GenCon Amber Campaign
As if two four-hour gaming sessions wasn’t enough, afterwards I drove out to Erick Wujcik’s GenCon Amber game. Traditionally this has been held in a succession of hotel rooms (including mine a couple of years ago) on Sunday afternoon: this year Erick had a suite of rooms at a Residence Inn 15 minutes west of Milwaukee along I‑94. I drove out after the Champions tournament (and picking up my car from the hotel parking lot) and met up with everyone, and had dinner with a whole bunch of other Amber players before setting down to continue our predicament.
When last we played, Damarian (my character), Bronwyn (Carol Dodd), Kayen, Eleanor, Godfrey, and Harlan (all known if you read my earlier convention reports or Carol’s game writeups in Amberzine) were in a place apart from the normal Amber Pattern universe. We all have had some nasty experiences in this place, Bronwyn worst of all; we were missing Harlan, who apparently had some destiny connected with this land. We didn’t really know what to do, so we decided to try the family method of scrying, using a Tarot deck that Fiona had given Damarian. (I produced the deck at the end of the session at the last Ambercon: we needed to get some information and a Tarot spread is the traditional Amber method of prognostication. I justified having the deck of what I thought were just Tarot cards by saying that Fiona had wanted Damarian to learn how to use it, but he really hadn’t. What I didn’t expect Erick to do was to make all of the cards Trumps!)
It was a most interesting reading; most all of the cards (we felt) represented specific individuals; their position in the reading represented their effect on the present situation. There were three outcomes, only one of which were advantageous.
Harlan’s destiny, as an artist and a child of Dworkin, was apparently to create a new Pattern, using a Jewel similar to the Jewel of Judgement. Only he could do so properly; as an artist he could create it anew, and as the son of Dworkin he had the potential, untainted by the present Pattern (which he lacks.) To make matters worse, there was a mysterious woman named Isabeau involved, who was accompanied by a baboon-like creature who was passionately defensive about her (that I mentally nicknamed Navarre.)
When Bronwyn touched the Trump of the Empress reversed (one of the three outcomes and one of the two disadvantageous ones) and tried to make contact, she disappeared and Isabeau took her place. Godfrey, who was in psychic contact with Bronwyn, was possessed by Navarre. In trying to recover Bronwyn, I broke the contact with the Trump, which Erick hinted was a Very Bad Thing to do. It was, since it locked Isabeau in Bronwyn’s body without any way of getting Bronwyn back. (Harlan got her back eventually.)
Isabeau, growing more intelligent every moment, asked for a deck of Trumps. I hesitated, then compounded by problems by giving her my set. Just when she was thus distracted, Eleanor was able to rush up to Isabeau and strike her in the head with the pommel of her sword, knocking Isabeau out. I then asked Eleanor “Would you believe me if I said that I had planned it that way?” We tied the two up and tried to consider what to do next.
Upon psychic examination of Isabeau I discovered that she has several large gaps in her memory, apparently in the possession of Navarre. She also possessed a considerable Psyche and innate Pattern ability, both stronger than mine.
Harlan, who had been someplace else, caught sight of what we were doing, and managed to put Bronwyn and Godfrey back into their own bodies. As he watched, a ring of energy erupted from the Trump reading, expanding outward to encompass all five of us. We found ourselves in a stony ring, surrounded by twelve threatening figures of our uncle Osric. We formed a protective circle: Kayen, Godfrey, and Eleanor at the points of a triangle with Bronwyn and Damarian in the center, invoking the Pattern.
Our best estimate is that Isabeau is a paramour of Benedict and the mother of another character. She has disassociated parts of her memory and placed then in the keeping of Navarre, apparently in order to evade Chaos. We think she has something to do with the land we were in and that she has a mission to perform with it or for it, one that we are supposed to assist in.
I sometimes think Erick likes having me play Damarian because he can always expect him to screw something up and advance the plot. I think Damarian is so used to avoiding responsibility that he isn’t very good with it; I certainly have stumbled considerably playing the character, and it is readily apparent that he has survived only because of his Good Stuff points. He certainly proved it this round!
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