Aneirin vox Stellarum was bored. He ruled his world, when his two brothers did not interfere, wisely, but something was missing. He wished for adventure.
Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it...
Aneirin was startled that day to find he was approached, and on equal terms, by a black-clad ninja, who asked if Aneirin would be willing to accompany him. The ninja's movements were open and friendly, although his face could not be seen due to a black velvet mask. He was missing the two smaller fingers from his left hand. When Aneirin agreed, the ninja hit him. Hard. He blacked out.
Bronwyn was not bored. Brownyn was the Planet Champion at the Academy, which trains up girls and young men to fight as well as they can. Bronwyn was waiting for a challenger. She knew one would come. As she sat on the fence around the arena, dreaming of glory, a ninja aproached her. Ninjas are the male fighters here, so she was rather surprised when he talked to her, and even more surprised when he asked her to go with him. She challenged him, saying the winner got to do what they wanted to the loser, and he won. On this world, each time a ninja has killed a hundred men, he gets a finger removed from one hand. It seemed that this man had killed at least two hundred, because two fingers had been removed from his left hand.
At the beginning of the session, Jessica was hanging out in Valliard's Haven, surrounded by the Irregulars, but had not realised that the rest of the family was in the castle. (It must be explained here that many parts of Castle Valliard are modelled on Amber, and when, for example, Fiona Trumped her, it was impossible to tell the difference, as Fiona did not give any indication of her whereabouts.) William was out in Shadow, accompanied by his good friend Legolas, as they tried to find out more about Crowley. Crowley's main attack had not yet fallen on Valliard's Haven, and Benedict was getting drunk as much as possible. This rather worried those who knew his habits.
Quotes from the session.
"You open the box, and find in it a semi-conscious woman in a lame bikini." GM.
"I don't even ask" Jessica.
"At this point it must be explained who you are talking to. The woman is about five-two, and her eyes are either grey or blue, you can't make it out. Her hair is red, but with gold roots. Her ears are pointed, and her smile is genuine, and the guards are trembling in her presence." GM.
"Good morrow." GeltCarl, front runner for scariest ever non-Amberite.
"Oh, I've hear rumours about the birds and the bees - I don't believe them - they're disgusting." Bronwyn.
"And true." Benedict.
"I faint." Bronwyn.
"Why won't you tell me?" Bronwyn, about GeltCarl's relationship with Alastor the Ranger.
"Mea filia, fulgor est potestas. Specifically, your weakness, is my strength. In your family, the greatest thing you can give is knowledge." GeltCarl.
Jessica was woken by GeltCarl to inform her that a large and ornately gift-wrapped box had arrived, and would she please deal with it, as it was addressed to her. She meandered down to the main gate, where it had been dragged in under guard, and opened it. Out came a woman in a lamé bikini, and a man in black and red, with the expression of a rather unwilling martyr. GeltCarl was the one who spotted the note pinned to the inside of the chest - "Jessica, a couple of cousins for you. Don't let them die just yet, yours, Didactylos."
When the two cousins were shown around, they were also introduced to Benedict. He went so far as to smile grimly before translating the word Didactylos for Jessica - it means two-fingered, as well as Loyal. Bleys was putting all his remaining digits up at Jessica, as per usual.
Bronwyn rather pissed off Benedict, by remarking that she generally maimed her enemies if she couldn't kill them, and making some rather nasty remarks about Hazard, his favourite niece, and the only one with any guts. Jessica ducked, but Benedict was by now too depressed about the coming war to do anything about it. Amusement was provided by Bronwyn loudly proclaiming that she had heard of sex, but had no idea what it was. She had heard rumours that it had something to do with the parts you were taught to attack on men. Benedict, poor man, had to tell her it was true, as Aneirin just shrugged his shoulders and declined when asked to explain. Bronwyn fainted. When she came round, Benedict had gone, and GC had had food brought in, as well as a cloak for Bronwyn, who was still wearing only the lamé, and getting cold, because there are two suns in orbit around the Academy. Bronwyn leapt on the food like a pig, and Jessica and Aneirin got nothing until suppertime. GeltCarl insisted on mispronouncing Aneirin's name, calling him Aenerion.
On the way to supper, both youngsters were bitten by dragon-kittens. These are supposed to be totally untamable, so Hazard had found two pairs and tamed them. After her death the smaller pair, Bottons and Boots, no bigger then normal kittens, but with needlesharp teeth and claws, went to GeltCarl, who loved the animals. The bigger pair, Purdey and Muttley, as large as cats and utterly vicious, she left to Benedict, on the grounds that he hated them so.
At supper, Gerard was present, and the ninja Trumped in halfway through, snogged the lights out of Bronwyn, and then Trumped Brion in with a strict injunction to tell her, indeed, show her, all about the birds and the bees. He then took Aneirin aside and showed him how the Trump cards worked, and told him to explore his magical talent, if he got the chance.
The war came on with terrible intensity, but Crowley was not seen. However, the head of the army was seen to be Deirdre! Jessica borrowed GeltCarl's gun, which was a long barreled and rather primitive but accurate rifle, and tried to get a shot in at her, while GeltCarl primed the laser. (Seventeenth Century technology, and she has developed a laser. She called herself the greatest engineer in Shadow, and she might have been right.)
Jessica failed to shoot Deirdre that day, because there was not much ammo and she had to conserve it. GeltCarl lent her her own cloak, and dressed in Jessica's, so that the purple would not be singled out. That day, on the battlements, GeltCarl made a pact with the dark gods she had so long fought, that Aurora's life would be safe. The sky turned red, and red fire burned any demons who got too close, but it was only a temporary respite. Aneirin, watching from the battlements, got to see the glorious sight of Bronwyn getting impaled on a spear, and getting rescued by a knight in shining armour, which was white from helm to spurs.
Next day, Jessica hid in the kitchens, and Trumped Fiona to ask what she should do. Fiona thought she knew the situation, but when Jessica revealed that the child was Moradin's, she realised that the blood was exactly what Crowley needed, and the child had to die.
She came through the contact to try and kill Aurora, and nearly succeeded, but was stopped by Didactylos, who just happened to break her arm in doing so. Bronwyn was still in the infirmary, and Aneirin was being used as a messenger that day, being fast and relatively tireless, and also as yellow as custard. Late that afternoon, Crowley teleported in to try to kill Aneirin, but he had to stop and terrify a servant into telling him what the boy's name was. He had spotted the magical talent a mile off, but knew nothing else about the boy. The servant knew exactly what GeltCarl called him, so that must be his name, Aenerion. Crowley tried a death-spell, but because he had the wrong name, Aneirin survived. Crowley was chased off by the magicians in the city, who then told Aneirin that they reckoned "GC" had done it on purpose. She never miscalculated, after all.
At the end of the session, Crowley was besieging Valliard's Haven, and all of the PC's except William were there. Jessica was trying to stop Benedict from drinking any more, Bronwyn was drinking with Gerard, Aneirin was watching everyone.