Session One Julian's son Frank is ballooning with his girlfriend, the Queen of Begma, and an army. They are in pursuit of the Black Fleet, which has been attacking shadow after shadow. Kara is contacted by a friend who says he has something important to show her, so she teleports to his house on the coast. Jaral asks her to look through his telescope. She does so and sees a black fleet, crewed by skeletons. He suggests that she could help by killing the leader of the fleet, but she is reluctant to do so without some sort of compensation. He points out that she is affected by this fleet as well. She concedes his point and teleports home to prepare. Peter is straggling back to Amber with the six surviving men of his army. As he marches along, the forest starts to look like his old home. Soon afterwards, he hears the sound of Julian's horn. His men draw their weapons and ready themselves for battle. Peter tells them there will be no need for weapons, just as the hounds burst into the clearing. They're much bigger than Peter remembered. Julian rides into the clearing on Morgenstern and asks why Peter comes armed into his forest. Peter claims that he's returning to Amber from the crusades. Julian tells him that Amber is closed. Peter insists that he be allowed to pass. Julian asks who he is. Peter says he is of Amber and that it is his birthright to be in Amber. Julian tells him again that the borders are closed. Peter asks if he can camp in Arden. He also asks Julian to send word to Amber asking permission for him to enter. Julian repeats that the borders are closed and says he will send no message. Peter asks who ordered the borders closed. Julian says it was King Random. Peter asks what happened to Oberon and learns that he is dead. Peter asks to send his own messenger to Amber. Julian repeats that the borders are closed, and no messenger will be able to get through. Peter says he will camp on the border tonight. Julian suggests that if Peter is truly of Amber, he will fight Amber's enemies if they attempt to pass through. He leaves with his hounds. Peter's men make camp. Peter tries Rodrigo's Trump, the only card he still has from his Trump deck. Rodrigo vanished before Peter left Amber and the card has never worked in all the time he has been gone. Much to his surprise, he actually gets through. Rodrigo appears to be on a sailing ship. The people in the background are wearing what looks like U.S. Navy uniforms. One of them has flame red hair and a wicked grin. Rodrigo asks what Peter's been up to. Peter says he's been fighting the good fight. Rodrigo asks if he wants to join a better one. Peter asks what Rodrigo is doing. Rodrigo replies that he's trying to kill Caine. Peter asks Rodrigo what's been happening in Amber. Rodrigo says that he doesn't know, since he's been out of circulation for a while. Peter makes a remark about birds of a feather having each other's Trump card. Rodrigo breaks the contact. Dice is surrounded by darkness. He is playing a psychic game of Go with another prisoner when he sees a red Go stone pass in front of him. He hears a giggle and sees a Go stone with feet run down his arm, yell and jump off the end. He asks his partner if he senses anything. His partner says that there is something there, but he doesn't know what it is. Another Go stone jumps off of Dice's head. Two more of them begin dancing on his arm. He recognizes them as 7-Up dots. He psychically assaults one of them and it falls over. Another one runs over and starts doing CPR. He asks one what its name is. It says "Dot". He quickly learns that all of them are called Dot. He asks if they've found the other person in the room. They haven't, so some of them go looking for him. He asks how they wound up with him. They tell him they attacked something in chain mail and lost. Several of them start playing football. A larger dot approaches and asks how to get out. Dice says he doesn't know. He asks the large dot what it's standing on. It says it doesn't know and sinks out of sight. Dice asks his fellow prisoner if he can see him as he flashes a light. The prisoner says no, but he thought he heard a giggle. Dice tells him to move towards it. The prisoner spots the dots shortly afterwards. The big dot returns, climbing up an invisible ladder through the floor. Dice tells the big dot that some of its fellows have found another prisoner and asks them to bring to the man to him. The big dot walks off. A little while later it comes back and says they can't bring the other prisoner to him but they can bring him to the other prisoner. Dice agrees and follows the dot. After a while, Dice bumps into something about 5' tall, 10' long and 5' wide. He punches it, but his blow glances off. He calls out and confirms that his Go partner is inside. He is unable to break through, so he asks the dots how they got in. To them, it's just another location, you're here and then you're there. He observes one as it goes through the barrier, noting that first it shrinks and then it disappears. He tells the guy inside to think that he's getting out and walk forward. The man tries, but doesn't get anywhere. He tries magic negation but that doesn't work either. Ryan passes the time while imprisoned in the tower by reading some books. Clarissa visits him every other day or so. On one of those visits, he asks if she's trying to build another Pattern. She says no, but "at least you're thinking". He asks her what she's going to do with that "thing" down there. She corrects him, saying he should be asking her what she is currently doing with it. She tells him that she didn't make it, she found it. She adds it wasn't hard to find, once upon a time. He asks if that's her doing or its. She smiles and says he's getting closer. He asks her what she's doing with it. She responds that since she gave him that question, he doesn't get an answer. She thinks he's making progress nicely, though. He doesn't agree. She says that's because he's just starting to think. Tybalt and Jaina go off into shadow to discuss whether they should get engaged. They spend some time getting to know each other. He finds that she is even more interested in warfare than he is. She enjoys it and finds it challenging. Tybalt tests to see if she's willing to examine her own beliefs and assumptions and finds that she blindly defends them. He also finds she is very honorable, and feels she must either marry him or fight him. He tries to talk her into letting him go and not fighting him unless she finds him. She doesn't see the point, since she will find him. After all, she has already issued challenge. She also says that any Hendrake, or Hendrake claimant, who runs from a fair fight will be pursued by the entire house. It's a matter of honor. He tries to persuade her to fight for something other than each other's death. She explains that she's already issued a challenge to the death, and she cannot change that without getting permission from the head of the household. Tybalt excuses himself and Trumps Bill Roth. He what progress Bill is making with the Chaos law texts he passed on. Bill says its complicated. Tybalt asks what marriage means to Chaos. Bill explains that it's similar to marriage in Amber, in that a husband is expected to father children, etc. Adultery is handled by duel. Tybalt also asks about the inheritance laws, to determine if Hendrake could claim Greyswandir upon his death. It seems they could, so Tybalt decides to use Greyswandir to find Corwin. He figures that if Corwin is found, Tybalt won't be the legal owner of Greyswandir anymore, so it can't be inherited by Hendrake. Frank's balloons catch up to the Black Fleet. Kara gets another call from Jaral, telling her that the enemy has aerial support. He says that he's notified the capital, so they shouldn't be there for long. Kara teleports there and takes another look through the telescope. The Queen of Begma notices someone watching and looks back through Pattern lens. Jaral comes under mental attack and asks for her help. She assists him, but they are still having difficulty, so she decides to take the fight to their attacker. Jaral teleports her to the balloon. Kara draws her sword, Lightbringer, and attacks the Queen. The Queen barely gets the Pattern up in time to defend herself. Lightbringer howls in frustration at being blocked. A storm begins brewing over Adrilankha and moving towards the balloons and the Black Fleet. Kara demands to know why they are attacking Jaral. Frank claims they are attacking the Black Fleet. Kara tries to teleport away, but there isn't enough power in the Orb, since most of its energy is going into maintaining the storm. The balloons are forced to shift shadow to escape the storm, but not all are able to get away. Kara loses contact with Jaral and notices that the coastline is not the one she's familiar with. She demands to know where they have taken her. Frank says something about shadows, which makes no sense at all to Kara. They encounter more of the Black Fleet, so Frank has his army bombard the ships with firepots. They manage to set 1/4 of it on fire before they run out of ammo. As they head for land to re-supply, another storm begins to blow up, forcing them to make an emergency landing. Dice talks with his fellow prisoner, who we learn is Corwin. He theories that they are trapped in some kind of Trump computer. Corwin suggests that even if they can't escape, they may be able to influence the prison enough to communicate with the outside world. Dice asks the dots to explore every square inch of the place and tell him what they find. He gets them to do this by calling it a game and saying they will get points for whatever they find. Clarissa visits again and asks Ryan what he thinks. He feels as though he's running in circles. Clarissa asks if he knows why he's there. He says that's one of the things she won't tell him. She promises that if he answers correctly, she'll confirm it. He thinks he's there to work on something with her. He says the Pattern she has is incomplete. She replies that it's complete but not fulfilled. He asks if it needs to be awakened. She answers that it is wakefulness. She says Ryan called her. He replies that she kept him. She says "As a guest, grandson.", pats him on the shoulder, and leaves. Clarissa returns later that day for dinner. She remarks that he's starting to think for the first time in his life. He says "Well maybe the second time, but I don't remember the first time offhand." She asks what he'd do if she cut out the portions of his brain that controlled wakefulness. She wants to know if he thinks it would be a good thing or a bad thing. He thinks that depends on the individual. He asks if this Pattern is a part of something else. She says it's not at present. He asks if the Pattern in Amber is wakeful. She asks if it seemed that way to him. Since he hadn't noticed anything unusual, she says it's probably not, since wakeful entities usually make some attempt to communicate. He argues that her Pattern hasn't made any attempt either. She says that maybe it has nothing to communicate with. She wants to know if he's becoming annoyed at her for keeping him here. He was at first, but now he's more intrigued. She says he can leave or remain, as he chooses. He asks if he can leave later, since he'd like to stay. She says that if he stays, it may put him in opposition to others in his family, and he may not be able to leave later on. She suggests that he leave now and see how things stand with the family. She bids him good-bye and he disappears. Ryan appears in Amanda's kitchen as she's cutting up food for her three cats. The cats all look at him and ask her if they can "down him." She tells them not to bother. He asks her what the date is in Amber. She's not sure, but it's been about a week for her since she last saw him. She asks how he got to her home. He claims he was sent there by the inhabitants of the shadow. She brings him up to date on what's been happening to everyone. Peter and his six survivors make camp. His men ask what he plans to do next. Odo, the stupidest man in his army, says that Julian's an asshole. Peter points out that Julian's men, who are no doubt listening, will be happy to relay that information to Julian. But Julian probably won't come during the night and slit his throat. Odo volunteers to take the first watch. Peter takes it with him. Odo asks if Peter wants to play a game of cards. Peter asks how much money Odo owes him now. Odo isn't sure, but says he's found his lucky deck. Peter looks at it and realizes it's his long lost Trump deck. He asks Odo where he got it from. Odo says he found it buried in his pack. Peter tries Trumping Random, but gets no answer. Same with Benedict. He does get through to Caine and explains that Rodrigo is gunning for him. Caine asks if he knows where Rodrigo is. Peter doesn't know, but tells Caine that Rodrigo was on a ship full on USN sailors with Barrettas. He asks Caine for passage to Amber. Caine says he can't do that because Amber is locked down. Peter asks why, but Caine will only say that it's for security reasons. Peter asks if Caine will provide him with safe haven and volunteers to bring him Rodrigo. Caine offers to bring him through. Peter brings his men as well. Caine reminds Peter that he promised to bring him Rodrigo. Peter tries to Trump him, but can't get through. Caine tells him that he just wanted to see if Peter really had a Trump of Rodrigo. Odo loosens a rope and brings the boom down on his head. Caine wants to have Odo weighted and pitched overboard. Peter says no, so Caine says they'd better leave his ship. They appear on a beach and notice a balloon landing nearby. Peter checks his map and sees they are a long way from Amber. He sends a few of his men out to investigate. One of Frank's men tells him that they've encountered some armored men. Frank takes some of his troops to investigate. Kara follows on her own. Frank asks Peter if this is his island, so Peter lies and says it is. Frank asks if they can stay there for a while. Peter says that's OK, as long as they don't bother him. He shows Frank his map, and asks if Frank can take him to a point on it. Frank volunteers to take him as far as the fleet that they have been attacking. Ryan Trumps Frank and asks how long he's been gone. Frank says he hasn't seen him for three weeks or so. Peter starts pestering Frank about who he's talking to. Frank just says it's Ryan. When Ryan breaks the contact, Peter introduces himself as being from Amber. Frank says he is as well. Peter explains that he's trying to reach Amber. Frank says that Amber is closed right now, but invites Peter join him in having fun with their balloons. He asks Peter why he's never heard of him before. Peter says he's been gone for a while, fighting in the crusades. He says that he started off with a large army, which has finally been whittled down to six. Frank invites Peter and his men to join them in their dinner celebration. Peter introduces his men to Frank. Frank says that Amber is probably closed because of the Black Fleet attacks. Tybalt gets a Trump call from Ryan, who congratulates him on his engagement. Tybalt says he isn't engaged yet. Amanda tells Ryan that Tybalt introduced Jaina as his fiancee. Tybalt claims that was just for political reasons. Ryan asks to come through. Tybalt agrees and introduces him to Jaina. Tybalt then explains the situation to Ryan. Dice asks a dot to take him to something it's found. It takes him to an arch. When he goes through it, it feels like he's being compressed and winds up in a smaller area. Another arch takes him out. He explores and finds that the other areas are smaller than the original one. He finds boxes in each of them also. He psychically probes them but finds no one inside. He eventually finds a place that has a large number or archways. He tells the dots to search them and say if one finds a way to the outside. Peter and Odo set out to find a party store. Kara secretly follows them. Peter feels like he's being followed. He tells Odo that he's dropped one of his cards back at the camp and sends him back to get it, hoping Odo will flush out the watcher. After Odo disappears around the bend, Peter tries to call him back, but Odo is already out of earshot. Peter yells "My companion is behind you, you may as well give up!", but Kara doesn't fall for it. Peter heads back towards the camp. He encounters the returning Odo, who claims he found Peter's lost card. Peter takes it and sees it is a Trump of a temple. He puts it away and begins shadow shifting. Kara falls back a bit and lets her hawk, Ariel, assist her in following them. Eventually, they wind up in Hawaii. Peter draws quite a bit of attention with his crusaders armor, complete with a red cross and a shield with a rampant Unicorn on it. He tells the party store attendants that he was at a costume party. Amanda tries to Trump Mead, but can't get through. She transports herself to the computer room in Mead's shadow, brings up the Pattern and contacts the computer. She gets a link, but it doesn't seem like the link she had before. She asks who she's talking to. It replies that it's Dice and asks who she is. She says it doesn't sound like Dice. He asks who she is. She says her name is Amanda, causing him to reply that she doesn't sound like Amanda. She asks him to tell her something that only they would know. He tells her of a few things. He asks her to reciprocate and tell him something that only they would know. Two guards in power armor walk in at that moment, and one of them seems to be looking right at Amanda, even though she's invisible. One of them raises a gloved hand, which glows, and seems to be tracking her, even when she moves. She teleports behind them, but one of them swivels and both of his hands begin to glow. She casts her Jonah spell. A portal opens and water begins to gush through it. A whale emerges from the portal, swallows the guards, and disappears through another portal. The lights in the room become purple. Amanda tries to figure out how to rescue Dice. When she accesses one of the directories, Dice sees a brief light. She tries to print the most recent file but can't, because the file is not compatible. She sets up a loop that repeatedly accesses the file and feeds Dice Pattern energy. Dice tries to use it to shift shadow. He pictures an arch leading to a green field, and an arch appears. He walks through and finds a green field. He tries his Trumps but they still don't work. He sees a dragon coming towards him so he heads back. Amanda notices that the techs are wearing visor devices of some kind. She finds a spare one and plugs it in to the computer. She sees Dice and a bunch of red dots. She pulls Dice towards her and a white cube is ejected from the computer. Six more guards show up at this point, so she opts to teleport out with the cube. Ryan examines Greyswandir and says that the sword is linked to several things. He says he can try and bring them to the strongest link. He and Tybalt get on a bus and get off at the second stop. As they enter a dusty market, Tybalt is dismayed to come across the teddy bears again. He tries to shift shadow away from them, but doesn't succeed. Amanda Trumps Tybalt but he refuses the contact. She pushes, so he draws his sword and keeps resisting. She persists for a while, but he continues to ignore her. Eventually she gives up and Trumps Ryan, who pulls her through. She asks for Tybalt's help. He tells her he's looking for Corwin. She says she may have a shortcut and offers to bargain. Tybalt refuses to bargain over something so important. One of the bears remarks that Tybalt is always serious, so Tybalt kills it. The other bears all start crying and asking why he did that. Ryan doesn't understand either and tells Tybalt that he's changed. Ryan buries the bear. More bears start to show up for the funeral. Ryan, Amanda and Tybalt go to Amanda's house on shadow Earth in an attempt to leave the bears behind. Two of the bears are waiting when they arrive. Amanda hustles them into a TV room and orders them to stay there if they don't want Tybalt to kill them. She finds a tape of Barney which they (now five in number) watch with rapt attention. Amanda, Tybalt and Ryan discuss methods of rescuing Dice. At one point the conversation digresses into the morality of killing the bears. Tybalt claims they're only summonings, but Amanda insists that doesn't matter. Peter and Odo attempt to leave the party store without paying. When the attendants raise a fuss, Odo gives them a gold coin. After determining that it's real, the attendants offer them more beer and a frozen pig. As they walk out of the store, Peter and Odo get into an argument about the back pay Odo claims Peter owes him. Odo puts down the beer and says he won't carry it any more. Two surfer dudes interrupt and ask if they want the beer. Peter asks them if they want their teeth. He and Odo punch out the surfer dudes and head back. Peter thinks he's being followed again, so he leaves a beer can on the path. Kara ignores it. When she comes into the camp later on, Peter notices her and asks Frank who she is. While the others feast on pig and beer, Kara finds a secluded spot and checks for the Orb. Still unable to find it, she tries using witchcraft. That works, but is she is unable to locate Adrilankha, the Orb, or anything else she is familiar with. Kara finds this very worrisome. She also examines Lightbringer and finds that it is diminished in power, if not personality. She decides to start racking some spells. Frank notices that Kara is missing and sends one of his men looking for her. Peter goes off into the woods with his map and the strange Trump that Odo found. Amanda uses a Pattern lens to talk with Dice. He's very cramped in the cube, without room to even lie down. Ryan and Tybalt join in the conversation as well. They ask Dice to give them images of how he wound up in the computer, but he doesn't know how he got there. Tybalt logs into Ghostwheel. He uses Corwin's password, which doesn't work the first time, but does the second. He checks to see if anyone else is logged on, but no one seems to be. They store an image of the computer room, as well as images from Dice of one of the arches and the inside of the computer when it was lit up. Ghostwheel stores them as Trump images. Ryan Trumps Frank and asks him to help rescue Dice. Franks says he can't leave, but offers to help pull them through if they need a quick escape. Ryan remarks that something smells delicious, so Frank gives him a piece of roast pork. Amanda, Tybalt and Ryan formulate their plan, which is to teleport in, seize control of the computer and block the guards from getting in. Then they hope to find a way to free Dice and Corwin. Amanda looks through a Pattern Lens at the room to figure out the positions of the two guards that are stationed there. After relaying this information to the others, they go through. Tybalt takes out the two guards, killing one with Greyswandir, knocking the other out with the armor breaker. Amanda uses a spell to block the door. They take the headsets from the techs. Amanda puts on a headset and slams the cube in. Dice is shot out of the cube and falls what feels like four stories. Amanda talks to Dice and finds that he doesn't remember anything past the point where she grabbed him to put him into the cube. They start interrogating the techs, who cooperate freely. The techs keep insisting that there's no way to escape and they'll all be killed. One gets into the system with Amanda while the other is put to work looking for a place to output Dice's file. None of the techs have seen files like the ones for Dice and the 7-Up dots. Eventually they find an experimental output device in another solar system that's designed to create devices from design specs. Amanda has them download Dice to it and then tries to Trump him. Dice says he's whole again so she pulls him through. They have the techs start working on finding Corwin. Just as the power is cut to the room, they find Corwin and output him to a cube. They grab the cube and Trump through to Frank with the techs. Peter uses his temple Trump. Upon arrival, he is dismayed to realize that it doesn't show up anywhere on his map. He also realizes that he forgot to bring a Trump of Frank with him. He walks into the temple and looks around, but finds nothing of interest. He tries Trumping Caine, Random and Benedict, but they don't answer. He does get through to Julian. Julian thanks him for the horses that Peter's army left behind. Peter demands to be pulled through. Julian says he is being rude, suggests that he learn some manners and breaks the contact. Peter Trumps Julian again and phrases the request more politely. Julian pulls him through. Peter asks to borrow a Trump of Frank. Julian asks why Peter is bothering his son. Peter claims he's assisting him. Julian Trumps Frank and asks if what Peter told him is true. Frank says that Peter isn't exactly assisting him, so Julian breaks the contact. He tells Peter that Frank doesn't back up Peter's story. Peter challenges Julian for calling him a liar. Julian kicks Peter's butt handily. Peter wakes up in a field hospital. Unfortunately, he's still in Arden. He'd been hoping that Julian would have to bring him to Amber for medical care. Frank Trumps Julian in the morning and asks about Peter. Julian says he's recovering in the hospital due to poor judgment. He offers to send Peter back. Peter takes him up on the offer, so Julian goes to Peter's tent and passes him through. Kara rejoins the encampment. Tybalt introduces himself. Kara asks when she will be brought home. Amanda looks at Kara at tells Frank that she has the blood of Amber. Kara overhears this and asks what that means. They proceed to thoroughly confuse her with their explanation. After Amanda shows her some Trumps, it occurs to Kara that she may be able to use them in a spell to determine her heritage, but she will need some things from her shadow to do so. She tells this to Amanda, who agrees to take her to Dragaera. Peter is upset to learn that there is no record in Amber of his existence. Tybalt doubts Peter's story, claiming that he would know of any troop deployment as large as Peter's. Kara gathers her supplies, using the Orb to teleport from place to place. Amanda notices that teleporting with the Orb is more uncomfortable than teleporting with her Pattern-powered magic. Specifically an Orb teleport leaves her feeling nauseous. It doesn't seem to affect Kara. When she has found what she needs, Kara teleports home to pack some belongings. While she is there, she checks with one of her contacts for news about the Black Fleet attack. She learns that some of the balloon soldiers were downed and captured, and the Black Fleet was driven away. When Amanda hears about the prisoners, she asks to be taken to someone who has the power to release them. Kara explains that she can't set something like that up herself, but she will take Amanda to someone who can. She contacts Morrolan psionically and tells him that she and a guest will be visiting Castle Black with some very interesting information. Before they go, Kara insists that Amanda dye her hair, since Easterners with red hair are non-existent in Dragaera. Amanda reluctantly agrees to do so. Kara teleports them to Castle Black. They make their way into the dining hall, where Morrolan approaches them. He tells them to meet him in the library in 20 minutes, and warns them to avoid a certain Dzur lord who is in a bad mood and hates Easterners. Kara and Amanda decide to wait in the library. Morrolan arrives 20 minutes later. Amanda asks to have the balloonists released, since they have already been questioned. Morrolan says he requires an explanation before he will interfere. Apparently the balloonists are claiming that they come from a non-existent city. Amanda reveals the existence of multiple shadows, which Kara calls planes. Morrolan does not look very surprised to hear this information. Amanda tells him about the Pattern, which she says only family members can use. Kara feels it is a power source similar to the Orb. Amanda also mentions that there is another major source of power, besides the Pattern, that works across shadows. Morrolan asks to be shown one of these "shadows", so Amanda teleports them to a high-tech, fast-time shadow that she knows of. Morrolan grabs a passerby to see if he is real. The man goes for a gun, so Morrolan cuts him in half with Blackwand. Both Morrolan and Kara note that Blackwand does not destroy the man's soul. Morrolan also notices that he cannot reach the Orb. Kara tells him that witchcraft appears to work in shadow, even if sorcery doesn't. They both think it seems likely that they could devise a spell to teleport between shadows. Morrolan starts to ask if the other power Amanda mentioned could be related to the Sea of Chaos, but Kara indicates that he should stop. Kara tells him about the Trump cards that Amanda showed her. Morrolan is fascinated to learn that they not only link you psionically, but physically, and that they can be used as transportation. He asks Amanda for some, in exchange for getting the balloonists released. Amanda doesn't have any spares with her, but says she might be able to get some. Morrolan suggests meeting again in a tenday. Amanda pauses a moment to calculate the time differential. Kara asks her what's wrong, so she explains how time flows differently between shadows. Amanda agrees to the meeting and takes them back to Castle Black. Morrolan warns Kara that someone is looking for her. This individual thinks she might have been Mario's contact for a job he did around the Interregnum. He suggests that exploring these shadows might be a good way for her to disappear for a while. Kara teleports Amanda and herself back to her home. She goes into a room to "finish packing" and contacts Morrolan psionically. She tells him that the place the other power resides in is called the Courts of Chaos. They both agree that this connection should be investigated. They also confirm that Morganti swords appear to work differently in other shadows. Kara says she knows of a spell that might allow her to keep in touch with Morrolan. Morrolan tells her that he thinks it may be possible to devise a spell to access the Orb from shadow. He says it would be similar to a spell to teleport between shadows, but would stop with the opening of a portal back to Dragaera, allowing the Orb to be used. Kara says she will do some research on the subject herself, and asks to be kept informed of Morrolan's progress. She and Amanda return to Frank's camp.