Characters in Attendance:
Lord Aaron [Andy]
Dalen [Kath]
Ambassador Lentaro Dojangi (Len) [Jeremy Z.]
Maladin [Jeremy F.]
Inquisitor Theron [Stacey]




When last we saw our intrepid adventurers ...

Lord Aaron was heading to his quarters in the castle. Dalen was heading home to the White Rose. Ambassador Lentaro was under embassy arrest. Inquisitor Theron had Trumped back to ... wherever he felt like.

The time is approximately 11:00 PM, the evening of the banquet.

Maladin enters the city, and looks for a tavern. The White Rose is open, and he heads over, finds a table and settles himself back for a drink.

Lentaro, under lock and key in the Tellurian embassy, kills some time reading a book. A little after midnight the sounds of a *thunk* and *ooouuugh* are heard outside his door, followed by whisperings and the sound of the door's lock being picked. After a few failed attempts and whispered curses by the person outside the door, the lock releases and the portal is opened. "We have come to rescue you!" a person(?) in a robe cheerfully announces to Lentaro. After some discussion (and outright dubiousness from Lentaro), the hairy Tellurian agrees to follow his deliverers. He is taken out of the castle and ends up in the city -- at a tavern called the White Rose.

Theron is restless in his chambers, and is wondering who "Madame Spacey" was (that very odd, young woman at the banquet). He trumps to the castle and finds one of the Stewards who is able to tell him that the woman is "Dalen, of the White Rose Tavern." The Inquisitor decides that a late, summer evening stroll sounds lovely, and heads into the city. On his way, just down the street from where the Rose is located, he sees what looks to be a conga line of robed, hooded figures who are looking like they're doing a parody of sneaking. One of them rather slithers-slinks, and two are very large. Theron hears a sound that registers on his ear as "sinister", and turns around to see something *THUNK* him on the head. Fade out.

Maladin, nursing his drink at the Rose, sees four figures amble in (two very large, and one moving in a way he doesn't really want to investigate too closely). They take a table where they can see everyone, and settle themselves. Maladin is trying to decide if he recognizes one of the larger members of the party.

Lentaro, seated at the Rose, is finally introduced to is "rescuers". Michael Tanner and his "group" have "... seen the light of the Unicorn!" (said with something approaching religious zealotry). The good(?) Ambassador learns that Michael Tanner is connected to Can-ny (Canie?, Tanner has problems with the pronunciation, it seems), and this Canny is working against the Tellurian League. Supposedly the Tellurian League is killing off "initiates." This is uncomfortable news for the Ambassador. Soon after this conversation, a heavily bearded man joins up with them. He is the "Way-finder" which the Tellurian rescuers have hired (for a very pretty penny) to take their entire party back to Telluria. The Way-finder takes his payment, and tells the group where to meet him and when. He then heads out the door.

Meanwhile, Theron wakes up to a Trump call. It is Father Phillip, the head of the Church. The Inquisitor comes to the reluctant conclusion that he's been tied, upside down, to a tree in some wooded place. All his belongings are with him, he's just been trussed up. The Father's call is received, and Phillip brings Theron through, after they manage to cut the Inquisitor's bonds. Theron is visibly upset by the incident, and his nerves are only partially soothed by the tea he sips as Father Phillip lets it be known that he's "not quite pleased" that Theron got himself into anything so unseemly as being trussed in a tree. Theron asks Father Phillip what necessitated the trump call and both the Inquisitor and the subject are waved off until the morning. The Inquisitor returns to his lodgings, and retires for the night.

Dalen had been thinking about sleeping, but no dice. She had just kicked back when she was hit with a vision. She threw her pillow back to the bed, got dressed, grabbed her sword and cloak and headed downstairs.

Lentaro has been listening to the fervor of his companions, and is growing more and more concerned that he has landed himself with a group in lunatic zealots. He recognizes Maladin at another table, and invites him over. The two have obviously known each other for a while, and Lentaro brings his "friend" up to date. The Ambassador decides that being a fugitive from Amber won't do much for Tellurian standings with the government, and so decides to return to custody. He stands to leave, his rescuers objecting strongly and ineffectively, and Maladin blocks their way as Lentaro skips out the door.

Dalen comes down the stairs of the Rose just in time to see a recognizably large, furry, hamster-looking Ambassador leave the tavern. Startled, she follows him. Lentaro's slinky companion follows as well, as do all the other members of his party. Lentaro runs. The slinky thing follows. Dalen follows. Maladin follows as well. The Ambassador manages to outdistance everyone, and the slinky thing unaccountably crumples as it is going past the entrance of an alley. Maladin stops to investigate, but Dalen follows Lentaro.

The Ambassador stops at the Castle gate, and Dalen catches up with him. The guard looks rather nonplussed at seeing Lentaro outside the gate, but lets the Tellurian in. Lentaro offers Dalen his arm in, and gives the guard a knowing smirk as he and the lady enter the castle grounds.

Inside Dalen explains to Lentaro that she needs to talk to Lord Aaron about something important, and what is the Ambassador doing out of house arrest anyway?? Maladin catches up to them, and a servant is found -- port and tea are requested, a message to Lord Aaron is sent, and Maladin goes to speak to the night Steward about a room.

Maladin establishes his bon a fides to the night Steward, is given a guest room for the duration of his stay and is escorted to it.

Lord Aaron receives Dalen and Ambassador Lentaro. Dalen relates to Lord Aaron a vision she had regarding his brother, Lore, and entreats him to do something to keep Lore out of trouble -- for the good of his Family, and the good of Amber. Aaron is unimpressed. Dalen has decided, in some disgust, that she's done more than enough for King and Country tonight. She's about to leave when a large concussion is heard downstairs. Aaron and Lentaro go to investigate, and Dalen begins to make her way home.

Downstairs is in a (refined) tumult. The door to one of the guest rooms has been blown off its hinge, and Gerard is carrying out someone who looks like he was caught in the blast. It is Maladin. Lentaro follows them, and Gerard looks fairly irritated that the Tellurian is there at all. Gerard tells the Ambassador that he has other matters to attend to right now (indicating the knocked-silly form of Maladin) and for Lentaro to consider himself under arrest again. Guards are called, and Lentaro is put back under lock and key in the castle. Maladin is taken to a place where he can be treated, and is guarded throughout the night.

Lord Aaron meets up with his mother, Lady Florimel, in the hall and she invites him over for breakfast in the morning. "You really should eat more fruit, dear."

NEXT DAY!!

Theron awakes. Theron has a certain amount of residual crankiness about being koshed on the head, strung up in a tree and humiliated before his senior Official the night before. To alleviate that feeling, he makes sure he is crisp, starched and perfect before he begins the business of the day. He trumps to the castle to observe the scheduled "interview" between Prince Gerard and Ambassador Lentaro, only to find out that the Ambassador's activities from the prior evening have changed the agenda. Theron sends a message to Gerard that a meeting would be most appreciated.

Aaron suffers through breakfast with Flora. "Juice and fruit, dear. Watch the hips." They talk about Fumaris, as well has how Lore is doing.

Gerard has a quick meeting with Lentaro. The Prince is not pleased. The Ambassador is to consider himself under "city arrest" and to realize that his movements will be watched at all times.

Afterwards, Gerard meets with Theron and brings the Inquisitor up to date on Lentaro's activities. Theron relates his own misadventures of the previous night, and Gerard promises to quietly look into it.

Lentaro is released, and returns to the Tellurian embassy. With thoughts of breakfast on his mind, he heads to his room. On the bed is a black cloak -- identical(?) to the ones his rescuers wore last night. He picks the cloak up, and a Trump falls to the floor. Dropping the cloak to the bed, he retrieves the card. It is not of anyone he recognizes. Lentaro tries to make a connection to the person in the Trump, and when contact is made he finds himself seized by a psychic attack. Endurance wins out, and Lentaro is able to break the connection before his attacker stabs him through the heart with his own dagger or strangles him with his own hand.

Aaron returns to his rooms after breakfast with Flora, and proceeds to eat many sugar buns. After getting his fill (regardless of his hips), he takes the rest of the morning to train a Pattern Lens on Telluria.

Theron trumps to the Tellurian embassy, and talks to Lentaro. They relate snippets of their evening's adventures to each other, and wonder what it is about the White Rose that it should figure so prominently in everyone's day all of a sudden -- and that Dalen person lives there too. They decide to eat breakfast at the Rose. Despite the activities it hosted during the previous evening, the tavern looks nicely "normal". Breakfast was good.

Dalen spends the morning concentrating on her forms. She receives an invitation to a tea being given by Queen Vialle for this afternoon. After lunch she allows herself to be primped and dressed for the function.

Aaron talks to Fiona in the early afternoon. She's working on the remains of Fumaris, and shows Aaron a "Pattern signature" found within Fumaris -- it's a "warped" Pattern. He suggests that it may be an "anti-Pattern", but Fiona says that the opposite of Pattern is Chaos, so by definition an anti-Pattern can't exist. She asks Aaron to check to see if Lentaro is an initiate of an "alternate" Pattern. He says he will, then heads off to attend the Queen's tea.

Pomp and Scrutiny, a.k.a. the Queen's tea. This "do" is in honor of the Sultan of Lambor, his wife, her entourage and the Princes of Lambor. Many, many ladies are in attendance, and Lord Aaron and Maladin are conspicuously two of the very few gentlemen in the room. The Lady Klissera has glommed onto Aaron again, and is making a show of doing perky breast tricks with oranges for his ... um, edification. Maladin is seated next to Llewella, and the two of them have a quite the lovely time shredding Dalen's reputation to shreds by innuendo and suggestion. Dalen is seated next to Lady Lauren of the Great House of Gideon in the Golden Circle. Everyone makes respective polite chit chat.

During the course of cold soup, Dalen seems to fade out mentally (again). When she comes to her senses, she realizes she's the subject of many whispers, and she tries to salvage some sense of decorum by sitting up straight and wiping the soup from her chin. She looks up to find the Queen standing next to her, asking her if she's quite well. Vialle is given a seat, and everyone makes a show of not staring at the Queen talking to a nobody with horrid table manners. Vialle suggests that Dalen might wish to lie down for a while as she really does look pale (Vialle sees pretty good for someone who is blind). Dalen accepts the offer, and the Queen, herself, escorts Dalen to a quiet room. As Vialle turns to leave, she suggests that the young woman may wish to talk to her -- and to just let Vialle know.

The tea continues and Vialle returns to her hostessing duties. Maladin and Llewella continue a lively conversation about Dalen and her assumed proclivities, and Aaron looks like he'd like to escape the taunting (or is that taut?) breasts of the Lady at his side. Aaron excuses himself politely, and goes to find Dalen. Aaron lets Dalen know that she was right about the vision of the "warped" Pattern, and that by extension, she's probably also right about his brother, Lore, being in some sort of a mess regarding the situation. Dalen conjectures that since she's never had any sorts of visions before, that they started because Lentaro was around -- maybe he is the key to whatever is going on. They agree to meet at the Tellurian embassy after the tea is over.

Meanwhile, Theron has sent a note to the White Rose, asking to speak with Dalen. He's informed that she is attending a tea at the Castle at the moment, but they'll deliver his message.

After the tea, Dalen returns to the Rose to change out of the fluff, and finds the note from Inquisitor Theron. She sends a reply, stating that she'll "...be happy to meet with the Inquisitor after she returns from the Tellurian embassy later in the afternoon ... if that would be acceptable to the Inquisitor." The note is delivered to the inquisitor. Since there is no time like the present, Theron simply Trumps to the embassy himself.

Maladin decides that he needs to see what Lentaro has been up to, and so makes his way to the Tellurian embassy -- only to see Dalen and Lord Aaron out front of the building as well. Within moments Theron arrives on the scene too.

Lord Aaron does the "courtly" thing, and lets the receptionist know that there is someone who would like to speak with the Ambassador. Lentaro comes downstairs shortly to find a herd of people in his lobby. They all go to a meeting room, and "chat" about Telluria and to try not to say anything of importance. Dalen loses her temper and demands to know about Telluria's power source, and what happens when it goes "wrong"? Lord Aaron gives an admonishing, "Dalen!", and everyone else just blinks. She apologizes for the outburst. The Inquisitor wants to know about Dalen's visions (as Lentaro is so polite to bring up the subject), and Dalen says she's not willing to talk about it at the moment. Maladin excuses himself a moment to "check on something." The conversation slides into silence and everyone decides it's time to head out.

Aaron and Dalen are escorted from the embassy by Maladin, and Theron is not far behind, as he has an appointment with the lady now.

To be continued on 9.12 (Sunday) at 2:00 PM ...