Raiders of the Temple of the Last Crusade (Aiden, Fergus, Karlsen)

Sure enough, the image of Flora appears to Fergus. Wherever she is, apparently she only recently awoke since she wears only a robe. A fussy looking man is brushing her hair. "Fergus dear, how nice to hear from you!"

Back in the city, the sound of more alarms blare out and the equivalent of fire brigades can be seen by Aiden and Karlsen.

Fergus blushes slightly as he notices the state of dress his Aunt is in.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, I did not realise that there would be a time difference" he whispers into the trump. "I wanted to report what we had found so far. It seems that the Lady Isobel had not been to her house for some time. We did however find a few things of interest." Fergus deliberately skipped the incident with Isobel's friend, the memory still painful to him.

"It seemed that she had a wedding band in the manner of the Nexus that she kept in a box. The band had white gold and normal gold woven together and had two stones laid next to each other, one of Onyx and one of Amber. The Amber symbolism is obvious, but why she would not be wearing the band now we can only guess. We also found her boat with charts to places called Wone and Iv. Also in the boat was a normal trump of Julian. He didn't turn up to the Ball I understand, so maybe there is a connection there if we can contact him."

"Aiden planted a bug on the ring that he lead us to a warehouse belonging to the cult as well as a submersible that I am currently hidden on. The senior cultist here seems to think that the man who is their benefactor is kin to Amber and that he is doing things that Amber now will have to deal with. I don't have any more specfics yet, but I'm hoping that when we get to the cultist's island I'll be able to get some more information. I wanted to get this information to you in case they find me here on the submersible."

Flora listens intensely and says "I'll relate what you've said to Random. Where are Aiden and Karlsen now?"

Karlsen concentrates on the Trump of his getaway cottage. When it is ready he takes Aiden's hand and leads him through.

They emerge in a small field with a cottage in the back corner of it. After they arrive Karlsen heads to the small cottage and opens the unlocked door. It is a simple one room structure with a work area on one side and a living area on the other. Karlsen says, "Make yourself at home.” He waves to a comfortable looking set of chairs and couch in front of a fireplace.

“I will make a Trump to get us back to the alley behind our inn back in Nexus.” So saying he pulls out some parchment and pencils. Karlsen then settles down at a workbench and arranges everything on the table in front of him. He quickly calls the Pattern to mind and starts on the sketch.

"I left them at the cult's warehouse in Nexus and they are going to join me later via trump once the submersible gets to the island. Any news from any of my other cousins?"

"Quite a bit. As far as we can tell, there's another branch of the family no one's ever heard of before now. Seems Dad might have had a sister! Oh, and the twins have come to a tragic end, emphasis on the word End. So don't you go being too reckless! We're hard to kill, overall, but demonstrably not immortal."

Fergus is shocked at the news of the death of the twins.

"I'm sorry to hear about the twins, though I confess I found them a little strange. Kierenne was going to show me the trumps of Isobel, but I guess those are lost also. I will try and be extra careful, given that someone out there has it in for Amber. It could be that this msterious benefactor that the cultist was talking about being kin to Amber could be from this other branch of the family. Do we know the names of any of this mysterious other family as it would be useful to know if I hear the hear in passing?"

"We've heard from two sources about siblings of Isobel named Fernand and Josette as well as a presumed third named Leontes. Their mother, Titania, is supposed to be Oberon's sister. Incidentally, Josette has golden eyes. One source says their home is called Onyx, but it seems an extremely reliable one."

Fergus keeps his voice low to avoid being detected but cannot keep the excitement from his voice.

"That would make the onyx in Isobel's wedding band have significance too then. A union of Onyx and Amber. Some people in Amber obviously knew more of this other family than they have so far told us. Also, asumming that Isobel is my mother, it would make Fernand, Josette and this Leonates my uncles and aunts. I can now see why the Prophecy of the Unicorn refers to me as a mediator as my heritage is likely from both sides of the family. I'm hoping to find out soon which member of this other family is trying to stir things up, and I promise I will be careful. I'll get Aiden and Karlsen involved at the slightest hint of trouble."

"Thanks,"

Taking notice of the work area, Aiden says, "I thought the purpose of a getaway cottage was to get away from work." Throwing his hat onto a comfy chair as he passes it, he continues, chuckling, "But since you never stop working....Say, have you got anything to eat around here? "

Kalsen waves vaugely to the back of the cottage, "Back there should be some basics. But we can head in to town and get something hot and a cold beer to wash it down when I get done. This isn't a place for serious work. This is where I come to play around. At The Clockworks I have problems to solve and deadlines to meet. This place is for flowing where my creativity takes me. I do what comes to mind and do not think about use or function. I could never have drawn that," he waves to a picture hanging on a wall, "there. Only here where I can unwind for a bit."

If Aiden looks at the picture hanging on the wall it will remind him of some of the classic artwork of Leonardo or Raphael. The subject is fantastical though, it appears to be a woman made of water reclining on a sandy shore of a stream. With his knowledge of artistic merit he realises that the work was not a planned piece. While there is balance it lacks the percision of a mastework.

Karlsen quickly sketches the alley behind their hotel. He adds in just enough detail to make contact.

Karlsen is getting a Trump call.

Karlsen thinking that it is probably Fergus will answer the call. When he sees that it is Mint he will say, "Mint! This is an unexpected surprise. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing well, thank you. How are you?"

OOC - Could have sworn I responed to this already

"We are doing well. Right now we are sitting out an air raid at my cottage. Fergus is riding in a submersable. We are making slow but steady progress on our investigations." He gives her an executive summary of what has gone on. "What is the news at your side of the Pattern?"

Aboard Weredolphin, the boat seems to be picking up speed, ever so slightly. Fergus can hear booms in the distance and once the boat itself sways slightly as if buffetted by waves.

Fergus looks at the now cold card in front of his hand, the image of Flora having gone dead. Either Flora had terminated the connection or something else had interfered with it. He didn't know if it was possible for a trump connection to be severed.

Fergus braces himself against the movement of the ship and stifles the impulse to be sick.

Damn Aiden and Karlsen tricking me onto a boat. I bet they've gone off to an Inn drinking or something whilst I'm stuck here.

Fergus puts away the cards back into their case and shifts himself a bit to ease the cramp in his body in his hiding place. With nothing else to do whilst they are moving he tries listen in to the conversation of the crew.

Perhaps a powerful electric charge or a magnetic wave or even a powerful explosion close by might disrupt a trump call. When I get some time maybe an experiment to test whether a trump call can be disrupted may be in order.

Mint asks Kalsen a couple clarifying questions about the summary.

"My news? Well, Winnow and I returned from the far side of that Trump distortion, home of the Onyx Empire. I am slowly but surely meeting the various personages in that faction, most recently Fernand who appears to have lived here in Uberwald for some time. So far the faction as a whole does not appear hostile, just secretive. Individuals will no doubt vary. I will have to travel with Fernand for a bit in order to ask him questions so I may disappear from communication again."

"Give my best to Aiden and Fergus. I hope to meet up with one or more of you and compare notes more extensively once I have grilled Fernand for whatever I can get."

Karlsen seems deep in thought. He visibly shakes himself a bit and says, "I was considering what those people would think of us. When you and I came in from the cold we had relatively little with only a possibility of walking the Pattern connecting us to the family. So they bound us to Amber in ways we could not resist because we knew of nothing else.”

“These people have entire empire and possibly a working version of the Pattern at their disposal. The elders will have to deal with them very differently than they did us. Correction, our elders will have to deal differently with them than they did us.”

“Tread very lightly. I sense deep Patterns at play here. We could easily be used in gambits and sacrifice plays that we will never know about.” He pauses and considers his next words carefully, “Part of me wants to tell you to not go asking too many questions, but I fear we need someone to go asking in hopes that in partial answers and evasions we and our elders can find a pattern. So instead I will just caution you to be on your guard with these people. Treat them as if they had all the powers and abilities of a member of the house of Amber and the respect due at least equals.”

"I will consider your advice cousin. I will admit I would dearly love a friendly sparring match with any one of these new folks so that I might take their measure. I'm not too concerned that they will target me for asking questions, when it seems far more likely that they will take offense to my finding answers instead." With that Mint ends the Trump call.

Karlsen quickly gets on with his sketch. While he works he talks with Aiden. First he relates the other half of the conversation with Mint. "I do not like this. I have a feeling that there is a much larger game being played here and that if we are not careful we will be used in ways that might not be pleasant. After this I am going to to a Trump reading. Can you think of a good question to ask the cards? I have several ideas but would like someone else's opinion."

"The Onyx Empire? Well, now, that is something isn't it. It seems that cousin Mint has had more luck with her investigations than we have. She's one of the few with the temerity to just bust open the front door and start shooting" Aiden chuckles to himself. "I'd love to find out all she's discovered but perhaps we will do better sneaking in the back door, as it were."

"I have no doubt that you're right about the game. But whose game is it actually? If their family is anything like ours, I would bet there there are multiple games afoot and it's anyone's guess at this point who is running which game?" Aiden looks pensively at Karlsen. "Cards? Hmmm. I've alsways found the cryptic pseudo-answers to be only truly useful after the event which was fortold occurs, but I will try and think of something....What did you have in mind to ask?"

OOC - How much do you all know about Tarot? I have been playing with it for a couple of months now. Going to suggest some stuff from what I have learned. I will try to keep it simple but if you have questions just ask.

"I was thinking of doing a two step reading." He finishes up his work on the Trump sketch and eyes it critically. "That will do. Not a think of beauty but it will work." He carefully puts all of his pencils and ink pens away.

"The first step is to determine our best course of action. We pick several likely courses of action and we put the cards out to get a sense of what choices are more important, or likely outcomes. The usual number of choices are three or four. If we think there are only two options there are better spreads."

"The second spread we take our choice of action and we do a future reading of the course of action. It will help us gain insight into what we might encounter or who we should contact before setting out."

"I was also seceptical about this until I realised that it is a tool to look at a problem with a different perspective. It rarely tells the future, but it can give you insight into who to seek for help or what to look for when attempting to solve a problem. I believe the Pattern influences random chance to show us the cards that will help the master of the Pattern achieve his or her ends."

"I see that we have two possibilities before us. One is to follow the submersible and the other is to release a bird and follow it. I was hoping you might think of two more to give us an even four, with input from two different people." While he is talking he takes out a white linnen table cloth and spreads it over the coffee table. He smooths it out carefully and then sits at the couch and takes out his Trump deck and starts idlely shuffling it.

(OOC - I've also been learning Tarot over the last few months. Do a 3-card reading every day to practice.)


Maybe I really should shed some light on the origin of those little birds. It might give them one less angle to worry about at the moment, but.... I think I would rather keep that to myself just in case...Speaking of which. It would be nice to find some news worth reporting....worth trading for answers about this empire and their domed city.


Aiden gives a noncommital nod as he paces the small room. "Let's keep it simple for the first reading. How about doing a reading for the island the submersible is heading for? Maybe we could get a heads up on any special attractions or important personages that we are likely to find."

"Now that I'm thinking of it, here's a question for another reading perhaps - the provenance of the onyx and amber wedding band we found. Perhaps not a question of pressing importance at the moment, but definitely one that needs answering before long, I think."

Karlsen smiles a small smile. "Well that makes it a much easier reading to do. We can do a five card situation layout. The question is, 'What is the situation of our quest to the island?' He shuffles with a purpose now. He then draws the top 5 cards and lays them in order in front of him. {OOC - 1st card immediate situation, 2nd card obstacles in this situation, 3rd opportunities in this situation, 4th possible source of assistance, 5th greater situation, how do we do this by the way? Do you post the cards here and I interpret them? You post them and give me Karlsen's interpretation of them?}