IMC :: Hellride
In Patternwalking, you don't have an exact notion of distance because you do not travel the 'real' distance, you make some distance in many different shadows along the way. Amberites walk or use horses because they really aren't dealing with all that infinite distance.
Hellriding is much faster, skipping like a stone across a lake of shadows.
So what's so dangerous about Hellriding?
I would have to be done with the task I had set myself before he came home. So a hellride was in order. There was no time for leisurely journeying, I had to remember the proper shadows and be under way soon.
—Corwin
First, the hellride is exhausting. Corwin can't do two of them in a short space of time. And botches when he tries to.
The drama penalty to PCs? Scorched, abraded, bloody and bowed.
Second, the hellride requires clarity of path—paths usually artistically approximated in normal shadow walking. The drama penalty to PCs? Arrival in a nasty place you have never been before that looks like your destination.
I felt his mind, but there was no response from it. It struck me then that he was in the middle of a hellride, all his concentration bent on wrapping the stuff of Shadow about him. He could not respond without losing control.
—Corwin
Third, the hellride requires nothing distract that particular focus.
The drama penalty to PCs? Crashing into a war, a vehicle, a shadowstorm or the lair of a dragon who doesn't like guests.
Downward... The land drops away at either hand... Darkness below... Moving along the top of an infinitely high, curved wall, the way itself bright with moonlight... The trail buckles, folds, grows transparent... Soon it drifts, gauzy, filamentous, stars beneath as well as above... Stars below on either side... There is no land... There is only the night, night and the thin, translucent trail I had to try to ride, to learn how it felt, against some future use...
—Corwin
Fourth, the substance of shadow is not supporting you as much as your will and balance is. This is a feat of several Attributes at once. An attack or minor distraction will pit you against dangers of environ as you lose control.
The drama penalty to PCs? Your favorite horse might go mad. You could lose time and place as you fall from the hellride into half-formed shadows. You might even get lost.
Here's the fun: competency is a constant companion to Amberites. You always know what you can do, and walking shadows is your birthright. But you interject the unknown of random chance when you take on a Hellride. You spend good will of the universe. Folks don't practice Hellrides for fun. Like walking the Pattern, choosing to Hellride is exposing yourself to something bigger and unfeeling of your need and urgency.
Happy trails.
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IMC at 16.01.2007