(Yep, I'm okay with it.

"If you don't like that, change the plan! It's our plan. Make a new plan!"

(Robin Williams, CADILLAC MAN, 1990)

quote:

This thread is nearing the 1,000 post limit.  If possible, you should start a new thread.

Well well well. So here we are over here now.)


Three white stone steps at the top of a cliff. ...Most of the time, anyway.

When the full moon shines on them, though, more steps appear... leading up to Tir-na nOg'th, the silvery city in the sky...

...But ONLY when the full moon shines down. If a cloud comes along, a lethal fall waits beyond the third step...

"Lance," says Flora. "Are you planning to enter Tir-na nOg'th this evening...? Or just city-gaze from the base of the steps...?"

  “I was thinking to enter there, although I’m not sure that Brenna and Sarah are willing to take the risk.  If they wish to, I certainly wouldn’t want to deny them the opportunity, but would absolutely tether them to me if they do.    I mean, the Tir might give them some useful insight to something important that they wish to know, right?  Besides, you have the card of me that Jade made, so you could watch over us and pull us through to safety if something goes wrong.”

  Lance favors his mother with that twelve megawatt smile of his.  Who could say no to that?

"Yes... I know this is a mother speaking, but... if it starts to cloud up...? So yes, if you're going in-- if you might go in-- I definitely agree that I should come too, and wait at the foot of the stairs... And I don't think your young ladies should go up there with you..."

  Lance gives Flora a hug.  “Oh mother, you worry about me too much, but of course you always know best too.  I’d love to have you along, of course.  Your company is always welcome and I’m grateful for you having found me.  So, if I go into the Tir with you using my card, would the girls be able to watch along if they each touched your shoulder?  That way they can experience it in safety?”

"We can test it, but no, I don't think that works for those not of the blood of Oberon, no. But let's do the rest of it.

Any other questions?"

  “No particular questions, I don’t think.  I did read uncle Corwin’s memoirs though, so I know he just sort of let the psychic pull guide him and how his blade allowed him to communicate and interact with the visions there.  Not sure if it will work with my blade, or my armor… but since they have the Unicorn’s blessing and have been through the Pattern, maybe they’ll work up there too.  I’m going to try it and see.”  Lance says.

  They had a few minutes alone, so he asked, “Mom, what do you think of Brenna?”

  He doesn’t voice the thought about how if it all went wrong and they recovered his body that he’d like to be buried in his armor, with his sword clasped like in a very knightly pose, with only a simple stone shaped like his sword withe the point into the ground with his name engraved upon the quillions.  He had already written that in a letter, sealed and left on his desk, the words “To be opened upon the demise of Lancelot” in near script.

"Oh, she seems nice... a bit overwhelmed by... everything, yet. At least little Sarah was raised in a world where she expects magic and wonders." Pause. "Not that I'm saying Sarah is... more worthy of... consideration. Because I'm not. At all."

  Lance smiles.  “Sarah is really nice, and pretty as well, but I’m not sure if the nun thing rules it out…and Dworkin did say that her destiny does not lay in Amber.  He was pretty specific about that, and Amber is my home now.”

  He laughs, “We’ll just have to see.  Maybe neither one is the one, but then again, maybe one of them is.  It seemed like maybe a spark today on the beach with Brenna, but as you well know, I’ve been known to misread things like that.  It would be nice though to find the girl for me.  Probably gonnA have to be something really obvious for me to figure it out though.  Anyway, shall we get on with it while we have clear skies?”

"Mm. Maybe you need to wait for more than just a spark. But perhaps I'm not the ideal person to give advice. Hm, maybe Random. Random and Vialle are... weird, though. Nobody has a relationship like them. Practically nobody."




"Yes, all right..."

---

So. Here we are. The steps.

Brenna touches the fourth step. "Seems solid... and real... I think. For now. And yet... you folks sure do like almost-perilous stairways, don't you? Is there a magical staircase that lets you visit the core of a volcano somewhere? Or the heart of a star-- y'know what, on second thought, don't answer those, I don't think I want to know..."

  Lance chuckles. "Funny you should say that.  One of my heroes as a child was this comic book character, Thor, God of Thunder.  He had a weapon forged in the heat of a star that he used to kill a super-villain, but to make it he had to hold open a gate and withstand the heat of the star directly until the ore that was used could melt into the mold...nearly killed him.  I fashioned my armor as an interpretation of his armor as imagined by another of my heroes, a guy called Iron Man.  They made it into a movie.  Really cool stuff."

  He looks at the steps.

  "I'm definitely going.  If the moonlight is blocked it all fades from the sky and I fall to my death unless Mom can pull me back with the card.  She'll watch me through it, and you two might be able to see it to if you're touching her shoulders, or maybe touching the edge of the card.  That part is kind of an experiment.  Of course, if you insist on risking life and limb, which my mom thinks is a very bad idea, we can try tying ourselves together."

"...Is this about rotos? I loved rotos when I was young. My favorite was Goodwill-- his powers were based on his popularity. He nearly lost all his powers when someone framed him for stealing, but it was all an elaborate I'll stop fanning out now nevermind."



The ladies definitely do not want to join this mountainclimbing-where-the-mountain-might-vanish expedition.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:41, Sun 28 May 2023.

  None of them pulled a Leia and gave him a kiss “for luck”, so Lance began his climb.  Once onto the ethereal stairway he moved quickly, kind of like jogging up an escalator.  Upon reaching the top he waved back at the trio and began walking into the city.  He open his senses to any psychic tug, such as Corwin had described in his memoirs.  Hopefully the ghost city would clarify some things for him, give him some insight or guidance to any number of things…Sarah’s quest, the Grey Men, his love life…

This whole landscape is just like Amber itself, only, well, moon-lit. More washed-out, and more... grayscaled.

...Well, no. There's one more difference-- everything seems... more compact. Everything seems to be a shorter distance from everything else than it is in real life. It's very dreamlike.

So. At this point, Lance has a choice-- he can go left, to the moondream castle, or right, to the moondream city by the moondream harbor...

  The castle is more likely to hold answers to the things that vex him, so to the left he goes.

(Okay name (for me, right now, OOC,) two things Lance would like to get hints about: 1 Priority, and 1 Lesser-Priority.)

  Towards the castle the brave Paladin goes.  Solving the issue of the Grey Men is first and foremost in his thoughts.  As much as he wants to be focused on quests, Lance is more a creature of the heart than the mind, and his wonders what the future holds for his romantic interests eclipses Sarah's Quest.  Part of him realizes that the answers to the quest would be easier to figure out on his own than matters of love.

  Carrying his sword point down, he hopes that it's enchantment through the Unicorn and the Pattern will enable him to be seen by the visions in this place, just as Corwin had with Greyswandir.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:33, Sat 03 June 2023.

(Uhh, you mean Sarah's? Right? I'm guessing?)

In reply to The GM (msg # 17):


  Onward he goes, following the psychic tugs that he might feel...

He comes to Odile... who looks older. Odile is apparently lecturing a guard about something. She looks up... and squints at you. "...Do you see that?"

The young man looks up. "No, wha-- wait. Yes, there... is it a ghost?"

"I don't know," says Odile. "Hello? Who are you? Are you a ghost? G--Ghostwheel, is that you...?"

  Lance holds forth his blade, the point touching the ground.  He pushes the pommel out towards them, indicating with one hand that they should touch it while he grips the hilt.

  "I am Lancelot.  Tell me what has transpired since I came to Amber."

They don't touch it, but they kind of jump, startled, when the point touches the ground-- clearly they can see him clearer. "Oh, there you are-- wait, what? What do you mean? Is this magic? Are you speaking to us from that Shadow of yours? What is it you're asking about? Your meaning isn't clear," says Odile. "Are you as-- are you asking about the, um, the, you know... the deal Lord Dworkin made...?"

 Dworkin?  A deal?  What could this mean?

 Lance nods.

  “The deal.  Yes.  Tell me everything.  It is critical.”

  He didn’t know how much time he had, so he had to be direct.