Game Log: Session III

October 10, 2000

As the curtain rises on our erstwhile characters, they are in a setting of familial warmth and conviviality. It's another one of Flora's charming dinner parties, and the china glows in the strategically placed candlelight, the crystal sparkles and the silver service gleams.

Seated around the table in addition to Rolfe, Sedgewick, Mallory, Sebastian and Sophia are Flora (of course), Serenity, Bleys, Vialle, Gerard and his son, Silas, Caine, Julian, Fiona and Martian.

Despite much preparation and care, Flora's perfectly orchestrated family gathering devolves into something more like a drunken revel as Rolfe, Mallory and Caine discover that lemon liqueur can be had by the decanter-full from a servant during the appetizer course. Rolfe and Caine drain and refill their dinner mugs often, and "le citron" makes for a hotter event than Flora was hoping for. Rolfe and Caine are all for invading Chaos right now, smelling that Chaosian stench (oh, whoops! Was that Fiona they just smelled up?), and passing le citron around time after time.

While the men make merry, there are other conversations being had. Sedgewick is asked about the murders by Julian, and engages in desultory chat with Fiona about the book which was stolen (allegedly penned by none other than Dworkin himself). Vialle takes the time to talk to Sophia, and Sophia moves Rolfe one chair over so that he and Mallory can pass their decanter without having Serenity stuck between. The women continue talking about nothing in particular. Flora speaks to her son, Sebastian, about how life is going for him now that he's back in Amber.

Soon after, Rolfe kills the dessert and the women retire to the salon for drinks of their own, leaving the gentlemen to talk futher about "Let's just go kill Chaos right now," and "I think I'm going to hide his horse."

Sedgewick and Sebastian head to the library, and trump Random ... just checking to see how he's doing, since they felt he disappeared without much explanation. Random's fine ... sleepy, but fine.

Mallory and Bleys head off to talk about this, that and the other.

Sophia and Serenity call it a night, and Sophia invites her to stay in the cottage rather than the castle. They drop by the library and pen a note to Serenity's "guardian", Mallory, so he won't worry about where she is. They bid goodnight to Sebastian and Sedgewick who are still there talking.

Sebastian retires, and Sedgewick trumps Jolan ... they talk for a while.

In the wee hours, Sophia is awakened by a screaming Serenity. She rushes down the hall to find that her guest is having nightmares. One of the Camellian guards assigned to Serenity's protection bursts in the room, and is told unceremoniously to get out by Sophia. Serenity's dream is of death and dying over and over by various means (being stabbed, drinking poisoned wine with Sedgewick in the room, fighting unnamed "things"), the moon and Tir-na Nog'th. Sophia, in Serenity's dream, was "off with the others," whatever that meant. The two women decide to just call it a morning, and get up for tea and the comfort of the warm hearth. Soon after the sun comes up, Sophia receives a note from House Marton, and locks herself in her workshop. Serenity says she needs to go for a walk in the garden alone.

It's the next day. The sun is out and the birds are singing.

Rolfe is trying to sleep it off, and ignore the birds.

It's a little harder for him to ignore the very loud fencing practice which Sebastian is holding outside Rolfe's window, however. CLASH go the swords, BANG go the shields. WINCE goes Rolfe's head. Sebastian seems to be having a marvelous time by comparison.

Sedgewick asks permission to do some major magic on the small ballroom, then heads off into Shadow to get his messages for the day, and to frown mightily over the puzzle box he received the day before.

Mallory makes his way to the gardens, and finds Serenity up in a tree ... with one of the attendant guards entreating her to come down. Mallory sends him away, and after promising that the guards will be more discreet in the future, she comes down. He hears a little about her dream, and they talk about various other things before he assigns three large cats (lynx-type) to watch over the girl. They're a better deal than the guards were, in Serenity's opinion.

Meanwhile, out in Shadow, Sedgewick is looking over his mail, and comes to the realization that the puzzle box was created by his nemesis, the "Evil Genius". There's a vial inside the box, as well as a key to a locked room in an Amber hostel. He makes his way back there with much haste to find one of his servants dead by a slow acting poison ... the vial was the antidote. Sedgewick is utterly ticked.

Sebastian, after a thoroughly enjoyable sparring session, speaks with his manservant, Manfred, for a time. It seems the fellow is having "women" troubles. Sebastian tells him outrightly that no one has ever managed "the switch", and cuffs him about the ears for being an idiot. He leaves his servant, and heads to his chambers to make "preparations".

Mallory takes his leave of Serenity, and wanders over to Sophia's workshop. After a bit of knocking, she finally opens the door to him, and they spend the next little while talking about his "charge", the upcoming trip to Tir-na, and ways to possibly detect the "ore" when it's cloaked by something else. They move on to talk a little about Sedgewick's investigation, and what's going on with the murders.

Sebastian asks Rolfe, to accompany him to a very odd Shadow, where not so long ago, Sebastian had some serious butt-kicking happen to him. He wants to return and pay them back in due measure. On top of that, the place in itself is something of a puzzle --it's a weird twisting fold of Shadow. Mallory says he'll also come along (grateful for a chance to blow off Count Tivolio's dinner invitation), and Sedgewick says he'll also join the party. The gentlemen make their preparations.

During t his time, Sophia is visited by the Lady Julietta, the young woman who accompanied Silas to the wedding reception. Julietta doesn't quite know what to do ... Jolan has been so friendly of late, and Jolan's sooooo exciting while Silas is ... well, not so exciting, and Jolan tells her the most awful things about Silas ... and Julietta just doesn't think she can trust Silas anymore. Sophia, not the best at being diplomatic when young women are being phenomenally stupid, nonetheless patiently asks Julietta to look beyond the immediate glamour of Jolan to what his intent may truly be. The young woman doesn't think that Jolan would use her, because he's not really like that ... he's just misunderstood. She does say she'll think about things, though, and takes her leave thinking that she didn't get to hear what she was hoping to hear.

Sophia sends an anonymous note to Jolan and Silas, asking them to meet her in town at a small "tavern" at 10 PM. They send back their reply by messenger that they agree. She then trumps Rolfe, asking if he would be willing to assist in a little "leaning" on a young man direly in need of education. He says that he's already engaged for the earlier part of the day, but if he's back in time, he'll be happy to assist.

Sebastian walks the Pattern, and when he reaches the center, he trumps the others to him and the Pattern sends them to the place where the fold begins. The gentlemen find themselves in a "idealistic" world where the birds sing sweetly, the trees are lovely and everyone is gentle and kind. There are signs of the Unicorn's presence, but nothing else which overtly screams Amber. Sebastian shows them that if they manipulate one aspect of the shadow, it causes other aspects to ripple and change, much like sliding one panel of a puzzle box will shift another piece farther inside. They follow the Shadows deeper and deeper in, time speeding then slowing dramatically along with them.

In the center of this shadow fold is a castle, with a fair whack of "reality" woven into it. Automatons of ancient make tend to the garden, each so decrepit that even an inquiry spell breaks pieces of them apart. Everything in this place is extremely old and somehow generic ... as if someone built it from "stereotypic" pieces ... this is the stereotypic castle, with the requisite gardener, garden, courtyard, etc. Nothing unique stands out. They look for the "King", but is told that "he's not in residence right now." Similarly, the steward isn't in his office. The papers, books, etc. are all moldering and falling apart, and at a glance they look very boring and not terribly thoughtful. Despite the content, Rolfe shifts the "reality" so that the book isn't really moldering, it's only the top which is in bad shape ... and really, it's not so much molding as it's simply a little dirty. When he's got the book more "whole" he puts it in a bag and stows it away for future reference. At some point, Mallory wanders away to explore.

Sebastian, Sedgewick and Rolfe make their way towards the basement, but as they're wandering down the corridor, they hear a loud BUMP against one of the doors. They fling open the door ... only to find no one there. This was a main bedroom, most likely that of the King himself. Sebastian edges a wardrobe door open with the tip of his sword and comes face to face with a small, terrified young boy crouched in the corner. They make eye contact and the boy disappears. Rolfe intensifies his Pattern lens, and begins scanning the area for life, powers, anything. He detects Mallory returning to the group, but nothing else. He pumps up the power of the scan, and they all hear a knock on the door.

A figure materializes before them ... it's Oberon, much younger, but still recognizably Oberon. The figure moves to the door, and makes the motions to open it, despite the fact that it's already open. Standing in the hall, sword drawn, is a young Benedict. Benedict enters the room, and he and Oberon argue about what the King is doing ... "They're just children!" Benedict protests angrily. Oberon tells him that he has no right to dictate how he treats his children, and he reminds Benedict that he also is one of them. Benedict renounces that paternal claim and tells Oberon that if he does "it" again, he'll kill him. Oberon laughs, and tells Benedict that he doesn't have the right to dictate what he does with his parental power. Benedict leaves just as angry as he came, and Oberon moves towards the wardrobe. When he opens it, the gentlemen see the young boy again, cowering in the corner. Sebastian recognizes the boy has having red hair ... a very young Bleys perhaps. The figure of Oberon and the boy then vanish.

The four of them leave the room, thoughtful, and head to the basement. It's very dark, and Rolfe's Pattern-light only reveals a small portion of the room. Sebastian begins lighting the torches along the wall, and as the darkness fades, a young girl in pigtails and a pinafore is seen hopping along a tile-laid labyrinth. It's Fiona at around age eight. She is very prim and particular ... Her name is Princess Fiona, but the visitors may call her Princess Fi. She's going to be the best some day, which is why she must practice now. She tells the men that her father, King Oberon isn't often here. After a bit of conversation, she tells them she must continue practicing so that she will be "the best", and fades away out of sight.

Without much pause, the sound of swords clashing is heard close at hand ... at first softly, then with more volume. Two swords materialize into existence, dancing through the air, followed by their wielders ... a young Eric and a young Corwin ... the brothers sparring in fun. Rolfe engages Eric in conversation and has a friendly match with him ... keeping it at sparing. The boys enjoy the time, but soon have to go as well. Rolfe says to Eric, "I would shake your hand," and they do. The boys walk towards the stairway and fade out of existence. Rolfe is oddly subdued.

Sedgewick has been casting a spell to see just what is occurring in this place. He discovers that there is no real "power" behind these events ... they are more like echoes of reality which reverberates back upon themselves due to the nature of the Shadow, the events and the visiting of the men.

After this, the four are very ready to leave this Shadow, but as they are heading through the garden, they hear a young woman singing. It is Dierdre, and she is waiting ... for Corwin. She gives each of the men a rose, and wishes them a safe journey. As they leave the confines of the castle, each rose turns into shadow dust.

The four men trump back to Amber as soon as they're able. They find that a full day has past in Amber.

During the evening in Amber, Sophia prepares for her meeting with Jolan and Silas. Since Rolfe isn't back from his other appointment, she contacts her father, Bleys, and asks if he would be willing to escort her to a meeting. He agrees and they head into the city in an unmarked carriage. Jolan and Silas are already at the tavern, and Sophia requests a private room from the tavern keeper. Once behind "closed doors", Sophia "asks" Jolan to tell Silas just what he's been up to in regards to his "friend" and Julietta. Jolan smirks and steps back away from Sophia's touch, but Bleys adds a little oomph, and Jolan's defenses crumble. He spills all his sordid little beans, which results in Silas beating the hell out of him. Sophia leaves Jolan with a small comment to muse upon, and Jolan needing the last word tells her that she'll be seeing him again. Bleys and Sophia go for a nightcap, and Silas goes for a drink of his own.

And so the night passes. In the morning, the returning gentlemen check their respective incoming mail, then sleep. Mallory finds that he's in trouble with various Golden Circle kingdoms for illicit trade, interfering with transportation and customs and something to do with contraband. He figures he'll talk to Bleys about it later, and finds his bed.

Sophia sends her apologies to Serenity for being a bad hostess, and locks herself in her bedroom for the entirety of the day. She sends a note expressing her condolences to the Lady Edwina of House Marton for the death of her son, and sends the gift of the jeweled Heart's Ease with her best regards.

Everyone stays in seclusion that day, and it is not until the following evening, the night of the full moon when the cousins gather once more ... at the foot of Mount Kolvir, awaiting the appearance of stairway to Tir-na Nog'th.

The moon shines down, and the stairway forms ... Rolfe is the first to head up, followed closely by Sedgewick and Sebastian. Mallory, Serenity and Sophia go last. All but Rolfe are in trump contact with someone on the ground ... just in case.

If Tir is the stuff from which dreams are made, most of the company would rather stay awake the rest of their lives. As it is wont to happen, the group split up, wandering by device or happenstance along separate routes. Divide and conquer the saying goes. Suffice it to say, to each their own nightmares, and their own pains. Trump contact with those in Amber fades and bad stuff happens.

When they finally catch up with each other, the feeling is that they must finish out this dream before they can leave Tir. They head, en masse, to the Pattern room below the castle ... and find a cloaked figure standing in the center of the Pattern ... a sword in one hand pointing down, the other hand holding two jewels aloft. The figure begins chanting something about his "reign shall not end." The words are cut off by Sebastian's knife slashing through the figure's throat. Blood gushes forth, spilling onto the Pattern ... it flashes horribly and sends out emanations of great pain. The Pattern itself is in agony. With a final flash, normal light returns and trump contact with those in Amber is restored. Everyone trumps home.

Conversation is quiet, if it is at all, and most everyone heads to their respective domiciles soon after their return.

Tomorrow will be a day for piecing the puzzle.