Some Gentle Sparring, Brú na Bóinne and Woodstock

The personal diary of Margrath, son of Sand

This morning I woke and the conduit to Great Spirit was open. My Trumps also are working as expected, at least to the extent to which I tested them, although Brand's Trump is hot not cold as an active Trump should be.

I wonder if it is possible to create a Trump for Anansyth?

I have talked with Sand via Trump and she is well. She is also re-connected, so this is not just a local phenomenon, it would seem that Corillaine exists again. It would be interesting to talk to the Dreamers about their experience during the disconnection, and to any others there. Did the world skip a beat and then become reformed?

Sand re-confirmed that Delwin is with house Amblerash. I tried to contact him via Trump but he was not able to talk for long. He told me that Brand is dead and that I should not trust the families of either Caine or Brand.

As I am reconnected to Great Spirit I decided to hang some spells in the following order: Veil of Closure, Floating Spider, Exoskeleton, Spider Climb, Shield of Webs, Cocoon, Crushing Webs, Stick, Summon Spider.

But as I knew I would not have time to hang them all I set myself to just hanging the first, Veil of Closure. Surprisingly this took approximately half the time I would normally expect it to take. Interesting.

I then went to take breakfast. I cannot help but notice the order about the place, an order which everyone adheres to because, I believe, that is the way of the place.

During breakfast I received an invitation on black card, bordered in brown and green. This invited me to a ball where I would be formally presented to the High King and the Court of the Thelbane. I wonder if my new found relatives have been invited too? I expect they have.

Also I was invited to watch the sparring within the House for which that hour had been set aside. This again speaks of the order of the place, everything at the set time and in the set place.

The sparring was done in a prepared chamber where members of the House sparred in pairs, overseen by Hyobashi Mikado who it would seem is the sole judge of these matches. The sparring was very formalised, which should be no surprise in this House, and was obviously augmented by magic. Sometimes a participant would be thrown in the air and end up standing on the wall or ceiling. Yet another reminder that we are in the realms of Chaos.

The sparring continued in a series of elimination matches until one person, Hiroshigi, was left as champion. As champion Hiroshigi was granted a boon and for this he asked if he could spar with me. As a guest I felt it would be impolite to refuse and I felt it might also give me some insight into the inhabitants of this House, I accept that it also gave them further insight into me.

I was let through an archway which I am sure was not there before, into a room where clothing was waiting for me. I wonder if this was created in advance, with foreknowledge that the champion would ask to spar with me?

Mokoto gave me advice: to draw on my strengths. We fought over three rounds. During the first round I drew on a lesser aspect of my being and Hiroshigi won that round. During the second round I drew on a greater aspect of my being, though not the greatest, and the round was declared a draw. In the third round I drew on the same aspect as I had in the second round and again the round was declared a draw, and overall Hiroshigi was declared victor. I could have drawn on greater strength in that final round but chose to hold back and allow Hiroshigi to win. I cannot be sure that the final round would have turned out any differently if I had chosen differently, but it seemed the prudent decision at the time. We will have to see if it was indeed the right choice.

After the sparring, Hiroshigi thanked me for the match and asked if I could meet up with him at a later time, so that he could show me another aspect of the House which might be of interest to me, to which I happily agreed.

At the archway Mokoto was waiting for me. He asked what Hiroshigi and I had been talking about and pointed out that there are aspects of the House that I have not seen, yet. This came as no surprise since I was already aware that the House could be whatever the dwellers there wished it to be, and because the Jade Palace is a large building, even without the ability of it's occupants to make of it what they will.

I changed clothes and returned to my rooms where I took the time to hang more spells – Floating Spider and Exoskeleton.

Some time later, although how time runs in this place resembles spirit in some ways, I was led to lunch. Afterwards Hiroshigi talked with me and asked me to accompany him to show me the further aspect of the House that he had mentioned earlier. He led me to a room where members of the House were engaged in an activity which appeared to be somewhere between caligraphy and painting. Hiroshigi demonstrated the art to me and then offered me the chance to try my hand at this. It is a gentle art, peaceful and calming. Hiroshigi commented favourably on my attempt. Then he showed me tattoos on his arm and explained that in this way the members of the House place spells on their body to produce an augmentation. This they used in their sparring and in their combat.

He then moved the subject on to the form in which House Sumi procreate. Where we of House Barimen mingle physical essences, those of House Sumi perform ritual to mix creative essences. The timing of the process is dictated by the stars and the Abyss and can take time, although again I am reminded of the alterations that may occur in time in this place. Though Hiroshigi did say that the start and end of the process was set by the stars and the Abyss, so it would start and end when those alignment were right and could take an unknown length of time.

Hiroshigi also brought up the subject of the loss suffered by the House in the battle with the forces of Amber and he mentioned that House Sumi has not always been a martial house and that perhaps it was time for a return to older ways.

He left me to think on an invitation to join in the process, presumably to bring in creative essences that the House has perceived within me. It is a tempting offer and one that I must discuss with Sand and Delwin.

When Hiroshigi left I was joined by Mokoto who came and sat in the place Hiroshigi had vacated. He took parchment and drew a symbol which was obviously incomplete. It was more than Hiroshigi had drawn as parts of it were moving. He talked about the need to want to change and asked if he should complete the symbol. I said yes, and he added a small stroke with his brush. The symbol was complete and then a flame appeared, spread and consumed the parchment.

We talked then of my use of the Void and he asked questions about the form my sorcery took. I attempted to explain about the use of totem spirits and since my explanation did not seem to be making full sense I drew an image of a spider. This he understood and he explained that each House that uses sorcery uses it in their own particular manner. He believes that House Raven manipulate the Void in a similar way to me and he offered an introduction.

It was, however, time (or was it) for me to make my way to the arranged meeting with William and my cousins, at House Askaris, so Mokoto called Chang to escort me there. On the way Chang mentioned that House Askaris is also referred to as the Hive.

We arrived at House Askaris where I met with my cousins William, Sorashi, Darig and Havelock. I was also introduced to Dirk, son of Caine. However, there was no sign of Constance. We waited but she did not arrive and we were unable to make any contact with her. Dirk pointed out that House Karm may be blocking Trump contact. He also pointed out that House Spectral, where Constance is a guest, has close ties with House Karm and may be interfering with Constance's movement.

We decided that the action to take was to go to House Spectral and find Constance rather than waiting for her to find her way to us. Dirk called up his demon which appeared as a snake or conger eel, and had the ability to coil in the air.

The journey to House Spectral was not much different to the journeys I have taken elsewhere (or maybe it is all the same place?) in this realm of Chaos, but the arrival was somewhat different. As Constance had said, House Spectral is colour. In this it is similar to some of the areas of Spirit.

We were led into Green and DeLambre (William's demon) said that things were different. He could not find the Way to the domicile set aside for Constance and the Ways of the House had been 'moved'. This implies that there are some constants in Chaos which could be useful to know.

William called out to Celadon who is a lord of House Spectral. He had to call out three times before it appeared. It was green and appeared androgynous. It asked what we wanted and William said we wanted to see Constance. Suddenly we were in a forest, surrounded by trees and after a short while we met Constance being led through the forest by her demon.

I was a little perplexed by the next event. I listened as Celadon, Constance and Havelock argued, in a fairly calm manner, about beds and their nature, but each to their own.

Now that we were all together we set off for House Barimen. After a while of the usual journey I have come to expect we were led across a green sward below purple, rounded, snow-topped mountains. Nestling in the bowl of the mountains was Brú na Bóinne, the centre of House Barimen. The House is a turf covered, round building with one opening visible from the direction in which we approached. Outside the opening there was a large gong next to a monolith.

William approached the opening and the gong, sword drawn. This prompts the monolith to move forward, revealing itself to be a demon holding a large wooden club stuck with spikes. William introduced himself as William of Amber and there followed a verbal conflict between the demon and William. DeLambre stepped in, coughed and passed a letter to William, which I believe was written by his grandmother.

We were allowed to enter and found ourselves in a dark passageway, off which were side chambers. The whole place had a great smell of age. As we passed further into the building there was a noise. Constance moved ahead and I asked everyone to stop making noise. In the silence we could hear footsteps approaching from ahead and then we saw a flame coming towards us. From under the light a demon appeared. It had the head of a fox and was dressed in a fashion that someone described as Celtic. It named itself as Loeg and asked for our lineages, which we gave.

Loeg led us forward and as we progressed we could hear two voices talking ahead of us, one older than the other. The older voice was attempting to persuade the owner of the younger voice that they must accept their heritage or House Barimen and Brú na Bóinne would disappear.

We were led into a circular room with a central hearth. In the room were two more demonic figures, who were the owners of the voices we had heard. The older looked like Jack Frost, a spindly frame with one, red eye.

Loeg introduced us and the two others adopted human form, Loeg introduced the young man as Melvin of Barimen and he in turn introduced the elder man a Suhuy of House Winter. William passed the letter from his grandmother over to Melvin, who put it aside saying that he will read it later. Loeg then asked Melvin if his guests would like refreshment. He left and returned shortly with the refreshment, accompanied by a female demon with the head of a raven.

Oddly, Suhuy recognised Darig from somewhere, just as William had done, although Darig still claims not to have been here before. Maybe this means that sometime in his future he will visit the past of Chaos, which seems perfectly possible considering the way time may run here.

While we partook of the refreshment Melvin talked to William about the fact that he was the eldest of us and eldest grandchild of Oberon.

Before the conversation could progress any further, a dark thing attacked William. Constance and I backed off allowing Darig, Sorashi and Havelock space to draw their weapons and move in to attack. Suhuy cast light over the fight and observation shows that the assailant obviously has magic cast over them. William managed to knock down the dark thing and stun it with a power word. Then Suhuy yelled for everyone to stand back from the thing and there was revealed a three-armed reptilian creature wrapped up by a thing shaped like a black octopus.

The reptilian thing then started to rapidly shape-change, in an attempt to escape the octopus thing which was holding it. It convulsed and shifted very rapidly but could not escape and eventually its body liquefied. Suhuy then dismissed the octopus and picked up the dagger of the assailant. Suhuy declared that the would-be killer was from House Spandrel. He told us that House Spandrel regard fighting face-to-face as dishonourable.

In the aftermath of the fight Suhuy told us that Lord Mandor of House Sawall was looking for us and had invited us all to attend on him at our convenience.

Suhuy and Constance talked about the emissary from faerie who is staying at House Winter and at sometime during the conversation it was said, by Suhuy I believe, that the process of becoming a Chaos Lord is incompatible with our gift (presumably our attunement to the Pattern).

We brought in our demons who we had left outstide Brú na Bóinne and planned to travel to see Lord Mandor. Melvin lent Havelock a Trump for Mandor and Havelock spoke to him, finding that he was at his home, Woodstock. So we set off for Woodstock, bidding our farewells to Melvin and Suhuy.

After another journey as I have come to expect, except a longer one than previous, we arrived at Woodstock. We found ourselves at a wooden hall on a cliff with the sea crashing below. As we approached the hall, we could see two demons with halberds who looked human, stood to attention.

At the door Mandor welcomed us and led us in to his home which was quite different inside than it was on the outside. Mandor discussed various things with us. We talked of Spandrel and Mandor told us that they can be hired by anyone so the trail to the attack on William would appear to be longer than we had first thought. We also found out that all of us except Sorashi had received invitations to the formal ball where we will be presented to the High King. Mandor then produced Sorashi's invitation.

Mandor then suggested a route by which we may be able to aid things in the Courts, in this time of realignment that some of the Houses seem to be entering into. He suggested that our privileged position of being presented to the High King at the ball offered an opportunity for us to assassinate him. We agreed that we would consider this option and thanked him for his hospitality.

Mandor was also made aware of the way House Spectral had been treating Constance and agreed that she could stay at Woodstock until he could arrange alternative accommodation. He thanked us for visiting him and led us, apart from Constance, out of Woodstock.

Once we were out we decided that we needed to discuss this suggestion of Mandor's and we felt that Brú na Bóinne was the best place to go for that discussion, so we headed there.

We were again greeted by Loeg who wanted to announce us but we persuaded him that we needed a half hour to recover from meeting Mandor and Loeg agreed to leave off announcing us to Melvin for that time. Instead we entered a side room where we discussed the suggestion of assassinating the High King while hopefully not being overheard. There was much discussion on the merits of the suggestion and on how it could be achieved, but the general consensus was that we would not proceed with this proposed assassination.

We must meet with, or get some sort of message to, Constance before the ball to inform her of our decision, though not being part of our discussions she may have other views on the subject. I believe I remember, on asking when the ball would be held, that we would know when it was, or at least be told. This is another aspect of the way time flows here and I believe we cannot say how long there will be between now and then. In fact I am not completely sure that 'now' and 'then' have any definite meaning here.