Peter’s Diary part 17: The Prodigal Returns

In The Doom that Came to Amber

4^th Snake 3658 – early evening

It went basically as we’d discussed before the session. You led your men in a series of guerrilla raids on Miran foot troops. You had considerable success for a time, then abruptly the Miran tactics changed, as did the songs they sang in the saddle. To you, the rapid change smacked of someone having previously emplaced standing orders on what to do in the event of certain situations. ‘We do plan A until we face significant subversive activity, then we switch to plan B’.

However, alternate tactics require reducing Miran activity, strengthening patrols, limiting them to certain roads where ambushes are harder, various other tricks and traps, all of which need more resources and reduce efficiency. In other words, your activities significantly impair their effectiveness – no doubt Rupert regards you as a right Royal pain in the arse. J

When Peter embarked on his raids Bathsheba gave him her trump so he could contact her at regular intervals. IIRC Bathsheba and Peter did have at least one chat but I can’t recall what was said but I think it was business as usual up until midnight.

Then, as I’ve previously mentioned, during the night the docks were over-run by frog-like gribblies that crawled out of the ocean [Deep Ones, if you’ve any experience of Call of Cthulhu]. Peter dropped off his lesser flunkies when he found out how unpleasant the gribblies were but kept Montfort because he’s a cut above the rest.

You learned that Bathsheba was forced to pull out from the docks because her men were simply being overwhelmed by numbers, that and the deleterious effects the fog was having on morale. You stayed on to fight the gribblies, becoming aware that the Mirans were doing the same.

Basically you have a choice: before dawn, it’s become too hairy to remain where you are. Montfort’s taken a minor wound but the vile slime on the gribblies means that it’s been poisoned [not serious, just an irritant, but it makes any wound much more incapacitating]. You’ve tried to trump Bathsheba but she seems to be asleep. I think you have 3 choices...

a) seek help from the Mirans

b) find a hidey-hole and hope Bathsheba wakes before the gribblies find you or...

c) try and force the trump contact with the sleeping Bathsheba.

What do you do?