Torquil

Straight Man of Amber

Torquil is Fiona's son and the most like the stereotypical Lord of Amber of any of his generation, by a great margin. Consequently, Torquil is perhaps not as well liked by his cousins as he might be. Or, perhaps, he is simply misunderstood.

Description

Torquil is fairly short (5'4''), but still taller than his mother. (And that's the important part, right?) He has almond shaped, bright green eyes and slightly reddish, but mostly brown hair, which he wears cut very short. He looks as though his father might have been Asian.

Background

Torquil... well, actually, we have no idea. He's been to shadow Earth, to one of Merlin's parties, in fact, but beyond that, he's never said much about his background.

Points and Powers

Torquil joined the run a month or two after it started and did not participate in the auction. Still, it's pretty clear by now that he has a lot of psyche and even more Pattern. He periodically claims to be "a great and powerful sorceror" and regular implies that his warfare is quite low, but this is Amber (and Torquil), so be wary of taking these at face value.

Adventures, Exploits, and Other Noteworthy Information

"There I was, minding my own business..." So here's Torquil, minding his own business, when he gets a call from his cousin Merlin, the only Amberite he's seen in decades. Oddly enough, Merlin is in no hurry at all, and would like something to drink. The Logrus fetches him a pitcher of orange juice, attached to Mikele. For no obvious reason, a fight ensues, involving much magic and Logrus wall foolishness. Torquil is whacked on the head by the Logrus, and wakes up with Mikele and Felicia going through his stuff. Now he's met another cousin. He quickly meets the rest, and they're off to do something about all the menaces in the universe.

"My laser was blue-green." Katarina and Liesl were going to have a duel. Ask her for the details. Anyway, Torquil, Felicia, and Dalamar weren't invited, so they showed up invisible. The duel predictably broke down into melee, and someone invisible fired an infrared laser at Katarina. Torquil is the only one who brought a laser to the party, so he is the first suspect. Fortunately, he points out that his laser fires in the visible light range (blue-green) and everyone decides to never trust Torquil again.

"Whoops, wrong trump." Finally, Torquil's got his hands on a Spikard, and he wants to know what makes it tick. The obvious thing to do is to stick it on the finger of some Shadow sucker, and run some tests. The tests break down, the Shadow sucker gets way too powerful, and they have to get rid of the ring before it nukes them. Felicia tries trumping it to the bottom of the sea, but has forgotten freshman physics, and the water pressure blows the ring back out. Nikrowd has a better idea; he's got a trump of a spot right outside the evil not-Corwin's ur-Avalon, so he drops the ring through there, where it obliterates a city of hapless Avalonians.

"Why do we always have to ride horses, what's wrong with walking?" Torquil is not a fan of riding horses. They're smelly and have a poorly designed suspension system. When travelling through low-tech shadows, then, he's been known to ride a chariot. Everyone else's horses (see Steed, Steadfast, Horse) are cool, so Torquil's are the coolest of all: Beavis and Butthead.

"I know how we can help: let's all raise armies and beat up Ur-Corwin." Invading other countries frequently requires an army. Of course, it's best if your troops are invulnerable and deal obscene quantities of damage. One could find such people given time, but it's faster, with Dalamar's help, to just create a magical substance that confers such qualities, and dip your army in it. It's also always a good idea to be taller than your army. The obvious solution: an army of four-foot-tall karate Picts, dipped in woad.

"Tell Torquil I'll be thinking of him..." What it's like to get clotheslined by a battle-axe when charging along at engine speed.

I'm sorry, did you think you were winning? A tragic thing had happened to Amber; some miscreant had separated it from Shadow. Fortunately, after careful analysis and experimentation, Torquil had a solution. Unfortunately, all of Torquil's carefully gathered data turned out to have been manufactured by Brand specifically to lure Torquil into thinking he was solving the problem, when in fact he was doing nothing at all. And then Brand showed up and laughed at him a lot.

Why, yes, I would mind if you stuck that Logrus sword in my chest... Happily on vacation, eating sushi every night, hanging out on the beach, getting Logrus swords plunged through your chest. Torquil was meditating one night, and a nasty Chaos dude slipped into the room, and left a mini-demon in Torquil's chest cavity. Fortunately, Torquil managed to survive, and capture the villain to boot.

The Bachelor Party Torquil's cousin Martin and his good and dear friend Mikele are getting married, and of course Merlin throws the bachelor party. Torquil, designated driver, stays stone cold sober, which is lucky, because he notices a suspicious woman leaving a suspicious briefcase near the party, and quickly exiting the building. A quick CAT scan of the briefcase reveals bomb parts and an ingenious trigger. The chase ensues, as Keverian and Torquil deftly excuse themselves, and try to return the briefcase to the lady. Motorcycles are conveniently located, and eventually they get to interrogate her, discovering nothing useful. The briefcase turns out to be a bomb with the explosives and detonator removed, and replaced with a variety of effective hangover cures. Martin turns out not to need the kind gift, but it was good to know it was available if anyone needed it.

Mr. Torquil Says

``I don't have a solution but I admire the problem.''

``The beatings will continue until morale improves.''

``Nothing like a monarchy to bring out the irrational in people.''

``Doesn't anyone find it just a little bit suspicious that Mary's first action was to try and dump a load of manure on me?''

``Torquil is so misunderstood.'' (Cael)

``It's very unfortunate. When I finally do tell the truth no one believes me.''

``Why is it that no one remembers all the times I passed up an opportunity for personal power in favor of the general good?'' (Torquil)
``What times?'' (Everyone within earshot)