RPG Review Cooperative, Inc.

Threat Summary

King Random is going insane. For several days he has been acting violent and destructive and having uncontrollable fits and extreme mood swings. As he has such great control over the pattern and the Jewel of Judgement this madness is effecting the weather and conditions both in Amber and throughout shadow and causing destructive pattern storms that have already destroyed several shadows.

Getting Started

Gathering of Player Characters

- Anyone in Amber -

The first thing noticed is that the weather is acting strange and that strange creatures are appearing from nowhere. If characters investigate they will eventually find themselves in the throne room. If they do not eventually head towards the throne room they are summoned there by Martin and or Corwin.

- Characters elsewhere in shadow -

Weather in all parts of shadow is acting strange and the closer to Amber the stranger it is. Travelling through shadow has started to have unusual effects and is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous. Players may wish to travel to Amber to investigate and when they reach there (it should not be too difficult. Perhaps elder amberites are helping) they will be summoned to the throne room.

Any characters who do not travel to Amber will be contacted, via Trump or personally, by an elder Amberite or Martin who will urge them to travel to Amber.

In the Throne Room

"The first thing you notice is that the throne is empty. King Random and Queen Vialle are nowhere to be seen. Standing by the empty throne is Random's son Martin looking very worried and nervous about something. Before the throne dias stands the enormous bulk of Gerard with an alarming look if concern on his face. He is clenching and uncleanching his fists in a quite alarming way.

To one side stands Corwin in his black and silver. He too looks worried and he stands alert with his hand on his sword Greyswandir. Bleys Fiona and Flora stand talking in worried whispers in the center of the throne room. Martin gestures with his hand for you to come closer and when you are close enough to hear clearly he speaks
in a soft voice. 'My father, King Random, has gone mad'.

Then Corwin speaks more loudly,' the King has hidden the Jewel of Judgement and locked himself in with the Primal Pattern. It is his madness that is destabilising Amber and Shadow and our borders are at more risk from attack than ever. Benedict and Julian are even now preparing to defend Amber from any attacks that may come. I ask you, for the sake of the stability of Amber and infinite shadow, to assist in curing the King of his madness.'"

If the Players ask what can be done, Corwin will reply, "We must find some way to discover the nature of his madness. Then we may have some hope in curing it."

It asked where Caine is, Corwin will Answer, "I do not know" but will say no more.

Background

A powerful and ambitious lord of Chaos has, using a complex procedure involving Logrus, Shapeshifting and Trump has entered Random's mind in an attempt to controll or destroy him. The madness is a result of Random using his considerable powers and psyche to fight against the Chaos Lord. He has locked himself in the room with
the primal pattern and used pattern to seal the room.

Other Lords of Chaos are attempting to take advantage of the confusion and attack Amber. Fortunately for them the defence of Amber is being hampered greatly by the extreme weather changes caused by Random. The Lords of Chaos, most of them being shapeshifters are unaffected by the etreme conditions. Over time the weather conditons
will steadily worsen until Random is cured or killed.

The Dangers

1: If Random is helped too late, the lord of chaos could concievably take over his mind, gaining the power of pattern and attunement with the jewel of Judgement. This could potentially lead to a powerful Lord of Chaos taking the throne of Amber.

2: Chaos armies cold use the confusion to attack Amber with definately disasterous results.

3: Random could in his madness cause permanent damage to Amber and or the pattern. Being locked in with the pattern, he could possibly erase it destroying Amber and all of shadow. The Lord of Chaos could even force him to do this.

Summary of Elder Amberites

Benedict.- "Defender Of Amber" version (400 points)
Benedict is only concerned with keeping Amber safe so is marshalling forces to defend against outside attack. He will leave all matters of saving Random to others and will not enter anto any arguments over succession that may occur.

Bleys.- "Master Manipulator" version (400 points)
Bleys will not take sides. He will wait to see what is going to happen before either, helping Random or plotting against him. Aware of the danger of being caught on the wrong side he will be ready to appear as an ally to whomever is going to be King.

Brand.-
Brand is in the Abyss and unless the GM has some particular use for him he should be left out of it. If however he is out he would probably continue to plot against the others.

Caine.- "Amberite of a Thousand Faces" version (400 points)
Caine doesn't like Random and fancies himself as king. He will spend the crisis out in Shadow attempting to find the Jewel of Judgement and plotting to take the throne.

Corwin.- "Sorcerer of Avalon" version (500 points)
Corwin has been spending a lot of time in Avalon and his personal pattern. He has returned to Amber only to help his friend Random. If things get dangerous enough and for various other reasons he may simply leave again without warning. He has many responsabilities.

Dara.- "Queen Of Shape Shifters" version (250 points)
Dara believes herself to be heir to the throne and now with Random insane she intends to take the throne. She will attempt to ally herself with anyone except Corwin. It is possible she helped the Chaos lord to enter Random's mind to allow her to become Queen.

Dierdre.-
Diedre is also in the Abyss with Brand so it is probably easier to leave her there. If in your version of Amber she is out, she would either plot to take the throne or owing to her friendship with Corwin help him help Random. It's up to you.

Dworkin.- "Embodiment of the Pattern" version (700 points)
Dworkin would be the most useful ally but unfortunately he is unaware of all that is occuring and of all the Amberites he is the hardest to reach. He is busy in his cave next to the Primal Pattern and is locked in with a monster posted at the door. Even to reach Dworkin would require breaking all of the locks on all the doors to the Pattern and then getting past Random. Not easy.

Eric.-
Eric is probably best left dead for this adventure but if alive would be plotting to take the throne.

Fiona.- "Mistress of the Pattern" version (350 points)
She, like Bleys, will be biding her time ready to take sides at the most opportune moment.

Flora.- "Proprietor of Shadow Earth" version (200 points)
She is helping Gerard with administration in Castle Amber but is ready to escape to Shadow Earth if things ger really bad.

Gerard.- "Defender of Amber" version (500 points)
Gerard is governing in Randoms absence but his main concern is with protecting Amber from outside invasion, now that it is weak. He will spend a lot of time planning with Benedict and Julian and may noteven notice others plotting to take the throne. However, he will do all he can to protect Martin from assasination. If he does notice plotting he will undoubtable take the side of fairness. He will not leave Amber for any reason at such a turmultuous time.

Julian.- "Ardens Champion" version (350 points)
Julian is mostly concerned with proctecting Forest Arden from attack. He is inlikely to get involve with any other plans although he is likely to overlook any attacks on the throne by Caine, his friend, or maybe even help if given enough reason. If it seems unlikely that Random will recover Julian will sopport Caine in a bid for the throne.

Llewella.- "Deep player in Ambers's Favorite Game" Version (300 points)
Llewella is in rebma and is not overly concerned by it all but she might be a usefull source of information.

Martin.- "Heir to Amber" version (120 points)
With Random debilitated, Martin is in a lot of trouble. He will help Gerard and Flora with governing Amber while doing all he can to help his Father. If It appears the throne is going to be taken he will flee to Rebma. Because he is not particularly dangerous and is well liked, it is unlikely any elder Amberites will kill him. In fact they would all asist him against attack from Dara.

Merlin.- "The Ultimate Neutral" version (150 points)
He will not get involved because he has no interest in politics whatsoever. Other Amberites may attempt to use him as a pawn. He is likely to spend most of his time in Shadow and not even answer the summons.

Random.- "Latent Powerhouse" version (400 points)
Of course Random is pivotal to the situation but is unable to have any concious effect on his predicament. His power over the pattern and the Jewel of Judgement mean that even though he has hidden the Jewel he controlls the weather in Amber and can create and effect shadow storms. This danger is the reason for the frantic attempts to rectify the situation.

He has hidden himself in the room with the primal pattern and has sealed the room. Queen Vialle despite her love for him has fled to Rebma for her own safety.

Possible Resolutions

A: Cure Random:

This is probably the neatest resolution but probably the most difficult for the players. Firstly there is the challenging job of finding out what is actually the cause of the madness. This would be quite simple really and there are many possible ways to do this.

The first and most obvious is beating Random in a Psychic battle through a Trump contact. Fiona or Llewella could each do that or it could be done by several minds working together.

Once the cause is determined it is necessary to actually cure the madness.This involves entering Randoms mind in some way and then doing battle with the chaos lord who is hiding there. This will be up to the Player Characters because the Elder Amberites have too many other responsibilities.

There are several possible ways to enter Randoms mind.

1. The same method used by the Lord of Chaos.
This would not be easy because first one would need to determine the exact method used, which would involve a trip into the Courts of Chaos, during time of war, to try to uncover any notes he may have made. The players would then need to use Logrus, Shapeshifting and Trump. These powers would all need to be posessed by one character.

2. Tir-na-nogth.
Walking the Pattern at Tir-na-nogth, the reflection of Amber that can be seen in the Sky by moonlight, and using Pattern or Advanced Pattern may give access to Randoms mind. This is because Tir-na-nogth exists at least partly in dreams. However, there is some danger in this because this mirror of Amber is very strange and unknown dangers would exist.

Travel in Tir-na-nogth would be like traveling in a dream version of The City and Castle Amber. Effort should be made to make this as surreal and unearthly as possible. The addition of monsters that attack the psyche and possibly dream reflections of the inhabitants of Amber will increase the atmosphere.

3. Trump.
It would be possible to enter Randoms mind using Trump but there would be enormous difficulty in creating the appropriate Trump. Drawing a Trump of the insipe of someones mind would be extremely difficult. The assistance of Dworkin would almost certainly be required but, as he is not answering Trump calls, the players would have to get past Random to get to him. If they find some way to do so, Dworkin would probably help.

Another use for trump is that there would be no reason that they would not work between characters inside Randoms head and those outside. Thus, characters in Randoms head would be able to communicate with others and even pull other characters through to randoms mind via Trump.

4. Pattern
Use of Advanced Pattern with some other power such as sorcery or Shapeshifting might work. However, this is up to the Players' inventiveness and imagination. They would have to come up with a good method and a great theory behind why it would work.

There are probably other creative methods that the players may surprise you with. Let the characters try them and, if they sound like reasonable theories, let them work. If the characters do enter Random's mind the description and rules below will be very useful.

B: The King Is Dead Long Live the King:

This resolution would be the easiest but probably not the best. Random is either killed or simply left insane and a new king or queen takes his place. Caine and Dara are both plotting to capture the throne but a child of Random or Martin could take it with the help of some elder Amberites. The Players could work with one of the plotters and gain their favor by helping them take Amber.

Unfortunately there theoretically cannot be a new king without the Jewel Of Judgement and while it is lost only Random has power over it and over the conditions in Amber and shadow.

C: Oops:

This resolution would be bad for Amber. The characters could assist an army from Chaos, possibly led by Dara in an attack and capture of Amber. This could work out well for the players but not so well for Amber.

Inside Random's Mind

"The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine"

The world inside someones mind would probably consist of a physical representation of their thoughts and state of mind. Fantastic landscapes would stretch away as far as the eye can see and movement by the players could have an extreme effect on the landscape. Players could be walking through a desert of purple sand and then, after falling into a pit, find themselves in half flooded catacombs.

This is the world of the imagination and anything thought or imagined by Random would have physical form to those inside his mind.

A reasonable example of how I believe the scenery would look is almost any Salvador Dali or Max Ernst painting of surrealist landscapes.A problem arises because Random is currently mad and also doing battle with a Lord of Chaos in his mind.. Thus the scenery and occurances would be even stranger than normally expected.

Randoms 'internal demons', which could be described simply as out of control emotions, would take on physical form in the universe inside his head. They would cause the Characters some trouble and would probably attack them. The attacks would probably consist of Psyche battles where losing characters end up taking on the appropriate emotion. Emotional demons likely to be powerful in Random are anger, jealousy, selfishness and mistrust of others.

The Chaos Lord

ATTRIBUTES
Psyche: 150
Strength: Chaos Rank
Endurance: 50
Warfare:  Chaos Rank

POWERS
Advanced Logrus Mastery
Shape Shifting
Advanced Trump Artistry

Artifacts and Creatures

Blob Monsters. Their thrue forms are amorphous blobs. However these are rarely seen as the creatures are expert shape shifters. Each one has several horific forms it uses, such as a mass of tentacle with the face of a baby.

Their qualities and powers are: Combat reflexes, able to speak in tounges and voices, psychic neutral, limited shape shift.

Quantity: Named and Numbered (12)