Carnelian or bust!

So we overran our imposed time limits tonight primarily because I wanted to get the walking of the pattern out of the way and then through the curve ball I had in hand, but we'll come to that  at the end rather than the beginning.

We started without Marcus tonight, although he joined us later, primarily because Isocrates was sedated and out of action due to his injuries.

Getting out of the trucks Cordelia debates what to do..she's expecting to simply pick up a cargo but the place is deserted. As she and the others approach the signed goods out office Mikato calls a halt, when he senses a body under the snow. A brief exchange with Fane follows principally because Mikato thinks that just because he's a dog he should dig out the body. In the end Cordelia tells them to leave it where it is.

Goods out doesn't yield any information, except that mains power is off. Investigating the warehouse behind the smashed roller door yields a warehouse of what might be vaults, and a forklift truck on its side that appears to have been driven into vault door to no avail.

They cross to the security office in the main building. The inner door to the main office is open and there's evidence there may have been some sort of altercation in here. Finding nothing Cordelia asks Mikato if he senses anyone about at all. He concentrates for a couple of minutes, then says there may be. He sniffs around the room then asks Cordelia to open the door to the corridor. He makes his way along the corridor, turns right past the lavatories, and stops in front of a door. When he paws the door, a voice behind it asks who's there.

After Allanon retrieves the keys from the security office, Cordelia opens the door to reveal two bound security guards locked in the cleaners cupboard. Whilst the woman appears to be conscious if not in the best of condition the male guard is unconscious if not dead. Fane helps her up and into the office where he cuts the cable ties binding her wrists. Cordelia picks up the other unconscious guard and carries him to the office. She asks Fane to cut his bindings whilst she reads the other guards mind.

Setting off through the building she heads for the power room, followed by the others, although based upon what she learned from the guards she believes there is at least one other person on site - who may be the maintenance foreman Eric (Coleman). Reaching the power room, she manages to bring the generators on line, which with the lack of mains power initiates the auto switch gear to switch to the generator supply. With lights now coming on, they all move upstairs to check the warehouse. There appears to be cargo here that may be what they are looking for but Cordelia needs a shipping manifest to confirm it.

As they are about to move back upstairs, Allanon hears movement from above. They look up, to find a rather shaky middle age man leaning over the pipe work. He has a simple request - get me down. When asked how he got up there he doesn't really know, other than he desperately needed somewhere to hide, the shelving seemed climbable, so he climbed it - except then he couldn't work out how to get back down. After a short delay, Fane locates a ladder and the guy climbs down.

The party start to question him, but when asked about the secure warehouse he clams up, and tries to get away. Cordelia stops him and reads his mind, then asks one of the others to escort him back to the security office. Allanon takes him whilst Cordelia and Fane go up to the dispatch office on the first floor.

Locating the relevant dispatch codes they return to the warehouse. Cordelia sets about clearing enough snow to allow her to get the trucks to the loading bay, whilst Fane goes on a tour of the establishment, and Allanon and Hou-Jin take up a watching brief at the main gate.

With enough snow cleared, Cordelia backs her truck up to the loading bay and begins to load Mortars. Realising that she can't load everything on the manifest she opts on loading 24 of the 40 Mortars, as much of the 2000 mortar rounds as she can, and 9 tons of black powder, leaving what she hopes is enough space for the Lucerne cargo.

It takes nearly 4 hours to load the cargo, and fit chains to the trucks to deal with the road conditions now the trucks are fully loaded. Just prior to leaving she returns to the security office, removes both video recording discs, and then trips the emergency alarm circuits. Given the road conditions she estimates it'll take the emergency services about 15 minutes to respond, by which time they'll be long gone.

The trip to Lucerne, well actually Emmen, is without incident and they arrive a little under 4 hours later. Unlike England,Lucerne is bustling, the unusually heavy snow for the time of year having very little effect. Apart from the difficulties imposed by the fact that trucks are somewhat larger than standard 21st centuary trucks they collect the cargo without incident, and head into shadow.

With a 13th Hour incursion looming Cordelia stops in shadow. To avoid being caught in the trucks during the incursion they leave 1 door in each open. Cordelia climbs up between the cab and trailer and goes into a meditative trance to try and recover some energy.

Several minutes into the incursion Allanon and then Kohaku sense something approaching. Somewhat disorganised they, along with Fane face off the incoming demons. Fane advances to meet one dispatching it without much issue. Allanon, finding his vibro-saber doesn't work, slashes at one closing on him, finding at least that the sword in it's unpowered state cuts it. Kohaku, avoids the attack by the one closing on her, spin kicking it and sending it flying, temporarily stunning it and knocking it off it's feet.

Fane dispatches his second target, as Allanon delivers a slashing blow to the throat of the one attacking him sending it crashing to the ground.  Using a power word against Fane, one of slightly different build closes on him as another closes on Allanon. Both block their incoming attacks, Fane punching his hands into the demons chest, and Allanon delivering a hamstring blow. As Allanon brings the sword down on its exposed head, Fane rips the chest out of the demon he has hold of. As the remaining demon gets back to its feet, Allanon thrusts his sword into its chest. As it tries to rain its claws down on his head he kicks it away where it slowly expires. 

No further incident occur and the 13th Hour incursion expires, rousing Cordelia from her trance. Getting back in the trucks they drive for just over an hour before they stop again. Stating that she needs to walk from here and find a way into the castle, so that she can work out how to get the trucks in, she inquires as to who wishes to stay with the trucks along with the Vialle, Mikato, Hou-Jin, and Isocrates. They all opt to accompany her, although before she sets out, she turns off the sedation being applied to Isocrates by the RMK.

An hour of walking, bring them to the escarpment 10 miles from the castle, as the sun begins to rise on a new Carnelian day. Using the rope she is carrying Cordelia descends the cliff, followed by Allanon, who demonstrates his climbing skill is actually better than Cordelia's. Fane gives a basic lesson in abseiling to Kohaku, and as she makes a slow descent, he changes form and flies to the bottom of the cliff.

A 3 hour hike brings them to the rock fall, and a cautious 1 hour  ascent sees them entering the cleft allowing access to the castle. As they enter the Keep they are met by Luke, who after a brief discussion with Cordelia,  takes them all down to the underground access tunnel. Whilst Cordelia sets off to walk it, the others are shown to the main mess adjacent to the Pattern, whilst Luke goes to deal with other issues.

When Cordelia joins them a little over an hour later, Allanon elects to stay in the castle, whilst the others return to the trucks with Cordelia, returning via the tunnel in the early hours of the morning. She has them shown to rooms, instructs them to memorise them, and arranges for a 7:30am call so that they can be adjacent to the Pattern at 8, ready to walk it.

Isocrates arrives first at a little before a quarter to, having followed the guard sent to fetch him  - the language barrier definitely didn't help. As he stands around uncomfortably Cordelia approachs eating a chocolate muffin and with a mug of coffee in hand. She cuts short his questions regarding the pattern stating she only wants to go through things once.

The others, including Fane, arrive about 15 minutes later, and Cordelia explains the ins and outs of walking the Pattern. Fairly certain none of his parents are Amberites, Fane decides he's not going to walk the pattern, whilst when asked who's going first Kohaku decides she will. As she gets close to the second veil, Allanon starts walking. She reaches the center and teleports back to her room. Isocrates is getting cold feet at this point.

As Allanon passes the second veil, Cordelia manages to cajole Isocrates to start walking although he does so with great trepidation. Once both Allanon and Isocrates are clear of the pattern, Fane heads for the mess, whilst Cordelia starts walking the pattern as she needs to talk to Fiona. 

Wondering what he's going to do for the rest of the day, Fane's repast is interrupted as all hell breaks loose. Managing to grab a soldier he asks what is happening and is told that the rumour is somebody has collapsed on the pattern. Leaving the mess he see Fiona, now no longer standing statically in the middle of the pattern, but bent over what appear to be the unconscious or possibly dead form of Cordelia.

[GM Note: I forgot to mention that when Cordelia appears, on the morning you walk the pattern, she is not in her armour, but is dressed in jeans and t-shirt, is wearing a leather jacket, and knee length black boots. She is also carrying her sword stuffed through her Obi at her waist.]

[GM Note: I also got the uniform description slightly wrong. The uniforms are loosely based on those of the Royal Artillery from the Waterloo Era. They wear peach jackets with silver flashes, black trousers with silver and peach stripes, and black caps with a peach and silver band. The unit insignia is a Silver Rose,  and is worn as both cap and lapel badges. All are armed with sabres, breach loading black powder pistols, and breach loading black powder rifles (of a design that is very familiar to Fane). When on active duty, on the walls,  they all have what appear to be black Kevlar vests and Kevlar helmets with face guards. ]