The Doom that Came to Amber

A now defunct Amber campaign

The Doom that Came to Amber was my longest running Amber campaign. It started, as so many of my campaigns do, as a series of one-off scenarios run at Stabcon, a local RPG/wargames convention held in Manchester every 6 months. As such the line-up at the start varied a lot but became more settled once the scenarios had developed in to an actual campaign played quarterly, usually at my home in Stoke on Trent.

The Dworkian Calendar: In Amber, time is measured from its founding, held to be dawn of New Year’s Day, year 1. The Amber year is 365 days divided into 13 months each of 28 days plus New Year’s Day. The months in order are 1 Dragon, 2 Bull, 3 Snake, 4 Sphinx, 5 Lion, 6 Bear, 7 Eagle, 8 Raven, 9 Scorpion, 10 Centaur, 11 Goat, 12 Unicorn and 13 Dolphin. Amber weather is seasonal: Spring consists of Dolphin, Dragon and Bull; Summer of Snake, Sphinx, Lion and Bear; Autumn of Eagle, Raven and Scorpion; and Winter of Centaur, Goat and Unicorn. There are several festivals celebrated throughout the year.

Date Festival Description

New Year’s Day Festival of the Founding between 28^th Dolphin and 1^st Dragon – a very formal festival

13th Bull Beltane The lighting of the needfires

7th Sphinx Midsummer’s Eve Dancing, revelry, many summer marriages. A time of fun.

21st Lion Lugnasad Commemorating the Sacrifice of King Lugh of Tir-na-N’Ogth. The start of the harvest.

14th Eagle Harvesthome The end of the harvest.

28th Raven Samhain The start of the stockslaying in preparation for winter. A time of death.

21st Centaur Yule Festival of the Winter Solstice. Much feasting and merriment.

8th Unicorn Imbolc Festival of the Bride. Celebration of the Unicorn. Heralds the coming of Spring.

The eight days of the week are named, quite arbitrarily, Moonday, Smithsday, Seaday, Kingsday, Queensday, Bridesday, Lordsday and Sunday. The first of Scorpion 3656 is Kingsday. The Moon shows no change of phase and always appears full. But it does move in the sky, which affects the times of moonrise and moonset.

The Characters

Alaric – son of Fiona and a Trump artist (played by Penny Feltham);

Asmark – son of Brand, who starts as more-or-less a schoolboy but grows in to the leading diplomat of the family (played by Ian Miller);

Aylwin – a son of Fiona, but a ranger and protégé of Julian, also an enchanter and a wannabe Trump artist (played by John Ball);

Bathsheba – daughter of Eric and a dedicated military-type (played by Sally Ball);

Jason – of House Zephyra, a technowizard and ambassador from the Courts of Chaos (played by Ahmed, only the once);

Khitan – son of Caine (though this never came out in play), a sorcerer who dabbles in things man was not meant to wot: shapeshifting, Interstitial Pattern and Sorcery – eventually even Mythos Sorcery; although bearing Amber blood Khitan never expressed an interest in Pattern and remained the (usually) official ambassador from Cordoba for most of the game (played by Richard Leadham-Green);

Michael – son of Benedict (though this never came out in play) and a technowizard (played by Rhodri James for the first few scenarios but exiting after Beltane 3658);

Morwaith – son of Weyland the Smith and a smith himself with a strong religious bent (played by Jim McStravick);

Nathan – son of Corwin (though this never came out in play) and a bad-stuff troubleshooter for Caine and later Oberon’s ghost (played by Geoff Brown until he decided to withdraw, just after Nathan got his mits on the Jewel of Judgement/Eye of the Serpent);

Peter Thrice – son of Rhiannon, the long-lost (though never confirmed in play), a half-Elven minstrel, later revealed to be of the Blood Royal (played by John Scott).

Quentin – son of Caine and a bad-stuff troublemaker (played by Neil McCallum-Deighton in the first scenario only);

Terisa – a daughter of Llewella and mistress of Mirror-Trump (played by Carolyn Asher, entering close to the end of the campaign).

There were also several NPC uncles, aunts and cousins:

Anya – daughter of Fiona, a dowdy cypher eclipsed by her mother;

Clarissa – mother of the redheads, Oberon’s embittered ex-queen residing in her home shadow of Amethyst;

Paulette – Random’s mother, now back at Court and wielding political power through her son;

Rupert – son of Flora and Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a career soldier;

Sarah – daughter of Corwin from his time on Earth (I had plans for her which never quite came out so she later spent most of her time back on Earth);

Timon – brother of Fiona, Bleys and Brand, a consumptive, incapable of walking the Pattern who had died in a freak accident involving Mirror-Trump;

Weyland – brother of Oberon and father of Morwaith, the ancient smith responsible for forging Greyswandir and the other Pattern blades;

The Timeline: the story opens with Random having been on the throne for about 18 months; he is proving a good king and all the old factioneering seems to be a thing of the past until…

Dark’s Circus – 26th Bull 3656: the first session, run at Stabcon; regretfully there are no diaries but you can read the synopsis. This was a scenario I had run before and it worked pretty well. I am more or less happy with it but I think if I run it again it will need a thorough overhaul as it could be better.

Starfall – 21st Centaur 3656: again run at Stabcon; at this time I still regarded this as just the second of a series of unconnected episodes, so does everyone else, hence no diaries but here’s the synopsis. As with Dark’s Circus, I had run this scenario before but it almost proved a flop this time round. Until Alaric decides to use his trump of the demon, everyone plays with stunning caution and the scenario would have been pretty pointless if he hadn’t done so. That fatal error in judgement (kind of Alaric’s hallmark) saves the day from my point of view.

Albion – 14th Sphinx 3657: once more run at Stabcon. I am by now thinking in terms of a campaign and Albion brings in religion as an important theme of the campaign. However I do not have all the details straight in my mind so I announce nothing to the players except that there will be more to follow. Still no diaries, I’m afraid, but again here’s a synopsis. I was really happy with the way this scenario played out. Everyone had something to do and there was much toing and froing while it all got sorted out. In particular the PCs spent a lot of the game on the back foot, unsure of what they were facing; talk about fog-of-war. I may run this again at another convention.

Caine’s assassination – late Sphinx 3657: not a scenario but seminal point in the game. Returning from Albion the PCs hear the news of Caine’s recent assassination. It brings mixed feelings. Few people liked Caine and some are glad to see him go but most of the family are shocked to learn that a Prince of Amber can be just gunned down. Benedict investigates himself but finds that it was a lone gunman of non-Deigan origin, apparently using a weapon similar to those Corwin brought to Amber. The cordite is the same but the rifle is of different manufacture. No one has seen Corwin for a long time, but why would he kill Caine?

Lost Anya – 14th Scorpion 3657: another Stabcon scenario but I now have a very good idea of the structure for a campaign (though still no name). This was a rather unfinished scenario as I had never envisaged a specific ending. I came up with the situation and once the PCs had encountered Mirabeau I just followed where the role-playing led. No diaries yet but, as previously, you can read the synopsis.

By now I had worked out the themes of the campaign – religion – in particular a tri-partite confrontation between deities of Pattern and Trump and something worse than either, something unclean.

I’d been playing with the concept of a new power for some time – Numinosity, the power of godhead. I’d also felt I wanted a counterpoint to the traditional ‘cuddly bunny’ view of the Unicorn. I saw no reason why she shouldn’t have an agenda like everyone else, so I gave her one.

The Unicorn became the Goddess of Pattern, after being duped by Dworkin. Initially she got blood sacrifice, animal and human, on a moderately large scale but Oberon craftily established control of her worship, outlawed blood sacrifice and turned her in to the nicey-nicey Unicorn of legend.

But Oberon’s cack-handed attempt to redraw the Pattern (as related in The Courts of Chaos) allowed her to partially regain her old self. Blood sacrifice returned, albeit covertly, and fundamentalists became prominent in Amber. But she didn’t just want to return to her initial form, by now she realised that her godhead was a gilded cage from which she sought release – to become again ‘a lord of the living void’. But this would demand the destruction of the Pattern itself.

Mira as Goddess of Trump was the first I drew up using the new Numinosity power and I was very pleased both with her and her shadow, Mirabeau.

But Pattern vs Trump would provoke a simple bipolar game that in my opinion would not provide enough smoke to hide the action. A third factor would confuse the issue and, with a few entities or individuals changing sides, would ensure that a wonderful sense of paranoia should pervade things through to the end.

A friend called Victor Mukula can be blamed for the presence of Cthulhu in my Amber games but I’ve found the Cthulhu Mythos very easy to involve. They fit very neatly in to the interstices between shadows. The Mythos presence in the game represented a corrupting influence that came to induce a real sense of horror in to several of my players, and yet with nothing like a San roll.

It was the Mythos influence that inspired the title of the game – The Doom that Came to Amber! – once it was clear in my mind that Amber was doomed. Obviously I didn’t reveal this for some time so as not to give away the plot. All the following can now be given this title with session numbers to help identify the order of events.

Session 1: An Orphan on his Uppers – Late Goat to 13^th Unicorn 3657: this was again run at Stabcon and saw the first appearance of Asmark, a character who came to have an incredibly powerful influence on events – Asmark becomes the first diary writer (thanks to Ian Miller), though this first instalment merely introduces the character and hints at background politicking as several PCs journey through a group of local Golden Circle shadows for an upcoming summit.

Session 2: Sapphire and Lyon Abbey – 13^th to 14^th Unicorn 3657: this was first session run at home in Stoke as a follow-up to the previous session since everything had ended still up in the air. Khitan appears for the first time, the diplomatic representative of the Caliph of Cordoba – Asmark is still the only diary writer.

Session 3: Hell Hounds at Lyon Abbey – 14^th Unicorn 3657: back at Stabcon but now with a pretty much settled set of players. This episode saw Nathan use Pattern in a ruthless ploy to whip up anger and suspicion between contingents from Begma and Kashfa to the point where outright violence broke out and then ensure that a stray bullet hit the right target and that said target died of his wounds – beautiful use of probability manipulation (kudos to Geoff) – Asmark is still the only diary writer. I tell the players that this wraps up the Lyon Abbey scenario but really it’s just the first phase of The Doom that Came to Amber, introducing the Mythos element – incidentally, the death of King Jaston is the excuse for Benedict to intervene and install Amber’s choice of rule, Duke Arkans Shadbourne, of whom a very little more later.

Alaric Returns to Mirabeau – 2^nd to 22^nd Dolphin 3657: this was played solo by e-mail between me and Penny between sessions 3 & 4. Alaric wants to get his trump deck back from Mira but is also fascinated by Mirabeau, a shadow devoted entirely to art, ruled by the Goddess of Trump. This is 105 pages, but for ease of reading I’ve divided it in to nine chapters. It features some beautiful role-playing by Penny, marking Alaric’s crossing of a personal Rubicon, though it took him a while to realise this: Salli and Paolo; Alaric & Paolo; Alaric and Mira; Paolo’s Day; Skirmish & Execution; The Shriving; A Feast of Knuckles; Hospital; A Fractious Dinner. It ends with Alaric contemplating his return to Amber but he didn’t actually get back until just before Beltane, two months later.

Session 4: Lasers at Beltane – 13^th to 14^th Bull 3658: this was the last session to run at Stabcon but illustrates exactly why I like to run open games at conventions; John Scott played for the first time as Peter Thrice, a half-Elven minstrel entertainer and illusionist sorcerer. Peter joins at precisely the right time to introduce the Faerie plot thread (part foreshadowing, part plot device, part red herring) that continues through to the end and beyond. From now on each session follows on from the previous in a continuous chronology.

It’s four months later and Asmark and Bathsheba have just completed a grand tour of the Golden Circle – Bathsheba has replaced Caine as Overseer of the Circle and would be out of her depth were it not for Asmark but together they are a remarkably effective combination of mailed fist and kid glove.

It’s Beltane and the family are ordered to gather for the official festivities, but the revelries are shattered by an attempted assassination of the King and Queen. I had actually intended to kill off Vialle but the PCs (especially Peter, who personally saved the Queen) react with such initiative that they avoid this. Martin is formally acknowledged as Prince, Bathsheba as Princess and Asmark as Lord.

Asmark is still the only diary writer and the session concludes with his walking the Pattern to become an official member of the family.

Session 5: Begma and Zircon – 14^th to 15^th Bull 3658: from now on all sessions were run at home in Stoke. Asmark gets a visit from Saint, a school friend about to start a work placement for the Church of the Unicorn in Jasper, a Golden Circle shadow. Asmark then returns to Amber and the Overseer’s Office. While investigations in to the Beltane assassination attempt focuses on Zircon and the Technocracies, Alaric pursues his own agenda in Begma. This in turn leads him back to Lyon Abbey where he gets embroiled in more Mythos trouble with Khitan, relying on Deidre to save his bacon. He winds up trumping himself to Gerard’s flagship for state-of-the-art medical care. Khitan is thrown in the dungeons in Amber by Bathsheba.

Penny, perhaps inspired by Alaric’s visit to Mirabeau and perhaps by Ian’s literary efforts on behalf of Asmark, is now also writing a diary for Alaric. There is also Khitan’s account of his experiences to the Caliph of Cordoba.

Session 6: Gerard’s Legs – 16^th Bull 3658: while cruising in a show of force off Zircon, Gerard’s flagship is cut in half by a powerful orbital laser cannon. Gerard survives, saved by Nathan, but loses both legs. When Random learns of this, coming after Caine’s death and the assassination attempt on Kolvir, he suffers a nervous collapse. Flora rules that Deirdre and the redheads must not be told. Benedict is trumped in, orders the navy out of Zirconian waters and calls a Privy Council.

Meanwhile Khitan is imprisoned on suspicion of being possessed by a demon after injudicious use of shapeshifting in front of Bathsheba but is trumped to freedom by Alaric. Corwin is still suspect #1 but when Alaric, Asmark and Aylwin gang-trump him he seems to be in some sort of prison under heavy sorcerous protection from which they cannot free him.

Fleeing the fury of Bathsheba, Alaric and Khitan trump back to Lyon Abbey where Aylwin trumps him to convey Paolo (found wandering the streets of Amber shouting about ‘holy crusades’) and warns that all redheads are liable to be arrested on sight in Amber.

17^th Bull: In an all-day Privy Council meeting the family agree that Random is incapable of ruling and elect Julian as Regent – Paulette is furious.

Diaries for Alaric and Asmark.

Session 7: Abdication – 18^th Bull 3658: at breakfast, Julian appoints Bleys as Admiral; Aylwin deputises for Julian as Warden of Arden; Deirdre remains Sheriff of Amber; Alaric (much to his disgust) is still Receiver of Petitions; Asmark becomes the new Overseer of the Golden Circle. Bathsheba is somehow overlooked (misogyny meeting Bad Stuff).

Julian discusses current crises with Bleys, Aylwin and Asmark: the Sea of Sands (the desert separating Cordoba & Amber), Ardent & Pearl and, most seriously, Faerie.

In Rebma, Gerard gives Nathan his protection for saving him. Llewella tells Nathan that Moiré is dead. In a mirror she shows him Random’s childlike state; she suggests the Pattern could cure the King if someone carried him round but Nathan doubts this is possible. Oberon’s ghost tells him Random was always a weak reed and in thrall to the Unicorn. Oberon admits he was behind the attempted assassination at Beltane. At Oberon’s order, Nathan carries Random around the Pattern, boosted by Oberon using the Jewel of Judgement. Random recovers and vanishes; Nathan teleports to his room and collapses, exhausted.

Meanwhile Paolo badgers Alaric to do more for Mira. Fiona lays on a guilt trip (thoroughly deserved) and tells Alaric how Dworkin is utterly depraved while Oberon’s morals were beyond reproach. She questions Alaric’s choice of companions and, when he reveals his experiences in Lyon Abbey, she becomes distraught, horrified that he’s messing with the Mythos. Alaric departs in dudgeon after shouting.

Random summons everyone to the Throne Room; he’s fully recovered thanks to Nathan but now feels he is unsuited to the King business and intends to abdicate. He is going to search for his successor – he doesn’t say so but everyone assumes he’s looking for Corwin.

Alaric teaches Paolo Trump divination but the results indicate the future is the 10 of Swords – ‘desolation, disruption & ruin’.

Benedict tells Asmark that Queen Moiré, ill for the last two years, has finally died and someone will have to attend her funeral. That evening two school friends, Algar and Jomes, visit Asmark, asking after the King’s health.

Alaric dines that night with Deirdre. She hates the Unicorn for leaving her in the Abyss when she saved the Jewel of Judgement. She pledges her support and offers a home for his ‘art school’.

A diary from Nathan joins Alaric’s and Asmark’s and a wonderful conversation between Morwaith and the Unicorn reveals many insights in to ancient history, the nature of godhead, not to mention foreshadowing future plot.

Session 8: A Funeral & a Duel – 19^th Bull 3658: Deirdre shows Alaric a building for his art school before publicly pledging herself to the cause.

That afternoon Alaric asks Bill Roth’s advice on how to get out of his contract with Mira but is unhappy with the reply. Alaric and Bathsheba get a chewing out by Julian over Khitan, whom the Regent distrusts. Julian also distrusts Deirdre and asks if Alaric has been checking the petitions lately? He listens to Alaric’s comments regarding Lyon Abbey and Alaric agrees to investigate with Aylwin. Finally Alaric is told to attend Moiré’s funeral, Flora agrees to go with him.

Alaric works on petitions in the early afternoon. He gives Aylwin a trump for Emeraldheart to aid his team’s visit to the Faerie summit. Alaric’s painting is interrupted by a trump call from Khitan, who tries to convert him back to worshipping the Unicorn.

In reward for his efforts with the King, Nathan is made Warden of the Sea of Sands, the desert separating Amber from Cordoba, a major trade route plied by sandships. Queen Vialle asks Nathan to be her escort at Moiré’s funeral. Nathan advises Oberon’s ghost of the coup in Kashfa and that Nathan is to attend Moiré’s funeral. Oberon warns him to watch out for ‘foul magics’. Oberon agrees with Nathan that Corwin is the only option for king.

Moiré’s funeral: Alaric and Flora represent Amber. Vialle attends in her own right with Nathan as escort. Martin snubs Vialle because his father has not come to the funeral. Moiré’s coffin is consigned to R’Lyeh, where Nathan is told Rebmans pray that Cthulhu does not wake. Alaric is delighted to meet Gerard in the company of Llewella.

Diaries from Alaric, Asmark and Nathan.

20^th Bull: Asmark seconds Algar in a duel with Sir Nairesh Khan at dawn. Over breakfast, Nathan advises Aylwin of his appointment as Warden of the Sea of Sands.

Back in the office of the Overseer of the Golden Circle, Asmark gets a letter from Saint, newly arrived in Jasper. Nathan mentions talking with Khitan at Moiré’s funeral to Asmark, who ponders asking Julian to have Khitan re-accredited as Cordoba’s ambassador.

At lunch Julian tells everyone that there is to be a summit with the Fae in Emeraldheart 24^th Bull. Aylwin will be in charge of arrangements, advised by Peter Thrice.

Nathan, Asmark and Khitan all trump to Cordoba, where they are nearly run over by a chariot driven by Ibrahim, a son of the Caliph. Nathan swears revenge. They discuss the Sea of Sands with the Vizier. Nathan has no troops to defeat the Sand Devils. The Vizier warns that they use foul sorceries.

Diaries from Asmark and Nathan but for some reason Alaric’s diaries have no entry for 20^th Bull, perhaps he spent the day sleeping off a hangover in Rebma?

Session 9: The Fae Summit – 21^st Bull 3658: Asmark gets a second letter from Saint, now in Jasper, mentioning an incident on the border with Chalcedony. In the Overseer’s office Asmark learns of the coup in Kashfa.

Peter briefs Aylwin on Faerie and finds a tailor in Amber to make clothes in Aylwin’s colours but there are no silks while the Sea of Sands is hostile.

In Amethyst, Alaric reduces Fiona to tears with news of Deirdre’s involvement in his plans. Fiona blames Alaric for involving Aylwin and the cards predict ruin for Amber. Clarissa inspects Alaric and tells him that the Archmage Clarence will soon be dead.

Over lunch, Alaric, Asmark and Morwaith discuss Kashfa: is the Lion of Eregnor involved? They agree to investigate Lyon Abbey further.

Mira interrupts Alaric’s trump call to Aylwin. Alaric tells Aylwin he must make good on his agreement with Mira. Alaric loses a psychic duel with Mira over communion – she explains that she hates the Unicorn because she tried to kill Mira in the past, but if Alaric can get her agreement Mira is willing to share worship in Amber.

In Cordoba, the Caliph tells Nathan that Ibrahim has been sent away, his revenge will have to wait. Nathan seeks more information on the Sand Devils. Khitan conjures crystal balls he can track through shadow and they start placing them with caravans to Amber.

Deirdre lays down the law to Alaric, saying either he’s either for Mira’s crusade or he’s dead; the Unicorn is of the same origin as the obscene creature she killed for Alaric in Lyon Abbey. Alaric tells Aylwin that neither can get out of their contracts and they need more allies to deal with Mira. Alaric suggests Morwaith and they find him in the gym but he is not happy to hear that Mira can intercept trump calls.

Aylwin and Peter trump to Emeraldheart, where Peter concocts a new story – of the Knight-Shaper of Dreams.

Diary writing becomes contagious as Peter Thrice joins Alaric, Asmark and Nathan.

22^nd Bull: In Cordoba, Nathan places another two of Khitan’s spheres with caravans to Amber.

In Emeraldheart Peter attempts to access Amber’s Pattern in an experiment with sorcery, but the shock renders him unconscious for the rest of the day.

Julian discusses foreign affairs with Aylwin, Alaric, Asmark and Bathsheba: Martin is hostile to Amber yet has a prime claim to the throne if Random’s planned abdication becomes public; Bleys is dealing with Zircon; Asmark mentions the border incident between Jasper and Chalcedony. Faerie is the prime concern but Aylwin and Asmark must visit Amethyst after the summit in Emeraldheart. Alaric advises that the trumps are being spied on.

Alaric trumps back to Amethyst to find Archmage Clarence has died. He returns to Amber and tells Asmark. Alaric and Khitan trump Nathan who is on an aircraft on Earth, flying to the Grand Canyon. Nathan tells Khitan he’s placed 6 spheres with Cordoban merchants but he’s now on a mission for Random.

Asmark gets a letter from Archie’s mother, advising that Asmark’s old school chum has had a breakdown.

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Nathan and Peter Thrice.

23^rd Bull: At breakfast Asmark gives Julian his new trump and then returns to his room to paint another. In Emeraldheart, Peter and Aylwin discuss Amber’s Pattern. Aylwin warns that it’s touch is death to all but those of the Blood Royal of Amber. Their conversation turns to Faerie, then stories, art and music – since Aylwin’s sorcery is based on musical enchantment, they have much in common.

Alaric puts in two hours in the morning as Receiver of Petitions and spends the rest of his time painting his personal Trump shadow.

Nathan arrives at the Grand Canyon. He finds an old, half-healed rent in the shadow. Nathan uses the Pattern to reopen the rent…

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Nathan and Peter Thrice.

24^th Bull: Asmark spends all day in the Overseer’s office on Golden Circle matters. Alaric advises Asmark that he may be the son of Brand requested by the Fae but Asmark declines to attend the summit.

On Earth, Nathan opens the rent in the Grand Canyon and gets pulled in. He finds Brand has Deirdre [sic] and Sarah in the Abyss. Brand admits he sent the meteorite that fell in Arden. In return for Amber news Brand sends Nathan back to reality – a shadow with three crones and a tree.

Asmark trumps to Amethyst in the late afternoon, hires a horse and rides to his old school, Malmsey. He spends the evening with friends still at school.

In Emeraldheart, Alaric, Aylwin, Bathsheba and Morwaith join Peter. At dusk the stone circle becomes Fae and Lord Fandoral appears, on a throne in the midst of a circle of tables with all his courtiers jeering and hurling food and abuse at him, which he endures with dignity throughout the banquet. At a point in the feast, the jeering ends, Fandoral descends from his high chair and the foodstains vanish with a glamour. Accompanied by Puck, Fandoral then visits each Amberite, gifting them with a cryptic verse, finishing with a coda to all…

“Children, the tree keeps the sapling

From the light; so are eclipsed your hearts.

Yet, as the oak falls, grows the sprig:

The whole is stronger than the parts.”

Peter Thrice is also given an arrow bearing a portion of the Pattern on its point!

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Nathan and Peter Thrice. The coda to all was a reference to how, when the game started, there was a real sense of the Elders being these god-like beings who can handle any threat. I had a real problem with PCs trumping a handy uncle or aunt to get them out of trouble.

I developed a multi-pronged strategy to counter this. Firstly, as can be seen from Dark’s Circus and Albion, I simply made up reasons why the Elders weren’t around in the short term. Secondly, I steadily removed Elders: Corwin simply vanishes, Caine is assassinated, Gerard loses his legs and Random chases Corwin through shadow. Soon after this Benedict vanishes in to Faerie, never to be seen again. You’ll see what happens to Deirdre later. But beyond this was a third, more subtle ploy of showing the Elders as weak: Random’s collapse, Corwin’s incarceration, Fiona’s inner turmoil and her near-death experience, Julian’s drink problem…

And I’m pleased to say it worked – all the PCs grew to stand on their own two feet (with the arguable exception of Alaric – but even he eventually accepted responsibility and acted on his own initiative).

I’d say ‘Yet, as the oak falls, grows the sprig’ became the subtext of the game.

Session 10: A School Visit, a Pattern Walk and Groombridge – 25^th Bull 3658: in Emeraldheart, Aylwin, Alaric and Morwaith leave; Bathsheba and Peter return to Amber.

Khitan asks Alaric to help him with Nathan’s quest to find Sarah on Earth. Alaric trumps both of them through to his apartment in Paris before he is recalled to Amber.

In Malmsey, Asmark consults with his old headmaster about funeral protocol in Amethyst.

Julian summons Alaric, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Benedict and Peter to discuss the Faerie Summit. Julian and Benedict are very interested in Peter’s arrow. Bathsheba is to deputise as Captain of the Guard in Benedict’s absence. The funeral of the Archmage Clarence will be the 27^th Bull.

Julian takes Peter for a private interview, which ends in his walking the Pattern [see below].

Bleys asks Asmark to attend the Archmage’s funeral on his behalf.

Alaric gives Aylwin an ultimatum. Alaric then trumps to Khitan in Paris where Khitan frightens them both by demonstrating some unsavoury shapeshifting. Alaric trumps the two back to Cordoba, where Khitan deals with two assailants merely by mentioning his name – they run in terror!

Bleys tells Alaric he’s been spoilt and he’s not too big to be put over his knee, he advises Alaric to give Mira an ultimatum.

Before leaving Amber, Benedict tests Bathsheba’s fencing skills and advises that she must build up her stamina.

Alaric explores Groombridge, his personal Trump-shadow, for the first time – Mira warns him to beware of things in the dark corners of Groombridge.

Bathsheba visits Tir-na-N’Ogth to attune the Moonstone, recently given her by a noble from her later father’s faction.

Aylwin, Bathsheba and Khitan join Alaric and Asmark in keeping diaries. No diaries for Nathan or Peter Thrice because Geoff and John couldn’t make this session (one absence was scheduled, the other last moment). Nathan was presumed to be recovering from burns received in the Abyss but Peter Thrice’s absence was a blow because he was a focus for this session, so I did a précis of events for John and we conducted the subsequent chat with Julian followed by Peter’s Patternwalk by e-mail between sessions 10 and 11. I was pleased with my own characterisation of Julian (I find him the most difficult of the princes) but John’s playing of Peter was simply beautiful.

Session 11: An Unwelcome Guest at the Funeral – 26^th Bull 3658: Nathan spends the entire day healing in a fast-track shadow.

Asmark gets a disturbing letter from Saint in Jasper.

In Cordoba Khitan visits Hafiz, his mentor in sorcery, prepares for the coming funeral and purchases silks and spices in the market at knockdown rates.

Aylwin takes Asmark and Peter to Minjoninita to give basic training in use of Pattern.

Alaric pays a second visit to Groombridge, the lions have gone but something unclean now menaces unseen – the visit ends in disaster as he tries to trump his children through to the real world and he arrives in Amber with their screams in his ears.

Asmark trumps Khitan to Amber with two cartloads of silks and spices.

Morwaith becomes the new Archpriest of the Unicorn. That evening crowds chant, “The Archpriest is dead; long live the Prophet!” Algar and Jomes tell Asmark they are concerned over this. Algar now works for Deirdre, Asmark asks Jomes to investigate Alaric’s art school. Bathsheba asks Asmark what he knows of Deirdre and he asks Algar to report on her.

In the evening, Peter has a bittersweet meeting with Queen Vialle. Bathsheba learns her father’s old supporters are looking to her for leadership as various factions in the nobility seek to fill the power vacuum left by Random’s absence.

Khitan now joins Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Nathan and Peter Thrice in the list of diarists.

27^th Bull: Nathan trumps through to Random and tells him of finding Brand in the Abyss. Random tells Nathan to warn everyone and hellrides off to look for Corwin.

Back in Amber, Peter spends the day in archery practice but decides he needs to commission a special bow from Morwaith.

Morwaith spends the morning building bridges with leading laymen and inspecting his clergy.

Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba and Khitan trump through to Amethyst for the funeral of Archmage Clarence. During the day Clarissa is as unpleasant as possible, gloating over the powers she inherits in the form of the Amethyst, a shadow of the Jewel of Judgement. She can scry in to Amber itself, proving it by revealing things she’s seen this morning.

Most of her grandchildren just grit their teeth at Clarissa’s unpleasantness but, just as Clarissa has summoned massive magical forces to seal the Archmage’s tomb with a lightning bolt, Alaric loses his cool, stamps his foot and screams ‘Nyarlathotep’, which is simply the most shocking thing he can think of on the spur of the moment. However, in an intensely magical shadow, with powerful magic already in the air, a hideous face forms in the clouds and asks, ‘Who calls me?’ The crowd stampedes in terror. Fiona swoons and Aylwin tries to hellride her to safety but it ends in disaster with Fiona injured, possibly fatally. Bathsheba and Khitan hellride in a different direction and find themselves fighting skeletons rising from their graves. Bathsheba triumphs and they both trump to Aylwin. Aylwin trumps Fiona and Bathsheba through to Bleys for emergency treatment and then trumps himself and Khitan back to Amethyst. Meanwhile Clarissa, with Rinaldo’s help, uses the Amethyst to banish the face in the sky and restore order but the day ends as a catastrophe. Nothing will ever be the same again!

Possibly inspired by the high drama of this episode, we now have diaries for everyone: Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan, Morwaith, Nathan and Peter Thrice.

In retrospect the appearance of Nyarlathotep at Clarence’s funeral was the most dramatic and frightening point in the entire campaign. This incident was entirely unplanned, I merely responded to Alaric’s entirely inappropriate response to Clarissa’s (admittedly vicious) needling. It was almost immediately recognised as a seminal point in the game. You may like to compare the various accounts. Alaric never recovered from it but Penny’s role-playing was faultless, after what he’d put himself through in Groombridge. It was also important for Aylwin, who in trying to save his mother all but killed her; but although at the time it seemed a low-point for him, in my opinion this is where Aylwin truly starts to shine and eventually he emerges from the shadow of Alaric to be seen as the best of Fiona’s sons.

Session 12: Rinaldo – Excommunications – Rebellion – Hall of Mirrors – 27^th Bull 3658 (late afternoon): Bathsheba falls asleep in the Unicorn chapel on Bleys’ flagship.

Oberon orders Nathan to retrieve the Jewel of Judgement, hidden in the Hall of Mirrors.

Alaric and Paolo conduct a ceremony of excommunication on Aylwin, from now on Trump does not work for him. Alaric then trumps Julian who promptly mind-rapes him to discover the truth behind that afternoon’s events in Amethyst.

Julian begins military action against Deirdre and orders Morwaith to excommunicate Alaric. Orders go out to kill Alaric on sight.

In Kashfa, Rinaldo confesses to Asmark, Aylwin and Khitan that he killed Caine to avenge his father, but now he wants reconciliation, among other things.

Mira denies Alaric access to Mirabeau. Battle is about to commence and he must support Deirdre in Amber. Incapable of obeying direct orders, Alaric attempts to shadow-walk to Mirabeau but he finds his Pattern powers no longer work – he’s been excommunicated from the Pattern. Desperate, Alaric trumps himself and Paolo to Groombridge.

Diaries for: Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan, Morwaith, Nathan but Peter Thrice’s diary goes straight to the 28^th.

28^th Bull: Morwaith saves Fiona’s life by a disturbing religious ritual involving human sacrifice after dreaming of Adam, the first Archpriest of the Unicorn.

Peter dreams of Titania, who charges him with investigating disturbances in Corse. Peter tries to shadow-walk to Corse but finds it hard going and sleeps in Arden.

Back in Amber, Julian tells Bathsheba that Deirdre leads a rebellion, supported by a gaggle of nobles. He has them contained in a rundown area near the docks. Aylwin and Khitan converse in Lyon Abbey with Nyarlathotep himself – who finds Alaric ‘worrying’.

Bathsheba corners Deirdre and the two women fight a vicious duel before Deirdre stumbles and Bathsheba hacks her down. With Deirdre’s head on a pole, her insurrection collapses.

In Groombridge Alaric enters the Hall of Mirrors and meets people who killed their mothers. At the end, Alaric and Nathan bump in to each other, passing through opposite doors. Nathan passes Alaric and finds himself in the Hall of Mirrors again, sees the same portraits as Alaric but in reverse order, hearing his verses from Puck, having missed the Faerie Summit. Finally Oberon’s portrait gives him the Jewel of Judgement.

Diaries for everyone: Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan, Morwaith, Nathan and Peter Thrice. If Clarence’s funeral is the moment of truth for Alaric and Aylwin, this is Bathsheba’s – despite awesome combat skills (top Warfare and Strength second only to Quentin, who hasn’t been seen for 2 years) she is victim to immense self-doubt. Her previous position as Captain of the Guard had been regarded as down to Vialle and Paulette’s positive discrimination and she had been ‘accidentally-on-purpose’ lost in the shuffle when Julian doled out the jobs after Random’s collapse. However, in reality Bathsheba is a superb warrior. She outclasses all but the very best of her uncles and could have given Corwin or Bleys a nasty shock if they were complacent.

During the fight I viciously played on her self-doubt, suggesting that Deirdre wasn’t ‘quite as good’ as might be expected. Actually the truth was that Bathsheba was better than anyone expected – even Bathsheba. The truth lies in the fact that Julian had fought Deirdre all day long and only managed to contain her – with more and superior troops – he called in Bathsheba because he knew he was outclassed, and Bathsheba delivered.

It was never stated outright but, from this point on, everyone in the family, including Julian, realised that Bathsheba deserved respect.

Session 13: Julian Drops The Knife – 1^st Snake 3658: Groombridge: Nathan emerges from the Hall of Mirrors in Alaric’s basement in to a dangerous confrontation. Alaric rescues Paolo from the horrors of the basement. Khitan gives the strange tarot deck to Alaric. Dark visits Groombridge as Alaric paints his trump. Alaric trumps to Morwaith to discuss Dark.

Peter finds his shadow-walking skills not up to finding Corse as yet, so he returns to Amber.

Nathan finally gets back to Amber, where he hides the Jewel of Judgement in Gerard’s rooms.

Still in Kashfa, Aylwin is annoyed that Khitan gave the tarot deck to Alaric but the two teleport to the field to where Bathsheba and Khitan pulled Aylwin and Fiona after they fled Nyarlathotep. Aylwin practises mending the rift in shadow using Pattern – delicate work.

Asmark negotiates for Algar’s formal release with Julian and Bathsheba.

A family meeting: Asmark, Bathsheba, Flora, Gerard (in a wheelchair), Llewella, Nathan, Julian and Peter, discuss current crises and redistribute offices. Aylwin is the new Constable, Llewella deputises for Fiona as Magistra Templi, Nathan will serve as lieutenant to Bleys as Admiral, and Peter becomes Sheriff.

Diaries for everyone: Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan, Nathan and Peter Thrice. It’s a mark of how the brats are coming on: Aylwin and Peter both get serious offices and Bathsheba is now Captain of the Guard and acting Marshal of Amber. No diary for Morwaith this session, though he was active. This is the last appearance of Nathan, which is a pity, he’d had some rollicking adventures and his position in the game was irreplaceable. I’m sure Oberon missed him as much as I did.

To me at the time this episode felt like an anti-climax: Alaric was hiding away in Groombridge after the disaster of the funeral; Deirdre was dead and her rebellion snuffed; the Faerie Summit was already ancient history; even Nathan was back from his wild quests and Peter had barely got going on his before he returned. There was remarkably little action, but there was considerable talk, as Alaric’s diary indicates. Of course, this proved to be the lull before the storm…

Session 14: The Battle of Vine Street – 2^nd Snake 3658: …and the storm breaks! Unicorn fundamentalists riot in the city. Peter makes a personal reconnaissance. Morwaith tries to control the rioters but they put suspected Miran sympathisers to death. The pogrom forces moderates in to the Miran camp and the city polarises.

In Arden, Aylwin’s foot is deteriorating. Asmark tells him he’s Constable as well as deputy Warden of Arden. Aylwin orders the rangers to Amber but only 150 are mounted and he’ll be in a gig. Asmark trumps himself and Khitan back to Amber.

In a stroke of genius, Morwaith orders the faithful out of the city on to the northern slopes of Kolvir but fundamentalists try to force their way to the castle.

Bathsheba uses the Palace Guard to hold Vine Street while Julian wields the Jewel of Judgement to turn the weather against the rioters. Bathsheba wins the Battle of Vine Street with aid from Peter Thrice’s bow and Khitan’s sorceries, not to mention Julian’s lightnings, but it’s a close-run thing and Julian falls unconscious, exhausted by the Jewel of Judgement. Leaving Peter to hold Vine Street overnight, Bathsheba joins Asmark to assess Julian and they see him put to bed, removing the Jewel.

Asmark has summoned the Garnath Light Horse; Khitan offers Bathsheba troops from Cordoba.

In Groombridge, Paolo suffers a mental collapse. Feeling that Paolo is no longer safe in Groombridge, Alaric trumps them both Amber to find a safe haven. The Mirans have been waiting for Alaric to lead them since the loss of Deirdre. Attempting to establish some control over the rabble and reduce the violence, Alaric agrees to lead them and suddenly he is wearing his armour. The Mirans begin to sing and the hymns cause others to flock to their cause, horrified by the excesses of the fundamentalists. Finding it abandoned, as per Morwaith’s order, the Mirans occupy the Cathedral.

Khitan observes Alaric taking the Cathedral, he tries to seal them in with a spell but Miran Trump aesthetics blows it away. Khitan suffers a crisis of faith.

3^rd Snake: at dawn, in the Cathedral, Alaric is accosted by a now-sane Paolo. Aylwin arrives with 150 mounted rangers at Northgate, they make their way to the castle through the aftermath of the riots and the Battle of Vine Street. Bathsheba relieves Peter on Vine Street, who now has great respect among the troops and many nobles.

Asmark gets a fourth, very disturbing, letter from Saint in Jasper. Asmark and Khitan find Saint hiding in a barn – Canon Zurich and his entourage have been killed by some huge, hideous but invisible monster from across the border. Asmark and Khitan find evidence of evil in Chalcedony, the shadow belonging to Paulette, the King’s mother. No one has seen Paulette since Julian became Regent on 17^th Bull.

This was another of those occasions when I thought it necessary to clarify things between sessions so again I had a series of e-mail exchanges with Penny commencing where this session ended, with Alaric talking to Paolo in the Cathedral. It belongs at the end of this session in the morning of 3^rd Snake. Though in no way can it be said to have ended to Alaric’s satisfaction (entirely through his own fault), it explains a lot of plot (though not everything – if anyone is wondering about the Paolo–Dark link, have patience). Here it is in the public domain for the first time. I think it’s even better than Alaric in Mirabeau, and it’s a lot shorter.

Diaries for everyone: Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan, Morwaith and Peter Thrice. With outright civil war in Amber, it is now that I revealed the title of the campaign, The Doom that Came to Amber, inspired by a Lovecraft tale, of course. I’d long considered a paraphrase of a Lovecraft title but I’d settled on these words only at the funeral. But to have announced it then would have given too much away and concerted action might even have made it untrue. I came clean now because, with the civil war, I thought things had reached the point of no return. However, the precise ending was still very much in doubt.

I think Peter really starts to shine here, though it’s kind of difficult to say since John’s role-playing had always been on-the-money. But this is where he emerges from his Patternwalk to become a full-fledged member of the family. Vine Street could not have been won without him.

Finally, Groombridge: Claire has asked me why I went out of my way to make it so unpleasant. The reason is simple; I knew Alaric would retreat to it when things got tough outside. He spent most of this session in there as it was, if it had been even slightly nicer he’d never have come out at all.

Session 15: Politics and Silver Horseshoes – 3^rd Snake 3658 (noon to dawn): Bathsheba and Peter ride down to the naval docks. They improve the defences and consolidate the food in the warehouses. The Garnath Light Horse arrive and join Bathsheba down at the docks. Rumour has it that the Unicorn is feeding her faithful by miracles on the northern slopes of Kolvir.

Meanwhile Alaric is captured by troops loyal to Amber but, unrecognised due to his lack of wig and formal colours, trumps back to Groombridge. There he finds something has changed – no longer does it reset to 7.30am Sunday morning, and Father Paul now answers to Paolo! By now Alaric is thoroughly confused. He seems to have forgotten he’d left Paolo in Amber…

Asmark troubleshoots unrest from the nobility. Morwaith explains the metaphysical situation and explains that his father, Weyland Smith, has forged silver horseshoes with which to rebind the Unicorn.

Gerard and Llewella arrived at dusk, fleeing unrest in Rebma.

Peter reconnoitres the city: the Unicorn holds sway outside the walls to the north; the castle holds the northern half of the city down to the naval dockyard; the Mirans hold the southern half of the city, including the Cathedral and the mercantile docks. Peter converses with Rupert, commanding the Miran troops.

Khitan tries to heal the wound Alaric gained in the Cathedral but admits his efforts are tainted. They try to trump to the Ophidian Archipelago to find a source of ‘pure’ energy but Mira intercepts and angrily orders Alaric to Amber. Khitan agrees to go to Amber and trump Alaric through…but Alaric waits, and waits…

Asmark and Khitan converse with the Ghost of Oberon in the dungeons. He confirms the importance of the silver horseshoes. Oberon also reveals the significance of the Eye of the Serpent. Finally Oberon asks them what Roger is writing in his book and they discover the title of his book is The Doom that Came to Amber!

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba and Peter Thrice. No diaries from Khitan or Morwaith. Both were at this session and Rick was a diligent diary-writer, but I can offer a verbatim account of the midnight discussion between Khitan and Asmark (which looks very much as though it was conducted by e-mail). Jim was also present but he does have trouble with diaries, which is a pity because I love the characterisation he puts in to those he does write.

This was a short session with less happening than previously but there was no sense of anti-climax (at least for me), since things felt tense and everyone was waiting for the second shoe. I loved Peter’s conversation with Rupert to whom Peter took an instant dislike despite Rupert’s mother being one of his favourites.

It is now that the significance of the Eye becomes generally known. It had long been known that the Pearl of Wisdom was the Rebman shadow of the Jewel of Judgement and Bathsheba was in possession of the Moonstone, the Tir-na-N’Ogth equivalent. But of course all these are themselves shadows of the original jewel used to create the Primal Pattern. This is the Eye of the Serpent, visually indistinguishable from the Jewel of Judgement – the presence of 2 jewels I hope explains how Oberon sends Nathan off to get the Jewel just days after using said jewel to help Nathan walk the Pattern.

Roger: Corwin meets Roger in Hand of Oberon; Roger is, of course, Zelazny himself – I’ve always loved the inference and messing with people’s heads.

Session 16: The Return of the King – 4^th Snake 3658: just before dawn, Asmark trumps Random in to his own room, the King takes counsel with Asmark and Khitan.

Asmark wakes after little more than an hour’s troubled sleep, sure that his nightmare was a psychic attack by trump.

At dawn, unable to produce a sufficiently powerful illusion, Peter attacks Rupert with his blade, the fight ends in stalemate but with the moral victory to Peter as Rupert cannot meet his eyes. Peter is back at the castle in time for breakfast.

At breakfast, Julian returns the Jewel of Judgement to Random. The family discuss religion. Llewella introduces her daughter, Terisa, a mistress of Mirror-Trump, who confirms that Martin is allied with R’Lyeh and the Deep ones to invade Amber from the sea. Random orders Alaric not be killed, “Take him alive and nail him to a table.”

After breakfast, Terisa starts arranging mirrors to transport grain in large quantities from her home shadow. Around noon she calls on Flora to report progress and finds her in the midst of a psychic attack by Trump from Alaric and Paolo. With Terisa’s help the antagonists are repulsed and Terisa learns that Paolo thinks he is three different people.

Bathsheba returns to the docks to secure as much food as possible. But during the day a fog is rolls in from the sea over the entire city. Peter’s sorcerous sight reveals it is driven by powerful magic from the sea. Reconnaissance reveals that Rupert now has between 4-5,000 troops and has pushed north to talk the Guildhall, claiming two thirds of the city. Peter personally reconnoitres the Guildhall itself, concealing himself with Fae magics. He overhears Rupert brutally terrorising the aldermen in to doing his will. Once Rupert leaves, Peter is discovered but uses his illusions in the fogs to make his escape. Peter takes his men back to the docks.

Aylwin’s foot is worse but he is detailed to try the nobles charged with supporting Deirdre. Khitan offers to heal Aylwin’s ankle but instead Aylwin has him heal Danesh’s head wound.

Khitan researches a prophecy he once read long ago, only to realise that it is evil. He realises that he has healed Lord Danesh but at the expense of polluting him with the Mythos. Khitan tries to access the Pattern itself with his sorcery but, like Peter on the 22^nd of Bull, he is shocked in to unconsciousness.

Asmark organises a ship to sail from Great Tullyport, near Garland House, to get as many ships as possible to put in to the naval docks at Amber.

In Groombridge, Alaric dithers.

Again no diaries for Khitan or Morwaith but Terisa joins Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Khitan and Peter Thrice. Rick himself came up with the Book of Thudd, and once you substitute ‘Pattern’ for ‘Tree’ it really is right on the money.

OK, time to explain the whole Paolo-Dark thing: you may recall from the end of Alaric in Mirabeau that Mira placed Paolo with Alaric as her spiritual guardian, to keep him on the straight and narrow, ‘cos she knew what he was like. You may also remember that Aidan Krownbrim, the Archpriest of Mira, personally tutored Paolo to be a priest. Aidan Krownbrim, of course, was Dark, who needed to use some serious mind-sorcery to get a year’s tutelage in to Paolo’s mind in the space of a few weeks. He also took the opportunity to put a psychic back-door in to Paolo’s mind, just in case.

Fast forward to 1^st Snake: Alaric tries to paint a trump of Dark as an analytical device. Dark senses this and follows the link to Groombridge – amazingly Alaric, despite their conversation, fails to realise what this implies, in any sense, attributing Dark’s arrival as down to sorcery.

Dark returns to Groombridge while Alaric is away, immediately realises Mrs Alars and Father Paul are analogues of Mira and Paolo and explores Alaric’s attic and basement, as he later relates to Alaric in the Cathedral. Finding Paolo also in Groombridge, Dark leaves, shapeshifts in to Father Paul and re-enters Groombridge. The shadow then treats Dark as if he’s Father Paul himself – there aren’t two Father Pauls, instead Dark is Father Paul.

Alaric was quite right about it being unlucky for doppelgangers to meet; Dark establishes a mental link with Paolo and deliberately places a part of himself in Paolo to establish control. But Alaric returns before this is complete and breaks the link, leaving a piece of each mind in the other body. It is thanks to this link that Paolo starts spouting Dark’s own conversations. Dark is still in Paolo/Fr Paul persona when he meets Alaric in the Cathedral, though Alaric (with typical self-centredness) seems to have assumed he’s done this merely to goad Alaric. But when Dark leaves Groombridge he leaves a part of himself in Father Paul. Even Dark can make mistakes.

Alaric seems to have forgotten he’d taken the real Paolo to Amber before going to the Cathedral. When next Alaric visits Groombridge he finds it has not reset to 7.30am, this is because a real person is still present, because now Father Paul is also partly Paolo and partly Dark and is very confused over everything. Alaric, forgetting poor Paolo was taken back to Amber, assumes Father Paul is Paolo, and takes him to Amber too – now possible because he’s partly Dark and therefore has an existence beyond Groombridge. Captured with Alaric, Father Paul continues to mouth whatever Dark is currently saying to Mira and Rupert.

This is almost certainly the most diabolically complex bit of the entire campaign but if you read through the above 3 times you should get it. If not, please don’t ask as it hurts my head too. Needless to say, Dark did the same thing Khitan did to Danesh.

Session 17: The Prodigal Returns – 4^th Snake 3658 (evening): Asmark returns from Great Tullyport for supper, when Morwaith reveals the silver horseshoes and outlines what is needed to shoe the Unicorn. The finding of the Eye of the Serpent becomes urgent but a general search of the unused rooms reveals nothing until Asmark comes across it in Gerard’s rooms (which of course have been unused since he lost his legs).

The fog thickens in the city. Bathsheba holds the docks and the northern third of the city while Peter wages guerrilla war against the Mirans. Then at midnight strange, unclean frog-men crawl out of the sea. Terisa calls them ‘Deep Ones’. They use poisoned weapons and magic and have vastly superior numbers. Bathsheba’s troops (200 marines and 150 cavalry – the Garnath Light Horse) are being overwhelmed so Bathsheba orders a retreat, first from the docks and then right back to the castle, which is finally reached just before dawn.

Alaric returns to Amber via Aylwin’s trump. Aylwin’s ankle suffers a devastating injury in the resulting fight, but Alaric and Paolo are captured and confined to the dungeons. Fiona makes a belated reappearance, in a bikini, to minister to Aylwin.

5^th Snake: Asmark receives word before breakfast that “unspeakable horrors” have “crossed the border from Chalcedony” in to Jasper. Asmark plans to open negotiations with the Mirans.

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Peter Thrice. Still no diary for Morwaith, nor for Terisa (I can’t recall if Carolyn was present for the session.) John Scott also couldn’t make this session, regretfully, so instead we have my summary of events for Peter.

Alaric says that he can see why his ‘sense of trust has gone awry’ but I can’t say I do. The Alaric-Aylwin incident is another point where it’s interesting to compare accounts. None of the diaries make it completely clear but I am happy to confirm that Alaric deliberately targeted Aylwin’s dicky ankle for a kick. Since the injury occurred in their first visit to Lyon Abbey less than 4 months previously, it was definitely malice aforethought. Under the circumstances, bearing in mind Alaric’s recent history, I think he was lucky to get away with just a slap – though it was a seriously powerful slap from a mailed gauntlet, so don’t underestimate it. Remember that Julian had recently been under a lot of pressure. However, it’s probably Alaric’s good fortune that Aylwin has Julian for a dad, rather than someone more volatile.

With the appearance of the Deep Ones, the Mythos have firmly entered the fray and almost immediately achieve the aim at this point – to give the Royals and the Mirans a reason to get together. No one seems to have paid much attention to the unspeakable horrors from Chalcedony but Jasper is simply their first stop on the way to Amber. Paulette, who departed in fury when Julian became Regent, is at their head, but I don’t think anyone ever discovered that.

By the way, Aylwin claims in his diary to have a trump of Adam. Adam has been missing since before Benedict was born and the only known trump was the so-called ‘family trumps of yesteryear’, which was an ancient Dworkin deck, but I believe it was unresponsive, due to Adam’s condition (see session 18).

Session 18: Metaphysics, Politics and Weirdness in the Dungeon – 5^th Snake 3658 (evening): Peter and Montfort (injured) hide in the fog; Peter saves Falasia from the Deep Ones and comes to a truce with Rupert in view of the new threat from the sea.

Bathsheba dreams of Deirdre, Eric and Rinaldo. Waking, she trumps Peter, Falasia and Montfort to safety before riding out to relieve the Northgate.

At breakfast the discussion is of metaphysics, then Morwaith leaves in search of Adam and Peter goes to bed.

Aylwin detects a powerful Mythos energy source in the harbour. Puck again quotes Aylwin’s verse and asks permission to seek others.

Random directs Asmark to negotiate with Rupert.

Terisa, waiting for Bathsheba, meets Puck, who gives Terisa her verse. Terisa surveys Rebma, then Mira takes over her mirror, after which Terisa goes straight to Random who tells her to liaise with Mira in parallel with Asmark talking to Rupert.

Aylwin visits Danesh in the infirmary, then he and Asmark receive the casualties from the Northgate via Bathsheba’s trump. Puck gives Asmark his verse and, soon after, Asmark overhears Puck giving Khitan his on his way down to the dungeons to visit Alaric and Paolo; Roger reveals Paolo is quoting Dark’s words with Mira and Rupert.

More metaphysics, with some practical politics, in the library, then Asmark and Terisa talk to Mira and Dark by trump.

Peter advises Bathsheba that R’Lyeh is rising from the deeps and the fleet is in danger. Bathsheba trumps through to Algar’s ship, which sailed from Tullyport that morning, and clears the ship of Deep Ones. With R’Lyeh rising, she evacuates the ship by trump and informs Julian and Random that Amber’s fleet is no more.

Diaries for Alaric, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Peter Thrice and Terisa. With Miran worship growing apace, Mira is now able to interrupt any use of trump in Amber, previously only Alaric had been vulnerable to this.

Adam: in my opinion, it is the greatest pity that Jim never wrote a diary covering Morwaith’s search for Adam. It was not easy. He first found reference to him in Amber, as the first Archpriest of the Unicorn. An old portrait in the castle plus some circumstantial evidence indicated Adam was an early son of Oberon. Morwaith then searched shadow, seeking ancient libraries, including the Great Hall of Celaeno and others even less savoury, looking for ancient legends concerning the ‘first man’. It seemed that he might be known across shadow under various names: Yama, Ymir, Yima, Mannus. etc. It seems he became the first man, and the first priest, and was the first to die. He was thus worshipped as a god of Death or as the first man, depending on the precise attributes of each name. Morwaith also discovered that any god can be summoned if you know the correct ritual. He had a lot of trouble with this until he came across a ritual of which Genesis, chapter 3, verses 8-9 is a distillation – God walks in the Garden of Eden and calls, ‘Adam, where art thou?’. A powerful Pattern sorcerer in his own right, Morwaith was able to recreate the ritual. Most Amberites regarded Eden as an uninhabited close shadow of Amber but Morwaith knew it was more than this as his father, Weyland Smith, was imprisoned in Eden, in a cave on Mt Kolvi next to the Pattern of Fire, so Morwaith was more than a little familiar with it – what a coincidence! So Morwaith went in to Eden, avoiding the more predatory dinosaurs, and performed his Pattern Sorcery ritual, calling ‘Adam, where art thou?’ He then saw Adam effectively coalesce from a myriad different reflections from across shadow – this is what happens to a god who lets himself go. Adam revealed he was Oberon’s first-born son, born in the Courts of Chaos. He assisted at the original ritual of the creation of the Pattern but then had a falling out with his father and departed in to shadow, where he sired the race of men. Adam, of course, was able to tell Morwaith exactly what he needed to re-bind the Unicorn.

Session 19: The Doom – 5^th Snake 3658 (night): Random orders Asmark to negotiate with the Mirans and he secures several concessions, not least that Alaric be allowed to partake of the ritual (so that he can be punished appropriately after). It is agreed that the Unicorn will be rebound, not killed [Mira is not at the negotiations] and the Pattern erased and redrawn, and that all this will happen at dawn, with Dark as the Hierophant and various others in appropriate roles.

6^th Snake: the Mirans arrive at the castle end everyone treks up Kolvir. At some point there is a traversal through strange monochrome terrain and then the throng arrives at the Primal Pattern. By now Dark is revealed as Dworkin. He produces the sacrifice, who turns out to be Ann, his granddaughter and his wife, whom he thought had died on the guillotine during the Terror. Alaric takes her place on the altar and cuts his own throat – Dworkin clucks irritably but Mira catches his blood and sips from the grail before passing it around the throng.

Meanwhile Dworkin summons the Unicorn by 7 ancient names and binds her. Then, as Morwaith shoes the Unicorn, Dworkin drives away that part of her which is evil.

Then it falls to Peter to take the last of the blood and sprinkle it over the Pattern, causing it to boil away.

Finally Dworkin takes the Eye of the Serpent and creates a new Pattern, from the inside-out, and everyone watching feels themselves drifting further and further away, and falling in to unconsciousness…

Diaries for Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Morwaith and Peter Thrice. This is it, the culmination of several years of play. I was very satisfied with the ending. I had had a pretty good grasp of how the ritual would work for some time (Morwaith’s diary has the most complete account of the ritual, for which I am eternally grateful to Jim – when I read things like this, I feel it’s a crying shame that Jim doesn’t write more diaries, this one is elegiac) but the precise details were only hammered out during the actual session.

The two parties, so bitterly opposed just hours before, came together when faced with the Mythos, and just in time, too – the Mythos forces from Chalcedony under Paulette were soon to join up with Martin’s R’Lyeh allies and some of these were glimpsed in the fogs after the Pattern was erased but were kept at bay by the Eye of the Serpent. But that’s why I had 3 religions and why the Mythos had to be so much nastier than either of the other two.

It was by no means certain that Alaric would be present at all – without active petitioning by PCs, and especially Asmark’s hard bargaining, he would probably have been left in the dungeons to rot. Alternatively, Dworkin (but not Dark) would probably have accepted Alaric as a sacrifice. If Alaric had played his part differently he might have been an integral part of the Miran party but his inability to form even a vague strategy left him where he was, unwanted by either side, save for a few genuine friends, who somehow felt sorry for him, though in my opinion he only ever had himself to blame for his misfortunes.

But don’t cry too hard for Alaric for he had the last laugh. As shall be seen in the Awakening, the first episode of Brave New Worlds (ie The Doom that Came to Amber after the ritual of redrawing) revealed that Alaric’s blood suffused the new Pattern, ensuring that his essence permeated the very fabric of Shadow. Each new Pattern realm found itself the proud owner of several of Alaric’s works, somehow preserved through the redrawing, though none were on his person at the time.

Dark, having been present right in the first adventure, Dark’s Circus, it was fitting he be present at the end. Dark, of course, as had long been suspected, was Dworkin. In fact all those other aliases, each with his distinct personality: Aiden Krownbrim, Brian Merkindow, Wirminbone Dark and Manikin Breword, are all anagrams of Dworkin Barimen. (There were others that never came out in play, Robin Aikmen-Dwr and Nimbrowin Drake, who was Dworkin’s dragon-form, responsible for the death of Lora.) Of course only Dark’s full name was known to anyone but Alaric much before the end and only he knew of Aiden and Breword, and frankly Alaric was too self-centred to dwell much upon these names, despite strong hints from Mira and Dark, ‘Names are important, Alaric, for by knowing the name, you know the thing’.

To give you an idea how much PCs influenced events, Alaric’s faux pas at his grandfather’s funeral kind of crystallised things a bit. I had intended for there to be a serious run-in with a major Mythos deity at some point, either Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth, but most likely either in Lyon Abbey or Chalcedony, or possibly at sea over Rebma/R’Lyeh. I’d also intended it to be two or more sessions later. The fact that it happened early meant that Deirdre wasn’t fully prepared, nor were Mira and Dark ready for action. Even so, if Alaric had done as he was told and supported Deirdre she might very well have survived. Despite all this, he might still have been accepted fully in to the Miran fold if he’d shown sense to Dark in the Cathedral.

Morwaith is another character with a seminal influence on events. In fact Jim later e-mailed me to say, “Morwaith loves the Unicorn, however he was upset that she put him in charge and then immediately seemed to go on a suicidal binge. Trying to appear to be the reasonable face of religion against Myra's fanatics was, undermined when his co-religionists held their impromptu bonfire party. It was a job with responsibility and blame, but no power”.

Obviously I disagreed, Morwaith got used by a powerful entity but she was pretty honest about it. The Unicorn was seeking the destruction of Pattern so that she could return to her Mythos origins as 'a Lord of the Living Void' and she told him so on Kolvir. If he had gone with her wholeheartedly she would have been very grateful and he would have become 'a Lord of the Living Void' himself, so she wasn’t being manipulative. But Morwaith's agenda could never have been hers; he didn't want the Universe destroyed. I can understand how Jim felt but no character can have absolute control over events. Despite Jim’s frustration, Morwaith was a lynchpin in the events leading up to the Redrawing. Without him there would have been no Battle of Vine Street, the fundamentalists would have stayed in the city instead of exiting to the north slopes of Kolvir, the battle between Mira and the Unicorn would have been much more intense – a real battle in which ultimately Alaric and Rupert's forces would have been outflanked by the Deep Ones coming out of the ocean. Finally it was Morwaith who found Adam and shoed the Unicorn. Without these things, this outcome could not have happened. Instead either the Unicorn or Mira would have prevailed and *destroyed* her opponent. You can imagine how different the current situation would have been.

Brave New Worlds

Session 20: The Awakening – New Year’s Day: our heroes and heroines wake up, each alone. It rapidly turns out that anyone who was attuned to the Eye of the Serpent or one of its shadows now has his or own Pattern realm. Those without this privilege wake up in their own little section of someone else’s Pattern realm, depending on their personal preference. Ann, Peter Thrice and Terisa themselves New Amber, Random’s Realm, in the University District, the Ebbs and Mordant Vale, respectively, together with Llewella, Gerard, Alexander, Falasia and Gilgamesh.

Asmark and Aylwin wake up in Absinthe, Fiona’s realm, together with Bleys; Bathsheba has her own Pattern realm, Ellas, in which she finds Rinaldo (who prefers to be called Luke), Dalt, Delwin and Sand; and Morwaith in Angtharrod. Flora and Rupert wake in Corwin’s realm, Argent. Anya wakes in Julian’s realm, The Weald.

Other realms include Amethyst, Albion, Ghostwheel, Icon, Mahartha, Nur and Zircon, belonging to Clarissa, Hector, Merlin, Mira, Adam, Omar and Canaan, respectively, each of whom find themselves alone and only Mira’s is a full Pattern realm, the others being Broken Pattern – by-the-by, Omar is Khitan, for reasons best known to himself he feels the need for a new persona.

Each person wakes at dawn on a beautiful sunny morning to find themselves in a ghost-town. It’s like the place is fully-formed but someone took the people away. There are tools apparently set aside in the midst of use, food in the process of preparation, even on the plate, ready to be eaten. Soon, within a few hours, the more perceptive realise that some of these things move, a book is opened to a certain page, food is eaten, a fire is lit in a hearth, all without anyone appearing to do it.

Over the next few days, however, people do appear; first as faint outlines, barely to be seen, then more and more solidly until finally, before the week is out, the street bustle with all the commotion and general business that you might expect. Talking to these people, they claim to have lived their lives and have memories stretching back decades or centuries.

Bathsheba, however, experiences exactly the opposite with Deirdre’s ghost – Deirdre intends to haunt Bathsheba, as her killer, until she’s rescued (or resurrected).

Once the trumps start working again, relations are re-established and people start exploring each other’s realms. Aylwin abjures Mira and all her works and walks the Absinthe Pattern. Politics rears its ugly head and a family meeting for all the realms is planned on neutral territory.

With Alaric’s demise, I suggested to Penny that she play Ann and she graciously accepted, starting a new diary right away. Diaries for Ann, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Morwaith, Peter explores the Ebbs and Peter explores New Amber, Terisa. Aylwin’s diary, dealing as it does with his relationship with Alaric, is especially poignant. We get a double dose of Peter Thrice, thanks to an e-mail exchange between John Scott and I, in which Peter explores his part of New Amber; which I thoroughly recommend to everyone with a sense of humour. Among other things, it reveals where Puck got to after session 18 and gives an explanation, mostly true, of Peter’s origins, as a foreshadowing of a coming theme. There are also character sketches of Luke, Delwin and Sand for Bathsheba.

Session 21: The Council of the Realms – Goat 3659: Peter takes Ann through the family trumps and she identifies the Pimpernel as Brand but is shocked to recognise Corwin and Rupert. Corwin killed her mother in 18^th Century Paris and he and Rupert visited Belsen in 1944 as members of the German military. She recalls that Corwin later testified against Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.

21^st Goat the family gather in Paris for a grand meeting of all the new realms. They find time has behaved strangely. When last anyone checked (Nathan, Alaric and Khitan) it was 5^th October 1991, and the USA under President George Bush was at war with Iraq. Now it’s 18^th April 2003 and the USA under President George Bush is at war with Iraq, only it’s a completely different war and this president is the son of the first – it’s like Babylon has had a reboot to a dozen years earlier. Very strange!

Many (Peter gives the best description) remark on Anya’s makeover, evidently living in the Weald, with Julian is good for this daughter of Fiona. Bathsheba is also showing a transformation, though a trifle less drastic.

Omar appears, unknown, unexpected and uninvited, but is allowed in to the summit because he has news of Dark.

The discussion is wide-ranging, well beyond the ostensible remit: Dark is travelling with Cougar & Dark’s Circus, which thrives on the misery of others; Morwaith and Dark reckon there are 16 Pattern realms, which is too many; the nature of godhood is discussed; it is decided to free Benedict from Faerie; finally the full family council is scheduled for New Year’s Day, 3660, same venue.

Bathsheba is starting a very tentative relationship with Luke; she asks Luke and Aylwin for trump readings regarding her problems with Deirdre’s ghost.

There is some sightseeing in Paris. Aylwin paints Paris from Sacré Coeur Cathedral. Asmark and Ann observe his style is quite like Alaric’s – and he’s wearing a black and white smock.

Diaries for Ann, Asmark, Aylwin, Bathsheba, Peter and Terisa. I have always found that a big problem when an Amber game is the tendency for the PCs to scatter throughout shadow. I realised almost immediately that having encouraged the creation of all these Brave New Worlds I had made a rod for my own back, effectively demanding that the PCs each have separate bases of operation – I couldn’t even use the old ploy of a special event in Amber to pull them all together (the principal reason for all those festivals in the calendar). So the first thing was to get everyone together, hence the big family meeting. This was actually a pre-meeting meeting, basically to establish protocol for the true meeting, set for New Year’s Day 3660, which would just happen to be Halloween, 2003 on Earth (which would prove significant).

I used the occasion to establish one of the major story-arcs right away – that of conflict between Pattern realms. The idea was that there was some law of Pattern that sets realm against realm and tends to reduce the number of realms over time. In the Old Amber, Eden and Tir-na-N’Ogth had themselves once been fully-fledged Pattern realms, but had somehow been reduced or subdued by Amber, and the recent conflict in The Doom that Came to Amber could be seen at one level as a final conflict between Amber and Rebma.

In Brave New Worlds there were in fact 8 true Pattern realms, created by people attuned to the Eye of the Serpent or its principal shadows: the Jewel of Judgement, the Pearl of Wisdom, the Moonstone, etc. These were Absinthe (Fiona), Amber (Random), Argent (Corwin), Eden (Dworkin & the Unicorn – the Primal Pattern), Ellas (Bathsheba), Ironhold (Weyland), Mahartha (Adam) and The Weald (Julian). There were also 4 Broken-Pattern realms: Amethyst (Clarissa), Albion (Hector), Nur (Omar/Khitan) and Zircon (Canaan). Finally there were realms with no Pattern component but created close to other realms: Angtharrod (Morwaith, close to Ironhold), Ghostwheel (Merlin, close to Argent) and Icon (Mira, close to Absinthe, for reasons that will become apparent). I have no record or recollection of the 16^th realm.

I loved the multiplicity of realms, all that wonderful creation by my players, but it was too many. I therefore established right away that there was a ‘law of nature’ that demanded the number reduce, that the stronger consume the weaker. However, I was careful not to convey any precise mechanism or timescale for this. I wanted to put the idea firmly in the heads of my players but not to force the action right away.

What constituted a ‘strong’ realm? Interesting question – my basic thought was that it should be roughly proportional to the number of Royals who called it home. This put New Amber well ahead of the others. But I didn’t want it to be quite that simple. In fact I fully intended it to be decided by the efforts of the PCs themselves, so a realm with fewer, but more active, Royals, might win out, and betrayal from within might weaken any realm critically, which could have been a real problem for New Amber in the form of Alexander and Gilgamesh, both of whom were unknown quantities.

Of course I wanted one shadow for an early exit and my money was on either Ironhold or Mahartha, probably Mahartha as Adam had already dissipated himself throughout shadow again so it alone had no effective Elders. But I wanted as many PCs as possible to witness its demise so I was lining this up for several sessions ahead. Nor had I decided the exact nature of its demise – in fact what I was going to do is suggest to the PCs that whichever realm devoured it would itself become stronger, see who took the bait and let them produce the means. At least one bonus would be the transfer of Royals from an extinct realm to those still extant, which could itself shift the balance of power, particularly since fleeing Royals would be unlikely to join with an aggressor.

I was, of course, immediately aware that the PCs themselves did not want to be faced with inter-realm conflict, especially if it meant conflict between PCs, and I was happy if that slowed the process down but I had no doubt that it would proceed eventually.

The memory gaps were, by implication, an early introduction of another theme. Several diarists refer to missing names (I recall a conversation with one player regarding the failure to recall Quentin), confirming Dworkin/Dark’s threat to Alaric. But some also remark on remembering certain names that they think should be forgotten: Roger, Martin and Paulette are the most obvious examples, which imply that their existence has not been eradicated… This was to set the scene for a forthcoming quest, of which more later.

But the evil machinations were not entirely of my doing, the PCs themselves were driving plot (which is what I live for). It was a PC consensus to rescue Benedict (which I was happy to go along with since it fell in with my own plans regarding Faerie), and Morwaith was contemplating the afterlife, which hereto I had not considered but it got me thinking. It might also fall in with my ideas regarding the Deirdre-Bathsheba thread. Again, more later.

Session 22: Frolics in Faerie – 22^nd Goat 3659: Ann, Asmark, Aylwin, Peter and Terisa trump to Falasia in Amber and then Asmark, Peter and Terisa enter Faerie via the Pook’s Hill trilithon, where Peter last saw the Puck. There intent is to seek the release of Benedict. Aylwin remains behind to close the gate using Pattern before trumping to join the other three, but he never gets there.

Somehow Peter finds himself in a completely different place to the others. He is taken to the court of Cromlech, Duke of Asperage, who offers a letter of introduction to Auberon (revealing himself as Unseely). Peter entertains the Duke’s court with a tale of Dom-Daniel’s war against Amber and it is revealed that King Auberon is near-death and all Faerie is expecting the imminent arrival of his heir, who will come bearing certain signs, though exactly what signs are not revealed. Peter tries to trump Benedict in his endless dreams of war and gets a severe beating for his pains.

Meanwhile, Asmark and Terisa find themselves in a fight with 3 hobgoblins. Asmark kills one, wounds a second and frightens away a third, but not without taking a nasty wound himself. Now hurt and their clothes drenched in blood, some of it hobgoblin, they trump back to Aylwin and the three retire to Mordant Vale, Ann’s Amber house, to tend their wounds and regroup, intending to re-enter Faerie better prepared on the morrow.

Diaries only for Asmark and Peter; diarists tend to proffer diaries for a session just days before the next, since session 23 never happened there are diaries missing for this session. (If any of you want to proffer diaries this late, please drop me a line.)

RL events, including 3 imminent births, meant that there was a long gap during which thoughts of Amber frankly went out of my head. By the time I was thinking of Amber again, several years had passed and the consensus was that it would be better to start a new game, which is Home from the Hill.

Truth & Consequences – where the game was going: it was still early days in this new game and I hadn’t yet developed a definitive story-arc to replace The Doom that Came to Amber. However, I had plenty of themes to be going on with and there would be no shortage of action. In fact it might have been a good thing to keep the plot more open, as when you have a definite end point in mind it can produce a creative straitjacket.

As with the previous game, there were general story-arcs and themes tailored to fit specific PCs, with every opportunity for all to cross-over or become entangled at various points in play.

General Themes: One theme I have already touched on in my commentary to session 21 – conflict between realms, particularly Pattern realms. All I will say further on this is simply to emphasise that I intended to keep this constantly in the minds of my players without forcing the issue. I was confident that I could provide an early example, most likely Mahartha, but aside from that I was content to seize opportunities as they fell available.

A second theme was that of relations with the other Far Realms, starting with, but not limited to, Faerie. As it happened the PCs themselves were already interested in Faerie, and this would heavily involve Peter personally (more of this below), but Julian, aware that only himself and Anya were available to defend The Weald and bitterly disappointed by failure of either Peter or (especially) Aylwin to appear in his realm at the Awakening, was already making alliances with Olympus and Faerie behind the scenes. It was my intention to use news of this to encourage the PCs to make their own contacts with the Far Realms.

Nor did I intend to forget the theme of religion. Sally had decided to have Bathsheba experiment with Numinosity in Ellas, as Goddess of the Moon. For the moment this would effect only Ellas and immediately adjacent shadows but she would have the option of exporting her cult elsewhere, even in to other Pattern realms.

The Unicorn was once again the nicey-nicey Unicorn of legend but Dworkin had driven off that part of the Unicorn that was dark and unsavoury and that now lurked with her Mythos brethren between shadows. I had no specific plans for the Black Unicorn but she and the Mythos were available when wanted and the Mythos was already present in Nur.

Mira still had her own realm, now called Icon (though since no one had been there, everyone was still calling it Mirabeau). Mira was all alone, indicating her rejection by Aylwin. But Alaric’s sacrifice ensured that her worship was secured across shadow and could potentially enter any or all the Pattern realms. I hadn’t yet decided definitively what to do with Mira but again she was available when needed, as patron, protagonist, antagonist or victim or even just source of rumour.

One thing I had decided on was some form of contest between Mira and Fiona for the memory of Alaric – each of Icon and Absinthe had an empty tomb with Alaric’s name on it and both Mira and Fiona wanted his remains to be laid to rest in their respective realms. Since Alaric’s very essence permeated the new Pattern and its realms, this would also serve to empower the shadow so favoured, but both women held a sincere regard for the late lamented in his own right, and Alaric himself also favoured the two realms. Icon was not a Pattern realm but it was close to Absinthe thanks to Alaric’s closest relations being Fiona and Aylwin, and I envisaged close Pattern realms would link up once someone thought to shadow-walk from on to another, like Amber with TnN and Rebma.

Alaric’s mortal remains were, of course, lying right next to the new Primal Pattern in Eden. But shadow-walking to the Primal Pattern is never easy so it would take some serious questing to get there, or help from the likes of Dark or the Unicorn, of course. My money would be on Morwaith being the deciding factor in all this.

Morwaith had also raised the concept of a ‘life after death’, and I recall Penny asking me about Alaric in much the same vein, and this had got me thinking. I had killed off Caine, Deirdre and Oberon all for very good reasons but now my PCs were all used to standing on their own feet. It might be fun to allow the occasional glimpse of a ghost or something similar. I hadn’t worked out any details but the idea intrigued me. It might also have had some relevance to the Deirdre/Brand question.

There was the question of Dark/Dworkin – I intended that he would tend to shade more in to Dark as time went on and probably eventually Dark and his Circus would require intervention of a terminal nature by the family – Ann might be a prime mover in this, and Random wouldn’t be averse either (both had suffered in his Circus). I thought Dark would make his first move in this regard at the forthcoming family summit at Halloween, 2003, a fitting date for evil occult happenings, the equivalent of the evil fairy not being invited to the christening. Fairy tales and Amber can sometimes go together.

Finally, there was the question of the anomalous remembered names. Most of the family were aware of names they couldn’t quite recall, enough to convince them that Dark’s threat to Alaric, ‘Whoever wins, no one will remember your name’, was quite true. So how was it that Roger and Martin were still on everyone’s lips? And Random would at some point affirm that he could remember his mother, Paulette.

The reason was quite simple: Roger, Martin and Paulette were still alive, as were the shattered remains of Amber and Rebma, preserved by the Outer Gods. At some point it would become necessary to retrieve Roger and his library, which would entail a difficult, dangerous and, above all, horrifying, quest back to Old Amber, in which the PCs would see for themselves what had become of their old home.

Individual Themes: I make it a point to ensure each PC has specific stuff happening each session. Sometimes one particular PC is the focus for a particular session (eg Peter’s Pattern-walk in session 10 – despite his player’s absence - or Nathan’s carrying Random round the Pattern in session 7) but each PC must have specific plot. (I regard as a signal failure of my GM skills that I failed to do this for Alaric in session 18.) This naturally carries over to longer-term story arcs and of course it’s great when these can be used to enmesh other PCs and link in to the general game themes.

Ann: as the newest of the PCs she had received the least thought but I had identified a couple of likely themes. The first, already touched on, were her past history, specifically the death of Ann’s mother, Elizabeth Drummond, at the hands of Corwin, and both Corwin and Rupert’s involvement in the Holocaust, when she saw them at Belsen in 1944. I intended to use this as a casus belli, hoping to provoke her in to seeking vengeance against them. Peter already disliked Rupert intensely so Ann might find at least one ally, and Argent was a realm with few Elders. The difficulty would be, of course, that Penny was already playing Ann as a professional victim, so I would need to coax Ann into pro-activity, but I was determined that Ann, unlike Alaric, would grow out of her origins.

Asmark: almost right from his first appearance Asmark had proven adept at diplomacy and politics and I envisaged him being a real asset for Absinthe, which as a realm I really liked a lot, mainly due to it being half my creation and half Ian and John’s; it was fresh and different, whereas New Amber was pretty much like the old and Argent had no player input at all. Ellas was also original, though again mostly one player’s effort.

I could see Asmark visiting the Far Realms and his grasp of diplomacy was excellent. In his last diary Bleys directly questions the wisdom of Asmark’s pursuit of Benedict, rightly commenting that Benedict is unlikely to side with Absinthe, but Asmark’s reply is perfectly cogent and I think he made the right decision.

Secondly, Asmark was, of course, the son of Brand (hinted at by Puck in his doggerel), which made him the brother of Luke/Rinaldo, residing in Ellas with Bathsheba, who had her own reasons for seeking Brand (see below). I intended to bring Asmark close to both Luke and Bathsheba and I could see his diplomatic skills even being used to moderate their peculiar, tentative love affair.

Aylwin: Aylwin’s diary for session 21 really hooked me. Aylwin’s feelings for his dead brother touched a nerve big-time. Before Mira’s ‘gift’ in TDtCtA Aylwin had never had the creative talent to be a true artist. Having rejected Mira and her gift, he should still be lacking such talent. However, somehow he could still paint but, as noticed by several people, his style was now just like Alaric’s. This was due to Aylwin’s connection with his brother by blood – both inherited and imbibed. It would not be the only connection with Alaric, and since Alaric’s essence permeated the Universe, this would put Aylwin in a unique position. Exactly what this would entail I had yet to decide…

On a more negative note, during the scene where Alaric shatters Aylwin’s ankle, Julian had revealed his deep feeling for Aylwin in front of most of the family, certainly most of the redheads. Yet, unlike Anya, Aylwin had turned up in his mother’s shadow, not the Weald, his father’s. This would create some tension between Absinthe and The Weald. How that would be resolved would be down to Aylwin in a large part.

Bathsheba: I had identified two specific themes for Bathsheba. The first was Deirdre: killing Deirdre naturally drew the Blood-Curse but Deirdre’s situation was peculiar. The Deirdre Bathsheba had killed was a sort of spiritual clone created by Dark. In fact it was the ‘dark’ side of Deirdre, the better side being still in the Abyss, trapped by Brand. On Awakening in Ellas, Bathsheba met with Deirdre’s ghost, who more or less told her that she wanted to be reunited with herself, hence Bathsheba’s trump reading requests to Aylwin and Luke. Exactly how Bathsheba approached this quest would determine the nature and degree of success. Just uniting the two halves of the spirits would get the Blood Curse off her back. But there was the potential to resurrect up to three people, each of whom would then owe her a favour and would want somewhere to live – which could only be good for Ellas…surely? On the downside, it would mean messing with Brand.

The second theme was simply romance (which I must emphasise would never have occurred to me without Bathsheba’s diaries) – Luke did actually love Bathsheba for herself, despite Bathsheba’s suspicions to the contrary, though her being a Princess and everything certainly did no harm. But there was another side to their romance – Luke was in Ellas because he was genuinely fond of Bathsheba, but Dalt, Delwin and Sand were only in Ellas because of Luke. Ergo, Bathsheba’s support in Ellas was intimately connected with how she handled Luke as a lover. Of course everything depended on whether Bathsheba let her guard down. But, if true romance blossomed, I intended at some point to put in something to make Bathsheba question Luke’s fidelity – whether that would be a genuine breach of fidelity or just the appearance of it would depend on circumstances – I did not intend this to be a Mills & Boon, but Sally would have known that. However, I was enthralled by how Bathsheba seemed to be growing out of her beginnings as a pure thug, frightened of her own emotions, and I looked forward to her exploring this side further. I hope Sally felt the same.

Omar: I never understood why Khitan morphed in to Omar, especially as Omar retained all that was suspicious about Khitan while sacrificing the shared history with the other PCs. There were PCs who genuinely respected Khitan but, if it hadn’t been for Peter, Omar would have been thrown out of the Paris Hilton.

Omar’s realm, Nur, was of course a Broken Pattern realm, since that was Omar’s principal power. However Omar, deeply imbued in Mythos sorcery, meant that the Mythos had a direct connection to Nur. That Nur means ‘light’ is probably the greatest irony in Brave New Worlds. Obviously I intended Nur to become the springboard for new Mythos mischief and make no apologies for that. I expected Nur would eventually be destroyed to preserve the Pattern realms.

Omar/Khitan, on the other hand, had options. He could convert to full Pattern, which would immediately free him from Mythos infection, but would necessitate him attaching himself to one of the Pattern realms. Alternatively he could seek the Logrus in the Courts of Chaos (hinted at in Puck’s doggerel – ‘the Serpent’s Sign mends all’). That would be a very major quest indeed but I did have an embassy to, or from, Chaos sketched for the future, to which Omar could have attached himself.

Morwaith: already Archpriest of the Unicorn, quite simply Morwaith was destined to become the new Dworkin. Initially he was to receive tutelage on the nature of reality from Dworkin/Dark, but then it would become obvious that Dworkin was changing in to something very dark indeed. Eventually I expect the family would act to expunge Dark from reality (if for no other reason than to retrieve the Eye of the Serpent), by which time Morwaith would have to take on his role as Pattern hierophant. I feared Weyland’s shadow of Ironhold would be an early casualty, closely followed by Angtharrod, which wasn’t a Pattern realm at all. But Morwaith had already asked to move to Absinthe if anything happened to Angtharrod so perhaps we can see a glimpse of the shape of things to come here.

Peter: I was delighted when John first outlined Peter as a character, since he fitted in so well with the Faerie plot thread I was planning to introduce at the time. Peter began as a mannered fop, a professional entertainer out to amuse his Royal clientele wherever he happened to be performing, while laughing up his sleeve at the very people he entertained. He could be both charming and snide at exactly the same time, and as feckless as his Fae antecedents.

Julian warned him that walking the Pattern would change things, “you and the world will never again be as you once were”. And Peter did change, over a period of the next few sessions he morphed in to a steely Amberite warrior. But here’s the marvel, he changed profoundly but somehow still remained indelibly, undeniably, Peter. I confess I didn’t quite pay attention at the time but, looking back over these diaries, it seems clear to me now that John took Julian at his word and my hat goes off to him for his achievement.

So how could I reward such masterly role-playing? Well, in Amber I believe no good-turn should go unpunished.

It had already been strongly implied that Peter was the son of Rhiannon. But somehow, according to Puck (whose word is trusted by everyone), he was also the heir of Titania and Auberon of Faerie – “Begotten on a pervert by a usurper”. I suppose the time has come to reveal all… almost all…

Long ago, Oberon’s first Queen, Cymnea, bore Osric, Finndo, Benedict and Rhiannon. Rhiannon was a bit of a tomboy and a child of nature. She became the first Warden of Arden and as such was responsible for liaising with Dom-Daniel of Faerie. Now Rhiannon didn’t like all the unpleasantness caused by Oberon divorcing Cymnea and elected to leave after Osric and Finndo died. She staged her own death, using a body-double from shadow (just as Caine was later to do) and lured a dragon in to Arden as the fall guy.

She skipped off in to Faerie, where she used her shapeshifting abilities to assume Fae form. She then inveigled herself in to the Court of Dom-Daniel, which she knew quite well already. Using the name Titania she became a lady-in-waiting to Dom-Daniel’s Queen. There she seduced Dom-Daniel in to war against Amber, seeking to punish her father. The result was the death of Dom-Daniel and a crisis for Faerie. Rhiannon, as Titania, moved to fill the power-vacuum – that her consort bore the name Auberon has doubtless provoked much mirth among Freudians ever since.

[Some of you may have read a virtually identical storyline in the Books of Magic comics (BoM: Bindings by John Rieber) – you must imagine my astonishment at reading this long after creating the same origin for Titania; I believe the Books of Magic have copyright at 1995 so I hope they never take me to court but honestly it was a completely independent invention – Penny can confirm my comments when I read the said comic. It was a shock, let me tell you.]

But Titania, of course, though she appeared Fae, was actually not. Fae procreation is a process involving conjuration, hence the lack of an heir.

Most of what Puck told Peter about his heritage was true. However, although Auberon had been induced to go through the motions of begetting an heir (in the Fae manner), obviously he could not possibly be Peter’s father; Rhiannon, as Titania, had found someone else to beget an heir in the mucky Amber way. I am not prepared to reveal who this is, except that it’s not a member of the Amber Royal family but is someone who has been mentioned in these diaries.

Through this ruse Auberon actually believed Peter to be his heir. There was, of course, dispute between Titania and Auberon over who would raise Peter and Puck was instrumental in finding a compromise. Later Titania wanted Peter to benefit from his Amber heritage, which is where he comes in to our tale.

So much for back-story – now for the future: Auberon is dying and all Faerie seeks his successor. Peter is unknown to the majority of Faerie but they are on the lookout for signs (the arrow and the torc). Peter would be summoned to Auberon’s deathbed and his heritage made known.

Of course some would dispute this, and things would get political – and the politics of Faerie are wild and woolly, to say the least. Peter would discover political parties in Faerie: the Armagnacs and the Burgundians, named after their wines of preference (he was pointedly offered a choice of either in this last episode); the Gibbetines, who eat nothing that's not been hanged; and the Gulfs, who are a faction with ties to Chaos and Hell, and therefore anti-Amber – messy!

And this would link in with the other Far Realms and the Pattern realms back home – I was wondering whether to have Peter bump in to either Anya or Julian in Faerie – probably Julian, as he had been Peter’s ‘devotee’ in TDtCtA – and Peter might realise early The Weald’s massive charm offensive toward the Far Realms.

I like to think John would have risen to the challenge – alternatively he might have called in a hit-man; we’ll never know.

Terisa: I had probably fewer plot ideas for Terisa than any of the PCs, Terisa was almost as recent as Ann and I knew Carolyn far less well, especially as a role-player.

My immediate intention was to mess with Terisa in Faerie, imbroiling her in a weird Snow White pastiche. Longer term, I also wanted to make use of a special deck of trumps drawn by Timon. The Unicorn had pointed Morwaith at them but he’d not followed through. Timon himself was imprisoned in a special mirror-trump, Terisa was an obvious choice if anyone wanted to investigate Timon or his trump deck – all I’d need to do was find a good motive…

And then there was Benedict: To quote Carolyn’s own words, “I think she will be looking for a bit of an adventure and the idea of the ‘Princess’ rescuing the ‘Prince’ will appeal to her”.

And that’s it! Let me know if you have any questions – and if any of you want to offer your own views on events, please drop me a line and I’ll be happy to include your comments.