It was a lovely little ball. Report

General Summary

Session 1 - April 6, 2024
Player Characters Present Blake, economic specialist, Bergman delegation - Andi Sage, daughter of Flora, martial artist - Dan Silke, daughter of Llewella, trump artist - Chad Sunni, daughter of Flora - Kath Theo, from Hong Kong but not that Hong Kong - Rob Whim, possible son of Merlin? - Danny Quotes “I Fell Out of a Rainbow Portal and Now Everyone Asks Me About Shadows” - Andi’s proposed title for Theo’s isekai adventure. Events This is the spring opener ball. Flora tells her children to make sure nothing goes wrong. Tiberius patrols the ballrooms, Sage the bars, Sunni is doing a circuit. Most of the royal family is there, minus Corwin and Mirelle. Caine asks Sunni to keep an eye on the Begman contingent when they arrive. Julia of the Begman contingent tells Blake to socialize and have a good time. Silke arrives with Llewella. The undefined Whim is in the corner. Tiberius is approached by Lady Umberlain, who says they are allergic to yellow, and is distressed that the tiles are still yellow despite warning the staff in advance. He parks her in the corner and alerts Sunni. Sunni uses illusion magic to alter the woman’s perception so she can’t see the yellow in anything in the ball. This results in some unfortunate fashion choices to her perspective but the immediate crisis is managed. Lord Parthenon approaches Sage, as he has a non-staff related request. His children are in the children’s area, and recently read a book about monkeys. He wants her to do something involving Shadows to provide monkeys. She says she’ll take it under consideration. Blake is out in the gardens, and notices Lady Julia Chen-Aston and Lord Alex Bayle-Ascott posturing with flowery language as they and their respective entourages go out to the garden with big “gonna start a fight” vibe. Blake goes up to the second for the Lady Chen-Aston (her wife Mary Chen-Aston) and asks who the noble woman is. She answers that the name is Julia Chen-Aston (not the same Julia as from Begma), and the other is Alex Bayle-Ascott. He appropriated some horses off land that she obtained from him. They were on land she bought and she considered them part of the lands, he did not. Blake interrupts their bickering, introduces himself as part of the Begman Trade Authority, and asks Julia if she has a moment to talk and maybe dance. She opts to shmooze him instead of fight, rubbing Lord Bayle-Ascott's nose in the fact she had obtained notice of a major trade house. Sage asks Tiberius about monkeys and trump, which Tiberius has no answer for. Tiberius is going to ask Silke if she has a monkey related trump but is intercepted by Dworkin. Dworkin gives Tiberius a box, and says it’s something someone else should have dealt with but now it’s Tiberius’s responsibility. Tiberius leaves Dworkin and takes it to Sage and Sunni, confirming the box is real and he doesn’t seem stoned. Meanwhile in Shadow, Theo is exiting the scene of his latest mission and sees a writing on a steamed up window: “It’s about time you got off of this.” Theo is concerns and wipes the window clear in frustration, but decides the continue on his way out, repelling down the 16 story building. The next window says, “Are you ready?” Followed by another window, “Time to go home boy.” On the last window, Theo sees a little wizened old man. “Hi! Bye!” The window explodes out and he loses his grip and falls. However, before he can fatally impact on the ground many floors below a maelstrom of light erupts beneath him and he falls through it. Meanwhile, in Amber, Tiberius, Sage, and Sunni go into the garden to open the box in a less risky place. There is an explosion of lights and color out of the box. And then Theo drops ten feet onto a flower bush. Tiberius questions Theo. He’s an orphan and doesn’t know his parents. He admits that he’s stronger and faster than others around him, which supports their theory that he may be of royal blood. Tiberius and sisters take him to the bar, get him a drink, and take him to a side room. Sunni goes to get Flora and recap the situation. Flora instructs Sunni to get him set up to stay in the longer term. Silke joins them in a side room and gives Theo a handkerchief with a lighthouse on it. Not understanding the value of the cloth trump she has given him he politely accepts the odd bit of embrodery and thanks her. Silk has also started a partial embroidery of Dworkin. Whim notices the power flow in the garden and moves to investigate, but is a step behind on everything. In the garden it looks like someone pulled a shadow close to Amber to pull something through, something that is impractical at best and probably impossible. Tiberius arranges for clothes for Theo and gives Theo one of his trumps with instructions on how to use it. Theo is dubious but manages the basics. Sunni encounters Blake as she is coming out of the room and talks to him, sharing the situation with him for some reason not immediately obvious to other players. Tiberius gives Theo privacy to change. Theo uses the moment of privacy to escape out a window. Everyone is surprised that Tiberius is surprised. Tiberius comes out and discovers what Sunni already noticed: Blake looks like Random/Martin. This doesn’t explain why Sunni is telling Blake everything about family affairs. Sunni plans on taking Blake to see Random, but tells Tiberius he has to look for Theo. Tiberius thinks he already did his due diligence, but going to the Court of Mom Appeal only reinforces the situation. Tiberius and Sage head out to investigate. Tiberius checks the stables and confirms that no horses were stolen. Theo goes to the docks, unsuccessfully tries to get a boat to Hong Kong (none of the sailors of heard of that Shadow). Goes to a bar and learns he doesn’t have local currency and won’t take whatever Hongkongese currency he’s carrying. Sage and Whim both track Theo to the bar. Whim gets there first and buys Theo a drink and offers to take him back to his lab for some experimentation. Theo is, understandably, reluctant. Blake learns from Jasra that a large BTA caravan was attacked in the Shadow Path between Begma and Amber. While not unknown, attacks in the Paths are rare as they are guarded by Amber, which guarentee's their safety. Even more concerning is the fact that assault rifles were apparently used. Blake shares this with Sunni. Silke arrives in the bar via trump gate based on tracking one of the other player characters via trump. (Sage?) After discussing the logistics of finding the right Hong Kong, the group relocates to the castle to confirm Theo’s firearm won’t work in Amber. Random is not super enthusiastic about having someone with a strong family resemblance sprung on him at the ball and indicates he’ll with with Sunni later. After this, Sunni learns Caine is notably missing from the party. After Random leaves the party Sunni gets a call from Random. They go through to Random’s receiving room. Blake explains he’s trying to find Martin because Martin might be his father. Has documentation obtained in Shadow, and believes Martin spent a year there. He stumbled through Shadow, and met friends of Jasra who got him to Begma. Random can tell Blake is a Broken Pattern initiate. Random is clear that he’s suspicious because of Jasra’s involvement, not something he necessarily blames Blake for, but something he has to consider. Theo, Tiberius, Sage, Whim, and Silke test out the firearm and, to the surprise of no one, it doesn’t work in Amber. Tiberius gives Theo a trump usage lesson, and offers Silke a favor in exchange for a trump of Theo. Caine mass-calls Tiberius, Sage, Sunni, and Whim, and assigns them to look into the shadow path ambush that used assault rifles. It is felt the younger members of the royal family will gain less ire that more experience power players who could be seen as having more conflict of interest. Including Blake in the fun will also provide a representative for Begma in the investigation and further removes the appearance of a cover up. Tiberius collects his new trump from Silke and invites her to the shenanigans, but Silke declines. Sunni and Blake trump to Begma to explore the shadow path from that end. Theo, Sage, Whim, and Tiberius head to the shadow path from Amber. Whim and Sage don’t see any magical or Pattern/Logrus effects between Amber and the location. The caravan is burned more thoroughly than anticipated, like there was an accelerant used. No survivors left behind. Theo is able to identify the ambush points, their campsite, and thinks they came from the direction of Begma. There are shell casings left behind. Blake and Sunni don’t see anything new from their end of things. Blake thinks the gun-people had some training but were not experts. Sage goes up to feel a tree and does some weird magic thing, communicating with the tree. The tree has no info. No one is quite sure what's up with that. Smaller caravans went through without incident during the day. The ambushers waited for the biggest one. They seemed to have gone through all of the caravan and didn’t just stop after finding something. They left behind plenty of valuables and seemed most interested in high value items that could be carried individually. Some discussion is made about what factions might be involved but nothing substantive. There are some conservative people in the kingdom that feel Amber should return to a more authoritative role in the Golden Circle, rather than the collaborative approach Random has advocated. Llewella is the only member of the royal family notably associated with conservative elements. Blake and Theo go to Begma, everyone else returns to Amber. Sage checks with the armorer, confirms that the bullet is one of Amber’s. The armorer opens things up to do an inventory for apparently the first time in a century. They had enough faith in Fiona’s wards that they never bothered to check. Tiberius calls Llewella to ask the obligatory “are you responsible for this?” She claimes she is not and would not drag Rebma into a war doing something this stupid. Silke is also there, and they join Llewella for sparring and getting their asses kicked by her. Sunni goes to visit Fiona to ask if there are lost powers that could exist out there still. Fiona notes that there are plenty of old powers in Shadow, but it's all some variation of stacking power sources together to get something in a ballpark of one of the signs, so they all basically do the same thing and all of them fade pretty quickly when compared to Pattern or Logrus. Silke checks in with her mom and lets her know she’s heading back into Shadow. After the inventory, Sage learns that 10 rifles, a case of ammo, and a case of C4 are missing. The guards are mortified and still confused as to how the theft was managed as both the physical and magical/Pattern based protections are unaffected. Caine trumps Sunni to report that the shipyards in Srathclyde have been bombed, as if by C4. The kids are being asked to investigate again.

Campaign

Myths & Subterfuge

Protagonists