Game Log 40

	Archi has a vision of Laughter stuck in a tree.  He goes up to
their room, and happily finds that she's there.  Phew.  Cameron stops by
to inform Archi that the Civil (sheya, RIGHT!) War in Chaos is over. 
House Wickling (Huh?) won, and set up Chaos as a group of independent
states, and their attitude towards Amber is yet unknown.  Archi does
Kingly paperwork, and Cameron goes away.

	Sandr does some shit in the Intellex.  He makes some Eddie
adjustments, in order for it to work with sorcery.  Someone enters
purgatory.  Sandr uses his MirrorVision (tm) to scry on the robo-rat.  The
rat sniffs around, then shifts out.  Sandr, curious, follows it with Lens. 
It goes back to Chaos.  Sandr gives up, and decides to talk with Melanie. 
He brings her to Intellex, and sets about preventing more rats from
entering, should they decide to want to in the future.

	Claudio gets a Trump call from Sand.  She offers to teach him
Shadow Shifting.  They also talk about Caitlin.  Claudio finds Sky fencing
in Amber, and he helps her out, since he's the man, and she's new to this
whole edged-weapons-that-don't-shoot-from- stringed-things thing.  Sky,
ever the proud, shows Claudio that while he may be the Edged Weapon Man,
she is indeed Queen of the Bows.

	Sandr harvests fungus.  Nothing more really needs to be said, does
it?  I thought not.

	Caitlin goes to pick a horse with Benedict.  She is moderately
befuddled by Sylvie's 'brood.' She chooses a normal equine.

	Ulysses plays Dad.  (A role-playing stretch, if ever there was
one.)

	Archi, wrist sore from paperwork (Yeah right, I'm SURE it's
paperwork, what with his wife gravid.  Switch hands, spanky.), goes to
visit Laughter, who is tired of being in bed.  She wants to go for a walk. 
They talk of treeing the Jewel again.  She tries to contact Fiona, but
fails.  They see Sky and Claudio having an "I'm better than you"  contest,
and then there is lunch.

	After lunch, Claudio goes to Sand for his training.  Caitlin gets
to Arden's edge, and Benedict begins the ever popular "Shadow Manipulation
101" class.  Archi does a 3- hour tour, and Ulysses has that "After Lunch
Sex Break" thing.

	Melanie feels a tingle.  It fluxes with changes in time flow, and
feels a lot like Pattern.  More specifically, someone attuning themselves
to the Eye.  Maron is the first contestant on "Leave a Message".  She
returns Maron's call, and they talk about the Eye.

	Sand suddenly passes out.  Claudio Trumps Archi, and Ulysses is
drained big time.  Laughter sees him in the hall, and is concerned. 
Ulysses lenses out for Sand, but is interrupted by Trump call form Archi. 
Laughter finds Archi via the ring.

	Maron is to come through to Intellex.  He's thrilled to have a
vacation in Sandrworld, let me tell you.  Sandr joins Melanie, and they
share info.  Brand stole the Eye, has attuned himself to it, has succumbed
to Delwin's "Free Me!" urgings, and Delwin has taken over Brand's body.

	The heroes, deciding that this is Bad, gather up.  It's a little
more exciting than that, listen: the Amber gang is in Laughter/Archi's
room, readying/discussing plans.  Then, Maron Trumps Melanie, and comes
through as Balin.  Archi, Ulysses, and Kaedric all are startled, since
they all knew Kaedric is Balin.  Archi whips it out (Song, gutter-minds),
and lunges at the impostor.  All hell breaks loose.  Melanie puts up a
force wall, Sandr casts power word "Sit", as well as "Stay" and "Roll
Over."  Archi angrily orders Melanie, Sandr, and "Balin" the hell out of
his room, which Sandr and Balin do.  Melanie, glutton for punishment,
decides to question a direct order of the King.  This makes Archi less
happy, and after repeated ordering, she finally leaves.  Maron and Melanie
go to Brand on their own, and not long after, so do the rest of the
important people.

	The group re-unites in a cave, where Brand-win is fighting Melanie
and Maron over the Eye, and doing pretty well.  When Archi and Jewel
arrive, that whole "Get Hot, cause pain" thing happens, and Brand-win is
distracted.  This allows Melanie and Maron to get a better grip on things,
and it also allows a gang Trump of Brand.  Not much later, Ulysses hurls
himself in front of a lightning bolt meant for Kaedric, and Claudio cuts
Brand-win's head off.  Delwin's spirit flees, Brand's is stuck in the
Taormin, as is Sand's, who was put there by Brand-win, which is why she
passed out.

	Brand's body is seen to, Melanie snags the Eye, and she and Maron
bolt.  The rest of the group collects itself, and returns to Amber.

	Laughter gives birth to a single child, who looks an awful lot
like Ulysses.  Sigh.  Everybody, knowing that this isn't the real deal,
watched Fiona dispel a glamour.  It's just a Shadow of Laughter, from a
place where Archi never came into the picture, and Ulysses was Laughter's
man.  She's real happy to see Ulysses, but he's not in the mood, and
knocks her out.  They return the faux-Laughter, and go to that tree
(Remember the first paragraph?  Good job.) that Laughter is in.  It seems
that a bunch of fags, err, Faeries (sorry) kidnapped the real Laughter,
and replaced her with the Shadow.  How funny.  Archi and Ulysses plot the
day when those Faeries will pay.

	I'm sure there's a bunch of other stuff that happened here, but I
was being Dad, and didn't catch it.  It was probably all personal
conversation, anyway.  Read it in the other log, or the diaries.  Or
better yet, wait for the movie.