Started my new Campaign tonight

[Artifacts of Amber]

Another lovely night of gaming.

So once again our intrepid group continued on. They spent a few minutes together sharing information and getting caught up. then decide to ride with the Begman delegation in hopes of preventing another attack.

So the conjureror (Trace) summons some fish and sea gulls to keep a watchful eye out. he gets first indication that something is flying toward them rapidly after their first few days out of port. It seems a dragon is approaching them. A very big dragon but undaunted they prepare to fight.

One (Kal) shape shifts into a large peregrine and provides a ride to another character (Trace). Meanwhile the other (Caroline) climbs the mast ready to jump out on the dragon if it closes. The chaosian (Marcuis) dives into the water and assumes a Primal Kraken form. Second one in as many days and starting to run a serious risk with the primal creatures. Finally the last character (Rhiannon) summons up her Fixed Logrus to shock the Dragon if she can.

A fight ensues with two characters (Trace and Caroline) ending up on the dragon and the Peregrine (Kal) pecking it. It takes some minor logrus shocks and the Kraken starts to way it down.

Then things go horribly wrong. One character (Trace) who is second ranked in Dexterity (fighting skill split from warfare) and Second rank Psyche sense there are two minds within one the dragon and the other something else. He is the only one trying a mental assault (The first mental assault all game). Offers to help the dragon win the conflicting battle. I warn him his warfare (low rank) says this is a bad Idea and he does it anyway, Unfortunately another character (Caroline) also hanging on the dragon hits it with a Power word (Backed by Pattern) of Distraction. In this moment the primal dragon takes over and starts to fly off but not before doubling in size and more or less flicking characters off or just ignoring them.

Since they are on the path to Amber the dragon heads that way. The one (Trace) who triggered this event was knocked out when he tried to overthrow/negotiate with the dragon. He was rescued before he drowned. Some (Kal and Marcuis) try to slow the dragon down and fail. Finally they start trumping people in amber to warn of the dragon coming in. This sets off a panic there.

Soon the characters can't trump to the Amber courtyard. Vialle who was the one the warned says she call Benedict to help. Random trumps his daughter and bitches her out, which has never happened in game wanting to know who caused this.

They all try to make it back to amber on the shapeshifters backs while the person who caused this stays on the ship, "protecting" It.  When they get back Benedict has dealt with the dragon though they only see the dragon cowed before Benedict. The arrive and Benedict aks what happened and they give him an abridged version and he ask the dragon to give up the shifter. It spits it out and leaves.

Benedict speaks to the person (Trace) who caused this via trump.

Now the group finally has a prisoner which they secure in a cell below the castle. One leftover from the Black road war and still proof against Shifters.

Now they lack any skill in interrogation so the talks between the characters and the prisoner were funny as he is quite past caring wondering when the torture will begin. He does reveal a little but only if they paid attention.  

We stopped game atthis point to give them time to talk/think about what to do next.


So long action scene of the fight, I find it hard to pace but descriptively it went well, They felt like they were winning which they were as the bad guy dragon shifter did not realize his dilemma until to late.


Highlights

A pissed off Random who so far had been the cool dad everyone wants for the Daughter. Was interesting him yelling and being king more than father. It set her off and she did the same thing, yelling at the other characters.

Benedict being a bad ass. Which I like but he didn't yell at the guilty character who triggered this event. Merely asked if he learned from this, hinting a no would be a bad answer.

The characters working well together despite them having some personal issues so still Amber like but more cooperative then most Amber games which I like. I want conflict but not backstabbing intrigue, in this group that wouldn't be fun for the players in my mind.

Slight Flaw - Yeah an Elder had to step in and save the day to some extent but I am mostly okay with that. It shouldn't happen again and there will be repercussions.

Looking forward to the interrogation. Also Going to make people feel bad about dumping this on Vialle as she will have a reaction to this whole thing. Though strong I like playing her more emotional than most Elders. Also benedict didn't seem hurt by the dragon so his injuries will be played up more as well just to drive it home. He doesn't show his weakness/pain but it will be revealed as well.

So overall an exciting session with a lot more to come. will have to work on plot to reveal that capturing this guy affects the bad guys overall plan. Make it more apparent this is bigger than they think. They suspect only 2-3 others are involved but it is more like 8-9 Bad guys. non individually powerful enough but together and striking as terrorist it should be fun.

As always open to Q and A for whatever didn't make sense

[Croaker]

Thanks, that was a cool read :-)

[Artifacts of Amber]

Thanks for reading Croaker.

I will keep posting and hopefully things will evolve along well. It has been interesting with an all new group of players. The paths they follow are not what I think more experienced players would follow which keeps me on my toes.

Thanks again

[Artifacts of Amber]

So we begin another session with a prisoner and repercussions of a Primal Dragon in Amber.

Several characters (Kal, Marcuis and Trace) (all the guys) decide to interrogate the prisoners. They receive dossiers on previous interrogations by two retired interrogators from the black road war. The Chaosian player (Marcuis) tells them  these guys had only questioned no bodies with Benedict questioning major people. I described it like the Interrogators had walked into someone's yard and questioned the dog about military movements. They were good but hey this is chaos no shadow push overs they had dealt with.

Here the one player (Trace) who caused the dragon to be free went to Benedict to help trying his trump first which failed. then asked around to find out Benedict was in the infirmary with a punctured lung and other major injuries. I find impressing them only called for me to play him last session as if the fight was nothing then this session revealed how close to dead he was. Now the players are really feared / respecting of Benedict.

Player (Trace) who caused all this went to see him but ran into another NPC who cussed and fussed at him threatening, more or less, to put him in a bed beside Benedict if he didn't leave. Player then realized this NPC who had been playfully flirting with him saying she would bed him if he ever won a duel with her was benedicts daughter, a fact he forgot until now.

They (Kal and Trace) learned or reaffirmed that Pattern defense would most likely protect them from Shapeshifting or other powers they feared but would be tiring.

They questioned the bad guy and he merely led them in circles (His warfare was pretty decent) So they decided to go for a mind reaming. Two players melded together to do so while the Chaosian player watched (he was nervous how his powers would be affected by the Prison Cell designed by Fiona) I warned that mind linking was potentially dangerous and exposing so I took a secret from each of them and shared it with the other. I don't mind them "Ganging up" on someone but don't want it to be done without risk or cost. This put them both at ill ease but still willing to do so. They easily overpower the Shapeshifter. One character outranked him in psyche by a good ways and was close in warfare. All they Bad guy had on them was a good Endurance. So he fought a defensive battle and segmented his mind as a defense then consumed / suicided certain thoughts memories. I basically let the players ask questions and gave answers from the shifters point of view her are some examples.

Where are you from - - Home
Why are you attacking us -- because of you
Why us - - This got them a vision of the Unicorn prancing on the pattern and then charging and killing a group of people one of which they recognized as his partner in a recent attack. and some others had attributes they recognized.

While this happened two things also were occurring.

One the shifter was trying to get help from his Primal source The Endless Siege which provides shapeshifters with enhanced access to various forms. It couldn't breach the cell

The second was his other Primal source the Cauldron which enhances blood shifting allowed him to try to spew forth a blood copy of himself based on stored additional blood he had. The Chaos player stepped in and stopped that from being successful.

Then the third thing his Endless Siege power and mind reaming manifested in him shifting partially into a unicorn and gouging the wall with his horn breaking the enchantment.

then the guy died. they got a good deal of info now knowing he had committed the crimes they thought he had and that 5-8 other partners were helping him including Frost who looks like Fiona and Obier whom they think is the Leader. They think a guy the saw on a throne of Demons is Obier. this is wrong but not too bad an assumption on what they know.

One player is convinced that Christina, another Younger, is part of the scheme since one of the people looked like her. Which is fun to watch how much the suspect other Amberites.


The other two players are left out. One is just relaxing In rebma (Caroline) earning browny points with the crown prince of Rebma, another younger, since she is avoiding and he feels Rebma is the red headed step child of Amber.

The final one had her own (Rhiannon) excitement as her half brother Martin trumps her while being attacked and she drags him through. He is half dead and missing his lower left leg. He had been attacked by Demons. She gets like 6-7 trump calls from various people in a short while including Vialle who calls to check on her since she seem to think something wrong.

They finally all get together to discuss things and decide to Hellride to Frost as their next move. When they did the very same thing going after Obier they ran into a Guardian who kicked thier ass. Should be fun since they sort of suspect te same thing will happen again.


Highlights

Discussion of exactly what Benedicts Balls must be made of for him to walk around as badily injured as he was and repeating it would be stupid to show weakness to a Dragon or anyone else.

Fiona coming to see all of them and asking what happened to her enchantment on the cell.

Random leaving his travels as king to see Martin and telling his daughter that not as king but as a father to find out what the hell was going on.

Giving the players all sorts of Info that just makes things more scary.

Being trumped while in the shower!!

And the exploding Chihuahua defense the conjureror (Trace) created in case the shapeshifter tried something. They weren't made to explode the shifter did that.

[Croaker]

Love the way you make use of power sources to give the opposition an edge and keep players on their toes.

[Artifacts of Amber]

Thanks.

To be honest it has also worked well to give out clues and enable the players to track / identify the bad guys. The big draw back to the Primal sources is even though they are primal powers and can affect "real" things they can only do so in very specific / focused ways so leaves traces.

If I told them some used pattern the mystery leaves way too many suspects. It also gives the players some toys to play with. One player has already adopted the power of one of the bad guys. and it is fun but weird for her since when her brother Mratin came through suffering and passing out from pain her ability to "enjoy" find pleasure in pain made her feel twisted and sick since she enjoyed his suffering.

Now I have to figure out where else they can head and how to deal with their shadow of desire Hellride which they plan to do next week.

[Artifacts of Amber]

And away we go . . .

Marcuis player was caught at work and did not make it.

The characters gather after a nights rest to go a hellriding after Frost since she is the one they have the clearest picture of and also there are two events to link to her (one in Darma's mind and the other from a recent storm wolf attack)

first they realize the closing of Arden only leaves two paths out of Amber via the sea / Rebma or over Kolvir. They opt to trump out to a players shadow (Rhiannon) and leave from there. Of course I have fun as they use shadow tech to teleport within the shadow. I have it overload the grid working with so much realness, since usually it is just the player in her shadow and it is attuned to her. They find it funny and figure out why quickly showing a basic understanding of the "Physics" of shadow and reality.

The ride off and run into a Crevasse in shadow and try to circumvent it to find at its very begging where it is only a crack in the ground Frost. They know only she is a sorceress. She is actually a reflection of Fiona who has Broken pattern and sorcery as well as conjuration. So with spells already in place they attack her. They also her guardians in the distance closing on them. The ones who kicked their butts before.

The pacing of the fight went much better. I prepared a list of ranks to use in rounding the table and calling on people for what they were doing. Which also illustrated who ranked where in dex and warfare as I handed out info and reaction speeds.

First One player (Trace) tried to lock her down mentally and though he is high ranked (among the youngers) in psyche she was better and held him off. Another shifted into a storm wolf (Kal) to attack and slammed against her magical barrier (which they had sensed earlier) and got ripped in two. (this and the crevasse were manifestations of her broken pattern) This ripping didn't  kill or hurt him as much as he thought it should. The other two (Caroline and Rhiannon) prepared for the guardians to arrive.

Long fight scene short eventually they attacked her physical as well as mentally she held them at bay. And as she tried to get away through a Pattern lens teleport spell one player (trace) leaped in after her. This BTW was the one that released the Primal dragon on Amber. He is getting known for rash decisions and forward only aggression.

So the other players beat one guardian and see no reason to stay trump back to Amber. I tell them when they get there the missing player who went with Frost is laying in a pool of blood stabbed through the chest just below the heart.

Of course I hadn't told him anything about what happened, seemingly removing all choice from him. I wanted him to realize how out classed he was at the moment.

 I took him aside and described him going through the teleport into a throne room were he saw one of the suspects on the throne, Frost bleeding out from a knife the character had thrown and then someone who looks a lil like Benedict run him through and order another person who had screamed and run to Frost to dispose of the Characters body. She trumped him away. She also looked a lot like Fiona's daughter.

So Highlights were.
The player who got run through suspects these are a bunch of Shadows of Elders and such, which is correct.

One player (Caroline) attacking a guardian asking "It has only two eyes right?" after hitting it in one.

And me telling the player after the game of his character (Trace) who jumped through the teleport and who ignored his warfare with the Primal Dragon that his Warfare was not high enough to know how bad a decision it was to follow Frost.

Over all it advanced the plot with a big reveal only one player knows as he has not had time to tell the rest.

It also advances the bad guys plot as they had already started attacking youngers and consider the character just another one to hurt as they further up their terrorist attacks.

Now I have to decide what things to advance as the character recovers from the chest wound. How the terrorist will handle being seen though not found out yet where they are. Should be fun.

[Artifacts of Amber]

And another exciting Monday night.

A great deal of this session was spent in characters theorizing on why the one character (Trace) was not killed. A lot of talking was done so I will hit the highlights as I know them since I was not present for all the discussion.

So the critically wounded character (Trace) exits surgery and the Chaosian (Marcuis) hears of the attack wondering how they could almost lose someone while he was busy. (he couldn't make game last week)

One younger NPC slips in to see him before the others, Fiona's daughter Christina. The wounded character saw her shadow when he was attacked helping Fiona's shadow (Frost). He thought it might be her in his drug induced haze and she had some sort of power active while she talked top him. he later asked her and she merely told him it was so she could come and go unseen.

He was wheeled in to the recover room and everyone checked on him and he made a comment about not being sure if he was himself or a plant, which made everyone nervous so another character (Kal) tried to mind probe him he resisted and was barely hanging on upsetting his already severe injuries when the doctor asked them to stop.

He shared what he saw with them, the man on a throne, Frost most likely critically wounded, the young girl rush to her and the one armed patch wearing man who dispatched him with no effort.

they all left to other things while he rested and came back a day later to talk.

During this time they learned of a new murder in town a nobleman's guard.  so while they started a long drawn out discussion the Chaosian (Marcuis) leaves, easily bored, and goes to investigate. He learns the guard erupted and sprayed the crowd with spiders and several bystanders got bitten. He gets to examine one dead spider and uses a Logrus lens to see it is a demonic spirit bound to the spider form and talks with it. It isn't very bright and reveals he failed to complete his contract because he was rushed before he could infect a bystander.

So the Chaosian calls for help (Using a blood shifted Spider, cause he is a smart ass, to deliver a message.) and two players (Caroline and Rhiannon) arrive the investigate the hospital to discover patients with bites going wild. The knock them all out and logrus lens the patients and find and remove the demon spirits who now completed their contract fade away.

They then spend a while discussing why is this all happening and I have Fiona visit the bed ridden patient who is her student of sorcery at this time.


Session more or less ended here. Mostly they talked but the time was not wasted as they role played and tried to get a handle on things.

Highlights

Benedict was in the bed next to the wounded character who was the same one who got him injured in the first place. Playing Benedict was fun. They asked him for advice and he more or less told them if he helped them how would they learn. Eventually he did tell them a few things but not sure it was helpful.

Fiona when asked why would the wounded character be left alive said. "You are after all my student do you not think I would be offended if someone killed you . .. and would you want to be the person who did."

And on why she was not concerned some shadow of her was running around "If I concerned my self with things like that I would have an infinite amount of concerns in shadow. I concern myself with what is Real and what is before me, nothing more."

I love playing my elders

Hope it was a good read.

[Croaker]

It was! Thanks!

[Artifacts of Amber]

And it Begins again.

This was a great session though not as much to report as everyone gathers around Trace's Bed in the infirmary. (Beside Benedict) and reexamine evidence and try to figure out what is going on.

Kal's player could not make it having fallen ill so he was called back to Arden.

Something I didn't cover last week was Kal (Julian's Son) and Rhiannon (Random's Daughter) were called before the Queen (Vialle) for a reason they could not figure out as she ordered Julian to reopen Arden. Gerard was present as well, as he is advisor to the King. He at first refused and she asked him, "Will you make your Queen ask a second time?" he capitulated and started to Stalk out when Vialle said she had not dismissed him yet then did dismiss him. She did not explain to Kal and Rhiannon why they were there. It was fun to listen to them guess.

So the discussion was fruitful as they figured out several major plot points which were.

Some of the Bad guys are Elder Shadows.
Some of the bad guys are using Broken Pattern
there may be two sections of Bad guys as some are definitely Chaos based (The now dead shapeshifter and the Demon Summoner)
They seem intent on causing terror and chaos with one character (Rhiannon) thinking they are terrorist.

Another NPC younger appeared Dillon son of Florimel. He pumped them for info without telling them squat. Not realizing not all the Youngers are good folk.

Highlights were the discussion of how they assumed Benedict knew about their personal secrets Like Rhiannon's Fixed Logrus. I pointed out he didn't have to be the best fighter if everyone thought he was.

Also at one point after they had made some good guesses they wondered, aloud, how many Broken Patterns there were and Benedict held up 9 fingers then rolled over back to sleep. He was rewarding them for thinking and working and it sort of surprised them since he had been laying there listening the whole time.

They trumped Fiona and she admonished them again about how Shadow was unimportant.

So now they have several leads.

The Anvil which is linked to Obier
The Pentacle which is linked to the Demon summoner since some of the Demons are unique to it.
Descriptions of Frost, Obier to Hellride to
The Broken Patterns

Should be interesting.

Also everyone got updated Powers sheets.
Caroline is well into Trump now
Trace has Sorcery now
Rhiannon finished basic Pattern
Kal got some attribute boost and Some Advanced Shapeshift
Marcuis got several Attribute boost but mostly Psyche.

They don't know how many points in attributes they had but I told them their new ranks some were very happy some peeved they slipped in the Ranks as people passed them.

I am giving out experience every session and pretty rapidly but after running so many short session games (2-3 Hours once a week) I have learned players need quicker rewards to feel they are progressing, and I can handle the game well enough.

Also I edited a bunch of previous post adding the Characters names and the first post got their very short bios. Hopefully this will make all of it make more since.

Thanks for reading

[Artifacts of Amber]

Skipped a week since I was on Vacation.

So they started the session slow filling in Kal who had been sent by the Queen to make sure Julian was following her wishes in a Timely Manner. Of course he was not.

They batted about where to head first and settled on going to the closest usable Broken Pattern.

Rhiannon and Caroline notice in the hallway Vialle hurrying off and later they all get summoned to the Throne room. There Corwin and Vialle inform them that Corwin was recently attacked. Seems his "New" Home has been under military assault for the last year and he has now just heard of Amber's "Issues"  So thought they might be related. Seems the general leading them would not face Corwin in the field and fit the description of the person who stabbed Trace. They think he is a shadow of Benedict (Correctly). Corwin then leaves to return home.

They ride out guided by Kal who knows the usable shadow paths of Arden during the partial lock down and then Hellride. to the Broken Pattern realm. They investigate to learn a Sorceress rules there. She is primarily benevolent and well liked. Kal and Marcuis Shift into birds and fly to the citadel of the Sorceress and discover that some barrier makes it difficult to maintain shape but they manage to do so. They find the Broken Pattern engraved in a room at the top of a tower surrounded by Stained glass windows with various woman depicted in them.

Meanwhile Rhiannon gets a trump from Gerard and learns that 4 ships of Amber have gone missing all major shipments of Coal. He impresses upon them that they might need to hurry in their Investigation.

They finally get an audience with the Sorceress. She admits they wield power well beyond hers and will answer whatever questions they have for fear they may stomp her out like a bug. They ask if anyone else has her power she states she would never share her only source of strength.

They decide to head back and try to figure out a quicker method of finding the enemy as this took a week in Amber time. They hear of more attacks on the Rebma Coral Reef (Much like Arden).

Seems the bad guys are moving more quickly.

Also Marcuis gets a trump which sort of freaks him out as the player knows it is not  from any players. Seems the Chaso delegation is close enough in shadow to trump. They say they are being belayed by shadow conditions.  Marcuis gets a quick lesson in politics after he says he can get the Amberites to help and the Ambassador says that would be a show of weakness. He offers his help and the Ambassador laughs him off. Saying No thanks.

So things are coming to a head.

Looks like more fun for next week.

[Artifacts of Amber]

So as usual they all meet in the infirmary as Trace while getting better is still confined to the recovery area. They discuss their next move thinking to go after Obier whom they think is the leader of the Shadow movement. But then are reminded of the Amber ships that are missing so they plan to head out an investigate. Florimel comes by to visit during the meeting and since she is planning for the arriving chaos delegation request a report on what they have all been up to. Trace remains in the infirmary.

So off after the ships following the under sea shadow paths that are mirrored in Rebma they go to the last coordinates of one of the ships and don't find it. they force a Hellride though this is difficult in this close to Amber but since everyone bid something in Psyche is still possible.  They find the ship (The Anna Maria of Shadow Cabra a Golden Circle nation) Rammed against some reefs. They each investigate and learn the following.

Kal - Julian's son - stays under water and searches the reef to see with his tracking skills that the disaster seems natural and the cargo of coal is spread across the sea floor in a fairly natural/ normal pattern for a ship wreck.

Marcius summons up a Logrus lens and looks for information on the dead crew and using Tendrils picks apart their bodies performing an autopsy that shows faded alterations via Logrus of their personality centers and emotions.

Rhi Mentally links with him and observes.

Caroline has noticed the bodies are positioned so that a few killed each other and some may have been dragged out of hiding and murdered. She also finds the captains log which has nothing unusual in it. She Trump sketches the Cabin to get a psychic feel for it and gets a flash vision of the Captain lurching then running out side. She trumps Gerard who looks at the maps and sees they are miles off course and according to the logs did not know it as the reef was a documented hazard. He mentions he will have to replace the cargoes loss himself keeping another Elder busy. He also mentions to Rhi (Random's Daughter) that she might want to talk to Random The king since she has not actually reported any of her findings in some time.

They Hellride to a second location / ship to discover a whirlpool they think sucked down one of the ships but don't wish to brave the whirling waters.

The Third ship is found marooned on a be stilled Sargasso and find the crew dead. The find little here as the trail is older at this ship. Though Caroline does another trump sketch to see the crew killing each other and accusing each other of hiding food while they are stranded etc.

They return to the first ship for her to confirm the captains lurching was running aground on the reef and not being pushed into it which she does. She has been hiding her trump skills so far but now people are starting to suspect she is doing something with a new power since she is not very good at lying despite her upbringing

Rhi Does Trump Random who is busy getting ready for a meeting in a Golden Circle nation and more or less tells her to write a report and trump him. And that Vialle is keeping him informed which Rhi has been doing is keeping her informed.

Meanwhile Trace gets a visit from Christina and has a conversation about how she is not very capable and he tries to convince her she is but fails as she points out Fiona thinks she is useless and how could his opinion be worth more than Fionas.

After they trump back to Amber everyone goes to grab gear for a hellride and they plan to go after Obier. Marcuis Gets a trump from the Chaos delegation Service Minister who wants to come through and prepare "Security" His name is General Talon and a big scary dude. Marcuis shows them to the Embassy and the others ride out to catch up with him. He trumps The Ambassador to make sure this guy is indeed part of the group and while the Chaos delegation is in a pitched battle merely says yes and when offered help laughs off Marcuis request and show shim one of the Delegates a High Priestess of the Serpent Rip apart a Gruff attacking them. The Gruffs (A nickname used by the Characters) are the guardian's they have tangled with before having had their butts handed to them in the first fight and doing okay in the second encounter.

During the Hell ride the players stop to rest and look for a safe shadow to do so in and run across an Inn were the owners says someone was expecting them and Lady Dara waited inside. So they get to finally met Dara. She says they are nearing the domain she is protecting and to stop or make sure they go around or else. Caroline thinks they need Trace who is a better speaker / negotiator and more willing to risk offending her since he has a certain foolish streak, so she trumps him and pulls him through.

After she evades their questions she offers them a deal that if they would perform a task or aid her Son Merlin whenever he ask she would answer a direct question for each with a direct answer. Most agree except the chaosian Marcuis who is afraid it may interfere with his duties. So she says it is so sad they can't work this out after a while. They banter a few minutes then she says she would be willing to help if they agree to also keep the fact their aid, when Merlin ask for it, is not connected to her and keep her involvement a secret. Even The chaosian must agree which they all do. So she excuses herself to let them talk while she changes out of her traveling clothes.

The Questions
Are our theories sound ones - That they are indeed terrorist shadow elders. She says it is a sound theory but she does not know for sure.

What piece of information would help us the most that you can give - The answer is they are on the right track at least applying pressure to upset their plans.

Could the Pentacle lead to the bad guys - Maybe tough getting their would require some extreme effort from the right people. She was hinting she could help but I think it went over their head.

How many people do you think are involved - Well If you extrapolate that they are close shadows to the elders no Cabal was ever very big in Amber according to history so probably 4-8 people if she had to guess.

If they kill the head will that cause them to fall apart - She once again tells them to extrapolate if someone killed the king would Amber fall apart. Probably not it would have an effect but not fall apart.

They retired for the evening sipping wine and making small talk. When Trace pressed for information they would end up talking about other things without him realizing it so after the third time he tried she turned to him an said "Really Trace?" and acted tired of the game.


High Lights

I walked away from the group as they talked at the first meeting and unlike many games I am very Physical in this one standing and using body language for my elders. So as Florimel entered the infirmary I strode back in the middle of the group leaned over and kissed Trace on the head and told him not to fear auntie Florimel was here to see him get better. I have been friends with this player for 12 years and this is only the second game he has Played in ever and only played in the first a month or so. It completely stunned him that I actually kissed his forehead and then hopped up on a table and sat demurely and continued talking. Took him like 5 minutes to become unstunned and everyone had  great laugh. I am his age (Late 40's) and not thin or graceful like Flora so it was doubly a shock.

I loved channeling Dara. I have been lucky so far and can fairly easily step into my NPC's shoes and as above I sat with my legs crossed and held an Imaginary fencing blade in my lap. I used the picture in the ADRP book as inspiration. I also got to set deep plot hooks with the agreement fro future plots.

Frustrations - My only frustration is everyone bid in Endurance so when in other games players would start getting tired and started to have to make decisions based on whether to keep going or not these guys can just keep moving along. I don't want to make things tougher since they spent their points they should get the benefits but I wish they would just be more tired. Not a big or in any way serious problem but I gotta bitch about something

[Artifacts of Amber]

So another session starts.

Marcuis Player could not make it was in an auto accident and will be out for a few weeks, but is Ok. According to him

They started off with Waking the next morning and Caroline's Suggestion that maybe instead of facing off with Obier on his home turf they should set an ambush for him. Since there were only three people to fight (Trace still injured returned to Amber and Marcuis was called away to deal with the Chaos Delegation(see above). I think how Dara created a shadow of destiny inspired them. They realized they could do so as well and make it so the bad guys would cross their path.  They kept assuming the bad guys could hellride, or had some other Pattern way to move through shadow. I guess not thinking Hellriding with A broken Pattern would be dangerous. I knew what the bad guys would be doing next so had two of them to send into the ambush as they had little way to avoid it.

The Players chose a late 22nd-23rd century post apocalyptic world, one with tech but over grown forest and jungle to let the Tech character (Rhi) has some advantage and the woodsman (Kal) have some advantage. While Kal set up traps along the edges of the path Rhi built a Laser/plasma net/trap to cut people apart. Caroline helped direct and used Pattern to reinforce the destiny of the shadow, as well as, obfuscate its intent. They Trumped Trace in who was up and around but still hurt to act as a back up support. He was willing since he wanted to use his new "Toy", Sorcery and hung conjurations.

They set up the ambush and waited as a few days passed before bad guys showed up. They were riding big red lizards that were from near the Anvil of Hell and one was Obier the other wrapped in chitinous like plate armor.  Obier (Having much better warfare) Sensed the ambush and started heading around when the party struck. I can't give a moment by moment but will hit most the highlights.


Kall had shifted into a Large hunting Cat like the one he had dominated earlier that week in this shadow.

Trace started dropping lynchpins and releasing conjurations. Most did little to affect the fight though he tried.

Caroline ended up dealing with Obier alone. They were only points apart in Dexterity and Psyche though he was better at warfare. He maneuvered into the woods separating Caroline from everyone else since he knew he could deal with her maybe but if they all jumped him it would go badly.

Kal went for the Armored guy and as he attacked the armor peeled off and grabbed him. (It was a summoned demon conjuration) Allowing The guyto summon a Gruff which is a big demon the players had dealt with before. The Gruff went to get Rhi but ended up having to come after Kal to try and Save The guy (Who's name is Coletran though the players were frustrated to never learn that. He was known as the demon throne guy, From an earlier mental vision).

Kal had mind controlled a large hunting cat while he set up the ambush and it aided him but when he sent it after Coletran, Coletran had enough psyche to turn it on Kal.

Meanwhile Caroline was trying to lead Obier to Rhi since he had these painful tendrils coming at her and she could feel the pain radiating from them. She thought Rhi (An Initiate of the Anvil of Hell) Could handle that better. Obier was having known of that and withdrew in the woods then ambushing Caroline (With his superior Warfare) And was channeling pain through the Logrus. Actually he had fixed Logrus. Fight continues as Rhi uses the Weapons in the trap (Using her fixed Logrus of Technology) to shoot the Gruff and Coletran.  Gruff barely noticed Coletran was pretty hurt. Kal managed to get a hold of Coletran ignoring the Armor trying to choke him and Ignoring the oncoming Gruff. He was willing to take a few shots to kill Coletran. And he did Gruff Broke his spine while Coletran played dead (Unsuccessfully) finally Kal Bite through his skull and killed him before the others could get the Gruff and Cat attacking Kal to stop by killing them. So Kall was pretty badly hurt. Luckily he is a Shape shifter and will be mending wounds. (Also Luckily Player is gone next week so character will be mending and off screen)

Caroline finally escaped from Obier but not before he slipped away.

So they managed to kill one bad guy, making them happy and One got away now knowing more about the capabilities of the characters.

The trumped back to Amber with the wounded and Rhi Got a royal note from Random who was back in the castle finally.

She had to go see him carrying the report he had asked for a week before and she had not given  to him. She knew she was in trouble so when she got to his chambers he brought her in and asked if she wanted to deal with the King or Her Father. She chose as her father and he showed how pissed he was but didn't yell. She tried to make excuses but he shut her down. He finally told her he would see her and her friends in the throne room officially tomorrow and stalked off.  The Character and Player were kinda scared of what he would do. Vialle was watching the whole thing. It was fun to playing Random as King and not so happy go lucky as she had seen him before.


Highlights - Trace Conjurations/spells are all animal based, so his Acid rain spell is Pigeons that crap acid everywhere. His Emergency room spell creates an small emergency room area staffed by animals. His spells to absorb magic shaped like various animals. Though his spells had negligible effects they were entertaining.

Them trying to figure out how to get Kal's wounded 1500 lb cat body back to Amber was also fun. It stymied them for a minute then they quickly worked it out. They are still getting use to being able to define so much of the world and not waiting for me to tell them everything.

[RPGPundit]

So another session starts.

Marcuis Player could not make it was in an auto accident and will be out for a few weeks, but is Ok. According to him

Slacker. I hope you don't plan to go easy on his character!

[Artifacts of Amber]

Well considering he has had it "Easy" since there has been little asked or expected of him until now. With the Chaos Delegation here he has to actually Work and With the bad guys plans he is going to seriously be caught in the middle of the crap storm to come. So I might be kind while he is away he definitely has it in for him when he gets back