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

[OOC - I'll do the card reading hopefully tonight.]

Aboard Weredolphin, Fergus hears some whispering that would seem to be coming from a nearby cabin. As the submersible moves, the tumult of the air attack fades and the working of the machinery becomes a regular background noise. He can make out certain words and phrases int he conversation.

First voice: "...may not be enough."

Second voice: "But...has...everywhere...they?"

First voice: "...too many. But...we'll be deploying more now."

Second voice: "How long...take?"

First voice: "...traverse the worlds and find...scions of Amber...on the move."

Fergus tries to sharpen his hearing to be able to hear more of their conversation. If they were planning on sending more agents in the field against Amberites then finding out more of their plans might help his cousins against them. They'd already got Kierenne and Kieran. He didn't want to lose another cousin to the machinations of this cult. With more information on their agents and method of capture he could warn Aiden and Karlsen and get them to spread the message.

OOC - Ummm should we keep waiting for the cards? Or should we just move on? If it is too much trouble we can just ignore that and move on.

Three cards emerge in the Tarot reading as Aiden and Karlsen examine them.

The three of swords:
The Tower
The seven of swords

Something about what lies ahead, particularly the island where Weredolphin is headed, is tied up with a threat to a household. More, some kind of heartbreak and betrayal lies in the past, with someone's intemperate success or greed behind it all.

OOC - I hate to say this but it was supposed to be a 5 card situation layout. Ummm.... I could use what you already have and add two cards, one above the current situation and one below. The one above would be for things in favor of the situation (particularly looking for an ally here or a situation that would help the cause) and the one below would be for thing working against the situation (possible enemies or things to avoid).

When 'The Tower' appears Karlsen says "Shit."

The card above is The Magus

And below The Devil

By total concentration, Fergus makes out a few more words. Evidently the speakers are further away or behind a barrier than they were previously. Fortunately, they seem to view this as a reason not to lower their voices.

Voice One: "...an adjacent world allied to Amber..."
Voice Two: "...is it called, if...(mumble)...ask?"
Voice One: "(mumble)...even has a name...but (mumble) Iv and their Viceroy, or Vicereinne."
Voice Two: "What will we be (mumble) to do?"
Voice One: "(mumble) ...yet anyway. But we'll be of some (mumble) in the overthrow."
Voice Two: "What? Will we, I mean (mumble)?"
Voice One: "(mumble)"
Voice Two: "No. Yes. Well, I (mumble)"

Fergus has heard the name Iv before. It was one of the places that Isobel had marked on the map in her little boat. Twice in the space of a day was more of a co-incidence and Fergus knew that it was perhaps key in some way to what was going on.

Fergus decides to contact the others to let them know what he has found out so far. These people certainly know more about other Shadows than your average resident of the Nexus, which means that they perhaps must know that the tenants of the cults message on the Nexus are a lie.

He selects Karlsen's card and concentrates on it.

"Karlsen can you hear me." He whispers into it.

At Karlsen's exclamation of "Shit!" Aiden lifts a quizzical eyebrow and gives a slight smirk. "Shit ahead, or shit behind? Care to elaborate?"

Peering further at the cards, he adds, "The Magician card looks promising."

OOC - Sorry for the delay. RL stuff. I'll try to be more on top of this!

Karlsen considers the cards before replying. "More like shit on top of us. Usually The Tower is a sign of sudden often violent changes. Someone suffered some sort of betrayal in the past leading us up to that change. Possibly a betrayal or heartbreak of the woman that ring was intended for. Maybe older? Say Fergus's Mother? Hard to tell time reference with these things."

"Against us is someone or something that is trying to manipulate us into thinking that there is only one alternative. Probably somebody who is more concerned with the material world, rather than the mystical or sorcerous. Possibly there is someone manipulating Onyx into conflict with Amber? We must be aware that there are always other alternatives, particularly spiritual. The thought that springs to my mind is that of a soldier or merchant manipulating things so that Amber and Onyx come into contact at least and possibly conflict."

"Helping us is someone who trying to make the most out of possiblities. Someone almost the opposite of the person against us. Somone sorcerous or spiritual who is attempting to push things in the direction that he or she desires. Someone like Dworkin."

"In the future there is going to be some hard going with secretiveness, hidden motives and dishonesty. Mhmh. Are we going to have a family get together you think?" "Sounds like our business as usual. Maybe just a more intense version with two families involved?"

As they ponder over the cards Karlsen suddenly sits up straight. "I feel another Trump contact. Keep ready." Karlsen then focuses on the contact and tries to strengthen it, searching for who is on the other end.

"Karlsen, its me Fergus" he whispers urgently now that he has a contact. "It looks like the bad guys are sending out more spies to hunt out the scions of Amber. From what I can make out it seems that they don't think they have enough out there so they are sending more out. Also I couldn't make everything out they were saying but it looks like they may have some plot to overthrow the person ruling Iv. We saw that shadow marked on Isobel's map and also it's just come to me that Mint told me that she was from there as well. I think after we are done on the island it might be the next place to try."

"Fergus! Good to hear from you. We will pass the information along. Yes she is from there, but I don't know how much she keeps up with local politics. How are you holding up? Is being a spy everything you expected it to be?" Karlsen chuckles at this. "Do you need us to bring you through? Or are you going to stick it out?"

"I'm fine, if a little cramped in here. I'm going to stick it out till we get to the island which hopefully won't be long. Being a spy is certainly less comfortable than I'd hoped, though this submersible is better than that other boat I was on. Are you both alright, what with all the air raid going on?"

"ummm.." Karlsen briefly considers not telling the whole truth then rejects it. "We left. We are now at a retreat of mine. I didn't want to risk having a bomb drop right on us. Not very likely but infinitely less likely to happen where we are now. I just finished a Trump of the alley behind the inn we were staying at so we will head back there shortly."

"We have been talking and did a Trump reading. We think that someone is trying to manipulate Onyx and Amber into contact, and possibly conflict. If I were you I would be wary of people who are more militant or mercantile. If you run into anyone who is more of a sorcerous or spiritual bent they could be trying to help our cause." Karlsen shrugs. "Vauge I know but the cards don't go much for specifics. But they do sometimes help give perspective on things in the Pattern. Next time we have a chance ask me about it. I would like a chance to bounce some theories off you about how they do it."

"I will do. I didn't know the cards could be used for that; Winnow didn't tell me. Once we get to the island I'll pull you both through if you want. I was going to then get hold of a cultist to try and infiltrate their command when we get there. I was going to do it on the submersible but when I got on board there were only women present. Are there any updates on the plan I need to know about?"

"They can in a limited way. Later I will show you some of my experiments on it and see what you think of the data. Facinating stuff. My basic working theory is that there is no random chance within about 10,000 branes of Amber. Everything happens acording to the Pattern. The Trumps, particularly ones made with the Pattern can be manipulated by the Pattern. I'll let you chew on that theory for a while and see what you work out. It'll give you something to do while waiting."

"Don't underestimate women. Or I'll sick Mint on you."

"Pull Aiden and myself through as soon as you get off the submersible. Before, if you need help getting off of it."

"I look forward to listening to your theories when we have a bit more time."

"I wasn't putting a downer on women I assure you, I'm just a little less comfortable with using my talent on copying them. Before Gerard freed me a few weeks ago I'd only seen two women before and one of those was my wet nurse who dissapeared from the scene when I was four. I have little reference with them and although I've seen diagrams of their anatomy I wouln't know where to start."

Fergus blushes furiously at this point and rapidly tries to change the subject.

"Hopefully we're not far off the islan. I'll contact you again when we get there."

OOC - Man so much progress! If only the other two were on!

Karlsen smiles. "Ahhhh! Ok now I get it. Imitating a crewmember is a good idea, but you are right about imitating women. The physiological part is only the tip of the iceberg." Unbidden an image of Fergus in drag pops into his head. Only years of Trump mastery makes it possible for Karlsen to keep it from reaching Fergus.

OOC - Yes I keep a check most days on the site .

Fergus considers that physically it should be quite possible to imitiate a woman with his talent but as he was still learning it on the job anything difficult like that would not be a good idea in such dangerous circumstances.

"I'm going to contact Mint now. Do you have one of those spare cards of me that I can give her if I get through?"

"No. But I can do one of you before I talk to her and pass it to her. I have a time advantage here so I should be able to get that done."

OOC - there were a number of spare copies of my trump created that I think either Karlsen or Aiden had. This is what Fergus is after.

Aiden withdraws the Trump of Fergus from his pocket and hands it to Karlsen. "Here, you can give this one to him for Mint...if I can get you to sketch another one up for me in the near future. I'd like to keep one with me at all times, just in case.....I feel kind of responsible for the lad, you know?"

Karlsen takes the Trump from Aiden and gives it a calculating look. Then he passes it through.

"I can make a replacement easy enough. I think we will have a bit of time. I'll let you go now so you can make your call to Mint." Karlsen will wait to make sure he doesn't have anything else to say then break the connection with a wave.

Fergus thanks Karlsen and Aiden for the trump before terminating the link. He shuffles Karlsen's card back into his deck and produces the one that Mint gave him. He hopes that she is OK as last time Aiden tried to contact her he reported that the link was sonehow broken.

He concerntrates on the card of Mint and whispers into it.

"Lamiaceae."

Fergus puts Mint's card back into his case of cards and settles back into the hollow, shifting his weight slightly to avoid getting stiff muscles.

Hopefully not long now and maybe I'll learn just who is responsible for my imprisonment all these years.