Meanwhile, elsewhere. After her mother's death, Arwen used her amulet to Trump to a location in Arden. She was found there by her half-brother Zane, who loaded her up on his (very large, son of Morgenstern) horse and took her to their half-brother Valerian. Valerian took her to Julian. Julian revealed that he is her father, but wouldn't take her back to her home Shadow for her mother's funeral. Arwen ran off into Arden. She reached the place she orginally entered into Arden about dark, and discovered that she wasn't going to get back from there. So she started back towards where she'd left Julian. Unfortunately, a pair of large wolves had decided that she looked like a good appetizer. Staring them down didn't work, and she looked well on her way to gaining an intimate knowledge of the dietary habits of large wolves in Arden when Zane came and rescued her. Zane carted her back off to Julian, who told him to take Arwen to Amber. They headed in that direction.
Meanwhile, elsewhere. Arwen was riding behind Zane through Arden. Dorian appeared and tried to convince Arwen to come with him to somewhere. She agreed until Zane protested. At that point, Dorian revved up his spikard and took them with him. They made two brief stop-overs (either Dorian having problems with his spikard, or Dorian being weird), then appeared...
...Right in front of Chetwin and Dylana. After a few minutes of discussion, Dorian revealed that he was playing chess with Dworkin and disappeared, leaving Arwen and Zane with Chet and Dy. Chet convinced Zane to leave his newly-discovered sister behind and return to Amber, which he did. Chet and Dy proceeded to give Arwen a somewhat abbreviated explanation of the Amberite condition, then put her up behind Chet and continued on their way to Martin.
They eventually arrived at a Shadow full of black and shiny machinery, including a doorway that led to a black and shiny tunnel. And said tunnel led to a Shadow formed as a giant ring. The first thing they discovered was that the inhabitants thought horses were unclean. Chet stole the garb of one of the priests, and the second thing they learned was that there were gods from Chaos. The third thing they learned was that you could buy and sell stars, which of course piqued Chetwin's interest.
They entered into the gods' supposed house, and discovered Martin under a VR helmet, being somehow magically sustained. Not sure if it was safe, they then shoved a helmet on the priest whose garb Chetwin now wore. This did not help much. After much discussion over who was going to put on a helmet (and bringing the horses inside), Chet finally put one on.
Inside, he found a severely pissed-off Martin wandering around a landscape composed entirely of clouds in various pastel colors, and the priest, who was convinced he had entered Heaven. They killed the priest, after some discussion. Outside, Dylana and Arwen kept watch and tried to figure out what was going on. When the priest woke up, they briefly questioned him, then put the helmet back on him. Chet and Martin saw the priest come back, figured they were on the right track, killed the priest again, and then ran on each other's swords. They woke up.
After messing around with the Shadow of the place for a bit and being unable to escape, Loutra proceeded to show them a way out, much to Chet's annoyance. They returned to Chet's Shadow, and he called Random. After a discussion about the Chaosites, Martin Trumped through to his father.
Chetwin, somewhat reluctantly, went to speak with Julian, who had somewhat annoyed words to say about Chet running off with his newest daughter and putting her in danger. Following this, Chet managed to talk Julian into at least considering signs in Arden that said, "Amber Ends Here." He then runs out to get samples made.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Dylana spent some time talking to Flora, who shared her suspicions on certain subjects, prodded Dylana for her suspicions, and then "warned" Dy about Chetwin.
Meanwhile, further removed... Arwen and Alice began their shopping trip through Amber. Alice proceeded to charge everything to Julian, including the stop for a meal in a barbeque restaurant.
Finaly, the three meet up again and go to dinner. Once there, Chet proceeds to humiliate Remora and (possibly) Flora by exposing the fact that they slept with the same guard. He then manages to pluck a feather from Bastion's wings. They also received a note from Random during the meal, instructing them to meet with him later.
After dinner, Random thanked them for rescuing Martin, and then sent them off to find his other children. They made a stop to talk with Bastion, who was annoyed with Chetwin for stealing a feather, and then contacted Martin and talked him into making a translator for Arwen. Finally, they headed off to Chet's Shadow Averick to try and track Random's sons and daughter with Chetwin's computer.
To their relief, Kurt had not yet been kidnapped; instead, he was hiding in a fortified Shadow. He refused to leave unless Chet, Dy, and Arwen found his sister Kaylana first. They left the Shadow, then called Random and informed him of the whereabouts of that particular son.
On the way to Kaylana's computer-indicated location, they again ran into the same young woman, again beside a large hole in the ground. After a bit more belligerent discussion between Chetwin and the young lady, he realized that she was using Broken Pattern and used his Advanced Pattern to block her off from her power, much to her disgust. Somewhere along the way, it was revealed that her name was Niobe, that she was a daughter of Jurt, and, after Chet called Random and she called Merlin, that she had little to no idea who Random was, much less the party members. Eventually, Random and Niobe departed for Amber.
Once they reached the Shadow where Kaylana was supposed to be, they immediately discovered a camp that belonged to someone not present. While investigating the camp, a pack of wolves began to watch them. Eventually, Kaylana showed up, told them they were in the camp of one of two Chaosites following her, and led them off a distance to discuss a plan to get rid of the problem. They did so by killing the Chaosite (this was Nirvana; they never learned her name). Kaylana then returned to Kurt's Shadow with Chetwin, Arwen, and Dylana. Kurt had defied his father and stayed put; Kaylana was having none of that and drug him to Amber.
Meanwhile, Our Heroes ran off to Texorami to find the last of Random's sons, Mercury. After conversations with Herb and Bob (both casino operators), a drummer friend of Random (stoned at the time), and a protection agent named Jesus, they learned that Mercury had left the city earlier, with a pair of blonde women (previously identified as associated with the Chaosties) following him. The party followed and soon figured out that Mercury had been captured.
They followed (or rather, Chet followed and Dy and Arwen tagged along) the Lorgus trail left by the blondes towards Chaos. Somewhere along the way, they discovered they were being followed and doubled back. Their pursuit just happened to be Isbel and Conrad, who had turned renegade from the suspect House of Chaos. Chet kept going, towards Chaos, in the hopes that he could catch up with Mercury's captors.
Eventually, the group (now including Conrad and Isbel) reached the property of the suspect House. At the suggestion of Conrad, they prepared to enter the dungeons of the House to rescue Mercury.
Finally, they returned to Amber. Chet claimed the prisoners from Niallways (with the exception of Mercury, of course, and the clone of Fiona) and hauled them off to his Shadow. While there, he picked up Benny (from the first two sessions) and returned to Amber with him. Once there, the party regrouped (and added Alice) and hared off to the Primal Pattern to see if Dworkin could "fix" the now vegetative Benny. They spent quite a while trying to get responses out of both Dworkin and Dorian, who were extremely absorbed in their chess game.
Once they gave up, they returned to Amber again (losing Alice somewhere along the way) and met up with Aidan. He told them that his mother Sand (who they were trying to find for Ander, her other son) was visiting the Hellmares' Shadow. At this juncture, Arwen decided it was a good time to use one of the unidentified Trumps in her amulet, and Chetwin followed her. Dylana, meanwhile, mounted Loutra and told him to take her to Sand.
Dylana, riding Loutra, comes to the nearest Shadow to the Hellmare Shadow, at which point she runs into Sand. They talk, and Sand continues to refuse to speak to her son Ander.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Chetwin and Arwen arrive in Delwin's study off in Shadow. Chet tells Ar to stay in the study while he talks to Delwin. He then proceeds to chew Delwin out for not helping the other Amberites at all in times of crisis (among other things). Then he calls Random in to chew Delwin out. It comes out that Delwin somehow had gotten to Arwen's pendant and inserted some Trumps for his own purposes. They eventually all depart - Random and Arwen to the Palace, and Chet...
Elsewhere... ...To Dylana, who called in total exasperation because Sand wasn't cooperating. Chet takes his life into his hands (never tell Sand that she's acting like Fiona, unless you want to be missing things), Trumps Ander in, and basically bullies Sand into talking to her son.
Meanwhile, in Amber... Carnegie has staged a revolt of all the normal horses in the stables. The stablehands are not amused.
Meanwhile, also in Amber... Arwen attempted to take the same Trump to Delwin's study, but found it blocked. So she tried another Trump in the amulet, which led to another study, this one belonging to a Chaosite by the name of Meara. She finds some interesting papers, but, as she has not yet learned to read Thari, is forced to get a good look at them and then make the best copies she can.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Chet decided to get Bastion's feather paternity-tested in Martin's Shadow. He does so, and takes the resulting picture (did I mention that the Shadow is high-tech?) to Bastion. Then, at Bastion's facetious suggestion, Chet shows it to Flora. Then, he goes and searches out the winged gentleman in question. Let's make a long story short here - Bastion's father was called "The Sir" and had become a monk. Bastion was unamused with Chet.
Meanwhile, at the center of things... Dylana decided to visit the Primal Pattern (again). She was somewhat surprised to find a single pawn in the middle of Dworkin's table, but no Dworkin and no Dorian. She then spent a while trying to get Dworkin's attention - I didn't even remember what she did when I wrote the original summary. Finally, she gave up and returned to the Palace.
Back in Amber, briefly... Chet returned, and Ar showed him her (poor) copies of the papers. Chet used the amulet Trump to Meara's study and promptly stole the papers and took them to Random.
Finally...! The party all met up again in the Palace. Medea asked to speak to them, and informed them that she would really appreciate it if they would locate her mother Fiona. Chet (again using his rather remarkable "overwhelm them till they do what you want" tactic) got Medea to admit to Mandor being her father (which she had yet to do). And then they agreed to find Fiona.
*pant, pant*
After leaving Medea's room last session, the group was walking down a hallway when the Hall of Mirrors presented itself. Arwen went strolling into it, and the Hall promptly made it very, very clear (by putting candlesticks in the way) that Ar was the only one it wanted. Chet, out of pique, nailed candlesticks down in Arwen's room. He then walked the Pattern and told it to take him to where Ar was in the Hall. It deposited him outside the exit.
Meanwhile... Dylana quickly got bored of trying to enter the Hall of Mirrors, and wandered back off to the Primal Pattern to harrass Dworkin some more. This time, she found a pawn and two bishops sitting on the table in Dworkin's place, but still no Dworkin or Dorian. She began to try to get Dworkin's attention by:
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Ar found out some interesting things in the Hall of Mirrors. She saw Dworkin, Delwin, Meara, and another blonde woman, as well as Fiona in a cell somewhere. She also saw the outside of Mearaways (Meara's private abode). From one of the last mirrors, she got the now non-vegetative Benny, with whom she exited the Hall...
...Where Chetwin was waiting. They rounded up Dylana and went off to rescue Fiona. By using a painting of Mearaways made by Arwen, they located Fi's holding cell, dug into the dungeons, and left the Shadow of Fiona in place of the real article. They cleaned up the corpses and left.
With all three of them together, Dylana decided to take a side trip to Corwin's Pattern. They met up with Ellyn and her Hellmare, but never actually saw Corwin.
Dylana went back to Amber and took a nap. During this time, Dworking decided he was annoyed (or something) and started dropping pawns on Dylana. The pawns got larger... and heavier... and progressively more dangerous to have land on your body. She eventually apologized to Dworkin.
Chetwin got an English-to-Thari translator from Martin and gave it to Arwen, then continued trying valiantly to keep Dylana out of trouble.
Arwen decided to help Chet keep Dy out of trouble, then got bored and went through a Trump in her pendant, ending up in a swamp. She called Chet, who was displeased and refused to rescue her. So she called Dylana (who was much more obliging). Then she went down to the caverns under the Palace and got completely lost and had to call Chet to get her out again.
Finally, Chetwin got exasperated with Dylana and practically begged Random to give them another quest to keep her busy. So Random told them to find out who killed Bleys.
After a while, Dylana got up and went to Treva, the Shadow where Bleys was assassinated. There, she discovered the existance of another Amberite, a cousin.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Chet and Ar replayed the event with Chetwin's computer. They discovered where the assassin was hiding at the time of the murder, and Trumped...
...To Dy. There, they climbed up the tower where the sniper had hidden, to discover a bullet shell and a single grey feather. They immediately gave the items to Random.
Then, as they crossed the plaza, someone from one of the other towers sniped at Chetwin. The trio returned to Averick, only to discover that someone had tacked the dead body of one of Chetwin's lackeys to the front door of Chet's tower. At this point, Chetwin had had enough. He led the party back to Martin's Shadow, where they talked Martin into making sets of bulletproof armor for both them and their horses. They then proceeded to test the armor.
Eventually they made it to Arden and into Amber for dinner.
This led to an... interesting... interlude, during which Chet, Arwen, and Dylana revisited the Shadow where Martin had been trapped. Chetwin proved himself a saint to the locals (and called in Martin to see the evidence), who then gladly followed him to another Shadow, one that looked like their idea of Heaven (remember the fluffy VR world from session 2?). Chet, Ar, and Dy then spent some time scouring Shadow for famous philosophers to convince the Shadow people that members of House Niall were not their gods. This took up large portions of the session.
Finally, they visited Meara's study again and stole a large number of papers from the desk, including "innocent" letters from Bastion. Chet then talked to Bill Roth, telling him about Bastion's actions and naming Martin as the guy to go to for information if Chet should vanish.
Chet, desparate to search Bastion's rooms, staged an elaborate kidnapping of his brother's mutated Irish Wolfhound ("Wolfie", a.k.a. "Wing-Dog") to get him out of the room. He then carried out his search, finding more letters and changing out all the clothes in his closet (an idea gleaned from a letter).
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Dylana returned to the Shadow of Bleys' death and searched the room where he'd been staying. She discovered a Trump of an unknown Shadow and promptly went through it (GM's thought of the day: I really ought to break them of that habit...). She then called Chet, and there ensued strange Trump experiments on the cliff-edge terminus of the Trump. Let's just say they tried to invent a new extreme sport and leave it at that, shall we?
Finally, Dylana rescued Bastion's dog and returned it to him before leaving Arwen in Heaven and returning to the Trump Shadow. She and Chet then explored the Shadow, sneaking into (and eventually getting legitimate rooms in) the largest place around. They found a Hellmare there.
Meanwhile, in Heaven... Arwen spent some time watching a group of Niallites searching for something in a field and seeing Bastion's reaction to the change in his wardrobe.
