Lightning, Blood & Liars

(or, "Why Did it Have to Be Snakes?")

Our grouping included a wide variety of experience with Amber. KL, of course, was more than familiar with the system and the way I ran it. AB was similarly inclined... but wanted a refresher. RM had read the ADRPG as well as the books. KD had read part of NPiA. DT had no idea. At all. I opened with an introduction that took a couple of hours, describing Amber vs Chaos, Rebma, Tir; What is Shadow?; Trump, Pattern, Logrus, Magic, Shapeshifting; Unicorn, Basic Elders ... and doing character creation. I gave them 200 points, explained the auction, explain items, powers, allies, and finally, Stuff.

The Auction: Psyche, Warfare, Strength, Endurance, Loyalists

I had planned on keeping them to the normal attributes (each, of course, "The Most Important...") but added Loyalists on AB's request so she could out-pretty KL. When doing the character one-on-one, I found out that most people were attracted to Random...whom I had described as "a punk." This worked out just fine with the presumed story. I assigned some parents, and some siblings, and checked out the sheets, giving recommendations that led to RM's character (Marcus) having a horse that could change into a woman... maybe it's just the mean part of my psyche that decided she looked like Scully. I wanted to have some of the competitive feeling of the game emphasized, but as I hadn't wanted to do a Throne War, I decided to make it a little more political, hence the warning and opening:

You are scions of the House of Amber... You come from a family of scheming, conniving, ne'er-do-wells...with ultimate cosmic power. The itty-bitty living space is the only place worth fighting over: Amber. How bad are they? You can feel justified in suspecting that every nice thing *as well as* every evil thing they do is calculated to get the most out of you. They do have some exceptions. They won't lie if they can help it. They try not to kill each other. And they never, *ever* apologize. In Other Words: They might help you, but you may never, ever trust them. So, it's with great surprise that you are invited to play with the big boys...well, actually, to come to Council. Formal council. It is couched in the polite request that there is no denying.

My first question was, "What are your colours and personal symbol?" This was designed to give me an idea of messengers as well as offer some time for introductions.

This is the hot summer of Amber, where breezes from the sea cool off the sweat that slowly rises, glistening on the skin. Everything has the slight tang of salt. Daylight hours are long, nightshift is `hotly' contested. You are invited to tea by the garden with Aunt Florimel. She is wearing an off-the-shoulder gown that shimmers in the sunlight. It is the blue of the deep sea, which nicely sets off her eyes. Her strawberry blonde hair is long and wrapped up in a bun out of braids.

You always have to describe what Florimel is wearing. After describing the colour, "strawberry-blonde" to KD, we started up with giving them the first bit of Elder Intrigue. Turns out that while Flora was at first somewhat reluctant to warm to Lynn, DT's character, she grew to feel Lynn was her favourite.

Florimel's aims are to find out who has the strongest position and see if they can "use a friend." She will `accidentally' give away that the King is looking for one of the PCs to join the Council on a permanent basis in place of Prince Random. She thinks Random is going to go to Rebma and live under the sea. She doesn't know why, they don't like Random `down there'. There is lemonade with ice, cookies (lemon-sugar, iced lemon, and lemon chip), as well as a full tea service in gold. The scent of the lilacs are strong, but the rose is almost overpowering.

The smell of rose is kind of Florimel's signature.

What sights do you want to see in Amber? There's hawking with Julian, sparring with Benedict, or learning magic with Fiona - she's doing a lecture at the wizard's academy.

This is where the "what's hawking" line came up. I don't think I've ever made the noise before... this was definitely a game of sound effects. [grinning] We ended up having Marcus and Tetra go to Benedict, and Penumbra, Lynn, and Belle go off to Fiona. I decided Fiona was doing "summoning spells."

The (largest group) are warned only by the smell of ozone and crackle of thunder in the cloudless sky before being attacked. [Lightning: P35 S30 W45 E25 Lightning Magic] Once players finish him - searching will find [Loyalist rank 1st] name on a scroll signed with a black serpent with a red tongue. Question: Who knows anything about this sigil? Caine - not a pirate flag. Corwin - knows it's from a group of shapeshifters. Fiona - definitely a magician - who held the paper first? Hmmm....

In the meantime, Benedict merely presses Marcus, and makes a "date" with Tetra later that night.

Dinner - it's mouse!

They spend quite some time at dinner, and I flip from NPC to NPC, sometimes sharing information, sometimes getting information, and then saying, "Oh yeah, other PC told me about this..." I learned something interesting about myself; I can't do "Fiona" while my husband is giving me snuggles.

That night, secret messages are passed, secret meetings are made. Afterall, once the sun sets, intrigue is just getting its second wind. Morning - the skies are red as blood. Everything takes on a crimson tint. Breakfast is a subdued affair - person with the most good stuff hears that normally only the King (Bleys) gets up for breakfast. Person who touched the scroll first is feeling bad today... change of eye colour, static charge.

This is the first place where I deviated, really. I ended up deciding that they did not meet "the Real Fiona" when they went for her advice. Councilmen gather. Lady Llewella is in attendance. Embarrassing incident with Llew's dress and static charge. This allows Belle (the unlucky one in this case) to notice that Fiona's "quick fix" didn't seem to do anything.

Council begins. Random reveals he's leaving.

In fact, I think I said something about how he says, "Goodbye," in various ways for twenty-five minutes.

~~King announces his hope to replace from PCs.~~ Ruckus occurs as black snake with green tongue slithers out of BS's mouth. Destroyed by Fiona. No evidence. Caine demands Fi locked up. She looks about to argue, then agrees. Says [Belle] has to be examined carefully. Bleys says he'll send [Belle] under guard of other PCs to the mad wizard Dworkin. Traipse to Dworkin, stumble on Corridor of Mirrors. Teeny tiny snakes start crawling from the walls. They don't attack, but they'll follow their pipers. {Describe based on chosen colours.} Find Dworkin covered with blood from many bites. 1st ranked Warfare (Marcus) says snakebites.

I had suggested the opportunity was that they could bring Dworkin to Bleys or their various allies. Turns out they decided to go immediately to the infirmary. (Well, the Good Stuff Master chose a card at random and got Gerard.) [Bleys says: "Looks like we're a tad tardy, now, are we? What could possibly have held you up?" "Ah, the corridor of mirrors appears when it needs to. Dworkin is in infirmary - will you consent to having Llewella look at you?"] [Llewella asks casually, "Have any of you seen Random?" She suggests strongly that maybe someone interested in taking over his seat might just want to look into what he does...? "Or is that too logical?" Finding Random is as easy as using a Trump. See if anyone thinks of it. Who goes through, who talks? Take aside.]

Random says - They're all a buncha wankers anyway. Besides...he's been gettin' strange notes saying that if he doesn't go, he'll be weighed by the scale, that his host is getting `broody.' That all sorts of things are slitherin' about. He started getting them after he visited a snide fellow...name of...Snooed. Pretty sure of that anyway. Then Moire asked to see him, and well, Council is boring except for the club and the women, and he can have women in Rebma.

This was changed for the actual play, wherein a lot of it's what he said originally at dinner, I worked in a plot that he taught members of the Weirmonken Snake Clans how to play illegal betting games...with cards. Originally I had the Snake Clan as a group of wizards who are plotting to take Amber power. I ended up deciding they figured the Pattern was a "giant snake" from Random's tales (after he over-imbibed on their bitewine.) The rest of the adventure (detailed below) didn't happen...

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Blood - P60 W25 S15 E30
Preferrably will attack individuals - starts by making individuals bleed.  If he can get uncontested flesh, will shapeshift other.  Will disappear into a great snake of blood.
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Slime - P15 W40 S15 E40
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Bone - P20 W35 S60 E25
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Bone will have another sealed note to Random in Rebma.  If someone opens it, _____ will read, "Beware of snakes in the grass..."  Anyone who reads it aloud (or touches it) will be touched by a spell.
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Dworkin will mutter something about an old Quidditch bet, that the price of tea in good china is bullish, and would (infected) please stop hissing in his ear?  A wounded man needs his sleep, by the Unicorn's fluffy tail!
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Snakes are visible only to characters. 
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Florimel invites her chosen for tea, out of the blue...probably scaring them half to death.  She will `reveal' that the decision is made, it's [_____].  If [______] isn't hers, she'll recommend kneecapping.
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Allies do same thing, except [_____]'s recommends "getting them first." ("It's open season, boy! And your relatives don't need a license.")
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Snakes will cause an altercation upon meeting each other.
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Grand announcement, blah blah blah...
Random comes up in Council room - attacks as Serpent being.  Those with Serpents will fight with him, all serpents become visible, and when they're knocked out the PCs are back under own control.
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Most heroic gets Council spot.  Rest get knighted, live happily ever after until next time.

What DID Happen?

Well, it got a little complicated. See, at this point Lynn and Belle are both convinced that they're turning into snake people. Belle has "the real Fiona" take out a "metaphorical construct" as an egg from her body. The "fake Fiona" apparently was porting snakes using Belle's energy (rank 1st, Endurance) down in the dungeon in order to block access to anyone but her Weirmonken creators to the Pattern. Once "the real Fiona" managed to get things more under control for Belle, she explained to Lynn that her Pattern energy wouldn't do much good in reversing the effects. Marcus and Tetra go beat up the strange bone and blood dragons that are attacking, as per Benedict and Julian's orders. Belle helps, while Lynn uses the Logrus to pull in "one of the creatures that did this to him/her/it." Penumbra shows far too much glee in interrogating the shaman of the Hisssssss(etc.) Clan. They eventually get out of him that they're being attacked by the "Guardians of the Four Gates." Marcus gets a bit of a rest as he chops up a sea serpent, but Tetra mind-controls the other one, and finds out that they need to have a "sacrifice" to close the gates. The players eventually figure out that the sacrifice is the metaphorical egg Belle had... and they find out that Random sold them out since HE was supposed to be the sacrifice. He was running to Rebma as Moire said, "OK, you took one child away from me, give me more...and make sure Rebmans can control their own Pattern." (Hence his punishment: after all, his testicles will eventually grow back.) Marcus and Belle clear up the Air Gate, and Bleys recommends Penumbra to the Council Seat.