Log Thirty

Amber explodes, Benedict is arrested

Slaine and Zenith went out and kidnapped a shadow of William and brought it back to Amber. William was put back into his (Shadow) body, and left Amber shortly thereafter. Shortly after that it came to Hazard's attention that he was not only William, but also Osric, hiding in the same mind.
William, whenever he was in his right mind, so to speak, came back to Amber to woo Chance. This may have been a ploy on Osric's part to steal her loyalty from her father. Benedict fumed but did nothing, not knowing about Osric. William went out into Shadow and designed a plague that the children of Corwin would be immune to, but which would kill others. He also invaded the mind of Mask Barriman, Warlord of Chaos, and persuaded him to attack Amber again.
This started a major war, and in one of the battles, Slaine used his rings to make demons afraid. Delighted with the consequences, he went after a demon he'd not dared approach yet - Dara. With her broken up in Primal Form, and his Viking bodyguard down to three men, he went after Mask. Mask went Primal - he became a blinding searing muddle of blades, which killed most people on the field, human and demon alike. Zenith was nearly killed, and Slaine was blinded.
In the infirmary of Amber, when finally Zenith had Trumped them back, Brand put the Jewel of Judgement into Slaine's left eye.
Osric, deciding to break up the family, sent a series of letters to Julian, telling him about Hazard's affair with Benedict, and leaving a lot to the imagination. As Julian had a crush on Hazard, he did not take well to these anonymous letters, but decided to see if he could clear her name. He came to the conclusion that they were indeed lovers. William was arrested for conspiring to plot against the family, after various shenanigans, and he was put on trial.
At the trial, it came out that Osric was in William's mind, and he tied up Fiona's mind when she went in there. While she was recovering, Osric exploded into Primal form, using William's body. Fiona was killed in the explosion, but Slaine used the Jewel of Judgement and slowed down everything around him and managed to save the rest of the family. The vial of plague bacteria was broken in the explosion, and Amber Castle disintegrated.
While the GM went off to calm down, the Players sorted out what was going on. Hazard was unconscious, Julian was in shock after seeing Fiona die. Moradin was the first to subcumb to the plague. Soon, Amberites were lapsing into comas all over the place, and the common people were dying.
The only ones who were utterly immune to the plague were those who were the sons and daughters of Corwin, with one generation difference only. The plague seemed to hit those with magical or shape-shifting abilities, over and above the damage it did to others.
Corwin, Benedict and Zenith were soon the only people capable of though - Slaine had lapsed into unconsiousness soon after delegating to Gerard the task that Benedict had given him, of getting the materials for camp hospitals and sleeping arrangements for those whose houses had been hit by flying lumps of Castle Amber from a thousand feet. Zenith went to Earth, sold his house through Bill Roth, and hired a couple of biochemists to find out what the plague was. Although they didn't work out exectly what was causing it, they did notice that exposure to the environment of Earth killed it. Within three days the family were on Earth, in England. Benedict remembered he had some land there from when the Barons last revolted, and cleaned up his mansion there so everybody could sleep.


The Elders recovered - Moradin and Flora took longest of all. Because the Dragon-Cats were eating sheep and cattle, it was though Politic that somebody should get hold of some land, where both the elders and the normal citizens of Amber could survive, and indeed have room to breathe. Without further ado, Benedict bought Hawaii.


Benedict stayed around his Mansion for a while, ostensibly to pay off farmers and look after Flora, still critical. In actual fact, he and Hazard were taking a holidy together. Benedict, as a Baron and a supposedly desirable bachelor, was invited to a party, by a Lady Selachii. He attended, taking Hazard as his wife, and not bothering to hide it. He also took William and Jessica.
Julian showed up at the party, and Lady Selachii was delighted to tell him that Dearest Baron Barriman had a lovely wife. Julian lost his cool and challenged Benedict to a duel, slapping him round the face in the middle of a crowded hall, while Hazard looked on in shock and William in mild amusement.
Julian needled Benedict, who at last agreed to duel him. They went outside and Trumped Corwin to act as a judge, with Zenith Trumped in to act as Benedict's second and Julian refusing one.

At the last minute, Corwin recieved a Trump call, announced that he was going to attend the birth of his grand-daughter, handed the combatants a cigar, and left. Benedict called the Duel off, and left hurridly. William calmed down Julian.
At Benedict's mansion, Slaine and Zenith started fighting, each determined to prove themself superior to the other. It ended with Zenith, in wolf form, having learned shape-shifting the hard way, running around the nearest town, Glastonbury. Slaine failed to find him, but Zenith did end up in bed with a wolf, so that's alright, and they were back to normal the next day. Sensing that Julian was about to tell the king, Zenith volunteered to do so first. He nearly did not survive the encounter, and two days later a pair of guardsmen arrived to arrest Benedict, who insisted on lending them a pair of manacles. The rationale behind sending only two guards was that if he chose to resist, an entire army would not be enough.


Benedict was flown to Hawaii, where he was put into Gaol. Hazard spent a day alone and then set off into Shadow. Rinaldo began Trumping people to tell them about the arrest and the upcoming trial, arranged at short notice.

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