First Session Log & Quotes

Log transcribed and prepared by Madeline, which means that it's a lot more detailed and complete than what the GM will be doing from here on in.

The game opens with Jonas and Tsark in Amber, Orlando and Lot in Shadow, and Mordred and Eleanore on a minor diplomatic mission to Kashfa. It is a few days before the 100th anniversary celebration of the defeat of the rebels, which the populace enjoys without thought to its origins and the royals generally ignore uncomfortably.

Jonas, thinking this might be a good time for fresh starts, trumps Benedict to see what he thinks of the chances of Brand forgiving Eric. Benedict suggests Julian would be a better man to talk to, but mentions he wasn't answering trump when he tried three days ago. Jonas confirms that Julian isn't answering trump, asks around the castle and finds he hasn't been there for about a week, and packs up and rides to Arden.

Lot trumps Tsark to get filled in on recent news, which is scant; Brand is only slightly worse than usual. Lot decides to visit Amber, taking advantage of the fact that everyone on the street during the celebrations will be in disguise.

Tsark is following his tradition of brooding in the library, re-reading the skewed histories of the rebellion. He hears Jonas has fled to Arden after asking about Julian, and also that there has been some talk about a dragon in Garnath. He goes to visit Deirdre and tells her the dragon rumors, and she mentions the last dragon in Amber was killed two years before she was born. She's planning to visit friends in the Dehm for the next week or so, and Tsark considers going along.

Orlando gets back reports that his spy corps in Amber has once more suffered a hostile purge. He trumps through to Lot, thinking to get advice this, and finds that Lot is on the way to Amber. He warns him to take care and asks Lot keep an eye out for possible people to rebuild his spy operation with, while he's there.

Mordred heads back to Amber from Kasha, and puts feelers out for possible 100th anniversary discontent.

Jonas learns in Aulory that there has been something harassing loggers, and that Julian took some huntsmen and went out to find the truth behing this one and a half weeks ago. Jonas goes to the site of the most recent reported trouble, and finds Julian was by two days ago. There is a huge smashed lumber rack there as proof something big was by, and talk of a dragon. Jonas goes to talk to Jameson the lumberjack, who claims to have actually seen a huge scaly green foot during the nighttime attack. Jonas heads off along the trail left by Julian and his 20 men, and camps as night falls.

Lot kills a day in shadow so he won't arrive before the celebration starts in Amber.

Mordred makes sure that Amber is well-guarded, and listens to the rumors of the dragon, which put it all over the place.

Tsark, a sucker for punishment, decides not to flee to the Dehm with Deirdre. He trumps Benedict, who asks if Jonas has been in touch. Tsark replies in the negative and asks about the dragon Benedict killed, mentioning the rumors that there's one in Amber now. Benedict talks of having hunted them when he was young, in groups several family members large. The last sighting of one in Amber was around 1500 years ago.

Jonas finds in the morning that the tracks end in a clearing that has recently been greatly enlarged by fire. It contains several burnt dead men and horses, and a torn-off chunk of white scale armor. He fails in attempts to get through to Julian, Benedict, and Mordred, and heading down his mental list of decent trackers in the family finally manages to contact Gerard, who mentions that Morgenstern is hard to track and it may not mean anything that Jonas can't find signs of his tracks going out. He also points out that dragons eat people, and that could account for the discrepancy between the number of bodies present and the number of Rangers who presumably went in to the clearing.

Jonas then trumps Brand and lets him know all this. He returns to Aulory and finds expert trackers waiting for him, courtesy of Brand; he also hears that Morgenstern has returned to his stables alone. He takes the trackers and returns to the clearing, camping for the night. Benedict is still not answering.

Word get to Tsark through Gerard that Julian is gone, attacked by a dragon.

Tsark calls Jonas, and gets filled in. Tsark passes on Benedict's words of wisdom on dragons.

Caine calls Orlando with the news that Julian has gone missing and Morgenstern has reappeared alone. Nothing to be done. Caine suspects that Fiona, that bitch, has staged this to kill the only sane man near Brand. Orlando digests this for a bit, and decides Caine probably wanted this passed along to Jonas without having to talk to him himself. So Orlando calls Jonas and alerts him to the suspicion that Fiona offed Julian. Jonas mentions that he was considering asking Brand to free Eric. Orlando thinks this isn't a good time to bring Eric to Brand's attention. The next morning, Orlando calls Lot and lets him know the news about Julian, and asks Lot to look around to see if he can find where these rumors of a dragon started.

Brand trumps Mordred and tells him about Julian, and warns him to be wary. Mordred trumps through to Jonas around midnight, and sees the armor chunk. The next day the trackers note black blood in the churned-up ground, and early in the afternoon they unearth a green scale.

Lot parties in seedy bars in Amber, and plants rumors that Mordred brought in the dragon.

Nothing more to see in the clearing, Jonas finally gets through to Benedict, who mentions that dragons are semi-aquatic. So Jonas sends people to the big aqueduct-feeding lake to see if there have been any dragon sightings, and he and Mordred trump back through to Amber.

Tsark looks through the library for stuff on dragons, but it's mostly fiction and not useful.

Lot notices someone is following him through the revelry. He turns the tables, and trails the man back to a merchant house. He sneaks in, and hears someone berating someone for losing him. He walks into the room and removes his mask. In the room are four men: the guy behind the desk who was berating the guy who was following him, and two guys to either side, who rush him. He breaks the wrist of one, the kneecap of the other, and chases down and captures the leader, letting the man who was following him escape. He breaks a few of the leader's fingers, but the leader still claims he can't talk. Lot calls Orlando for a ride out with his prisoner, but instead ends up bringing Orlando through and then returning to guard the door of the room while Orlando tosses everything in the desk into his cloak. In the interim, wrist guy has left, but kneecap guy is still passed out in the room. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt appears in the forehead of the leader guy, carelessly left in the hall with Lot. Lot goes in. While he and Orlando are arguing about leaving for Shadow, a guy bursts through the door. Lot knocks him out, and Orlando kills him because he does not want there to be reports that he was in Amber. They take kneecap guy and leave through one of Orlando's trumps for Shadow. Lot immediately borrows another of Orlando's trumps and returns to Amber, making his way to the building again and watching it, but it's all clear by then. Orlando tips off one of his guys in Amber about all this. Lot continues to party afterwards until night, during that time noticing and being noticed by Fiona, who is leading men on. Orlando reads through the papers he's stolen.

Jonas and Mordred go to the docks of Amber and ask fishermen and then merchants about strange happenings. They hear of lost lines, and of a trading boat that was half-expected in but has not arrived.

Tsark calls Jonas, and upon finding out his current activities, makes fun of him for leaving Arden, which is far away and known to have been the last place the dragon was, to talk to fishermen.

Shortly thereafter a dragon bursts from the bay, and begins breaking up piers. People run. Jonas runs towards it, and sees that it has something white in its mouth. It drops the something on a dock so it can start shooting flame at nearby warehouses. Mordred tries to call Benedict and then Brand, and gets no answers. So he begins to organize fire squads. Jonas sees that the something actually is the body of Julian, and he trumps Tsark to see if Tsark can arrange to keep up a trump connection and pull him out. Tsark can't, so Jonas turns to Mordred.

Lot sees people running, and goes to see why. He calls Orlando, and Orlando lends him a good bow and some heavy-duty arrows, and holds the trump contact open in case a quick retreat becomes necessary. Lot's first shot buries itself deep in the eye of the dragon, and Jonas takes advantage of the dragon momentarily rearing up in pain to dart forward and grab Julian's body. The dragon comes down again, one huge foot on either side of Jonas, and then Mordred manages to pull them out. Julian is blue. Lot takes another shot, sinking an arrow into the dragon's mouth.

Gerard leads the cavalry in. He takes a mighty swing at the dragon's neck and scrapes it. A small armored figure darts forward and plunges his sword into the dragon's damaged eyesocket, and then gets lifted off the ground as the dragon rears again. He drops, and gets stomped on. Lot takes a third shot, which sinks into the dragon's other eye, and the fight generally goes out of the dragon. Gerard hacks at some more. Lot leaves a fourth arrow at the scene (after a quick fight with Orlando over his desire to leave the bow), and gets pulled through. They have a pleasant dinner in Orlando's shadow.

Jonas stabilizes Julian adeptly, and gets him breathing again. He then takes Mordred up on his offer, and they trump through to a good shadow for healing. Tsark, armored and ready, calls Mordred. He finds nothing to do there, so he goes down to the Amber docks with a pike in time to help Gerard and Fiona take Brand, the small armored guy with the iron grip, back to the infirmary. Jonas, Mordred, and Julian also come through to the castle infirmary shortly thereafter. Brand and Julian are both in comas, both in bad shape, both expected to pull through.

Random brings up the question of regency. Gerard suggests that Benedict has more expertise. Mordred suggests a morning meeting on the subject.

The night following is full of plotting. Mordred calls many people. Eleanore is one of them; he brings her back through to Amber.

Someone trumps Lot to alert him to what's going on, and he decides to send an emissary to this family meeting. Orlando lets him borrow a trump of his own shadow so he can get one of his own guys, and he heads off to prep his guy, planning to call Orlando when morning hits Amber so Orlando can send the emissary through to Eleanore. Orlando finishes looking over the papers from the spy operation, and finds that the leader guy was reporting directly to Random. He spends the wee hours of the morning overseeing the torture of kneecap guy to get any other names and information he might have; and then has kneecap guy killed.

In the morning, Orlando calls Eleanore and explains to her the emissary idea that Lot has had. Lot has given his word that the guy is nothing more than an emissary, so Eleanore takes him. Orlando thanks her, and tells her he doesn't want to be associated with this. Eleanore doesn't want to be associated with the emissary either, but she does give him a robe so he can follow her to the meeting room without being stopped by the guards for being in Lot's livery.

The family trickle into the dining room where the meeting will be held, despite the ridiculous time of the morning it is held at. Lot's emissary shows up when everyone has arrived; he is stopped at the door, and after he asks whether Prince Lot is to be denied a voice in family affairs Random orders him silenced, and sends him off to prison. Various elders present ideas about the regency, while the younger generation remains stolidly silent. Deirdre is the most blunt, claiming even Random would be a better regent than Mordred. Benedict says he would be willing to do it if impelled to. Martin suggests a vote, and Benedict seconds the motion with a pained expression. The votes for Benedict are Deirdre, Gerard, Eleanore, and Tsark. The votes for Mordred are Random, Fiona, Caine, Jonas, Llewella, and finally Benedict.

Mordred puts out official word that the dragon is dead and that Brand was hurt killing it. He signs stacks of papers that Random presents him, after reading them. This takes up most of his days. He does take time to question Lot's emissary, and then has Random "question" him. They learn that he was passed through to Eleanore by Orlando, but Mordred decides there will be no repercussions on Eleanore.

Eleanore tells Lot of what passed at the meeting, and tells him she'll let him know what happened to his guy if she happens to find out. After several days with no word, Lot grants the man's family a chunk of land and a speech about his heroism.

Orlando calls Jonas to find out how the meeting went, and to ask after Julian. Jonas assures him that he's spending as much time as possible in the infirmary to make sure nothing more happens to Julian.

A bit later, Orlando trumps Llewella, curious if she has any idea where the dragon came from. He points out that it was suspiciously timely. Immediately thereafter Llewella trumps Mordred, probably. I have my suspicions.

Tsark, ignoring the presence of Fiona, helps render the dragon out of curiousity about its structure. Knowing full well what he's doing, he gifts the skull of the dragon to Gerard. Mordred ignores this.

Sometime in these days Mordred asks Benedict for advice on some of the kingdom-running stuff, and finds that Benedict hasn't the faintest clue.

Julian wakes up after several days, very weak. He asks Jonas to bring him Morgenstern. Mordred comes to talk to Julian, and asks him why he wants Morgenstern, but he can't explain it. He tells Mordred not to let Random do some small troop thing that looked innocuous enough when Mordred let Random do it. Mordred tells Jonas to take his time about bringing Morgenstern, to let Julian heal some more.