Sorcha's Diary

Oten 21 Jerit Ta’arm

Where we are I actaully have no idea, and how we get out of where we are not even Cordelia can currently work out, so she's decided to "sleep on it". Allanon is doing the same although his somambulance is caused by shear exhaustion with the amount of magic he's been using. So before copying the others, I shall update my journal, but before I can update it relating to the here and now I need to return to what was 10 days ago Elysium time, a little under a day and a half local time, assuming we're still in the same shadow as Amber.

We made landfall in the early hours of the morning, the nearly full moon aiding us in our endeavors, at least when it wasn't obscured by clouds. Setting off inland we skirted to the west of a large building that Cordelia described as a coaching inn, and which was probably the last on the "Great East Road" before Amber city, meaning we were about 40 miles from it.

By the pace she set, and maintained throughout the day, not stopping to eat or drink, I can only assume she is very used to this level of exertion, which would indicate some level of military service, especially as she was back in her strange armour not long after we left Kashfa, and appears to be comfortable wearing it all the time. 

By mid afternoon, having already been on the move for more than 12 hours, including an incursion, we reached the track that would lead us up the mountain. Cordelia's description of it on the ship was indeed accurate. It was narrow, windy, and treacherous, and if it was this bad on this side, I wondered if the one on the other side were as passable as Cordelia claimed.  We ascended for over an hour, before Cordelia and Allanon stopped, both sensing something approaching. Allanon then used his magic and disappeared returning a short time later to say that somebody called Fane and her dog Mikato were waiting above the treeline for us, not that Cordelia had actually stopped in response to this potential threat.

It was somewhere between 1 and 2 hours later that we were able to make their acquaintance. Fane is apparently one of the 4 my mother picked up on her first sweep and deposited upon Cordelia. Up until now he had been in Carnelian, but Cordelia's dog had bought him from there to here as she had requested. There is obviously more to her dog than is immediately obvious to the casual observer, but I have yet to be in a position where I can determine exactly what.

Introductions over we recommenced the ascent, continuing to climb, even after darkness fell. I was a little surprised at this as Cordelia not being a shapeshifter, and not being in an environment where her high tech armour worked, wouldn't be able to see clearly in the dark, although to be honest once the moon came up there was probably more than enough light to see by especially if you were familiar with the route. 

As we neared what turned out to be the plateau we were heading for the quality of the light changed taking on a pale blue hue, which intensified as we made the plateau. At this point the source became clear, the light was being cast by a visible blue shimmering field which surrounded the castle. Cordelia was asked what it was, she said she was unsure but had a hunch, and if we waited a couple of minutes whilst she bought up the Pattern she'd be able to confirm it. We waited, and after a few minutes she confirmed that the field was a projection of the Pattern, and as such we wouldn't be able to get through it. She also said she'd never seen this before, and assumed that once the incursion was over it would disappear and we'd be able to enter the castle normally.

So we waited. Once the incursion ended, she said that as far as she could tell everything was normal and we could now proceed with the plan. Allanon began casting his spells, first on Cordelia, then on Kohaku, and then on himself. Meanwhile I absorbed my armour and assumed my demon form, which caused Fane to do likewise., although his form is much more heavily built than mine. 

Spells cast, and flying forms assumed, we dropped off the plateau, a flew down to the 3^rd tower from the front on the left hand side as we looked down on the castle. It wasn't the tallest of the towers, but apparently this was Cordelia's tower, and according to her, and assuming that nobody had been in and locked it, the access door to the roof should be open, which indeed it was. We descended into a room was was empty apart from a number of  floor standing cabinets Cordelia called wardrobes. Apparently they contained  dresses.  She said from hear on down we'd have to be quiet, although her apartment being spread over 3 floors, this being the top floor, meant that we should be undisturbed.

She said that we should wait here whilst she went and determined how feasible getting to Dworkin's tower would be, as she didn't know how viable her backup plan of using some trump sketch by Dworkin would be. Her objective is to get into Dworkin's tower without alerting the whole castle that that's our objective. Fane suggested he should go with her, which she seemed to accept, but when Allanon suggest he go as well she made some remark about "<need to try and remember>". He did offer to use his spells to cloak her and Fane which she did accept. She also said that if anything went wrong, and we'd know about it in short order, we were to leave via the balcony on the floor below, head down to the bluff and then head to Ashan. If she didn't join us within 5 days we were to do what ever we liked. Perhaps us all coming here was not a good idea.

After she and Fane left the rest of us decided to investigate the floor below which was interesting to say the least. The staircase down, like the one to the floor above turned back on itself, saving space and allowing it the then descend again. The area immediately in front of the staircase as it opened onto the floor was open , forming a sort of square. Immediately ahead, taking up almost half the floor, and divided from the other half of the room by a balustrade screen, was a large pool. Immediately to the right a pair of double doors opened out onto a balcony, whilst behind us stood a large 4 poster bed, an armoire,  and a number of other floor standing cabinets.  I moved to examine the pool. It was at least 12 feet long and 6 feet wide, and the base of it appeared to be shelved, the shallowest portion being less than a foot deep, whilst the deepest portion appeared to be  more than deep enough that if you stood on the bottom your head would be under water.  

Perhaps 10 minutes passed before Fane and Cordelia returned, the first knowledge we had of their presence was Cordelia asking Allanon how to cancel the spell. Having canceled the spell she saw me looking at the pool. "Very nice" I said, "It's a trump construct." she responded. Kohaku took interest in this and asked her to explain. The pool doesn't actually exist in the room, it's elsewhere the pool is a permanetly active trump gate. At least that explained how the pool could exist where it was.

Fane was fidgeting about the delays, so we all trooped out with Cordelia leading. I can only assume, based on the length of the descent from her room, till we reached the corridor that the lower section of the tower is occupied by other parties or has other uses.  Upon reaching the corridor we turned right and a short distance later entered another staircase, descending this time to what was probably the ground floor, and exiting into another corridor. 

Cordelia stuck to the left hand wall until we'd passed an arched opening on the right then switched to the righthand wall. When we reached the second arch she dissappeared through it. By the time I had reached it and gone through myself, Cordelia, Fane, and Allanon, were 3/4 of the way down the room with demons closing in on them. I assume it was Allanon who unleashed the lightening as he then dropped back, leaving Cordelia and Fane to take on the demons. Whilst Cordelia seemed to make short work of them with her sword Fane solved the problem by hurling two of them over the balustrade and into the darkness below. With the demons dispatched Cordelia started running again, forcing Kohaku and I to do the same to keep up. Crys and shouts of alarm could be heard throughout the castle, so I assumed that Cordelia knew what she was doing and that her speed would enable us to seemingly disappear before re-inforcements could locate us.

She certainly didn't let up as we plummeted into the darkness, scant illumination being provided by the lanterns hung on the rock walls every 50 feet or so. I'm not sure exactly how far we descended, several hundred feet I guessed, before Cordelia stopped. She asked Allanon if he could throw one of his light spells about 70 feet out and 50 feet down. He seemed completely phased by the question. As a result she took down the nearest lantern and hurled it into the darkness. A few seconds later there was a crash followed by a flare of light that lit up the base of the stairs revealing the 8 demons waiting there for us.

She started to run again. I don't really know what happened next, as one second she was running down the edge of the stairs and the next she was rolling across the floor behind the demons, causing several to turn round. I dropped of the edge of the stairs , managing to slash one of the distracted ones although the blow unfortunately didn't kill it. I lost track of what happened next as it turned and slammed into me knocking me clean off my feet, although its claws did little more than scratch my armour. I tried to get free but it was both stronger and faster than me. I resisted the urge to go primal and began shifting my sword up through my body. When I though it was in the right position , I slumped feigning unconsciousness. It did what I'd hoped it would do and raised itself  to land a blow forceful enough to kill me. As it swung down, I ejected the sword,  catching it square in the chest, and causing it to slump on top of me.
By the time I extricated myself the fight was pretty much over. Cordelia was in the process of killing a demon Fane had pinned to the floor, and a strange yellow creature was  throwing a stream of lightening at the last demon standing on the stairs. Once the demon died Kohaku put down one of the two cylinders she carried on her belt and the yellow creature vanished into it. Very strange. I must remember to ask her about it/them.

With the demons dead Cordelia led the way across the cavern and into a short tunnel, taking the first tunnel on the right we came to. By the time this opened out into a largish room there was another demon corpse on the floor bearing signs of Cordelia's handiwork, and she was unlocking the door to one of the small cells. As she removed her pack she explained she needed to determine if the trump were viable. Fane tried to follow her but just ended up blocking the doorway so none of the rest of us could see what she was up to. After a few minutes she said it would work but she needed time to clean it up, so we'd need to keep watch until she was done.

After what seemed like an age she emerged from the cell to stretch her limbs. She said that once she activated the trump, we'd all need to get through it as fast as we could, and hope we  weren't detected. Somebody would also need to carry her pack as she could wear it and leave enough space for the rest of us to get past her. Some how this task fell to me.

She went back into the cell, followed by Fane. A minute or so passed and then it was all action, Kohaku following Fane in, followed by Allanon who was looking really tired and definitely held things up, and then it was my turn. The cell was really small, barely 3 feet wide and 5 feet long, and 5 feet high with a stone floor. Occupying most of the end wall appeared to be a glowing door frame beyond which appeared to be a study. Pushing the pack ahead of me I made best speed into the study beyond, and was barely though when Cordelia followed me. She was sweating heavily, so it had obviously taken a lot of effort to keep the trump gate open as long as she had.

The study wasn't very big, perhaps 25ft square, although a lot of that space was taken up by furniture. To my right was the door that obviously led back into the castle, and a short distance further along the same wall was a archway that appeared to lead into a foul smelling cave. Allanon slumped into the corner furthest from the door whilst the rest of us searched the room, although I'm not entirely sure any of us really knew what we were looking for. Cordelia did however put a couple of books and a number of the art materials into her pack. None of us appeared to find anything of use, and Cordelia appeared to become more an more frustrated as if she was missing something obvious. In the end she said as much, then bought up the Pattern. There was another one of her self mocking expletives and she pulled back the rug in front of the cave and pulled a stone out of the floor. She explained that the archway was a trump gate and the stone way a key, except that it contained multiple trump images. 

I suppose she must have spent half an hour playing with the stone before she slammed it back into the hole from which she'd taken it. The archway changed the instant she did so. She let out another self declimating expression and told us to bring Allanon along who'd fallen asleep a couple of minutes after he'd sat down. Fane kicked him awake as I followed Cordelia into the room beyond.

This room was much bigger, although the furniture in it appeared much more battered and warn, and the books very much more akin to what a young child might read.  There were two other apparent exits, a heavy iron bound oak door with deep scratches and gouges in it on the left and another archway with a rug in front of it  on the far right end of the room. The rug appears to be covered in dried excrement, which increased in density the closer to the archway you got.. the stench increased in a like manner.

As Kohaku, Fane, and Allanon entered the doorway into the other study vanished. Cordelia didn't appear happy. Apart from the door and all it's claw marks the only thing that appeared out of place was a writing desk and the rug that was rucked up in front of it. It looked like it had been pulled out. I turned back to seen Fane trying to get purchase on the door enough to open it. He pulled away relieving the door of a few more splinters and adding a few more claw marks. The door was obviously designed to keep something in. Cordelia said something about Dworkin being mentally unstable and having bouts of insanity.  She appeared to be studying the door so I guessed she had the Pattern up again. 

Kohaku climbed onto of the desk and said something about a panel having been removed from the rear, and the hole left behind probably being of sufficient size to have held a book. Cordelia then said something about the door having a Pattern imprint  just under the surface, and that she was too tired to figure out how to open it just now, so was going to sleep on it for a bit. I like the others will now do likewise in the hope that the rest will provide an insight into how we are to extricate ourselves from our current predicament.