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Malachai is investigating the missing girl when he receives a trump call (Trump #1) from Benedict in Arden. Benedict reminds Malachai of his duties to defend Arden, and asks him if he knows anything about a terrified maidservant that was found near a stream in Arden. With Malachai absent from Arden, only Julian would be willing to take over the defense, and Benedict doesn't want Julian to move in to Arden and re-establish a power base there. Malachai heads off to talk with Serena before returning to Arden.
Zack receives a trump call (Trump #2) from Benedict. Benedict arranged for Julian's release, and Julian is now setting up in Arden. However, Julian keeps running into various nasty exploding surprises. Zack agrees to try to talk to Julian, and continues arranging for the upcoming duel (Julian v Cathryn)
Zack trumps (Trump #3) Julian. Zack apologizes for the briefness of their last conversation. Julian wants an explanation for the changes to Arden, and Zack mentions that the defenses have been improved recently. Julian apparently screwed up during House Hendrake's invasion of Amber, and Benedict was not pleased. Julian steps on a land mine, and the contact is closed. Zack tries to re-establish the connection, but cannot.
Cassandra receives a trump call (Trump #4) from Darkstar while riding Trialla to Pearl. Darkstar mentions that her favorite person is about to get into trouble -- Julian is blowing up Arden, and this may bring him into conflict with Malachai.
Cassandra trumps Malachai (Trump #5), and tells him that Julian is blowing up Arden. Cassandra is about to cross the Barrier surrounding Corwin's realm, but will stay on this side if Malachai needs help against Julian.
Malachai trumps Serena (Trump #6) and says that he must return to Arden immediately. He will leave Serena with the caravan.
Trumps Benedict (Trump #7) and asks Benedict to pull him to Arden. Benedict is no longer in Arden, and suggests the castle trump. Malachai suggests that Benedict should formally relieve Julian of his command of Arden. Benedict says that Oberon has confirmed Malachai's command in Arden, and Benedict has already relieved Julian of his command. Benedict may or may not be Marshall of Amber - he resigned, but Oberon may still require his service.
Malachai trumps through to the Castle Amber (Trump #8) and asks for the head of the castle guard, who informs him that the Manato have been removed from the defense of Amber, leaving Amber completely defenseless. Malachai considers finding a second in command with no life and leaving him in Arden permanently, and several PCs consider briefly taking over Amber before deciding that they wouldn't want the job.
Messengers on their way to the castle pass Malachai, and tell him that there are hundreds of new hellhounds running around Arden. Julian is hitting every trap, and is being divebombed by enraged gryphons -- the new hellhounds are attacking their aeries. "There is chaos in Arden!" and the players of Cathryn, Aramek, and Ilkandacian cheer.
Malachai attempts to trump Zack, who is still redialing Julian and blocks the connection.
Zack fails to trump Julian, and then trumps through to a ranger lodge in Arden (Trump #9). Zack is carrying a Morganti weapon, which he borrowed from Morrolan. All of the horses in the stables are gone - weird. Zack casts a spell and floats upward to look for Julian, and is attacked unsuccessfully by a hellhound. The hellhound fails to be influenceable by Zack, and continues jumping to attack and failing. Julian conjured it, recently, and poorly. Zack tries to un-conjure it and fails, then notices gryphons divebombing something, and heads towards it.
Malachai is informed that Julian is currently working on the western defenses and subverting the rangers, killing those rangers that don't recognize his authority, and sending those who do to find Morgenstern. He tries to trump Oberon and is blocked, but succeeds in trumping Zack. (Trump #10) They discuss the politics of control over Arden, and conclude that Julian is destroying the defenses of Arden. Zack agrees to talk to Julian, and if that fails, he will support Malachai's forceful takeover. Malachai begins marshalling full troops to take down Julian, just in case.
The shadows through which Cassandra is travelling are becoming forested, not plains. "Trialla? Where are we going?" - no answer.
Darkstar trumps Cassandra. (Trump #11) Darkstar is in Arden to watch the fireworks, and offers to pull Cassandra through, but they decide that Trialla will probably be faster.
Cathryn, Rivka, and Clarissa are in Drageara, tracking down names on the list given to them by Morrolan. Never refuse a dinner invitation from Clarissa: "I don't know. I just invite them to tea, and they come or die."
Rivka chats with a Tekla at the gate to the first house, and after some discussion, she shapeshifts her arm and reaches through the bars to open the gate manually. A poisoned dagger appears in the back of her hand, Cathryn notices that one of the guards threw the dagger. Rivka finishes opening the gate to show off, then pulls out the dagger and starts fixing her hand and neutralizing the poison. Cathryn inquires as to whether or not an alternative approach would be in order - they're throwing daggers. Clarissa recommends a direct approach, and the three head in towards the pretty, well-fortified castle.
Four Dzur line up in front of the gate. Rivka offers to take our the four, singlehandedly and unarmed, but Clarissa declines - the Dzur might declare another vendetta on her, and that would be boring. Cathryn then kills the four very neatly and quickly, with only one hole in the gate for collateral damage.
They enter. The door to the Baroness's workroom is warded, but Clarissa knocks once, sparks fly from her hand as if in a pattern walk, and the door evaporates. The Baroness dives for her magical toys, which keep dodging away from her grasp. She throws a chaos rift at Rivka, which Cathryn closes before it can do any harm. The Baroness appears quite surprised at that. Since that proved that she isn't a normal Dragaeran sorcerer, they call Morrolan via a trinket he gave them, and Clarissa blocks the Logrus from that area in order to prevent the Baroness from trying again.
The Baroness lunges for her toys again, and Rivka cannonballs her. The Baroness zaps Rivka magically, and Clarissa stops time, walks in front of the blow, and then ignores it. Clarissa seems disappointed with the kids. She mentally hamstrings the Baroness and passes her to Morrolan, and then asks Cathryn to find a torturer
Ilkandacian arrives at Morrolan's library, and offers to help him in a form of apology for his earlier clumsiness. Morrolan declines the offer, and the two then begins doing sorcerous shop-talk, with Ilkandacian steering the conversation to learn the history, background, and general info about the local shadow. Out of curiosity, he looks into Castle Black, and discovers that it contains a Pattern-based power source.
Rivka, Cathryn and Clarissa head to the next address, after Rivka cleans up the Baroness's room (as a punishment for her carelessness from Mommy)
Mikail has a list of seven addresses from Morrolan. The first house appears to have been hastily abandoned; he enchants it to tell him if anyone returns and moves on to the next house.
Mikail finds that the next address is heavily defended. He sends Swift Edges in to scout for what they are looking for, and goes to play with Galleon and be a distraction.
Rivka and Cathryn's next address is in a townhouse, where a poetry reading is being conducted. Their target is the host. Rivka quickly becomes impatient at the horrible poetry, and convinces Cathryn to Logrus-send water into the speaker's bladder. She doesn't quite succeed, and accidentally kills the speaker. Then they, along with the rest of the people at the poetry party, notice a massive assault on a nearby fortified house, and see an armored form walking through the air. When Clarissa notices the disturbance, she states that the form is Mikail.
Mikail is busily serving as an excuse for a war between two nearby houses, ducking and allowing projectiles to pass him and strike the house behind him.
Cathryn and Rivka go to the adjacent square to watch. Cathryn calls Morrolan using a trinket he gave her, and he teleports to her from his library where he was conversing with Ilkandacian. Ilkandacian follows Morrolan to a nearby area where he can eavesdrop. Cathryn asks Suhuy for help, who refers her to "the one that I sent to you". Cathryn asks Morrolan if he knows where "that person who popped into your library" is, and he replies that he just left him in his library. Ilkandacian beats Morrolan back to the library, and allows Morrolan to teleport him back to the entertainment.
Rivka teleports to Clarissa to ask her to help, and accidentally teleports into an artist that Clarissa was conversing with. Clarissa seems eternally disappointed with her offspring. Rivka goes to a nearby shadow to burn off the gory remnants of the artist, then returns to the fun.
Cathryn asks Ilkandacian to help disable Mikail, describing him after some prodding as an initiate of the Pattern and a master conjurer. Ilkandacian then riffles through his memory and realizes that he has no relevant non-lethal spells hung, and that the Logrus tends to not be a weapon of choice against a Pattern-weenie. He decides to take a less direct tactic, sets up a powerful teleport block using local magic, and then proceeds to try to disable Mikail's pet demons using the Logrus.
Mikail gets a warning ping on his sensor sweep - we actually have a real threat here, boss. Lots o' Logrus power.
Cathryn trumps Benedict (Trump #12), asks for his aid, and pulls him through. Clarissa and Benedict arrive. Benedict asks for a briefing, and upon receiving it declares that he has few effective ways to take down Mikail non-fatally, trumps Bleys (Trump #13), and switches places with him. When Bleys arrives, Ilkandacian receives a nasty Pattern headache, and so Logrus-pulls himself to the far side of the courtyard. Bleys then casts a spell on his horse, draws his sword, and rides up into the air, brandishing his blade and yelling "Tally-ho!"
Mikail, having detected a worthwhile opponent wielding massive amounts of Logrus energy, then seeing Clarissa, Benedict, and Bleys arrive, gets worried and uses a trap door. Mikail, Bleys, Ilkandacian, and Clarissa all disappear.
Rivka notices the universe hold its breath, and observes that Clarissa was unaffected by what Mikail did, sighed in disappointment, and then stepped somewhere else. Rivka has the impression that Ilkandacian couldn't survive anything of that magnitude.
Ilkandacian is quite alive, but was blown two shadows over, and is dealing with a a massive pattern headache.
Bleys attached himself to Mikail somehow before Mikail left completely, and Mikail then kicks the now-unconscious Bleys back along that channel, in a possibly lethal fashion.
Ilkandacian notices that he is directly in front of a statue that is a parody of Bleys with "Doom!" written on it. He ROTFLs over Mikail's sense of humor, while clutching his head over the Pattern headache.
Malachai is now in Arden, and Cassandra and Trialla soon arrive as well. Cassandra trumps Malachai (Trump #14) Gryphons are playing with Julian, scooping him up and then dropping him, occasionally on a mine. Malachai tells Cassandra not to kill gryphons, but that the hellhounds are fair game.
Malachai trumps Zack (Trump #15) and warns him about Trialla, and that Cassandra is not in control of Trialla.
As the three converge on Julian's position, Zack makes a Faerie gate below a falling Julian. Trialla and Cassandra go through the gate immediately, and Zack says "that's a Faerie gate" and goes through as well. Malachai follows, and Zack closes the gate from the far side.
Cassandra and Trialla are in front of the Cave of Wonders, Zack and an unconscious Julian are outside Julian's favorite bar with 2 2/3 gryphons for company, and Malachai is in a city filled with snapdragons.
Zack drops Julian off at the bar, and writes a note for the barkeep.
Cassandra talks with the Cave of Wonders, which is in the shape of a cat's head with a ring through one ear. When she asks where she is, the cave answers "Agraba".
Malachai stays put, waiting for Zack. He flips through his trumps, and notices that all of his male trumps look like Zack, and all of his female trumps look like Ivy. Ignoring the glint of gold, he waits.
Cassandra continues talking with the Cave. It's not very bright, and wants to ask all of the questions. The Cave hits on Trialla, and discovers that snuggling is not a good plan - sandstone abrades easily. Zack finds Cassandra and offers to send her back to Arden, saying that he wants to talk with Julian when he wakes up, and will then let them back into Faerie to chat with him. Zack gates Trialla and Cassandra to Arden, and promises the Cave to invite Trialla back as well.
Zack finds Malachai who is watching a sword being carried towards him by ants. Zack grabs the sword. They chat - Zack wants to confine Julian until he sees sense to avoid having him killed. Zack sends Malachai back to Arden.
Benedict trumps Malachai (Trump #16) and mentions the altercation in Drageara and the Mikail sighting, and the incident with Bleys. Benedict asks Malachai to keep an eye on Arden, in case Mikail attacks. Malachai mentions the Julian affair.
Cathryn is trumped by Benedict (Trump #17). Benedict says that Zack is trying to talk Julian out of Faerie (Can you say incorrect impression? I knew you could...). They discuss the complications with the duel, and Cathryn mentions Clarissa's involvement. Benedict doesn't seem to mind Clarissa becoming involved. They chat a bit about the Mikail incident.
Cassandra and Malachai chat. Malachai warns the local commander that Julian is elsewhere, and is no longer in the command structure. He receives reports regarding repairing the damage Julian has done, including the forest fire. Cassandra and Malachai plot to slay Julian. They believe that Julian is a good conjurer, and maybe not a good fighter. Maybe they can just discourage him without killing him. Malachai doesn't want to kill a prince of Amber. What would Benedict's reaction be? If he wanted Julian dead, Julian would already be dead. Malachai tells Cassandra that Benedict resigned as Marshall of the Realm, and Cassandra replies that Oberon offered the post to Corwin.
Cassandra realizes that due to her message to Corwin by way of Darkstar, her army may be soon arriving. The army could be useful in case Julian acts up again.
Darkstar trumps Cassandra (Trump #18)
Darkstar: Did you win? Cassandra: Not yet, joined battle, in possession of Arden. Darkstar: So you won? Cassandra: Yes. Darkstar: Order - Get home.
Corwin would have brought the army through if they needed help, despite the bad condition of the leadership of the army - the leader was in a place where Corwin won't go.
Cassandra asks Malachai if he can handle Arden without her. He isn't sure, but Zack agreed with his position, and promised to help defend Arden. Cassandra gives Darkstar's trump to Malachai and says that Darkstar could forward the trump call through or past the Barrier. Cassandra and Trialla head to Pearl.
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