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

NPCs to Appear:
Lady Karma of Rein [Jeremy F.]
Lord Lore [Cort]

When last we saw our intrepid adventurers ... it was late evening.

Maladin is reportedly in Helmwind, doing prep work for Benedict. The army from Amber is mobilizing within a day or so.

Dalen is off for a long walk.

Aaron receives a note and proceeds to meet with persons unknown.

Lentaro Trumps Caine. He asks if it's possible to disguise the subject of a Trump -- having the picture mask the actual one being contacted. Caine said that he thinks it might be possible, but Len would have to ask someone who was an artist. They close the connection, and Len goes to the library to do some research.

Sometime later, Aaron is yelling in the Castle, DEMANDING to see the King and Fiona. The servants rush to do his bidding, and presently he meets up with Random who informs Aaron that Fiona is still in Helmwind -- and what seems to be the trouble? Aaron babbles about being grabbed by a man with short blonde hair and a HUGE psyche!!! . This blonde man shook Aaron's hand and overwhelmed him with the force of his mind. Then the man slit Aaron's throat and forced him to walk the Fire Pattern. Aaron got away by reinforcing the Primal Pattern in his mind, and by having it heal him as he reached the center. House Cho has once again been implicated in these matters, and Random promises Aaron to hold Lord Neechan in custody -- though he can only do it for a few days, as House Cho is one of the great houses, and there's no solid evidence. Aaron's very tired but heads off to Helmwind to find Fiona.

Rhyss is studying in her room at the White Rose, and takes a Trump call.

NEXT DAY!!

Aaron reaches Fiona in Helmwind and tells her all about his travails the previous night. He then crashes in complete exhaustion.

Lentaro pays a visit to a Historian and inquires in a general way about members of the Royal Family who are now dead. The Historian rattles off the list of names and Len asks about Osric and Finndo. He is told about a problem between Finndo and Oberon concerning a marriageable daughter of a High House. Finndo refused, and Oberon sent he and Osric off to defend the Honor of Amber against the invading Ghenesh. Lentaro seems enlightened.

Maladin ostensibly spends the day doing military "stuff" in Helmwind.

Dalen returns to Amber in time for breakfast. She eats, then sends a note to her friend, Michael, asking to set up a time for the often missed meeting (Noon tomorrow). A package from Vialle has been left in her room. She inspects the contents, adds them to her collection, then sleeps.

Lentaro resumes his watch on his "superior" back in Telluria. Afterwards, he heads off for lunch and other "obvious" activities around the city.

Dalen wakes up early evening, and heads to the Library to research the symbols/language which was on the obelisk she found in the Vitae bubble somewhere out in shadow. She sees something flicker out of the corner of her eye and goes to investigate.

Not too long thereafter, a joint SCREAM is heard issuing from Aaron and Fiona. A very upset Aaron Trumps Maladin and asks what has happened to the Pattern??!!. Maladin has no idea. The gentlemen joined up. Just then Maladin gets a Trump call from Dalen, and accepts it. Aaron joins the connection on Maladin's side, and he sees that Dalen is in the Pattern room down in the Castle basement. When Dalen sees that Aaron is also there, she says, "Catch you later, you're busy," and tries to close the connection. Aaron gets pushy and keeps it open. Then he grabs Dalen through the contact and pulls himself and Maladin through to where she is.

The Pattern is hissing and spitting blue sparks, and Aaron bellows at Dalen, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE????!" Maladin echoes, "Yeah, what have you done??" To which she replies, in a very small voice, "Nothing?" . After a bit more yelling, and equal parts denial, Dalen blathers on about the lithe, dark-haired man who tricked her into spilling her blood on the Pattern. Aaron continues yelling and she tells them to "Shut up!" and beats a hasty retreat up the stairs ... only to find Maladin waiting for her at the top after an adroit use of a Trump. The two of them have a less heated discussion outside, and lay plans for a small gathering to take place the next evening.

Meanwhile, Rhyss decides that a walk in the nice, summer evening would be just the ticket. She walks past the Tellurian Embassy and notices several large, creepy forms breaking in! She attempts to stop them, but is thwarted. As they attempt to make off with Ambassador Lentaro, she begins yelling for help and one of the big ones glues her to the wall to silence her. They realize they can't leave her sticking to the wall, and since they're in a hurry, they take her and the part of the wall she is attached to with them.

Rhyss and Lentaro are the guests of Kelarn, a Lord of Chaos. He's a "friend" of Lentaro's and is there to help him out of his peculiar difficulties. Kelarn receives a promise from Rhyss that she won't attack them anymore, and releases her from the section of embassy wall. Then he proceeds to remove the geas (plural) from Lentaro.

A short time later, Dalen Trumps Lentaro. The connection is blurry and seems rather faint. When she ask rather hesitantly how he is, he responds, "I'm dead and in Hell." Oookaaay. She decides to catch up with him later, and closes the connection with no small amount of concern. She took note that Rhyss was with him. After that, she Trumps Caine to let him know that his "associate", Lentaro, was dead and in Hell ... and the Prince may want to check up on him.

Caine Trumps Lentaro and the Ambassador brings the Prince up to date on what has happened with him being dead, and all of that. Caine asks Len if he's still dead? Yes, but now he's ungeased. Caine takes all of this with his usual bland air. Caine brings Len and Rhyss back through to Castle Amber, and introductions are made.

Lentaro heads down to the White Rose to find Dalen, and is informed that she's actually up at the Castle. He goes back to the Castle, and catches up with her. They discuss matters of inoculation and Tellurian technology until Len is interrupted by a Trump call. It is Lady Karma ... and she's not happy with the good Ambassador. Lentaro tries to refuse the contact, but is not successful. He then tries to tell her that "now is not a good time," but Karma thinks now is just fine. Dalen joins the link, and gives enough oomph to Len's side of the contact to break free if he wishes. Lady Karma tells Lentaro, "... make out your will." The Ambassador decides that he'd better lay low for the rest of the evening and contacts Lord Kelarn once again, asking for place to hide out. Dalen says that she will contact Lentaro in the morning, to see if he needs a lift back to Amber, and with that he goes to the Courts of Chaos to stay with Kelarn.

Maladin catches up with Aaron, and they talk for a while before returning to Helmwind.

Everyone is VERY tired, and so sleeps.

NEXT DAY!!

Lentaro takes breakfast at Lord Kelarn's place, and receives a Trump call which he refuses.

Dalen takes breakfast at the Castle, and Trumps Lentaro, which is refused. She goes back to bed for a couple more hours, before prepping for her meeting with Michael.

Maladin and Aaron ride a wave back to Amber, and make their way to the White Rose. Realizing that they're substantially early for the meeting, they head to the Castle.

Rhyss takes a walk down to the Tellurian Embassy to see how Lentaro's doing. He's not there.

Aaron asks Maladin to accompany him on a visit to his brother, Lore. Lore is his usual languid, slightly bored, bitchy self. The brothers discuss the Trump of Dalen which Lore had "constructed" -- the one which had been altered to a scene of where she had been held in the cage. Lore thought it was quite an interesting trick, but was unable to offer an explanation for how it happened. He did say that the new scene was definitely Dworkin's handiwork. As Aaron and Maladin prepare to leave, Aaron notices the book that Lore is reading ... "The Underpinnings of Shadow." Very old, and rather interesting. Hmmm.

Dalen meets her friend, Michael, for lunch. Between courses, he mentions that it's known that she and the Ambassador from Telluria are friends, and that he had some information from his friend who is fostering at House Kraven that may be of interest. It seems that someone in House Kraven is hiring a very large number of Way Finders to go to and from Telluria. As Telluria has nothing to export (aside from the analgesics/poisons) there really shouldn't be much of a reason for Lord Murdoch and Lady Muir to be utilizing Way Finders. House Kraven was a supporter of Eric when he took the throne, and for that reason is considered out of favor with the current regime. Dalen thanks him for the information, and promises to mention it to the Ambassador.

After lunch, Dalen receives a Trump from Lentaro. He asks if she'll accompany him to Telluria. She says that today is a bit packed, but she'll go tomorrow in the afternoon. Lentaro agrees, and closes the connection. Dalen heads to the White Rose to prepare for the evening's events.

Aaron receives a Trump call. Shortly afterwards, Aaron Trumps Maladin and asks if he would please come to the library for a discussion. NOW!! Maladin does, and they talk. Afterwards they pay a visit to Dalen, who is in the third floor's salle at the White Rose. They tell her that they need to "get a certain piece of jewelry" from Aaron's mother, Florimel. You know, the LARGE RED one? Dalen yells out, "What??? Are you crazy??!" They're shushing her like mad, when Maladin hears stealthy footsteps on the third floor landing. Without further ado, Maladin opens the door to the landing and hauls an eavesdropping Rhyss into the salle. Maladin tries to ask Rhyss, nonchalantly, how much she's heard. "Oh, I just heard a scream, and wanted to make sure everything was okay." Rhyss says with a certain amount of innocence. Dalen remembers seeing her with Lentaro during one of the Trump calls, and says so. Lentaro fortuitously Trumps Maladin just at that moment, and is brought on to the scene. Len vouches for Rhyss, and they all stand there wondering who it's safe to bring along on this trip -- Rhyss being an unknown, and Lentaro being, well ... dead, not to mention an (ex?) agent of the blond man. Some of them are wondering why they're even going anywhere at all.

Aaron Trumps his mother, and lets her know that she'll be having company. Florimel pulls the lot of them through, and makes with the polite hostess chatter before she's off to have her nails done. With Florimel out of the scene, we commence to a version of "The Keystone Cops in New York City."

Dalen, thinking that the "piece of jewelry" is somehow still in Flora's residence, begins poking through the upstairs bedrooms. She finds ... NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE . Aaron takes Maladin upstairs and they try to find some clothing suitable for the shadow. Aaron has his own wardrobe in the residence, of course, and Maladin eschews all of the business suits available for a pair of -really- tight jeans, and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. From there he straps on his weaponry and finds an overcoat. Aaron tries to inform Maladin on the need for underwear with the tight jeans, but gives up.

Meanwhile the women have raided Florimel's spare closet, and have dressed in rather business-y skirts and blouses, with floor length fur coats -- it's cold out, after all. Winter in NYC, snow and all of that stuff.

Lentaro has been very busy downstairs weaving an illusion spell which will hide his fur and bulk. He ends up dressed in bellbottoms and a shirt with flair lapels.

The rest of the group then learns what Aaron and Maladin already knew -- that the "piece of jewelry" (a.k.a. the Jewel of Judgement) has been stolen from Florimel. Why Random gave it to Flora to hold in the first place, is anyone's guess. Aaron reads the police report which was dropped by the house, and he decides that the group would get further information by going to the local police department. Into the large, silver, wheeled box they all go -- cushy, but weird. Aaron calls it a Mercedes. It starts off and they begin heading ... somewhere, no one's really sure where. The women suggest stopping to ask for directions, and the men nix that idea. Aaron turns on the magic talking box, and the "OnStar" operator, Bethany, proceeds to give them directions (plus a map!) to the local PD.

At the PD they cool their heels in line for an hour before finally seeing one of the officers who is working the case. The officer informs Aaron that he can't give out any other information on the case unless Florimel herself requests it. Aaron excuses himself to use the "facilities" and Maladin trails along. From a stall, Aaron Trumps Flora and asks her to call the PD and give permission -- which she does. "Oh, just give him whatever he wants. That's a dear. Kiss kiss!" Maladin and Aaron return to the waiting room and the officer releases a little more information; the robbery was one of a number in the area; no suspects as of yet; jewelry and easily snatched valuables. The inventory list of what was stolen from the various locales was quite nondescript. Dalen asks another officer, in her sweetest voice, if any of the stolen items have come to light yet, and if so could he please give us the names of the places they were found? After some more batting of the eyelashes, the officer gives the name of six pawn shops: The Rock Shop, Moonrest, 15th Avenue Pawn Shop, Max, New Beginnings, Backroads and Green Center. They decided to check out The Rock Shop.

Bad choice.

The Rock Shop ends up being in a baaaad section of town. The group is in a big, silver Mercedes, and the women are in long, plush fur coats. Maladin looks like a male prostitute and Lentaro looks like a pimp.

Maladin, Aaron and Rhyss go into the pawn shop, and start looking for the Jewel. Lentaro and Dalen elect to stay behind and watch the car.

Bad idea.

While the others are poking through the pawn shop, Len and Dalen are approached by six mean-looking hoodlums who want to know what's under Dalen's coat. Len says he'll show them for 10,000. One of the men laughs, and takes out a gun (odd little wand thing, Dalen thinks) and says that he'll just take it. The other five hoodlums whip out their guns likewise. Dalen whips out her sword and says, "If you want a fight, you've got one." (Another very bad idea) "Ooooooh, the lady's got a stick!" All of the hoods are out of sword and staff range. Dalen removes the coat and flings it towards the man who had been speaking. As he grabs it, she pulls him towards her and impales him on her sword. All hell breaks loose. The other hoods open fire. Lentaro whacks one of the hoods in the head with his staff, grabbing his gun, and using the body as shield as he blows four of the others away. Dalen slices and dices, killing the last one before rolling over the car's hood to get out of the way of whatever else was coming. Unfortunately, Lentaro is sporting six bullet wounds, and Dalen has three. She's in critical condition, and he's not doing much better.

Meanwhile, back in the pawn shop, all is fairly quiet. You see, the shop is pretty well insulated. Rhyss and Maladin are looking in fascination at all the junk, and Aaron is trying to get the guy behind the counter to show him the -good- jewelry. The clerk is less than impressed with Aaron's bankroll. Maladin wanders over and riffles through his roll as well, and the clerk rolls his eyes and brings out another box of jewelry. The Jewel isn't in there. The three of them head back to the front door just in time to see the Mercedes being driven away by someone they don't know ... there is a lot of blood on the dingy, New York snow, and Lentaro and Dalen are nowhere in sight.

Lentaro has Dalen over his shoulder and is popping through shadows, looking for a safe place to get somewhat healed up. The first shadow has pure white, clean New York snow, and everything is sparkling. A perfect couple with two perfect children walk down the perfect street and suddenly scream as they see two very bloody people appear before them. Len gets Dalen to the hospital, and the orderlies there are wanting to make everyone ... happy. On go the Happy Goggle over Dalen's eyes. You need a little bit of Happy Juice (hypo filled with something). There goes Dalen, off to Happy Land. Lentaro objects and they decide that he's not happy enough either. Len gets his own hypo filled with happiness, and he decides that that's enough. Grabbing Dalen, he goes two shadows to the left. Same NYC hospital, only not so happy. People coming through ER, orderlies shouting orders. The two of them are spotted, and an orderly says, "Got a couple of bleeders here!" Very reassuring, until he follows up with, "Get the pliers, and bring me some of those leeches! Oh yeah, and that drill thingy!" Uhhhh, no. Pop to another shadow, it's Happy Land again. Auuughh!!! Lentaro pops back and forth rapidly, and winds up landing them right at the feet of Aaron, Maladin and Rhyss.

Aaron, Maladin and Rhyss look at Len and Dalen, then at each other. The Mercedes is long since history, and they have no other vehicle. Aaron walks back to the counter and mentally overwhelms the clerk in to handing over his car keys ... and forgetting that any of this ever happened.

Bleeding bodies shoved into the back of the low-riding El Dorado, they make their way to the hospital's ER. Len and Dalen are taken in, and Aaron tells Maladin to take care of the paperwork. Aaron then disappears. Maladin pats Rhyss on the shoulder, and tells her to take care of the paperwork. He disappears around the corner just as the orderly comes down looking for someone to give information. Rhyss watches Maladin head off in some alarm.

"What's his name?"
"Uh ... Len ... um. Len .... um. Taro. Yes, Len Taro."
"And hers?"
"Dalen ... um, Florimel."
"Address?"
"Um..... (an address is mumbled)."
"What are they on?"
"Um .... couldn't tell you."
"Insurance?"
"Huh?"

Len and Dalen are whooshed into the ER, the orderlies making comments about how much more hefty Lentaro feels than looks ... and he's like, really hairy. Eeew.

Maladin finds Aaron, who wonders why Maladin's not back with the others. Maladin reassures him that Rhyss is taking care of that stuff. Aaron isn't feeling assured. Aaron sends him back to keep an eye on Dalen and Lentaro with Rhyss. He's going to try to find out where all the other pawn shops were, and using a Pattern lens, scan the buildings for the Jewel. He spends the next 40 minutes or so looking for it that way.

Rhyss has learned that Dalen is now in room 503. She goes up to check, but there's an armed guard in front of the door, and he's not answering any questions ... and not letting her go in either. "If there was a woman in there, miss, she'd be unconscious."

Rhyss finds Maladin in the lobby, and tells him what is going on with Dalen. She hasn't been able to find out anything about Lentaro. Maladin takes a stab at it, and finds out that Len is registered as having been checked out -- 10 minutes ago.

Aaron, meanwhile, has had no luck in finding the Jewel. He locates the others and they let him know what is going on. Aaron tries to find more information regarding Len's "checking out", and uses the Florimel approach of bullying to get more information. There's no information to be had, though. The puzzled desk clerk goes back to the office, and comes out a few minutes later -- "He checked out 10 minutes ago." That's all he'll say.

Rhyss returns to the 5th floor to keep an eye on Dalen's room.

Maladin attempts to use his super-sense to sniff out Lentaro's scent, and is able to pick it up in ER (along with that of blood, vomit, ammonia, bleach, and other very bad smells). They took Len into a large elevator. Maladin stops the elevator at all the floors, trying to catch the scent again. The trail is finally picked up again on the roof. Maladin follows it over to a helipad -- Lentaro's been airlifted somewhere.

Aaron tries to contact Lentaro via Trump. No joy. Not even a flicker of response. He joins Maladin on the roof, and tries to pick up an EVAC or helicopter with his Pattern Lens. After a little while, he locates the correct vehicle. It's a military helicopter. The army has Len.

To be continued on Sunday, October 24th at 2:00 PM ...