Session Thirteen
	    "Regrettably, our family is not a military unit."

	Sebastian queries Armand, his faithful lackey, about the progress
of Chez Sebastian.  They've got the building, the staff, and the food, but
Sebastian wants to make a big splash.  Maybe steal a chef away.  Armand
mentions this rough place...  It's beneath Sebastian, and he might not
even make it back, so of course Sebastian decides to go there.  He opts to
go in disguise, which for Sebastian consists of dressing more like the
other Amberites, and wearing a hat.

	Tybalt Trumps Corwin and gets no response.  He watches the Pattern
for a while, then goes to his room, gets out a bowl of water, and flicks
the surface.  Nothing happens.  He goes to sleep.  The next morning
(actually, it's mid-afternoon when he wakes up), he goes to the forge
where Wayland is working and offers his help.  Wayland says it's not
necessary.  Tybalt tracks down Benedict and asks what he can do, now that
the bears are gone.  Benedict asks where he got his blade.  Tybalt
explains.  Benedict tells him that the blade is believed to be cursed to
bring about bad changes.  Finndo would know more, maybe Wayland or Bleys. 
Benedict's not too concerned about Fiona and company's continued absence,
since they've only been missing for three weeks.  He's been busying
himself with the Reavers.  Tybalt suggests they do another one of those
training things.  Benedict thinks that's a good idea, and tells him to
notify the others to meet at dawn by Faiella-bionin.  Tybalt sends
messengers to the others, notifying them of the training session.

	Tybalt gets a Trump call from Jaina.  She asks about his new
sword.  He says she doesn't want to know.  She asks where he's been.  He
explains that he lost his deck in Graadle.  She tells him that Marcuse is
Head of Chanicut now.  Apparently he took over when Helgram attacked
Chanicut during the Graadle problem.  There have been some other
assassinations, including Lawrence, the Marshall of Hendrake's army. 
Tybalt tells her that the bears are gone, and asks for myths about
Wayland.  She says he was the person who forged the Pattern blades to
massacre Chaosites, by causing them to flame at a touch, something she
finds it dishonorable.  Tybalt disagrees.  She points out that Hendrake
could tailor a virus specifically targeted at Amberites, but they have
not.  However, Wayland was a long time ago, and many of her kin have sworn
blood oaths against him.  He's considered a war criminal, almost, but not
quite, as bad as Dworkin, formerly of Barimen.  There is no cult for
Wayland or Dworkin.  Five Houses of Chaos ceased to exist when Dworkin
created the Pattern.  Tybalt doesn't think that makes him a war criminal. 
Apparently Dworkin was unable to be Head of his House, being a younger
sibling, so he drew the Pattern.  Since House Barimen is outlawed, any
descendants are no doubt in other houses, and their background is not
known.  Tybalt is interested in finding them, but Jaina doesn't know of
any.  They eventually decide that they have different definitions of
honor.  Hendrake's definition of war crime means any dishonorable actions
committed during a war.  Tybalt is fascinated by House Hendrake's
preoccupation with honor.  They discuss what else he's been doing, which
has mainly been smithing and painting.  She is confused as to why he
paints when he's bad at it.  She leaves to go train the youth of her house
in infiltration techniques.

	Kara and Ryan drink and watch Peter's men tear apart Bloody
Andrew's.  Kara puts the bartender, who was mortally wounded in the fight,
out of his misery.  Ryan is not happy about this.  Lightbringer gets a
psychic impression, but no soul, so it's not happy, either.  It does know
where the deed to the place is, so Kara digs that up.  It's about dawn
when the fighting ends.

	Sebastian steps over drunks that turn out to be dead bodies. 
There's no one alive on the street.  He knocks on the door of a chandlery,
and gets no answer, other than a nasty dog barking.  Someone from behind
him tells him to shut up.  He turns and finds a big, hairy dude, leaning
out of a window with a massive crossbow.  Sebastian insults him, so he
fires the crossbow, but misses and hits the chandlery door.  Sebastian
throws a dagger at the man, which also misses.  The guy decides that the
dagger is a fair exchange for being woken up and keeps it.  The dog
continues barking furiously, and the chandlery door opens.  A 4'6" tall
guy asks for recompense for the damage the crossbow bolt did to his door. 
Sebastian pulls out his large purse and asks if the guy's got change.  He
also asks for directions to Bloody Something's.  The guy invites him in
and bolts the door.  Can't be too careful, after all.  His son Billy is
called down to relieve Sebastian of his money, since he doesn't know how
to take care of it.  Billy is as big as his father, without the height
problem.  Sebastian draws, so Billy grabs a club and says he's doing him a
favor.  The money will just get taken anyway, and they'll take him where
he wants to go after they've relieved him of it.  Sebastian puts his blade
to the father's throat, at which point the man offers to take him where he
wants for five gold.  They eventually settle on four gold, half now, half
later.  Billy is instructed to take Sebastian to Bloody Andrew's, which
turns out to be only a couple of blocks away.  Sebastian watches as
Peter's men carry some bodies out and chats with Kara and Ryan.  He's
interested in the seafood chef and invites them to Chez Sebastian.  Kara
offers to let him know when things are up and running at the newly renamed
Bloody Fred's.  He gives her and Ryan his Trump to facilitate this.

	Peter Trumps Benedict and goes through to the castle.  They talk
about the Reavers.  Peter asks about destroying the fire Pattern, at which
point they leave the courtyard and go to a private room.  Benedict says
there are ways to destroy it, but the fire Pattern may be tied into
theirs, so destroying it would be bad.  He suggests speaking with Amanda
about it.  Peter bitches that Amanda hasn't gotten back to him in a timely
fashion, and asks what he can do to help.  Benedict suggests he remain the
Lord Warder.  Peter tells Benedict about his talks with Zantium.  Benedict
tells him that his father's sword has returned, and is not unhappy that it
seems to have rejected Peter.

	Peter leaves Benedict and checks his office for messages.  Odo has
discovered where he thinks Marcuse was.  There's a large couch missing
near the visiting dignitaries' quarters.  Apparently Odo's been
confiscating furniture that's not on the inventory list and testing it. 
How?  The guy on duty doesn't know, but Odo conveniently arrives at this
point.  Apparently, he went with the group to Bloody Andrew's, but got
lost on the way.  The others aren't back yet, so Peter sends Odo looking
for them.  Then he goes to his room to relax.

	Mead talks to General Rostenkowski.  He's concerned about the men
throwing their lives away on a meaningless cause.  Rostenkowski says
they're all volunteers, and it's not meaningless to do it for the honor of
Zantium.  He is amazed that the "primitives"  have one of Zantium's
defense secrets in their basement, especially since it took Mead's people
billions of dollars to come up with it.  Mead doesn't think they're
primitives, even though they use swords.  He explains that physics
functions differently in different Shadows.  Rostenkowski figures this job
is more of a weapons test than anything else.  He asks what doesn't work
in Amber.  Gunpowder, for one.  Mead doesn't know if plasma will laze or
concussion chambers will work.  Rostenkowski asks Mead to take him to
Amber.

	Ryan Trumps Peter, who notices that Ryan smells of alcohol.  Ryan
offers to come through with Peter's men, as soon as Walther is done
painting the new sign.  Peter instructs Ryan to tell his men to be ready
for early morning maneuvers tomorrow.

	Wayland spends the day working on his well cap.

	Kara asks Bill Roth to explain the deed to Bloody Fred's.  Bill
checks it out and explains that the owner must live and work on the
premises.  It's a really old document, and he thinks it was a reward from
Oberon to one of his men.  Given the history of the place, he suggests
Kara give the deed away, preferably to someone she dislikes.  She has a
messenger deliver it to Odo, then goes to the library to see what there is
on Wayland.  Not much, other than the fact that he was the smith who made
the Pattern blades.  She determines that it'll be about 2 a.m. when her
meeting with Morrolan occurs, so she decides to get some sleep before
Wayland's dinner. 

	Amanda meets with Random and tells him of the happenings at the
Rebman funeral.  Random tells her not to get involved in it, since he
doesn't want Amber involved.  Or, if she does get involved, don't get
caught.  She's still reverse engineering the Reaver ritual.  She mentions
that there are still those in Rebma that believe their Pattern is on a
level with Amber's.  After all, there is a water, air, earth and fire
Pattern, so why shouldn't they be equal?  If this is true, they could get
a bit uppity.  Amanda heard that Oberon fought a war with them the last
time they got that idea.  Random mentions that his first experience with
Rebma was disastrous, and has few kind words for Morganthe.  He'd rather
Rebma didn't know about the fire Pattern for now, and suggests Amanda bug
Wayland about it.

	Peter looks in the library for information on how people have
dealt with mystical armies in the past.  Basically, they held them off
while someone took out the source, but details are scant.  Kara is still
there, and notices that Peter doesn't look up to snuff.  Peter does some
reading on conjuration, but it's all greek to him.  He Trumps Amanda and
wants to talk to her about conjuration.  Maybe at the party.  He'd rather
not, so she agrees to meet with him beforehand.

	Amanda runs into Wayland as she leaves Random's office.  He's on
his way to his quarters to wash up.  She accompanies him and asks him
about the fire Pattern.  He summons a page and asks him to fetch a tankard
of beer while they talk.  Amanda asks how he puts Pattern in things.  He
puts down his beer and tells her to bring Pattern up in the beer.  She
tries, but not very successfully.  He concentrates, and the bubbles begin
popping in Pattern images.  They offer to trade his knowledge of Pattern
empowerment for hers of Pattern gates.

	Kara Trumps Rik, but he doesn't answer.

	Peter takes a book to his quarters.  Odo knocks, and asks if he
has a rich relative or something.  He shows the deed he found to Peter,
who figures they should speak to legal counsel about it.  Odo is kind of
excited about owning something.  They find a woman on Bill Roth's staff,
who says the deed is a freehold, dating back from Oberon's time, about 700
years ago.  It's somewhere in the city, and it's a bearer deed, so whoever
owns the deed, and performs the feudal incidences laid out therein, has
claim to the land.  It originally belonged to Ulrich of Mount Verde.  Odo
doesn't want to run a restaurant, so Peter offers to buy it, in exchange
for the cancellation of Odo's debt, and free drinks once he owns the
place.  The lawyer suggests that Odo get that in writing.  Peter drags Odo
out of there.  Odo wants cash.  Peter suggests he find someone else, then. 
Odo agrees to sell it for his back pay and a voucher for a week's worth of
drinks.

	Tybalt rides quickly through Arden, but is stopped by Julian on
Morgenstern.  Julian wants to know if he's riding to see his Chaos bride. 
Nah, he's just running some errands before Wayland's party.  Julian asks
about Tybalt's blade, so Tybalt IDs it and shows it to him.  Julian is
suspicious of Wayland's story, finding it hard to believe that he escaped
from Chaos after 900 years and just walked into the Pattern room.  Tybalt
agrees it is rather odd.  Julian warns him to be careful with the sword,
and says "Allow me to speed you on your way, Tybalt, son of Corwin." 
Julian chases him for a while, then smacks his horse and leaves.

	Tybalt finds a stream and does the water flicking thing, focusing
on his psychic impression of Tir-na Nog'th.  He goes through and finds
himself outside of the Pattern room.  There is a guard by the door, who
asks for his authorization.  Tybalt claims he's under the authorization of
the king, and shows Tintingel.  The guard says that's not sufficient. 
It's his life, if he allows a traitor to walk the Pattern.  Tybalt asks
who's his liege.  Brand, of course.  Tybalt knocks the guy out and checks
out the Pattern.  It looks ghostly, like it should, but there are a couple
of breaks in it.  Tybalt figures he's close to the real thing, but not
quite there.  Bleys enters the room, with a longer beard than usual.  He
asks for Tybalt's pass, then says he'll take the sword instead of Tybalt's
life.  No can do.  Tybalt attacks before Bleys can draw.  Bleys pops a
dagger and fends off the Tintingel while he draws his own blade.  They
spar a bit, and Bleys cuts Tybalt's arm.  Tybalt realizes that Bleys'
sword isn't as solid as his, so he shatters it with the flat of his own,
then gashes Bleys deeply in the side.  Bleys says Tybalt will pay, and
vanishes.  Tybalt tries to find a glass of water, but fails.  A red dot
suggests he try the guard's booze.  He uses that to shift himself out of
there, and notices that he still has a cut on his arm.  He Trumps Amanda
again.

	Amanda Trumps Peter and talks to him.  Then she takes Tybalt's
call, and they chat about stuff the game log couldn't hear.

	Wayland dresses for the party.  He needs a blade for the party, so
he Trumps Amanda to ask her to get the one he left back at his forge.  She
Pattern transports him there.  He finds the two big guys lying wounded by
the forge.  One is missing his arm.  They say they were attacked by a
female demon, who came out of the Abyss.  They tried to put her back in,
then they sold her the sword, in exchange for a gold chain.  He yells at
them and throws the chain at the well.  Then he sets to making another
sword.  When he's done, he Trumps Amanda, and goes through to her and
Tybalt.  He mentions the loss of his sword.  Amanda explains that Faye may
have it.  Wayland figures he'll have to hunt her down and have the sword
kill her.  She's a traitor, after all.  Her Amber blood doesn't matter. 
Peter offers to be his champion.

	Tybalt informs Random of Wayland's plans.  Random doesn't think
it's that big a deal.  Tybalt feels that Peter and Wayland want to get
Amber into a war.  He repeats a few quotes he heard.  Random offers to
talk to them.  Tybalt doesn't like this idea, since they'll know he was
the one who ratted them out.  Maybe Benedict could talk to them, and not
mention Tybalt.  Problem is, he's a rotten liar, and controlling the
information he gets isn't a good idea, given that he's got the worst
temper of the family.  Random wants to act immediately.  Tybalt wants to
wait.  Random points out that there will be Chaos representatives at the
party who can receive Wayland's challenges, so he wants to settle this
now.  Random wins, because he is King.

	Mead brings Rostenkowski to Amber.  He wants to see the Pattern. 
Tybalt sees them arrive.  He finds Peter and Wayland, and asks to speak to
them privately.  They leave, and he tells them that he talked to Random. 
They don't seem too concerned.

	Kara passes through the Great Hall and stops to check out the new
arrival.  Rostenkowski wants to test his gun.  Peter says he'll confiscate
it if it works.  They decide to test it first.  Peter is not pleased that
Kara is following them, and attempts to have his men stop her.  She points
out that Peter has no legal reason to prevent her from leaving the castle,
and she'll go through his men, if she has to.  Peter decides not to stop
her.  Sebastian joins the crowd as they leave the castle.  Peter finds a
likely looking bush, but before they can begin, Julian rides up.  He
interrogates Sebastian and Rostenkowski, then leaves.  Rostenkowski fires
his gun, which works.  Peter wants it confiscated, or his men supplied
with it.  Rostenkowski can't do the latter, but will do it if he can see
the Pattern.  No.  Rostenkowski points out that it's only one gun, and if
Amber is strong, it won't matter.  It's also keyed to him, so no one else
can steal it and use it.  Peter tests this and is satisfied.  Rostenkowski
requests again to see the Pattern room.  Peter restates his request for
guns for his men.  Kara points out that Rostenkowski could probably find
someone else to show him the Pattern.  They walk back to the castle.

	Wayland talks to Random, and admits that he believes that Random
was meant to be King, since the Unicorn gave him the Jewel.  So he'll
swear fealty to Random, unless Oberon comes back.  Random asks him to
leave Chaos alone.  Wayland says he isn't planning to do anything, at
least not until Random changes his mind about the matter.  Random tries to
convince him to leave Chaos alone, for now.  Wayland wants to find the
Chaosites who imprisoned him.  Random does too.  Wayland has a way to do
this.  He thinks those who were responsible have modified the curse on the
Twilight Blade, and he'll trace them through that.  He stopped making
Pattern swords long ago.  Random asks how many he made.  Three.  And
Bleys'?  Well, maybe he made four.  He can't remember.  Random is
interested in finding Werewindle.  It is revealed that the Pattern swords
were made after a brainstorming session with Oberon, but Wayland didn't
like the effects they had on the user.  Wayland spots a humanoid cat
slipping into the room, behind Random.  It grabs some shrimp and slips
out.  Random turns when Wayland mentions it, but the cat is gone.  Random
tells Wayland about the Reavers.  The cat reappears briefly, but again
Random doesn't see it.  Wayland wonders if maybe he imagined it.

	Peter sees the humanoid cat leaving, and asks who he is.  The cat
introduces himself as Shelley.  He belongs to Dante of Chanicut, but he's
assigned to Amanda.  Peter's seen him before, but he was much smaller. 
Peter asks how he accomplished this.  Shelley can't say.  Peter asks why
he's never heard him speak.  Shelley says it's because he speaks
telepathically when he's smaller.  Peter has him demonstrate this, then
asks him to wait there.  Shelley wants to know if he's under arrest. 
Peter just wants him to wait while he Trumps Amanda.


Quotables:

"It's a terrible neighborhood, sir.  Don't blame me if you don't come
back." -- Armand to Sebastian

"Have you seen me injured recently?" -- Tybalt
"Well, you're moving oddly now." -- Jaina
"I have broken bones." -- Tybalt
"Then I guess I've seen you injured very recently." -- Jaina

"You find it relaxing to do something you're bad at?" -- Jaina
"It helps keep me modest, which is something I need." -- Tybalt

"Decent people are trying to sleep." -- large, hairy man with a crossbow
"How would you know that, my good man?" -- Sebastian

"I hope your dog's well trained." -- Sebastian
"Exceedingly." -- the chandler
"Then call him off." -- Sebastian, holding his sword to the guy's throat

"Regrettably, our family is not a military unit." -- Benedict to Peter

"There's a large couch missing near the visiting dignitaries' quarters."
-- Odo
"Do we have a description of this couch?" -- Peter

"These are the primitives who painted one of our military secrets on the
floor of their basement.  How can you say it's not a cargo cult?" --
General Rostenkowski to Mead

"Don't worry about us, that's why you're a civilian." -- General
Rostenkowski to Mead

"Rebman politics is a whirlpool." -- Random to Amanda

"Never sleep with anyone crazier than you are." -- Random to Amanda

"I ask Odo what he'd do if he owned the castle, then I tune him out." --
Peter to GM

"I need something translated." -- Peter
"Is it in Begman?  I know a little Begman." -- one of Bill Roth's lawyers
"It's in legalese." -- Peter

"The owner lives there and runs the restaurant, so it's unlikely to be an
embassy." -- lawyer to Peter

"Who do you think will buy (the restaurant)?" -- Odo
"I look at the lawyer." -- Peter to GM
"Not me." -- lawyer

"So, if Julian wants to catch you, he will?" -- GM
"Well, yeah, he's riding frigging Morgenstern!" -- Tybalt

"Would (Wayland) be fighting unfairly?" -- Random
"Which of us wouldn't?" -- Tybalt
"This is true." -- Random

"Forgive me, but you haven't exactly proven yourself a master diplomat."
-- Random to Tybalt

"We have one Chaosite that I can lay my hands on, and I'm not asking
Sebastian.  If I want to know what they're having for dinner, then I'll
ask Sebastian." -- Random to Tybalt

"Wayland doesn't want to act until he gets his eyes and a hand." -- Tybalt
to Random

"If you talk to them 15 minutes after I left, they'll think I ran straight
to you." -- Tybalt
"Well..." -- Random

"Didn't you ask your dad about me?  What I used to do to him?" -- Random
"No, what did you do to him?" -- Tybalt
"Lots of shit." -- Random

"You still claim that you are from Chaos?" -- Julian
"Well, I was in Chaos, and now I'm here, so technically I'm *from* Chaos."
-- Sebastian
"You are an annoying fop." -- Julian

"You understand that we are at peace with Chaos right now, at my command."
-- Random
"Oh yes.  But when you change your mind, I'll be ready." -- Wayland

"I would like to never be at war with Chaos again." -- Random
"I could do that." -- Peter