Session 49

	(There was no log taken for session 49, so this is a summary of
what happened, based on the diaries of the three players who were there,
along with some stuff that took place over e-mail.  There are no quotes.)

	Several days pass after the Ty Dahl.  Kaedric leaves a message on
Melanie's Trump answering machine, asking her to contact him.  Caitlin
deals with Sandr's loss by working out and meditating.  Archi sleeps,
since he's still dead tired from redrawing the Pattern.  No pun intended.

	Caitlin returns to her quarters in the afternoon, and finds a
gift-wrapped box.  Graham's severed head is inside, along with a note. 
The note contains a Trump and the Fire Pattern poem.  Caitlin interprets
the poem to mean that Sandr never had a chance of surviving, and is quite
pissed.  She examines the Trump, which is of a young man with blond hair,
brown eyes, and a cruel smile.  She Trumps him, and he seems to recognize
her.  She asks him why.  He suggests they speak in private.  She agrees,
draws one of her swords as she comes through the contact, and tries to
grab him.  He ducks out of the way.  She levels her other sword at his
head, and gives him ten seconds to explain himself.  He introduces himself
as Orrin.  (Remember him, from way back when Caitlin first showed up?) He
claims that Graham died under his command, killed by a man with black hair
and blue eyes (that sure narrows it down).  Orrin adds that he is Osric's
son, he has her where he wants her, and vengeance will be his.  Caitlin
moves to attack, but Osric quickly throws some dust in her face, and she
falls unconscious.

	Caitlin wakes up to find herself wearing a rather skimpy outfit,
and bound to Orrin's throne by a chain around her neck.  Think Princess
Leia and Jabba the Hutt, and you'll have the appropriate image.  She is
unable to free herself, and eventually falls asleep.

	Archi finally wakes up, after sleeping for three days straight. 
Laughter's still mad at him when he finally wakes up, but he manages to
mollify her by pointing out that he is still alive, even if redrawing the
Pattern should have killed him.

	Caitlin wakes up to find herself facing the man who warned her to
flee Orrin the first time, and gave her the Trump of Fiona.  She manages
to learn that his name is Jubal, but nothing more.  He won't free her, or
even get her anything else to wear.  They are interrupted by the arrival
of Orrin and his armies.  Orrin addresses his troops, and asks if any of
them defy him.  None do, and they disperse.  Caitlin notices that they all
have the same hopeless look in their eyes as Jubal.  She tries to convince
Orrin that Benedict won't come for her, but Orrin figures that even if he
doesn't, someone else from Amber will.  Then he tells her that he wants
her to be his wife.  Uh, no.  He asks how she avoided him that time when
he hired her, and she admits that Jubal warned her off.  He runs Jubal
through, but Jubal does not react at all.  Orrin eats breakfast.

	Archi goes to his office and relieves Ulysses, who is more than
happy to turn things back over to Archi.  Archi chats briefly with Bill
Roth about what's been happening while he was out.  Nothing serious,
although Ulysses did try to declare Wednesdays "Ulysses cannot be
interrupted before breakfast" days.  Archi then Trumps Fiona, who brings
him through.  She, Kaedric and Sylvie are looking at an image of a set a
white robes hanging in a closet, trying to determine who the closet
belongs to.  Fiona fills Archi in on some new information they've learned
about the cultists.  Apparently Oberon had a wife before Cymnea, named
Ralissa, who he set aside when she proved to be barren.  He also had a
twin sister named Damaris, who decided that she was going to bear the next
king.  She accomplished this by plying Oberon with absinthe, then sleeping
with him when he was drunk.  She bore a son, but he died while attempting
to walk the Fire Pattern, so she decided to try again.  In an effort to
prevent this, Ralissa formed the Cult of the King and had them remove
Oberon's soul, and therefore his fertility.

	Archi leaves Fiona and the others to their investigation, and
reluctantly settles in to deal with the mountain of paperwork that
accumulated while he was recovering.  He is interrupted by Aelle, who
tells him that Caitlin is missing.  Archi Trumps Ulysses, who can't get
through to her via Trump.  Archi tells Aelle to round up a posse and go
find Benedict's wayward daughter.  Aelle selects Kaedric, Mok and Sylvie
to join her.

	Orrin shows Caitlin his army.  Once she is outside, Caitlin
realizes that she is back in Helene.  Orrin shows her three huge
cauldrons, into which dead bodies are being tossed.  After a few moments,
the bodies get up and crawl out.  Caitlin realizes that Orrin's army is
made up of undead soldiers, and likes this not at all.  Orrin leads her to
a room and chains her to the bed there.  She falls asleep once more.

	Kaedric is finally Trumped by Melanie, who has been hiding out in
Chantille Vale since Sandr's death.  He comes through, and they have
another one of their argument/discussions, in which he tries to convince
that she really isn't cursed, even if she has lost both of her brothers
within the space of a month.  He is not notably successful.  He does point
out that she has two nieces who will need her guidance, and she admits
that she's been thinking about that.  Apparently her Shadow is running
faster than Amber, as a week has passed for her.  He mentions that he
can't stay long, since he promised to help Aelle find Caitlin.  Melanie
asks what happened, and he tells her all about Caitlin's disappearance,
including the fact that a severed head was found in her quarters, and
she's currently in the Shadow where she was raised, which is barred to
Pattern and Trump.  He also passes along a note Eve asked him to give her. 
Melanie reads it, and learns that Eve intends to go looking for her body
today.  She seems a bit distracted, so Kaedric asks if she's been eating. 
Sort of.  He tells her that it's very important for her to do so,
especially as a living Trump, since they can become like the walking dead
otherwise, seeing as how nothing can kill them.  Unless their power goes
on a downward spike, of course.  Melanie asks what can cause such a spike. 
Being drained by someone, or using the power in a stressful environment,
like crossing the Abyss.  She asks if he knows how to prevent someone from
draining her energy.  Nope.  She asks if he knows what the person who
kidnapped Caitlin looked like, but he doesn't know that either.  They
return to Amber, tell each other to be careful, and go their separate
ways.

	Aelle's posse heads out looking for Caitlin.

	Melanie tells Eve that she's back, and she'll be ready to help her
look for her body soon.  Then she seeks out Archi and tells him about
Joseph, including the fact that the Shadow he's trapped in moves very
slowly, Osric is probably the one who trapped him there long ago, and if
someone enters the Shadow, they or Joseph can leave, but not both.  Archi
says he'll pass the info on, but he's not inclined to free Joseph until
they know more about him.  This was Melanie's thought as well.  Melanie
then hooks up with Eve, and they Trump out of Amber.

	Archi tells Laughter over lunch what he learned about the
cultists.  She already knew, of course.  She, in turn, tells him that
Claudio has been cleared as Delwin-free by Sand, that Eve has left, and
that a severed head was found in Caitlin's quarters.  Archi decides that
he needs a nap.

	Archi is woken up by a Trump call from Damion, who comes through
and tells him that Avalon has fallen.  He wants to get in touch with
Benedict, so Archi lends him his special Trump.  Damion tries it, and
nearly drops the card in shock.  He has Archi try it.  Archi does so, and
sees Benedict floating unmoving in the Abyss.  Archi Trumps Kaedric, and
tells him what he saw.  He'd like Kaedric to retrieve the body.  Kaedric
explains that he's with Aelle's posse, so Archi decides that it can wait
until they return, seeing as how the body isn't going anywhere.  He
updates Damion on the recent happenings in Amber.

	Caitlin is woken up by a hand on her shoulder, so she flips the
owner across the room.  Orrin decides to give her his present anyway, and
his guards lead Aelle and Kaedric into the room.  Kaedric has been badly
beaten, but Aelle seems to be fine.  Caitlin asks them if anyone else was
with them.  Kaedric tells her that Mok was.  Orrin cheerfully informs her
that Mok won't be dead for long.  Caitlin begs Orrin to give Mok a decent
burial, but he'll either take Mok or Aelle and Kaedric.  Caitlin chooses
for Aelle and Kaedric to live, and they are led away.  Orrin tries again
to convince Caitlin to marry him, but she's still unwilling.  Imagine
that!

	Eve brings Melanie to a Shadow that's a bizarre mix of high and
low tech, with wooden huts and computers.  The style of dress is late
1800's, and there aren't many people on the street.  Since Eve is a living
Trump, Melanie searches for a large source of Trump energy, but finds none
nearby.  She does notice that this Shadow runs slower than Amber.  Eve
heads for the cryogenic storage area where the people who were holding her
were located, but there's no one in the building.  The admin. office next
door tells them that the building was seized during the war, and the
various parts therein were sold on the black market.  They find a hotel
room, and Melanie begins searching the entire Shadow for Eve's body.

	Archi deals with his grief over Benedict by spending the rest of
the day drilling troops, pouring over maps, and planning various
strategies.  Laughter is able to distract him for a little while that
evening, but he returns to his work once she has fallen asleep.