The second session commenced with most of the players still split up, and enjoying themselves in their home shadows. Various events were about to change that, however!


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Haplo was having a typical day, but the visitor who arrived to see him was anything but ordinary. There were subtle hints that this visitor was not what he seemed... The orange horse, for example, was hard to ignore. Despite these warnings Haplo still insisted on ignoring the stranger's command to follow him, which resulted in a short, but somewhat violent series of events culminating in Haplo being dragged off senseless to deepest, darkest Amber. Haplo is likely to be slightly more circumspect around Amberites in the future.

Meanwhile, VolkaZZ was also having problems of his own - he'd managed to lose his wolf, Snuff. How he managed to lose a huge, white, furry animal remains somewhat of a mystery, but the fact remains he had to be found. VolkaZZ, sensibly enough, started searching through shadow to find him.

Danville was having a much more civilised time of it. He had managed to find himself a rather quaint Victorian Earth shadow and was happily looking around. He failed to notice, however, the gang of large men heading his way down the suddenly empty street. Unfazed by this strange occurence, he smoothly walked over to the nearest shop, only to find the door was locked. After emphasising the WAS in that last sentence, Danville pushed open the door (the fate of the remains of the lock still remains unknown) and stepped within. Knowing he had only a short time too prepare himself for the encounter, he decided to opt for a time-honoured stratergy. He hid.

Unsurprisingly the thugs entered the shop, and started to search for Danville. Realising his predicament, Danville burst from his hiding place to herioically save the shopkeeper, only to find something strange happening - he was sure they weren't that big a moment ago... And where did those claws come from? Despite being surrounded, various feats of acrobatics saved him from serious injury, and the demons began to think twice about attacking when 2 of their number lay bleeding on the floor... In the interests of decency, exactly what they were bleeding will remain thankfully lost in the mists of time.

As a somewhat peaceful interlude, Faustus had joined the brothers already in Amber - Frederick and Ulrich - after being invited by Fiona (an Amberite) for reason or reasons unknown. After being told to return for a family portrait later on, under pain of.. well, pain, the trio decided to amuse themselves and go and have some fun in shadow. Deciding to help the universe in general (presumably whether the universe in general wanted it or not) they decided to seek out evil, and wipe it's ugly stain from existance. Always good for a laugh on a lazy morning. After being surprised by several bandits upon arrival, they fought back with predictable success. Working together they killed the bandits, and even got home in time for tea.

VolkaZZ was also making some progress. He had finally located the shadow where Snuff had strolled off to, and was exploring when he came across some most disagreeable creatures, all teeth and claws. VolkaZZ didn't have too much trouble dispatching the creature with his sword. Three more of the things seemed to give him a little trouble, so he decided discretion was the better part of valour. Then a surprising discovery lead him to bump into Danville, who happened to be in a similar predicament. Together they defeated the last of the creatures, and found Snuff in to the bargin. Afte resting up from the combat, they came across an imposing man on a large horse, with several large dogs at it's feet. After a curt request to follow, the two accompany him as they ride off through shadow. Thus they too arrived in Amber, and were shown to some rooms and informed they would be called later.

Meanwhile Haplo was slowly regaining conciousness, slowly realising he was sat in front of an easel and paints. In front of him was a crowd of people dressed in finery, including (unbeknownst to Haplo) Frederick and Ulrich. Deciding to swallow his pride (despite the fact it felt like his neck had been broken) Haplo followed the command to "paint". This was subtly influenced by the fact this was delivered by the same person who was responsible for his somewhat uncomfortable journey to Amber.

Some time later, the painting was finished and the crowd gradually dissipated after congratulating Haplo (well, not killing him - the Amber equivalent of a compliment). In fact, in recognition, Haplo was invited to the main table for dinner. It was during this that Faustus decided he'd have a little poke around inside Haplo's head, just to see what he could see. Meeting a surprising resistance, the two became locked in a psychic struggle for domination. Realising he was slowly losing, Haplo decided for a somewhat more direct approach, and launched himself across the table. His limbs were instantly locked by Faustus' control, but momentum is a wonderful thing and the two fell in a heap on the floor - to be picked up in a most undignified manner by one of the older Amberites who considered it terribly bad form at fight each other over dinner. The disagreement was sorted out, however. Eventually.

Frederick, however, was much more interested to hear about the rumour of new chaos dignitaries who had arrived in the castle. Deciding to continue his ongoing fight against chaos, he went immediately to seek them out, only stopping off at the armoury to collect the usual equipment, mainly composed of spikes and blades. Ulroch also noticed his brother's departure, and decided he nad better follow in case things got nasty.

After searching through many of the rooms, Frederick finally identified the one containing the chaos dignitaries - who were in fact VolkaZZ and Danville, still puzzled as to whether they would indeed be called. After a misleadingly peaceful introduction, an almost imperceptible widening of the grin, Frederick whipped his sword out of his sheath and charged to the attack - just at this moment Ulrich arrived and also dived into the fray to pull Frederick out. A scuffle ensued, in which everyone played some part (including Snuff, of course) which resulted in the door shut - with Frederick on the opposite side to Volkazz and Danville, to their immense relief. At that moment Bleys (Frederick and Ulrich's father) arrived, disturbed by all the noise. At this point, Frederick was attempted to twist off Ulrich's head and/or slam it against whichever wall came to hand easiest, mad with the desire to kill chaos-spawn. Desperate to stop Frederick, Ulrich needed to communicate to Bleys Frederick's beserk behaviour - he cried "FATHER!! FREDERICK'S BEING UNREASONABLE AGAIN!" Somewhat of an understatement perhaps. Bleys sorted out the situation in short order, and Frederick woke up several hours later - probably wishing he hadn't.

After the meal, Faustus was approached by King Random, who told him he'd been expecting some chaos dignitaries, who had not arrived. After handing him a Trump of one of these, he told Faustus to sort it out, and left him to it. Faustus then spoke with most of the other characters, who had collected after dinner to play cards (losing to all the elder Amberites of course). After describing the problem, it was decided to attempt to locate the shadow in which the dignitaires were, since Trump contact appeared impossible.

Next morning the party set off through shadow, even allowing Frederick along as long as he promised not to be too violent. After a few false starts (small trifles such as appearing in the middle of a battle) it was decided to take a more direct approach than simply searching for a person as shown on the card. With all of infinity to choose from, something in the way of search criteria are very handy. So, Haplo attempted to direct a ride through shadow which was essentially powered by Faustus. It worked. Almost too well. One hellride later (which unsettled the horses no end - especially the one carrying Snuff), the party arrived at an unknown shadow, the contents of which are as yet unknown.