Colonel Tanya has been pottering about this week, getting ready to be called on. She still has a healing hole in her shoulder, but under Amethyst's care has recovered fast.

Thankfully, by now Amethyst has also recovered from her little flying trip. She's not at all impressed with sand whirlwinds any more, if she ever was.

The weather has not messed around this week, and there have been no explosions except one from Filinia when the water briefly went out a couple of days ago. All is fine and good!

She's on her way from the hospital, and comes to a stop by the fountain.

Amy is.

Tanya is there, carrying her staff in her half-crippled left hand, and looking like a particulary grumpy red-headed raven.

Spending the week nursing her leg and generally staying out of trouble, danielle has even skipped a few trips to the fountain. maybe people notice maybe not. but rest has proved necessary and restorative and she is ready to good to try again

Apropros Amy's arrival, perhaps, or because she is bored, Tanya asks, "We ready to go?" Today she has her sword buckled on opposite the wands on her hip.

Amy eyes Tanya and she shrugs. "I guess, but I'm not sure you and I are the best two to go on this little excursion alone." She glances about, seeing who else is around.

Tanya says, "I've asked Dirk to come along, but I left him in a post-coital coma." From her expression there is no way to tell if it is the truth.

Amy blinks, and then a small smile crosses her face, but all she says is, "He's strong, I'm sure he'll recover well."

Danielle nods " Let's see if we can get further this time,"making no coment as to dirk's present state

Dirk walks in yawning and looking very calm and relaxed. "Hello everyone. How is everyone?"

Tanya sets off across the square from the fountain, although she does cast her eyes around for Dirk, and nod to him when he arrives. "I've got one more artillery-level action in me," she tells Amy. "After that, you need to rebuild me from the elbow down. Hey boy. Glad you can still walk." Her staff is in her left hand this time, and she walks with a trace of a grimace, like her right shoulder still hurts a little. She has taken the arm out of its sling.

Dirk says, "It was touch and go there for a bit ma'am."

"Noted," Amy says to Tanya. "Glad to see you think so highly of my work. I am certain I can help, but it might take a bit of time." She smiles as Dirk arrives. "Good to see you, Dirk, let's go see what we can find." A nod to Danielle as well, as she starts walking along with Tanya.

The journey uphill is not a difficult one - they all know the way. They can skirt the warehouse where Dirk was bought off, and then there is a moment where they face a cliff. To Danielle, now used to tracking the feeling she needs to track, it is obvious that the water they are tracing goes further into the rock. Their answer is uphill...
An hour later, Tanya is looking tired but refuses to lean on anyone, and they are up at the top of the cliff, and Danielle can keep on trying to find the way.

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult, magic sense.
The result is a success.

The trail leads up to the upper city, and a row of terraced houses, each with shuttered windows.

Here, the feeling is wide-spread and almost everywhere...

Dirk folds his arms and gets weirded out a little.

Filinia flips a coin. The result is: Tails

Danielle is on high alert, whatever pain might be lingering is gone for the momentas she feels her way around. She has been her before but today seems more attuned as if a blindfold has been ripped off. She rubs at her arms

Amy has managed the climb reasonably well. She might be a little bit stiff from the exertion, but not badly. As they get into whatever they're in, she sort of frowns. "I'm sure I've walked by here a hundred times," she puts in.

Dirk draws his sword for some unknown reason. "anyone else getting a prickly bad feeling?"

"No, which I think makes me feel even worse." Tanya looks annoyed rather than nervous.

Passers-by begin to avoid Dirk. Of course.

There's no hint of any kind of trouble.

No crossbows. No nothing. Just a neat set of houses, and on the uphill side of the street, they are all shuttered.

No explosions.

Danielle blinks at Dirk "You think it's bad. if being surrounded ny magic is what you mean I feel it. I'm not getting intent but maybe i'm not looking for it " She's clearly not dismissing dirk's impression just not sharing

Tanya considers for a moment, and then makes for one of the doors of the house closest. Impatient.

(And Dirk would know.)

Dirk follows the leader and looks around cautiously.

Amy looks at Dirk with the sword, and then she follows Tanya. But she stops as she sees that Tanya is going towards one of the closer houses. For her part, Amy moves towards the shuttered up houses.

There are many shuttered houses to choose from. Tanya has just gone for the closest of them - she gets to the door, and says, "What the fu... heck." Annoyed enough to not bother swearing. "It's solid. It's just... screw this. Dirk, break it?"

Danielle tries to get a sense if any one of the houses is radiating strong er magic

Amethyst rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a success.

Danielle, you can use your occult/magic senses instead of notice senses, but it's still with WIll please.

Danielle rolls with advantage -1 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts.
The result is a success.

Danielle rolls with advantage 0 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts and spending will.
The result is a success.

There's not much here to indicate what's off about the houses, although Tanya seems to have noticed something. As her reaction is to - unhurriedly - get Dirk to break down the door, she's probably irritated rather than worried. It's Danielle who sees it first. Behind the shutters, the windows are painted black on the inside, except for one which is more reflective.

Dirk rolls with advantage 0 at difficulty 15, using no talents or gifts and spending will.
The result is a success.

Dirk is about to Break the door.

What Dirk sees, just in time, is that this door is painted shut. It hasn't been opened in a while. But just behind the darkened glass set into it, he can see the fain indications of brickwork. It's not a door - it's a total fake.

*faint indications

Amy pauses as Garin asks Dirk to break the door, turning back to look that way rather than going to any of the other houses. Curious.

Dirk says "this is a fake Dorr. "

"I know. I want to see what's behind it." Garin hasn't got the memo about the bricks.

There are many fakes, all up the terrace, and then there's the house that Danielle has noticed, where the windows at least are real.

Danielle blinks "Why makeke a facade" she muses "Like a theater set "Whose show are we in?"

Well-dressed people who might be extras continue to pass them by in the street.

"A facade? A fake door?" Amy looks bewildered. "Who the heck is hiding out here?"

Dirk tries to break the door. He kicks it hard.

It's solid behind - it splinters, but the brickwork it's shattered back into doesn't like being kicked, and Dirk hurts his foot.

Tanya glares at the partly-broken door like she is considering the artillery-level magic she was talking about before.

Dirk punches the brick wall again.

Now he's warned against it. There's a small crack that is clearly audible.

Dirk rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 20, using combat, combat trained.
The result is a success.

People in the streets have not yet noticed.

Amy simply stands back and watches.

Danielle waits with anticipation as the wall shows signs of giving way

Dirk keeps punches WY

Dirk keeps punches away.

As Dirk keeps punching away, the wall first of all cracks a little then, just as his knuckles have bled and burst enough to make it painful, he puts a hole in the wall and a couple of plam strikes can create a gap about a foot in any direction. Inside there is a little light. More cracks in the wall mean that there is a way in here if they want to expend a little effort.

Now Garin looks ready to go, her staff in her hand, her eyes fixed on nothing and the gap in the wall - a dual focus into two worlds.

Those who are looking at the magical world cannot see much change; however, those who know what the pattern is have a brief, sudden image of it. It's there, for a moment, then gone.

Danielle is concentratrating and gasps for a moment reaching out a hand as if trying to grasp at the fleeting sensation

In perhaps the biggest bit of proof yet that Tanya is not of the family, she does not react in that moment.

Amy's eyes open, and she too gasps, and now she moves closer to peer within.

Dirk is also looking as blood drips from his hand. He sighs and shakes his hand.

As eyes adjust to the darkness, it is clear what is in there - a big moving arm - this is a pumping house; surprisingly high technology for Amber. The huge pump arm is moving slowly - it is the length of just about the whole terrace, and its piston plunges into the earth here, into a stone-lined well. Foaming up from it, with each upstroke, is water. This is the source for many fountains, it seems.

The water comes to the surface and flows out from that central pool down into others. Gravity must do the rest.

Dirk walks towards the water.

That means opening up the wall a bit, but there is nobody stopping them, although the extras in the street look aghast. Inside it is clear there is a door out - further along some of the windows are real, and there is a single genuine door. There are tools laid out nearby, slightly dusty, but with grease on all the working parts.

Tanya follows Dirk, taking a moment to appreciate the view as he wriggles into the big building.

Amy eyes the hole in the wall and looks over at Danielle. "You go on ahead, I'll stand guard here?" she offers.

Danielle rolls with advantage 1 at difficulty 15, using occult,pattern meditation.
The result is a success.

To Danielle, this place tastes of the Pattern - the feeling of it is strong and solid here, like she is close to it - down in the dungeons in Amber kind of close.

"A pump house?" Tanya looks unimpressed, puzzled, and confused. "This should be a repository. There was a repository on this word - archives and statuary and King-gifts.

"

Dirk pushes the door open.

"Things change," Amy says from just outside the hole. "Sometimes by the minute."

After a moment Tanya says, "I think you need to pull that," to Dirk. That would make sense.

The great moving arm changes direction again, going downwards, letting its great weight sink into the ground. It takes a minute to go up and down four times.

Tanya transfers her staff to her right hand from her left, relaxing a little.

Danielle blinks "I think the well might tap directly into the pattern "She has the look of a kid on christmas with just a hint of danger. in rare moments when her emotions get the better of her a hint of just which prince she's descended from shines through "I thought things were a bit more stable here, ...but the pattern exists I can feel it. If we find it, we might understand what's happened

Dirk pulls the door then. "ok."

Amy checks out the tools, finally stepping in. "A little dusty, but well taken care of?" she offers. "I wonder what Filinia would make of this?"

There's the view outside. And there's the street, just as they left it - the door's not a portal to anywhere strange.

"She'll complain about the hole in the wall," Tanya says. "Let's not tell her it was us."

Amy laughs at Tanya's response, shrugging a bit. "We can tell her to fix it?" she offers.

Dirk picks up tool and tries to carve "Dirk is king!" somewhere.

There are wrenches, flat-headed screw-drivers, oil cans... A screw-driver is about right for that. The brick walls, whitewashed on the inside, form an ideal place for doing it.

"Well, you, not me." Tanya approaches the outer ring of water-pools cautiously. "So this pumps up, puts water into a lot of places, and ... what about uphill? Is there another of these? Does your palace have fountains?"

Dirk is carving his name into the wall.

"It does have a fountain. I think," Amy says. "At least one."

"I'd like to know what Filinia makes of that, and how they get the water there," Tanya muses. "But for now, I think this place is safe. Let's relax and glory in not having been shot at."

Danielle hms " We should likely try the tunnels again. No way to figuire out reliably from that end


**********************************************************************
They say that Dirk finally tried to get away from his minder, Tanya - punched his way through a wall in the upper city to do it. Only she followed, and the women - the blonde and the redhead with them - just watched. I heard that she carved his epitaph into the wall.
**********************************************************************


Amy looks thoughtfully at Danielle, and then over to Tanya. She ignores Dirk's graffitti creation, but does note, "I guess we could try to see where this pumps from, down in the tunnels. It might help us figure out something. As for the palace - I'm not sure it's - alive yet."