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Post by Hammett on Apr 29, 2021 7:16:35 GMT
"It can never be simple." Hammett mutters to himself as he works on one of the doors, "And who the hell is this now?" Someone of power, obviously, but he could have guessed that. Darkness and flame. Power and distance. The psychic impressions were as disturbing as they were annoyingly vague. Couldn't they just leave a business card or a threatening message at the very least. Something to let him know if this was about Kasaba and Lady Vada or an entirely new situation to deal with? What type of Big Bad didn't want everyone to know who they were? "Smart ones, I guess."
He sighs and takes a break from the work. There had to be an easier way. He also suddenly realized that he never reported back to Llwella. He was going to do that once he was back in the castle, but then the whole imprisonment thing happened and it totally slipped his mind. Damn, she wasn't going to be happy with him either. But at least she could maybe put in a good word for him with Flora and the others. She knew he didn't have anything to do with killing Random, she and the others from Rebma had been "monitoring" what was happening, whatever that meant. That is how they were able to save him, so they had to know the truth.
Okay, finish fixing this door, then head back to Wormwood's and recover and Trump Llwella, get that over with, and then work on a new plan for these doors.
[[OCC: Would it just be easier/possible to erase these tampered with doors and draw up new ones on a different side of the buildings he is using, or on different buildings altogether? Is the damage done just specifically to the doors or to the shadows/area themselves? Also, I assume the Begma doorway is fine and was never tampered with? If it was I would want to talk to Dalton and his team there, as they were supposed to be guarding that door and were working right out of the same building.]]
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2021 18:54:02 GMT
It probably would be easier to just create a new door instead of repairing the damage. But if that is done then the warping of shadow that was done would still remain as a danger to those in the local area. Begma door is undisturbed either by coincidence or because the foe knew it was under a watchful eye.
Llewella does not respond to Hammett's attempt to call her.
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Post by Hammett on Apr 30, 2021 14:49:32 GMT
Hammett sighs and finishes his drink as he puts away his trumps. Well, at least I can say I tried reaching her and got no response.
In no mood to get back to fixing the remaining broken doors right now ((OCC: How many broken doors remain?)) he trumps through to them with each of them with a “closed for renovations” sign, places the sign at each broken door, then close the trump connection to that shadow for now.
Wormwoods got by with customers from only one shadow for years, so being limited to the few shadows it still has good connections to would have to do for now and should keep us busy enough. Plus, he could always open new doors in new shadows if need be.
He’ll have to slowly take his time fixing the damaged doors, maybe one every couple of days. Hopefully the process will become quicker once he has had enough practice doing it. Heck, it would probably make his skills at molding shadows to his will even better.
Another drink and he back sat in deep thought. What was his next move? He wasn’t welcome at the castle right now, so research in the great library was out. As much as his unit of rebels was growing, even with the last couple of months of training and preparing, there went enough of them to take the fight back to Kasaba. Not without an army arriving shortly after to help take control, and they didn’t have an army just yet. Flora was unlikely to send one, definitely not on his request. Calvera had an army, but those troops were so driven and ingrained with getting to Amber, even if Calvera could be convinced to send them to Kasaba and risk losing most of them in that fight, he doubted those troops be motivated to fight there. ((OCC: until Calvera is back and able to post more again I’ll consider those troops “off the table” as it were and just play as if they aren’t there.))
What else was there? What could he do right now? What other threads were there to pull on?
There was still the request of the Begma PM and his wife to find Carol and the other daughter. But that seemed more like busy work then anything else. Coral had the jewel of judgement which meant she was probably in hiding somewhere like Martin, but unlike Martin, Hammett didn’t have her trump to reach her. The other daughter was married to the King of Kashfa, his cousin Luke, who he had never met and he didn’t feel like antagonizing yet another family member at this time.
Absentmindedly shuffling through his trumps he thought back on the last time he did a reading, back just as all this started. That reading had shown him Gerard, Random, Llwella and a “missing person”, someone he didn’t have a card for. Well, now Gerard and Random were dead. The Llwella part had come true, she saved his life shortly after that.
Maybe it was time to do another reading? See if there were any new insights to be had? He was surely still missing an important trump, but any guidance would be better then none at this moment.
It was either that, or trumping through to the Courts of Chaos and bartering for Merlin’s help in taking care of Lady Vada. She was from the courts, so it was kind of his responsibility to keep her in check. If he even knew what she was doing. Hammett doubted that he did, it sounded like he had his own problems right now, but maybe if Hammett helped him with those, he would help Hammett with his.
Another drink didn’t help him come up with any other ideas.
So he decided to first deal a trump reading, then unless that reveled something unexpected, he was going to visit his unmet cousin at the far end of the universe.
((OCC: did you ever decide if one of my trump gates was to Diaga? If so, is it still operational or is it one of the broken ones? And if it is still one of the broken ones when I went through to close it off, did I see what was happening there? If so, that might change my pans))
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2021 20:27:22 GMT
[Ooc: you can choose the doors that are still working. Maybe only 4 or 5 at most so we don't get too bogged down in consequences.]
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Post by Hammett on Apr 30, 2021 21:21:31 GMT
[[OCC: Do you mean the ones that are working fine, or the damaged ones? I will only close off the damaged ones so no chance of anyone getting injured. The ones that are still working I'll leave open. And what about Deiga? ]]
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2021 22:04:03 GMT
Ooc: if you want a deiga door you can have it. I wouldn't recommend it! Choose 4 or 5 working doors for where you want them and assume everything else is closed/erased.
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Post by Hammett on May 1, 2021 17:21:47 GMT
[[OCC: okay, lets say the current, working doors are in: Ceridin, Begma, Baylesport, one in a shady port city in the Isles of the Sun (sound like a cool area but I couldn't find any city or town names. Can you make one up?, and Heerat (had to look that one up, it is a major trade center somewhere out in shadow according to an Amber wiki I found online. Mentioned in one of the later short stories).
And maybe there was a Deiga doorway, it is a major shadow so one I probably would have known it and put a door to, but maybe it is one of the damaged doors? Just thinking of ways of letting all the players meet up for even a short time, before continuing on with our individual quests. ]]
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Post by Admin on May 1, 2021 22:44:33 GMT
[OOC: you can have a Deiga door. but remember that means the locals can get into Wormy's and trash the place in their revolutionary zeal. And have you seen those prices your charging!? I'd trash the place too!]
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Post by Admin on May 1, 2021 22:47:51 GMT
Heerat is where Random and Benedict went in their search for Martin.
"block city....a place of adobe and stone - a commercial centre at the junction of several trade routes. There Random found news that took him eastward and probably deeper into Shadow..."
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Post by Admin on May 1, 2021 22:49:39 GMT
The Complete Amber Sourcebook has a few paragraph's worth of write-up on the place. Mostly just invented by the author, I'd assume.
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Post by Admin on May 1, 2021 22:55:55 GMT
The book also has a write-up on the isles. Merlin mentions them and the author supposes that's where B & C stranded R when he was a kid and also where Fiona hides out when it is mentioned that 'she is to the south'. Nothing is really known about them so if you want to use it then you can create the place. Same with Heerat.
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Post by Hammett on May 2, 2021 8:53:48 GMT
[[OCC: Okay, cool!
Heerat: Shadow and also the name of the main city in the shadow. Middle Eastern architecture and atmosphere. The shadow is at the center of a bunch of major shadow roads and paths that are well known and traveled by all the surrounding shadows. Mystery on how it came to be this way. Not natural. Someone with Pattern a long, long time ago must have laid out these routes and paths, establishing Heerat at the center. Heerat is famous for its massive Grand Bazaar, many, many times larger then the one on Shadow Earth. You can find anything here from across all shadows, and with no regulations like those that are enforced in the Golden Circle. The city and its rulers basically exist just to keep the market running. So large there are actually smaller, secret, markets operating inside of it. Go down the right dark alley, or through the backdoor of the certain shops, and you'll be in an area not policed by the city guard, but rather run by organized crime. Here anything is for sale; weapons, drugs, mercenaries, slaves, shadow creatures, etc... Despite being run by criminals, it can be actually safer then the real market, as no one will try and pickpocket you or mug you or anything as they do not want to cross the bosses that run the markets or cause any trouble that will bring the city guard in to investigate.
Wormwood's doorway here is halfway down one of those alley that lead between the main market and one of the black markets. Hammett is friendly with the mob boss that runs this area so that is why he put the door here. Good traffic from people from both markets, and travelers passing through that hear about it from some of the locals that are "in the know."
Isles of the Sun: A large collection of islands of varying sizes. Atmosphere and culture(s) similar to the 1950's Caribbean of Earth, but with older style governments. Some very rich islands, some very poor. Revolution is always in the air on one island or another (except for a couple of the major ones that are also the most tourist friendly, with resorts and beach clubs, etc...). Hot bed for intrigues, romance and the like. Gambling is big on all the islands and part of the culture of the Isles. From grand casinos to dirt floor backroom poker dens.
Wormwood's doorway here is on an island similar to Cuba, in a city similar to Havana, just before the revolution. Lots of casinos, money to be made, deals to be done, fantastic music and food, etc... Hammett spent a lot of time here back in the day, before opening his own bar, and is well known to most of the important and not so important locals. Only reason Hammett didn't open Wormwood's here was that it is part of the real Amber "shadow", so not a lot of foreign trade or visitors, hard to shift shadow, limited technology, almost all the intrigue is local to the isles and Amber. No shadow routes, etc... and Hammett wanted a more "cosmopolitan" location for Wormwood's and the business he'd be involved in. Kasaba was very similar to this area, but with a lot more traffic and inter-shadow trade, dealing and influence.
Sound good? ]]
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Post by Admin on May 2, 2021 18:41:03 GMT
Looks good to me!
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Post by Hammett on May 2, 2021 20:17:23 GMT
[[OOC: Great. Let's go with those.]]
After closing the broken doors and putting up the signs, Hammett relaxes himself into an almost trance like state and deals a trump reading, hoping for some insight into the current situation.
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Post by Admin on May 3, 2021 2:42:18 GMT
[OOC: How accurate do you want the reading to be? Do you have a list of the cards Hammett has? Elders living at the start of the game, Martin, Calvera, the Wormwood's crew, demon-guy who's name I forgot right now, Dik. Any other people and places? I'd assume the places where your doors are has a trump card.]
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