Asmark’s Diary part 14: The Battle of Vine Street

In The Doom that Came to Amber

2^nd Snake 3658 – Lordsday

I awoke at Garland House and took a light breakfast with Algar. He is still very concerned about the need to be in hiding; I promised to consult Bill Roth about his problems.

I then trumped through the Office of the Golden Circle. There was a message from Jomes which reads “Please advise Bonkers that Sam Sheppard has called off the engagement.” I have no idea what this means but I trust it will mean something to Algar.

I arrived at the palace breakfast room just as the Regent was leaving. Peter and Bathsheba seemed to be preoccupied; Morwaith was serving himself, dressed in what appeared to be a night-shirt. I wondered at the time if this was a new hermit-like simplicity of dress as Prophet. While we are both serving ourselves, he got a momentary, but only momentary, trump contact. However he made no comment. By the time we got to table, Peter was rushing off into the town.

Bathsheba brought me up to date by explaining that there are riots in the town. This time it seemed to be descending into anarchy. Fundamentalist elements of the Church of the Unicorn were carrying out a pogrom. The situation is beyond the palace guard to manage as there were simply too many rioters. It seems Morwaith had been summoned back from his quest to help pacify the zealots. I surmise that his mode of dress was due to his having trumped directly to the breakfast room.

In the hope that he would be with the Garnath Light Horse, I trumped Montford and found that I was in luck. I instructed him to ride immediately to HQ to deliver orders to the Colonel. We considered attempting to trump them through but it really is not practical. Bathsheba gave orders for the regiment to ride directly to Amber. Everyone else is busy so I had a moment’s leisure before Montford reached HQ so I used the time to talk to Bill Roth.

Bill was able to give me a brief consultation immediately. It seems that nothing that can profitably be done for the moment. Ideally Algar needs to be granted a pardon. This is a matter for court influence, not legal niceties. It would clearly be entirely counter-productive to waste the time of anyone relevant at the moment. This will have to wait.

On the way back I passed the Office of the Receiver of Petitions. There seemed to be an argument between Viscount Marlin (Alaric’s replacement) and Sir Nairesh Kahn. I have, of course, met the latter gentleman when he lost a duel to Algar at which I was Algar’s second.

Sir Nairesh was trying to persuade the Receiver to expedite a petition that he does not consider worthy. I explained to Sir Nairesh that only petitions that are extremely important and urgent can possibly be considered at the moment and that in the current climate anything less will be consider frivolous and rejected out of hand. He accepted this and withdrew. It seems the petition is for a Master Whateley to be allowed access to the library crypt. An odd request; I shall ask Jomes what he thinks of this if I see him soon.

I was trumped by Khitan. He and Aylwin were in Arden. I trumped through to talk to Aylwin. He was suffering badly from his injured foot, which it seemed to have deteriorated since yesterday. I congratulated him on his appointment as Constable and found that I was not merely the first to congratulate him but that it was news to him.

I outlined the problems in Amber and he asked if the immediately available rangers should be sent to Amber. I consulted with Bathsheba by trump, received and passed on orders to send the rangers. Aylwin wished to send a report to the Regent. While he was writing this Khitan explained what had happened since we parted yesterday.

Khitan and Aylwin went scouting to Lyon Abbey. It was all quiet and occupied by some deranged vagrants. It seemed this derangement included eating children. They met what appeared to be a ten-year old child but magic determined he was actually a manifestation of Nyarlathotep!

According to this being the Old Gods are trying to reclaim a pre-Pattern world. As Nyarlathotep is an interlocutor between the Pattern world and the Old Gods, he says it is not in his interest that this succeeds. Apparently there are three portals in the abbey, two small and closed (albeit re-openable) ones above ground and one larger open one below.

Following the advice of Nyarlathotep they discovered a strange trump deck. It seems that the images on it change. The deck seems to suggest (albeit it could be a deliberate deception) that Dworkin is behind Mira. As Dworkin is alleged to have invented Trump and Mira is supposed to be a goddess of Trump that seems entirely plausible. [Could Mira be Dworkin? It would be a rather radical transformation? More likely he is her father.]

Khitan gave the deck to Alaric to investigate. He also asked that all of this be ‘off the record’. Given that Alaric is anathematised and Khitan is an ambassador this getting out would cause the most appalling diplomatic incident.

After their initial visit they had intended to return for a more detailed investigation but they decided against this on the advice of the prophet. Instead they travelled back to a place near Amethyst where they had been with the injured Princess Fiona. They managed to close (albeit not completely heal) a portal there. They believe that in the course of the day they have made very considerable progress in learning how to correct ‘Mythos’ related damage in reality.

Khitan offered some Cordoban troops and (which would be quicker to arrive) magicians. At about twelve hours notice it would be possible to create a teleport corridor between Cordoba and Amber capable of transporting a sizable force. I promised that I would pass the offer on to Bathsheba, and suggested that Khitan trumped me again later for a reply. Then, with Aylwin’s sealed report for the Regent, I trumped back to Amber.

By this time I was due, indeed late, for contacting Montford again. I contacted Montford who seemed very relieved to see me. The regiment was well embarked on preparations to ride out. Although nothing was said I suspect that the Colonel was beginning to doubt his son when I failed to arrive as expected. He was with the Colonel so I trumped through.

Once I was there it was all very businesslike. I had orders from the Marshal to ride for Amber. He apologised that only 350 men were immediately available, the rest being on extended patrols. My assessment is that the other men will arrive too late to be of any significance and that the men available should ride immediately and the others remain to garrison HQ. The Colonel himself and a staff officer formed the advanced party. Once the colonel had given his orders, the three of us trumped through to the OoGC. I settled them into the office to await Bathsheba’s summons.

I trumped Bathsheba, who was organising defences on Vine Street. I reported the significant developments: Colonel Askarda was in my office; Aylwin was returning with rangers post haste (I had to take his report to the Regent). Would Khitan be any help? She replied that Julian was controlling the weather with the Jewel of Judgment and might not see me for some time. I should bring Khitan to Amber.

I went to wait on the Regent accepting that it may be quite a wait. I took some routine OoGC papers with me. They were of no immediate importance, but at least my time was not entirely wasted. While I was waiting Khitan contacted me again. I brought him through and sent him off to Bathsheba.

Eventually the Regent came out. He was clearly exhausted. He was wearing the Jewel of Judgment, which was throbbing. From what he said I understood that the Jewel was continuing to control the weather. He was tired enough to have me fetch his wine.

He asked for a status report from Bathsheba so I tried to trump her. Initially it was resisted. As I had no idea what Bathsheba was doing and it could well be combat (where either taking or resisting a forced trump call could be dangerous) I maintained a gentle attempt to contact in the hope that she will be able to find a convenient moment.

A few minutes later, she answered. If what was behind her was anything to go by, there was a pitched battle going on there. I told her of Julian’s state and asked to be trumped as soon as the weather control can be dispensed with. I also asked for a status report and she replied “We are holding”.

I relayed this to Regent but I was not really sure if he heard me. The throbbing of the Jewel was definitely slowing down. Eventually the Regent passed out. This put me in something of a quandary. I had no authority to remove the jewel and it would be taking a major liberty to do so. However I feared for the Regent if he continued to wear it. In the end, I decided that I must remove it. Bathsheba would have to fight her battle with no further help from the Jewel.

About twenty minutes after this Bathsheba trumped to say the battle was won. I informed her that Julian was unwell, she came through immediately and had Julian put to bed. Khitan trumped me to ask if Cordoban military help will be wanted. (Apparently he had not yet had the opportunity to discuss this with Bathsheba.) I brought him through to discuss it with Bathsheba and she decided to call for such help.

Before travelling to Cordoba Khitan did some magical investigations. He noticed that a massive conjuration was being performed in the Cathedral of the Unicorn. Later he noticed a new significant ‘art related’ power source south of the Cathedral, moving towards it. It seems that the religious groupings in the town are still manoeuvring dangerously.

I trumped Falasia to tell her that the Garnath Light Horse are in town. She asked the way to the Kolvir steps and I told her, so I expect her to be with the regiment tomorrow.

Things seemed to be too unstable for my to return the Garland House, so I slept in the castle.

3rd Snake 3658 – Sunday

Breakfast: Peter, Bathsheba, Khitan and myself were present. I was brought a very disturbing letter from Raymond ‘Saint’ Yeophol.

I moved to the library for some privacy and trumped Saint. I found him hiding in a barn, in a trouble state. It seems Canon Zurich’s search party has had a fatal encounter with the entity they were pursuing. Saint fled to his current hiding place and is near to cracking up. Clearly he needed to be extracted, but once he is out the fastest route to Jasper is destroyed so I wanted to do at least a preliminary evaluation.

So, although Saint is very unhappy about it, I broke the link and went back to the breakfast room to collect Khitan. He agreed to come. I told him to trump me as soon as I had gone then I trumped Saint again. He was mentally in a very bad way. At first he wouldn’t bring me through so I used the mental link to impose calm on his mind and explained that the sooner I was through the sooner I could send him home.

Finally I got through. Then, as soon as I had brought Khitan through, I trumped Algar. It took a few moments for him to realise what was happening, it being new to him, and by the time I had a link to Garland House, Saint’s imposed calm was rapidly evaporating. Nevertheless Algar and I managed to get Raymond through. I promised that I would have supper with the pair of them.

Khitan and I considered our precautions in case we ran into something we could not safely handle. After considering a number of options, we decided that trumping out would be the fastest exit, so I trumped Algar again and told him to be standing by to take my call.

We were then thrown out by the rather hostile owner of the barn. Whereas he was very disrespectful the Queen Mother would probably prefer her peasants weren’t unnecessarily slaughtered so we humoured him and left.

In the surrounding area we soon found examples of the marking that Raymond described in his letter. Khitan was sure the area had the same taint that he has seen elsewhere. As we weren’t going to solve the problem on the spot, and there did not seem much else to learn we trumped back to Amber. Khitan wished to go to Cordoba so I trumped him through to the Spice Market.