The chronicles of the exiles, 8.

By Aratana

Stranded in a high magic shadow with no really viable means of escape, those of us that survived the explosion [well, most of us], left to find the "Vatican" where there was apparently a highly ordered aura, suitable for Pattern use. Bryan was still in Panther form, and I made myself a horse. Thor imperiously demanded a horse with unsubtle threats and also managed to annoy Brian by calling him stupid. He might regret this later.

After a couple of weeks riding we were somewhere in Germany. Ish. Probably. Thor threatened Bryan and immediately tried wibbling with trump. Me and Bryan decided to step away from Thor to a safeish distance. We were right, when a pulse of silver white light played around Thor's head and then expanded to cover us all. Darius disappeared and so did the horses, and we seemed to be in a very subtly different shadow. Thor was still concentrating mildly and so Bryan nicked his sword and hid it. However, being a Panther, he also took Thor's belt and snagged his trousers, causing them to fall down. Strong mists rolled in at this point, and me and Bryan went to see what was going on while Thor recovered his mental faculties, as well as his trousers.

We walked into the mists which got thicker and thicker, and at their origin we came upon a tall figure wearing a green cloak, obscured by the mist. He introduced himself as Tarant Mistwalker, and expressed thanks that we had released him from the binding that had "held him in the mists". It turns out that he had in some way been imprisoned by the magi at the covenant....
Anyway, he used the mists to travel between a set of closely related realms, in which he had travelled widely in service of his master. Spotting something that sort of implied blood of power, we invited him along, and went back to Thor, who was still recovering his mentals, but not his trousers. Such appalling dress manners, and in company, too. I dunno.

At about this time, Johanna trumped Bryan and came through on a paw that was reluctantly given - but Johanna picked up that he was going to attack her and, whilst pulling herself through, threw Bryan back the other way down the trump contact. This didn't quite work, Bryan just smashing into a wall of trump energy in midair, but it was effective in stopping him biting her.
Tarant: Most impressive work, Sir Panther...

After explaining to Johanna that we had been having problems, she led us through shadow, with a little trouble (presumably since we had been moved a bit by Thor's wibble), and before too long we came upon a forested shadow. We stopped, while I asked Johanna if heading Amberwards was a good plan, especially since we seemed to be in a wood...

It was at about this point that the Elves opened fire. Whilst it would be interesting to note the diverse parallels between a forest of overprotective, war-inclined elves and a certain forest full of over-protective, warring Forest Arden rangers, we were too busy dodging arrows and not being shot to notice. Brian found one up a tree and started to eat it. Johanna wants a fight, and gets one with a lot of elves. Some spearmen arrived. Thor called Johanna foolish. Johanna got shot at, dived, rolled, flicked herself to her feet in one fluid motion and hit Thor. Thor took his statement back, from his new-found recumbent position.

Some magi floated in at this point and started making invocations. I grabbed Tarant in one hand and called back to Johanna that if she wanted practice, she could easily cope without me. We left. Bryan culled another Elf. Johanna reluctantly came after us, followed by Thor and Bryan. Thor immediately started to wibble...
and wibble...
and wibble...
and pass out. Johanna was stood handily near him, and picked him up. We let Johanna lead the shadowwalk. She took us to a somewhat rocky and unstable shadow, before dropping Thor when a rockslide started. We all took cover, except Thor, who got a bit squished. Johanna had disappeared in the confusion. Darius arrived on a dragon.
[Someone, to Thor]: Teach you to rely on other people!!

Now in a mist-free environment, we could see that tarant was a tallish, tanned man of fairly handsome aspect, with dark, blonde-streaked hair, and green eyes with golden flecks. He wears a grey and green cloak and carries a wooden staff.
While we looked at Tarant, another traveller approached, their flaming red hair contrasting with their huge black mount. Sunlight glinted off the axe and crossbow that he carried. Darius confirmed that Tarant had "potential" whilst the traveller approached.

Johanna now trumped Bryan, claiming that she had only just been released from a Chaosian prison after three weeks. She also pointed out that the Elders were all dead. Totally. Further investigation determined that it was probably only Trump being broken, and also that, if you are Darius, you can get 20,000 Volts direct current out of broken trumps. Upon hearing of Thor's accident Johanna went to dig him out. I helped. We found a Thor with several battered bits and a suspiciously precisely broken neck, almost as if done on purpose...

Johanna decided to do the honest Valkyrie thing, lay Thor across her horse and headed off toward Amber at hellride speed after failing to trump Fiona.

While we looked on at Johanna's amazingly philanthropic actions, something rolled up the valley. It was a silver-grey globe off which the light reflected strangely, and occasoinally the sgrey would break to reveal a flash of black. It was moving through shadow, and headicng toward Amber. We followed on Darius' dragon. I piloted while Darius examined it. We saw that it was accelerating toward the limit for pleasant shadowwalking, and Darius decided to pop it. Black energies earthed themselves. There was a figure in the centre. It got out, and, after we had landed, introduced himself as Lord Orden of house Sigurt.

Ae got down and said hi. Lord Orden didn't seem too unhappy to see us. He explained that the globe was an escape measure that had the unfortunate effect of ceasing time on the inside, whilst forming an impermeable shell on the outside. He didn't believe us at first when we told him that he was moving through shadow, although eventually he said that the "shadow gradient had possibly been steeper than he had accounted for." He continued that the Pattern had been gaining power lately, and that this might be responsible. Darius mentioned that it had been fed lately. Orden said that would take Mind, Body and Soul. We rattled off a list of possibilities: Darius' and Thor's minds, three quarters of Bryan's body, and Thor's soul.....
A strange conversation then kicked off, before Walker, blackened, charred, looking very pissed off, turned up.
Walker: Hello Orden [Bow, turn, straighten, stiffen] Now WHO BLEW UP THAT BUILDING?!!!
All eyes were on Bryan. Walker went to beat his sword flat again.
Orden: Hello Walker. Want a suit? [concentrates... it appears.]
walker: Thanks [goes off to get changed]

There was a rather long and strange conversation with Orden at this point. Suffice to say that Orden had enemies in Chaos, and while it wasn't him that had been made an example of, to keep the others in line, someone had been. Also, Orden knew that Benedict (both of him) was off in shadow.
Orden: There are two of Himself
Me: Who is he?
Orden: [shrug] That's what he calls Himself.
Orden also mentioned that only a couple of months back, Amber had been interested in war. We explained that the cessation of that activity may have been to do with our arrival. Darius meanwhile mentioned that our Trumps weren't working. Orden grinned and it was fairly notable that his did. Orden offered Darius trumps "for a price". Darius refused, and started producing various random and expensive substances from his capacious pockets.

One thing that Orden did mention was that "It could be that what Aratana mentioned could be more disruptive this time than last time." Eeek.

The red-haired stranger then introduced himself as Yanesh, after a bit of pressuring. However we didn't get much more information as a red horse was riding toward us. It was carrying Random, who recognised Orden.

Random divulged that "certain places were now out of reach", and that "The repercussions of Thor's death have been felt in Amber". He also said that :
Random: "Hostilities have finally opened in Amber, in an impressive way. There was really only one piece of ammunition, and its been fired....
When Brian asked how many were dead, Random stated that these were Amberites and what did he think the rate of attrition was...

As an encore, Random then went on to state that "The Panther cannot hold cards", which is true since he has no opposable digits. As a closing remark, Orden stated that there would be one faction not in the fight, given the weapons involved....