, realising that it's actually a book of trump images. After a certain amount of guess work she manages to find the image as described by her father, but can't get the gate to change in response to changing the page. In frustration she returns to the image as described by her father and drops the brick back into place .. the gate changes in response. Waking Allanon the party move into the study beyond, finding that the trump gate through which they entered closes behind them.
Whilst significantly larger, there are a few interesting elements to this study, firstly the furniture is a lot older and is all set into alcoves in the walls, all except for one writing desk which appears to have been pulled forward rucking up the rug in front of it. In a similar fashion to the first study there appear to be two exists, a large ion bound oak door, covered in scratches and gouges, and an arch that appears to leave into a cave. The rug in front of this arch is not only stained but appears to be encrusted with dried excrement, which thickens in depth the closer to the cave it gets.
Fane attempts to open the iron door, which appears to have neither handle nor lock, and just geta a few splinters for his trouble. Kohaku investigates the writing desk that has been pulled out, and discovers a compartment in the middle of the back that appears to be the right size to contain a book, were it not now empty. Finding no other exits Cordelia examines the oak door using the pattern and discovers that it conceals the image of the Pattern just under the surface. She also notes the distortion to the Pattern construct close to where the lock/handle would be if it had one, but is currently too tired to work out how to open it. She announces she's going to get some sleep, strips off her armour, climbs into her sleeping bag and goes to sleep. Kohaku, also brings up the Pattern to examine the door, noting that the Pattern image is diferent to the one she is using, and also noticing the distortion where the handle/lock should be but lacks the degree of control necessary to refine her sight sufficiently to determine anything else. Eventually she too joins the others in getting some sleep.
Several hours later Cordelia wakes and braves the cave to relieve herself. After dressing she re-examines the door, and says she thinks she may know how to open it but it'll take her a few hours to do it, which proves to be correct. Door open, Fane and Allanon examine the corridor beyond. Fane takes one of the lanterns off the wall, but as soon as it leaves the room it goes out. Allanon tries a simple light spell but it barely illuminates a couple of feet radius from the source. Fane switches to echo location and goes to explore the corridor. The others wait for his return.
Upon his return he describes what he's found, and they all set off with him leading, each hanging on to the person in front. Allanon manages to boost his spell but even so it barely illuminates from wall to wall, although things improve once they're about 30ft from the door. Eventually they exit the cave system and find themselves on an obsidian slab, in a large volcanic caldera, the True Pattern of Amber in front of them. It is a scene of devastation.
There are at least 30 demon bodies scattered about, but 3 things become apparent as the scene is examined. Bleys has been pinned to the caldera wall opposite the cave entrance. It's reasonable obvious he's dead. Another figure, who Cordelia identifies as Random lies in the centre of the Pattern, the crown of Amber resting a few feet from him. Nearly 1/3 of the pattern is black, feint lines pulsing gently against the blackness. Another 1/3 show signs of damage, possibly caused by blood spray.
Cordelia is furious, and fighting back tears goes to get Bleys down. Fane and Sorcha assist, but she refuses any help to carry him as they make their way out of the Caldera. Reaching the top, and after several minutes rest, she announces they need to build a cairn for him until he can be burried properly. They spend the next couple of hours doing so.
Leaving before the first light of day even has a chance of waking, Isocrates and Damon depart the farm, Isocrates leaving 50 denari in recompense for the damage wrought by the demons. By first light they have passed the last coaching inn before the city still many leagues away. Isocrates sets a heavy pace desperate to make the city before the next incursion.
Late in the afternoon yet still short of the incursion they make the city gates and Isocrates enquires of the watch where any visiting Amberites prefer to stay, in particular Cordelia. Initially they suggest the embassy, but when her name is mentioned they suggest the Frolicking Lion on Two Points to the Wind Street, as rumor has it she's stayed there in the past, and it's the inn that's used by the majority of the ship captains.
Barely making it before the incursion Isocrates books a room, paying for a few days. With the incursion underway he draws Dierdre's trump from the deck and cautiously makes contact. It takes Dierdre a couple of minutes to answer. They discuss her retrieving his horse and sword which she plucked him away from when she transported him to the others. She say she can do it during the next incursion. They then discuss how to get both to him and eventually set on him trumping her again near the end of the next incursion, when she'll explain how he can create a portal and use it to send the animal through.
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