Once more Janessa reads the page out loud. When she finishes, she looks at Jack. "Do you know who Delwyn and Merlin are?" She returns her attention back to the book and turns the page.

((OOC: Unsure if her dad would have filled out the family tree for her or not.)
This message was last edited by the player at 23:47, Thu 16 Apr 2020.

"I believe I've heard mention of Merlin before, but I don't recall a Delwyn," Jack answers and looks around at all the of the books. "These are like the Tarot then. I believe you might have previously mentioned an interest in the tarot's magic? Here is an opportunity to study a correlative magic that works on the Children of Amber. A rare thing, I'd suppose. I don't know if it'll work on us when we're sitting in Amber itself, but," he shrugs a little.

Sword in hand, he starts to walk around, looking for any changes in the structure. Trying to make sense of it.

Is it connected to a greater world? Is this whole world a library bent to this purpose? He'd need a great many details to be able to find his way back perfectly, given how exacting the design of this place and its books must be.

(I'll leave it up to you what Janessa's father might or might not have told her. If you want my opinion, I feel he would have mentioned Merlin-- son of Corwin, and so friendly to Amber, but raised in the Courts of Chaos, and its ruler-- on paper, but actually he went off into Shadows, and no one seems to have heard for him for a while. Whether or not Delwyn would have been mentioned to Janessa could be another story, since no Amberites know a whole lot about him anyway.)

Jack looks around. He feels it should still be possible to walk out of this library into other Shadows-- one would simply say "and around this next corner, things will be a bit different," and repeat that until one is walking through Shadows as usual (as much as such an activity is ever "as usual").

As for if there is anything in this Shadow "outside" this library, it's impossible to say for sure. The air shafts, in particular, certainly seem to suggest an infinite space of repetitive levels up and down.

Could Jack find his way back here again from, say, Amber? ...It would be hard. But could he? ...He leans toward yes, but it might take rather longer than it would usually take to find one particular known Shadow from another.

"I think Dad said Merlin was a cousin." Janessa thinks a moment. "Corwin's son, raised in The Courts and I believe their King, though he's been away in shadows for a while." She shrugs and grabs a red book. "You are correct, I want to know more about the card's magic. I should probably tell Uncle Random and maybe Dad about this place." She says as she opens the book.

"Trade them something for it," Jack suggests from some distance away. "They probably know a good place, offer it in exchange for something." While he waits for her to finish her business, he calmly starts to practice his swordplay and waits patiently for her to finish.

Janessa reads:

    "You have to understand that the family is more complicated than myself, then Oberon, then you and your half-siblings," Dworkin said. "I didn't come from nowhere. I came from The Courts. I was simply very naughty and willful. Which raises moral questions which are, in and of themselves, amusing, since arguably a man who breaks the rules of an extended family of rulebreakers is both lawful and conformist to all outside the family."
     "What came before the Courts?" Coral asked.
     "Nothing, as far as I know," said Dworkin. "Forgive me, that is glib. Chaos came before. And from Chaos came... things. Possibilities. Reality. Life. Matter. Consciousness. Not just what we call demons, but other life, too. At some point, I suppose that the two mixed a bit, and we got The Courts. But let us not get bogged down in ancient history. My point is that I-- as a unicorn-- sired Oberon."
     "It's hard to think of Oberon as a baby."
     "It's partly hard because his mother was a unicorn."
     "...Are you saying Oberon was born a baby unicorn?"
     "I'm very specifically not saying it! But it's possible, isn't it? After all, Oberon could change his shape, just as I can, though not as easily. So he might or might not have been born with cloven hooves!" Dworkin chuckled, or perhaps it was more of a cackle. "Fascinating to think about, isn't it?"
     Actually, Coral found it a bit disturbing to think about, but she didn't say so. "So your point is--"
     "My point is that just as I am your grandfather, the Unicorn is your grandmother. And Merlin is your nephew-- I presume you'd thought of that?"
     "I try not to."
     "Yes, much as Corwin would prefer not to think of Merlin's mother as his, er, grand-niece? My point is that Amber itself is the prodigal, backward child-fiefdom of The Courts, though Amber has reasons to owe the main family no loyalty whatsoever. My point is that The Courts don't accept that lack of fealty. The elders in The Courts see Amber as their black sheep, which is to say, their renegade white sheep, since their thinking on such matters is the opposite of what you are used to. But that's not really my main point, either. My point is to get you used to thinking of all the most important problems and issues as family problems and issues. Maybe you already do think that, given your experiences so far, but I imagine you need to expand on it. You know that the Pattern and the Logrus have minds of their own-- just as does Merlin's creature Ghostwheel. Those two have a decidedly paternal relationship. But how much more for me, who originally drew the Pattern? When the Unicorn chose to give the Jewel of Judgement to Random, she chose from amongst her grandchildren. But the Pattern, with a will of its own, is as much my child as anything, from many points of view. And so the Pattern is Oberon's brother, it is your uncle. The cards, when drawn correctly and used, are its eyes and ears. And don't think that Oberon re-drawing the Pattern erased the Black Road. It still has pathways here and there-- hardly any remain near Amber, but the Black Road is still especially strong near The Courts-- though it curves away from Corwin's Pattern."
     Coral frowned. "...Are you telling me this because of my connection with Merlin?"

Janessa reached the bottom of the page.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:59, Sat 05 Dec 2020.

"Wow, you're reading about Dworkin out loud and he didn't somehow know, I always figured he'd know if you talked about him, he'd probably be able to tell us exactly what this place is," Jack mentions with a laugh and then in thought adds, "In fact, from all the stories, I half expect he made it."

Piling up a stack of books, he sits on them and waits for Janessa to finish her examination.

I'm not going to post until Janessa has had her fill and spent time studying, just assume Jack is watching.

Janessa chuckles. "Well, let's see what's on the next page. Who knows, maybe he will realize it and magically appear before us." She turns the page and continues reading.

Janessa turns from

    Coral frowned. "...Are you telling me this because of my connection with Merlin?"

to the next page, and started reading:

     "Mostly, the answer to that is no. But I admit that Merlin is very important to the future of Amber and The Courts. I'm sure it seems simple-minded to say such a thing when the person of whom I speak is the de facto ruler of The Courts, but there are other reasons it's true, as well-- reasons that you would find surprising." Dworkin sighed for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.
    But the sigh seemed forced, somehow. The abstracted air of carefully choosing what he wanted to say next struck Coral as somehow forced. What was Dworkin up to, anyway, Coral wondered? And whatever the answer really was, did she have a chance in hell of actually figuring it out? His mind seemed 20 steps ahead of anyone else's. Was the story about siring Oberon as a unicorn, and Oberon's possible birth as a baby unicorn, just a fiction, there to distract? Was anything Dworkin said true? Wasn't he relishing his role as a mysterious mastermind a bit much? (Was the impression that his sigh, his manner, at that moment was forced, itself, actually done on purpose for her to notice, a calculation?) What did he really want? Was he really cured of his former madness, even? Was this all a game? Or was it all just a genius manipulator's way of making sure that his family of origin didn't catch up with him and punish him for finding the Unicorn and creating the Pattern, and Amber? After all, Dworkin was so old-- whom had he not outlived?
    That quick thought made her shudder. Perhaps somewhere in or near The Courts there was still some impossibly ancient Chaosite-- or some other sort of being-- whom Dworkin still feared. Merlin might know-- or he might very well not.
    But all these thoughts couldn't happen quickly enough to allow Coral to come to any sort of conclusion, for Dworkin was speaking again: "You bore the Jewel of Judgement as your eye, until I perceived that it made you too much of a target, and I made you that replacement eye. The Jewel is safely hidden away, now, where not even the Serpent nor the Logrus can find it. But it still attuned you to certain energies and vibrations-- and even before that, you had an instinctual knowledge of such things. As a child of Oberon, you are a natural sort of conduit for certain energies... and the time you spent in control of the Jewel meant that you were attuned to other things, as well. Someone, or something, was setting you up to be-- well, in chess, when one can change a pawn to a queen. The fact that you actually are queen of Kashfa is an irritating distraction from my otherwise-somewhat-appropriate metaphor. I, on the other hand, felt that your life was in too much danger from such a promotion, and I took steps to remove the Jewel once more... I felt that you would otherwise soon be removed from the board, and I didn't want that for you."
    Coral didn't like the whole game motif, really, whether Dworkin was willing to admit to being the player sitting behind the white side of the board or not. She tried to concentrate. "...Are you suggesting that a gambit that was once too soon is now reaching a time that seems appropriate to you? Where I'll have to be promoted to a more important role in the game after all...?"

Janessa had reached the end of the new pages, but something was happening. A noise... like a wind... rustling through loose papers, as if blowing hundreds or thousands of pages off a desk... Far away, but coming closer... But it was like a voice, too... a very dry, dead sort of voice...

She didn't like it. It was unnerving.

She couldn't tell if her hair felt like it wanted to stand on end because of that anxious-making feeling, or if it was a response to something more physical in her environment...

Jack heard it too, she could tell. Was it coming from the air shaft, or a side passage...? Or both...?

Maybe she shouldn't have turned the page...
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:37, Mon 20 Apr 2020.

Janessa closed the book and set it back on the shelf. She turned her back to the bookcase, pressing up against it. Whatever was causing this, Janessa would not allow it a chance to get her in the back. She pulls her 9MM out of her holster. Janessa stands there looking from Jack to the air shaft to the side passage.

It's both. One comes from the side passage, one floats out of the air shaft.

They're... paper-ghosts... Like ghosts-- like monks' robes with the hoods up, except the cowls are empty-- except they're not made of cloth, but of hundreds of sheets of paper folded together.

They howl a low roar... the effect is like if one listened to one end of a concrete storm drain pipe where, a few miles away, on the other end, a tornado was raging.

Origami hands formed into claws emerge from the sleeves of their paper robes. They slash at the air, like they want to rend, fold, mutilate and spindle Jack and Janessa's flesh.

You don't want them to touch you.

If Janessa vetos this, having seen my actual plan, that's fine, I won't Strength her off..

Having no clear path of retreat, and having a distinct instinct telling him not to let those things touch him. Jack runs over, grabs Janessa over his shoulder and leaps over the edge of the railing, plunging into that endless depth. "Endless sky first, open the world up!" he yells out, urging Janessa to shift them through shadow.

Before they can find out if this pit is really bottomless.

No veto from me! I thought for a second you were going to toss me over... I prefer the over the shoulder carry. Let's see... so would this be considered a hellride?

(This would absolutely be considered a Hellride.)

Ok. So normal would be a 2d6+1 but since it's a hellride it's just a normal 2d6.
22:52, Today: Janessa McCoy rolled 6 using 2d6 ((3,3)) Well shit. Sorry for the language, but...warrented.

(Janessa gains 1 new xp, and the dice hate her.

Honestly, do you have enough xp to level up yet? Because golly.)

Janessa and Jack start falling, forever.

Janessa first works on not falling so fast-- a warm updraft starts blowing past Jack and herself. That's a bit scary, though, because she and Jack start being buffeted against the sides of the airshaft... OW! OW!

(Janessa and Jack each take 2 points of damage.)

She makes the shaft much wider, but keeps the warm updraft... now they're falling through a 100-foot-- now 200-foot-wide series of levels. People in dark clothing jerk their heads in surprise at the falling people plummeting by...

She glances down. Is that lava glowing, way down there? Not good!

She changes the world again, and the warm updraft is gone. The air turns slightly cool. But--

Oh! The shaft ends, and she and Jack fall out of the bottom of some sort of giant airship, staying aloft through who-knows-what magic or science, although the glowing purple jets of energy here and there along the bottom probably have something to do with it.

There's a sort of reddish desert down below now, about three-quarters of a mile...

She and Jack fall through a cloud bank... Great, now they're soaked, too. 

But it gives her an idea... When she and Jack come out of the cloud bank, there's another cloud bank below, this one pink...

SHHHHSHSHSHSHSHSSSHHHHSHSHSHHHHHHH... It's like cotton candy! There's harmless friction! Their falling stops, finally!

The very-smushy stuff beneath them has been compressed (by their fall) to the point that it will bear their weight... but it'll be hard to climb out...

(Possibilities: 

--Do a Strength check (with a -1 penalty) to try to climb out of this pink, slightly sticky hole you've made... or--

--Do a new Move Through Shadow check to try to claw your way just a few feet sideways through the stuff, thereby to reveal some new Shadow on the other side... or--

--Something else I haven't thought of...)

With a superlative strength found only in a select few, even in Amber, Jack pulls himself free of the morass of sticky pink cotton-candy. "Interesting," he says, but nothing further. She'd gotten them out of a dangerous area into a less dangerous predicament. This is salvageable. He doesn't say anything about nearly being dropped in lava, either.

Going over to Janessa, he'll give her a hand in freeing herself up enough to move unhindered.


12:59, Today: Jack rolled 11 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 4,5.

(Hmm... you didn't say you were actually climbing out, yet... I'll say that you not only get up, you help Janessa up, too.)

Jack helps Janessa up.

(If you want to try to climb out and see what's on top of this stuff, that's a new STR roll for each of you, but I'll give you each a +1 bonus to get up there...)

Jack starts to move upward through the "stuff," mindful of his surroundings as he does so, and not to fall off into another bad descent. "You have an interesting mind, Janessa," he remarks to her as he climbs to a safe spot and tries to help her along as well. His inhuman strength on full display as he casually passes through dense fibrous zones like he's walking casually. Not quite on the level of Gerard, but he doesn't seem terribly far off either.



16:09, Today: Jack rolled 13 using 2d6+3 with rolls of 5,5.

Went back through to double-check. This gives me 5 XP. By the way, I forgot to update her HP before we left. Since she rested at the ranch she should have had full health when they left. Went back through and got the right HP for her now.

Janessa sighs and groans. "Eww. I hate cotton candy, but it was what jumped into my head." She smiles at Jack as he assists her. "Thanks." She knows he could remark about her shadow traveling abilities or lack thereof, and is pleased that he doesn't. She blushes at the remark about her mind. "Yeah. I guess I do." She moves to follow Jack.

21:00, Today: Janessa McCoy rolled 6 using 2d6 ((4,2)). Strength. I guess that gives me 6 xp now....

And promptly falls on her face as her feet get stuck in the sticky mass. Muffled by the cotton candy, Janessa swears, but not really. "God Bless America!"

(Dang, 13? I'm raising Janessa's extra bonus to +2. (Which means that she rolled an 8 (with no xp gain). Janessa, what small thing did you lose during your climb...?))

Jack not only reaches the top side of the crater he and Janessa made, he blazes a trail for her...

At the top, it's a bizarre cotton-candy-looking wonderland, with mountains and tree-ish things and-- is that some sort of river or large stream, over there...?

Hm. About a third of a mile away is a local creature... like a sort of pale green daddy longlegs, roughly human height.

Intelligent, though. One can tell, because first, it does a downright comedic double-take when it spots Jack. Secondly, there's the way the spider-like-person is waving his, her, or its front arms, as if to say "Hey! There you are! Don't go away! Stay right there! I really want to talk to you!"

...Er, or so it is to be hoped that that's the gist of the intended meaning...

Her Japanese steel boot knife and sheath. Also, updated my character sheet to reflect her load.

Jack, always with his sword ready to come out and start murdering, waits patiently for the approach of the thing. "You loose enough to run now? In case we need to move," he questions, glancing over at Janessa.

"Dang it. I just wash it too." Janessa mutters as she pulls cotton candy out of her hair. Her head tilts and her eyes go wide as she looks at the approaching creature. "Yeah..." Janessa says. "Is that a green daddy longlegs spider? That color almost makes it looks like candy..." She trails off, pulling her gun back out. "Did I take us to Candy Land or something?" Janessa whispers, not expecting Jack to reply since she's reasonably convinced he doesn't know what Candy Land is.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:15, Fri 24 Apr 2020.

There is a mountain so pointing toward the sky that Janessa, in need of orientation, decides to think of it as north, based on where the sun seems to be (behind heavy clouds). Therefore, the crater she and Jack made, behind her, is west, and the spider-being is coming from the west. The nearby river-like thing is silvery, and runs from the east to the south.

The spider-being does in fact look like it's made of incredibly light and fragile rock candy, actually. Its limbs and body aren't really solid, they're a lattice-work of cylinders that's hollow inside. The thing probably weighs less than ten pounds, even though it's slightly taller than Janessa.

It makes sense, since the ground is so fragile. It feels like walking on layers of fiberglass-- and it was much softer behind her. Probably just as well she and Jack landed on a particularly soft part.

"Oi!" says the spider-being, scratching to a halt when it's about 15 yards away. "Oi! No need for the big knife! Just here to parlay...!"