Sep 06, 2008 - Homecoming

A beginning.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:10, Thu 30 July 2020.

Sep 12, 2008
After many years (decades really) of adventure Aria Lynn returned to her home shadow.

On the savannah with Epee she continues to hone her skills with shadow shifting, hunting, hand to hand combat, fencing, sorcery, and whatever else she can do to fill her time.

Most of the local shadow people try to stay away from Aria, thinking she is a witch, or something worse.

Aria put her trumps away, hoping to have some time for herself and put the people of AMber behind her. No wonder her father kept telling her she wasn't ready...approaching 70 years of age she doesn't think anyone could ever be ready for what awaits them in Amber.

Sep 13, 2008
Aria's time spent travelling back through the shadows seems to have taken longer than she expected. The Savannah has somehow changed in ways more dramatic than the passing of seasons could account for.

Aria's arrival is also quite foreign. The village she grew up near is gone. The area, is barely recognizable by her memory of the mountains in the distance; even the trees have changed. Her new experiences using her pattern abilities assure her this is definately the correct shadow.

The drums beat a song, and it moves across the shifting grasslands of the savannah as swiftly as the wind. It is a warning, "The witch has returned!" Having more experience with shadow dwellers, and relying on your memories growing up here, you fight your anxiousness to see the people who may be left from the village. You know they will reveal themselves in time. You build a camp quickly from the elements of the land in the familiar style known to your people. The browns of the hut take form, and you bathe in a watering hole nearby.

Within the first week Epee returns bloodied with one ear torn open, and numerous more open wounds along her back and sides. She has asserted herself as the dominant predator for this area, and had to meet the challenge of the others who were not so willing to allow her to hunt openly. She was of course victorious, but not before two or three had a go at her.

The two of you quickly fall into old rhythms of the hunt, and of life. It is quiet here, with no others to talk to, and it is the only thing you are missing. Your trumps call out to you in your thoughts, as you wonder about the friends and acquaintances you have made outside of the shadow. Occassionally you catch sight of a native fire or two in the distance. Your own burns clearly, and your presence here cannot have gone unnoticed.

You know the natives are approaching long before you see them. You are keenly aware that much time must have passed here, and not wanting to start an incident, you await them peacefully. Your black skirt billows in the occassional gust, tossing your hair along with it. Epee' let's out a low rumbling, and you know they are close. It is rather odd that he should growl, knowing the scent and the terrain as only a predator born to this land could.

Your first sight is one man standing alone on a rise barely one hundred yards off, though you catch the signs of movement in the grass that denotes others that are closer. You can see the familiar red and black face paint has been changed to black with numerous yellow dots. A type of cutting on the cheeks and arms seems to be prevolent where piercings were previously popular.

When one of the others steps out from a tree less than 20 yards away, it is evident that the black pigments they use may not be from the native environment at all; it may be blood!
This message was last updated by the GM at 10:26, Thu 03 Dec 2020.

Sep 22, 2008
Blood can mean only one of two things, they are either here to seek my help or to blame me for whatever problems they are currently having...

Either way I need to be careful...

I summon Epee to lie down at my side as I watch their approach.

It feels like such a long time ago hmmm, long, long ago in a galaxay far far away perhaps that the people of the savannah were my friends and family. The price of such long life I suppose, and the reason I refuse to get close to anyone in shadow.

I often wonder how my dad felt about my mother. I do not know if he ever mourned her death, or just used her for offspring.

Feeling as attched as I do to the Savannah thanks to growing up here though, I do enjoy returning for the peace and quiet it offers me, and I am more than willing to help out those in need here if I am able.

I do know they fear me more though each time I return. I am sure they are wondering how it is I live so long, and have changed so little...
This message was last edited by the player at 10:25, Thu 03 Dec 2020.

Sep 22
Epee' obediently lays by your side, her panting breath heavy as she tastes the air, and scents the stranger's approach. Your hand gently patting the hair on her head allows you to briefly touch on the psychic connection you two share. For a brief moment, her senses are your own, and you catch the recognition of the taste in the air that she picks up. The black markings you previously noted are definately blood. The eyes of the ones you can see are wide and staring, without the focus of daily activities. This could be the effects of Paori root, used in the local rituals, and causing an elated high. Paori root is usually only used as part of sacred ceremonies, involving a few members of the village, never large groups, and rarely outside the village itself.

With your history of the people here, and now numerous other shadows, you quickly deduce that this has become some sort of ritual with them. Obviously the tribe has radically altered the customs that had previously been passed down for generations. Even when you account for the occassional tribal warfare bringing in new customs, you are at a loss as to how they could have changed this radically. Painting was part of the rituals of who the People-of-the-Earth were. It connected them with their Earth-mother. To have changed that would mean something was seriously wrong, and gives you ample reason for caution.

What is similar, is their approach. You have seen it used when planning ambushes on foreign travelers, or even when preparing to attack prey. They are attempting to keep your focus on one or two while the rest close the distance to within rock and spear projectile range. If that should happen, numbers and the open terrain will be against you.

They are closing the distance to you, and will be within striking range soon.

Oct 05, 2008
Not wanting to harm anyone of the savannah if I can help it I silently signal to Epee and we enter my house to sneak out the back door.

Curious as to what may be happening on my home shadow Epee and I try to sneak around the hunting party in order to investigate. Perhaps this time I had been away from home far too long. While I enjoy my time spent on the savannah I also enjoy my time on other shadows and Amber. My time at the Savannah is meant for relaxation in between adventures, therefore I want to ensure myself that all is well with its people.

Oct 05, 2008#7
Unlike the village of which you could find no remnants, your home has withstood the test of time. The strange construction, not usual to the Savannah, or the fact that it was a home of the witch has made it persevere.

You move to the door, and the first dart strikes the support post near your hand. From the corner of your eye, you see Epee startle in a cat like fashion, her ears going back and her hind quarters darting to the side. While she doesn't make a sound, you know one of the darts has struck her. You are into action instantly, and through the doorway.

Epee comes in just behind you, and you slam the door. The roof above shaken drops mud and thatch down upon you, the sun peering through many open places. A covert glance out one of the open areas used as windows shows the grass moving, and many more shapes springing up from between the tall areas. Definately a hunting party then.

But why are they hunting you? Could time be the only thing that has caused this? It seems unlikely. You can tell that something greater has gone awry to have social customs change, villagers attacking, and you seen as a witch. If time had wiped out the social customs, it certainly would have relegated you to the arena of legend, not a living witch or threat. Something greater is at play here.

Epee grumbles. You turn just in time to see her rear quarters turn akwardly as they hit the ground, the long thin reed projecting from her hind quarters. The fur around the area has gone from a golden brown to a black, as if bruising her... but fur doesn't bruise...



and enter the home.

Oct 05, 2008#8
Once inside I remove the dart from Epee. I know that her own strengths will help her.

I quickly grade my hunting bow and the arrows that I have tipped with a sedative for when I hunt large game incase I miss my kill shot. This is far from a perfect solution, but perhaps I can fight my way out without too many casualties this way.

I take aim at arms and legs when ever possible and sends a barage of arrows out my window...

Oct 05, 2008#9
You grasp some of the fallen thatch from the roof, and use it to grasp the dart in Epee. Fearing poison you do not want to touch it directly. Once removed, you give it a cursory examination: it is covered with a black sticky substance. No doubt poison... and something else. Before your very eyes, the fur around the room is becoming more black from the tips, and working back to the roots of the fur. You move the fur, and see the skin beneath it is already black in a small fist shaped area.

Epee growls and lifts her head, just as a dart sails by over your own. You turn to see one of the hunters has moved to a window believing you are an easy target. The dart in your hand, is the quickest weapon, and you seize the opportunity. It leaves your hand as if blown by one of their blow-reeds, and flies true to its target impaling the victims eyeball and sending him screeming back from the window. His blow-reed falls just inside on the floor.

Grasping your bow, you move to the window. The targets easily fall before you, one by one. They are shadow, and you are something beyond the mere stuff of shadow. They approach, not caring for the ones they hit. Indeed, some of the ones you hit get back up and advance, others run fleeing. You are accurate enough that you know the damage can be healed.

You smell smoke in the room. Someone has set fire to the house.

A quick glance out the front confirms your suspicions. They are trying to drive you, like prey to the hunters.

You have downed 4 of the ones coming in, and have perhaps a half dozen arrows left handy, while there are at least 8 hunters out there, of which three you can see. Their movements and camouflage are not equal to your ability to discern the situation. With deft movements, you send an arrow flying at a stand of high grass, and are satisfied with a jump and flailing of arms. The target staggers away, an arrow protruding from his hind quarters.

Oct 05, 2008#10
I use up the last of my arrows before having Epee transform to her other form and prepare for hand to hand combat.

I know they will be easily defeated, and am now anxious to investigate the goings on of the savannah since I have been away.

At least with Epee in sword form the poison shouldn't spread through her, but I will have to find out what it is before I have her transform back.

I look back at my house as I go out to meet my last few opponents, oh well, it was time to remodel anyway I suppose...

I quickly dispatch the rest of the hunting party and search for any wounded that are still alive that I may ask my myriad of questions

Oct 06, 2008#11
Stroking Epee, and giving her the command, you are surprised to hear her groan in the attempt. Something is going very wrong, far beyond poison here. As the moments tick by, the smoke quickly rolling across the roof, your arrows keep the attackrs at bay.

Any normal hunting party would have dispersed. Epee would not be having any difficulty. You are sure this is not just a case of mistaken identity. Something has targeted you specifically, and they knew where to strike; in the place you call home.

You pace out the few remaining arrows, and are not overly surprised when one or two more of the hunters come from around the backside reinforcing their numbers. These are the ones that must have been setting the fire to your house.

Epee finishes the transformation, and has become a sword. You release the final bolt, taking a young man squarely in the chest. His movement at the last moment bringing about his own demise. "Damn," you think. His is the only direct death so far.

Taking up Epee, you are immediately aware of something wrong. They have hurt your Epee in some fundamental way. There is a black streak moving up from the filigree of the handguard about an inch along the inner blade. The weight seems somehow wrong, though your skill would make you deadly with any blade. It is annoying that they could wound you in an area where none have before.

Your dispatching of the last two is quick. But is it merciful?

The wounded abound, and you have at least 4-6 (did you allow the last two to live?) to interrogate.

Oct 06, 2008#12
With Epee in sword form I am far more deadly. Instincts kick in and the last few hunters are killed.

I find the nearest cohearent hunter and ask the first question that came to my mind, "What did you do to my tiger?"

Oct 06, 2008#13
His eyes are wide, and seem almost feral. The language is as close to what you remember as to make the changes unimportant. You realize that in your anger you spoke Thari to the man you hold.

While he hears gibberish from you, his pleading responses tell you of fear of the White Witch and her return with the hunter. The demons will return, and if the witch lives his people will die.

Oct 06, 2008#14
While Epee and I could be the white witch and her hunter I do not want to jump to that assumption, mostly cause while my skin may be white I always wera red and black, so I am not going to just conclude that to be me. While the people of my home shadow have refered to me as a witch ever since I first left and returned to the savannah they have never out right feared me, they have just always been cautious.

I switch tongues and ask him once more, calming myself as well knowing he is just acting out of fear for himself and his people;

"What did you do to my tiger? What demons do you speak of? Did someone send you?"
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Oct 06, 2008#15
His eyes grow ever more fearful now that the witch has learned his tongue.

He is barely able to contain himself as this woman, thinner than he is so easily grasps him round the neck in the absence of any garb to lock onto. His hands flail, and he babbles on about the demon-gods (the word is very similar in the Savannah tongue, and it is difficult with the change in inflection to know which he is using or if they have become the same word). He tells you they gave the people the blood magic and warned of her return.

Though he continues to struggle under your grasp, kicking and clawing at the earth, further 'encouragement' gets him to reveal more about the darts using the 'blood magic' he spoke of. The blood magic is not what drove the people off. He is descended from the people of this land, and it was the demon-gods who saved the people when the great famine swept this land for years. They arrived, and with the changing of the ways tought them the use of blood magic to survive, and even to hunt. The blood magic is what they have used on your tiger, and you. He says this, as his hand scratches your armor. Glee in his eyes. The fool thinks he can hurt one such as you.

Witches have tainted evil blood that spoils a land. They leave after sucking the life force from it. Those who spoke lies and supported witches were driven out. Ever since the return of the demon-gods the people have prospered (though all evidence of prosperity around you seems to be downright confusion, or a lie). Your arm feels like it has more than a blood trickle dripping down from the scratch....

Oct 06, 2008#16
"Where can I find these demon gods?"

I need to find out more about this blood magic. I want to know who transformed my shadow into what it is now. My people have lived through famines before, even with my help since I am not stuck in this shadow like they are. I ften went hunting and gathering in other shadows for them during hard times.

Have I really been away so long this last time as to have missed so much? So long that those that remembered me and tried to support me were killed?

I have to find out more about the demons before doing anything rash, after all it is just me at the moment and this may not be a battle I can win on my own...Epee needs to be my first concern though.

"What is this blood magic, how can I save Epee?"

Oct 06, 2008#17
"There is no saving the White Witch! I have saved my people!"

Your arm continues to feel strange, and you know something is wrong there. Despite the further attempts, he seems either unwilling or unable to give more information along the lines of this questionioning. He does continue to try and get at your flesh, seeming intent on just scratching you, but you are able to more easily hold him off, recognizing that this is his goal.

He continues to insist that the Blood magic is life, and that with your death the people will be free and prosper. The earth mother will share her blood, and all her children who bathe in her charity will prosper and grow now that your doom is upon you.

Oct 06, 2008#18
I finish off my captive swiftly knowing he has affected me with the same thing as Epee and grab my trump.

Who would be the best person...someone must know how to stop this...I chose my trump of Forrest Arden...what better...

Oct 06, 2008#19
Pulling out the trump, you stare into the card, seeing the color of the leaves, the sound. The hot savannah wind blows against you, and you can feel the shade of a cloud, no a tree pass over you cooling your face. The breeze itself somehow cooler, and the sounds of the leaves is more clear. Yes, the leaves.. and just a few feet ahead, a deer looks up to view the rainbow light of your trump connection.

You have a mental connection with the place, and it comes alive just a step away. That is when the first dart scratches the bare skin of your neck and upper shoulder. Epee, under your left hand, never made a single motion or warning of the attacker. With no time to think about it, your calculations lead you to one conclusion. Get out, get to safety, find out what is going on.

You step forward into the glade, as the deer bounds away into the woods. The rainbow fading out behind you.

Oct 07, 2008#20
Once in Forest Arden I search out for any of my father's servants. I am recognized easily with the same long black hair as my father and Epee at my side. No mater her form they all know Epee, as a sword her white handle matche's my father's armor, and while my father has his hounds, I have my tiger.

It has been a few years since I was last anywhere near Amber, but things always alter little in Forest Arden.

I find my way to my father's cabin easily enough, I have been here often enough to know my way around the forest at this point. I know that I will find help and refuge there. My hope is that I will also be able to find out what this blood magic is all about and get what ever it is I may need for myself and Epee.

Once in sight a servant runs out to help my in. I am feeling the strange effects of this blood magic. I must find out what has happened at the savannah during my last abscence...

Oct 07, 2008#21
He helps you in, and that is the last thing you remember...



You awake to the bright summer morning streaming in through windows looking out at treetops with singing birds. The sun seems so bright, you wish you had sunglasses. The sun isn't the only thing that hurts. You can't help but wonder if anyone got the information on those twelve men who must have beaten you up. You blink, each eyelid like a club over the soft orbs beneath. Maybe it was more than 12.

You are in the upper rooms, your room across and down the hall from your fathers. You try to sit up, but your head hurts too much to do so. Listening to the protests of the aches and pains, you lay back trying to take in the moments. You feel exhausted as if you haven't slept at all.

You turn your head away from the window, taking in the familiar pinks of the flowers painted on the high ceilings. The familiar carving of your name in a rafter from one of the only times Julian had taken you out of the Savannah. The memory is still a cherished one, despite the beating you had taken for recklessly endangering yourself with the climb, and damaging his cabin.

Your eyes settle on a form slumped forward in a chair. The long straight hair, spilling forward over the hand on his forehead makes him look like a mop, dishheveled. The thought of him falling forward makes you want to giggle, but the ache in your head keeps it at no more than a thought.

A large grey head moves up to look at you from the mans feet. The deep brown eyes focus on you, and it yawns showing the large teeth that could as eaily chew through wood and light steel, as flesh. As if the dogs eyes were his own, the man stirs, and brushing his hair back, you can see the deep red palm print on his forehead from where he was sleeping. His eyes focus on yours, and energy rushes into him.

"Aria!" He bursts out of the chair, and is to your side in a flash, the dog barely getting out of his way. He kneels down by your bedside, the strong hands laying gently against your face, in a reflection of the way his thick black hair lays over the stark white of his shirt.

"My daughter. Where have you been?" His voice is gentle, and holds none of the gruffness with which he addresses those who serve him.

Oct 07, 2008#22
"Easy father, I am here now. My head hurts as if I have had way too much to drink. Do you have any idea what happened to me?"

Aria knows it has been a while but if her father was that worried about her he should have had ways to try and contact her. This has her just as curious as the goings on with the blood magic and the people of her savannah.

She does reply softly, "I missed you too."

Aria feels as at home in her room at her father's cabin, in Forest Arden, as she does in the savannah. While her father may not have been around much as she grew up she feels very close to him. She knows that she is very much like him in so many ways, yet there are parts of her that scream of her mother and she is convinced that is why her father stayed away more than he visited.

"Epee?!? Is she ok?"

Aria suddenly remembers that Epee also was effected by this blood magic. She has been with Epee for so many decades now she would hate to think something could bring that tiger down.

"I have no idea what is going on at the savannah father. The people attcked me speaking of having to wipe out the white witch or the demon gods would return. What has been going on?"

Oct 07, 2008#23
Julian looks at you with eyes filled with a mixture of gratitude and pain. "I wasn't sure if you were going to come back to us." His large hands brush the hair away from your face. "When you sleep you look like your mother."

"When we found you, you weren't yourself. You-"

Another female voice from the door interjects, "You are looking much better now." You can feel Julian stop abruptly. It is almost as if someone has started the gears of an automaton. He blinks once, twice then stands, patting your hand and releasing it. The familiar visage of Fiona comes around his side, her hand on his upper back, her own lithe form sitting on the bed at your side.

"There, there child. Your father has been sitting with you for the past few days. He or Gerard were never far from your side. And it appears that you have come through the worst of it."

Julian looks down, his voice at a more normal level and tone, the softness of moments before gone. "Of course she did. She is a strong person. She has the blood. What would you expect."

Fiona goes on. Julians words pass by her obliviously, as if a stray breeze had wandered instead of the commander of the forces in Arden. "What can I get you my dear? How do you feel? What can you remember?"

Oct 07, 2008#24
Having a harder time switching back to a less, or no emotion state than my father does I stare at my aunt for a few moments. Why did she have to walk in when she did?

"One of the men who attacked me mentioned blood magin, deomon gods, and having to kill the white witch. That is all I know aunt Fiaona. How is Epee?"

I know my father's emotions were too strongly focused on me to answer my question of Epee, but Fiona should certainly be able to answer. If I made it through shouldn't Epee as well? Did they even care for Epee?

I look at my father and he can read the sadness in my eyes, "I was stupid. If I had gotten out of there sooner Epee would not have been struck. Heck, if I realized what was happening as I interogated the head of the hunting party I would not have been infected. I just wanted to help them."

Hearing her own words she knows her father is going to be upset, for being careless, for not listening to instincts that should have kicked in, for caring so much for a shadow...yet this is the shadow she grew up in...the only shadow she feels any attachment to even if it has been, is, and probably always will be bitter sweet.

"You know aunt Fiona, perhaps a little something to eat, something simple, broth."

She hopes to get a few more moments alone with her father...