From pmoyer@jurai.net Sun Dec 17 21:14:42 2000 Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 21:29:27 -0500 (EST) From: Philip J. Moyer To: John Biles , Amy "General Chaos" Borden , Chris Angelini Subject: [Amber/TAMD] Mikage -- IconQuest, part 1 GM asks, "OOC Okay, any preparations you want to make for your trip to go Icon hunting?" Akemi has disconnected. Mikage asks, "Hmm. Yes... what Rebman resources do I have at my disposal?" Sana_Kurata wakes up. GM says, "They're supplying you with a vessel and a crew, and Moire said she could try to get you other materials as needed." GM says, "The vessel will come with enough food and other miscellenous supplies for a normal voyage of about two months, although they hope you won't need that long." Mikage says, "Ah, yes. Medical supplies would be nice." GM nods. Part of the usual boat supplies. Derith says, "None, I took it all! Mwahahahahaha!" Mikage says, "I could compel Moire to give me more but that would be... unsubtle. :)" Mikage says, "Besides, I intend to be in mental contact with Moire every now and then during the voyage." GM nods. GM says, "You ready to go, then, or is there anything else you want to do first." Mikage says, "Hmm. I suggest to Moire for me to give a few black signets to whichever key personnel she thinks may be the likely targets for any further compelling." GM nods. Righto. GM asks, "Anything else?" Mikage says, "Hmm." Mikage asks, "Not really. What happened to Nagisa?" GM says, "He's been called away by other matters. If I wait for both of you to be on at once, we'll all have grandchildren before we finish your quest, I think." Rod says, "GAME HIM NOW O.o" GM says, "Relax, Rod, or you'll have a coronary :)" GM says, "Okay, you head down to the docks, and I must pause briefly." Mikage says, "I'll wait, then." =============================== =============================== GM says, "Okay, you head down to the docks. The boat you have prepared for you is callled 'The Stingray' and it looks like a giant manta ray." The captain is a woman named Lori, green skinned with long blue hair, dressed in a well made Rebman naval uniform. Lori says, "So you're Prince Mikage? Nice to meet you." Lori offers you a hand. Mikage nods and takes her hand to kiss it. "Good day, my lady." Lori takes you inside and shows you around the ship. It has a crew of twenty, and another twenty marines. You get your own cabin, although it's fairly cramped. There's also a mess hall, various crew and troop dorms, two empty cabins, and the captain's cabin. They also have a small alchemy lab and the bridge. Mikage smiles. Cramped, but satifactory. Lori says, "We have some ability to move through Shadow independently, but I assume you'll be doing the shadow navigating, since you're a prince of Amber." Mikage nods. "Your thoughts on our voyage, Captain?" Lori says, "Well, it will take us three days to clear Nedra. After that, it's about three weeks sailing to where we are going at our normal shadow travelling speeds. I have no idea how fast you can make us go, however." Mikage asks, "Three weeks under the ship's own power?" Lori says, "The first week should be fairly safe, the second week will go through some dangerous areas, and the third will be mostly safe as long as we keep an eye out for icebergs, until we reach where the pirates are." Lori says, "Yes, the Stingray can move through Shadow under its own power." Lori says, "So all my time estimates are based on that. But I understand the Princes of Amber know some way to move faster, but more dangerously. Or so I have heard." Rabies falls asleep. Mikage nods. "I do, but I'm not quite sure that would be entirely safe. How capable are your crew?" Lori says, "They all have at least five years of naval experience." Lori says, "I'm on my thirtieth year and this is my first independent command." Mikage asks, "And the marines you have on board?" Lori says, "They're all fairly experienced." Lori says, "Although I wouldn't want to pit them against swordmasters." Lori says, "This will be our third mission together as a crew." Autolyca OOC G'night! Autolyca has disconnected. Mikage says, "I see. Very well, Captain. We clear Nedra at normal speed, then we sail through the safe area at however fast a route I can navigate for us. This will give the crew a chance to get accustomed to have... how did you put it? ... a prince of Amber aboard." He gives a sardonic smile. Lori nods. "We've never carried any nobles or royalty before. Are you used to sea voyages, Prince Mikage?" Mikage says, "Only recently. I've done quite a bit of sailing since then, though." Mikage says, "And just Mikage will do just fine." Lori nods. "As you like. Let's go, then." The Stingray pulls out of the dock at her command and heads through the harbor towards Nedra, the great Coral Forest which surrounds Rebma, protecting it from invasion. You spend the next three days passing through it, weaving your way through a great maze of coral, full of all sorts of underwater animals. The crew seems to work quite efficiently, and it's a largely peaceful journey, although it quickly becomes obvious you're going to be eating seafood every day. Mikage whispers to himself, "...for a child of Air, I've been spending a lot of time underwater lately..." Lori says, "OOC Heh." Once you leave Nedra, you're passing over gently rolling plains covered with various seaplants. The waters are dark, but your ship projects several cones of light ahead of itself so you can see what you're doing. Lori asks, "OOC Okay, are you going to try hellriding or just normal shadow travelling?" Rod exclaims, "OOCly hell-ride! hell-ride! hell-ride!" Corrine of Amber OOCly says, "What, and you want him to -still- be stuck in the past?" Rod says, "OOCly i want him to go as fast as he can :)" Finn says, "Then he shouldn't hell-ride. Have him waltz, and thus take 4 months of game time, stuck in a sub playing cards with marines. :)" Rod says, "OOCly oh... good point" Lori asks, "OOC Hallo, Mikage?" Rod says, "oh bugger" Finn says, "Well, at least he's on the sub now. He's just going slow. 3 weeks. forward, if nothing else. :)" Rod exclaims, "DAMN YOU, WAKE UP!" Corrine of Amber OOCly says, "It's like, 1:30 or so in the afternoon for him, right?" Rod says, "egads." Lori says, "I assume something in RL has ambushed him." Rod says, "hm. i can leave work right now, but we're closed to morrow, so if i wanna make up the hours i'll have to stay aropund longer" Rod says, "i feel cooped up, but there aren't any phone calls" Rod says, "hrm." Mikage exclaims, "Fine, fine. My folks arrived, okay!" You page, "Oh, thought. (and I think Corrine would have asked Fuyutsuki this during her 10 years in Ember) ... given that Gendo, Moire, and Shayla were all Fuyutsuki's kids (being triplets and all), does that mean that Moire -could- walk a Pattern drawn by him without going all sparkly-dying?" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Heh. But Fuyutsuki wasn't IN Ember during those ten years :)" to you. You page, "Ah, so ka. But I thought she trumped him at least a bit, to ask questions and to help with Gabrielle's setup. Yes, I know he wasn't there -fulltime-, but he did know it had been remade, given he brought Shaft there to walk the Fire Pattern to attune to the flawed Fire Jewel. (I beleive the answer to the trio -was- "Yes", but that nobody had dared tried, since nobody thought Moire and Gendo were related, etc.)" to Akemi. Akemi pages, "Heh. Yeah, the answer is yes." to you. You page, "*nod8 Yet ANOTHER thing for Corrine to be worried about. Thanks. :)" to Akemi. Rod says, "and next, mt. pinatubo shall explode o.o" Mikage says, "You only live once... might as well hellride through the safe portion." You concentrate, and shadow begins to flicker by rapidly, constantly changing as the Stingray zooms along through the deep sea waters. Most of the day goes by quite peacefully, although you repeatedly scare a lot of fish. However, towards the end of the day, as you're making another shadow jump, you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a submarine battle. Torpedoes are firing everywhere; there must be at least three dozen subs on each side. Mikage says, "Damn." Rod says, "OOCly think 'pink bunny wallpaper' :)" Mikage says, "OOC The trouble of being a badstuff character. :)" Lori says, "OOC Yeah, hellriding when you have bad stuff is dangerous. On the other hand, you picked a relatively safe area to do it in, so you didn't say, sail into a nuclear test site." Mikage asks, "Captain, can this vessel withstand a torpedo attack?" Lori says, "We can survive a few hits since we can all breathe water, but...hmm, that could be a problem for you, though." Lori orders evasive action by the crew. Your ship begins to weave and dodge. Mikage says, "I'll survive. We just need to clear this battle. I'd contact them but I don't want to draw attention more than we've already done." Lori nods. "If it wasn't for teh fact that battles like this usually spread across a fair number of adjacent shadows we could get away easily, but as it stands, I'd say shadow shifting until we're clear would risk appearing inside an explosion." The ship bobs and weaves. You manage to avoid any direct hits until you get out of the fight, but the ship takes some minor damage. The two fleets continue, behind you, to slug it out until you move through shadow again and they finally vanish. Mikage says, "I agree. We just need to get away from this before we start shifting again." The crew brings Lori the damage control report. Nothing you can't fix while you move as long as you don't hve any trouble the next two days or so. Mikage asks, "We sail at normal speed for the next two days. How much time have we saved?" Lori says, "At least five days, maybe six, I think." Lori says, "Given we sailed for most of the day before that happened." Lori frowns slightly. "I didn't even think there were any high technology shadows along this route until further along." Mikage asks, "Odd. Then again, are the pirates we're looking for using any sort of technology at all?" Lori says, "Yes. They're in a shadow that combines magic and technology and lots of ice." Lori says, "Lots and lots of ice." Lori frowns. "Do you think they might have had something to do with that? Or are you thinking we've gone off course?" Naga falls asleep. Mikage says, "Either seems possible, but I find the first more likely. Otherwise, we've managed to waste time hellriding instead of traveling at normal speed. Fine. We're sailing the Royal Way for the two days needed to repair the ship and to get our bearings." Lori says, "Well, People have been been known to get lost hellriding, so I have heard." Lori shrugs. "We will do our best to do the repairs as swiftly as possible." Mikage says, "Which is why we're slowing down to make sure." He clicks his tongue. "This is most inconvenient for us. I apologize for the damage to the vessel, Captain." Lori says, "It's not your fault." Lori says, "There was no way of knowing there would be a sudden submarine battle." Lori frowns. "But it worries me. This region of shadow used to be very safe to travel. But now it was not. Nothing happens for no reason." Mikage says, "I think..." Mikage says, "...it's the influence of whatever or whoever is preventing us from procuring the Bag of Winds. This is not good. The shadows seem to be conforming to a new configuration." Mikage says, "I only hope this is a localized phenomenon." Lori nods. "And I as well." The next two days pass fairly peacefully while you do the repairs. Towards the end of that time, Captain Lori has a conference with you in the map room to show you the two best possible routes through the most dangerous part of the run. Mikage nods. Lori says, "Basically, we have two choices here. One of the best routes is controlled by these really strange beings who look sort of like starfish attached to barrels and have large amorphous monsters working for them." Lori says, "It's a shorter route, but more dangerous if they spot us." Lori says, "The slightly longer but less dangerous route leads through a series of undersea forests inhabited by a lot of nasty sea monsters, who are more individually dangerous than the other group, but also unlikely to coordinate their attacks." Mikage frowns. "It all basically boils down to whether we are spotted or not." Mikage asks, "How much time is saved by taking the shorter route?" Corrine of Amber OOCly says, "ahwell... time for bed for me." Mikage says, "OOC Night, Phil." Lori says, "It is about five days as compared to seven by the longer one." ================================= ================================= Philip Moyer----------------Qapla'-------------pmoyer@jurai.net "To boldly go where no one has gone before!"-Capt. J. L. Picard "Roads? Where we're going we don't NEED roads!"-Dr. E. L. Brown "If it can be dreamed, It can be done."- ReRob Mandeville "Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection, The Lovers, ---------- The Dreamers, and Me."- Kermit The Frog ------------