Session 16
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Apologies are due again, as the bad, bad, bad GM is writing this two weeks after the session in question, and can't remember much in the way of details. Thanks to Madeline for filling in some of the blanks. The rebels meet and talk about what they're going to do as they close in on the "beating people up with sticks" portion of the rebellion. Surprisingly enough, what they decide to do is "have a funeral." They invite everyone in the Family whose name isn't "Jonas," "Eleanore," or "Random." Mordred is invited, but doesn't go. Fiona mentions to Victoria (whom the Rebels apparantly don't have a Trump of) that she's invited to the funeral, and that it would be a good place to meet the family. Victoria is apparantly convinced. Some of Fiona's deathknights (or whatever they're supposed to be called) go over to Victoria and complain that their shrine to Fiona was kicked out of the main Llewella temple in Atlantis. Victoria goes and investigates, and determines that it was at Llewella's command. Llewella and Victoria talk, via Trump, so Victoria can actually talk. Llewella says that Fiona is not part of any religion that venerates Llewella. Victoria says that if Llewella's a god, and Fiona is Llewella's sister, how could Fiona not be a god? Llewella says, using small words, that she's not a god, stupid. It's like talking to a brick wall — Victoria's not having it. Llewella says fine, worship Fiona if you want to, but watch out because she's batshit crazy. The funeral happens. Everyone attends and chats and does all of that good stuff. It's not immediately apparant who falls on whose side. The people who weren't invited to the funeral sit around and try to pretend that they don't feel left out. Then the coronation happens. The attendees are Mordred (duh), Fiona, Llewella, Julian, Gerard, Random, Jonas, and Eleanore. Victoria, as agreed, is not invited. The attendees swear fealty like good kids. Orlando goes up to Tir na-Nogth to see the pretty pictures, with Eleanore acting as his Trump anchor. Orlando sees some imagery, the details of which are mildly secret. He then tries to go down to the Pattern room. There's ghostly water. He goes in over his head, and abruptly starts falling. Eleanore pops him through. Fiona alerts Mordred that Orlando just Trumped to Eleanore on Kolvir. Mordred Trumps Eleanore. Eleanore shoes Orlando away. Mordred bitches out Eleanore. Afterwards, Orlando and Eleanore talk, and Orlando makes yet another effort to convert Eleanore to the Rebs. Eleanore's having none of it. Jonas and Orlando talk for a bit. After that, we cut to the war. The Rebel forces are fighting through Deiga and Begma, and walking through Opel, gaining troops as they go. Mordred deploys 100,000 troops to Deiga, under Julian's command, and 100 ships of the line, under Gerard's command, to destroy Opel's naval capabilities. He dispatches Jonas with a small force of skirmishers to harass the rebel movement through Opel, too. The Begma front (which is opened a little later than the others) is as-of-yet undeployed to. Tsark works out that Jonas is the one harassing his forces. He asks Lot for Sneaky Plans to trap and kill Jonas. Lot kinda shrugs and mumbles something about trying to move through Opel as quickly as possible. |
"This week, this is the throne of Amber." - Dave, choosing a
chair "You know what you oughtta write down: 'Mordred's thought bubble: "Still not king."' " - Dave
"What will the dress be?" - Fiona "They're having a funeral for Eric. Great way to be introduced to the family." - Fiona, brightly to Victoria
"I'm afraid your daughter will not be getting an invite." -
Tsark
"Let us talk about my history of my family relations,
specifically, with
my redheaded sister. I don't like her. And she is not part of any
religion that worships me." - Llewella
"Hi, left-out people. Got any actions?" - GM
"So you're Victoria?" - Deirdre
Turns out Madeline was confused about the whereabouts of Eric's
corpse
"Met my brother?" - Lot
"[Orlando's] kind of a little prick." - Fiona
"[Mordred's] an academic! He understands the universe, and I love
him for it,
but he just doesn't understand people, and that's what a king
needs." -
Orlando
- The GM hurries people towards the coronation. -
"It's just that I hate to see you go over to the dark side."
- Orlando
"You were there -- all of our hands were covered in blood." - Eleanore "There's not good guys, and bad guys-- there's just a bunch of guys!" - Jeff and GM, simultaneously
"I'm sitting there in the dark, drinking a cup of bitter
tea." - Orlando
"And the big unanswered question is, is Martin [at the
coronation]?" - Dave "Well, I figure if [Orlando's] going to be spying on me, he should have the whole story." - Victoria |
Session 17
|
We open with Mordred deciding to do a backwards-sliding defense of Deiga and ordering 50,000 troops there, putting 5,000 troops and himself in Begma, and continuing operations in Opel. Meanwhile, the Rebs conference and Lot tells them that lots of personal action is required to win the naval war. Tsark, Martin, Grayson, Caine, and Orlando mug a Loyal ship detachment. It goes well. The war in Deiga goes less well. Victoria's Knights of Creation get uppity under Julian's command in Deiga. Julian puts one of them in the hospital. Victoria faces down Julian (Victoria has acquired a 9 year old who's been taught to read lips, named Mercy, who "translates" for her). Julian tells her, in so many words, that he won't tolerate this bullshit, and if she and her troops keep it up, he'll put them on the front line and use them for fertilizer, her included. Victoria Trumps Mordred and tells him that she's withdrawing. Mordred Trumps Julian and finds out what happened. Julian presents argument that suggest that, 1. Victoria's troops are a menace if they aren't properly controlled, and 2. Most of them are mercenaries, and Victoria might be in for a rude surprise if she thinks she can pull them out. Meanwhile, Victoria talks to her troops again and realizes that Julian was arguably correct, though her dignity does not allow her to admit it. She appoints one of her troops (hereafter "Job") to help Julian find dangerous missions for the high-ranking Knights who are "problematic." Job appears to be good at this job. Minor Amberite and Rebel losses in Deiga, major Deiga losses. Things go bad for the naval war for Amber; the rebels keep capturing their ships. Jonas is put on ship duty, and Llewella goes out and makes more ships. Tsark makes it through Opel, but it's fairly useless as a port right now. Tsark's troops work on rebuilding. Lot transfers down to Deiga full-time, and Julian needs a subcommander. Victoria gets volunteered for the job. She's pretty good at it, but life still sucks down there. The troops start hitting meatgrinder status, on both sides, though losses are much worse for the rebels. It's revealed that the Second Worlders have superhuman Endurances. The Loyalists start adopting the Rebel tactic of putting lots of Amberites in Naval duty. Eventually, it was bound to happen. Eleanore, Gerard, and Random get into a tussle with Caine and Orlando. Eleanore and Orlando are doing the sniping thing, and avoiding aiming at one another. Orlando starts shooting at Random, and Random runs for the crossbows. Orlando hits Random in the leg, but Random gets behind a door. After a bit, he jumps back out, and Orlando and he simultaneously shoot one another. He pegs Orlando very nearly in the heart. Orlando gets him in the lung. At about this point, Gerard jumps over and engages Caine. He cuts Caine's sword in half. Caine throws a dagger into Gerard, and then runs and dives into the ocean. Gerard follows suit. Eleanore frowns. Eleanore goes and carries Random into the crossbow room, then beats up the people still fighting. She climbs into the rigging, where Orlando was, and chops him down, finding that he's still breathing, if faintly. She Trumps Mordred and tells him that both Orlando and Random are hurt, and hands Mordred Orlando. She then goes back into the crossbow room, and Random promptly shoots her through the stomach, giving every appearance of not knowing who she is. She gets paralyzed from the waist down and collapses. Random falls unconscious. Eleanore can't summon the mental strength to Trump Mordred, who lost the connection with her when she got shot. Mordred drops Orlando off at his hospital out in Shadow. Mordred tries to call Eleanore, to no avail. He calls Fiona. He wants a Trump of one of the crewmembers of Eleanore's ship, which Fiona has been working on. Fiona has a Trump of the first mate, but it's only partially completed. Mordred tries to Trump the crewman and fails. Eleanore notices the first mate seems discomfited or distracted, but then it passes. Fiona tries Trumping the first mate. Eleanore sees the first mate scream and clutch his eyes. Then, hemoraging freely, he walks over to her and grabs her. She does not try to stop him. He kisses her, and suddenly it's Fiona, not the first mate. The people carrying Eleanore's stretcher scream and drop her. Mordred sees Fiona Trump out and the first mate, dead of explosive brain hemoraging, appear in her place. He then gets a Trump from a quite bloody Fiona, comes through, and collects Eleanore and Random, getting them both to his medical Shadow. Meanwhile, Jonas sees Grayson and Tsark attack some of his ships, and he Trumps Julian and gets the hell out of dodge. Jonas then Trumps Mordred to report. Mordred is still in his medical Shadow, and Jonas hears of the various injuries. Jonas comes through. Jonas wants to see Orlando, and Mordred makes him look at Random first. Jonas pronounces Random certain of recovery, and goes in to look at Orlando. Orlando is very near death, and Jonas immediately begins surgery, spending 8 hours doing the best medical job he ever has. When he's done, he's sure that Orlando will pull through, though it will be a long recovery. Meanwhile, Gerard has resurfaced. He Trumps Mordred and tells him that he and Caine struggled underwater, but Caine kept going deeper and Gerard eventually gave up and resurfaced. He knows he hurt Caine badly, but he wasn't trying to kill Caine, and Caine could have drowned or could have Trumped out. Gerard then goes and does surgery on Eleanore. Meanwhile, Caine shows up with the rebels, in a very bad way (his leg is broken, and so are most of his ribs, and he's partly drowned). He gives roughly the same story as Gerard. Lot initiates an attack in Begma as Mordred spends his time dealing with the injured folks and the fleet. A few days pass. Random and Eleanore regain consciousness. Eleanore has spinal damage that will leave her paraplegic until she regenerates. Random's able to get back to desk-work pretty immediately. Orlando remains comatose. Victoria's father dies, requiring that she go back and mourn him (and officiate his funeral, since she's the high priestess). She's also his heir, and she tells Mordred that she has to reign there. A couple of weeks pass. Eleanore is now up and about, if wheelchair bound. Jonas and Grayson remain the heads of their respective fleets, and Tsark, who is at loose ends, works with Grayson to beat shit up. Grayson's pretty good, too. Eventually, Jonas and Tsark end up fighting in the same engagement. Tsark and a flying wedge of Weir attack Jonas. Jonas flings a dagger at Tsark (which the latter parries) and kills two Weir right off. Tsark tries to disarm Jonas. Jonas disengages, and backs into a wall. He slashes at Tsark, and Tsark parries, then goes in close. Jonas tries for a stop-cut, and he and Tsark hit each other. He cuts up Tsark a bit, and Tsark hits him hard enough to drive him ten feet into the air. As Jonas hits, Tsark jumps at him, landing on his sword and punching at him. Jonas puts a dagger into Tsark's chest. Tsark punches Jonas in the sternum, breaking it and knocking the wind out of Jonas. Jonas stabs Tsark again, leaving the dagger in Tsark's stomach as Tsark jumps back, taking Jonas' sword with him. He tosses the sword overboard. Tsark jumps back at Jonas, and Jonas slashes up Tsark's arm something fierce as Tsark punches Jonas in the head. Jonas blood-curses Tsark, and Tsark kills Jonas. |
"With the Medical quirk you could be doing that! The one point quirk lets you do surgery-- with two points, you get the ability to make spontaneous hilarious quips while doing it." - GM
"You didn't exactly offer Lot a 'get out of Shadow free' card." -
Orlando "They want to spread knowledge-- it's an Atlantean religion-- they want to spread understanding, they want to spread peace, at the end of a sword, if need be..." - Victoria
"Jonas is the logical choice-- congratulations, Jonas, you're in the
Navy!" - Mordred "If they continue to have any qualms about obeying my orders I will put them on the front lines and have them chewed to pieces. En masse. And you, too." - Julian to Victoria
"...But we need her." - Mordred
"Keeping Victoria from being a pain in our collective ass will require
some diplomacy." - Mordred
"Ok, you don't inspire much free-talking-to, so we're not going to
mention the first two... Idea number 3: You could say that the goddess
works in mysterious ways, and this is her brother, and sit the fuck down
and shut the fuck up." - GM/Victoria's sensible advisors
"So, whatever you said to Victoria really worked!" - Julian
"So, what's my actual position in the Navy?" - Jonas "So essentially, Mike says, 'Eleanore, what is your strategy?' And I said, 'oh shit.'" - Eleanore "Fiona did warn you that she was taking over your church, right?" - GM "I'd say that's Mom's problem-- it's her religion, she started it!" - Victoria "We're going to call your main reasonable guy Job, because he suddenly got promoted to a major part." - GM to Victoria "They're getting hit hard by Orlando's Friendly Neighborhood Conspiracy Theories." - GM, regarding Farrell
"Caine is better than us, except for you, Julian." - Mordred "Well, the good news is, you never meet any enemy... I mean: Commoners, but, you're like, thwunk, thwunk, this is easy!!" - GM
"Random's taking cover under the gunwale. He's small, he can do that."
- GM
"Ok, so you're going to go-- rescue Random." - GM "You are kissing a blood-soaked Fiona." - GM to Eleanore
"How's my daughter?" - Gerard
"If Orlando's not dead, I imagine he's in enemy hands." - Caine
"Might be dead. It's not clear." - Mordred
"Glad to see you pulled through." - Mordred
"So, did I get Orlando?" - Random
"In the dungeons-- how does he feel now?" - Victoria
"Some of [the Weir] have seen me fight them-- none have actually fought me." -
Jonas
"Do you want to accelerate up and be the first guy to hit him, or do you
want to stay one one hundredth of a second behind?" - GM "He hits you-- you hit him-- one of those timeless moments..." - GM "Fwoosh! Dagger coming at your face. Do you want to kill him more than you want to avoid death?" - GM to Tsark
"Escape, or continue the attack?" - GM
"How's the overall fight going?" - Tsark "I could offer up Dara [as a replacement character], too! And then you've got the built-in chance to screw Bernie, in more ways than one!" - GM |
Session 18
|
The session opens with Tsark retreating from Jonas' ship and tending to his wounds, which are severe enough to keep him mostly inactive for a few weeks. He Trumps through to Deirdre, and is shortly joined by Grayson, who seems pretty okay with his father's death. Lot Trumps Mordred and informs him as a "courtesy" of Jonas' death. Mordred informs Lot of Orlando's capture, and threatens to kill Orlando if there's an escape attempt. Mordred suggests that he'll trade Orlando for Deirdre, and Lot says words to the effect of "Deirdre will cut me in half if I try to give her to you." The brothers hang up on each other. Mordred gets the fun job of informing the family. Julian gets pissed and up-and-vanishes. Gerard is stoic. Random is concerned about being able to fight the rebs mano-e-mano. Eleanore is unhappy. Llewella is appropriately sympathetic. Victoria, who is just about to leave Deiga, gives her Trump of Mordred to Job, and has him call Mordred to ask about Julian's abrupt disappearance. Mordred relays the message about Jonas' death through Job. Job looks generally nonplussed. Meanwhile, Gawain comandeers a horse and rides out through the Begma front and surrenders to a Begman patrol. He then manages to climb his way up the command ladder until he's talking to a (commoner) Amberite. He claims to be Lot's son. The lieutenant he's talking to gives the claim some thought, then brings in a really heavy chest for Gawain to lift. Gawain lifts it. The lieutenant says he'll pass the word up the chain of command. Soon enough, Mordred hears of it and goes to meet Gawain. Mordred and Gawain talk, and Mordred eventually takes Gawain to see Amber. Gawain meets Random and says "hi" to Fiona again (he and she apparantly already know each other.) Victoria returns to Atlantis and begins presiding over the week long funeral of her father. Fiona Trumps her and gossips a little about Gawain and Jonas. The Rebels have a meeting and talk about taking over Amber, and Gawain. Lot doesn't want people killing Gawain. Tsark is put in charge of rescuing Orlando. Tsark and Dara talk about this plan, and where Orlando might be. Eventually, Tsark calls Fiona. Fiona lets "slip" that Orlando is in Amber's dungeons near the Pattern room. She also mentions that she had Victoria's father killed, and that she's in a sulk about not being able to mess around with Jonas' body or get Orlando killed. Tsark and Fiona chat. Then Tsark and Dara take off for one of Orlando's Shadows. Julian, who badly needs a subcommander, gets handed Gawain, and puts him on the field with a rather nominal command to see how good he is and whether or not they can trust him. Tsark and Dara get to Orlando's Shadow, and talk with the servants there. Then they raid Orlando's Trumps. They find what they were looking for (a Trump of Amber's prisons). Jonas' funeral happens just after Victoria's father's ends. Victoria puts Job in charge of the "New Reformed" Church of Atlantis, and celebrates the end of her father's funeral by bloodily killing a great number of Red Death cultists and other undesireables. Dara Trumps into the Amber dungeons and finds Orlando, but the Trump contact is noticed by Fiona, and she alerts Mordred. Dara slips back out, but Mordred moves Orlando to Rebma. |
"I have a better Combat than Orlando does unconscious!" - Mordred "Well, if you'd like the duel for the throne, I'd be down with that." - Lot to Mordred "What Tsark did was an act of war, and I don't worry much about how the war is going to end because I intend to end it." - Lot
"We've captured a man who claims to be a son of your brother." -
Amberite officer
"So, how are you responding to this revelation of possible kid? Execute
[Gawain] immediately!" - GM, helping Mordred
"Eleanore: any actions?" - GM
"Gawain, son of Lot." - Gawain, introducing himself
"Can you curse someone if you don't have a tongue?" - Victoria, ooc "I was thinking when I die, if I die for the good guys, I'm going to curse Mordred." - Victoria, ooc
- Mordred calls Fiona -
"He didn't like his father." - Mordred "Now is there anything else? I'm vivisecting Orlando, and I don't want him to die before I get back. ...No, just kidding." - Fiona
"Hating all those muggy, 100 degree days?" - Dave
"Please treat him with all courtesy." - Mordred
"So, have you heard the news?" - Gerard "Anyway, I thought that Mordred wouldn't want it spread around... So I'm going to go call Tsark." - Fiona "Fiona is my anti-drug!" - Damian
"Hi Lot!" - Tsark "You know, Jonas let Grayson hack his lung open. He was a better father!" - Mary chiding Lot
"So, Stilty here approaches you..." - GM, re: Eleanore of the fancy
crutches "It helps if you think of offering [Victoria] anything short of your crown, because those are basically the stakes we're dealing with here." - Julian "Also, hey, who's going to be commanding our Navy here? If your answer is 'Gerard' then your answer is 'wrong.'" - Julian
"As I'm sure you're aware, Victoria's father died." - Mordred
"Ga-wayne." - GM
"Rebels!" - GM, addressing the PC rebels "This is actually the true issue between Gawain and his dad, the pronunciation of his name. 'Dad, it's Gawain!' 'Ga-wayne!' 'I hate you!!'" - Damian "Yes, I had a son (which everyone apparently knew before me), yes, it was before the second rebellion, yes, we're on bad terms, yes, I still don't want anyone to kill him even so; the floor is open to criticisms, Tsark?" - Lot
"Hand him a spare trump of Julian, or just let him use yours?" - GM
"Lot's been cursed to be constantly betrayed by those near him." - Fiona
"I wonder what kind of king a guy with a curse like that would make?" -
Tsark
"It's just that I could do a lot of things with Orlando's corpse." -
Fiona
"What's Victoria been up to lately?" - Tsark "Actually, you are pretty clear that Orlando segregates his tea-growing shadow from his living shadow, and doesn't let anyone in to his tea-growing shadow, which qualifies him as a total freak." - GM
"We're going to postpone the funeral until Victoria can attend." -
Mordred
"Oh, but just think! It would do so much damage to Julian's psyche! The
woman he loves, mangling the corpse of his only son! It would be so
beautiful!" - Madeline
"So, you'll arrange the Night of Long Knives for the Knights of the Red
Death..." - GM "So! What a great omen for the dawn of Victoria's reign: massive numbers of people getting killed in ritualistic manners! I still can't believe that Fiona managed to convince Llewella that you were her child..." - GM
"He's already given a curse. He can't give another, right?" - Mordred
"You might as well just kill him now." - Jeff |
Session 19
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As is distressingly often the case, it took me a while to get to this log, so it's going to be vague. Thanks to Madeline for invaluable help in pegging down some of the finer points. Martin and Gawain meet under the flag of parley, and they gossip about the family. Martin does the whole recruit-attempt thing. Gawain mentions that Lot is cursed to be constantly betrayed. Llewella sends a bird of desire to Tsark, saying she wants to meet him. She suggests an area away from the fighting, where ambush is difficult. Tsark checks out the area, then responds with acceptance. Victoria's reworking the church of Atlantis, and doesn't deify herself. Tsark and Llewella meet. Llewella wants to hedge Rebma's bets by releasing Orlando -- all Tsark has to do is come in there and accept delivery. Tsark's suspicious. Llewella won't do the actual delivery. Tsark ends up agreeing with the plan. Tsark sends his lackey Despil to Rebma to accept delivery of Orlando. Despil does so without being molested. Orlando feigns unconsciousness until he gets Trumped through, then he bitches a little bit. Then he's packed off to a Shadow with competent medical treatment, since he's been given a poison. Various gossip about how Orlando was rescued. Eleanore, hearing about this, sends a bird of desire to Orlando, mentioning that Jonas saved Orlando's life. Gawain trains birds to intercept the rebs' messenger pigeons, to some good effect. Victoria finds out that Gawain's a better general than she, and she sends Job to Gawain for advice regularly, trying to get out of having to be a general. Eventually, Julian notices this, reports it to Mordred, and they promote Gawain to being a general in fact as well as in name. This also makes him busy enough that Victoria has to get back to work. Victoria is annoyed. Grayson launches a raid on Ejienne, destroying a bunch of the port facilities there. Mordred sets up a dragnet to bring down Grayson's raiding force. After a bunch of machinations, Mordred catches Grayson's ships. There's a big battle featuring Mordred, Gawain, Victoria, Gerard, Random, Tsark, Caine, and Grayson, but the whole affair is fairly inconclusive -- no serious injuries or deaths for the royals. The rebs lose some ships, but manage to get largely free. The tactic of jumping over the side of the ship in order to get out of a losing battle is perfected, particularly for Mordred and Victoria, who can breathe water. While that's going on, Orlando Trumps a bunch of people into the dungeons of Amber, and they block loyalist Trumps -- which doesn't turn out to matter very much, since Mordred's made a bunch of Trumps of his captains. |
"And I've heard some not-so-nice things about [Random] from my father." -
Gawain
"I would still prefer not to have it happen in Rebma." - Tsark, on the
retrieval of Orlando "I agree with you that Fiona is not by nature suited to politics. She is more straightforward than most of the family." - Julian
"What's [Random's] deal?" - Gawain
"Yes, Jonas and Eleanore killed Eric while he was... unsuspecting. They
then attempted to hide this fact..." - Julian to Gawain
"It's still unknown who killed Flora, but that's a hundred years past,
and we'll probably never know. The general theory is that Deirdre did
it." - Julian
"How good a condition am I in? Or, how bad, I should say?" - Orlando
"Shadow's pretty big." - Tsark
"Victoria! Knock knock knock... It's yo mama!" - GM "[Gawain's hawk] is very well-trained. Quite possibly, it's better trained than Mercy." - GM
"I'm going to send you a brick of desire!" - Jeff
"It's good that no one sends skunks of desire..." - Damian
"[Llewella] was the supreme goddess..." - Job, gingerly
"I wonder whether any of us have had kids that weren't total
disappointments." - Orlando
"You've brought down two members of the family with that crossbow..." -
Jeff to Random "Gerard is laying about him with the axe, in not the greatest style, but-- some hurting is definitely going down." - GM
"You see Tsark kick Gerard in the chest and flip over him, landing on his
back..." - GM "You glance over. You see Mordred making his way towards you. You glance over again. You see Tsark moving towards him. You see Gerard moving towards Tsark. It's like a conga line." - GM to Gawain
"I'm told that belaying pins, when thrown by Gerard, are deadly
weapons." - Mordred
"Or you could just beat the snot out of Random." - GM |
Session 20
|
As might be expected, the GM didn't get around to writing this log until months after the session in question, so it's going to be somewhat vague. Many thanks to Madeline for invaluable help in pinning down the details. Orlando and Eleanore talk via Trump and in person. At some point or another, Orlando gets a reasonably good look at a Shadow close to where Eleanore's doing ship-building stuff. Orlando's bat of desire gets through to Eleanore, and she sends back a bird saying, "Why a bat?" Morded makes a series of requests to Fiona asking for mystical aid. He suggests a sea monster. She says something insincere about getting right to work on that. He also suggests something that can tell him where the enemy boats are. She can do that, but she requires Amberite flesh. That seems like a no-go. Orlando details Dara and Jurt (Hendrake) to a bunch of his spy stuff, since he's had his attention too divided. There's some back and forth about Orlando trying to get Dara to come to him with more stuff instead of to Tsark, and whether or not Dara and Jurt notice the people who are set to spy on them. Fiona and Gawain talk. She wants his flesh. He suggests Victoria. Orlando tracks back Eleanore's ship-creation efforts from the Shadow that he saw, and draws Trumps of the bridges of each ship. Fiona and Victoria talk. Victoria gives Fiona permission, and Fiona whacks off a chunk of Victoria's leg through the contact. Victoria was giving a sermon at the time, and so she works the whole thing into a martyrdom deal. Fiona presents Mordred with three ravens who can talk to an extent, and, apparantly, find Rebel boats that are hundreds of miles away and report their positions. Victoria gets weird dreams. Orlando notes that three of the Weir are Amberites. Raised eyebrows all 'round. Tsark is told to figure out what's up. Eleanore's ships arrive, and there's a bit of business where a task force including a couple of those ships attempts to ambush the Rebels, only the rebels Trump aboard the "ambushers'" ship and put it under their command. All of the five ships that Eleanore brought are taken out in succession, though only the first two are captured (the rest scuttle themselves). Mordred has a "discussion" with Eleanore about the advisibility of having innocent little chats with the rebels. Grayson's far-range scouting work finds some of Llewella's reinforcement ships coming in, and ambushes them. There's another naval engagement of the inconclusive variety, and a lot of the Loyal reinforcements end up not getting in there. No deaths or serious injuries to the Royals. Jenna (one of the Weir/Amberites) talks with Tsark (in Tsark's bedroom, at night, with sarcastic side-commentary courtesy of Dara) about the possibility of getting herself and her sisters out of the Weir society. Tsark and Jenna feel like they probably can't just challenge the Weir or do it openly and have the Weir not get angry. Later, Gawain and Orlando chat, then Gawain has to go try to kill Tsark. There's a battle in Arden where Gawain and Tsark face off, and try to avoid killing each other. Tsark kills a succession of Gawain's horses, which annoys Gawain greatly. Gawain calls Julian, and Julian and Random arrive shortly after. Gawain, Julian, and Random try to trap and kill/capture Tsark, but Tsark is a touch difficult to trap, and he escapes. No deaths or serious injuries. This will change next session, never you fear. |
"Oh, speaking of that, part A went well, and we'll be moving along to
part B." - Orlando to GM
"Well, we didn't settle on what Random's doing." - Mordred
"Anybody have any conversations with NPCs they want to have..." - GM
"Oooh, so we're being secretive." - Fiona
"Got any bodies of relatives hanging around?" - Fiona
"To really mess up the economy, you need to flood the place with trade
staples, which is hard, 'cause you can't dump, say, a knapsack of cows."
- GM "For the record, I'd just like to say that you were not specifically chosen to get all the sex-related subplots, it just happened that way." - GM to Bernie
"But with good people by his side, I think he could be a good king." -
Orlando, on Lot "Dara kind of rolls to the side and says, 'What, they're coming in to your tent at night now? That wasn't the deal.' " - GM
"At some point when I'm close to cover I yell, 'Hey, Gawain, talk!' " -
Tsark
"And from what I understand, you killed the guy who [killed Eric]. Aren't you
satisfied?" - Gawain
"You jump up into the tree, Julian rides by and smacks his broadsword
into the tree..." - GM |
Session 21: Death & Serious Injury
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We review what everyone's up to, generally. Tsark and Dara are plotting getting the Weir girls free of their oppressive kinsmen. They don't come up with anything particularly satisfying, so they resolve to ask Orlando about it. Mordred's in the Navy. Eleanore's making the Navy. Gawain's in the army. Orlando's sneaky. Victoria has learned that Atlantis is having difficulty with its dryland neighbors, pertaining to the appearance of weakness caused by the replacement of its King with a two-year-old, the shakeups in its church, etc. Victoria decides that more death is called for. She asks Job for advice, and he suggests maybe a little less death. Victoria thinks about it, then decides to go to Atlantis, which she does without telling anyone, to nobody's immense surprise. Gawain and Grayson try to think of people on the Throne that would be willing to take the job and the pointy hat, and who would make people happier than Mordred or Lot. They don't come up with anything in particular. Orlando, Lot, Grayson, and Tsark chat about the womenfolk who haven't taken the Pattern yet. Orlando suggests just drawing Trump of the Weir and Trumping them away, which everyone thinks is a good plan. Lot is detailed to think about ways that the Rebs can get the womenfolk onto the Pattern, so that they'll have more Shadow-capable people. Julian tells Mordred that he's gonna do this big battle thing and take the commanders of the enemy captive. Mordred agrees, with reservations. Victoria goes to Atlantis and advises the regent about what she should do for the drylanders. There ends up being not so much death. Victoria sticks around for a while and helps out diplomatically. Mordred can't find Victoria, and goes to Job to see if Job knows where Victoria is. Job suspects that she's in Atlantis. She's not taking Trump calls. Morded wants to go there under Job's auspices, Job being the high priest and all. Job suggests making a Trump of Mercy instead. Mordred smirks. Morded calls Mercy and relays a message to Victoria that she should be back in Arden in five days. Victoria agrees, actually planning to take seven days. Mordred doesn't need her back for seven days. Everyone's happy. The rebs pull the Weir girls out of the Weir, and set them up somewhere out-of-the-way for future use. Gawain and Orlando talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, the GM has no idea about what. Victoria returns to Arden and summerarily informs Job that they will be getting married. Job is nonplussed, but eventually suggests that they not have Julian marry them, seeing as they're both religious figures and all. Victoria asks Fiona to marry them instead. Fiona is amused and agrees. Victoria calls Mordred and informs him of the upcomming blessed event. Mordred invites all the loyalists, who all come. Gawain, Random, Mordred, and two actresses of ill repute throw Job an impromptu bachelor party. Victoria and Job get married, which apparantly involves drinking each other's blood. There's lots of fire. Lots of gossip. Julian's big battle happens. It turns out it's all a plot to trap Tsark, but Lot figures that out and sends Tsark away. Then Lot gets trapped by the trap. Eleanore rides him down as he's trying to Trump out. Eleanore calls Julian through. Lot and Julian fence, and Julian is badly injured (by some guy with a lance under orders from Orlando). Eleanore attacks Lot, Orlando attacks Eleanore. Gawain comes on by, gets trapped under his horse, and grapples Lot. Victoria comes by, Orlando tries to deal with her. Deirdre comes by and knocks out Victoria, who's pulled through a Trump contact to Mordred. Gawain knocks out Lot and is going through a Trump with Lot to Mordred, when Orlando dives in. Gerard comes by and attacks Deirdre. Deirdre cuts off Gerard's leg at the same time that Gerard knocks out (or possibly kills) Deirdre. Coming through the Trump contact, Orlando puts a sword to Mordred's throat, and there's a flurry of action as Mordred tries to use the Jewel of Judgement to get away, and Orlando tries to kill him. In the end, Orlando, in the process of getting his ass kicked by Gawain, uses his last bits of energy to slam his sword down on the already-injured Mordred's face, killing him. Gawain bounces Orlando off a wall, knocking him out. At the end of the session, Gawain's injured but okay in Castle Amber, Lot and Orlando are captive in Castle Amber, Victoria's stunned in Castle Amber, Eleanore's a-ok in Arden, Julian's either dead or badly injured in Arden, Gerard's injured but stable in Arden, Deirdre's suffocating in Arden, Mordred's dead in Castle Amber, and Random's position is unaccounted for. Don't you all feel safe? | Quotes here when coded. |