Run log for 960716

Major Events:

• Accidentally Freeing Oberon

After the riots

Cassandra apologizes about the recent disturbance to Malachai, who replies that one day the elders will stop fouling their nest.

Corwin says that now he can release the troops; Cassandra retorts that she will release the troops, and Corwin replies that he will release her. "About time", according to Cassandra. Corwin declares, "Now that Arden is safe (gestures at Malachai), the seas are defended (gestures at Caine), now we just need to deal with the castle. Be seeing you..." Malachai starts to ride off in disgust.

Corwin and Cassandra discuss the mechanics of sending troops back to Pearl. Corwin wants Cassandra to lead on Darhyse; she replies that if he would only leave her on the outside of his Pattern for once, she could lead the troops herself, and that Darhyse cannot lead troops through the Barrier. Corwin decides that trumping back would be best.

Merlin is missing - since he is technically one of Cassandra's troops, Corwin decides that Merlin is her responsibility. She starts fretting, and calls Malachai back, since he has her trump of Darkstar. Malachai trumps Darkstar, and contact is made with... air. Darkstar agrees to look for Merlin, and a floating eyeball appears. When Malachai breaks the contact, the eyeball is on this end of the contact. Cassandra draws her blade and points it at Malachai and the eyeball. Malachai dodges out of the way, and Cassandra asks the eye if it is Darkstar. The eye's lid peels back, then continues unpeeling until it disappears. Malachai returns the Darkstar trump to Cassandra.

Corwin pulls out his trump of Pearl, and it is to the courtyard outside the castle, not inside the castle itself like the Amber castle trumps.

One of Cassandra's seargents bitches at Corwin, and he doesn't kill him.

Malachai asks Corwin if he has decided yet. In response, Corwin asks Malachai if he has ever fought Zack. Malachai answers in the negative, and Corwin says that he wants to find out how good Aramek is. Cassandra asks Corwin why he wants to know, and he replies that "It's always good to find out how good the players are." "What makes him a player?" "He fought Zack on equal terms" "Oh"

A conversation about parenting spontaneously occurs; apparently Benedict's kids hate him, and he never raises them. Corwin on Clarissa's motherness: "...and that Rivka thing loves her". Malachai asks if anyone has heard from K'rin recently - apparently she gathered Caine's troops.

Malachai trumps Zack.

In Pearl

Cassandra travels through the trump to Pearl, and begins to make appropriate arrangements for the dead and wounded in her army. A stretcher carrying a corpse tips over, Cassandra catches it, and the dead guy stands up. "Medic!"

After some experimentation, she discovers that when she touches the bloody, newly dead ones with the hand wearing the ring that Mikail gave her, they are resurrected, all claiming to have had the weirdest vision... Mutters of "Cassandra brings the dead back to life!" spread through her troops.

Zack is trumped by Malachai. Zack looks like he was just in a really nasty fistfight.

They chat. They are both annoyed at the elders. Zack mentions that he received help reassembling the city from a psionicist friend of Titania's named Stormy, and that Julian seemed more depressed than violent when he last saw him, so he shouldn't be a threat at the moment. The trump call ends.

Prospero rides up to Malachai, saying that Corwin stole his trump of Malachai. Malachai borrows another trump of himself from the Castle library, and starts helping the civilians back into the city from Arden.

Ilkandacian is in the courtyard of Castle Black after having returned from visiting a Seroli shrine with Morrolan. He returns Home, notices that Clarissa doesn't appear to be there any more, and starts examining the shadow for any changes that she might have wrought. He notices a strange echo, and decides to look into the matter in more detail later.

Ilk checks his messages and finds one from Cathryn asking for an update on Mikail. He goes to House Jesby to talk with Cathryn. They meet in a reception room, walk to a secure room, and then chat. The receptionist seems to think that they are arranging a liason. They discuss Cathryn's search for Mikail, Ilkandacian's research into Mikail's demons, and then proceed to set up a schedule for Ilk to train Cathryn in Logrus techniques.

Rivka is doing a stray dog imitation in Amber. Two days later she heads to House Cara in Chaos and writes a note to Cathryn asking her for a meeting. Jesby spies deliver the note before it is sent, and Cathryn excuses herself from Ilkandacian and summons Rivka to Jesby. They tour the neutral shadows near Ygg that Cathryn located earlier, and pick one. They discuss warding the shadow magically, and then return to Jesby. Cathryn asks Rivka to find Clarissa for Benedict's duel, and Rivka agrees.

Rivka *bamf*s to her mommy's tower, where Clarissa is staring into one of six grey globes. Clarissa mentions that Cathryn assisted her in her first two collections.

Rivka says that Cathryn wants Clarissa to be Benedict's proxy in a magical duel, and Clarissa agrees to talk with Cathryn about it.

Clarissa asks Rivka to return the globe she was staring at to Tir, since that's where she found it, and tells her to tell that Chaos-sorcerer not to do that again - it's disconcerting. Rivka *bamf*s to Amber.

Clarissa arrives at House Jesby, and Clarissa and Cathryn enter a Jesby secure room. Cathryn fills Clarissa in on the background of the duel, and Clarissa agrees to proxy for Benedict.She gives Cathryn a little box, and tells her that when it is time, place a message in the box and it will find her. Clarissa heads off, supposedly to do research on her opponent.

Cathryn looks for the Warlord, fails to find her, and leaves a message for her at the Warriors' Guild.

Cathryn goes to the Rim-Fishers' guild to see if Mikail has washed up on the shores of Chaos and finds two crazy old men arguing about something they pulled out of the Sea of Chance. They throw it at her, and it sticks to her. She tries to change form to get rid of it, and finally sheds the hand that it is stuck to and grows a new one. Cathryn asks them if they've seen... and she shifts into Mikail - they scream - she shifts back. An amusing scene ensues as she tries to persuade them to find Mikail, the real Mikail. They finally decide that if Mikail is intact after having gone into the Sea of Chance, he must be a guild member -- with unpaid dues. They also mention that Snarsht came out of the Sea of Chance, and that a mathematician went into the Sea of Chance, but he wasn't a mathematician until he went in. They seem worried that Jesby is trying to blame something on them...

Rivka is hanging out in Amber, waiting for dark.

Aramek on Caine's Fleet

Aramek has woken up on one of Caine's ships. He exchanges introductions with the crew, which numbers about 45 members. Aramek starts training the crew in the use of weapons - the cutlass, knife, and belaying pin seem to be the most popular choices.

About three-quarters of a day later, land is spotted. Aramek eats a pig. The captain of the ship sends for him, and he wanders abovedeck, leaving the un-eaten parts of the pig on his pillow. The captain tells him that he will be meeting with the admiral soon, and that the pig he ate was an unauthorized pig -- use older pigs.

Aramek watches a heavily bet-upon brawl between a sailor and a sea monster from a spar, and is convinced to brawl the next monster. He is told that the record is about five minutes, and bets that he will defeat the next one in two minutes, and succeeds in dragging the battle out that long.

He is brought back on board to Caine's ship, where Caine congratulates him on his victory. They then head to shore in a one-man paddlewheel powered by a bicycle-type mechanism. This is a lively port, as is evidenced by the folks burning a cat, the two ladies and the horse, and other... interesting activities visible from the docks. Aramek follows Caine to a seedy bar. Upon seeing Caine, the barkeep drags in a keg and herds in a rodent, which Caine kills with a bank shot with a brace of thrown knives.

Caine and Aramek proceed to get drunk. Aramek is very drunk. Caine asks him questions, and Aramek proceeds to pour out his anger against the World. Eventually, Aramek falls asleep. When he awakes, Caine is entertaining a barmaid in his lap, and it's almost morning.

They talk about Zack. Aramek had thought that he was only hitting a peon, and was quite surprised that he didn't go squish immediately. Caine mentions that there is some indication that Aramek may be related to the royal family, and says that he will introduce Aramek around and see who squirms. Caine seems to understand Aramek's nastiness and signs him on for one year, with an option to renew -- well before Aramek would decided to betray and kill him.

Caine turns Aramek loose in the port, saying that he should return to the docks in about two hours. Aramek acquires a date or three, shreds them, and meets Caine at the docks, where he is washing blood off his clothing. Caine hands Aramek a pouch filled with brilliant, colored gems, and warns him to not open the pouch during the daytime.

Caine takes most of the troops to port to repeat the recruitment brawl that happened in Amber a few days, leaving Aramek and a few seasoned veterans to watch over the ships. Someone rows over to Aramek's ship and introduces himself as Raven, K'rin's lover. K'rin is recovering from wounds that she sustained while rescuing Caine. Raven attempts to intimidate Aramek, and then leaves.

Stormy and Zack are repairing Amber City and swapping wine recipies, and people are returning to the city. Stormy shifts into a monstrous Viking for disguise. A mangy dog (Rivka) runs past them, and Stormy tells Zack that was the dog that was bothered by him feeding on the fires. Rivka, hearing this, shifts into a stray cat, and suddenly wants to worship Stormy. She runs up to Stormy, who says "This used to be that dog". Oops. "It appears to be a relative of yours". Zack notices that the cat is shapeshifted. Rivka tries Rhiannon's Trump again by shifting an eye into her pocket where she is keeping her Trumps. The Trump rings and doesn't go very far. Stormy notices the Trump attempt and spots the Trump deck in Rivka. "That cat's a trump deck!" Rivka teleports to the other side of Amber, and Stormy teleports her back and puts up a teleport block and a trump block. Rivka tries to teleport out again, fails, and runs off on foot. Stormy shifts into a smiladon and pins her; Rivka shifts into a Sha'um and squirms free.

Zack, who has been standing back and watching this, finally says "Paprika -- Hi, you can talk to us."

Rivka and Stormy chat about fire, and other things.

Stormy shifts back to a seven foot tall redhead, and Rivka shifts inot a stray cat. Stormy drops back into his natural form, which has an eight-pointed star on its forehead that mind controls cats. They do introductions.

Stormy continues repairing Amber city, with Rivka trailing along behind him. Stormy mentions that Rivka was pushing against a pretty substantial block, and she replies that she is waiting for it to come down or for the person to come back. Stormy checks out the trump block, and discovers that it drains power from those trying it; thus making the block larger.

Rivka mentions that Rhiannon is her niece.

Stormy checks out the apparent location of the shadow path, and it appears to be under the sea. It reaches back towards him and he connects to it and establishes a new trump link. He's looking out of a scrying pool at an insane-looking wizard. They chat. Stormy checks out his head for captives, and seeing none, hands the wizard a fish and drops the contact.

The Trump block searches nearby shadows to find power sources. Stormy wants Rivka to give him her brain to look for Rhiannon, and she reluctantly agrees. Stormy proceeds to do Trump weird-shit. A grey mass surrounds them, and they notice Darkstar on the opposite side of it. Darkstar isn't the cause of the block, he's just spectating. He contacts them and says that he recognizes the person doing the block -- it's a demon friend with unscrupulous appetites, and a magic well to boot. Stormy replies that he is a magic well, too. Darkstar heads off to deal with the demon, and Stormy starts generating and collecting energy. The amount of power that Stormy is drawing from Rivka causes her to start manifesting as Sharra . She snoops over the god channels, and Darkstar winks at her over them. Darkstar contacts Rivka over the god channels, and asks Stormy via his mind link with her for a power burst. "How large?" "Planet-buster." *BOOM* The threatening grey mass melts away.

Stormy and Rivka go to Dworkin's lab in Tir, where Rivka drops off the grey sphere.

They receive a message from the Tir-Dworkin, "Look out below", and leave Tir. Darkstar asks for another burst, and Stormy sends it through. A mass of clouds, apparently controlled by the Jewel, covers the moon, and Tir vanishes. It looks like they've just freed Oberon. The ocean starts boiling, and Darkstar asks to be pulled back, and Stormy does so. Stormy tries to trump Oberon, but is pushed away. Rivka tries to trump Rhiannon, and she's busy. Darkstar then tries to explain the Locked Room party to Stormy.

--EORun--