Deirdre has drinking contest with some of the Rangers and Cole; she drinks all the Rangers under the table.
Eve lures a drunk young Ranger, Jack, out into the woods, and talks him out of his clothes while plying him with ale. He doesn't quite get to passed-out drunk, though, so she leans over to kiss him and clocks him over the head with the empty stein. So that he might be confused about what happened when he wakes up, she leaves her underwear there.
She gathers up his Ranger clothes and trumps back to the castle about an hour before dawn to get some shut-eye. Runs into Alyddia, who says she took out a zombie-thing during the battle. Eve says she'll be going back to the Ranger encampment tomorrow for an archery contest. "What's the prize?" Alyddia asks. "Oh, I dunno," says Eve, "but I'm sure it'll be good!"
9am, Eve rolls out and goes to breakfast, finds Gareth. "Morning, Brain Man!" she says. He asks her a bunch of boring questions about whether the others are likely to show up at breakfast, and has Corwin been informed of what happened at the battle? and do we know anything else about the ritual? Eve says Hargomme trumped Corwin last night to fill him in, and that the only new thing we'd found out about the ritual was that we found three charred hearts at the spots where the Hellmaidens were standing.
Gareth says he's going back to the battlesite to investigate, offers to trump her through. He disappears, a few minutes later he trumps her through, asks her to protect him while he searches for signs of logrus trail. He says there are Rangers on the Black Road nearby. "Cool," says Eve. "I'll try not to hit them, then."
He doesn't find anything, but does verify that the two men on the road are Rangers. He trumps back up to the castle, Eve stays behind and begins making her way toward the encampment, going beside but not on the Black Road.
About halfway there, she gets a Trump call from Hargomme. He, Gareth and Alyddia are going to the Primal Pattern; he and Gareth have already been there with Fiona. Eve doesn't want to miss the contest, so she says she'll trump them when she's done if she hasn't heard from them again.
At about ten minutes from the camp, Eve changes into ranger clothes, pulls up the hood, saunters inconspicuously into camp in a clump of other rangers. Convivial mood, lots of people with bows.
She goes toward the competition yard, sees Cole talking with a buxom young wench who looks intrigued by everything he says. Eve sits at a nearby table to listen in, finds that Cole is telling stories of himself. After a while, the wench offers to bring him some stew. Eve goes to practice at one of the targets, purposefully aims for places other than the bullseye so as not to draw attention to herself.
People start registering, she sees Cole registering. She goes up and gives her name as "Steve," says she's a new recruit and that she's only been with the Rangers a couple of days. But she was at the battle last night -- pretty weird, huh? -- and is a good archer so she thought she'd try her hand in the competition. Captain Wellington, who is running the competition, gives her number 12 and she shuffles off inconspicuously to pin it to herself.
Contestants go by luck of the draw. In the first round, Eve goes fifth, she and two rangers make a tight equilateral triangle in the center of the bullseye. Cole goes last (by choice), lands right next to the triangle. A couple of other rangers get arrows in the bullseye area, the rest are inside the first ring outside the bullseye.
In the second round, Eve goes ninth. An arrow is already in the center of the bullseye; her arrow splits it. Much cheering, and even Julian is taking notice. Cole hits the bullseye, but not the center.
Third round, Eve goes fourteenth. No-one else has hit the center of the bullseye. Eve clears her mind, knows exactly where to put the arrow; it goes straight into the center. Crowd goes wild. She sees Julian standing up to come congratulate her. Cole comes up for his shot, says congratulations. "Thanks, bro," says Eve. He stumbles.
Cole takes his shot, but goes for strength rather than accuracy. Puts arrow about 2/3 of the way into the target, but just off the edge of the bullseye.
Julian comes over to talk to Eve. "Congratulations... Steve," he says. "What regiment are you in?"
Eve pulls her hood back far enough for him to see who she is. He goes livid. He always has a vaguely unpleasant expression on his face, it's now an order of magnitude worse. He drags her onto the platform before the crowd.
"This isn't a Ranger!" he fumes to the crowd. "This is the Princess Genevieve! She can't compete -- she's disqualified!"
"But... she did really well," Captain Wellington argues.
"I don't care, she can't win!" says Julian.
Very quietly, Eve says, "A word with you, sir...."
Huffy, Julian says, "Fine. Go ahead."
Eve says, quietly and completely seriously, "I admit, I don't like you. You supported my usurper Uncle Eric, you and your men shot my Uncle Random. I do not approve of either of these things. But now we are both on the same side against the greater evil that threatens Amber. I am told that we Youngers will be expected to give a couple years' service to Amber, and if you are willing, if I have proven myself today, I would offer my service to the Rangers."
For the first time EVER, Julian is speechless. His mouth works as he tries to find his voice again; finally he says, "I'll consider it," and stomps off into the crowd. Cole comes forward and hoists her onto his shoulders, the crowd starts chanting, "Steve! Steve! Steve!" with much amused glee. Captain Wellington gives her the hellpuppy, which immediately begins licking her face.
Old Rick: Ranger has raised three hell hounds, still has one. Eve goes to talk to him about care and feeding of hellpuppies. Along the way, Cole is accosted by Meg. He makes the excuse that he needs to go with his sister but he'll be back to say goodbye before they go.
Rick introduces Old Spit, an old hell hound. She looks up, snort/sneezes, and a little spark comes out. Then she goes back to happy panting/drooling.
"Don't put 'em near anything real flammable 'til they learn to control certain things," says Old Rick. Eve asks if this is something she needs to worry about from both ends, but he says no. He also recommends fresh meat and milk or water for diet, and car tires, if she can get them, as chew-toys. "They'll chew through well nigh anything," he says. Recommends not to use rope if she ever needs to tie up the dog, use chain with links no smaller than Old Rick's little finger and secured to a VERY big, strong tree or something similarly sturdy. He tells Eve she may call on him any time if she needs more advice.
She and Cole go back to say goodbye to Meg. Eve offers to stand by impatiently in case they need to hasten the process. Cole says that's probably a good idea. Meg asks Cole if the people at the castle might need more hired help, and Cole says he'd already been thinking of asking around.
Eve and Cole depart from the Rangers and Eve trumps Hargomme. Hargomme says they've found a cave near the Primal Pattern and are exploring. Eve sees a table and lots of small breakable things. Eve says she won the archery contest, and the prize was a hellpuppy. Hargomme relates this to Gareth and Alyddia. They debate whether it would be okay to bring the hellpuppy through. Alyddia grabs Hargomme's arm to enter the trump contact. "Bring the puppy!" she says. Gareth grabs Hargomme's arm. "Don't bring the puppy!" he says. His leaking thoughts show things in flames and broken... and also Cole as a puppy. Hargomme asks Eve, "Do these things breathe FIRE?!" "Well, I don't know whether it does *yet*," Eve says, "but it will eventually...." Hargomme sort of looks at her, and she adds, "...so yeah, maybe I shouldn't bring the hellpuppy through...." She passes Cole through and goes to get the puppy taken care of.
Trumps back to the Castle, goes to the guardhouse, which is conveniently nearby and stone (non-flammable). Four guards, sitting around playing cards, are very interested in the hellpuppy. Puppy is very wiggly. Eve sets it down and it goes to play-attack one of the guards. It gets hold of his finger, he says, "Hey, those teeth are sharp!" Another guard tosses him a glove, puppy happily starts chewing on one of the glove fingers.
Meanwhile, Eve gets a trump call. She makes sure the puppy isn't doing any major damage and answers. It's Hargomme. She says she's still getting the puppy settled, it will be a while before she can come through. He says they've found a book with a reference to "Little Llewella" that seems to be dated "2 Serpent" -- though "Serpent" is not a month or a year in the current Amber calendar. Hargomme asks who taught Llewella Trump. Eve says she's not sure, but that the Elders learned general metaphysics from Dworkin. Hargomme seems very intrigued by this. Eve offers to go to the Amber library to see if she can figure out what "2 Serpent" means.
Eve spends some time bonding with Ogre. One of the dogs has some jerky which he suggests feeding to the dog. Ogre likes it. After some time playing, Eve asks the guards to watch the dog for a short time while she goes to the library. They agree, because hey, she's a royal.
Librarian Alton, looks like he's about 110 years old, moves about that speed. Eve asks whether "Serpent" has ever been used as a month or year designator in Amber history. Alton isn't sure, he goes to the stacks and finds an enormous book, a log of the everyday happenings of Ambertown a couple hundred years ago. Eve puts the book on a stand, and Alton flips through it looking at the date conventions. Even back to the first century of Oberon's reign, the date convention is (# Moon, or # Lunar) (Day of lunar cycle) (Year since start of Oberon's reign). They also look through references of other Golden Circle kingdoms, and Eve asks if any of Dworkin's writings have survived. Alton says there is a small section of Dworkin's writings.
Serpent/Hunter/Virgin references, seem analogous to something like months, are finally found in a book about Thelbane. It isn't entirely clear how long these periods of time are.
Eve goes to a cubby to trump Hargomme, but gets a trump call from Alyddia instead. Eve joins the others in a room in a cave just off the Primal Pattern. They try a test to see whether combining Trump efforts will push through against someone who's resisting. Hargomme goes into another room, Gareth tries to trump him, then Cole joins, then Alyddia, then Eve. When Eve joins, they're able to push through. On a second trial, they find that Alyddia and Eve together can push through alone. But they decide that they all together probably wouldn't be enough to break through to Dworkin if he's blocking, and that if someone else is blocking Dworkin's trump they might be opening themselves up to psychic attack. Cole gets bored and walks through a trump of a library sketched on the wall, comes back with two books: "Care and Feeding of Hellpuppies," and "Order of the Pattern."
Gareth gets a call from Corwin, says all Youngers are needed back immediately for a meeting b/c Dara has returned with news.
Eve returns to pick up Ogre, guards seem harried and ready to be relieved. Much litter strewn about, puppy is chewing happily on a boot while the guards stand in a loose, alert circle. One of the guards is wearing only one boot. Eve takes the dog and the boot, trumps Hargomme; as soon as the contact is made, Ogre twists free and falls through the contact. Hargomme twists quickly, grabs him, and picks him up. Before pulling Eve through, says silently through the trump, "Martin's here." Eve says, "Thanks for the warning," and comes through.
Ogre is happily chewing on the boot making growly sounds. Many elders in the room all look over. Corwin says, "Is that a hellpuppy?" "Yep," says Eve. "Does Julian know you have it?" "Yep!" says Eve. Julian is pointedly not looking in their direction. Corwin says she'll need to find something to do with the puppy during the meeting, so they send for a couple of young pages to keep the puppy busy.
Martin comes over to meet the puppy. He asks Eve how she's been. Then, cocky-like, he says that he's ready for a sparring rematch. "You been practicing?" Eve asks. "Yeah," says Martin. "On LAND?" Eve asks. "Well, if I've gotten better underwater where there's more resistance, then I'll be even faster on land...." Eve gives him a skeptical smile.
Gerard begins chatting with Alyddia in his loud voice, so Eve says under her voice to Martin, "Gerard has my trump." Martin's eyes grow wide, and he says quietly, "Thanks." Then he begins talking in a louder voice about more mundane things. He says he doesn't know how long he'll be in Amber, but Llewella and Moire seem finally ready to let him go out and *do* things and *see* the world.
Pages show up, Corwin tells them he has a *very* important job for them. He shows them the puppy and tells them they have to go find it some food and keep it out of trouble. Eve makes sure Ogre seems comfortable going with them, but he seems happy to follow whoever has the boot. Ogre happily digs in, so they drag him along on the parquet floor. Eve looks at Flora, who is glaring at Julian. Heh.
Corwin, Dara standing, Deirdre w/ Benedict & Gerard, Caine w/ Julian, Flora, & Llewella, Random w/ Fiona; separate Youngers table, but Alyddia sits next to Gerard. Sideboard with food, mostly mini-quiches.
Meeting starts.
Dara and Random have been exploring Black Road, found that it goes all the way to Thelbane. Additionally, they found some robed individuals performing some sort of ceremony which they believe was to strengthen the road and make it permanent so that the Serpent can travel it and make war on Amber.
Fiona speaks up and says that the answer is to heal the damage done to the Black Road, which can be done using the blade and the blood that caused the damage, with the same kind of wound, but the blood must be given willingly. Alyddia doesn't look very happy. Eve asks whether the "same blood" means it has to come out of the donor, or if it just has to be genetically identical. Someone asks if there are any other ways to fix the damage, Fiona says she isn't sure. Gareth suggests asking Dworkin, Corwin says no one has heard from Dworkin in hundreds of years, and there are no trumps of him. So Gareth pulls out the trump we got on Bliss, mentions he tried to use it but got a feeling of confusion from the other side. Mentions the trump of Oberon, from which he got a strong sense of Logrus. Oberon trumps in the standard deck all feel "dead".
Dara comes to her second point: Oberon is alive and is to stand trial in Thelbane for treason, possibly in about six months' time. Discussion of whether to spring him or let him stand trial... or both. Some thought that if Oberon is found guilty and executed, Thelbane will leave Amber alone.
Corwin decides to try the Dworkin trump. Llewella and Fiona help. The three concentrate on the trump... and disappear. Hargomme immediately pulls out his Corwin trump and concentrates, but gets nothing. Eve goes to help. Other Elders chatter excitedly, 'til Benedict calls loudly for everyone's attention. He tells Random and Gerard to come with him; Hargomme, Eve, Cole and Martin to trump Fiona every hour on the hour for the next six hours; Deirdre, Alyddia and Gareth to trump Llewella; and Julian, Caine and Flora try to trump Corwin. Alyddia suggests that Dara should Logrus-seek for Brand, so Benedict tells Dara to come with him as well.
Session Twenty-Three 2004/12/04
Martin, looking rather at a loss, comes over for more instruction. Hargomme explains about combining our efforts in Trump. Martin looks at Cole and says, "Who are you?" Cole points to Eve. "I'm her half-brother!" he says. "Which side?" Martin asks. "The shitty side," says Eve. Cole looks over to see whether Caine has noticed, but he's laughing at something Julian said. The two of them get up and leave the room.
Eve realizes that Cole recognizes Martin from the dream he had. She pointedly stops looking at Cole.
Hargomme pulls out Fiona's trump, and Cole puts his hand on Hargomme's trump hand. Eve reaches for Hargomme's other hand just as Martin does; Martin looks a little flustered and goes to the other side to put his hand on Cole's. But Martin isn't making contact with anyone else, so Hargomme suggests Martin touch Hargomme's shoulder. He does, and comes into the contact. It's obviously very new for Martin; he thinks, "Oh, okay, this is sort of like being in trump contact...."
Cole, meanwhile is thinking very hard about Fiona riding pink giraffes. He is clearly trying not to think about something. Eve doesn't push.
Hargomme draws energy from the others and concentrates on Fiona's trump for a while. The trump is cold, but there is no contact.
Cole remembers he's supposed to ask about finding Meg a job in the castle, so he wanders off to find the castellan, Tomas. Hargomme, who'd been trying to think of a way to get rid of Cole, tells Martin about the place they'd been exploring; he'd like to get back there to do a little more exploring. He asks Eve, "Do you know where the Shrine of the Unicorn is?" "Umm... yeah," says Eve, "but it's been a while since I was there...." "I think we need to pay a visit," says Hargomme.
As they walk out, they see that Deirdre, Gareth and Alyddia have been joined by Bleys, probably brought in on Gareth's trump. Martin says, "Wow, I haven't seen him for a while... Isn't he supposed to be banished or exiled or something?" "Well," says Eve, "he wasn't at the Coronation, but I don't think he was actually *banished*...."
Martin wonders if he should contact Moire with the news. He says it's not technically his responsibility, but that's because it would normally be Llewella's responsibility.... Hargomme says he should hold off, and if Moire gives him crap about it later Martin can blame it on Hargomme.
They go to the Shrine. One of the Wall Trumps at the Primal Pattern appeared to be of the Shrine. Since the Library Trump Cole walked through had a return trump on the other side, Hargomme is hoping that the Shrine will include a wall trump back to the Primal Pattern. But this Shrine is subtly different from the room in the trump, and there is no Primal Pattern trump in it.
Hargomme consults with Eve. It occurs to Hargomme that they could get back to the Primal Pattern by walking the Pattern and going there. They don't really have enough time to do that before next time they're supposed to try trumping Fiona, though. Eve suggests that they could make Cole walk the Pattern, since he probably would be better equipped to do that than to help with the Trump efforts. Then they could trump to Cole and explore more in between trump efforts.
Hargomme trumps Cole, and they tell him they're thinking of having someone walk the Pattern to get back to the Primal Pattern. They decide to head to the Pattern and make the next trump attempt from there. Cole says, "Aw, man, I was just down there! Now I'm gonna hafta walk all the way back! Oh, well, I suppose walking down the stairs is nothing compared to whoever's gonna hafta walk the Pattern again...." Hargomme says, "Yeah, so, would you be willing to walk the Pattern?" Cole looks around at who else is there, sighs, and says, "Yeah, I guess so." Martin says, "Good, 'cos I don't want to do it -- once was enough!"
Cole tells Eve that Ogre is fine, and hasn't eaten the pages yet. Eve says, "Good. Yeah, I suppose we won't be taking the puppy with us...." Hargomme is horrified that the thought even crossed her mind. They discuss future plans for dealing with the puppy. When the current crisis is resolved, Eve will probably try to take Ogre to a fast-time shadow.
When they reach the Pattern chamber, they try Fiona's trump again, but with the same result.
Cole starts walking the Pattern, Hargomme pulls out his trumps to practice trying to "listen in" on other people's trump conversations. Eve suspects he'd like not to be interrupted, so she chats with Martin. He says that Moire and Llewella have lightened up a little bit, but that they're both still rather overprotective -- especially Llewella -- like they're afraid that any contact with his aunts and uncles will end up with him getting hurt or corrupted or something. Eve opines that while she's really not the biggest fan of a lot of their relatives, the only one he really needs to watch out for is Brand. She tells him that the trumps Llewella gave them of him didn't actually reach him -- they all connect to her instead -- so on the plus side that means Brand isn't likely to get hold of a stray trump and mess with him. On the minus side, they can't keep in contact with him. She tells him that Gerard told her Martin had trumped him, and that Gerard now has her extra trump of herself. Martin trumps Gerard and gets Eve's trump.
Cole finishes walking the Pattern and disappears. Hargomme trumps him, he pulls them all through. They are standing outside the cave; the Pattern is visible, with its big black spot near the center. Martin says, "Is that...?" He sort of gapes at the spot on the pattern. Hargomme walks into the cave, everyone else follows.
Hargomme eats the fortune cookie that Cole didn't eat last time. They have to explain to him what fortune cookies are, and that it's not really magic. He doesn't really like the way it tastes.
Hargomme points to the collection of test tubes and vials and asks if anyone knows what they are. Eve says it looks like some sort of chemistry set. Hargomme says, "Chemistry? Is that for... making drinks?" "Drinks, yeah," says Eve, "or poisons, or things you can set on fire...." "Ah," says Hargomme.
He reminds everyone of the window in the next room that Alyddia says they shouldn't open. Cole, Martin and Eve go to check it out: looks like a galaxy starscape (like at the end of Empire Strikes Back). Eve tries to explain about vacuums, and how all of the air will flow out of where they are and into the vacuum of space. The guys seem confused. Eve says, "Okay, so, actually maybe none of you have, but... have you ever drunk through a straw?" Martin says, "Yeah, but when you use a straw, you're sucking. There's nothing out there sucking, is there?" Eve says, "The thing that makes the liquid flow is that there's empty space it's moving to fill." "So," says Martin, "the particles just... *know*... that they're supposed to go there?" "Umm... something like that," says Eve.
Session Twenty-Four 2005/01/08
From the room with big trumps on the wall, Hargomme calls out, "Um, come check this out...." He has touched the Tree Trump and looked through it, saw a place with a striped sky, a woman reading a book. Corwin previously told Hargomme that Thelbane has a striped sky; it is like the one Hargomme saw in the battle scene of his dream.
Cole says, "Let's go talk to her!" Martin says, "How long 'til we're supposed to try to trump again?" After some discussion, we decide to go through the Trump.
Walled garden, stone wall about twelve feet high, woman sitting on the edge of a pool reading a book. Smells like flowers. Except for the striped sky, it could be Earth. We introduce ourselves to the surprised woman, and she says, "I'm Sylvia of House Helgram. Did you come through Dworkin's trump?"
Hargomme says, "Oh, you know Dworkin?" Her face takes on a delicate cast. "Yes, we are... friends." "Oh," says Eve, "so you KNOW Dworkin." Hargomme glares at Eve.
Hargomme mentions that Dworkin has been absent for some time, and that we're looking for him. Sylvia says, "You're from Amber? Are you part of the royal family?" "Yes," says Hargomme, "as I understand it, we are Dworkin's great-grandchildren."
Eve asks if Sylvia has met Oberon, she says she knew him as a young man. She also mentions that Oberon is being held, awaiting trial for stealing the eye of the serpent.
Hargomme says we had heard that rumor; Eve asks if any other family members had come to visit since he'd been captured. Sylvia says not that she knows of. Hargomme asks if Sylvia knows a woman named Dara, who is from near here: Not personally, says Sylvia, but Dara is the great-granddaughter of the woman who cut off the arm of Benedict, Amber's master of arms.
"Well, master of arm, I guess," says Cole. Martin snickers.
"You mean, the chick that cut it off last month or some other previous arm-taking?" asks Eve. They conclude that time between Amber and Thelbane is too wacky to answer the question definitively.
Hargomme and Sylvia discuss the new power coming out of the Abyss. Sylvia says power now is in balance between the Serpent and the Unicorn, but if it gets its eye back it will be able to swallow the Unicorn just like it did the Kraken.
"If you see Dworkin, tell him that the priesthood are camping out at the edge of the Abyss waiting for the new power to appear so they can help the Serpent subjugate it. If they succeed, it might be enough power to help it defeat the Unicorn even without the Eye.
Cole says, "I'm getting a trump call," and immediately answers, much to Hargomme's consternation. It's Benedict, wondering where we are. Cole says, "Thelbane," and Benedict's eyebrow goes up. Hargomme joins the conversation and tells Benedict about Dara's lineage. Benedict's eyebrow goes down, the other goes up.
We agree to try to trump Fiona from Thelbane, then immediately return to Amber via Benedict's trump. No better luck with Fiona's trump than before, so we return to Amber.
Benedict asks for a report, asking all of Hargomme, Eve, Cole and Martin for their particular takes on things. When Cole speaks, he keeps glancing at Hargomme to see his reaction.
Toward the end of the debriefing, there is a knock on the door and Dara comes in. Benedict indicates they should continue with the discussion, so she hears the last few minutes of the discourse.
Benedict tells Hargomme and Cole that they are to go with Dara to disrupt the ritual to make the Black Road permanent. They will take some Rangers and Castle Guards with them, whatever they need.
Eve, he says, will stay in the castle to keep an eye on Alyddia. Eve says, "Do you mean 'keep an eye on' in the sense of just being aware of where she is and what she's doing, or actively trying to keep her out of trouble?" "Both," says Benedict.
"And what about Martin?" asks Eve. Martin stands up straighter, anticipating being given something important to do. Benedict says, "Martin is to return to Rebma. It is too dangerous here, and I would not want to have to deal with his grandmother if something were to happen to him. Llewella being missing is bad enough."
Martin deflates again.
Benedict dismisses them, Hargomme says something to Martin about being patient and waiting for his time. Martin says, "That is the biggest load of shit I've ever heard." Hargomme says, "I see you're learning, boy."
Martin is mopey. "*You* all get to go do exciting things, and *I* hafta go back to Rebma." Eve points out, "Yeah, but HELLO, stuck in the CASTLE here...." "Yeah," says Martin, "but at least you're HERE and not being watched over by my GRANDMOTHER...." Cole suggests maybe Eve and Alyddia could come visit Martin in Rebma; but Eve says, "Mmm, well, I don't think his grandmother likes me very much...." Martin says, "No, I... ah... don't think she has the most positive impression of you...." Cole looks intrigued. "Why wouldn't she like you?" "I'm a bad influence," says Eve cheerfully.
Martin gets ready to sulk off, says, "Well, I guess I hafta go back to Rebma now." Eve says, "At least you've got my trump now...." Martin says, "Yeah -- maybe I'll try to call you later...."
Meanwhile, Hargomme has trumped Alyddia and asks Eve if she wants to go through to her. "Sure," says Eve, so he passes her through, squeezing her hand gently in sympathy as she goes. Alyddia wishes Hargomme luck, and Eve says, "Yeah. Don't die." And then the trump contact closes and Eve is standing on the half-moon cliffs with Alyddia, who is grumpy and mutters something about "women-folk not allowed to do anything...."
Eve says, "So, you wanna go check on my puppy?" "Yeah, sure," says Alyddia. On the way they're accosted by a page who tells Eve that she's supposed to go see Jonathan. "Sure," she says, "I'm running an errand right now, but I'll be up later." She dismisses him.
They go down through the kitchens to the basement, but hear no sound. Down one hallway, which opens onto a watch, they see the two pages sitting on a bench. Eve goes over to talk to them and asks where the puppy is; they point under a bush, where Ogre is sound asleep. The pages say they really enjoyed playing with the puppy and would be happy to do it again -- because when they're watching the puppy, they don't have to be peeling potatoes. She asks their names: John & Syd. She says she needs to go to the infirmary for a quick visit, and would they be willing to keep watching Ogre for a while? They are happy to do so, so Eve and Alyddia set off for the infirmary.
Jonathan pokes and prods at Eve's nose for a while and gives her a clean bill of health. She's still visibly bruised, but in not as much pain anymore, and she's able to breathe through her nose again. Doesn't even need to be broken and reset.
He asks if she has experienced any notable side-effects. "Well, I've been experiencing a strong urge to knock Brand up-side the head," Eve says. Jonathan nods, suppressing a smile. "Yes, that certainly is an unusual side-effect; I'll make note of it on your chart." "Actually," says Eve, "all sorts of things lately seem to be causing that particular side-effect. It's like an epidemic...."
Alyddia hears a noise behind her, a buzzing like a high-voltage wire. She turns. "Uh... guys?" she says. At her tone, Eve whirls around and pulls out her knife. A portal is opening up, and a hand reaches through. Eve re-sheathes her knife and pulls out her Amber trump. They get just a glimpse of the creature: 5' high, red skin, horns, yellow-green eyes, short-sword, nasty teeth. Then Eve grabs Alyddia's hand, Alyddia grabs Jonathan's, and they are on the esplanade.
Eve trumps Benedict and very quickly, mentally fills him in on what just happened and where they are. "Stay where you are," he says, "I'll take care of it."
Jonathan wants to return to the infirmary immediately. "But that thing will kill you!" says Alyddia. "Well, not necessarily," Eve says to her. "It could've just come for YOU...."
Eve tells Jonathan that Benedict is going to take care of it; Alyddia says if he returns, he should go kind of slowly to give Benedict a chance to make things safe. He sets off up the hill at a brisk pace.
Eve says, "Benedict says we should stay here. So, do you wanna stick around, or go back and check on the puppy, or something else? I think there's a bench just up there, and the garden is right down there...." "I haven't seen the garden yet," says Alyddia, "so let's check that out." Eve thinks that's a pretty defensible position -- one downward staircase leading in, and a cliff on the other side -- so they go there.
On the way, a coin comes flying out of nowhere and lands at Alyddia's feet. Eve looks around for danger, finds none; Alyddia says, "Hey, this has a picture of Cole's mom on it...." "Cole!" says Eve grumpily, and flips off the air at large.
They go to the garden and look around. It's very quiet and peaceful, though they can hear occasional sounds of ruckus carried down from the castle on the wind. "Well... um... it's a nice garden, as gardens go," says Eve. "And Benedict just told us to stay here?" says Alyddia.
They hear a buzzing sound behind them, between them and the stairs. Eve pulls out her Amber trump and grabs Alyddia's wrist. From their position, they can see creatures emerging into the garden and looking around. Alyddia pulls out her Benedict trump while Eve sets off up the hill pulling Alyddia behind her. "Moving target," she explains. Benedict pulls them both through, they agree that these things probably really are coming to find Alyddia. Benedict says they're obviously Chaosian. He pulls out Martin's trump -- which really does seem to connect to Martin -- and tells Alyddia and Eve to go through to him. "I should probably go get my dog first, unless you want to deal with having him up here..." says Eve. "No. Go now," says Benedict. He grabs her arm and passes her and Alyddia through to a very surprised Martin, standing on a street in Rebma.
Alyddia is grumpy. "How is this going to help?! Now I'll just be putting Martin and Rebma in danger!" Eve asks Martin whether there are Black Road manifestations in Rebma, and he says there aren't. They conclude maybe there isn't as strong a connection between Rebma and Chaos as between Amber and Chaos. Eve wonders whether she should just go back to Amber to get Ogre and then come back, but Alyddia says the pages will probably be okay with him for a little while. If they look like they're going to have to be in Rebma for more than a few hours, she can sneak back and get him later.
They set off in the general direction of Moire.
Session Twenty-Five 2005/02/??
There is some discussion during which Martin tries to convince Alyddia and Eve that instead of going straight to Moire, they should leave Rebma with him as their bodyguard to keep the evil pursuing Alyddia from coming to Rebma. Eve points out that the portal-thingies might not be able to follow them to Rebma, and since none of them has a trump of Rebma, if they left and got attacked again they'd have no way of getting quickly back to Rebma and safety. He opines that they could go through Llewella's stuff and try to steal a trump -- since she's not actually in Rebma right now -- but Alyddia vetoes that idea. Martin sulks, tells them if they just go to Moire they'll be separated and put under house arrest. Eve points out that they can always use trumps to get back together and get out if they need to.
Martin leads them through the castle to Moire, who is taking care of administrative tasks on the sun-porch. "Guenevieve ap Caine," she says, intentionally mis-pronouncing Eve's first name, "welcome back to Rebma."
"Always a pleasure," Eve says.
"Yes, I can scarcely contain my feelings on the subject," says Moire. "Who is your friend?"
Eve introduces her kinswoman Alyddia. They tell Moire that Benedict had requested that they come spend some time in Rebma. Moire acts as if this is all news to her, but Martin has his doubts. Moire tells Martin to take the women on a tour of Rebma Castle. He thinks she's up to something, but does it anyway.
They start at the top of the castle and works their way down. After a while, Martin points to a door and says, "Hey, whaddaya know -- Llewella's workroom! C'mon, let's go in!"
Alyddia is skeptical. "Are you *supposed* to be in there?"
"Yes!" says Martin. "I was ordered to give you a tour of the castle, and this is part of the castle!"
"And anyway, the door's not locked," says Eve. Martin and Eve go in and start looking around, Alyddia stands in the doorway with her arms folded.
Martin starts looking at the art -- much of it seems to be original paintings that eventually were copied to Trump.
Eve finds several colorful brochures for nursing homes -- all of them seem to be from other places besides Rebma, on the surface. On one of them -- for Happy Returns Nursing Home -- is written in what presumably is Llewella's handwriting: "This one"
Alyddia asks if Martin or Eve can find the original of the trump Llewella made of her home shadow, the trump of which didn't work. They look through a file of portraits and find a picture of a park, which Alyddia says is the right picture.
Martin finds some Trumps, one of them appears to be the Rebma pattern. He pockets them and they continue the tour.
Eve decides to go back to Amber to get her hellpuppy. Martin wants to come with her, but she reminds him that he needs to stay with Alyddia to make sure she stays safe, and also he'd be a little too conspicuous running around just in those silver scaled trunks of his. He admits he doesn't really have any Amber-style clothes -- his grandmother frowns on his having such things ("Yeah, I bet," says Eve) -- and agrees to stay with Alyddia.
Eve trumps back to the esplanade. She can see that the portal is still open in the garden, and the guards who would usually be guarding the esplanade are there skirmishing. Eve makes her way toward the servant's quarters, but when she gets to the main watch, there is another portal open there and guards skirmishing. Eve pulls out her sword and fights her way along the outside of the skirmish. When she gets to the stairs, she finds they are partially blocked by fighting -- so she climbs the wall using the vines that grow there. As she gets to the top, she hears Benedict's voice calling "Eve? What are you doing here?" from far below on the other side of the fighting. He's too far away to get to her, so she waves like she's totally supposed to be there and continues on her way.
When she gets to the entrance to the servants' wing, the door is locked. She knocks. "Who's there?" asks a scared voice from inside. "The Lady Eve," says Eve. "Miss? What are you doing out there? There's fighting out there! It's not safe!" "Yeah, I know," says Eve, "so will you let me in, please?" "Prince Benedict said not to open this door!" says the servant. "Not even for his... poor, defenseless niece?" asks Eve, rolling her eyes. "Oh... um... well...."
The door opens. Eve hurries in and helps them close it, then continues on her way. When she gets out to the small watch, neither the puppy nor the pages are there. She looks for clues to where they've gone.
After a moment, one of the pages calls to her from the hallway: "Miss! Miss! What are you doing out there? We're under attack!" He brings her back down the hall and taps out a code on one of the doors. Several kitchen staff, the other page, and Ogre are all inside. "Begging your pardon, ma'am, but that's the only thing we could think of to keep him quiet," says the page, pointing to Ogre who is happily shredding someone's leather boot. "That was a wise decision," says Eve. "If you're worried about him giving away your position, I can remove him elsewhere." "But... but... it's dangerous out there!" says one of the kitchen staff. "I have my methods," says Eve. She pulls out Alyddia's trump.
Alyddia says (mentally) that she and Martin have come to "one of Martin's favorite places", which is a dive bar that Alyddia suspects Martin has never actually visited before. In the background, Eve hears Martin drink a shot of rum and then cough. Eve tells Alyddia that she'd like to pass the kitchen staff through to safety, but Alyddia isn't sure the bar would be very safe. She says to Martin, "Eve is in contact, she has found the puppy and would like to come through." Martin sputters, "She... she... how long has she been in contact?" Alyddia assures Martin that Eve just trumped her, and tries to convince Martin to return to the relative safety of the castle so the poor defenseless kitchen staff could be passed through. Martin would rather go through to Amber and help defend against the invasion: "Just put a sword in my hand and I'll report to Benedict and kick some butt!" Eve, still listening in via trump, tells Alyddia to point out that *she* could be kicking butt, too, but look where Benedict sent her.... Martin doesn't say, "Yeah, but you two are GIRLS!" but he's thinking it pretty hard.
After several minutes, Alyddia trumps Eve. She and Martin are in the castle's main hall. Eve tells the kitchen staff that she will pass them through to Rebma, if they'd prefer that to taking their chances against the Chaos-beasties. One of the says, "But... but... I've heard that if you go to Rebma, they'll turn you into a sex-slave!" Eve replies with a mostly straight face, "I will keep that from happening if it's not what you want." On the other side of the trump, Alyddia laughs. Martin looks offended that he's not in on the joke, so Alyddia grabs his hand. They mentally repeat the joke, and Martin's mind immediately goes off in all kinds of interesting directions at the mention of 'sex-slaves'. He wants to be heroic, he wants to get the girl, he's generally sulky.
Eve passes through the kitchen help, starting with one of the pages, who leads Ogre through via tug-of-war with the boot. Eve comes through last and takes Ogre, who is freaking out a little at the water. She makes sure he's breathing, then realizes what he really wants is to play with the boot some more. She returns it to him and he's happy. One of the pages is obviously holding his breath, so Eve gooses him. He yelps, starts breathing, and seems surprised that it works. "See?" says Eve.
A castellan, looking none too pleased, comes over to get these Amber castle staff people settled into a room while they wait.
Session Twenty-Seven 2005/04/??
Session Twenty-Eight 2005/05/??