Pattern Viewing

About five or six days following the mandatory fun, when she is known as a dame around the castle, Aisling will get dressed up in her most knightly demeanor and, with such of her fellows as may choose, go to where the entrance to the Pattern used to be with an eye to going down to see it.

And, among you fellows, I think she'd have suggested this to her fellow knights on some evening following the first, so Brennan, Lilly, Marius, if you want to join in, or dissuade me, go for it... :)

Wouldn't miss it for the world. GMs, should we be assuming that nothing weird is going to happen to take us out of Amber? Brennan has no immediate plans, but....

It should be noted that Brennan, by the way, is equally Knightly in demaenor whether he is wearing cavalry armor in his colors and device, or a burlap sack. That being the case, he dresses comfortably.

Curiosity would most definitely get the better of Lilly should she have the opportunity to visit the site of the pattern with her fellow knights. After everything she went through with Daeon though, she'd be fully armed and dressed for combat. <g> And she might even think to bring a water skin. <g>

[Jovian will not be returning to Amber in time to join the expedition. Is Marius in or out?]

(Browses through Marius' character sheet, bites tongue realizing that contributions have not been forthcoming properly and must be addressed, tries to see if "Pattern" is one of those point thingies... OK. He's in.)

The four of you outfit yourselves for an expedition into what's left of the basements of Castle Amber. You pass through a number of partially collapsed chambers, and eventually down to the damaged spiral staircase.

To get to the bottom is an arduous endeavor, though less so for a child of Amber than for any mere mortal. Not only are the stairs fallen down in places, the center stairwell is filled with debris towards the bottom.

Marius steps slowly, but surely. He is not trusting to the fickle Fates (or Cards, or Whatnot) for his future, but on the care and attention he puts into such movement. He is very deliberate.

As Brennan recalls, in this group Marius is the only other confirmed Pattern-walker. So it's Marius who gets the 'Doesn't this look grim?' glance.

Marius' return look is one of those strangely gleeful smiles that says, "Doesn't this look like a challenge?" with just enough irony to look like a return grimace.

There is a rope anchored in place to allow you to climb down the rest of the way. It looks as if it has recently been tested and perhaps used.

"How convenient," [Marius] mutters.

After that, [Brennan] waits a socially acceptable amount of time for any of the others to volunteer to go first. If nothing, he goes first.

Aisling would have looked out over the cavern that held the remnants of the stair down, and then faded back and returned in the tentacled bull-like smoke-purple form; relying on the firmer footing of the air.

Okay, I'll bite-- what's a tentacled bull-like smoke-purple form look like?

This is the same thing she was using while fighting the steel buffalo. It's the one that lost a hand. I think in the future I'll just call it the purple form; though the color isn't really purple. You know smoky quartz? Imagine looking at a medium-light purple on the bluish side of the spectrum (versus the reddish side of the spectrum, where violet lives) though a pane of smoky quartz. Or mica. Or sunglasses. Something like that. Anyway, it's a grey-y brown-y purple-y color that somewhat blends in to rocks and shadows. Its skin has kind of a matte sandy hard-to-cut look to it.

It's got an enormous breadth of chest for lung space, in build generally bulky and powerful-looking. Four padded feet, jaws that bite and claws that catch (particularly the tucked-away velociraptor-scythe claws gracing the rear feet). It has five eyes spaced in a circle around its head, set behind clear shields that keep dust out. It has three long tentacle-arms spaced around its neck, with tentacle-fingered hands at the end like lion's tails, save for the right arm which now ends a foot short in a neat bandage. Its tail becomes very long, very cable-like, and has an edge sharp like coral.

It walks on air. Its countenance is very expressive. Its voice is deep and melodious and multitoned, and seems to have a chuckle in the back of it somewhere.

It has the tendency to appear truly "something darting towards you in the corner of your eye" nightmarish, though she's shifting away from that now that she's in Amber.

And for the benefit of those of us who haven't seen the Aisling-style tranformations up close, what's it like?

Like a log collapsing into a shower of sparks, I imagine. Even if you've been watching the fire all along, there are never points where you're like, "Ew, that log is halfway to becoming a bunch of coals and little sparks are getting spat off it." It's just something you watch as a whole, and it's hard to remember the intervening bits between "burning log" and "coals and sparks". Maybe it looks like a magic-lantern show filmed in a documentary by the Blair Witch directors, except as Aisling does it it looks easy and natural. Maybe as if you're blinking more than you think you are, and the stuff you weren't focusing on changed. Maybe like a bird unfolding its wings.

Besides, did I not say, "retires after glancing over the stairway?" I'm talking, like, backing up into the shadowy areas near the cavern walls... It might be that he's not getting a up-close view presently, either.

[Marius] watches Aisling's transformation with some amount of, well, to be honest, suspicion. It doesn't seem to leave him particularly comfortable, but maybe it's more to the jealous side than the "Ew, gross, squishy shapeshifty stuff."

He looks at Lily and Brennan with a shrug. "Can't all be first," he says, with the, "Last one's a rotten egg," kind of childhood smirk. He'll rush for the rope. It's very unlike the deliberate pacing so far, but maybe he's trying to throw himself in...just a bit.

Brennan graciously allows Marius to demonstrate how gravity works.

Lilly is glad to have someone go down ahead of her. She watches Marius' dissent very closely while at the same time charting her own. Once he has landed her gaze turns to Brennan. There is a definite who's next expression on her face.

[assuming both of you go down, regardless of order, but do let me know if you decide to stand like the polite children in the womb and I'll retcon]

Oh, dammit, I knew I left a thread dangling. Brennan heads down, too. Probably before Lilly, since she seemed hesitant.

Order is not important to me.

Well, actually, it's only about 10 feet.

The remnants of the stairwell open up into a small, and very dusty, guardroom. It contains a table and chair, and a rack full of lanterns. Other than whatever lighting you are carrying with you, it is rather dark.

Not so dark that you can't tell that people have been down here, disturbing the dust.

Aisling, not being a person, does not disturb the dust. Ah, Chaosite logic.

She holds her lantern outstretched by her curving tentacular arm, far in front of her; her hurt arm is wrapped loosely around her neck in such a manner that the lacking hand is unnoticeable. She observes the tracks with interest, to see how many humans have been through here before, and who (if she can see any single footprints).

a dozen, but no clue as to identity. Boots, mostly. Not unlike what you all are wearing, really.

Brennan grabs a lantern and proceeds with caution. "It's this way. I'm given to understand that exploring the side passages isn't always wise."

The hewn stone passage leads shortly to a natural passage that only occasionally shows signs of widening. It wanders slightly downwards for some distance before it opens into a vast underground cavern. No one can see the far reaches. Those who have been here before or who have heard the lore know that there is a passage along the left wall, with side passages off of it--some closed, some open, some barred. The dust (which was probably from the collapse) has been left behind and the floor is occasionally slick.

[Assuming no one decides on freelance mapless amateur spelunking...]

Brennan may go mapless spelunking at a time and suicidal mood of his choosing. But that time is not now.

After a long walk, the knights reach a great door made of wood. It is ancient and iron-clad and looks to be set into the rock as if grown there. It is unadorned and looks entirely functional. There is a great iron ring and a keyhole with a large key inserted into it.

Brennan gives the key in the lock a dog-in-the-grammophone look for a minute, then looks back at the rest saying, "Ah, security."

He then considers the key for a moment (and considers changing his theme music to "Lawyers, Guns, and Money") then reaches out a gloved hand, turns the key, and opens the door.

Last one in is probably in less trouble than Brennan.

The chamber is vast and dark and extends beyond the reach of lanterns. Some feet away there are portions of the great tracery which is the pattern. The floor is dusty, and the dust is disturbed all over.

The pattern does not emit the reassuring glow that those of you who have walked it recall.

"Reassuring glow," he says.

"Just as much as the security." Brennan quips because he cares. It's probably obvious that the whole situation disturbs Brennan.

It feels like the center of a heart that is no longer beating.

Aisling approaches it very carefully, crouches down and sniffs it, for all the world like a cat deciding whether or not to ignore something odd that has been dumped in its food dish. No part of her body is out over a line.

Brennan surveys slowly and carefully, shaking his head, sweeping the lantern from top to bottom and side to side.

"It's supposed to glow," he says, clearly for Aisling's and Lilly's benefit. "Aside from that, it just feels wrong."

"It's cold, and, um, squishy. Dead," Marius doesn't say aloud.

Instead, he shakes his head. He looks at Aisling and Lilly for a moment, as if trying to express something with the wistful and solemn look in his eyes, and yet...

He turns to Brennan. "It's hard..." he says. "We fought so hard," he breaks off and turns away, almost as if he's fighting the urge to cry.

Aisling continues pondering the Pattern as if she noticed nothing at all.

He takes a breath that has just the hint of a shudder, and squares himself to look back at it. "Look well upon the majesty of Amber, ladies. Look past the darkness, and the sundered dreams. Breath deeply of the dust, for tomorrow the sun rises, and we rebuild. The crust of broken empires is made more fertile for the blood spilt upon it." He shakes his head. "The dream is not lost for the dreamers."

He seems to feel it's almost...personal.

Brennan's reaction is different. When he turns around, there's a spark in his eyes that speaks of an emotion closer kin to determination than to lamentation. It's controlled, but it's there.

"I didn't-- stand and fight with Amber for this," he waves his hand at the darkness, unilluminated by the traditional blue glow. "We'll fix this, too."

What do the lines look like, anyway, now that they're no longer glowing blue?

Aisling turned to face Marius to listen to him speak, and turns her face politely towards Brennan when he speaks, as well. In its deep warm voice it replies, "Not lost indeed, while there are those that remember," and a lazy wave of its left hand indicates Marius and Brennan in the manner of a bow. Then it heads around the circumference to closely observe the broken places.

Two things become clear as Aisling walks around towards the broken place. (A single dark fissure which is quite long and cuts the line on the ground in several places.

1: There is a lantern on the floor near the apparent 'starting point' of the pattern.
2: There seems to be something on the ground over the broken place. Like little bridges. It's pretty far into the middle, but you can definitely see it from here.

Aisling settles next to the broken place (does the fissure cut the non-Pattern areas, too? How deep is it? Anything remarkable, like not-looking-like-the-usual-rock-inside? And how do the lines look now they're dead?) and sharpens her eyesight, which looks remarkably like crouching and just staring out at the bridged areas for a few minutes.

You can't get a good look, but it looks like a ragged edge and some debris has fallen in. Unclear if it is deep or shallow, or what lies below. Maybe you should go up to it and poke it with a stick.

[Aisling]
"It's a trick; get an axe."

Then she walks a little spiral up in the air, to the ceiling of the chamber, which I picture as about 15 feet here on the edges, and looks at it from that perspective, also taking a closer look at the roof of the chamber to see how solid it looks... Did these cracks only appear in the Pattern, or is it like a giant bouncing steel ball in the center of the Pattern damaged both Kolvir and Pattern?

It's not quite Earthquake-y, but more like this half of the room had to move one-two feet to the southwest, and that half of the room wasn't going anywhere, and they couldn't agree, so the room broke at the weakest points. The break is entirely contained inside the pattern, which to be fair takes up most of the room.

There does not seem to be a matching break in the ceiling.

And if no one's done something similar by then, she'll make a "chucking the lantern out into the center" motion and ask, "Anyone mind?" And with no shouts of outrage, she'll do that, skimming the lantern out to where the oddnesses are, from back at the edge.

On closer examination, the oddnesses are boards. Across the cracks. Connecting the gaps.

So, like someone walked the Pattern after it broke, with a bunch of boards to bridge the broken places?

The lantern clatters across the stone floor of the pattern chamber like a lantern clattering across a stone floor. It rolls to a stop and sits there.

By this time, I'm sure Brennan would have played the lantern out over any interesting feature in the room, including both the fissures and the oddity toward the middle. He's clever enough to watch where Aisling was looking (at least in general) and probably moved his lantern as appropriate for illumination from two angles (above and side) as appropriate.

He'll be standing not far from the entrance point of the Pattern, which I believe is where the lantern was standing. He gives that a quizzical look, too.

If Lilly has joined him, or Aisling is hovering close enough for a conversation to be conversation, not a series of hollers and yells, he'll point out the obvious features of the Pattern, just to remove doubt: This is the starting point, you walk this way, then back that way, then end up in the center, etc.

It's probably obvious, and his tone indicates that, but this is the first time he's played tour guide.

Aisling attends to this with pleased interest. "Where are the difficult bits?" it asks mellifluously.

Brennan looks at it quizzically for a moment, then points his lanter beam to the other lantern on the ground (the beginning point) and says, "The difficult bits start there," then he swings the lantern beam to the center, "and end there."

After a moment, he swivels the beam around quickly to a few locations on the interior saying, "Those places are dicey, though."

The GMs will have to comment on whether the points he indicates match up with the crevasses, though.

The veils and the breaks do not seem to be connected. Possibly the Last Veil, but it's always to hard to tell where it is. That's just a maybe...

Aisling pads downwards to the ground, again back against the wall, more shadowy now that her lantern is gone, and changes once more, this time ending up as something that looks like a silver-plated, jewel-edged speed bump. Pretty, in a weird sort of way.

Throughout the expedition Lilly's comments have been limited to nodding in the appropriate places to show that she was listening. She was taking everything in. Remembering every small detail from the lay of the dust to the shape of the pattern itself. All of this was quite fascinating to her and she did not wish to disturb her train of thought by speaking. Until now...

"Does anyone know who placed the boards upon the pattern?"

Marius takes a moment to gather his thoughts.

"I suspect someone with either more experience or more concern than ourselves," he says, rather off-handedly. "I suppose we could all keep our personal lists close to our chests, but I am not my Uncle's keeper." He smirks, as if something amused him on a personal level. "Or Aunt's, for that matter," he adds more pointedly.

"I would be rather disappointed to find out that something so mundane as a wooden plank could complete the mystic significance, so for the moment I would consider it an...erm... stop-gap measure." He gives a bit of a shrug. "Someone tried it, and that's the important factor. Are we conspicuously missing anyone? If not, we can assume they succeeded at something, but if I recall correctly, to start requires being willing to finish." He wipes his forehead with a hankerchief. "I am in no hurry, but the experiment needs investigation."

Brennan has a much more prosaic explanation:

"I figured whoever put the rope access here put the planks down. That Pattern," he points, as though perhaps there were some other Pattern around, "doesn't look functional. I doubt walking over it, on it, or any such thing would have any effect."

"Shall we try it?" Lilly says softly as her natural curiosity begins to get the better of her.

"It has been a thing of universal power," Aisling-the-silver-speedbump says, a shrug evident in its voice (somewhat more prosaic than that of the purple lion). " 'Tmight be better to leave with the information we now hold."

But then, she's been very careful of it all along.

Brennan the Restless looks at Aisling the Speedbump and points out that, "I strongly suspect that those boards weren't put there by someone struggling against the forces of the Pattern at the same time."

Marius is quietly amused by that comment, although he thought of many other ways the boards could have gotten there, although, admittedly, they come back to his, "Less and less likely," category, a place where he seems to put his least humanitarian ideas.

The image of someone walking the Pattern while carrying a shoulderload of wooden planks and putting them down in front of him all while engaged in mental and spiritual combat against the beast and trying very hard not to stop even for a minute strikes Brennan as less than likely.

That being the case, he quips, "If this gets messy and involved, someone have the decency to hold my calls," and takes that first step.

Marius watches with a bit of concern. If nothing happens (mostly he's looking for sparks or a sudden fearful look to pass across Brennan's face) he'll relax and see what it would take to make a circuit of the room.

There are no sparks, there is no resistance, and there is no pressure to either drive you onwards or off. Do you continue to the first break? It is bridged with a plank.

In for a penny, in for a pound.

Is the size still what he expects? Is the sound right? Are there openings to "anywhere" there wasn't before? Is it bigger than a breadbox? Is there any blood?

yes, yes, the hole in the floor in the middle, yes, no.

"Aaagh!" is the disgusted noise that comes from Brennan. "I'd been hoping, but, no. Nothing. Feels like I could stop, turn around, and walk back, if I wanted to."

This should properly horrify Marius, if his understanding is the same as Brennan's. And Brennan is staving off 'horrified' by concentrating on 'disgusted/annoyed/affronted.'

Lilly has enough pattern knowledge to sense the wrongness of the situation. Rather then falling back on horrified or annoyed though, Lilly leaps straight to curious. They still existed. That was fact. They were intricately tied to the pattern. Therefore the pattern still existed. It just no longer existed here. Those thoughts brought forth wave after wave of redhead type questions all of which Lilly filed away for later.

Yes, he'll continue, but if the sides of the breaks look dangerous, he will be accordingly careful. "Sorry, Random, I made it worse," is not something he wants to end up saying. He never put own the lantern, so he's taking this chance to get as close a look as possible.

Aisling the silver badger-ish speedbump seems to pay close attention to Brennan's first moves; but when we get to the frustrated speaking, she figures it'll be fine to boil back up into the purple form once more, and with measured grace she does so.

And now she's once more in something expressive, she looks somewhat unsettled and annoyed/affronted as well.

"The cracks are at most nine feet deep," he says such that Brennan can hear, "Though even so 'twould be better to not join whatever debris is found in them."

"I have heard tell that manipulating shadow within the city used to be impossible. That is no longer so. It would be interesting to see of shadow could be manipulated from where you are standing Brennan." After all that which did not kill us made us smarter.

Brennan walks casually through the first veil and is approaching the gap. 3 feet across, perhaps 9 deep if Aisling has taken a good measure. Brennan can stop, leave the path, go down, or walk across a handy plank.

Marius will follow the light, actually. At Brennan's casual saunter (wait! he's a son of Brand! maybe he's got Super Special Secret Powers that makes walking the Pattern really easy? Or not.) he'll actually try walking across the lines to meet Brennan.

(Poof. New character?)

Brennan will stride confidently across the plank because, after all, it's extremely unlikely to break, isn't it? And it's extremely unlikely that the walls of the crevasse will crumble, isn't it?

(Those are, of course, highly rhetorical questions. One hopes.)

Unless one has adequate skill in probability manipulation, yes. Otherwise, they are instructions to an (apparently!) uncaring but responsive universe.

Assuming his world does not end in an irony of blood and death, leaving a Brennan-shaped splotch on the dead Pattern, he will also conjure a coin or something from a pocket after that. Those are the limits of his willingness to test Shadow manipulation in this location-- walking to another Shadow is probably possible, and probably profoundly unwise.

And even hotdogging skijumpers don't skijump off Everest.

Aisling watches from the side. Shortly it will become apparent that her answer to, "If all your friends gavotted on the Pattern, would you, too?" is "No."

She's not, so far as appearances can be trusted, worried for them, or bored, or eager to question. She's not judging the situation at all; she's just living in it.

Brennan strides confidently across the plank and sees Marius coming towards him, off-roading it, as it were. He seems unhindered by the lines on the floor.

Brennan hates being right.

Brennan just knows that there is a shiny obsidian 5-Brand coin in his pants pocket.

Ideally, it will change to an Amberite coin by the time it leaves his pocket. Otherwise, he will be most vexed.

Spoilsport. You didn't specify. OK, but are you familiar with Amber coinage?

Does he have to be? He's sure he picked one up somewhere or other.

At any rate, he can manipulate probability (he believes), he can conjure, all while strolling through a resistanceless, unglowing Pattern that Marius is even now performing an action upon that should have sent him up in ashes.

To complete the experiment, Brennan will continue walking along the Pattern as he had before, sticking to the planks and taking the path as it should exist until he reaches the center. If Marius would be so kind as to continue taking the short-cut to the same location, they can then compare notes, and determine that the same thing has happened to both of them-- absolutely nothing.

Marius will not only be so kind, but gracious about it. Brennan might suspect that Marius is considering skipping.

You can probably finish it in about half a watch, assuming no resistance (normally it takes about twice that long). Marius can get to the center in minutes.

Aisling settles down with her head on her paws and works on her sense of smell, watching Brennan trot. Or, if Lilly has any suggestions, or wishes to talk, she's glad for the diversion. Otherwise, she'll fiddle around with other internal systems, and apparently do nothing whatsoever for 45-some minutes.

Lilly is something of a statue. A sitting statue but a statue none the less. She is watching everything. All sorts of thoughts are flowing through her head. Unless someone speaks to her she'll just continue to sit there watching and thinking. This is not because she is trying to be rude or unfriendly or anything else. It's simply because she's Lilly.

"This is bad. Really, really bad." Marius' smile looks like the type someone gets when the dentist asks for it. "My usual barrage of thoughts has come up with a dozen reasons for this, only half of them possible, and none of them good. The best, I fear, may be that this is not our Pattern, not our Amber, and truly not a problem for anyone until we really find our way home."

"Yeah, this definitely falls into the category of not good." Brennan will keep stock of himself during the Pattern Trot he does, and take stock at the center. Assuming that the beast is in fact as dead as a doornail, he continues:

"Best guess? This is still Amber, but it's an Accidental Amber, ripped away from the Essential Amber. WHat have people been calling it? A Sundering? Probably a good term."

He points at the rifts in the Pattern, where pieces are torn away from each other. "Those," he muses, "are either reflections of, or reflecting, the more obvious problems. I think we are left in an Accidental Amber that has all of the mundane, physical attributed we expect. There is a Castle, there is a City and her people, and mountains and forests and ocean and sky, in their proper relations to each other. There is a set of mundane physics.

"But the Essential Amber, with its metaphysical geographies leading to Rebma and Tir-na Nog'th, its metaphysical resistance to Shadowcraft, and all the rest is... somewhere else. Presumeably that's where the Essential part of the Pattern is, too. Someone more familiar with the Arden that existed before the Sundering," one gets the impression that this does not describe Brennan at all, "could tell us if Arden is similarly afflicted."

He pauses to think about that.

"It's not the only explanation, but it has that knotted logic and sympathetic twist to it that I've come to expect in matters like this. It's also optimistic-- if we can figure out what the root cause was, we could maybe undo it."

This is obviously some novel definition of "we" which doesn't necessarily include Brennan or anyone in the room.

"Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

Marius is quiet, but he is listening intently to Brennan's words on this subject.

"Perhaps," Aisling says in a voice that carries easily out to them, "we could borrow someone's Trump and see if we can get in touch with Julian? He would know about the changes in Arden, and it would be nice to hear if he has an estimate as to when Jovian and Adonis will be back..."

"Trumps." There is a slight note of question on Lilly's voice as she tests out the words. There was something about trumps. Something important. What was it Paige had said? Ah yes!

"They stopped working during the time we were gone. For years they were without. I can't help but wonder why. Perhaps the reason has more to do with the pattern then is thought." Her voice falls off again as her mind begins to test a new round of theories.

Brennan pats his pockets. No, no Trumps of Julian there.

"If I recall correctly," Marius says, sardonically, "the cure for the Pattern was supposed to come in the shape of our late Majesty. So he either failed, or something else went wrong." He pauses. "I wonder if there were blocks set up against things from the beyond...and we have merely failed to pass them. These could represent obstacles," he refers to the breaks, "as well. Puzzles," he says, quickly, as if the thought had stronger meaning to him.

"But Trump _began_ working again. We solved one of the Puzzles, even if incidentally. What else isn't working, and who holds the keys?" He's talking to himself, and he's pacing away from the light.

He may be speaking to himself but Lilly is following every word. Marius' thoughts seem to be running parallel to her own. As he mind begins to form it's own notions and opinions, Aisling speaks.

"Perhaps," Aisling suggests, "there is a continuum between the king and the land; and while there was no king, the Power of the land [she waves a brush-hand to the Pattern] was likewise absent." Anyone watery among you? She thinks this is a self-evident explanation, though she's not a fanatic for it.

"Perhaps we will find Random's Pattern in a land more suited to him." And there she's entered the realm of wild-ass theories, and acknowledging this, "But this is talk better held over a glass of port. I do not think an attempt to speak with Prince Julian would be out of place, however. Have any of us access to his Trump?"

"I unfortunately do not have access to a trump deck. Personally I would like to hear the thoughts of our cousins who have been here since the sundering. Perhaps Paige could be helpful. I believe she has the right hair color for the job." Lilly's eyes shift to Brennan. There is obvious good humor and respect in her features.

Aisling blinks all of his eyes, in a circle around his head; an obscure portent. He nods thoughtfully.

Brennan has already indicated that he hasn't got a Trump of Julian. He catches Lilly's comment, and cocks an eyebrow back: Message received.

Out loud, though, he says to Marius and Aisling, "Enh. This seems like a local problem, to me, for Shadow-wide values of 'local.' Bleys and I rode a good long distance dee in the shifty end of things, back last week, and I'll personally attempt that Shadow works about the way it should, and Pattern tricks work about the way they should, and Trumps work about the way they should."

High water scores may note that he's not quite as sure on that last point as on the first ones. Hell, even mid water, since he's not hidden that he's no Trump expert.

"Didn't see anything even remotely resembling a Black Road, either. It's conceivable we just didn't run across it, but it's unlikely. I stick by my interpretation, barring new evidence. This," he points to the Pattern underfoot, and waggles his fingers to indicate the local malleability, "is a problem. It's a grave problem. But I think it's local, and I think it's smaller than the one Brand caused.

"Lucky for me, I don't have to prove it."

Aisling looks at him, pleased and faintly impressed, though of course still withdrawn in the face of the setting.

"Have you anything more to observe here, or shall we adjourn to a sunnier place to continue the discussion of matters metaphysical and Knightly?"

"I do not think the answers to our questions lie within this chamber. A bit of fresh air and natural light may indeed be in order." Lilly says. Her face is still full of thought but she is confident in her words.

"There is nothing here but bones and darkness. The spirit has fled, and Amber has buried it herself." Marius shrugs. "To further illumination, indeed." He gestures the way out and begins to take it.

Quoth Brennan, son of Brand, slayer of demons and leader of men: "Nah, I'm done."

Then can we presume an eventless return to the light, oh beneficient GMs? ;)

Assuming you do not hit any of the event generators, such as spitting into the rift or pulling on the friggin' huge silver chain that comes out of the giant underground lake with the straight shore and rounded corners. Heck, just searching around down here might be bad.

Lilly feels that there is something familiar about this place, but not in a good-familiar way.

And do you guys want to talk knightly stuff now, or... Nevermind, I suppose I should play it. 'Cept Aisling is, for the moment, padding quietly.

Aside on the knightly stuff: the knights will be expected to have their honors list in (with slots left for Jovian's honors) early enough that the honorees can be invited to the coronation masquerade.

Aside the second on this topic that may not be clear: It is not intended that the list of knights in particular (or other honorees in not so particular) will be exclusive and permanent, or that the Returnees not honored right now will never get honors. What is being decided here is who you all want to nominate for Random's coronation honors. You can make more knights later.

Shoulda mentioned this two weeks ago, but since you brought it to mind now: following the First Knightly Meeting, Aisling has a lot more to do in her time. I imagine she'll spend the afternoon and evening of the following day down in the camp mixing amongst the people, to sort out those she'd like to recognize with Knightship. Some of this as herself, some following the grand old Arabian Nights sultan-in-disguise tradition. She's looking for people the people on the ground think were amazing. She'll be back whenever time allows, so basically, a great deal before the Second Knightly Meeting and some after, too. Sometimes she brings Ce'e, to let him make friends amongst his peers. Sometimes I imagine she comes and goes by air, unless there's some problem with that...

This will naturally lead to taking an active personal hand in helping out the people reintegrating in the city, since by then she'll know lots of them. Thus, the later part of the timeperiod is accounted for, with some Folly-helping and of course the continuing campaign to get to know various family people.

I imagine that she'll also be making arrangements for a Ruby party/ball a couple days before the coronation, if none of the other KCs nixed that idea;

[GMs]
Remember that the city is still officially in mourning for King Oberon and Princess Deirdre and any festive gathering is probably a non-no until after the coronation.

Whoop! Yes, I had forgotten. Ok, whew, no immediate party to arrange. Perhaps a ball after, though. For the immediate future, just a quiet dinner two days before the coronation to go over the ceremony and what will be expected of the knights, and helpful pointers on comportion for those knights nervous at the idea of going to the big coronation ball. (Someone did mention something about knights at the coronation ball, right? I can't find it, but I think it was there...)

[Aisling]
And shopping for land, if that idea also remains unnixed.

There's also arranging for a costume.

I don't think I ever gave you a full two-week rundown; voila...