GMing advice: focusing on a particular Shadow

[Nihilistic Mind]

Ok, I like the fact that Shadow is this big free superstore to the players, be it for stuff, people, advantages or experiences (they take, then take off), but I want a specific Shadow to be the focus for a while.

For the most part, like any good amberite, the PCs have been using Shadow to find and take what they need. This particular Shadow is considered important to the Amber Crown. It stands outside of the Golden Circle and currently seems to singlehandedly hold back hordes from Chaos currently attacking via the Black Road.

I don't expect (and don't want) the players to be working together throughout the campaign, since I'd rather have them make their own way in the game, but for now (due to the dire conditions, i.e. the Black Road extends to Kolvir, and the 'insistence' of King Oberon) they are to investigate what makes this Shadow 'special'. I started working on this Shadow's background and setting and I'm enjoying it so much that I'm considering involving it a lot more rather than have it be a simple starting point for this campaign.
My players already have different agendas and I don't want to discourage that (on the contrary), yet I want them to linger there for a while longer so that I can use the fun background I've developped.

This prompted me to ask this to you guys (in a very general manner, not necessarily pertaining to my own creation necessarily): in a game like Amber, where Shadows have little significance in comparison to other places, what tricks do you use to involve the player characters for an extended period of time.

Things that I've used to that effect in the past:
-the discovery of a lost Amberite who has settled down (overused)
-the discovery of a broken pattern
-a shadow storm (great for running a little murder mystery, forces the players to experience some tension while stuck in a place)
-create things that the players will (potentially) get attached to
-the discovery of something powerful and unusual (the keep of four worlds is a great example)

Can't think of anymore at the moment. Share and discuss!

[Trevelyan]

People, specifically friendly NPCs who can give a character, and hence a player, a genuine emotional fondness for the place.

Coupled with that, you can provide the PCs with a genuine safe haven on a given shadow, somewhere that they can feel genuinely safe, and that can only be lost as a result of damage to the entire shadow.

In Amber, paranoia often seems to run very high, and in my experience, what PCs value more than anything are genuine allies and safe refuges.

[Arref]

Helpful people and information that seems uncanny and useful to Amber affairs.

Secrets that seem to have more correspondences to other realities.

[badbaronrudigor]

I tend to start players (esp those new to Amber) in a shadow with partial powers and have them eventually discover world traveling etc.  That way the particular shadow is home with a lot of memories and connections.  I have found that the pre-pattern roleplaying is often better since the preconceptions are less predictable.

Example:  Mallory based Avalon where not until the Grail Quest do they get pushed into realms of shadow/pattern/etc.

[gabriel_ss4u]

People, specifically friendly NPCs who can give a character, and hence a player, a genuine emotional fondness for the place.

Coupled with that, you can provide the PCs with a genuine safe haven on a given shadow, somewhere that they can feel genuinely safe, and that can only be lost as a result of damage to the entire shadow.

In Amber, paranoia often seems to run very high, and in my experience, what PCs value more than anything are genuine allies and safe refuges.

I believe he said it well,
I get the PCs to connect with an NPC and just build off the PCs Stuff & Likes)
I too have made wondrous worlds and populated them with ubiquitous items, but the players just go off & do what ever, where-ever they choose.
That is the joy of freeflow gaming - not being pinned down by a certain agenda of the GM, as I'm sure all us good GMs know, but those cool worlds often go un-noticed, and have to come around again in another story.
Usually to keep an Amberite somewhere for a while, Can be done by having them have to find the item/means to get out of said Shadow, as it is barred. Hopefully the item they obtain is worth the stay.