07.03b: Private Conversation

[Wyvern]

Late that night (or perhaps early the next morning), after the events in Shadow of the Mountain, Alys meets with Lyra and Morgana.
This scene was originally run via PMs; it's now being re-posted here.

"I will start with a question: Has Dworkin told either of you anything about where he came from?" Alys waits for the inevitable negative responses before continuing.

"So. I am sure you've heard him say he created Amber, the Pattern, and all of reality. From a certain point of view, he is probably right. However, I - quite literally - do not see things that way. If we call Amber and all of its shadows... 'yellow', for lack of a better term - well, I would be willing to believe that Dworkin is responsible for the existance of everything that is reality-yellow."

"But Amber is not the only place casting shadows; there is also Chaos - call that reality-blue. The two are largely orthogonal; Lyra, for example, is mostly 'yellow', with only relatively small amounts of 'blue'. Dworkin is entirely both, and a half-dozen other 'colors' besides; I cannot get a good read on what he is - but I do know that he came from Chaos, and that whatever he did to create Amber ripped the power of Logrus away from the former ruling clan. Logrus is their equivalent of Pattern, a Greater Power that cannot be opposed by lesser means and capable of reshaping or destroying entire shadows; I can give you a detailed listing of what it could do later. Or you could ask Dworkin for a demonstration; he is probably still the only one attuned to it."

"Chaos is divided into clans, based on natural form; it is a land of shapeshifters in much the same way one might call Amber a city of sorcerers - again, I'll go over what an expert shapeshifter can do later. That means clan membership is somewhat flexible; if you are good enough, you can change your natural form and become something greater than what you were. And the greatest clan, of course, is the one that holds the Serpent's favor and has access to Logrus."

"I will take a moment to comment on what shapeshifting cannot do: it cannot replicate or fool a Greater Power. No matter how good the shapeshifter, for example, they cannot mimic one of us well enough to use Pattern or hijack a Trump connection - though Dworkin could probably manage either. And shapeshifting should offer no advantage for trying to survive attunement to the Pattern."

"So, long story short? There are maybe a billion insane shapeshifters out there, who would loving nothing more than to kill Dworkin and tear down everything he has built. They do not know how to find us, they would be hard-pressed to get here even if they knew exactly where to go, and they are busy fighting all the other clans to try and hold together what used to be an empire... So we should have plenty of time to prepare. But even if they fall, whoever comes out on top will not remember Dworkin fondly. And that," Alys looks at Morgana, "Is why I thought you needed to know about this. If you are going to be ruler here, you should not be in the dark about the problems Dworkin left behind when he decided to try for a clean start."

[Joshua]

"A billion?" Morgana will ask. "I've never heard of so many people. That is troubling. And Dworkin did this on purpose? What proof do you have?"

[Wyvern]

Alys shrugs. "The number means less than it might; reality-yellow is... very, very concentrated, in Amber, and even more so in the few people who have attuned to Dworkin's Pattern. Chaos, by contrast, is very spread out; where Amber is a single world, and its shadows hard-edged and distinct, Chaos is countless shadows all interleaved and overlapping, and the only place as real as Amber is the Serpent's Labyrinth - roughly equivalent to the Pattern itself. Which means that there are few indeed among them who can match any of us, even at a dozen against one, and their rank and file will be far lesser beings than even a beggar off the streets here in Amber."
She grins, and adds, "And yes, that makes me something of an anomaly; in Chaos," Alys casually shifts to her chaos form, "I was known as a warrior who simply did not lose, no matter the odds - and that reputation was very nearly true."

"I make no claims as to Dworkin's intent, or purpose. I know what was being said in Chaos when I left; they claim that he cast down Clan Angel on charges of stasis and stagnation - but what Dworkin thinks of the whole affair, and whether he actually made such charges... I did not know him before I came here, and cannot say."

"For proof - I have a few things; the easy ones being memories - my own, and Tinder's. And this:" She pulls out a trump card and drops it on the table. "Mor'Draes-Yev. My ancestral home, or what is left of it; a ruined citadel at the heart of Chaos. I did not think the place still existed, but Dworkin found it none the less."

The card is "The Tower", and depicts a shattered stone tower floating against a striped sky - as if someone had turned Jupiter inside out and placed it as the entirety of the heavens. It's clear that gravity in the scene is not a single direction, and that geometry is less reliable than in an escher painting. Indeed, some of the disjoint nature of the place appears to have been deliberately designed; while it's clearly heavily damaged, that damage does not account for all of the oddities.

"If you want better proof than that - it should be possible to see some of the things I can see by other methods; perhaps using Pattern as a lens, or some form of sorcerous analysis. I use shapeshifting, mimicing the Power of the Unicorn's eyes, but that is a difficult trick to master. I could teach Lyra, given sufficient time, but it would likely take decades or centuries."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

"Well then you'd better start teaching me soon then", Lyra replies with a slight chuckle, trying to interject some levity into the seriousness of the conversation. "It's best to assume we'll have to deal with these shape-shifters or others in the near, or relatively near, future." Lyra pauses to collect her thoughts before continuing. "When I was at the last barrier of my walk, I spoke to...or rather was spoken to...by someone named Chaos. He didn't actually name himself as such, but I knew that to be his name somehow. Maybe he can help answer some of our questions if I can locate him."

Lyra pulls out her own Tower card, displaying it on the table next to Alys' card. "The chessboard here...I saw it once before back home. It was in the lair of a great dragon named Nathrezell, historically referred to as the Dragon of Dreams. I saw Nate...Nathrezell...when I walked the pattern. Chaos is his father. He first appeared as a giant purple dragon but later as a man and spoke to me saying something like "our legacy had been taken but maybe I could forge a new one."

Lyra looks over to Morgana. "I wanted to make sure to bring that up so you know I'm not harboring any secrets."

[Joshua]

Morgana will nod. "I think ... I don't think the pattern actually lets them talk to you. It's more a racial memory inside you. It's how you know their names. Still, might be worth looking into. That's about as close to a message from the pattern as you can get." She will think a bit about the other stuff. "Is this worth telling the other courts about? I mean, if it's a while off, then we can simply learn and prepare, and when the time comes, step up to help the others. If it's closer, perhaps we should let them prepare as well."

[Wyvern]

Alys shrugs. "That is up to the two of you. Dworkin has kept these secrets so far - perhaps he has good reason. Or perhaps he just likes secrets; it is odd, for example, how my card compares to Lyra's. I am a true dragon, most likely the last of my line, yet he draws me in my almost-human social form, leaving only hints and symbols, and has repeatedly suggested that I keep my shapeshifting secret. I am giving the two of you the information I have despite those warnings, because of where he has placed me in his courts; I may not stay here more than the few centuries I owe him, but while I'm here, I will take my responsibilities seriously."

[ShadowOfPreservation]

Lyra seems slightly distracted, her natural fascination with Dragons continually drawing her attention to Alys’ Chaos form. “Maybe we can take some of this to Dworkin and try, however in vain it may prove to be, to get his take on all of this. Maybe there’s more information he can interject or clarify before we disseminate this to the other Courts. Likely he'll just say something vague though, implying we find our answers elsewhere. I do think that we should say something to the others. We can give them the information and what they choose to do with it from there is up to them.” Addressing Alys directly she continues, “After my discussion with Dworkin earlier, we should be able to visit my home at any point and so long as we can figure out the controls, the whole trip should take no time at all. Perhaps early tomorrow sometime we can grab Rasanam and try and get some answers from Nathrezell.”

[Wyvern]

"Let me know, then; I am looking forward to that trip."

Alys will continue with a description of what (she knows that) shapeshifting can do - including a few basic demonstrations of things like disguises and shapeshift wounds. This should be roughly equivalent knowledge to having read the rulebook's entries on both shapeshifting and advanced shapeshifting. However, she's careful to note that this is just what she knows about, and it's likely that any really good shapeshifter will have some unique tricks of their own.

She'll also describe what she knows of Logrus - this is likely to be rather less accurate, however. She knows that it typically manifests as indestructible tendrils, similar to those deployed by the "Krampus" that Dworkin sent away at the feast.* She knows that those tendrils can initiate psychic contact and can reach through multiple shadows. She knows that Logrus can be used to reshape, destroy, or (possibly?) create entire shadows. And she knows that the price of Logrus is madness; if you are attuned to that Power, then you had to have spent at least some time insane. (Which is why she mentioned "a billion insane shapeshifters" - that's not the whole population of Chaos, just the members of the former ruling Clan.)

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* The Krampus itself, she identifies as a "creature of blood", a shapeshifting-based conjuration created by Dworkin that shares some small portion of his power. This particular application of shapeshifting may also explain the trump decks; at least in theory, it should take Dworkin + blood-scribes no longer to create a dozen trump cards than it would take Dworkin alone to create a single one.

[Joshua]

"Would it be inappropriate to ask Dworkin to show us Logrus?" Morgana will ask. "Probably. We shoudl get used to pattern a bit before worrying about other powers. We have an advantage that it's nothing they'll have seen before. Thank you for bringing this to us Alys. I regret we dont' have much means to repay you directly."