Session Twenty-five
	     "Let's have a special Valentine's Day session."


	Since John Lewis and John Kintz didn't show up, Paris and Sean
were seen having an immense Trump battle.  They disappeared, and now their
Trumps grow warm when you try to reach them.

	Dann Fuller also didn't show, but nothing cool happened to Colin's
Trump.  Thusly, the players used him mostly as a Pattern-pony for the
session.

	Alastair looks for Farad.  He's not in the castle.  So, Big Al
goes to talk to Duncan in the library.

	Lilith and Colin have a private chat in her quarters.

	Dmitri is in Shadow, settling his people in the beautiful land of
Faradia -- alternatively named for now Ahmopin 2 Sejestyun.

	Gabriel is planning an assault on the bad Chaos people.

	Rasa opens a package from Bleys while talking to Lilith.  In the
package are replacement Trumps.  Remember how Dmitri stole her deck?  Then
Sean made her Trumps of the second generation, but didn't have time to do
the elders.  So, this is a package of elders.  Neat, huh?  After a nice
chat with her cousin, Rasa goes to work on a Secret Plan.

	Lilith sends a note with a page to Alastair to have him come see
her.  Alastair takes this advice, and for his troubles, is told that he
can have Caine's old job of being ultra- sneaky and spy-like.  Alastair
doesn't tell her he already took that job.  Alastair tells her that there
is an 84% chance that Caine is the bad shapeshifter... good, bad, he's the
guy with the crossbow... and that either Deirdre or Random is the good
shapeshifter.  He votes for Deirdre, since she's helped him before.  They
discuss strategies to kill Caine.  Al also tells her that Dworkin told
Paris to kill Colin and her, and oh, House Hadyn is also sending the
occasional assassin after her.  And that a shapeshifter gave Farad a
medallion to cause Colin to fall in love with Al??????  I MUST have
written that down wrong.  I think it's really a medallion to make Colin
fall in love with Lilith.  Though, who knows?  Stranger things have
happened in this game.

	Farad makes a lawn ornament with amazing powers, and then hangs
some spells.  One of these spells is to monitor incoming and outgoing
Trump calls, but the GM cautions him strongly about mixing your powers...
it's almost as bad as mixing your liquors.

	At some point, Dmitri gives Duncan the cold shoulder.

	Gabriel is informed that Gerard has disappeared.  Gabriel begins
an investigation and gets a little high off the power trip of having his
own ship.

	Lilith and Alastair talk about Dmitri.  Lilith has noticed that
Dmitri has walked the Pattern.  Gabriel comes in then and tells her that
Gerard and four ships are missing.

	Dmitri and Duncan discuss the Regent.  Ironic, eh?

	Alastair jumps.  He has sensed yet another disturbance in the
force.  Someone is doing something in Shadow -- if I had a nickel for
every time I heard that in this game...  I'd have a pile of nickels.  At
any rate, this time it involves someone doing bad things to a broken
Pattern.  Alastair tells Gabriel and Lilith that an object opened the
warp.  (The new one or the one from last session?  Geez... my class notes
are always this unclear as well, it's nothing personal.) This object was
-- gasp -- Logrus-based.

	Rasa comes in at this point, and for a change in pace, allows
Alastair to scan her.

	The group Trumps Gerard, but the Trump remains dead-warm. 
Alastair and Lilith hie themselves off to investigate the broken Pattern,
while Rasa and Gabriel head out to find Gerard.  Gabriel Trumps Farad and
gets him to agree to come along with them.  Before they sail out looking
for Gerard, Gabriel stumbles across the pile of presents from his Admirer. 
He receives flowers, a new horse, and armor, the theme of which is black. 
He takes some of the flowers down to the docks.  Rasa is there, wearing
her new style of clothing (chainmail mini-dress, anyone?).  They board the
ship and sail away.

	Alastair, Lilith and Colin teleport to the edge of a
disintegrating Shadow.

	Duncan introduces Dmitri to Trumps and the people behind them. 
Dmitri tries to Trump Lilith and she accepts, to their surprise.  Colin
tries to fix the Shadow with a spell, while Alastair watches.  Dmitri asks
Lilith for meetings with nearby Golden Circle ambassadors, but hangs up
when it becomes apparent that Lilith is in the middle of a maelstrom of
badness.  Colin is not strong enough to hold the Shadow together.

	Rasa and Gabriel come upon a dead-end in the Shadow-path; it has
been obscured by magic.  Gabriel Trumps Farad, who uses spells to look
around, while Rasa flies up to look.  Farad creates a spell that makes it
look like Alastair killed Gerard and sank his fleet.

	Alastair, Lilith and Colin retreat to a safer vantage point, and
then Al and Colin leave, with Lilith in contact with them.  They appear
next to Mara, and begin to engage her, her two sorcerers, and her orb in a
duel involving sorcery, arrows, hands of Logrus, and heavy activity from
the Pattern gizmo of Alastair's.  Alastair fights off the enemy but loses
contact with Lilith.  Lilith attempts to regain Trump contact.  Mara
focuses on her big red glowing orb, while Alastair beats up the sorcerers
and tries to get hold of Mara's mind.  Lilith gets through to Alastair
just as his foot gets sucked into a vortex (damn those vortexes! 
Vortices?  Vortexes!!).  When Alastair is in up to his waist, he asks
Lilith to bring him and Colin through.  Of course, a vortex comes through
the Trump with him.  Since Colin is unconscious, Lilith kisses him awake. 
Figuring they haven't had enough yet, Lilith tries to teleport them to
Mara.

	Back on the ship, Farad teleports out.  Gabriel and Rasa Trump
Alastair, but he's busy.  Damn.  They hang up.  Then he Trumps Rasa back. 
She refuses to help him, since he killed Gerard and all.

	Since there are now vortices everywhere, Lilith almost falls in
one.  Alastair tries to attack Mara.  Again.

	Gabriel takes a sounding.  Since it's rather deep, he can't dive
himself, but Rasa can.  Amazingly, where Farad's spell showed Gerard's
ship sinking, there is nothing.  Well, three other ships, but they don't
belong to anyone important, and Gerard isn't there.  Rasa comes back to
the surface and is growing over her gill-slits when Dmitri Trumps Gabriel
and offers his assistance.

	Farad goes to Amber and walks the Pattern to help empower his lawn
ornament.  Duncan tries to stop him to chat, but Farad just blows him off. 
Duncan follows him, and when he sees that Farad is walking the Pattern, he
Trumps Lilith to tell her this.  Then he Trumps Gabriel to tell him. 
Neither Lilith nor Gabriel seem to care about Farad and his dog ornament.

	Gabriel, Dmitri and Rasa discuss strategies.  They need a
spellcaster.  Since Farad has proved unreliable, Rasa tries to Trump
Bleys.  It's no good, and Rasa gets stuck in a Trump trap.  With a little
finagling, Gabriel and his sword get her out, by cutting her Trump in
half.  Once he ascertains that she's stuck, anyway.

	Farad begins training the dog at the center of the Pattern.

	Alastair comes through to Gabriel, and they clear up the whole bit
about him having killed Gerard (he didn't).  Alastair asks to scan Rasa. 
She says OK, if she can scan him -- i.e., shapeshift with him.  This is
when Benedict's assistant Trumps Gabriel and tells him that Alastair is a
duplicitous shapeshifter.  Rasa ascertains that Alastair is either not a
shapeshifter, or one who is a whole lot better than she is.  With that
cleared right up, she goes down below to a cabin and goes to sleep.

	Farad finishes training the dog and disappears.

	Alastair sees Gerard's colors flying above a boat in the middle of
the desert (that sensitivity thing again).  They sail to the desert, wake
up Rasa and then ride to the ship.  There are only skeletons on the ship,
none of which belong to Gerard.  Fifty years have passed here in two days,
except now the time rate matches Amber's.  Alastair sees 423 Shadow paths
leading off from this Shadow, and no Trump traces.  He mentions to Gabriel
that Gabriel's old pal Ganelon was last seen in the company of the
notorious Suhuy.  Rasa, Gabriel, Alastair and Dmitri all return to Amber
and its environs.

	Farad, in his laboratory, makes a stealth spell.  I picture Space
Ghost using his invisibility shtick.

	Alastair finds someone is channeling Pattern energy into that
vortex.  He determines that it is Lilith and Colin.

	Gabriel finds the gray gifts from his admirer -- gray horse and
armor.  A little later, he finds the white ones, and some interesting
books.  He takes off for Dorienne and his wife's grave.  With her image in
mind, he attempts to find her three times in Shadow, and each time ends up
at the gates of Amber.

	Rasa and Dmitri discuss good and bad cousins.  Then she takes him
to walk the Pattern.

	Alastair begins to organize a foray into Chaos.  Then he Trumps
Farad.  Farad tries to sink Alastair in quicksand.  Alastair throws a
knife at Farad's head, but not before Farad gets off a lynchpin.  Then
Alastair shoots Farad in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt.  Alastair
begins sinking in quicksand, until Farad freezes the stuff back into
stone, and, leaving Alastair there, heads for the Pattern room.  Duncan
comes through and ignores Alastair.  Alastair tries to Trump out.  He
makes it to the gardens and Trumps Lilith, who was in her rooms.  She
takes it.  He asks if he can kill Farad.  She tells him to check with
Gabriel.

	If you cant figure out where everyone was at the end of the
session by reading the last five paragraphs, you should probably try
again.