DISCONNECTED THE VILLAIN: Lea Guillem Carole (Doom) HER MINIONS: Davi Akakios (Death) Tertius Valter (Doom of Small Things) Jocasta Gabrielle (Light) GOAL: To bring about the end of all things. STEPS TO ACCOMPLISH IT: Surprisingly easy, given that we only have four and a half hours or so to prevent it. Step one: Turn off Trump (to prevent the interference) Step 1A: Trump is a facility of interaction between Shadows; unanchored shadows begin to drift into theA byss. Step 1B: Trump can be blocked by anyone with a psyche over Amber, but they need the card to do it for extended periods. Step 1C: Dworkin's Trumps have Source Cards. It takes almost as much work to make a Source Card as it does to create a broken Pattern (something any API can do, but...) If the Source Cards are stolen, they can interact with the original cards. Step two: Unhinge Reality Step 2A: Start at the poles. Step 2B: Attack the Defenders and Guardians of the Poles Step 2C: Begin killing the Real Step three: Prevent reality from clinging and coalescing ("clotting" in Lea-Guillem's terminology) Step 3A: Allow Entropy its whim Step 3B: Open all Bindings Step 3C: Kill the PCs. Presumably, the PCs don't want Lea-Guillem to get too far along this path. LOCATIONS: The Thelbane Court The Amber Court The Wilds of Arden The Wilds of the Black Forest The Abyss The Grove INTRODUCTION: Summary: Begin in-combat, Thelbanians and Amberites find themselves against a number of unusual creatures - they remember being asked to investigate a strange summoning, perhaps a shadowstorm... Purpose: Introductions, fighting styles, set them together, break them apart... Location: The Borderlands of Ygg Setting Details: It is dark now in the borderlands, and the sky that was once a sunless glow is now covered in fog and darkness. The clouds hang low, streams of grey and silver flowing from a centerless mass. Davi -- "A man seems to be observing, although the more cynical of you would wonder if he is making bets on the outcome. He has black hair, and a palor to his skin that isn't entirely sickly, just...thin, stretched, dark. He wears a dark purple cape over his shadowy suit." NPCs Present: Davi Akakios Premise: The creatures are easy to defeat; some are small leech-like dragons of hues of grey and green and all in between. This is just a test: they go to eat Trump: any players with Trump cards are targeted there. They will meet Davi Akakios. Opening: Depends on character. Special Details: No one should be permanently hurt, but two should have a close call. Conversation Points: "I see death in your eyes. Let us hope it does not bring pain. I am Davi Akakios. I serve the end." Notable Moments: Davi disappears through a rent in the Shadow itself, one that seals but does not heal. Characters should introduce themselves. 2. Encounter. Trump Parasite, swollen with a Source Card Summary: Anyone who tries to follow Davi, or look for the source of his unusual nature is going to be able to find this creature. It is emitting a great deal of psychic static, although its location seems to be having its own interference. Introduce Jocasta. Purpose: Introduce Source Cards (as well as Trump Parasites): the Source Card will work, allowing access to one of the Elders. (Julian.) Location: Amber: Beneath the Castle Setting Details: It is a cloudy day in Amber, and there is a tension in the air. NPCs Present: Trump Parasite -- "You have never seen this kind of creature before. From a distance you suppose it could be mistaken perhaps for a Unicorn, perhaps for an albino Wyrm, for its squiggling, hairless body is pale, and it has a long silvery snout that glints like the Horn. The four leg-like limbs are shrunken and useless against its bloated body. It seems to be struggling to move away from you. On the ground are shards of what might be porcelain, but somehow grab your attention as something...of power." Jocasta -- "A woman seems to be holding some of the chips, browsing through them as if looking for something. Or, as she looks up to see you, maybe it is not a woman. Her eyes are a deep gold, large and liquid, but there's something that almost seems masculine about her as well. The most unusual item about her is that you missed her coming in, because there is a power radiating about her. Her pale skin shimmers somewhat silvery, and her very short hair is white-blonde." Premise: The creature bleeds magical ink, think prismatic spray touch effects. Other than that, the Warfairies are going to note that they don't entirely know what to do with this thing. Cutting off its head would probably work...its limbs look useless, but they're going to be cautious, especially if they have any Psyche. Strength-based attacks are going to be dangerous as they might start a chain reaction amongst some of Dworkin's Things. Endurance-based attacks are extremely effective. Opening: Distress as they move towards the feeling; it is as if, for a moment, they are stuck between the worlds, as if they cannot move. Thelbanites will have familiarity with moving through this Between, but Amberites will be the only ones able to break through. Special Details: There are creatures in the Between. Conversation Points: "I serve the End." Jocasta will willingly bond with someone; her last source was, alas, devoured. Notable Moments: When they realize where they are. 3. Raise the Stakes. Summary: Fiona and Benedict duel it out. Fiona loses, but so does Benedict. He starts towards the characters, but then is ambushed by Davi. Davi will lose, but not before he brings in Tertius, who will make enough trouble for Benedict, that Benedict salutes, surrenders, and survives by Tertius taking him away. Purpose: To implicate the Elders, bring in Tertius, and start the Little Deaths. Location: Upper Amber Castle Setting Details: Actually a really dramatic rooftop fight. The building pressure of the clouds will turn into rain, a dark, oily rain. Tertius -- A laughing little redheaded man, with a spray of freckles and mad eyes. Play up a Brand recognition. NPCs Present: Fiona, Benedict, Davi, the Guard Captain, and Tertius. Premise: Who do the players support? Or do they run (smartest choice...)? There are several dead guards - and the Captain of the Guard who is not going to the slaughter. He can tell them that some of the guards died from psibolts, and others from puncture wounds. He doesn't know what started the argument, but they're fighting almost as if they're possessed. Opening: You hear shouts, and the clash of lightning and metal. Special Details: If someone has bonded with Jocasta, they are going to see a very different situation. "There are two creatures here, more rage and id than anything to do with (super)ego. It is like the lines that flow through them have been cut, and they are marionettes, a show of shadow puppets fighting each other. There is a marked signature energy, and Jocasta whispers, `Tertius.'" Conversation Points: "This has been happening all over the Castle today. Random nearly gutted Martin before Vialle got in the way." No, he doesn't know why it happened. Notable Moments: Tertius doesn't come across completely as insane, but anyone who gets too close to him will feel the Rage of the End. They can talk to Vialle, but Random is not available. (And Vialle will fight anyone who tries to get too close.) She'll say that magic is dangerous, especially scrying with the Cards. The Cards frighten her. "They're open," she'll explain, but can't describe what she knows in terms they can understand. "The under is over, and the over is open, and the open...I'm so sorry." 4A. Key Encounter. [Using Julian's Primal Trump] Summary: They get a glimpse of the Unicorn, but follow the trail to the Serpent. Purpose: Julian has remained sane, but at terrible cost. Something has been pulling the Shadows apart in Arden, which is why he must remain. Location: Arden Setting Details: The remains of a battle. NPCs Present: Julian, Sophia, the Hawks and Hounds Julian -- "Something has attacked him; his white armour lies split in pieces on the ground, splattered with blood. He is grimly bandaging his arm, while his pack growls at your approach. There are dead Rangers in the colours of an Arden Summer, and several dead Hounds laying in a very carefully arranged pile, with unlit torches staked in a circle around them. He seems calm, but there is a rage in his ice-blue eyes." Sophia -- She awaits in the Shadows, and will lead them into darkness. Hawks and Hounds may attack randomly or may simply protect Julian. Premise: Julian and his patrol were attacked. They would have died if a fighting Sophia had not intervened. He cannot tell them anything of what the attackers were like. "They were the raging ones." ALTERNATIVE: Julian has been infected by Doom; he's gone crazy, but his inner self is so well organized that he doesn't appear to be. He'll try killing off the PCs if he can split them away from the group. Opening: The card feels cold to the touch, and yet, it feels almost as if there was a frictionless surface on it. Special Details: The torches are actually in a Gate formation. ALTERNATIVE: Allows Tertius inside the forest. Conversation Points: "She awaits you." Notable Moments: If someone with a significant Psyche touches the card, they will feel themselves drawn into Julian's thoughts, right now full of anger and sadness. 4AI: "Her name is Sophia." If it is a Chaosian as Jocasta's host: She will lead them softly into darkness. There are whispers, but nothing that seems specific. [Again, Jocasta's Host experience will be different: they will hear things dying.] The leaves on the trees turn from dark green to darker green to black. The earthy brown of the forest loam turns black, the bark on the trees lightens from brown to tan to aspen white. Those of the Thelbane recognize this place: it is the Black Forest, Hendrake hunting land. She doesn't stop here. Time seems to compress. There are signs of fighting; do they leave Her or do they investigate the fighting? [fighting will show Hendrakes against each other...who will turn on the PCs at any provocation - the Hendrakes have weapons which will hurt Jocasta but not the host] The Unicorn will continue until the Black Pit. IF IT IS AN AMBERITE AS JOCASTA'S HOST: There is a feeling of sudden danger, a sinking Trump coldness in the pit of the spirit. The growling noise behind you is nothing you've ever heard before, and yet, it can be immediately considered a warning, a threat, a challenge. The Unicorn will attack Jocasta's host, with no concern as for the host body, just making sure the death of the spirit occurs. The Unicorn CAN be tricked to kill Tertius if he should appear. 4B. Complication. An optional complication adds tension. Summary: Léa Guillem is introduced. Purpose: Who is Léa Guillem? What is she? What dangers does she represent? Can they take her? Location: The Thelbane Court Setting Details: Dworkin will be there, nursing a bleeding Serpent. NPCs Present: Dworkin, Léa Guillem, the Serpent, Sophia (unless players ditched her), Jocasta (unless she died or went away) Léa Guillem looks like darkness. She can be anything the GM needs her to be, a fluid shapeshifter who offers many promises, immune to Logrus and Pattern but not Trump, if anyone can find a way to use it aggressively. She is a thing of the Abyss, Premise: [At least for this game] When Dworkin created Amber he introduced the Pattern as a symbiote to the Logrus, but the individuality of personality within the Unicorn and the Serpent creates conflict. (While they require each other to survive, they do not need to like each other. This is a seed as to why Oberon dismissed fratricides and why there really cannot be any definitive winners in the battle between Order and Chaos.) Opening: "Dworkin sits in the darkness, a pale green glow illuminating his wild white hair. The glow comes from the eye of a large black Serpent, its head resting on Dworkin's lap." Special Details: The Serpent will not close its Eye when it dies, but the light will dim. The Serpent's blood is poisonous, and it will - change- people. Jocasta will be forcefully ejected from anyone who is splashed with it. Anyone splashed with Serpent ichor will also spend at least a couple rounds "out," with the exception of Léa and Sophia. (Which is not to say they wouldn't be changed, just that they will not go unconscious because of it.) Conversation Points: "I am the End." Notable Moments: The Serpent will breathe a name, "Léa Guillem." Dworkin looks pale, as the Serpent shudders and dies. Sophia will attack Léa Guillem, but in a "I do believe in fairies!" way, she is only successful if the PCs aid her. 5. Climax, or endgame, endgame, endgame. Memorable, exciting, challenging. Summary: The choice is the PCs: do they create anew, or do they return things as they were? Purpose: The Jewels fall into the PCs' hands. They get the choice. Location: The End of the World / A Small Dark Island in the Night Setting Details: The latter is, of course, a reference to where Dworkin once drew his own Pattern. The PCs Pattern (now considered destroyed) will remain as long as the Jewel remains...and will change if they draw their own. NPCs Present: Léa Guillem Premise: Sophia's interest lies with the PCs. She will be sure to have at least one of them (preferably highest Psyche) end up with the Jewel, even if it means (and it probably should) her death. Jocasta will be absorbed by Léa Guillem, allowing the harbinger to survive even Sophia's attack. Opening: "The battle is joined." Special Details: If the Other Eye is placed in the hands of a Chaosian, the shapeshifting (no saving throw, no control) will draw it to the Chaosian's natural, and the Chaosian will begin to turn into a Serpent unless the Chaosian pulls the Eye out of itself (painful at least!) Conversation Points: If an Amberite ends up with the Jewel, it will attract all sorts of interest, including perhaps a Baby Unicorn, but certainly anything remaining of a Chaosian nature will suddenly _desire_ the Jewel, as if enflamed. Notable Moments: Endgame. You decide.