Editing Diners of Amber (section)

==='''Neal's Diner, New Velri City, Ruthar, United States of Antherica'''===

[[File:AT-Neal's Diner.jpg]]

The third card is the first of the Diners of Amber and a swell place it is too. Neal's Diner is in the heartland of Antherica, on Urth, a technological epoch where the sound barrier is as newly broken as the color barrier is. New Velri City, in the state of New Velri, is a charming city that never sleeps. Likewise is the always-open Neal's Diner, a well-appointed eatery by any standards. Random included this place for two reasons.

First is that this massive coffee shop style restaurant serves one of the best breakfasts Random ever found and I must agree. He has established a tab usable by anyone telling the waitress to "put it on Randy's tab." Laura Dearly runs the front. Everyone calls her "Laura Dear." Buddy Drummen is the magnificent chef. He is willing to make amber-sized meals but insists on being called 'Sir.' Wise people do so if they want to be sure all they eat is his cooking. After one particular meal I decided if Buddy ever makes it to Amber I will knight him myself. I never have gotten a straight answer concerning who Neal is.

The second reason is that the basement is an underground card-club that Random frequents, and may have a stake in, financially. Georgie Reno[[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Elites#Georgie_Reno-Active]] runs the card game. Random supplies the bouncers, who are frequently members of the Amber Guard, in double-breasted silk suits. Cheating is not tolerated and frankly is rarely attempted.

Many an Amberite Guardsman can be found as bouncers and clientele both upstairs and down. Across the street is a boarding house that is a who's who of Amber nobility and younger sons serving their term of service. Two movie houses nearby show talkies and silent films, and color movies are all the rage. What the point is in a color-silent film I don't get.
 
A tattoo parlor on the same block has a collection of insignia and designs that can be found no where else in that shadow. Bruno Sveldt, a disreputable character at best, is an artist of the first water in the craft of body art. He has learned not to mock the large, burly men, and the lithe and equally stern women, who come into his shop to have the green disc and golden laurel wreath, surrounding a white unicorn, tattooed on their biceps. He made the mistake once; telling one such man that he must be part of a very tough gang of nancy boys and fierce butt-pirate swishes to want that tatted on himself. Bruno was missing for a few days, unlamented. Upon his return he was nothing but utter politeness and solicitude to any person who dared ask for that unusual design, and will put it anywhere they ask, at no charge. His hand never wavers till after the client is gone, then it shakes, he closes the store, and he drinks his whiskey through a straw.

<span style=color:darkgreen>Addendum <center>[[File:Elite Tat1.jpg|150 px]]</center></span> 

<span style=color:darkgreen>I was speaking to Sergeant Garry Gavno[[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Elites#Garry_Gavno-Active]], a Calro member of the elite Amber Guard, and a frequent pattern guardian, about Neal's Diner. He gave me the scoop on what they did to Sveldt.</span> 

<span style=color:darkgreen>The story is that Constance Kieln, a very tough Dreanan man of the House of Brolic, despite the name, who holds the rank of Captain in the Amber Guard, was one of the first Amber Guards man to do service under Random at the card club beneath Neal's. He was a sergeant then. He and several guys got the tattoo on their upper arm, and Sveldt thought it a very funny little device.</span> 

<span style=color:darkgreen>At a later time, while getting some other tattoo work done, Sveldt made his little insult. Constance dragged Sveldt directly to Amber, to the compound that the Amber Guard calls home. 30 guys, led by Julian, took him deep into shadows where monsters dwell and beat the living hell out of him for a couple months. They put a band of healing on him and fed him to a passel of lions and tigers and bears, oh my, who could rip him to pieces but not fast enough to keep the healing band from repairing him. So they ripped him up as fast as he healed for about a month. They then unceremoniously dumped him back at home, short three days.</span> 

<span style=color:darkgreen>That is as good an object lesson as I can imagine for those who desire to cross the Amber Elite Guard.</span> 

<span style=color:darkgreen>Also, Dreanans do not take insults well. Dour bunch they are.'' 
<center>[[File:Elite Tat1.jpg|150 px]]</center></span>

<span style=color:darkred>((GM-Notes: Neal's Diner and this world I envisioned as a common spot for PCs to meet, perhaps neutral territory between feuding PCS and such.  Card games.  Maybe even if the PC is an Elite, serving guard duty here for Random. And of course, who is Neal anyway?...))</span> 



[[Commentary from the Seer of Enen en nullen]]

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