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

"Great. Will do. " Aiden nods.

Turning to Fergus and Karlsen, he claps his hands together and says, "Whatdya say we get this show on the road? Is there anything special you all need to do before we get going?"

Fergus is suprised that there was to be no briefing or anything else, plus there was something that he was expecting missing.

"Aunt Flora gave me to understand that there would be some trumps provided for communication means. I trust Horatio that you have been entrusted with these to distribute to us."

"Secondly if we are about to leave for the Nexus I need to go and disguise myself. I understand that my current visage may prove somewhat of a magnet whilst we are there and if there are more monocled agents there I do not want to be the focus of their attention. Have you got a room with a mirror in Karlsen? I'll need to pick up some new clothes too, but that can probably wait till we get there."

"Well I am ready to procede but the thought of letting our enemy know anything about us coming is a bit of a risk."

"But first I would like to know what Horatio learned from the person who wore the monocle and carried the box. She should have some knowlege of who is responsible for these incredible devices."

(Occ - sorry for the sporadic posts. Things are very busy here. I hope to post more later!)

"I agree Cousin, it would be good to hear what intelligence we managed to pick up from the young woman. It may prove to be of vital importance to our mission."

Horatio nods in approval. "Good, good. First, I have been authorized on behalf of the Realm to bestow this upon you...Fergus." He takes from his pouch a nice box of wood inlaid with a very pretty spiral pattern. He hands the Trump-card-shaped box to Fergus, "With King Random and Queen Vialle's compliments."

He next takes out a small leather leather pouch and removes several Trumps. All are of Fergus. He hands one to Aiden and one to Karlsen.

"I stand ready to answer any questions you might have," he says. "The young lady in question is asleep and likely to remain so for at least two more days." He shrugs. "The potion we gave her inspires truth-telling but also, eventually, causes exhaustion. But I personally oversaw her interrogation and stand ready to tell you all I learned."

Fergus tucks away the trump pouch for checking and investigation later. His' list of questions is quite long, but he decides to start off with the simple ones first.

"I guess the first things I'd like to know are who is she, who does she work for and how did she recognise me are the first ones I'd like to know. I have a much longer list of course, but let's start with the simple ones first."

"Name is Daphne Plantagenet. She's a cousin of minor nobility in one of the Golden Circle Kingdoms -- a group of nations and lands in nearby Shadows with which we do extensive trade. She was employed by two...entities. One, which gave her the monocle, is an organization called the Oracle Group. They sent her on an intinerary around the Golden Circle, noting certain things they most wanted her to find out about. One was Amber's royal family, although she was not to approach Amber itself. Another was you. As part of her training she spent a year in the Nexus, which she traveled to below decks on a small ship, over the course of 48 hours. She was also to be on the lookout for anyone with golden or purple eyes. They hinted as well an interest is acquiring any young member of Amber's royal family whom she ran across. Mostly, however, her goal was intelligence -- and the monocle meant she didn't even have to file any reports!"

"She had also been hired, before all this, by a man in dark robes with eyes of two different colors blue. He arranged for her payment provided she released a clay bird from a certain box every day at a pre-arranged hour. She never knew his name, but he was friendly and paid well. Her task was to simply travel around the Shadows near Amber."

So there are two groups with an interest in me. I wonder who this second person is with odd coloured eyes.

"Did she gives names of the people in the Oracle Group and those that she met in the Nexus? It is always useful to know who our enemies may be when we get there. Also did she know who or what her monocle was reporting to?"

"Evidently, she only knew the monocle allowed her employers to watch what she was doing and listen to what she was hearing. The Oracle Group had many employees, but the individual with whom she most often interacted was a chubby fellow with a moustache named Oswald. He also sported a monocle."

"Since she had a degree of training did she know what the aims of this Oracle group were? She must have picked up something have what they were about and what their aims where. Did they say why they wanted a young member of the family for instance?"

"Their avowed point-of-view was that the Nexus was on a list of places Amber planned to conquer, not in the immediate future but sometime further on. Amberite royals were regarded as the basis for legends of demons and such in the Nexus, and the Oracle Group had taken it upon themselves to defend their reality by interfering with the Realm's long-term plans and immediate goals, in effect buying the Nexus time. Daphne had the impression they wanted a live subject in order to study extensively."

"In the girl's defense, I must point she didn't believe any of this interpretation of the situation. She thought the Oracle Group pretty much paranoid and out of their depth, so that she regarded herself as exploiting their delusions. Personally, I sympathize. When she actually came across your cousin Kierrenne, she was shocked and worried. She never expected to meet a member of the House of Oberon."

"But she did pick up that the Oracle Group had some powerful patrons, although their identity remained very well hidden."

So it was Kierenne who sent this agent to us. I must remember to thank her next time I see her.

"There are still a few things puzzling me. I'm assuming that the order to locate me must have been given to Daphne recently, perhaps in the last two weeks, as before that they already had me prisoner. Since they already had me as a prisoner and they were seeking a young Amber royal for study, this implies to me that they did not know of my Amber heritage prior to this. There is a problem with this line of thinking though."

"Whoever is behind this group clearly wants me out of the way and had formulated the second prophecy from the first as a way of engendering the minds of the people of the Nexus against both me and Amberites. However the actual prophecy implies that I am from Amber, therefore they must have known that I was from Amber. The Oracle Group being an unsubtle reference to the prophecies and all. Which makes me wonder why they would want another young Amber royal when they already had me to study. Was I not good enough for them?"

"My final question before I let me Cousins get a word in edgeways is this. How come Daphne knew the longform of my name rather than the shortform that I have always used ever since I can remember?"

"Ah, I"ve not made something clear. My apologies," says Horatio. "She had been told to look for anyone with your distinctive eyes in her training, but wasn't told about you yourself until recently. Nor was she told much. As for what the Oracle Group's deeper goals and policies might be--that, alas, remains a mystery."

Fergus turns to face Horatio, ignoring Karlsen's sudden distraction. He was beginning to despair that Lord Big Ears wasn't as good as he thought he was at interrogation.

"It still doesn't explain why she used the longform of my name. Did you manage to get anything useful from her like passwords, secret locations and the like for the cult? They all might come in useful in the Nexus."

"Damn! Now that I think of it, it's a shame we couldn't turn her into a triple agent. I imagine though they're aware not only of her capture but also quite probably the identity of her captors by now. Still...." Aiden glances at Horatio. "If there was a way to make it appear that something else had occured... Was Kierenne the only Amberite she saw, or rather her monocle transmitted intel about, before it was removed? "

"....Not counting, of course, our little experiment with it. I couldn't tell if it was still transmitting by that point or had been disconnected by her handlers."

"The young lady in question is far from a high functionary within the group. More like an independent contractor. She called you by a name that was given to her, the only one she knew. Recognizing another operative was easy enough -- they bore the same monocle. It was by such means she was paid and how she receiving briefings."

(Occ - Sorry all I seem to be the stick in the mud here, and I am now the tie between over half the people playing! Work is heck right now. I will try to keep up with everything but forgive me if a few balls get tossed high for a bit!)

"Hang on a moment, I'm getting a Trump call." He concentrates and focuses on the Trump contact. "I am in Amber. Your response is very weak. I can barely sense you. How far out are you? Just a moment I have got help here." He turns to Aiden, "Give me a hand here. Mint is trying for contact but we can hardly reach each other. She must be really far out."

"Yeah. sure thing." Aiden reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a small set of Trumps. Fanning quickly through it, he comes across Mint's, removes it from the deck, and begins to focus intently on her features. "Mint. Can you hear us?"

They only identify themselves by the monocle. Well that's something we already have and if their structure is such that they keep a large degree of secrecy then it will be very easy to infiltrate them.

Fergus briefly watches the others as they take the trump call from Mint and it is clear that they were struggling in some way. He would like to join in and talk to Mint, but though a second person was help, three would probably be a crowd and cause confusion.

"Say hi to Mint for me. May be useful to pass her my trump Horatio if you have a spare there."

Fergus watches the movements and manerisms of Lord Big Ears. He wanted as much data on the man as he could just in case he needed to find out a bit more about what the man was up to. He was well aware that although the family had been friendly to him, they hadn't told him everything yet. Just what he needed to know to help with his imediate goal and to help them.

When Aunt Flora said that she supported him, she had implied that not everyone here did. Fergus felt that perhaps he had found the source of that comment. A man with large amounts of information and influence over the crown, that perhaps did not trust him, but was prepared to use him. The source of Horatio's distrust was obvious. The uniciorn prophecy indicates that he was tied both to Amber and the Crimson Unicorns in some way. If he had located the prophecy then that and his mismatched eyes would definetly have told Lord Big Ears that he was something to do with this other family. Thus not someone he would fully trust.

Well that goes two ways Lord Big Ears, though I won't say that out loud.

David wrote:Karlsen feels a Trump message arriving.

Aiden wrote:"Yeah. sure thing." Aiden reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out a small set of Trumps. Fanning quickly through it, he comes across Mint's, removes it from the deck, and begins to focus intently on her features. "Mint. Can you hear us?"

OOC:For simplicity's sake I will respond in the other thread.

Karlsen is suddenly holding an envelope. He glances in it and finds some flowers. He nods and it disappears into is bag. He focuses to clearly send, "Ok. I have the envelope." Then he starts talking a bit faster sure that the rest isn't as important. "I should be able to follow them to where you are. It might be a bit. I will call later. Fergus says hi."

To Fergus he says, "This connection is really bad. Let us hold onto the Trump for now, we can pass it to her later when we have a better connection or see her in person."

Seeing that his cousin was finished with his trump communication to cousin Mint, Fergus realised that they needed to decide whether they were going to try and somehow get a trace on the bird.

"So Aiden, Karlsen. Are we going to somehow put a tracker on this clay bird now or wait until we are in shadow then?"

"By the way Karlsen, did you find that piece of Amber loadstone for me?"

Aiden eyes the envelope as it disappears into the bag. "A new mystery from cousin Mint?"

Then shrugging at Fergus, "Depends if Karlsen has anything immediately in mind, I reckon. Otherwise we can figure it out on the way. No worries."

I can find Prospero if and when it becomes important. Right now I'd just like to get on the road. I can FEEL things already moving, circumstances changing. The longer we delay, the more chance we have of 'missing the moment'.

(Occ - I could have sworn I posted this yesterday. Well here goes. Now I have to remember what I wrote.)

(Occ-David you said that Aiden almost contacted a 'place'. Can Karlsen tell the difference between a Trump contact between a person and a place? Remember he had his Trump lens in place at the time. Was this contact with a person or place?")

(Occ - Fergus was given a lodestone last night. Did he lose it? Or was it tasty? )

"Well we have found out as much as we can right now here. There seem to be two paths ahead of us. One is to head to where the clay birds go. The second is to go see what Mint was calling about."

"My inclination is to see what Mint has found and pool our information. She would not call for something insignificant. Also the connection was strange if she was not very far as she said. We can always find out where the birds go at that time."

"But if anyone has a strong reason to go else where I have no problem with that. Mint stated she was not in any danger so what she has found can likely wait."

"How shall we set out? Walk? Horses? By ship?"