Adzgar Monitor's Journal - Meridian Tass

I've finally found the time to add a few notes in my personal journal. The group of has arrived in the outskirts of the city of Amber, we've stopped to sit for a bit and have lunch and I'm taking the time to transcribe this.

I won't bother to record here the entire trip getting here, that's all in the more formal journey log I've already transcribed into the library. Horrible storms, sea monsters, it was everything a bard could wish for and frankly I'm quite happy to be done with it.

We are a surprisingly hardy band of survivors, and despite differences the group is beginning to come together and depend on one another. Some personal observations:

Brother Peter - Or Lord Peter I suppose now, Peter concerns me. To define his life as sheltered until this point would be an understatement, he deals with the unknown and the horrific by retreating into the shell of his beliefs. I honestly think he just ignores a lot of what happens. Ironically though, given his rather astounding mental domination abilities, it may be that same blind faith that prevents him from becoming the monster that most men would with that sort of power. Sil Rana has taken him under wing to some extent, and despite the rangers confrontational ways he is probably a good role model for Peter's transition to "real life". Syrone seems to have taken a liking to him as well, probably a good thing for both of them.

Landorf - Well, what can you possibly say about Landorf; he's useful. His "magical" abilities are impressive in their own strange manner and he has proven more than handy in a fight. Personally, well, I doubt our social circles would mix to any great degree. If he has bonded to any degree with any of the others I've yet to notice it. Syrone at least I suspect would happily castrate him given the opportunity.

Sil Rana and Diagoro - Our valiant protectors, and haven't we proven more than a handful for them. The rangers are good solid men but have lately proven more depth than one would suspect from their simply manner. Sil Rana has some sort of feud going on with that little weasel we saw in town. I have no idea what about but for all his bluster Sil Rana is resistant to killing the man and being done with it. I guess it's the Monitor's way to value practicality over honor. I don't always like Sil Rana, but I respect him and appreciate that we would never have made it this far without his and Diagoro's aid.

As for Diagoro, well, it's hard to know him. He tends to stand on the outside, communicating with Sil Rana mostly and only the others as there is need. He has some sort of link with the forests we recently passed through and the amazingly large wolf that now follows him around like a pet. I suspect Diagoro will always be something of a mystery.

Syrone - My haphazard apprentice, how can I guess your motives when you clearly are unsure of them youself. You've shown a new dedication to learning the Monitor trade recently and this gladdens me, more-so because you came to it yourself instead of me pushing you towards it. But I suspect that you destiny may lie elsewhere, there is a connection between you and this Wayfinder we've picked up, beyond just your shared shifting abilities. Will you be happy birthing cattle in a village somewhere until you have explored this world she offers you? I rather think not, but while the interest is there I will still train you. Mabey when you have wandered where you must you will discover that the life of a Monitor provides rewards you previously lacked the experience to see and return to us.

Laurent - Probably the closest thing to a contemporary I have on in this ragged band and I admit to a certain happiness in having a companion I can discuss things at a scholarly level to. I find his fascination with fortune telling a little amusing, but if this is how he needs to focus whatever talent he has discovered, who am I to question his methods.

Party commentary aside, I wanted to record here my further attempts with the work I began based on Darwin's, or I suppose I should properly name him, Dworkin's notes.

Dworkin represented the functional model of our reality in the terms of metaphor, colorful, but imprecise. However, I've manage to translate that into a workable mathematical model, at least at the gross level. While certainly useful even if only at a scholarly level, the model itself has suggested some interesting possibilities. We know that we were able to resist the Slowing because our Force of Order was stronger than the surface tension of the surrounding Province (or Shadow as Dworkin is fond of calling them). To put it in laymen's terms, something I've been doing a lot lately, the force of our reality is stronger than the force that enforces the physical rules of a location. Given this, the math allows for the alteration of some of those rules (even if only at a very small level, the resistance is exponential).

I've done some experimenting at a basic level, the focusing skills I've gained over the years using the crystal allowing me to "project into" reality in a sense, at least to sense the underlying forces around me and the equations that support them. I suspect the math is my brains way of translating what I'm seeing into a useful metaphor, much like Laurent's tarot cards. Dworkin probably saw the entire thing as Paris Noble Era figure paintings and calculated changes by altering skin tones or something equally absurd. I'll stick to numbers.

In any case I need to work with it more, but I think I may be able to variablize the relative constants, enhancing or de-enhancing their values and locking them into place. The effect would only stay stable within a Shadow, making it more permanent would require rebuilding the entire equation using universal constants and that would take, well, a lot of time at least. However, so long as you keep it local, you really don't need to rebuild anything, your just increasing relative pressures. Adding something new would be hard, you'd have to again build the math from scratch, but working with already existing characteristics should be pretty fast.

The effect should work equally well on living or unliving materials. The math actual doesn't seem to see much of a difference, which is something I think I'm just not going to tell Peter. Assuming, of course, that they don't break the Shadow's surface tension themselves. I don't think I could run the numbers on Sil Rana, for example, at least not and make it stick.

Blast, our Wayfinder has called an end to lunch and it's time to get back on our mounts. With all the buildings coming up, writing on horseback will be impossible. I'll add more as opportunity allows.

Meridian Tass
Monitor - Adzgar