Meanwhile... Dylana ate dinner with the Family, then went to bed. In the morning, Dylana, Digit, and Tabby headed off to Kashfa without Caitlin (who left a note).
Still in prison... Arwen sparred with Mordred and tried to make escape plans; about the time they had a workable idea, the Niallites brought in another prisoner, Marissa. Mordred and Marissa apparently knew each other. After a while of trying to use Trumps, they tried an escape plan. It failed, so they discussed another one. After that, Arwen played with her psyche on Mordred - er, rather, she tested her limits using Mordred as her test subject. Marissa declined to play.
Chetwin finished up his chat with Sand and she left; the "new and improved" Bastion/Falstaff got stored in post-op. Then Chet and Carnie noticed that the blue goo was pulsing again. And then it started expanding.
And expanding.
Meanwhile... Dylana showed up in Kashfa; she called Caitlin for further advice, but she was busy. So Dy called Chetwin - just in time to rescue him from the blue goo.
The somewhat upset Chetwin and the much less upset Dylana called Random at this point to inform him that they'd lost track of Arwen. Random, not unexpectedly, informed them that they were going to have to locate her when they finished whatever project they were in the middle of.
Chet headed back to his tower after that, to do damage assessment. Dylana took a nap, meanwhile, and ended up dreaming about the Hall of Mirrors. In the dream, she oversaw a conversation between Kaylana and Kurt; Kurt was attempting to convince Kaylana that she wanted to help him overthrow Random, and Kay was having none of it. Dylana then got to see the conversation that followed that one - Random and Kaylana discussing Kurt's stupidity and the consequences. Then she woke up - and promptly called Chetwin for a sharing session; she told Chet about the dream, and Chet told her about the conversation between Dorian and Dworkin that he saw in the Hall of Mirrors.
Chet went back to damage assessment; he recruited Martin to help with later repairs. He then called Dylana.
Meanwhile... Dylana had dinner with Rinaldo, made a Trump of her room in the Kashfan palace, and headed off for Eregnor. Then Chetwin called; they discussed Arwen's absence again.
Chet then got the brilliant idea to use his computer to talk to the Pattern. Yes, the Pattern; the symbol of Order that Chetwin constantly insults, degrades, and doubts the sentience of. Unsurprisingly, the Pattern was less than cooperative with Chet's attempts to interrogate it. Then he called Dy to discuss the converstaion.
Elsewhere... Dylana talked to Chet when he called, then continued on to (and eventually entered) Eregnor. She wasn't seeing anyone, so she convinced Chet (in another call) to use his computer to locate Dalt for her. But Dalt's daughters, Alexandra and Audrey, intercepted her before she could reach him, and they had a nice, unpleasant chat with her about her presence in their father's area.
Meanwhile... Chetwin was examining House Niall, looking for areas he couldn't see into (on the theory that people might be stored in these). However, after talking to Dy earlier, he checked back up on her and discovered he couldn't see her. He determined the barrier was made by a spikard, and, as Dorian was still unavailable, he called Sand for information. Sand identified the spikard wielder as Alexandra and helpfully convinced Dalt to tell his daughters to leave Dylana alone.
As soon as the message reached the girls and they left, Dylana took off running; she put a good distance before Trumping her little entourage right back to Kashfa. From there, she called a very testy Random and reported in.
Meanwhile... Chetwin had called Random first and advocated the total and immediate destruction of Dalt; hence Random's testiness.
Far, far away... Arwen and her new companions, Marissa and Mordred, continued to sit in their cell. They convinced Mordred's bird Morgana to peck into a stalactite; this revealed a gelatinous mass about the same size as a small throw pillow, self-contained like a silicon implant, and bright orange. With the assistance, once again, of the raven, the three managed to break open and squeeze out the contents of the goo; once all the goo had left the shell that held it, the illusion of the cave broke, revealing a mundane cell.
That part solved, the three turned to figuring out how to actually leave the cell. On cue, a pair of Chaosite minions arrived with trays of food. The lackeys promptly get their asses handed to them by three pissed-off Amberites and one testy raven.
On the way out, Mordred, Marissa, and Arwen managed to find and reclaim their assorted weaponry. Their exit from House Niall's power happened to be right near the Abyss, so Marissa informed her son and Arwen that they would accompany her to the place she'd been staying in the Abyss. A wolf-like creature conveyed them into the Abyss, as Arwen started to contemplate who Marissa could be related to.
Elswhere, a little earlier... Dylana had breakfast in Kashfa with Alice, Caitlin, Niobe, and Digit. After the other three left, Dylana settled down to draw some Trumps while Digit explored the Kashfan palace. Once Dy finished her Trumps, she and Digit went to visit the Keep of the Four Worlds - for a change, it was Digit who was curious and not Dylana. Chetwin Trumped in for a short time, but disappeared again to look for the still-missing Arwen.
At the Keep, the two received a rather cool reception from Iliana, the lady who apparently took over after Jasra died in an unfortunate explosion. Eventually, they convinced Iliana to speak with them, and she commented that she and her brother (who she did not name) had been battling over the Keep for some time. The three had a nice chat.
Also elsewhere, also earlier... Chetwin, with the generous assistance of Martin, proceeded to repair the tower in Averick. Martin left after that, and Chet went to Amber before joining Dylana near the Keep of the Four Worlds. However, duty apparently called, because he then returned to Averick to use his computer to search for Arwen. After several unsuccessful attempts to contact her, he transported himself and Carnegie to the place he'd tracked her down to.
Chetwin arrived to discover Alice, Caitlin, and Niobe standing in one place, and Arwen, a black-haired man (Mordred), and a black-haired woman who looked a lot like Alice (Marissa) on the other. Chet, being better acquainted with family lore than Arwen and aware that Alice sometimes complains about the elders saying she looks like Deirdre, put together the same pieces Alice had - no matter what name the lady put to herself, this was Deirdre.
Discussion ensued, primarly between Alice, Chetwin, and Deirdre. Deirdre insisted on taking Arwen back to Amber herself, but Chet convinced her to let Ar ride Carnegie. About that time, Arwen finally figured out who she'd found and was suitably impressed.
Finally, Chetwin, Alice, Niobe, and Caitlin returned to Amber quickly, in order to warn certain relatives. While Alice headed off to find Corwin and Ellyn, Chet and the other two ladies located Random and told him the "good" news. (This whole little situation is posted here.)
Arwen, meanwhile, continued to ride back to Amber with Deirdre and Mordred.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Dylana and Digit were still visiting at the Keep of the Four Worlds. Iliana, their host, revealed during the conversation that her mother was Jasra - making her Rinaldo's sister. Digit asked to see the Font, and Iliana agreed to allow it, so Dy and Digit saw the Font. Random called unexpectedly, asking if Dylana was responsible for the key in the lock of Brand's door. Apparently, the key was spinning at high velocity. Both Dylana and Digit had no knowledge of this (it's Arwen's fault; this is from her attempts to break into the room in session 19), so Random mentioned that dinner would be interesting and hung up. Dylana, curious, tried to call him back, but go no response. So she called Chetwin...
...Who had spent his time telling Flora about Deirdre's return and checking to see if Alice was doing anything interesting, before returning to his tower in Averick. He told Dylana (when she called) about Deirdre's return. The conversation was short; afterwards, he searched out a Shadow composed of blue goo and another Shadow composed of high explosives. Then Dylana called back...
Dy had collected the two Hellmares and her panther, then called Chet back to get Trumped back to somewhere closer to the center of the universe. However, she changed her mind and Trumped to Amber instead. Once there, she discovered that most of the family had turned out to greet Deirdre. Dylana mingled.
Elsewhere... Chet mixed the contents of the two Shadows he'd found, then Trumped to Amber himself. As he mingled, Sand intercepted him and invited him to join her the next morning on a hunt for Delwin (Random's orders).
And they all came together... as Deirdre and her entourage of son, niece, nephews, and brother rode up to the waiting group of relatives at the Palace.
At this point the session deteriorated somewhat, as the GM was veryveryvery tired. Everything from Deirdre's arrival at the Palace is repeated in the next session, when the GM was more awake.
Arwen and Dylana were both quiet at dinner. Chet, on the other hand, had a discussion with Random's children on the absence of Kurt - specifically that Kurt had met an unfortunate demise at the hands of his siblings for presuming to suggest they help him gain the throne immediately. After dinner, the elders and a few selected children headed to the library; the others were excluded.
At this point, Chetwin headed off to check on his mad science experiment - a.k.a. Bastion/Falstaff. The two talked (Bastion being somewhat confused), then Chet left to check on his bioengines. One was completed; he took it to Kessalia, who proceeded to start installing it in her motorcycle. Then Chet finished up his preparations for bombing House Niall. He went to bed then; in the morning, he and Martin headed towards Mearaways to deliver the explosive.
Meanwhile... Dylana ran off to find a telescope and make a Trump of the moon. She then Trumped to the moon; she intended to plant a flag on the surface, but had to wander far looking for an appropriate place. As she did so, she was knocked unconscious. When she awoke, nothing had changed - except that her Trump of Arwen was sitting on her chest. So she called Ar.
Meanwhile, elsewhere... Arwen tried a few Trump scries before heading off into Shadow. She ended up in a Viking Shadow to practice her fighting skills. When Dylana called, Ar agreed to join her on the moon shortly.
