Once more, the cold weather has visited Amber; after the incident with Dirk and his Trump, the ice took a very long time to melt. Now, little bits and shards are still in the fountain basin, and Filinia - or someone else - has installed a standpipe a little uphill of it.

The water of the fountain has been observed to freeze in time with questions, and even to create frost in the areas around, but it has not formed people again, or spoken.

Amy has been working at the hospital again, which shows that improvement. The basement (other than through that one door) has been tidied up, despidered if there were any left, and the upper floor has been finally cleaned up and opened for patient rooms. Or at least more of them. Right now, she's on her way from the hospital, heading up to the Inn where she is still living. She pauses by the fountain, observing. "I think it's finally starting to melt," she says.

Danielle hms as she walks "ON the onehand useful to have more information. on the other not god to have at least two of my fears confirmed that people can and do in fact disappear at a moment's notice and time can and does fluctuate wildly. we do know that great uncle benedict was not king though who sat the throne is the least of our questions at present i suppose

... their voices echoes visually; patterns ripple across the surface of the man-made pool.

Amy looks over at Danielle and half shrugs. "Yes, that's true. So many questions." She pauses to stare at the fountain. "Oh, are you listening to us today?" she asks, sounding slightly bemused.

Patterns play again. Maybe that is a yes.

Dirk walks over to the fountain. "I wish I had a penguin to care for or even a cat."

Even Dirk's voice makes the water surface flex, as tiny waves move over it, and ice crystals form and briefly contract.

Danielle peers at the water trying to sense if something has changed magically since their last encounter with the fountain

No cat shapes form. Nor do penguins.

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

To her eyes, the difference is obvious; there are thin strands of that same magic that had the tag in it, seeking around the water surface. Some are connected, others are still groping about blindly. Colonel Garin's magic is there, and reacting.

Amy frowns a bit at the fountain, and then she waves to Dirk. "Hey, Dirk," she greets. Her gaze goes back to the fountain, curiously. "Seems not today, Dirk," is her observation.

Dirk nods "I don't want to freeze the water again. Maybe I have a link to frost giants... my dad is a manwhore after all."

The water ripples almost violently then.

The air that blows around the place is cool, but seems to be part and parcel of the weather in Amber all around.

Danielle looks to Dirk "We do have company of a sort I think, if it comforts" Danielle offers to dirk "Oh I wouldn't be surprised if the's mingling of some kind going on" She watches the water "You do realize the's the posibility you've just insulted amber's king. That said she goes back to focusing on the strands of magic and though she realizes magic is not precisely physical, she reaches toward one of the strands indentified as garens trying to isolate it from others "show me the way"

Amy regards Danielle for a log moment, and then she works to call the pattern up, an image in her head, as she regards the fountain, hoping to see if there's anything she can discover.

Dirk looks down at the water. "Is Caine king?"

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

The water jerks and explodes upwards, either because Danielle touched part of it, or because of what Dirk said.

Suddenly, it is very wet.

To Danielle, feeling her way, and to Amethyst, watching, it is all a magical blur. Nevertheless, Danielle can be fairly clear it was the water moving that threw that strange of magic against her. Amethyst can make out the steady glow of low-level magic that is not doing much, and the paulses that go through it as it moves and spreads.

Dirk looks closer to the water. His nose almost in it. "Do you hate Caine?"

With his face down that low, Dirk can faintly hear the words, 'k'ssake, if he's King I'm dead...'

From a little further away, the magical ripples look like they are reacting to Dirk, maybe. The magical view that the Pattern gives changes subtly, but it is still mostly just announcing the presence of magic.

Danielle tries to physically move toward the magic, ordering her own thoughts endevoring to push them to a corner of her mind and opening the rest to be filled

Mostly, that leads her towards the fountain. She would have to climb in to get closer. There might or might not BE a direction...

Danielle rolls with advantage 0 at difficulty 15, using occult and spending will.
The result is a failure.

Amy moves closer as well, fascinated by what little she can sense in all this. "This is somewhat incredible. Colonel, can you really hear us?"

Dirk shows the ring he wears to the water. "what does this mean?" He puts his hand with the ring near the water.

The voice says, a little louder, "If I can't, I'm hallucinating." She sounds annoyed. That makes her sound more like the woman on the trump, before; her not-quite-Amber accent is clear. "I want a containment circle at that end. I'm leaking a lot. Keep losing... bits..."

When Dirk puts his hand towards the water, that is when the voice breaks up.

Danielle can see that it was when Dirk touched one of the lines - which he presumably cannot see - that the woman's voice broke up. It might have been the hand, or what it held.

Amy frowns, and then she says, "Dirk pull back a bit."

Dirk backs up and says "This ring is weird."

Danielle cusses "Dammit. I'm not precisely certain how to do that. The thing that's most annoying is that I probably used to know. Contaiment circle. Probably needs items to anchor it" she looks at Dirk "werd how ?. i think it might have interupted the link to garen but i can't be sure"

Dirk says "Salt?"

The water whispers, "Not the strangest thing I've heard lately, but .... look, this is hard. Can you find red chalk, draw around whatever I've found? Or anything red. Blood's only good if it's in a channel, but it's better than nothing. Red string is good. Hair. Tape. Just a complete circle of red.

"

"That ring is definitely weird, and red? Did she say red?" Amy asks. She now starts looking around for anything red.

In defiance of good sense, there are market stalls, including one that sells clothes only over on the other side of the square.

Danielle uncerimoniously starts to pull strands of hair ffrrom her own head

Dirk nods "I found it with the trumps." He sighs "I want my dad." A spawn of Caine missing his dad? The world has ended.

Fluff flies; Danielle is the closest source of red, even if she is pulling herself to bits for this.

THe water says nothing, although it ripples a little.

Amy heads for the market stall. "hey, do you have some red robes or anything?" she asks. "I have some coins." She says. Of course they might be Gavin's coins, but still.

Dirk says "Want me to cut it?"

While the man at the stall fusses over red robes, Danielle has the option of losing her hair to speed up the process.

Danielle nods "Go ahead buut leave a bit, cut to the shoulder"

"This one, right here," Amy says, pointing to a particularly crimson red robe. "How much?"

"Hmm, do I have red?" The man stares, surprised, at the clothes that were just to one side of him. "Two crowns," he says. "It's got a real cotton lining over the shoulders!"

"Two crowns?" Amy says, sounding startled. Then she flashes a grin, and hands over two of the coins that fell from the sky. They've been cleaned up of the tarnish and corruption, and are definitely good coins now.

Dirk puts Danielle in position and cuts her hair short with his sword. "There you go."

The man nods, and takes the coins, and with impressive slowness starts to fold the robe for Amethyst.

Amy flashes him a grin. "You don't need to fold it, sir," she says, reaching a hand for it. "I'll wear it to go."

Danielle nods to Dirk "Thanks. much easier and far less painful" Dhe piicks up sclumps of hair from the ground and waits for amy to spread the cloak so she can form a circle of hair on top

The main nexus of magic is in the fountain, so the circle is going to have to be around it - the hair, and the bright red robe together will be just enough red to go around.

Also, Danielle's head feels lighter. Some things don't change when the universe is creaking, and haircuts seem to be one of them.

Amy brings the robe back, shaking it out like she's about to put it on.

The attention of the stallholder is rapidly on someone else.

Dirk says "If you need blood, I have some to sparw."

spare

"This will spread further if we cut it in half or strips," Amy says, passing the robe over to Dirk.

Danielle busies herself to making a sort of rope with her shorn locks

A rough, thin plait soon forms under Danielle's fingers, scrappy because it cannot be knotted easily, but long enough to go much of the way around the fountain.

Dirk cuts the fabric and starts knotting it together with proper sailors knots. "Hurry."

The robe and the plait go into place, and then the water says, more clearly, "That's quick work. Also, please reassure me that Prince Caine is not on the throne. If so I need to start running."

That is definitely Tanya Garin's voice.

Amy cannot help but laugh, after she finishes setting the red robe bits in place. "At the moment, there appears to be nobody on the throne, or a ghost," she reports truthfully.

There is a silence. "Which ghost?" Tanya asks, voice strained.

Dirk says "Exactly, Caine isn't on the throne.I saw a huge man but no details. The castle is empty."

A sigh of relief. "Phew. Good. So. I could still dow with rescue, alcohol, and some low-morality young men. But I'll settle for saying I think I might be in the wrong universe. Things are not working right. So if you don't like invaders, bring it."

Danielle hms "I wish I could we don't know. The most we've come across is a human spider hybrid creature whose head looked disturbingly like fiona

Dirk says "Well I offer myself up as the young man of low morality. I know how I was able to move someone from their reality to ours but it may not work here."

"Ewww... Yes, I can see why she might present as a spider. I had a bit of time since we last talked. I can spend more now I know there are people out there. ... I said men, but maybe one will do. But the magical laws are very strange here. I think I'm in a place that has a contract with Amber, like they used to make with gods and places, but it's like everything's turned upside-down and is still working." Garin takes a slow breath, now audible. "I... have seen one other universe's basic laws, so it's not like it's really off the deep end, but I don't think I'm connected to where I came from any more. Magic shouldn't work like it's working."

Amy pauses for a moment, and then she says, "I'm not sure any of us are from the same universe, but we're here now, and I don't know that there's any going back." Her observation is based on the crazy fog stuff, of course. "However, if you're from Amber - well, we're in Amber. And working to fix things, as we figure out how." She stops to listen, and then says, "I don't have any information to suggest other than what you've said."

Dirk looks "I cut the man I brought over? if you want to try I can try it with you."

"Well, right. At least it's everything else that's crazy, not just me." The water of the fountain is a mirror surface now. "Go on? How did you cut him? Tell me."

Danielle hms "We were randomly transported to an ice palace, talked to to an old gentleman who mentioned someone by the name of Hel. Only we were transported b the fog and don't know how to get back. Does any of this sound familiar?

Dirk says "On my part, he was a ghost then I drew his blood wi t h my knife then he became real."

Filinia says, "Ghosts are bad, and I'm a long way away. And if you stab me, I'll be upset. But hes, I know Hel. Only she feels different to this place. I'm in that palace, I think. It goes on for... what measurement units do you use?" Garin sounds a little distracted."

Amy says, "I think the palace has a connection to Amber, that ice palace. The music room is where Danielle found that tag, and it has a bunch of pictures of Amber royalty. Well, our aunts, uncles and parents, we think." She pauses, and then says, "We use miles. Or kilomters. Does that help?"

Filinia says, "I know both of those. If a kilometer's a thousand meters, and a meter's about a yard, it might even be the same. The music room's where I left one of my tags. This place is five hundred meters long, at least. Some of it got crushed by a glacier. Some didn't. I just heard something. Can you keep this circle in good condition? I'll make the surface move when I'm back, and you can say something. But I need to protect my end. I can't someone else's magic on it." There are sounds like Garin is moving."

Dirk looks to his friends.

"I know both of those. If a kilometer's a thousand meters, and a meter's about a yard, it might even be the same. The music room's where I left one of my tags. This place is five hundred meters long, at least. Some of it got crushed by a glacier. Some didn't. I just heard something. Can you keep this circle in good condition? I'll make the surface move when I'm back, and you can say something. But I need to protect my end. I can't someone else's magic on it." There are sounds like Garin is moving.

Danielle nods "We'll keep it intact best we can"

"And if it falls apart, we'll put it back together again if that works?" Amy says. She looks to Dani and Dirk. "Guess we maybe want to station a guard here? And let Filinia know not to disturb it?"

Dirk nods "Sure."

Amy starts to work, looking to figure out how to cover over the red circle, so it stays intact and undisturbed. "C'mon, Dirk, let's start by carefully buiding it a cover."

Dirk nods and says sure.


**********************************************************************
No more sudden coldness by the fountain in the lower square today, but sudden madness instead. A demon took hold of Danielle's hair and Dirk had to cut it all off. He was crying out about blood! And then he ripped up a cloak that the hospital woman with the precious stone name gave him, and was plaiting it, and then they danced around the fountain. They left all the bits of cloth there, and the hair, and nobody can get near it any more...
**********************************************************************