Session Ten "It's not that they keep snatching me away, they keep taking my shit." Helena puts together a picnic lunch. The head of her security guard inquires as to where she's going, and is informed that she's planning on visiting a glade in Arden. He tries to get her to go to the gardens, or Begma, or anywhere but Arden. Helena deliberately misses the point. He points out that Julian rules Arden and he might regard her presence as trespassing. Helena remains unconvinced, but agrees to discuss the matter with Peter. Amanda asks Clarissa why she's doing "this." She claims it's for Amanda. For their branch of the family, specifically. And the final result? Amber will be theirs. Yes, it won't be in very good condition, but they can bring it back. They discuss who's involved in this little plot. Tybalt questions Corwin about how he escaped from the computer. Apparently he found his way into an entertainment area and realized he could affect things there. He asks if Tybalt plans to marry Jaina. Tybalt figures the alliance might be useful, and political marriages aren't that uncommon. Corwin is appalled to learn that Tybalt hasn't slept with Jaina yet. He also mentions that he hasn't been able to retrieve Greyswandir. He tried last night, which is usually the best time. Nothing's ever been able to stop him from finding it before. Plus, there's the matter of the bears. One turned up last night. It's tough for them to get into Corwin's universe but this one managed. Overall, Corwin's disappointed in Tybalt. He feels Tybalt's been getting careless, plus Tybalt lost Greyswandir in Chaos, where he shouldn't have brought it in the first place. Corwin also says he's been getting lots of Trump calls from family members complaining about Tybalt's behavior. He's pissing too many people off. Benedict has removed him from his all of his duties, due to poor judgment and incompetence. And most of his cousins are gunning for him. The only one who's more hated is Gwydion. He suggests Tybalt reform his ways. Tybalt Trumps back to the main hall in Amber. Kara wakes up and works out in the garden. Peter brings Odo out there and apologizes to him for the way he treated him earlier. Lightbringer and Kara see them and have their usual argument about eating souls. Odo updates Peter on the search for Marcuse, which so far has involved throwing furniture off balconies. This hasn't turned up any sign of Marcuse. Kara decides to practice with some shorter blades, primarily because Lightbringer is becoming too distracting. She spots Peter watching her and invites him to join her. Helena arrives at the castle and asks for the Lord Warder. Odo leaves the table he was carrying in the hallway, right in front of Random's door, while he leads her to Peter. Bleys runs into the table and swears. Helena and Odo watch Kara and Peter fight. Peter fails to maneuver Kara so her back is to the new arrivals. Odo tells Peter that Helena wants to speak to him and runs to move the table. Too late. Bleys complains to Peter about the whole thing. Kara sizes up Helena's guards. Their symbol is unfamiliar, but they are wearing castle colors. Helena wants Peter's Trump for a security matter. Peter informs her that he only covers problems with the castle. He also has a private matter to discuss with her, so they go inside. Peter asks what houses Helena and Gwydion belong to, and what relations are like between them. Helena mentions the trouble between Chanicut and Helgram. He tells her there is a vendetta between him and Gwydion. She asks if he's filed this with Gwydion's house. Peter wasn't aware that was necessary and asks what would happen. She says there will be a conclusion, and she'd rather Peter won. Gwydion, while a valuable scientist, is a loose cannon. She won't help him lure Gwydion to Julian though. He's an ambassador, after all, and it would be awkward for her position. She could suggest some people who could help him look for loopholes in Gwydion's position, and gives him Loren's card. When she leaves, Peter signals William to follow her at a discreet distance. Amanda screws around in Shadow Earth for a while. Tybalt Trumps Mendelbrot but gets no answer. He Trumps Jaina and asks how long he's been gone. It's been a few days. He comes through and tells her he's figured out who's sending the bears after him, but he can't contact him. He also says he's been talking to his father. She sits on the bed. He asks what this would mean to her. She says she hasn't had a man since Borel. Tybalt takes this as an invitation. When he pulls out a condom, Jaina makes a remark about body armor being common in Hendrake. He realizes later that she was making a joke, which is a first. She's much more relaxed afterwards. Kara does research on the insignia the guards were wearing, but it's not in the general table of organization. The pages don't know either. She begins to methodically explore the castle. Random asks Peter why his people are hauling furniture around. Peter says they're looking for Marcuse. He asks about Gwydion's status. Specifically, he wants to know whether Gwydion still requires an escort. If so, he wants a written notice to that affect, so he can discredit Gwydion in his own land. Random writes this out, saying it's due to Gwydion being a security risk. He warns Peter to keep count of the Gwydions he kills, so as not to exterminate all of them. Mead broods over recent events. Peter comes down the stairs and offers to get a drink with him. He suggests Mead might not want to wear his armor in town, since some might feel threatened. Mead makes the armor look more normal. They stop by Helena's trade mission on the way into town. Peter drops off Random's letter and asks that it be delivered to Loren, along with a note telling Loren to make what he will of it. Then they continue into town. Helena and her retinue follow the path down Kolvir and into Arden. At first all that's visible are some hawks. Helena spots a pretty glen that looks beautiful and decides it's a good spot for her picnic. Boss runs around barking at butterflies. The guards look nervous and tell her the place is not defensible. She offers them wine. The lieutenant of the guards, Frances, asks if it's her aim to ruin his career and looks hostile. Helena backs off a bit and says that if he has another suggestion, she'll move. One of the other guards asks if he's thinking what Frances is. Frances tells Helena that if she wishes to set up an incident, she doesn't have to destroy them to do it. She asks if they want to be dismissed. He says she can't do that. Just as she decides to pack up, they hear a horn. The guards look nervous. She says they could have mentioned this earlier. Frances replies that he didn't think she'd pick the least defensible spot in the forest to have her picnic. The horn grows louder. The guard figures it's too late now and take up defensive positions around her. Helena tells them to leave, since she's certain there will be no incident. But she'd like them to remain in the area, to pick up the pieces afterwards. They warn her that Julian will stalk her for a while. She figures she may as well eat, then. Frances signals his guards off of alert and tells her they'll be waiting under one of the trees. Which Benedict will hang them from if this goes wrong. Two of them start doing pushups in full armor. Helena spreads out her blanket and eats her meal. Half an hour later she hears the pounding of hooves. The guards start to stand up, but Frances motions them down. They look disgusted. Julian gallops straight at Helena's side on Morgenstern. She doesn't move. At the last moment Julian pulls the horse into a jump and clears her by only a foot. One of the guards starts to get up, but is motioned down again. Julian returns at a more reasonable pace and tells Helena that he didn't believe he invited her into Arden. She responds that it was a beautiful day, and she didn't think she needed his permission. He says Chaos creatures don't belong in Arden. Her Amber heritage doesn't matter, unless she's disclaiming her Chaos heritage. She offers him wine. He asks why she's there. She says she hoped to meet him. He interests her. No one can be so black, through and through. He calls her devil-spawn and tells her she should know. She closes the children's book she was reading, which has a man in white armor and red eyes on the cover. Julian asks if they're stories for demon children and tells her to leave. She begins to pack, but very slowly. She makes eye contact with Morgenstern, who tries to bite her but is stopped by Julian. It's obvious that Morgenstern is intelligent, but malign. She brings Boss to heel. Morgenstern tries to stomp on Boss, but Julian stops him again. She tells him it's a shame he didn't come by earlier. Julian wheels and leaves at full speed. The guards are very tense and escort her quickly back to the trade mission. Right before she enters, she tells them that she was scared to death. They turn pale. She is informed that Peter left a note for Loren, who has since called and picked it up. Loren also left some things for Helena. Jaina spends the post-coital time talking about how she first met Borel. All he would talk about was sword-fighting at first, but this was a bit of a front and it eventually faded. She also found Tybalt a bit like that at first. Then the topic shifts to Corwin, and she asks if Tybalt knew his father. She never knew hers, he died when she was very young, although she can still talk to him in the Hall of Heroes. She asks about his mother, but he admits he never knew her. Jaina says she'd heard a rumor that it was Deirdre. Tybalt says he's heard that also but it doesn't matter to him. Jaina says she never really had parents at all, she was basically raised by the House, by trainers to be precise. She was raised to be a soldier. It gives her life meaning, and she believes it's important. Tybalt notices a rippling behind Jaina and cries out. She rolls towards him as a demon appears. It holds its hands out and yellow energy begins to form. Jaina throws a knife at it, which bounces off and takes a chunk out of the wall. As Tybalt closes with it, it launches the ball of fire at him. He mostly avoids it, although it singes him a bit. He closes again. It sticks out a foot, which starts to glow with yellow energy. He slashes it in the crotch area, but not much happens. Another demon appears. Tybalt opts to take care of the first one by sticking his dagger between a couple of the plates in its armor. This doesn't do much, so he goes for a joint. Then the diamond-shaped plate in the demon's chest opens up, and another set of arms reaches for Tybalt. He manages to avoid them and slashes for a tendon. He succeeds in disabling the inner arms, but gets a light scratch in the process. The second guy's head explodes. Tybalt starts to disengage from the one he's fighting, until Jaina tells him that she only had one shot. He finally takes out the remaining one. A cold feeling begins to spread across Tybalt's chest. He looks down and sees that the wound is turning black. He asks Jaina to cut it out and cauterize the wound. She tells him this will hurt a lot and asks if he wants something for the pain. He does, so she gives him some brown liquid to swallow. He takes one gulp, and life is wonderful. He vaguely hears Jaina say that the black stuff goes all the way down, and then he goes to sleep. When he wakes up, she gives him the bad news: it stinks of the Abyss. Security is looking into the matter and she thinks she was the target. He considers walking the Pattern, but if the wound starts bleeding again, it would be bad. He checks out the wound and notices that it feels like Graadle. He says they need to look into Graadle. She suggests he walk his Pattern first. He explains why he doesn't like this idea. Tybalt gets a Trump call. He gets dressed and sits up. It's Benedict. He tells Tybalt that he could use him, as there's a problem, although it won't involve fighting immediately. Tybalt says he'll call him back when he's ready. He does a few moves and is satisfied that the wound is static. Benedict doesn't answer, so he Trumps to the main hall and Trumps Benedict again. Benedict asks if he's well. Tybalt says he's not, but he can probably handle any fighting. Benedict asks to come through and says there's something wrong with him. Tybalt agrees and asks to show him privately. Benedict takes him to his office and Tybalt explains what happened. Then everything goes dark. He finds himself lying naked and unarmed on a cold floor. There are people shouting in the Chaos dialect of Thari and he hears running feet coming towards him. He stands up and moves out of the way. The feet stop and a voice asks who he is. He IDs himself. They ask where he thinks he is. He thinks he's in Graadle. They tell him to follow them and haul ass. Eventually they reach a lit area. A red light is flashing in the wall, and there is a weird screaming noise. Gwydion is aware that something bad is happening in his lab in Graadle. Right after he hears the alarms, Jaquenin Trumps him and tells him their main systems are down and they've had secondary failures in the Pantha shields. Gwydion comes through. Jaquenin tells him that Graadle is going nuts. Some of Chanicut's elite troops come in. They tell him that three of him are dead outside and they want to know if he can get Graadle under control. He's not sure. They tell him they've lost 50 men. One of his patients is in flames. Another one, who was in for a minor disorder, emerges looking like the Michelin man on a bad day. A member of Gwydion's staff is merging with the floor. Gwydion is contacted by himself in warfare form, who tells him that he's in Graadle, and it's being attacked. By who? "You know", he says, and breaks the contact. The Gwydion in the lab is concerned about Helena's mother and tries to determine her status. He also continues to be pressured to deal with Graadle, so he opts to do both at once. After jogging for two miles, Tybalt is brought into a lit room where Gwydion is leaning over a woman in a tank, while a black film extends off of his back towards Graadle. Tybalt addresses him. A leg comes flying by with a boot in the colors of Chanicut's elite. Gwydion webs Helena's mother in stasis and then absorbs her body mostly inside of his own. He asks Tybalt for options. Tybalt asks what the situation is. Gwydion makes contact with Graadle and realizes that something has made it active, and it's spreading. He tries Trumping Azelle, but gets no answer. The guards ask to be taken out of there. Gwydion asks Tybalt for permission to take them to Amber. Tybalt isn't sure he should leave, since he thinks Graadle brought him there. Loren Trumps Helena and asks if she wanted sword practice. He adds that she had dealings with Gwydion, and who is currently having problems with his medical facilities. Chanicut is asking for help from Jesby, and he's wondering if she'd like him to send her, since she is a disaster recovery expert. She Trumps Gwydion, and explains that she's trying to reach the one in Chaos, to offer her help. He has confidence that he will handle it, but agrees to pass her concern along. He sends the message along their internal system to the lab Gwydion. The ceiling of the lab vanishes and a roiling sky appears. A man falls in and lands on a computer. Gwydion creates a map on his hand showing the exits, sheds the skin, and gives it to Tybalt. The Chanicut guards ask Tybalt to lead them out. He asks for Gwydion's Trump of the Great Hall, which Gwydion reluctantly gives him. He leads the guards to safety, and then Trumps back to the Great Hall. Amanda travels from Amber to Shadow Earth, but Luke's left a message canceling their date. An emergency has come up. She Trumps back to Amber and encounters Tybalt as he arrives, buck naked. Kara sees Amanda and asks for her assistance with her genealogy spell. They decide to work on it after dinner. William Trumps Peter and tells him of Helena's encounter with Julian. He and Ryan return to the Great Hall and see Tybalt, who still hasn't gotten any clothes. Gwydion Trumps Helena and comes through with her mother. They lay her out on the sofa. Tybalt gets dressed and knocks on Benedict's door. He asks when Benedict last saw him and is told it was when he left to deal with the bear problem. This is not the answer he wanted to hear. He is even more upset when he realizes that his Trump deck is gone again. He Trumps Amanda and catches her getting ready for dinner. He asks to borrow her Trump of Gwydion. She invites him to come through and use it. He does so. He asks Gwydion if people have ever found anything lost in Graadle. Nope. He asks Gwydion to let him know if he comes across his Trumps, and that he'd like to go with him, perhaps. Gwydion mentions that he's the successor, since Dworkin killed his predecessor. Tybalt also returns Gwydion's Trump of the Great Hall and gets one of Gwydion. Helena degoops her mother and tenses when she hears Gwydion's comment about Dworkin killing him. After she is under control, she asks about the status of things in Chanicut. She also asks about the death, but he's not clear on the details. Her mother was ready to be taken off of the machines anyway, so he thinks she'll recover. Gwydion gets a Trump call and shifts to his warfare form. It's Jaquenin, whose skin is bubbling down one side of his face. He says they have Graadle under control now. It doubled in size but stopped, apparently of its own volition, and they only lost a few patients. Unfortunately, the computer failure lost all of their records. The stuff for the book is safe, but all the active patient records are gone. Plus, part of the attack included a virus of some sort which infected every computer they have. Gwydion speculates as to whether Tybalt carried the virus, but they had many visitors, so it could have been anyone. House security is investigating it as an attack by Helgram. Gwydion shifts back once the contact ends. Helena notices that her guards are a little more friendly towards her. As they head for the castle, Gwydion Trumps Random. Random addresses him as Dr. Gwydion. Gwydion addresses him as father. Random informs him that he's given orders that Gwydion be escorted while in the castle. He also tells Gwydion to avoid annoying Peter. Better yet, don't talk to him. Random breaks the contact. Peter is informed by William that Helena is heading for the castle with Gwydion. He rides down to intercept them. One of Helena's guards tell her that one of Peter's people is behind them. Peter slows when he reaches them. He nods to the guards, two of whom have moved forward. They tell Peter they are escorting Lady Helena and her guest. Peter says that if they reach the castle his hands will be more tied, so he'd prefer to talk here. Frances tells Peter that an altercation in Helena's presence would be very bad. Helena takes Peter's arm and they walk ahead to talk. When they are done, Peter recalls William, mounts his horse, and rides back to the castle. At dinner are Random, Vialle, Benedict, Bleys and Gerard. Amanda is one of the first of the younger generation to arrive. Kara and Peter arrive at the same time and walk in shooting sideways glances at each other. Mead walks in and his ring goes off. The one that tells him when he's in the same room as his mystery parent. Helena sends a page to request an escort for Gwydion. Gwydion sends another page with a note for Random, saying that now would be a good time to announce his standing. Both pages enter and pass on their notes. Random does not react to either. Gwydion is standing outside the door to the dining room with two of Helena's guards. Peter approaches him and tells him that he has to leave the castle until he has an escort, and tells the two guards to remove Gwydion until an escort is found. They point out that this will make them Gwydion's escort. Peter is not putting up with any of this. Gwydion tries to put a hand on Peter's shoulder, but Peter moves away and puts a hand on his sword The guards decide it would be best if Gwydion decided to leave. They go outside. Helena arrives with her four guards. Frances sends one of the others looking for Gwydion and the other two. There is an empty chair once Helena is seated. Gerard remarks that he thought Julian would be there. Peter asks if the furniture problem has been taken care of to Random's satisfaction. It has, although the question draws several curious looks. Just as they are reaching the main course, Julian walks in, looks around, and leaves. Gerard remarks that he thought Julian wasn't showing up. Some looks are exchanged. Kara suggests it might be Gwydion. Peter thinks it's Marcuse. Benedict, Bleys, Peter, Kara and Mead all pursue. Amanda checks things out with a Pattern lens and finds another Julian in Arden. She Trumps Bleys and tells him of this. "Julian" steals Walther's horse and rides towards Arden. Benedict figures it's not their problem, since Julian will take care of it. He, Peter and Kara ride after him anyway. Peter Trumps Julian and warns him that a Chaosite is in Arden. Then he notices that the horse Julian is riding is Walther's. Oops. Bleys Trumps "Julian" and psychically forces him back to his real form. It's Gwydion. Peter notifies the real Julian that a Chaosite is in Arden. A horn blows. Gwydion imitates it. He tries to shapeshift the horse to be Julian, but six Hellhounds break into the clearing before he can finish. He leaps for a tree, but two of the hounds start chewing on his legs and drag him down. Julian rides into sight on Morgenstern and says he's disappointed he found Gwydion so quickly. Gwydion says he heard Julian wanted to talk to him. Julian says no. The last thing Gwydion sees before the lance kills him is Julian smiling. Jaquenin manages to get a memory imprint just before Gwydion dies, and transplants it to another one. The missing group returns and sits down. Bleys comments that Julian hunts tonight. The elders, except for Gerard, clear out. Mead asks Helena what happens to Chaosite bodies. She says it depends on how they die. Quotables: "Peter, you're dead. What do you do?" -- GM "Um, sleep it off." -- Peter "Afraid (Jaina's) going to kill you in your sleep?" -- Corwin "Well, that's a good reason." -- Tybalt "That's a stupid reason, it never stopped me." -- Corwin "Well, you found me. Go forth and fuck." -- Corwin to Tybalt "Yes lord. I'm to ask Lady Flora how to test furniture besides throwing it off the balcony." -- Odo to Peter "Is (Jaina) in any way more interesting after having had sex with her?" -- Tybalt to GM "I hate it. It's not that they keep snatching me away, they keep taking my shit." -- Tybalt "I have reason to believe that you are my son. That I am your son." -- Gwydion to Peter "Marcuse is under your protection but you're trying to kill Gwydion?" -- Bleys to Peter