Session 3

Characters in Attendance:

• Mike - Sakura, daughter of Julian
• Keith - Solomon, son of Caine
• Ghen-Ki - Aife, daughter of Lucien
• Leslie - Gizette, daughter of Oberon
• Chris - Durus Valens, son of Gerard
• Andi - Thomas, son of Eric

Gm Note: Everyone gets 20 more points. Everyone also gets “secret meetings” with the GM. Player “contributions”, anyone?

When last we left our heroes… Thomas ran off into shadow with Eric, Durus is leading the armies, everyone else is in House Candent. Really, nuke the shadow, now! The characters in House Candent include: Benedict, Diedre, Julian, Bleys, Caine, Gerry’s head, Gerard’s body, Aife, Gizette, Solomon & Saku-rard.

Thomas informs Eric that Benedict has been hurt, but not dead. Thomas presents the Jewel to Eric, and Eric starts shifting to Amber, “There is much to do.”

Durus sterilizes his chaos infected wound with Heloiventar, and then eases the pain with the Sakura branch, and cleans the wound. The most power-related first aid done in the game without shapeshifting.

Meanwhile in House Candent, Saku-rard and Gizette begin amazing amounts of shapeshift surgery on Gerard… it’s REALLY ugly. Gerard doesn’t seem to be completely all there, but they continue anyways. It seems like they’ve gotten the body together… it’s kind-of all there, but he needs a lot of rest from decapitation. Aife brings up the logrus, finds Benedict and moves there. Bleys shows up after a moment, and asks that she don’t have any alone time with Benedict. She seems to just want to see Benedict, but Bleys will not have any other way, he knows Gizette would be ticked. Diedre complains that the fight wasn’t really that enjoyable, and leaves Candent. Aife leaves for fast-time healing.

Eric & Thomas show up in Amber… Durus meets them on the steps of Kolvir, asks what’s going on, he notes Eric has the jewel. There’s a conflict, Durus demands that Thomas trumps Gizette or anyone that can confirm Benedict’s status, Thomas instead trumps to the courtyard of Amber with Eric, leaving a very ticked Durus to head back to the castle. After bossing around some guards, Eric gets a hold of some weapons he had hidden in the castle, and then they trump to their home shadow of the Weir… which Eric quickly realizes that they’re all dead. Thomas explains that Benedict wiped them all out. Eric and Thomas trump back to Amber, just in time to meet a ticked-off Durus.

Gizette and Sakura then move their shapeshift work onto Benedict, with concerns that Caine is going to jump Benedict as soon as he is well. Gizette asks Bleys to attend to Caine to get him out here… which seems to work for about five minues. Bleys psychically screams for Gizette, which Gizette and Solomon respond to (leaving the surgery area), when suddenly Caine makes a run to stab Benedict! Sakura shields and absorbs him, Solomon races over to break Caine off… Caine’s pissed and doesn’t see it coming, and tells Solomon off for breaking the attack and engages him. Gizette checks on Bleys, who looks like he’s been poisoned with a fast-acting, very painful toxin. Sakura heals Benedict. Then Gizette, Solomon, & Sakura get together, psychically meld and investigate Benedict’s brain. Benedict feels he was forced into kingship, and this is why he’s done the things he’s done. They all search around his brain, and come to realize there is something subtly influencing him, which is also influencing all of them. Sakura requests that Gizette speeds up, and Gizette asks that Sakura KO Benedict. Gizette seems to come to a realization that the beings of order have been altered by the Unicorn.

Durus trumps back to the castle courtyard to chase Eric and Thomas, and there’s a conflict! Durus not wanting to take both Eric and Thomas on at the same time quickly delays Eric by harpooning him and flinging him into the city with his amazing strength. Thomas and Durus then begin to exchange blows, and Thomas decides it best to run into the castle for a chase. Durus follows, using the entire castle as his weapon – throwing large chunks of the stairwells, battering him with pillars, and causing lots of collateral damage. Thomas and Durus finally end the conflict when Thomas moves in for a lethal blow, and Durus grabs on with his mighty strength and starts beating the snot out of Thomas. Thomas is about to go down when Durus is interrupted by Eric. Durus offers Thomas back for the Jewel, Eric tells him no deal. Durus then flings Thomas at Eric, and takes a wall down on the two of them, and attempts to pummel them under the debris. They trump out before they become too much more flat. Just in time for Aife to show up…

Aife shows up in Amber, checks out Durus all messed up with his leg nearly cut off by Thomas. Durus half-heartedly offers battle, but Aife demures, and instead proceeds to chat. Durus trumps Fiona for help; she instead says "We need a general," and proceeds to psychically pussy-whip him. Aife cuts the trump card in half (!) saving meat-puppet Durus. Aife carries Durus off (that would have been a sight to see) to a comfy room where he is attended by a surgeon.

Gizette gets a trump call while in Saku-rard. (3 Shots!!) It’s Deidre, who kinda freaks at the vision of the amalgam and notifies that Corwin is leading an army into Amber, which Diedre is helping.

Saku-Gizette-Solo-edict is doing research into the phenomenon. Gizette drops out to speak with Julian and Bleys. She bring up the odd thing in people, which is also apparent in Julian and Bleys. She also brings up that Corwin & Diedre are moving upon Amber with an army.

Thomas and Eric discuss battle plans, they plan to go to House Candent, kill Benedict and then take over Amber. Family bonding at its finest.

Durus and Aife have a lengthy conversation. Aife tells him that Benedict and Gerard are alive. They discuss succession, and Durus points out that Amber isn't a Constitutional Monarchy; there's no clear way to choose without the Blessing of the Unicorn or a game of Last Amberite Standing. Aife bad-mouths the Unicorn and wonders why it gets to play goddess; tells Durus the black-haired girl is no angel. Durus is unconvinced, so their theological differences remain unresolved. He suggests a Council of Amberites be convened (there is precedent in Klingon tradition) to discuss the succession. They agree that Amber is poorly defended, and wonder who could help, or would be willing to discuss things without making an immediate throne grab. Aife decides to trump Corwin, who ironically happens to be leading armies toward Amber to take his "rightful place as king." Aife brings Durus in, who tells Corwin that Benedict still lives, but he could use some help defending Amber in the interim. Then Gizette pops in the trump (2 shots!) and Corwin says he’s coming in to protect the kingdom until the matter of succession is in order. It seems to be the most “helpful” thing Corwin can do without inciting the wrath of the former king. Gizette asks Durus about Thomas' whereabouts. Durus says Thomas unfortunately sided with Eric in Eric's coup attempt. Durie is sad he had to hit his friend Tommy, but says that unless Tommy's daddy changes his tune, he'll whip Eric's ass for him the next time they meet.

Solomon, Sakura, and a mellow Benedict investigate the phenomenon for a year in the fast-time zone… it’s apparently inherent of the blood of Amber, if you were to remove it, it would remove the very essence of being an Amberite. They conclude there will have to be some investigation at the Pattern to find out more. Sakura sends out some creatures of blood to let Gizette know what they’ve found out.

Gizette trumps Random, who is drugged out of his mind (1 shot!) – she asks who is his supplier, (this kid Lucien) she asks for some drugs, and after some bartering, she gets a whole platter of pills. She figures that if we have all of this aggression, that we might as well be medicated. Later on, a flock of blood creature butterflies comes out of the fast-time zone and give Gizette the synopsis of the research, and Gizette suggests that maybe some sort of family meeting is in order, or at least a visit to the Pattern for diagnosis. Sakura, Solomon and Benedict disengage from “consensus” and come out of the fast-time zone. Gizette heads to the Pattern. Gizette takes a trump call from Solomon (1 shot!) and Sakura explains the situation to Julian and Bleys.

Durus and Aife decide that neither wants Amber to fall to Corwin's "help." Durus goes to Gerard's super-soldier army and starts shadow-walking them toward Amber. Aife is left to watch the shadows around Amber for Corwin's approach, which he does before Durus returns. Aife trumps Durus in with a quartet of super-soldiers to go meet Corwin.

Eric and Thomas head off into shadow, get themselves patched up and then Eric leads Thomas to the true source of the Weir out in shadow. These Weir are not the loyal troops that he had before, but through Eric’s charm they are quickly swayed and they find themselves with an army. Thomas checks with his intelligence network to find out that Benedict has apparently quickly recovered, and is back in Amber. However, Corwin also seems to be there with Diedre, and it’s unclear exactly who is king right now.

Aife and Durus meet up with Corwin & Diedre, as Gizette, Solomon, and Sakura show up along with Benedict. Durus greets Benedict, and explains that Corwin was here to keep the peace (with Corwin’s perturbance). They explain the phenomenon, and Aife brings up the little girl. Durus seems to realize that it may be a smaller version of Ellison. Benedict seems to be very mellow and at peace with himself after having a year-long psychically controlled vacation from his harsh responsibilities, and the others aren’t quite sure what to make of it.

Thomas tries trumping Durus, but is blocked because Durus leans on Sakura (literally). Thomas then trumps Gizette, and is informed about the phenomenon, which then blows into an argument. Gizette slams shut the contact. (1 shot)

Gizette heads down to the pattern room, and others join. As they enter the room, they see Fiona and Brand, who were ‘hiding’ in the Pattern room to launch their attack on Amber. The two redheads are psychically linked and are riding huge wraith birds of pure mental energy. Benedict greets them warmly, but Durus (still stinging from the psychic lashing Fiona gave him - and after he helped set her free!) launches a pre-emptive attack by the expedient of launching himself into Fiona and knocking her against the far wall. Her body goes unconscious, but she transfers her psyche to her brother's body, and now Briona is riding the one remaining psyche-bird. Gizette, Solomon, and Sakura trump Brand-Fiona (3 shots) and get stuck in a trump trap. Aife cuts the card in half. Durus grabs Fiona’s body and orders them to yield, or he’ll snap her psychic little neck. They don’t and Durus kills Fiona’s body. They don’t take to that kindly, and they take the last bird and focus it into psychic energy to try to kill Durus as painfully as possible by ripping his mind and body apart bit by bit. Aife throws her logrus sword through Brand/Fiona and once it gets halfway through him he disappears. It’s noted that there is some sort of damage to the Pattern where the blood from Brand fell onto it, and the Pattern is acting ‘strange’. Guards note that the sky was black with electrical birds, which disappeared once Briona skedaddled.

Benedict curses and says “I’m going to fix this,” and steps onto the Pattern. Once he hits the first veil, he takes a step off of the Pattern, and the Pattern accommodates him, the design shifting under his feet. Durus comes out of it, but seems to be muttering something odd about spaceships and photons. Aife notices that the Unicorn comes down to the Pattern room. The Unicorn comes in, charges Benedict and skewers him through the heart, and tosses his body off the Pattern (making sure to avoid any blood falling). Sakura moves to catch Benedict, but is knocked out of the way by the Unicorn. Aife throws her blade at the Unicorn, and cuts off the Unicorn’s horn. The Unicorn screams, oozing phosphorescent white blood from the wound. The Unicorn tears off Benedict’s head, races for the center of the Pattern and disappears. Aife and Sakura exchange words, Aife wanting the horn as a trophy, but Sakura doesn’t trust Aife enough to give it to her.

Gizette got out of the way before all hell broke loose. Aife walks out. Solomon and Sakura trump to Solomon’s ship with Durus.

Aife is met by the little girl again. She informs Aife that the Unicorn is not good, now that she is freed by her influence because of the wound that she has. The Unicorn has been influenced by something not good, for a very, very long time. It seems she has power over the ghosts of the Pattern as well as the blood of Amber. What can we do about it? We’ll find out next time…

I updated and added some detail, as best as I could remember, with my changes in bold italic.

-- ChrisLightfoot - 19 Jul 2007