07.12b: A Light Walk Back

[Joshua]

After a quick conversation between Aibne and Rogbar (can post later if it's important), they invite Ch'talo to walk back with them. I assume Alys (after talking to her) goes with them. Osmund will follow Cameron, depending on how the orc wants to get back.

The lizardfolk are not in great shape. A short bit of effort (from Cameron again, perhaps) will produce enough carts and carriages to transport them to Amber with you. They... only make a token objection. Some do vow to return home, but know they're in no shape to survive at the moment.

[Wyvern]

Alys will, indeed, join Aibne and Rogbar and Ch'talo (and probably Jiga) for the walk back. She will also take a moment to look over Ch'talo with her sensory power before approaching - but then, she would have had that up when walking out of the castle, so it's possible that this may go unremarked.

Regardless, she opens conversation with a polite nod and an introduction, "Greetings. I am Lady Alystrakos Obsidia Sybaris." Followed by a pause clearly intended to allow Ch'talo to introduce himself in turn.

[khadjair]

Cameron will step aside with Osmund for a moment. "It looks like you want to talk with our furry friend. I was going to head back to the city and look into getting some supplies for the lizardfolk, though you're welcome to come with me and talk with him later." He gives the otter a look for a moment. "I somehow suspect he'll be around for a little while longer either way."

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo looks like he might not rise to the offer, then nods. "I am Ch'talo, the Hunter of Blood and Shadow, Chosen of Luna and... something else." He gives Aibne a look. "And I am on a Hunt." Somehow the capitalization comes off in his speech, and as he says that his hand clenches lightly around the bone spear/staff he'd made.

[Wyvern]

"Pattern," Alys comments, "would be the 'something else'. At least if you listen to Dworkin; at the moment, you are only attuned to a shadow of the actual Greater Power."

[Chtalo]

Ch;talo chuckles. "It came to me in a sand painting. So it is, of course, a pattern. Though your tone tells me you mean something else. Either way... I know there is more that I would like to know about it. It feels coiled, like a serpent, and sharp as fangs..."

[Wyvern]

"I would not suggest a comparison to a serpent - especially around Odin. Perhaps it would be best to start with some basic cosmology... there are, to my knowledge, two Greater Powers, distinguished from lesser powers by their degree of reality. Simply put, a Greater Power, applied in direct opposition to any other force, wins."

"Pattern is the subtler of those two; it was recently created by Dworkin, and can be attuned to by walking one of its four manifestations in Amber. The advice I've heard for that is: don't step off the line, and don't stop walking. Of course, surviving that attunement is not a trivial task; it requires a degree of endurance that is well beyond most, and there are likely other requirements as well - I expect your 'sand painting' covers that secondary requirement, though Dworkin would know for sure."

"The other is Logrus, the power of Chaos. The most recent news I've heard is that attunement to the Logrus is blocked; it used to be available to the ruling clan of Chaos - but right now there is no ruling clan, and its avatar, the Serpent, has apparently offered no useful insight into alternative requirements. Which is where Odin comes in; he arrived as an ambassador from Chaos a few days ago, seeking a way to quiet the civil war that Dworkin triggered."

[Chtalo]

Ch'talo nods quietly as he listens to all this. "It seems that my quarry seems to have access to some... Greater Power as you put it, given how he shrugged off some potent charms. Though it felt different from.. Pattern, if that is truly what found me. It would be best that I learn what I can, to make the hunt more successful the next time we meet."

[Wyvern]

"Possibly. If he does, that might represent a third Power that I am unfamiliar with. But it is just as plausible as a side effect of his departure; unless you based those 'charms' off the shadow-pattern you are attuned to, they would simply fail outside your own shadow - that is, your local reality. If he had already shifted himself partway to a different shadow, any form of local power would fail to affect him."

"Incidentally, that is the differentiating characteristic of what I would call a 'lesser power' - these are ones that do not depend on the rules of the current shadow. True Sorcery. Shapeshifting - though some forms of shapeshifting, especially in the domain of Pattern rather than Chaos - are local rather than lesser. Trump. Shadow-Pattern. Certain unique abilities are also examples of lesser powers, like Tinder's tracking."

[Chtalo]

"You keep talking about shadows like they are a place rather than simply silhouettes. Charms are gifts from being Chosen; they work for me in Yu Shan, Creation, the Wyld at the edge of the world, even Malfeas and the Labyrinth though I have not had cause to venture to either of those. I have found there are different Creations that I can go between, like reflections, but my Charms have always worked there." He looks confused, tilting his head quizically.

"As for these other things - Logrus, Trump, and so on - I know nothing of. I've hunted for over four centuries, and never encountered these things. It sounds like the hunting grounds are far wider than I'd ever expected." The smile with this shows a little too much fang to be comforting, but at least seems genuine.