The third session starts with the players entering the shadow with the lost chaos dignitary - they think...


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They players arrived in the new shadow after their singularly unpleasant hellriding experience - unfortunately matters did not seem to have improved. A barren world greeted them, rocky and mainly volcanic. Not somewhere you'd like to spend your holidays. The players soon discovered, however, that the trump of the chaos dignitary was active in this shadow, and Haplo used it to make contact - with the new player character, Ralthus. It was also then the players notcied they seemed to have lost Frederick on the way somewhere, the reason for which never became clear.

After noticing some rather nasty looking approaching specks in the sky, it was decided to use the trump to move to Ralthus' location. The full series of events then became clear. Ralthus had been part of a diplomatic mission to Amber from Chaos, accompanied by a Chaos Lord. He was also the only Amberite on the mission. The delegation travelled through this shadow, but Ralthus was left behind. The shadow was also inhabited by chaos creatures, which raised suspicions further. It had been locked by the chaos lord, preventing entrance or exit until the other players broke the lock.

After returning to the other location to recover Higgins and Snuff,
Ed. Higgins is Danvilles manservant. Snuff is VolkaZZ' wolf . . .
who had not made the transfer (SLIGHT miscalculation...) along with pieces of the horses, the party then debated what to do. Returning to Amber was considered, but it was eventaully decided to try and locate the other members of the delegation by Ralthus searching through shadow.

Ralthus started moving through shadow with the rest of the party, and slowly they got closer to the target. After a false start or two, they finally arrived in a jungle shadow where Ralthus sensed the other members to be. Through the pouring rain they also made out a figure dressed rather strangely for the location - business suits don't tend to last long in rainforests.

After introducing himself as Walker, the stranger declared he had been waiting for the party, and lectured them at length about the trouble he'd gone through to find them. He also expressed surprise at the presence of Ralthus and the absence of Frederick but the situation was explained. Apparently he had been sent by Benedict to meet the party, especially Danville and VolkaZZ.

After a slight detour to collect some umbrellas (except for Haplo who poured scorn on the others) the party returned to the jungle to attempt to find the other diplomats. A few ideas were tossed around, namely getting a higher perspective (which resulted in a wonderful view of more jungle) and searching the shadow mentally (which nobody admitted to being able to do) but neither were a success.

It was at this point that Faustus, in his usual subtle way, decided to search Walker's mind. Faustus came to regret this, however, when the contact failed, and he was being held against a tree with a sword levelled at him. The other party members eloquence saved him, but Walker was a little offended (to say the least) and wandered off out of the shadow (to have some lunch, as it happened). So much for that lead.

It was decided that some help would be useful, and Faustus agreed to contact his mother, Fiona, as someone in a significant position in the Amber royal family. This resulted in some useful information, mainly that the person responsible almost certainly had to be either an Amberite, or a Chaos Lord. Also someone pretty powerful, since Fiona herself had been unable to determine exactly who it was. This didn't exactly fill the players with confidence, so it was decided to attempt a tarot reading to gain more informtion.

Notoriously unreliable, tarot reading is a way of determining the future by using a trump deck as a standard tarot deck. Haplo volunteered to attempt this, but whether it made any difference was debatable. The reading came out as follows :-







The Querants Present Situation - Corwin (an elder Amberite)
That which hounds thee - Osric (a (probably) deceased ancient eldar Amberite)
That which inspires thee - Wheel of time (Not really very helpful)
That which seeks to manipulate - Castle Amber (No surprise there)
The likely outcome - Caine (the elder Amberite that shot Brand)
The pivot - Brand (another elder Amberite, also dead (probably))

After this Ulrich decided to travel back to Amber to consult with King Random on recent events. Nothing much happened while he was away, and when he returned he brought news that the King did not have any of the trumps for the missing diplomats, and we had instructions to find them.

Ralthus used an "item" (which remained a close secret) to transport himself instantly to chaos. There he arranged a meeting between the Chaos Lords and the players. He then left for his own shadow to observe events in Chaos secretly, after a tipoff that staying in Chaos would not be good for his health.

Faustus, Danville and Ulrich walked shadow to get to Chaos, but Haplo and VolkaZZ decided to remain behind. Faustus and Ulrich left Trumps of themselves with Haplo and VolkaZZ respectively, and contact was attempted every few hours to see what was happening.

Several days later (which Haplo and VolkaZZ spent doing undisclosed activities, seperately), the others arrived in Shadow. After getting used to some slightly different laws of Physics (the main one being there WERE no laws of Physics), they soon met up with one of tha Chaos Lords, who had been exepcting them. The session ended with them being led through chaos to an unknown destination.