ACUS 2003: Morpheus Interrupted (Part One)

Matrix: 1)the set of conditions which provides a background in which something grows or develops 2)a group of numbers or other symbols arranged in a rectangle which can be used together as a single unit to solve particular mathematical problems 3)a substance in which other things are fixed, buried, etc Via Cambridge Dictionary

The scenario I planned for this year's Morpheus Game had to do with Morpheus and crew returning to the Matrix to find out the true nature of Chaos and the purpose of the Matrix. They were supposed to be captured by Chaosians half-way through and locked in a matrix-induced mental asylum with all of their abilities taken away and doctors telling them that they had suffered from delusional fantasies. (hence, the title) While in this world which mirrors Corwin's shadow-earth, they were to find out that Amber is a series of books in some Matrix worlds written by a guy named Roger Zelazney. Escaping from the asylum, they were still stuck in the world and unable to bring up the pattern and escape. Well, the asylum still made a brief appearance, but due to a very slow start, the rest of the stuff planned for the game had to be scratched and filed away in my mind for next year.

In the original game, we played through each character in their setting and their meeting with Morpheus. I tried to provide this experience to the new players this year but it did not work as well since I had so much plot planned and had to also play through the returning characters and what is going on in "New Amber." (I need to decide on a name for this Amber setting. Morpheus Amber doesn't work since Julian is currently king. Matrix Amber doesn't work since the Matrix and Amber are seperate places. Right now, I'm thinking New Amber. It's not very original, but it works.) The other problem I had running these characters through their scenario was that all three characters came from books I've never read. We had Talia from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, Vlad Taltos from Stephen Brust's books and Soulcatcher from Glen Cook's Black Company series. So, I decided to teleport them to a fourth fantasy setting that I'm very familiar with, Elric's Melnibone and have them meet Morpheus there. Having them meet M together helped a little but it still took a while to get started, especialy with one character being extremely uncooperative. (I don't blame the player. She was just playing her character. I should have realized I needed more of a hook for her to get her to work with the other two at finding Morpheus and Amber.)

The Good: The players seemed pretty interesting on how things were working in the new Amber, how the rebuilding is going and what the political situation is. (Current politics in a nutshell- Julian is king. There are some people, such as Vril Dox, who believe that they are more suited to be king and some support Dox because he claims to be Oberon reborn. Most of the New Amberites are in support of Julian.) The players all did a really good job of playing their characters off of eachother. They seemed suprised and pleased with the ending revelation (which I sadly decided I will not reveal to anyone outside of the game).

The Bad: A slow start bogged the game down and although the players seemed very interested in the plot of rebuilding Amber, the plot I had planned was in shadow and the Matrix and I wasn't ready to ad-lib a whole new plot in Amber. The really neat scene I had planned where the Oracle hints to the group at what the true nature of Chaos is didn't happened and instead they got the information by mind-raping Neo.

Story Summary: Years ago, Oberon pattern shifted as far from Amber as he could and planted a tree, Yggdrasil there to mark the place where the power of the Pattern ends. "Beyond this tree lies Chaos."

When the black road crumbled at the end of Morpheus Calling it left survivors from New Zion stranded out in shadow. Morpheus spent the last year travelling shadows (the desert of the real) looking for both survivors and supplies to bring back to Amber. Many of his trips were alone but sometimes he would travel out with others who were doing the same. The black road left shadow an endless desert with only occassional pockets of life. During his most recent trip, Morpheus went out as far as he could looking for the tree, Yggdrasil, and found a huge black wall that borders all of creation. Touching it, he discovers that the black road was actually part of this wall trying to reach Amber and in the wall is a new Matrix. At game start, Morpheus had just returned to Amber and called the returning player characters, Adrienne, Trent "the Uncatchable", Fayne and Aeryn. Two other NPCs were also there: Shayera the four armed blue-skinned woman and Rygel. Morpheus tells them that Amber's enemy is still out there and it is time they found out who the enemy is. Also, he sensed that there was still some people in the Matrix and has already planted in the Matrix the seeds to their freedom. His plan is for them to travel out to the Matrix, rescue the others and try to capture the woman known as Oracle. If possible, he was hoping that they could also capture one of the enemy's flying ships.

Meanwhile in the Matrix....

The Queens Herald, Talia, sensed someone coming up the steps to her room in the tower. She opened the door to find a little girl, "a little," with a far away look. The little tells her that Morpheus, the lord of dreams, came to her in her sleep and told her to tell Talia that she was to seek "the other three." She then starts crying, scared and embaressed for being so bold to approach a herald like that. Talia comforted the girl until she felt better and the girl left.

(To be continued)