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Post by Hammett on May 15, 2021 8:34:27 GMT
"Deiga?" Hammett knew the place, it had been along the trade routes he had sailed, first with Gerard and the fleet, then with his own merchant ships. It had always seemed such a dull place, even its inclusion in the Golden Circle had done little bring it out of insular and provincial ways. When in port there he often didn't bother to leave the ship. Even it's harbor bars were of the dullest variety.
"Is this just a normal, or should I better say, natural, political strife, or do you suspect outside interference?"
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2021 11:50:47 GMT
"Outside for sure. That Coy person who used your - I mean Leo's exploding action to kill a few guards and visit the Pattern had Deiga as his base of operations and left a few mind bombs behind for Eivor and Lorelei to trip over.
"If you want to be useful I have a quick job for you. It will require you to keep it secret and you may find it uncomfortable."
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Post by Hammett on May 15, 2021 15:07:17 GMT
Hammett is intrigued, "I'm listening."
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2021 15:32:45 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/DDdDQ0K/trumps-of-amber-llewella-by-pulpaction-gal-d7ycufz-pre-jpg-token-ey-J0e-XAi-Oi-JKV1-Qi-LCJhb-Gci-Oi~jpg "Then wait a moment and I will bring you through."The image from the connection goes dark. There is the muffled sound of voices and then, although he can not see anything through the card, Hammett can sense motion. Llewella reappears after about fifteen minutes later in a corridor or small chamber. "If you agree to help then come on through," she says while extending her hand.
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Post by Hammett on May 15, 2021 16:11:35 GMT
Hammett hesitates, was he coming as paranoid as Martin? No. He had to force himself to be braver then that, stupider also, maybe, but he was determined not to go down the same path as so many of his relatives had gone before. If he wanted people to trust him, then he had to trust them in return. Besides, after his last conversation with Conrad he knew that if he was detained again, at least it wouldn't be for long. His right hand man would trump him to make sure everything was okay if he was gone too long.
"I will come through, although it depends how "uncomfortable" this mission will be if I do choose accept it. I'm not a murderer and I won't betray my friends. But even if I don't agree to do it, I do swear to keep it a secret. If that is okay with you, then..."
He offers out his hand.
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Post by Admin on May 15, 2021 18:11:38 GMT
Llewella grips Hammett's hand and draws him through the tarot connection. Hamm is surprised at her strength. Once through she doesn't let go and from behind he heard the sound of quick shuffling steps. Then a sack of some material: help, or maybe woven kelp is thrust over his head. He can still breath but can not see anything.
"I did say that it would be uncomfortable. Though your immediate conflation with that to the murder might be a topic worth bringing up with your therapist."
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Post by Hammett on May 15, 2021 18:22:25 GMT
Hammett sighs, or at least does the underwater equivalent, but he doesn't struggle or resist. He's not angry, just disappointed.
"Really, Aunt Llewella? It is actions like this, that have driven our family apart and weakened Amber and by its reflection, Rebma. You do this and wonder why Martin would chose not to return home."
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Post by Admin on May 16, 2021 3:11:20 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/DDdDQ0K/trumps-of-amber-llewella-by-pulpaction-gal-d7ycufz-pre-jpg-token-ey-J0e-XAi-Oi-JKV1-Qi-LCJhb-Gci-Oi~jpg "I did mention that it was going to be uncomfortable, did I not?" she says. "This is for your own good and the security of Rebma. If I told you that your eyes would be covered beforehand would you have come through?"With Llewella's firm hand on his shoulder Hammett is marched through corridors, up and down stairs but leading deeper and deeper underground. They stop in the cold, cold depths of the sea. He hears the sound of key rasping in a lock then a heavy door opening. His cover is removed and he is in a small prison cell of natural stone walls and a brick ledge which is supposed to be a bed. A few glowing fish circle high in the room providing light. "Now. Tell me what you see. What you really see."
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Post by Hammett on May 16, 2021 4:36:49 GMT
Interesting. Hammett takes a moment to look over the small room normally, then he begins to take a deeper look using his trump eye. He also extends his Psyche to see if he can "feel" anything out of the ordinary.
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Post by Admin on May 16, 2021 4:59:49 GMT
The room's stone has properties that shield the place from trump power and magic, yet inside, suspended in the water, is the residue of trump usage melded with some other power, something that Hammett can't identify but feels to be almost familiar. Someone has figured out a way to enhance the abilities of the tarots, dangerously combining it with something new.
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Post by Hammett on May 16, 2021 6:50:50 GMT
Hammett crouches down and continues to study the room, being careful not to enter. He rubs his chin contemplating what he is seeing.
Now this was interesting. This was exactly the type of things he has been working towards, in fact he felt a little stab of irritation someone had apparently beaten him to the solution. He focuses his attention first on the impression of the "other power" that was used. [[OCC: Let me know if any of Hammett's following logic is flawed/incorrect or not available to him]] It wasn't Pattern, he was pretty sure. He had been around Pattern use most of his life and figured he would at least recognize it. He wasn't as familiar with the Logus, but he was also fairly confident it wouldn't be that. Logus tendrils did not like trumps, he knew that for sure. Plus he was also pretty sure Trump protected against Pattern as well, so it would take some fancy tricks to make them work together, of course whoever apparently escaped from this cell would potentially be someone who could do that, but either way, he didn't feel the presence of Pattern or Logus here. He knew Merlin had created some sort of Trump "creature" that was somewhat intelligent and apparently very powerful, but he didn't think that that would be the cause of this. He had never encountered that creature before, so it was unlikely to feel familiar like this effect did. It also wasn't powered by his own personal primal trump energy source, but it might be from a different, but similar source of power. Truth was Hammett didn't know how many shadow worlds existed like his own. He put that idea on the backburner for now. He would come back to it once he eliminated other options. Sorcery? Magic and trump worked very well together, at least in his world they did, but Hammett wasn't skilled in the type of magic that worked across all shadow, but he knew his trump eye would at least register magical residue and that didn't seem like what he was sensing here.
What other options were there? Some sort of word of power? Hammett knew a few of them, even one that he could use to boost a trump contact back when that was occasionally necessary. But the power in those words were so fleeting he doubted their mystical "residue" would last much longer then a few minutes after use, maybe not even that long. So he didn't feel that that was the case here. So what else could-- A cold chill ran through him. He refocused his trump sight and psyche on the effect, was it similar to the power that had damaged his trump doors for Wormwood's?
As he considered that he also considered some other options. There was a lot of left over energy here, so whoever had done this wasn't quite the master they might at first appear to be. Leaving such a powerful effect behind was obviously not intentional. And he wondered if he could detect where the trump had been used to travel to? And if he flooded the after effect with a ton of trump energy could he even reopen the way? And even if he couldn't, he might at least be able to gain an impression of where the user had gone and maybe also a psychic impression of person involved.
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Post by Admin on May 17, 2021 16:39:56 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/DDdDQ0K/trumps-of-amber-llewella-by-pulpaction-gal-d7ycufz-pre-jpg-token-ey-J0e-XAi-Oi-JKV1-Qi-LCJhb-Gci-Oi~jpg Hammett may have been around the Pattern and it's effects but until he is fully trained in its use he can't be certain that he knows enough of all the factors and methods of use to be certain that it isn't involved here. Same with Logrus. You buy 'em and then you know 'em, otherwise there's a lot of guessing involved. While elements of the residue are similar to what had effected his doors, these workings were different. maybe the same methods executed differently or different powers mirroring each other's implementation. "So you are seeing something. Describe it to me." Llewella says.
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Post by Hammett on May 17, 2021 17:33:41 GMT
Hammett stands up, "Yes, the nature of the cell is made up to block magic and trump use, an interesting trick that. I would like to know how it was done. But your "guest" found a way around that. They seemed to have figured out a way to merge their trump ability with another power. I'm not sure which one, but it has a vaguely familiar residue to it, but I can't quite place it. Whichever power they used, it strengthen their trump talents enough that they were able to escape. I don't see an image scratched into the wall, or loose parchment, so they didn't focus their ability through a trump sketch, that means either they had a trump card with them, or they were an advanced practitioner of the art. Only the most experienced of trump users can make a trump contact just by mental effort alone. Or, possibly, whatever power they combined with trump allowed them to establish a connection elsewhere without needing an image. It would help if I knew who this was, but I doubt you are going to tell me that."
He takes another look around the room, then back at her, "There is a strong residue from what they did here to escape. I could try and forcibly "reopen" the connection. That is not something I've ever tried before, or heard of, so I have no idea if it is even possible, but if I could do it, then I might be able to see where they went to. Of course, if they trumped a person, then that could be risky as it would open a connection to them, and at the very least warn them that I was doing this, and at the worst allow them access to my mind or a way to travel here to Rebma."
Hammett thought to himself, everyone is trying to gain the upperhand and find new ways to access greater power. Heck, he was as guilty of that as the next person, but his experiments didn't hurt anyone. Leonil's attempt at merging the Pattern with Sorcery was a spectacular failure that they were all still paying the price for. He wondered what the cost of this unknown prisoner's tampering with the powers was going to be.
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Post by Admin on May 18, 2021 5:09:25 GMT
#s://i~ibb~co/xqdCvzH/Llewella~jpg "SO you are convinced that the person in here managed the escape on their own? As in there wasn't someone elsewhere forcing a connection through the defences?
"And, yes, I can't tell you who, or how many people were here and how the shielding works."
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Post by Hammett on May 18, 2021 5:45:19 GMT
Hammett turns back and studies the anomaly again. Is there any way to tell if this was the source, or did it originate elsewhere? I figured since there was so much "energy" here that this must be the source, but is there any way to tell for sure?
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