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After the ceremony with House Barimen, Zack trumped through to a place near the head of the line of locusts with N'tal, the son of Lord Barimen. They were continuing along the line, when Zack was trumped by Celeste.
They chatted about the kid not knowing that Amberites used trumps. Celeste asked for help, and Zack said bye to Random and went to her.
He brought her into Faerie. She negotiated with Titania for temporary royalty status, and then they split up to look for Celeste's daughter.
A bit later, Celeste trumped to him, along with Brand. It looked like Brand - he had Pattern, the whole 9 yards. He didn't have Werewindle. Zack is sure that it is Brand, the familiar one from this Amber, with this Pattern. Brand referred to the object of their search as "our daughter"
Zack and Celeste left Brand in Faerie and exited. He then returned to Faerie, noticed that Brand had left and taken his horse with him, and re-exited Faerie.
En route to Amber, he ran across Malachai and dropped Celeste off with him. He mentioned running into Brand during their trump conversation, but didn't mention Brand's comment about "our daughter".
Zack then headed back towards the place where he left the search, trumped to Random, and continued the bug hunt.
A bit later, Random squawked and then disappeared, apparently yanked through a trump contact that he was trying to conceal.
Zack brings up a nice illusion and trumps Random from within it. He connects. Random tells him to hold down the fort. He's in the middle of a fight with hostiles. They drop the contact.
Cathryne remembers that she was a hat rack on a dining room table, and suddenly finds herself lying on a table surrounded by confused-looking people. After some paranoia, it becomes obvious they are just minions. They leave, telling her that she can keep the table.
She looks around. She's in some kind of Courts, but there is no Logrus, no Pattern, and no Abyss. The entire place is surrounded by the Sea of Chance.
She tries to trump Random - nothing. Benedict - nothing. Fiona - contact. She's all of eleven or twelve, and is currently in flagrante delecto with Bleys in a muddy puddle. Cathryne breaks the contact.
Trumps Eric. Eric turns to Corwin and says, "Hey Corwin. You know them voices you was hearing in your head? Now I've got 'em too." She breaks the contact.
Cathryne wanders the Courts and goes looking for powerful people. She looks for the most impressive building. It reeks somewhat of stables. There is a large cat's head enstatued just inside the door, and are lots of people rushing about, all looking important. She stops one of them, and asks after Snarsht, and receives directions. They are complex. She needs to shift into a pyramidical decontamination suit part of the way through.
She finds Snarsht. He is large, cat-shaped, and surrounded by a bunch of pyramidical obelisks. She goes up to him, and he acknowledges her presence. There are the beginnings of a twisting tenticular thing taking shape in front of him. She offers him information concerning the location of Dworkin and Suhuy, and he agrees to give her an appointment three blue-sky turnings hence. She leaves. On the way out they give her three pills that need to be spread throughout her system to prevent her system from degenerating. She does so.
She looks around for Houses. None of them are in familiar places. She asks for directions. The first person doesn't speak any languages she understands. The second one acts confused, and then offers to sell her a house. He's never heard of Suhuy or Dworkin. Rainbow is a stripper at the Golden Banana. She goes there. There is sign out front, "Live Nude Folk". She enters. There is a scuzzy looking blue demon out front asking for a cover charge - forty-seven drachma. Cathryne is confused. The guy suggests that she turn tricks for the money. She grabs him by the neck, and Rocco, the bouncer, shows up.
She shifts into gaseous form and goes around the goons. A light goes on overhead as she passes through the doorway. Rocco starts looking for her with a vacuum cleaner.
There is a force field around the stage, and there are a wide variety of things dancing on stage.
There are waitresses offering buckets of a salty liquid. Chicken soup. She goes into the kitchen. It looks alive, and the entrance she entered through looks sphincterish. She leaves the kitchen, and exits the building with disgust.
She trumps Dierdre - no contact.
She trumps Corwin. Corwin offers her some gopher. She walks him through pulling her through the contact - and she ends up in his arms. She goes gaseous, to his great dismay, and starts looking for Ferro's Pattern. It's surrounded by a grey wall. She goes through it, and is standing between two lines of the Pattern. She walks straight to the center and thinks of her rooms in Castle Amber. Nothing happens.
She heads towards the cave housing Suhuy's Pattern.
Norton chats with Bella, Osric chats with Merlin, and Ilk draws REN aside and chats with him.
Present from the Guilds:
| Name | Rank | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Rose | First of the Ambassadors Guild | Old Lord |
| Princess Harp | First of the Bards Guild | Old Lord, centaur |
| Leareth | Second of the Bards Guild | |
| Snarsht | First of the Beastmasters Guild | Old Lord, giant cat |
| Morganthe | Second of the Crafters Guild | |
| Rainbow | First of the Dancers Guild | Old Lord |
| Mystifer | First of the Etiquette Guild | Old Lord |
| Iain | Second of the Etiquette Guild | |
| Shirest | First of the Healers Guild | |
| Imagio | First of the Psionists Guild | Old Lord |
| Andron | Second of the Psionists Guild | |
| Jenoir | Second of the Mages Guild | Being elevated |
Dworkin has gotten into an argument with Shirest.
Ilk mingles. Norton goes over to chat with Mandor, who is gracefully accepting complements for having saved House Chanicut.
Norton goes to chat with Bella. She starts describing Snarsht's intestines to him. Bella starts giving him cable. "Good - raw materials!" Bella upheaves into Norton's hands, and Norton starts playing with it.
Osric asks Merlin if he would be willing to go to the Fringe with him and check some things out. Merlin responds that he can't, until he checks in with Benedict and things are secure.
There is a small space of quiet, and Princess Chandra shows up with Corwin in tow.
Newly arrived:
| Name | Rank | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Princess Chandra | First of the Assassins Guild | Old Lord |
| Corwin | Second of the Warriors Guild |
Norton walks over to Corwin and greets him. Norton proceeds to rouse Corwin's suspicion as to his identity, to the horror of the Corwin within him, then asks for and receives Ilk's trump of Zack and Osric's trump of Corwin. Norton and Corwin chat.
Corwin reaches Jenoir, and offers her his services. She pats him on the shoulder and asks him to stand over there and stop anyone that tries to attack her. Andron wanders over to him, looks him up and down, grins, and wanders off.
Ilk goes over to Corwin, and they chat. Ilk whines nicely about the excess of Pattern energy in the area, and Corwin sheathes both the Greyswandirs, and creates a shadow in the remaining Pattern energies for Ilk. Ilk warns Corwin that he (Ilk) is likely to be a secondary target, and mentions the Morganti incident. Ilk points out the relevant individuals present to Corwin and a nearby Osric.
Some people in the corner try to make Merlin the King. He protests.
N'tal is impressed at Zack's stamina, as he has gone to sleep three times as often as Zack. Zack trumps Benedict during one of Barimen boy's rest periods. They chat.
Benedict gives Zack an image of Princess Chandra. Benedict says that she showed up and said that he was required elsewhere. He said, "Over my dead body", and she replied, "That would be a waste" and left. She did not use trump, Pattern, Logrus, or magic to depart. Zack tells him who she was, and that she would make a better ally than enemy.
They chat about Random's abandonment of his quest and his untrustworthiness.
Benedict mentions that Caine has created a bug-killing device that he has strapped to his waist and only has to pedal with his hands. He is getting bored, though.
Two Floras are busy looking for the third.
There's some guy down in the courtyard claiming to be related to the family who keeps jumping up on the castle edge and shouting "Tally-ho!" Zack mentions that he's probably okay.
Zack mentions that Random believed that his battle was related to something that might be behind the recent problems.
They disconnect.
Cathryne is heading up the hill towards the cave housing Suhuy's Pattern, when there is a displacement of air behind her and a large anthropomorphic bug and Celeste appear.
They chat, then continue up the hill. There is a door in the cliff face. Celeste tries to knock it down, and fails.
"I convinced the Corwin here that I was a figment of his imagination and he pulled me through. Then I escaped."
Celeste and Cathryne try to explain the concept of names to the bug, then Cathryne names the bug Nova.
Nova pushes her hand into and out of the door, then goes through. They call Nova back out. She says that the room is at least ankle-deep with blood. There were two people in it, fighting. They looked people-shaped, people-sized, and blood-covered.
They try to explain the concept of clothing to Nova. The bug eats Celeste's jacket.
They discuss entering the room, but finally decide that it is a bad idea. Cathryne mentions that she was in a strange version of the Courts, where "Rainbow was an exotic dancer at the Golden Banana".
[Bananaland - the Chaosian equivalent of Hillbilly Amber]
They waffle.
"Oh, look Corwin! There're some chicks!" Corwin and Eric approach.
Nova takes the three of them back to the proto-Darkover.
They waffle some more.
Cathryne tries to explain shapeshifting to Nova, and Celeste makes dust bunnies. Cathryne explains about the Courts and said that she would continue to hunt there for an answer or a way out.
After N'tal wakes up, he says, "Wow. These look like Toram's lands." He helpfully fills Zack in on Toram, and gives him some information about this area.
Norton chats with Shiryu. Shiryu, after hearing that Ilk is under a lot of stress currently, announces his intention to delay his conversation with Ilk until he is "less distracted".
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