Session Twenty-eight
     "A good rule of thumb is, anytime you can kill Benedict, go for it."

	No players this session for Colin, Sean, Farad and Duncan.

	Alastair suggests to Lilith that Duncan be in charge of palace
security.  Gabriel caves in to this suggestion.  Then Alastair goes to
play with Mara's dead head.

	Dmitri is in his kingdom doing "things."

	Suhuy contacts Lilith to tell her that he has the cure for her
disease.  It's administered in the shapeshifter's Primal Form, which he
can initiate, but it would be better if she learned how to gain this form
for herself -- it'll take a few weeks to learn, but that's only three or
four days Amber time.  She talks to Alastair, puts Colin in charge, and
goes with Suhuy to Chaos.

	Gabriel and Rasa go through Shadow on their vacation jaunt.  It is
when they are on the roller coaster at an amusement park that Lilith
Trumps Gabriel and gives him the Jewel of Judgment to watch while she's at
shapeshifter school.

	Suhuy Trumps Rasa and tells her to turn into her Primal Form for a
just a minute, so she can be cured too.  She does so, and he deftly
delivers the remedy, and then leaves Gabriel to the business of provoking
a strong enough emotional response for her to come out of the Primal Form.

	Alastair Trumps Sean and receives water in his face for his
trouble.

	Dmitri also looks for Sean; when it becomes apparent that Sean is
unavailable, he goes to Paris.

	Meanwhile, Paris is seeking psychiatric help.  Suhuy pretends to
be Sigmund Freud, and gives him a little psychoanalysis as an attempt to
get close enough to give Paris the cure for the shapeshifting disease.

	Alastair and Duncan discuss going to Chaos and building an
intelligence network there.  Dmitri catches up with them in the middle of
their planning.

	Freud/Suhuy manages to fake Paris out and inoculate him.

	Fermi, Lilith's private instructor at Suhuy's shapeshifting
academy, teaches Lilith about her Primal Form.

	Gabriel thinks about how to evoke an emotional response from
Rasa's Primal Form strong enough to revive conscious thought.  In the
meantime, she shifts into some pretty nasty creatures and tries to kill
him.  He allows her to gore him in the thigh, hoping that she'll feel bad
about wounding him.  This is not effective.  He runs to his horse and
flees, while opening a Trump contact to her, through which he beams
psychic images of sex.  This has an effect.

	Alastair, Paris and Dmitri discuss things -- they want to Trump
Bleys, mostly.  Paris pushes the contact to Bleys, and receives a vise on
his head that crushes it.  Fortunately, he didn't keep anything important
there, and begins to heal from this wound almost immediately.  Alastair
cuts the vise in half.

	Alastair notices that Paris seems more sane.  Paris has the same
impression, until he begins to see Dworkin attempting to kill Alastair,
but of course, astral projections aren't really all that dangerous. 
Dworkin continues to threaten Paris, Alastair, and most of the populace of
the universe, and does manage to cut Paris with his sword.  Hm.  Maybe we
should rethink the position on astral projections.  After this incident,
Alastair feels everyone out about going to Chaos.

	After Rasa returns to herself, a bit embarrassed, Benedict Trumps
Gabriel.  He wants the Jewel.  Gabriel wants proof that this is Benedict
for real.  Rasa gets a hold of the Jewel and shapeshifts it into her body. 
Gabriel and Rasa attempt to verify this Benedict's identity.  Gabriel
remains unconvinced, because a test of arms reveals that Gabriel is better
than Benedict.  Trumping Paris to get Benedict's location via Trump is
unenlightening -- the Trump contact goes to this Benedict.  Alastair comes
through to help them out (psst...  it's not really Alastair).  Benedict
begins advancing on Rasa, and Rasa takes off through Shadow, but she's
just not fast enough.  The false Alastair traps Gabriel in the Shadow, and
pretends he's trapped too.  Benedict catches Rasa, breaks her arms, pins
her to the ground with an arrow through the leg, and demands the Jewel. 
She tries to mentally dominate him -- something she thinks would work if
she'd started sooner, but Benedict sliced up her abdomen and grabbed the
Jewel before she had a good hold on him.  Her only consolation is that
she's pretty sure the shapeshifter wasn't Benedict, but Caine instead.

	Paris, Alastair and Dmitri go to a Shadow on the edge of Chaos and
begin insinuating themselves in the society there.  This is a
Bajoran-esque world.  Dmitri impersonates a certain Dreknar, and gets
himself into the chain of command, thanks to Paris and Alastair smoothing
the way through selective mind-rapes, and that sort of thing.  However,
when "Dreknar" arrives at the rendezvous point with his comrades, he finds
Paris sitting totally insane, holding a bloody sword -- and no Alastair. 
Paris recalls stabbing Alastair through the heart, and thinks Alastair
must really be dead.

	We are all very sad.

	Paris and Dmitri leave the Shadow.

	Lilith is slowly changing out of her Primal Form back to normal
when Gabriel Trumps Suhuy.  Gabriel and Rasa go through, and Suhuy takes
them to see wolf-Lilith, who is sitting in a warded area.  Rasa decides
telling her that "The Jewel is gone" will probably provoke enough of an
emotional response to bring her out of her Primal Form.  Rasa guessed
right.

	Dmitri Trumps Rasa and comes through with Paris.  Suhuy takes
Paris off to the side, concerned about his patient's obvious backslide. 
Dmitri tells the Regent and those of her counselors present what happened
between Alastair and Paris, as far as he knows.  Then Rasa fills in the
Regent on the Jewel heist.  Paris returns to attack Lilith, and Rasa and
Gabriel both go into overkill on Paris, until Suhuy takes him into
protective custody and promises to try to cure him.

	Dmitri, Rasa, Lilith and Gabriel return to Amber.  Deirdre shows
up when they arrive, and wants to talk to Gabriel.  "Talking" seems to
include sparring in Deirdre's mind.  She seems to want to help the current
regime.  Lilith commissions Dmitri to find Alastair's body, and suggests
he ask Rasa about finding things in Shadow.  Rasa gives her piddly two
cents of advice, and admits that her reputation for finding things in
Shadow is overblown in a big way.  Rasa also tells Dmitri that Lilith
needs a more decisive husband than Colin, if Lilith wants to be a good
queen.  She also asks Dmitri if he is her brother.  Dmitri thinks it's
possible.  Rasa thinks that's swell.  She hates being an only child.

	Fiona is called in by Deirdre and Gabriel to be Lilith's watchdog. 
Fiona isn't pleased, but bows to their pressure.

	Dmitri investigates Alastair's room and notes that his gizmo is
missing.  Dmitri investigates further, and is able to retrieve the gizmo
from Suhuy.

	Gabriel apologizes to Rasa for not being able to spend time with
her when they got back, but Deirdre really wanted to talk to him.  Rasa's
cool with that.

	At the end of the session:

	All PCs who didn't show up are marked "whereabouts unknown."
	Lilith and Fiona are together somewhere in the castle.  Lilith is
doing regently things, and Fiona is bored.
	Gabriel and Rasa are together somewhere in the castle.  Gabriel is
apologizing and Rasa is cool.
	Dmitri is playing with the gizmo.
	Paris is in Suhuy's custody.
	Alastair is dead.