Black Pathways

Shadowwalking with the Logrus

The Logrus. A primal power of shifting size and dimensions. Its initiates can use it to cast spells, attack, defend, and breach the walls of Shadow. Or can they?

Merlin is an initiate of both the Pattern and the Logrus, but he acknowledges that he knows much more of the Logrus than the Pattern. His spells are Logrus based, he uses the Logrus to enhance his senses, the Logrus to attack on the physical plane. Why, then, does he use the Pattern to Shadowwalk?

For it seems certain that Merlin Shadowwalks exclusively with his Pattern abilities in the course of the Chronicles — at least, the language used to describe his travels is the same as that of Corwin's journeys, and neither is like the two instances in which we are sure that the Logrus is involved — the Black Road of the Corwin Chronicles and the Black String of Prince of Shadows.

Here, then, is the explanation.

Shadowwalking with the Pattern is a fairly simple process of imagining changes in the landscape and walking towards them. While it is harder to do in some places than others, it allows for relatively fast, steady travel. While it is possible to cross Shadow with the Logrus, it is somewhat more involved.

Create Black Pathway

Either a part of Basic Logrus or a partial power worth 5 points

A Logrus master who wishes to breech the veils of Shadow reaches out towards his destination with a Tendril. If the destination is close, the Master finds it, then pushes his power through the Tendril, strengthening and broadening it. The Tendril, stretched across several Shadows, spills Logrus energies about it and creates a Black Pathway.

The Pathway is visible to all, marked by a similar corruption as was the Black Road. Colors are darkened within it, the air is colder. Unless a great deal of energy has been expended to create it, it is no wider than a game trail, and seems to taper off in the distance. Once one has set foot upon it, the world outside seems a bit dimmer, and there is a sense of danger. Walking down the Black Path takes no talent, and can be easily accomplished by anyone who sets foot upon it. One can step off the Path at any time, but one will find, if one has taken any forward or backward movement at all, a different Shadow waiting. Movement along the Path is bi-directional — it is as easy to come from the destination to the origin as the reverse.

In fairly short order — perhaps fifteen minutes, somewhat longer near Chaos, shorter near Amber — the Path fades away, leaving some dead plants and a lingering trace of Logrus in its wake.

The Path is demanding to construct, and particularly so around Amber. In the Courts, a Logrus Initiate of some skill can open a Black Path which has a subjective length of between a quarter and a half mile. In the immediate environs of Amber, only the most powerful of Logrus Masters can manage one which is longer than three or four paces. If the destination is not within the range of a single Pathway, a stopover must be made partway there, and, once the Logrus Master has reached the interim destination, another Pathway may be stretched onward. Around Amber, this makes travel maddeningly stop and go, with only brief forward movement interspersed with long and difficult attempts to create a new Path.

The process of creating the Path is both difficult and tiring, and itself takes significantly longer than it would for a Pattern wielder of equivalent skill to simply walk the distance. However, once the Pathway has been created, it ferries the walkers quickly through Shadow. The entire process of creating and walking the Path towards a given destination takes about twice as long as it would to Shadowwalk to that location, were one an Amberite.

However, Paths tend to weaken the barriers between Shadows. If a given location has been opened many times, it becomes significantly easier to create a Path in the same "groove," particularly if you are the Logrus Master who opened the previous Paths. Therefor, Logrus Masters may, in and around their own homes, be able to move through Shadow astonishingly quickly.

Of course, few would be willing to open a Pathway in their actual homes, for recall that anyone — or anything — can enter the Path at its origin, destination, or anywhere along the way, and can move up or down the Path. If you create a Path with an endpoint in your living room, well, then, you're simply asking for a basilisk to nest in your armchair. Wise Logrus Masters find a somewhat secluded area to begin their Pathways from.

Pathways are also easy to trace, their residue noticable to one able to sense invisible forces long after they are closed to physical travel. And, of course, creating a Pathway to an enemy loses any chance of surprise, for the effect precedes your actual travel. All in all, while Pathways have their uses, those with the option to Shadowwalk will generally choose to use the Pattern.

Permenant Pathways

And Shadowmastery

A portion of Advanced Logrus, or a partial power worth 3 points

It can become rather bothersome to endlessly be opening a Black Pathway from your kitchen to your pantry, and it would seem that an Advanced Logrus Master should have other options. Indeed, he does.

With further study of the Logrus, it becomes possible to create Black Pathways which will sustain themselves unless actively closed by a Logrus Master or a Pattern Initiate. While they take rather more time and energy to set up, they are thereafter completely effortless to use.

The Ways of the Courts of Chaos are, in essence, merely permenant Black Pathways, though they usually have a powerful Conjuration set upon them to further reduce the transport time, possibly to open and close them, and to stablize the gateways. Note that the Ways tend to be only from one adjacent Shadow to the next, so the length of the Pathway is very short indeed — less than a single step.

As can be seen, the Logrus Master's abilities are varied and powerful, but, like all things in Chaos, reward careful planning and should be used with care.

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