Ultraviolet Amber: Game Description

Description: The Corporation has developed a weapon that will kill all Amberites. You have banded together to see to it that this does not come to pass. To ensure a vested interest in the outcome, all characters have Basic Pattern for free. This will be run as a "ship in a bottle" episode, largely confined to the high-tech Shadow it's set in, as the Shadow is Real enough to resist gross manipulations of its reality. Using Trump, Logrus, Conjuration, and Advanced Pattern to bring things to you, however, is blatantly encouraged by the local physics (and the GM). A taste for movie violence is recommended, but the killing of children is discouraged.

Mechanics/Restrictions: Contact the GM for house rules on Exalted Powers and the price structure for Innate Abilities.

Players must have e-mail access.

Charcter Generation: Before Con based on 200 points

------ ------ ------

You've read my game description - now for my expectations:

1) All the characters know each other, and can manage enough mutual trust to see this mission done.

2) You want to know what this thing is and how it was made, so you can be sure that nothing remains of whoever planned this. Merely destroying the Shadow won't do, as too much of the Truth of things would be lost, and the research might arise anew in some other Shadow, with you no better prepared to deal with it. Killing people between you and it; not so much of a problem. *eg*

3) Trumping around or using API / Logrus tricks to move around the Shadow is no problem, although you have to know where you're going, and the Big Bad shielded a lot of his "house" from physical, electronic, and mystical surveillance. Bringing inanimate objects into the Shadow or tweaking the Shadow to find what you need where you need it, no problem - if you can string a quiet 30-60 seconds together to concentrate. Reentering the Shadow after leaving it - PROBLEM. This Shadow is barred against the entry of living things in general and Amberites in particular. Assume that it took months of planning and weeks of concentrated effort to gain entrance to this place for the opportunity to destroy "The Weapon" in the first place. If you "beam out," by whatever means, we're assuming you took the better part of valor and won't be back in time to affect the outcome. Communication with people / things outside the Shadow is difficult at best, and frequently impossible. You're on your own.

4) While this is not a comedy, per se, it is a fairly lighthearted - though homicidal - romp. I'd rather do the planning here and the killing live, rather than spend more time figuring a way in than getting in. When the initial plan goes to hell, that improvisation can be live, no problem. *eg*

That's about it.

Your end of the bargain is three things:

1) Let me know privately how you intend to spend your points and any secrets you want me to prepare for.

2) Let us all know publicly what you look like, what the team would think your strengths are, and what we're likely to think of you now that we're shoulder-to-shoulder with you in this meat grinder.

3) Let us all know how your character wants to handle this, so we can do some initial setup here before game day. We can do this as an infiltration, an assault, or both - assuming we have enough characters of each flavor to make it work, and one team doesn't mind likely ending up as the other team's convenient distraction at some point. Separating into more than two teams for more than a short scene is a good way to get killed, FYI.

Assume the assault site is a massive corporate industrial / commercial complex, with "The Weapon" hidden away somewhere deep in the bowels of the place. You'll need to get enough access to pinpoint the thing's location, find it and extract it, then locate the "developers" and give them the Hard Goodbye. Assume Cyberpunk technology with an unhealthy dose of mono-molecular swords mixed in. Assume a ridiculous surplus of faceless guards, scientists, and technicians. Assume that they can test for Amber blood, but that you can spoof the tests for a little while, if you're willing to get uncomfortable.

Character Descriptions:

Rose Winters
played by Lee Bynum

Rose Winters is a high tech combat hacker. She was recently found by an Amberite on the run through her shadow who recognized the reality in her blood. Taken back to Amber, Rose was hastily placed upon the Pattern to confirm that she is a family member.

Rose is relatively short at around 5'1" with long prehensile purple hair. Her complexion and build show evidence of a life spent partying, dancing and generally avoiding the sun. Her goth-punk leather and tight pants finish the look of a random rave girl. At just over 20, her casual stance and bored expression are only slightly betrayed by a mischievous glint in her eye.

When asked, she reports that she is the shit at taking down and taking over anything with a computer connected to it. She also isn't bad with a gun, but she generally fights her battles online and take a support role in real firefights. She finds swords and axes rather quaint and prefers more exotic future tech weapons.

Rose generally seems to resent the way she was recruited, but appreciates the gravity of the situation we are all in. She has vowed to do her best to see that this weapon is taken out.

Mary, daughter of Benedict
played by Ben Bernard

Mary is the oft-rebellious daughter of Benedict. She would much rather be stringing ribbons with Flora in preparation for a party or memorizing lines for a performance of play than learning the ins and outs of FTL space combat tactics. But when you're the daughter of Benedict you end up doing one more than the other (guess which).

Mary is assertive once she has made up her mind,but in general attempt to convey the impression that she is nothing more than a retiring and perfectly correct member of court. She has not had all the correct training to maintain this facade, but she is very earnest in her portrayal.

She takes after her father in being tall and lanky, but she also moves with the same fluid grace. She is not classically beautiful but she is also not all together plain. Everyone would've probably met her, as she attends all the gathers that her father will allow her to.

Even though she has reach an age of majority, her life is still very much controlled by Benedict, and despite her desires otherwise, she loves and respects her father.

Mary and Rose are friends at the very least, and may have been involved in getting her out of shadow

Fiarel, son of Eric
played by Sean McCabe

Though he is Eric's son he has taken more to Julian and Gerard, often he is to be found hunting with them. Fiarel lives in a small cottage, shack really, that he built himself in Arden. Not much is known about him as he spends most of his time out of 'civilized' society, but anyone who hunts knows that he is a fierce fighter with strong senses and is best without weapons.

Personalitywise he is terse, saying only what is needed in a given situation and not much for small talk. He's better at threats and innuendo. Unless you manage to get him drunk, which is quite a feat in itself, then he'll talk a lot, but still not about himself.

Lookswise he is around 5 foot 10, with dark eyes and salt and pepper hair. He is deeply tanned, athletic more than muscular, and appears to be in his mid-40s. He was around for Patternfall but did not appear to actually fight in the war, if asked he'll merely say he worked 'behind the scenes'.

Helena of Jesby, Heir to second son Loren of Jesby
played by Simone

Helena has been the commissioned representative of House Jesby in Amber for about the past year. Jesby was the first house to open separate relations with Amber since the formal treaty after Patternfall. [Note: due to various pre-game interactions, this turned out to have been only in the past few days before the mission that occurred during the AmberCon session.]

Helena is most often seen as a tall, white-blond, slim woman, with a hint of athlete in the length of her loins and stomach. Her face is a little long to be classically beautiful, and her skin is light bronze, rather than the English cream and roses that her hair might lead you to expect. Her eyes are a light, almost tan brown. She appears to be about 30, but it is reasonably well known in Amber that she fought in Patternfall, leading expeditionary forces for Chaos. Now she runs this diplomatic and trade mission for Jesby on direct commission from King Random.

At formal state occasions you might have seen her in another form, similar, with recognizably the same features, but bulkier, and gone to translucent alabaster. In this form ridged horns grow from her brows back close along the curve of her skull.

She had taken the Pattern some time ago, proving her connection to the blood of Amber.

Game preparation for Helena

Helena of Jesby, Heir to second son Loren of Jesby
daughter of Julian, great-grand-daughter of Benedict

P: -10
S: 20
E: 10
W: 90

Exalted Shape Shifting (90)
Pattern (no cost)

Helena's human and most comfortable form is a tall, white-blond, slim woman, with a hint of athlete in the length of her loins and stomach. Her face is a little long to be classically beautiful, and her skin is light bronze, rather than the English cream and roses that her hair might lead you to expect. Her eyes are a light, almost tan brown.

Her other, more resilient form is similar, but bulkier, and gone to translucent alabaster, ridged horns grow from her brows back close along the curve of her skull.

Shape shifting is like breathing air to her; breaking apart and returning, reversing through herself, and so on. The only catch was when she took the Pattern she had to relearn hard those things she had been born understanding. Now her shifting is an exercise of will and pain. She is perhaps a less fine soldier than she had been during Patternfall, but a much better killer.

Her joys in life are found in libraries and touring Ways and running Shadow with her foster father, Loren, whom she knew as her father all her life until her capture. Now her usefulness to the survival of both realms pleases her. And though she would not admit such, getting Julian to finally break in his resolve to be hostile to her is a prized goal.

(This red male is Jade Shogun Kotaishi no Mori; very like what I was thinking for Boss.)

Boss is Helena's dog. He is mundane, though large and of Chaosian stock.

Game background
//--Simone
What events of the books have taken place? Is Eric gone? Deirdre? Caine? Who's king? (Makes a difference to my character design.)

//--GM
This takes place after the Corwin cycle. Eric, Deirdre, and Brand are presumed dead. Corwin is missing (although a child of his would know more). Caine is alive but often absent, at least from Amber's halls. Random is King, anointed by the Unicorn and publicly uncontested. Flora, Julian, Llewella, and Gerard are very much in Amber or nearby, with Fiona, Bleys, and Benedict less so but reachable.

An operative of the Corporation was caught trying to surreptitiously gather samples of Amberite blood, and his subsequent torture-unto-death gained you what information you have to begin your mission. It took almost a month of Amber time to forge a way into the Shadow (specifics up to the Powers the PCs take & the Allies they claim), and the way promptly closed behind you. Assume you've had a week or so, Shadow time, to get the lay of the land... and then you found out that the project was entering its final stage, and there was no more time to be had.

//--Simone
She was more pained to discover she counted Julian as father as well as her "acknowledged" Amber blood through Benedict's line. So the knowledge of that was sufficient, sure. Now she's pushing Julian when she can, trying to find the right way to soften him towards her. And sometimes she gets pissed with it and just antagonizes him.

//--GM
So the shock and visions of the Pattern walk "blew out" Helena's shapeshifting for a time, but she recovered? Is she still wound up enough about her family situation that shifting hurts?

//--Simone
Yes, the visions confused her about identity and form, and yes, she is mostly recovered, if not as confident as she had been when she'd been a unit leader back during the War.

If this is truly a threat to "all of the blood of Amber," Loren would certainly have understood her wanting to go; she'd be among the dead, after all. He may be a political creature, but he loves her. Her mother produced no children by him. It was thought bearing the blood of Amber in such proportion--she was the first of Benedict's line to get a child by another Elder (disguised as a camp-follower, dontcha know)--damaged her ability to conceive further.

//--GM
Interesting....

//--Simone
This doesn't mean that heads of other houses or higher-ups with political claims didn't protest it. Or maybe Loren got wind that someone would try to kill her if she went; then he's in full-on protective mode, for certain.

//--GM
Such rumors would have been rampant... even going so far as to suggest that a House or two might be putting together a counter-party to protect / study / obtain the weapon for themselves. *eg*

//--Simone
Agh. It would not be Helena's preference to fight her own people.

//--GM
This mission might suck more than she realized, then.

//--Simone
She knew it would be Chaos; her concern depends more on what factions she encounters. Real allies? Past friends? Definitely suckage.

If her dad has any idea who she'd likely be confronting, that might make him object. The mission has to succeed if she is to survive, but facing a friend might make her hesitate.

//--GM
I'd assume Julian was among those on the Amber side to claim you were unfit for the mission. I was going to have your "foundation rumors" include both that someone from Chaos had sponsored you to go - presumably as a spy / saboteur - and that someone from Chaos had attempted to have you killed to prevent you from going. Amusing?

//--Simone
Absolutely. The second one could even be true, which puts Loren in the delicate position of storming around Chaos demanding to find out what's going on there without getting himself killed.

//--GM
Depending on the mix, I may actually open with a flashback to just such an attack by Chaos. Depends on the characters I get.

Two little bits of diary, that you can alter as needed and place in time whereever seems most appropriate for the Ultraviolet game.

Meeting Benedict

(This Journal was based on events prior to J. Saul's Amber game.)

[Note: We actually played through the events below in-game and in the after-AmberCon PbEM threads; they both turned out just a little differently ;-)]

So, here I was in Amber again, with such time and distance between my first journey and this one, that everything has changed. I was brought to Castle Amber for this, the second time, to meet with General Benedict. I had been escorted up the Kolvir road from Gerard's care by some uncomfortable castle guardsmen, and when the first tower hove into view, I felt a strange disorientation. I was not myself now, I was myself then, and I was certain I had made a terrible mistake by coming here.

I don't know what the guards must have thought of my wide-eyed stare or my disorientation. I'm not sure how long it lasted… long enough to replay these scenes in electric flashes:

I had seen Benedict before, from a distance, at the head of the army he would lead to Chaos to destroy us. Only once I saw him, and that through binoculars. He stood on an outcropping of granite perhaps a half-mile away, overseeing his troops. It was near sunset, and the reddish light played over him and gilded the trees, the rock, his blade and armor with the same majesty. Like seeing the heart of a sun for an instant before oblivion, seeing him. I remember thinking there was some of him in me. I would have given all my men, family, life and soul to see him die. Instead the remnants of my small shadow unit huddled in the Forest of Arden at the foot of Kolvir as the hordes of Benedict's army swept by us for days.

Later I pushed on alone up Kolvir. I met no one, not the Hellhounds of legend nor the countless hidden guards that were my real fear. It was like dream walking. The noise of the city did not reach around the side of the mountain, and the metal on metal sound we had walked with for two months was gone with the armor I'd left behind for stealth. The first sound I heard was the snapping of flags over the battlements of the Castle. There was no other motion.

At last, I could see guards in the formal gardens, but they looked relaxed, almost casual. I only later found out that the forces of Chaos had been so convincingly obliterated that there was no real threat to Amber herself anymore. But at the time I felt invisible, alone in time. The few men I saw were merely props for my act.

I slipped into the Castle by means of an open glass door overlooking a patio. Inside the gloom of the Great Hall cooled the heat of my tension. I left my boots by the door--I remember just now that I never retrieved them--and stepped across the smooth stone floor into the darkness. I was dead already, wasn't I? I kept thinking. Take another step. Take another step. There was some commotion on my right by a heavy door. The door would have been hidden by a tapestry if it had not been standing slightly ajar.

I approached. Beyond was a tightly coiling stairway leading down. Noise as of an argument and the occasional clink of metal on stone drifted towards me. I went down after it, amazed at myself. No one turned around even when, in my excitement, I stepped too close to the people I was following and saw their backs.

It was a very long time before the stairs ended. I waited, not breathing, while they took up lights and went off down another corridor. It was cold enough that the walls sweated water. When the light of the torches was completely gone, I went forward.

I should have been lost in those caverns below the mountain. At the time such a thing did not seem possible, though I explored in the pitch-blackness for what must have been three hours.

Standing in a corridor five paces across, natural stone on my left, smoothed stone on the right, I saw a thin line of blue light shining out as from beneath a door about a hundred yards farther along. I went toward it, trailing my hand along the smoother wall, counting doors. The line of light had a dancing quality about it, like of electricity arcing. Beside the frame of the fifth door my hand struck the cold metal ring of a key.

I need not say that beyond that door was the Pattern, beckoning. In its arms would be life or death at its most extreme. Thinking of it now, of how my substance has been rewritten through its Power, my mind goes up in flames. The only direct memories I have of it are the vision of sparks and the exhaustion of being reborn; those are the only ones I want.

Walking my by my elbow, the guards led me into a sitting room inside the castle itself. A pleasant serving woman brought me tea; then for a while I was alone. I expected one of the guards to come back and let me know when I could see him, but when the door was next opened, it was Benedict of Amber himself standing there, Arms Master; the demon of nightmare and legend; the man for whom even a sunset was a tool of war and mastery. My ancestor.

I was frozen in my tracks. The General waited a few moments to see if I could collect myself. Finally he smiled slightly, not unkindly, I thought. "I was informed you wanted to meet with me. As I am between meetings, it seemed this would be as good a moment as any." He looked me up and down a moment, one eyebrow raised in his thin face.

I wasn't sure I had any voice. "Lord Benedict, thank you for your time." My legs were like water.

Benedict nodded almost imperceptibly, as though any more would be a waste of valuable motion. At last he waved towards the sitting room chairs by the fire. "Shall we?"

I preceded him and sat. I felt like a pupil seeing the headmaster for what could either be an honor or a demerit. I made an exaggerated show of looking at everything with thorough interest - the obviously antique mantel, the tapestries, a small marble bust of old King Oberon - postponing the moment I would turn around and face him again.

I heard him clear his throat, and I had to turn.

He was just sitting, comfortable in the wingback chair across from me. I could only nod, searching for the right words.

Benedict finally interrupted my hopelessly circular chain of thought. "I hope you're not going to go down on one knee claiming I'm your revered ancestor. I've had enough of that."

I felt myself blushing and cursed myself for doing it in front of him. That was almost exactly what I had been going to say. Instead I straightened my posture and addressed him as formally as I could. "No," I answered, "though apparently you are my mother's grandfather; I suppose that's not an uncommon thing for you to hear from someone coming from the Courts. But I suspect it is another here who is my closer kin, though I'm beginning to wish that was not the case." I splayed out my hands, palms down, "I'm not trying to claim anything from you. It is just that recently someone has been questioning my blood ties to Amber, and it would reassure me to confirm that my . . . ties to Amber are through you."

Benedict's presence in the Courts, hundreds of years ago, had left a mark on Chaos in many ways.

The general studied me, his ageless features narrowed in concentration. "Tell me more about your grandmother. It is possible. It is also possible that you get your Amber blood through more than one line."

I reached for my trump pouch. Showing him her picture seemed the easiest way to tell him what I knew. After all, her picture represented all the thousand words for her I had.

Again, that contemplative look crossed Benedict's face. He still seemed completely poised. "I need to look into some things further. Why don't you remain here, in Amber, perhaps as an ambassador?"

"Beyond my commission with Sawall?" I shook my head, protesting his generosity. This man of all men should not misunderstand me. "Do you know what I am? I would have given my life at Patternfall for the chance to kill you."

"That did not come to pass."

"I am glad of it, now, but then.…"

Benedict raised his hand, hushing me; it was one of my father's gestures - my true father, not the one whose seed created me. "In any case," Benedict went on, "I am not offering you a position of any sensitivity, except perhaps to yourself. Stay as an ambassador from Jesby. The Unicorn knows we need a competent representative from the Courts right now. One with connections as good as yours could benefit both sides."

I couldn't hold this thing together by myself any longer. "I'll have to consult with Loren... with my House."

"Of course." He smiled, then, as he turned towards the door. It was like being struck by lightning; his smile came from the depths of the earth, yet it was so small a gesture, like everything else about him, spare and perfect.

And with a bow more imagined than performed, he was gone…

----- -----

The Lion's Den

(This journal was also developed for J. Saul's game.)

"Boss, down!" I shouted, and he fell back from my office door just as it banged open, propelled by the man I had been half-expecting for some days now.

"What...," his voice seemed choked; he waved questioningly at my office, the cabinets, the desk. "What is this?"

"Prince Julian," I made to bow, but he cut me off.

"What is the meaning of this?" the hand fell, casually it seemed, on the hilt of his blade. There was the faintest clack as the mail of his fist hit metal.

I dragged my eyes from it back to his face and squared my shoulders. "Haven't you read my commission?"

"No."

"Would you like to?" It was still rolled up on my desk, the Royal Seal of Amber clearly visible, and I began to reach for it.

"No."

We paused in an uncompromising silence. I was acutely aware of his scrutiny, how it reacted, each moment registering faintly more contempt. That 'legendary self control', I thought, and smiled helplessly.

Prince Julian narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"I didn't expect you," I said, sobering again.

"So, what have you got to hide?"

"It is just that I am aware this form makes you less comfortable," as I spoke I traced the length of my demon-formed torso with one pale hand. "If you will excuse me a moment, I will change."

As I walked into the adjoining bathroom, I heard him say, "I will still know what you truly are."

Alone for the moment, I eased myself back into my human shape. I realised my clothing was now perhaps too revealing, but there was nothing else at hand to wear - not that it didn't amuse me. This took perhaps thirty seconds, but I waited another three minutes more, long enough to allow Julian to scope out Boss and the territory.

When I came back into the room he was still standing there as though he hadn't moved. His cheeks had retained the flare of colour they'd worked up in his furious entrance. In spite of his previous remark, though, his expression did improve as I repeated my bow in human form. I moved around behind my desk and sat down. I motioned to the other chair without expecting him to take it; I wasn't disappointed. Then I looked up at him expectantly.

"I repeat," he said more calmly, "what are you doing here?"

"At the moment, I'm waiting for our first shipment from House Jesby. It should be arriving any time now."

"Arriving how?"

"By Trump, for the most part, though channels may be laid to allow more mundane imports. All these arrangements are in the commission."

Not sure how else to vent his anger, Julian looked back out through the door to where my bodyguards stood, nervous and wary. "So, Castle elite guard protect demons as they ply their trade in Amber Town, now?"

I smiled, all innocence. "They are the bodyguard assigned to me by Prince Benedict. As you may know, there are those who might be hostile to a new venture representing the Courts of Chaos here."

Julian clenched his jaw slowly, once, twice. Suddenly he slammed his fist down on the surface of my desk and leaned across it. I could feel more than see Boss tensing, still on his down-stay by the door. From between gritted teeth, Julian whispered, "Ten years ago we fought you at Patternfall, and now you dare to show your face here in Amber again. I don't know why we didn't whip your asses back to your kennels forever when we had the chance."

A lock of his hair had fallen forward, shading his right eye. This was a face I should know very well. I had seen it enough times in the austere portraits from the history books; its features there were always distant and cold, their evil an emptiness like that of the Abyss. My father. This was not what I saw before me, though, not exactly. I wondered if Benedict had told him.

When I spoke again, I matched his quiet tone, "I believe you have the sensitivity to know I have been accepted by the Pattern."

"Then she is an undiscriminating mistress. Half the Courts of Chaos could be bastards of Amber."

"So it is said. "

Julian pushed back from the desk and paced across the room. I let him do so and just observed. Occasionally his eyes settled on Boss, but otherwise he seemed completely self-absorbed. His fists spasmed again. Whatever train of thought he had been having ended there.

Wisely, my guards were well out of the way of Julian's exit. I could hear him voicing his anger to anyone in earshot well after he was out of the warehouse.

Very slowly, I felt the blood rise in my cheeks. I let out a long sigh. "Come here, Boss," I murmured, and he rose and padded over. "That was Prince Julian," I said to his confused expression, and then I scratched the fur under his ears the way he likes.

"Um. Excuse me."

I looked up. It was poor Noveckis, looking chagrined and pale. "I'm sorry about that. I couldn't stop him."

"No, I suppose you couldn't," I said, and laughed to reassure him. "Don't worry about it. And get me a new security door."

"Yes, ma'am. Of course." He bowed his way out, looking impossibly relieved.

As Noveckis left one of the guards checked in on me, and I gave him a slightly weary thumbs-up. The man started to reach for the door to close it, glanced at the hinges, and changed his mind.

When we were alone again I sat down on the floor next to Boss and let him roll over onto my lap. "Forest of Arden?" I said in Boss's favourite 'walkies' voice. "Sound good to you? Picnics? T-bone steaks?" I kept at it until his tail started thumping the floor in mindless happiness. "I thought you'd agree," I whispered to myself.