The session commenced with Volkazz, Danville and Ralthus being pulled through a trump contact to Haplo and Ulrich, narrowly escaping almost certain death at the hands of a big gun (which was presumably in the hands of some psychotic guards aboard the ship they were in). Frederick is still on board the ship, being interrogated, and it was discovered that Higgins, Danville's servant, did not make it through the trump contact for some reason.
Unfortunately Volkazz was rather irate at this point, and took advantage of Haplo's proximity to grab Haplo by the throat and demand why it took so long to pull him through. Haplo, understandably perturbed at this treatment took it to be a personal attack and tried to gain mind contact with Volkazz. At this point Volkazz's hands suddenly managed to grow claws - located, of course, about half way through Haplo's throat.
Luckily for Haplo, at this point Volkazz recieved a trump contact - unwilling to expose himself, Volkazz refused the contact but in doing this gave up his ability to act. Haplo took the opportunity to grab a trump and move himself away, but not before Danville managed to get a brief mind contact and mess up Haplo's brain somewhat.
Haplo's recollections of the next few hours are hazy, probably as a consequence of severe blood loss, but he managed to cling tenuously to survival while at his unknown location. He was also unaware of the events directly following the incident, possibly due to Danville's influence during his brief mind contact.After the group recovered from this (presumably putting away the books they had disinterestedly been reading while Volkazz tore out Haplo's throat) they discussed what to do next. Ulrich and Danville decided to leave and attempt to rescue Frederick from the space ship on which he was being interrogated. Ralthus and Volkazz also left, to attempt to kill the man in black who they had come across in the same shadow.
After shadow walking, Ulrich and Danville arrived at the cells they had previously occupied, admired the impressive sooty marks all over the walls and wandered off through shadow with the destination "outside the room where Frederick is". They arrived outside a door, which slid open to reveal the bridge. In the interests of accuracy this must be amended to the remains of the bridge. Several of the terminals had been damaged and various bits and pieces of equipment were lying around. Immediately these things were taken as signs of Fredericks having passed by. The box within the centre of the room was still intact however, and the red line still ended there.
Before they could do anything, the situation changed dramatically. The box exploded, and when the smoke had cleared (and Ulrich and Danville picked themselves out of the far wall presumably) the box was gone, and the red line continued on out of the other side of the ship as well.It was at this point Volkazz appeared with Frederick and explained that he and Ralthus had attempted to find the man in black, but encountered a wall that Volkazz couldn't penetrate. Ralthus however continued straight on, leaving Volkazz alone, who went on to find Frederick and meet up with Ulrich and Danville.
After a few minutes, Ralthus returned, just as Frederick managed to find Higgins shut in the locker room. At this point Frederick recieved a trump contact from Faustus - after the shock of Frederick actually recieving a trump contact had died down, Ralthus asked Frederick who it was.Frederick, with customary accuracy said "Who..wha..wher..nevermind" and proceeded to listen to Fautus explain he was now at Castle Amber, and when he had previously been on the line his mind had been controlled, so the information given was probably wrong.
Then Ulrich got a trump contact from Flora, who said she was just checking up how things were going and broke the contact. Make of that what you will. The party then decided to follow the line which was as yet unexplored, apart from Ulrich and Ralthus who went off on their own. Volkazz and Frederick eventually arrived in a shadow in which the line was flailing around, and was also noticably thicker - a scene of utter destruction. Ralthus then returned with Faustus and promptly left again with Volkazz. Danville, who had set out following Haplo's trail was also surprised to arrive in the same shadow.
It was surmised the line was heading towards Haplo's current location, which was probably castle Amber, and Frederick decided to continue on, closely followed by the line in shadow. Danville retreated, and found the line was much more stable there. Back with the rest of the party Faustus tried to trump contact Random, but met resistance so strong he collapsed. Volkazz took the opportunity to grab his trump of castle Amber and travel there.
Frederick then finally arrived at Amber and was immediately escorted to see his father, where he explained the possible danger to Amber. Ulrich, who had arrived at castle Amber by this time, went looking for his brother and Volkazz had also arrived but was being refused audience with the king. Eventually the party was all back together (apart from Haplo and Ralthus) and Bleys escorted them in to see King Random.Then the party were politely shown the door and left outside the audience chamber where a meeting of the Amberites was being held. Ulrich took the opportunity to go off and find Haplo. When the meeting evetually ended, Bleys and Random had disappeared. Frederick asked Julian where they had gone, and recieved the terse reply "They're busy. They've gone. I'm busy. You're gone." Also, Ulrich manged to find Haplo who grudgingly decided to accompany the others despite his injuries. It was pretty obvious that the party shouldn't expect any favours however.
It had generally been decided that the lines were conduits of power, by this time, and the party suspected Brand of using them to drain shadows of their power. To share what they had found with Ralthus, Frederick walked the pattern to transport himself to Ralthus, who then pulled everyone through a trump contact to reunite the party.
Faustus recieved a trump contact from an unknown person and fell to the floor holding his head in agony - not the outcome he planned, one must assume. Due to Faustus's mental incapacitation, it was decided to pull him back to Amber and leave him there, which Haplo did. The party then continued along the line.
The next item of interest along the line was a circle burnt into the grass with silver tracery around it's edge. Ralthus suggested this was a form of magic but was unable (or unwilling) to divulge exactly what. Haplo suggested these occurrences were the attempts of the local shadow dwellers to halt the spread of the line by whatever means they had at their disposal.
It was also noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to walk shadow further along the line, and thus the party decided to stop and consider the situation. This is where the session ended, possibly barring some private action by some of the players not covered in this log. Next session the players will consider how it is best to proceed along the line.