Log Twelve
At the beginning of the Session:
Hazard. Felix and Electra, the son of Julian and the daughter of Aybel, were plotting to bring William back from his exile for punishment. Jessica was in shock, as William had proposed marriage to her only a few hours before Hazard's death, and now he was to be exiled. William was getting ready to leave Amber, but he was having to wait for the fires in Arden to die down before he left. Julian was in the infirmary for severe burns, having had a Golem explode all over him. Benedict had finally finished dealing with the forest fires, and was taking his first real rest in days. Gerard was so drunk as to be comatose. The whole family was pissed off at William, bigtime.
Quotes from the Session:
"I hold you responsible for her death, and you must make amends. I have had words with Random, and he has agreed not to hold your execution, but merely to exile you." Benedict
"Will an apology help?" William.
"No." Benedict.
(This was actually last session, but it had tailed off, and I had to remind William, so it gets put down here.)
"Why is your accent so terrible?" William.
"Weiill, an Anvhar, voewels arre aptionail. End an Dis, et is aill glottal stoypps."(sic) Brion, William's ward.
"Fiona says, 'It seems to have come from beyond Chaos - the Abyss perhaps.'" GM
"I am shit scared." Jessica
"Well, your reaction is nothing on Benedict's. He pales visibly, takes out a hipflask without apparently thinking about it, and drains it in one. First time you've ever seen him tremble." GM
"Right, now I am scared." Jessica
APOLOGY COUNT:
Seven, all from William. One to Benedict, even though Benedict himself had said it would not help, one to Julian for the mess the Golem left him in, one to Coral and one to Rinaldo, one official one to Random, one to Merlin and a muttered one to Moradin.
Having been officially anounced as exiled, William departed for Shadow. As he started to shift, a raven swooped down and gave him a note, which he read. It was posthumous instructions from Hazard, who had arranged for such an eventuallity. He had to go to a world he had no idea how to get to, and find her ward, and tell him she was dead, and look after him. Also. he had to wind up the Irregular Brigade, her private army.
As only Fiona knew how to get to the Shadow of Gerath, he had to Trump her, persuade her not to kill him, persuade her he was not a murderer, and beg her to help. She was in fact very nice to him, which scared him more than he could say. In the mean time, Jessica had gone off into Shadow, and Felix and Electra were still plotting to have their revenge on William for the death of Hazard, as they deemed him responsible.
William ended up using the last of his money to charter a ship to the most desolate inhabited planet in the Shadow, Dis, and told Hazard's protogee, Brion, that she was dead. Brion sulked for a while, and then asked if he could acompany William, as Hazard had always promised to let him see other worlds.
William and Brion ended up sharing a flat on Earth together, while William learned to deal with Brion's Disian accent and habit of stashing weapons everywhere. It took a long time to teach him to put his sword down. After a while, William got caught, by Brion, taking a Trump call from Benedict, about a matter of some urgency. It seems that Benedict was positively eager to make William atone for his mistakes, by chucking him into hot water. William decided to take Brion out into Shadow to help him, as the boy had won the "Twenties", and was a great athlete with a punch that could do things to buildings. Dis was a heavy gravity planet.
As they had plenty of time, or so they thought, William decided to walk to Chaos. He forgot to take into account the time differentials, so while they were away, lots of things happened. Jessica ended up crying her eyes out for William and having the occasional affair, and Felix got Electra to help him...
Their plan was simple, that is, find a scapegoat for the murder, and when William gets back, kill him. It had only one flaw. It didn't work. Fiona knew they were lying, and so did Random, who was good enough at poker to realise that Electra was hiding something. Felix took the brunt of the blame, and was taken to be dealt with by Fiona, while Electra just disappeared.
Three days later, uncle Julian disappeared in a bizarre set of circumstances. Having been mostly blinded by the explosion of the golem, he was unable to escape the hot funnel of nothingness that came out and snatched him away. it left a charred circle on his floor, and no trace of him.
At about this time, Jessica had a posthumous message from Hazard, telling her to kill the first person who climbed the Kolvir road after midnight, on the morning of S-day, Midsummer's day for her.
William followed Benedict's orders, setting out into Shadow to try and find a clue as to how Hazard had died, Brion proved invaluable, and when they were attacked by Abyss creatures, he picked one up and used it to hit several others. They found no real leads, but they did visit the Captains and Generals of the Irregular Brigade, and told them about Hazard's death. Control of the Irregs was left with Benedict, who kept the army going in Hazard's memory, and because it was in fact amazingly efficient and useful.
When they passed Ygg, the tree spoke, calling William the carrion son of Deidre (his nick-name used to be Carrion) and calling Brion the son of Gerard.
In Amber, Jessica was getting along well with Moradin, Hazard's little bro and front-running contender for most gorgeous guy in the world, despite being betrothed to William. She left him one night after giving him a massage (not getting along THAT well. Yet.) And in the morning he had disappeared, leaving only a charred black circle where he had been dozing on the floor. Jessica was accused, rather unfairly, of having something to do with it, and decided that she would rather shove off into Shadow than face the looks some people were giving her. She ended up in one of Benedict's Shadows, officially under his protection, if on parole. Benedict was away winding up the parts of the "'Regs" that were no longer needed.
While Jessica was moping around his Mansion, Benedict returned there, to spend a few days recuperating from having met some of the Irregulars. Brog had really surprised him, by eating the money he had been payed. Anything of less value than Platinum is not worth carrying around. That night Jessica was woken by a prickling feeling of heat, and ran out of the room, to find him already up, sword drawn, and slightly worried. A few minutes later, his room was gutted by fire. On Jessica's suggestion, Benedict Trumped Fiona, the expert on magical phenomena, and she traced the source of the fire.
When she informed Benedict and Jessica that the fire came from the Abyss, Benedict almost had a heart attack. He ordered Jessica to stay where she was, and he and Fiona set off that moment for the Abyss, but had to go the long way, through Shaodw, due to the inordinate number of Shadow storms screwing up magic and the Trump cards..
William and Brion had reached Chaos, and Merlin, now Emperor, thanks to Dara, and rather angry at having to harbour an Amberite exile, had graciously decided to let William jump down the Abyss to see what the disturbances were. This was a Brion suggestion, but as he actually volunteered for it, nobody held it against him. As William moped his way though the passages, he spotted none other than Uncle Bleys, long thought dead. Bleys agreed that if he ever showed up in Amber, he would make sure William could see Jessica's reaction when she realised that here was the man who had fallen off Kolvir, before her very eyes.
As William had no idea how to survive the rigours of the Abyss, he had to have a word with Suhuy about it, and a peeved Merlin had given Suhuy orders not to make it easy. He did not forgive William for killing Hazard for a very long time. Thus, William had to learn how to shift shape, and then break into Helmawrways to find out how to get back after jumping in. All pit divers are Helmawrs, here.
At the end if the session, Brion and William were planning to break into Helmawr, and Jessica was in Benedict's Shadow suffering a near nervous breakdown after seeing him look scared.
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