Sunday
The GenCon Amber Campaign
I was looking forward to Sunday at GenCon so that I could play in the GenCon Amber game. Hard to believe that it started over ten years ago.
Last year my character Damarian (son of Fiona and general né’er-do-well) had made the acquaintance of Megan, a lovely young woman from the Golden Circle. An only child and an indulged tomboy she was really what the character had needed, someone to help him have fun.
But the fun had to come to an end. There was still the image of their trip into Tir-na Nog’th, where a future Damarian was on the throne, and a very familiar yet strange blonde woman was beside him. Then the image of the blonde woman became real as she manifested the Pattern through the Jewel of Judgement, then disappeared.
Well, I decided to go looking for her, and I would use my new-found abilities with the Pattern to do it. That was what I had decided since last year, and now was my chance to go do it.
Except the Pattern couldn’t do it. There was an overwhelming sense of frustration, as though the woman didn’t exist in the realm of Amber and its Shadows. She could be in the Courts of Chaos, where the Pattern has not power, or she could be in the universe of Corwin’s Pattern or Harlan’s Pattern, or she may not even be born yet.
So we decided instead to go on a picnic: climbing Mount Kolvir to watch the sunset from the top of the mountain.
On the way, we noticed something strange. In a spur of the mountain shielded from Amber, we could see horse pens constructed, for about 40,000 horses. It was already about 25% full. Through a spyglass we could see people with the colors of several of the elders bringing in still more horses.
I had not heard of a mustering: normally that would have been known to at least the Family, as we all hold military rank in some fashion or another in the forces of Amber. Unless it has to do with something that I might not have wanted to coöperate. I took the precaution to contact Godfrey, who is the Warfare master of our little group, and he didn’t know anything about it, either. Since it would take several more days to collect the horses, this was a problem that could wait until the following morning: I had more important business to attend to. <g>
That night, Tir appeared in the sky. I was using the spyglass to show Megan things that we had not noticed on our last venture into the city in the sky when I noticed a familiar suite of white armor accompanied by a smaller figure with bright red hair. Mother.
And, watching them, was an indistinct figure in black armor, from about where the royal apartments would be in Amber.
It seemed significant enough that I Trumped Fiona. She appeared to sitting in her rooms, reading, but it was a trick she used, and she was actually in Tir. She seemed quite surprised to hear about the figure in black, distracted enough that she didn’t make any comments about my new girlfriend: that was most unusual for her, a sign that she was very concerned about more important things that needling her son. She thanked me for the information and cut the contact.
That was where things ended. I hope to carry the situation on at AmberCon next year, as I will be much closer than the wilds of upper Wisconsin and able to make the convention. I’m planning on watching Fiona and Julian’s progress through a Pattern lens, and maybe even offer them a back door out of trouble if necessary.
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