Log Eighteen
At the beginning of the session, the last of the Irregulars, and the army Benedict had been able to raise in a few days, were charging the first of the demon armies. Another demon army was just coming into view, and things looked bad for Biggles and Co.
Quotes from the Session.
"Jessica, you know the person who dismounts the Unicorn... It's Hazard." GM
"I faint. But I remember to hand the baby to Aneirin first." Jessica
"My jaw drops. Then I faint." Bronwyn.
"Ever get the feeling you are one of the very few sane people left in Shadow?" Hazard, regarding the supine duo
"Erm...?" Aneirin
"OK, scratch that." Hazard
"Where have you been?" Jessica
"Dead."Hazard
"Hey, Hazard, do you have a boyfriend yet?" William
"Uh, yes. Benedict." Hazard
"I put on the Brion accent. 'May gads, youw deednet?'" William
APOLOGY COUNT: 1, Fiona to Jessica!
As the three armies headed together on an intercept course, the second, smaller demon army swung into the first, doing serious damage. It appeared that Benedict had been expecting this all along, because the leaders of the two armies met in the melee, and Benedict saved Moradin from being turned into a colandar by an enthusiastic DragonLord. They consulted in the midst of battle, and then suddenly Benedict ordered the retreat, grabbed Moradin and galloped back to the Haven, followed by confused DragonLords and rather sobered Cossacks. Behind them, the pursuing demons suddenly froze, then exploded, in the greatest fireworks display ever seen. Out of the cloud of flame rode a slim black-clad figure on the Unicorn. She cantered in midair to the battlements where Bronwyn Jess and Aneirin were, and dismounted. Jessica fainted, Bronwyn's jaw dropped about three feet at the thought that her heroine was alive and well. (Despite telling Benedict that she didn't think much of Hazard, she had not until that moment realised it was the same Hazard that has for thirty or so years held all Academy records, still unbroken.) She fainted too, and Hazard bowed to the rather amazed Aneirin.
Having saved the world, Hazard left them to it, but first trumped Brion and told him he could stop searching. He came back and took Bronwyn off to bed for a while, and Jessica was dragged along to the infirmary to recover.
Jessica, having woken up, was put through something very nasty. Fiona apologised to her! Jessica would rather have been stabbed, she later said. Jessica went down to pay her last respects to GeltCarl, and saw Hazard galloping along a corridor on her monster horse, Bucephela. William was clinging on behind. When she went to look for the mess, they had disappeared. There was, incidently, no exit to the corridor they took, so Ceph jumped through the wall. No great feat for him.
William and Hazard had gone off to look for Benedict, supposedly the hero of the hour, who had shipped off into Shadow. They found him once more in the grip of the Greenfever, and managed to pull him back from the brink of death. However, the Greenfever has the effect of separating memories etc, and they had to listen to Benedict trying to put them all together in his delirium. William sudenly realised how much Benedict had been through and was never rude to him again. One thing he learned was that GeltCarl had been his daughter and they had never even been able to mention it to each other as she would have been at risk. As well, he learned that Benedict was hopelessly in love with Hazard and unable to admit it. William left before Hazard did, so that Benedict could be nosy about what had happened to her without other people knowing. When Hazard and Benedict were alone, tension grew. Benedict admitted to Hazard that he loved her, but was not prepared to bed her. As he grew stronger after his illness, Hazard annoyed him to keep him interested in life, and kept her dear sweet murderous stallion Bucephelon in the same longhouse.
When Benedict was strong enough to leave, he couldn't bring himself to go. The pair talked a lot, and eventually argued, and Benedict nearly gave in to Hazard's honest love for him. At the very last moment, he picked up his sword to leave. Hazard, in despair, screamed abuse at him, and a certain word triggered an age-old curse, forcing him to take the worst possible course of action. They spent the night together. This was technically high treason and Oathbreaking, and a few more things that meant Benedict could never love her in public. For one, she was his ward. (More on this in later logs.)
Then the Serpent made an appearence in the Haven, and the Unicorn came back to fight it, but the Jewel was with Bleys, and the Serpent failed to get it back, despite causing Jessica to faint again, exploding a mountain or two, and falling on the Haven, ruining the North Wall. All in a day's work.
Bronwyn was drunk for the funerals of GeltCarl and Legolas. Legolas was interred in a spot which Alastor the Ranger chose, and GeltCarl, following her wishes, had her body put into a tower. The tower blasted off during the night, so maybe she had some idea that she wanted to test. Who knows, when she used to be Hazard's best friend?
All returned to Amber to find it redecorated - Flora was the only Amberite who had not been at the battle. Aneirin walked the Pattern (Bronwyn already had, but the time-scale was such that any mention would probably have confused more than it helped. I'm still muddled over that bit, and I'm the GM.) Bronwyn, whose boyfriend Brion had gone off into Shadow again, met Moradin, the leading contender for most handsome man in Shadow, and decided that Brion wasn't that great after all. The morning after she had gone to bed with him, she woke to find her shoulder was hurting, and when Moradin looked, he went white. He showed her the reflection of the tattoo in the mirror, and explained that it was uncle Crowley. Fiona started teaching Aneirin magic, and was pleased to find that he learned rapidly. William's exile was cleared up by Gerard, who was acting as regent because nobody trusted anybody else.
And life went on. William tended to steer clear of Amber, having a lot of work to do. When he first went back to Amber, he met up with Hazard, who let slip the fact that she and Benedict were lovers. Hazard and Benedict slipped out into Shadow for a while, to be together, and William came with them on the grounds they didn't mind.
Out in Shadow, limpet-mining during a second world war, William was found by Crowley, who revealed that Hazard was pregnant. William was rather loathe to break the news to Hazard, in case she hurt him, but all she did was hug him and go to tell her lover. William had never seen Benedict smile so much.
Then, in the Portfolio, disaster struck. Hazard had discovered that Benedict had another lover, and was getting moody, and when he beat her at chess she started arguing with him. One thing led to another, and she left, without bothering to put up magical protections. She was caught by Crowley, and William and Benedict had to rescue her. When they finally got to her, she had lost the child she was carrying. Because Crowley had tortured her and perfomed a Caesarian section with a blade of Tanakan steel, which does not let regeneration happen, she might never be able to have children again. William and even Donne, Benedict's loving and psychotic ex-girlfriend, sided against him.
Back in Amber, Bronwyn and Moradin became a definite item while Brion was away. Moradin took her out into Shadow to show her about magic and shifting and so on, and she realised she was pregnant. She told Moradin, who almost burst into tears with emotion, and said she was the first woman he had ever really loved. (Now, do we think Jessica will be pleased about this? No-oo.)
As the lovers really wanted to be sure, Moradin started on a spell to check if she really was pregnant. She was, and it was going to be a boy. Bronwyn hugged him, and then screamed in pain as her tattoo of Crowley started to hurt. Moradin tried to stop it, but was already drained, and failed. Bronwyn Trumped Hazard, but she was blocking, so she trumped Fiona instead. As Moradin went into near terminal hypothermia, Fiona managed to get him back from the brink. She wanted to know where Bronwyn had got the tattoo, but Bronwyn had no idea how she had come by it. She wasn't even drunk when it happened, but just unconscious.
Around this point, Jessica asked Hazard about her parentage, and Hazard let slip the fact that she was in fact Corwin's, not Caine's. This meant that if William was also Corwin's - and Crowley had hinted at that - then as well as being engaged, they were brother and sister. (This earned the GM a mild beating from both parties) Jessica was naturally distraught, and decided then and there never to trust Hazard again. It only took her ten years or so to come to this conclusion.
With Moradin stabilised, Bronwyn slept, Fiona collapsed and then slept, and Hazard kept watch over her little brother. Aneirin was still closeted in his room, making small noises appear around the castle by magic. When he tried to project his voice, he caused an old servant to have a heart attack, but the man recovered from the shock of having a stuffed bear growling at him.
Moradin was soon up and about again, shagging Bronwyn senseless. Aneirin kept practising magic. William kept out of the way. Hazard sent Jessica, then Aneirin, into Corwin's Pattern to look for their father. Julian escorted Aneirin there - this is a plot developing here, as Aneirin is convinced Julian is gay, and Hazard and Julian are plotting something... Jessica had entered this world already, but Aneirin didn't know it. She had arrived in the centre of Corwin's Pattern, and gone and found him, and accused him outright of having an affair with Dierdre, without realising they were actually by the same mother as well as fathered by Oberon. Corwin, who had no memory of it, but some rather guilt-ridden suspicions, hit her, and ended up beating her rather badly.
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'Tanakan Steel' based on an original concept by Wendi Strang-Frost.