Log 10
Before long, news filtered to the Castle that the Raksasha had an army
and were starting to move towards Amber. And a rather large army, at
that -- reports estimated it at around a half million.
Of course, Amber's armies are not inconsiderably sized themselves, but
it is conceded by all and sundry that Random is not the general that
Eric, Corwin, or (of course) Benedict were. In fact, he's not the
general that Julian was. So there was some cause for concern, though
Bleys offered to muster what (small) forces he could and join in the
aid.
As such, Janna decided, with the aid of Adria, to do her part in
adding to the armies, and went off to seek arboreal troops, as the
initial battleground was expected to be in the Forest Arden.
Meanwhile, Jamie had a look-around and discovered that the ward that
had been surrounding the Raksasha Shadows had been removed. With this
in mind, she decided to round up a gaggle of cousins and see what was
to be seen.
In relatively short order, Adria, Martin, Jamie, Gavin, and Gwenyth
went off to raid the Raksasha's homeworld. Unfortunately, the whole
thing was a bit of an anticlimax: while they found a bit of
background material, it seemed that the entire place was largely
abandoned. Thus, everyone went back to help gather green elves for
the defense of Amber.
It quickly became apparant that the defense of Amber was going to be
tough work, unfortunately. Random and Gérard were simply not
the generals that some of their brothers were. And, while Bleys
performed predictably brilliantly, the forces that he could get from
the Golden Circle to the Forest Arden were few.
However, Random refused to let Bleys command the armies of Amber,
fearing that certain unfortunate political situations would lead Bleys
to overthrow Random. Bleys, of course, pled the security of Amber,
but Random was adamant.
Finally, Bleys called a meeting of the younger generation and
explained that he planned to take control of the armies for the
duration of the war, and needed their assurance that they would, at
the very least, not make trouble for him. Jamie and Gavin agreed to
actively help Bleys, and the others agreed not to get in his way.
The seizing of control was somewhat less than incredibly smooth, as
Gavin was forced to shoot Gérard through the knee (and there
was some suprise at his ability to fire a gun around there), but Bleys
was in control in short order. One of his first actions was to remove
Gwenyth, Janna, and Adria from the command headquarters, which caused
some to doubt his alleged non-partisan stance.
The fighting raged on, with Amber now holding its own, though, thanks
to the previous management, losses had been severe. Bleys, in an
attempt to bring the war to a preemptive close, launched an attack on
the enemy HQ. There were some tense moments as it looked as if Janna
and Gwenyth had been sent on a suicide attack, but Bleys saved them at
the last moment, and the attack was succesful.
Unforunately...
Geffemo and Tiequero were nowhere to be found. A quick search of the
camp found that none of the senior generals were around. As Bleys
began to look more and more irate, Caine appeared from a Trump flash
and informed the group that Geffemo, Tiequero, and a bunch of Raksasha
had invaded Castle Amber. Without even time to look shamefaced, the
group moved to Castle Amber via a Trump gate of Caine's.
Once there, it was a brief ride (on horses) through the corridors of
Castle Amber to get to the North wing, where Random, Gérard,
and Martin, along with a few castle guard, were holding the fort.
With the arrival of the PC's, Caine, and Bleys, it was quickly decided
to attack the east wing, where the royal compartments and the Jewel of
Judgement was kept.
In short order, the group fought their way to Random's quarters, only
to find Geffemo and Tiequero gone, and the Jewel with them. Random
found his Trump deck and brought Tom and the Dude back from Chaos as
there was a momentary, stunned pause.
To be continued in relatively short order.
Session 9 | Session 11
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