The end of the last session saw all the players (and N'taye) fleeing from the shadow where they had just won (depending on your point of view) a large fight. Despite the removal of most of the opposing forces from the shadow, the players thought it was wise to vacate the area as quickly as possible give the fact that some unknown swirling black cloud (which incidentally seems to destroy all unprotected matter on contact) was about to encounter the line (which also destroys all unprotected matter on contact). Haplo ended up at Castle Amber, along with Volkazz who was already there. Ulrich, Faustus and N'taye moved to an adjacent and (presumably) safe shadow. Ralthus left by his own means for an unknown location, and the locations of Danville and Frederick were also both unknown.

Ulrich questioned N'taye about what she had been doing with the circle, but she seemed somewhat reluctant to reply. She did admit she had been attempting to take control of the line using a method she had observed someone else using, and also commented that the party must have been fairly close to something important as a fairly major power stepped in to try and stop them.

At this time Danville also arrived at Amber. It turned out that had located something around the end of line where it had been impossible to travel further, and had probed it. He was then sucked in (which is where the other players saw him disappear) and was left in a place where there was nothing. It was dark - or rather there was an absence of light... There was also an absence of darkness, sound, feeling and just about anything. Evetually Danville managed to escape by teleporting, but it took a long time to arrive at his destination.

Curious as to Frederick's location, Faustus succeeded in gaining a trump contact with him, but Frederick was singularly unhelpful, simply repeating "I'm doing something useful - I want to stay here! No you can't come!" In the end, Faustus broke off the contact as it appeared Frederick was not going to be convinced. N'taye also admitted that she had discovered another circle, and thought it would be a good idea to repeat the exercise - but this time the party would be ready and expect heavy resistance.

While the trio discussed this, N'taye's eyes glazed over for a few moments, implying she was recieving a trump contact. She did not volunteer any details when she broke off, however, and the players did not ask. Then Faustus also recieved a trump contact, and accepted it - and something started eating his brain. Understandably somewhat disappointed with this course of events, Faustus attempted to resist the contact - and started to fade out of existence, only to reappear in a normal-seeming field, with a severe headache. Also the blue cows are perhaps worthy of a mention.

Following a track through the field, Faustus arrived at a farmhouse. Upon seeing a large dog running at him barking joyfully and wagging it's tail, Faustus naturally immediately physcically contacted the dog and overpowered it's mind, forcing it to stop. The farmer then emerged from his home, and growled at Faustus. Deciding to try and new and daring course of action, Faustus psychically contacted the farmer, and forced him to flee. Faustus then contacted Ulrich via trump, and was pulled through back to the other shadow.

At this point Faustus and Ulrich recieved a nasty surprise as Atathon appeared in front of them and informed them that Ralthus was 'otherwise indisposed' and would be unable help the paty from that point on. After questioning he admitted that Ralthus was probably dead by this time, by Suhuy's hand.

Meanwhile Danville was having a singularly unsuccessful time trying to convice a guard to allow him to see King Random, who was not accepting visitors. After a while he gave up, and met up with Volkazz and Haplo. They then trump contacted the other half of the party and were pulled through the contact to rejoin the party (except for Frederick).

At this point a monumentous event occured - Faustus received a trump contact and did NOT accept it. I thought this required a paragraph all of it's own. At this stage it is also worth including a description of N'taye (mainly so her hair doesn't change colour at some point). She has long black hair and brown eyes, is slim and about 5' 8'' tall, and is also fairly attractive.

Interuppting this peaceful interlude, Frederick suddenly burst in on the shadow on a horse so exhausted it collapsed as soon as he arrived. He then announced that the red line had arrived at Amber, where Julian was blocking it mentally. He then noticed N'taye and introduced himself with the immortal words "I hope you don't listen to the others too much. They describe me as if I'm some psychotic killing machine, but inside I'm all soft". Given the requests for neutrality earlier, Haplo declines to comment (no matter how much he might want to). Also Haplo recieved a trump contact and after saying words to the effect of "Ok then" disappeared.

Atathon and N'taye then decided to travel to the second circle, and Faustus gave N'taye his trump so she could pull the party through when they arrived. Then Atathon and N'taye disappeared. The party waited a short while, then decided to start walking to the shadow where Atathon and N'taye had gone to. Unfortunately, they had moved on by the time had arrived (the shadow where they had gone was specified, not the shadow where they were).

While the party pondered this Volkazz suddenly felt something grab his leg and begin to pull him into the ground. Frederick and Ulrich both grabbed Volkazz, and Danville probes the area below the ground psychically - and promptly disappeared. Volkazz, meanwhile, suddenly shanged form into a large beast, which disloged Ulrich and Frederick, and before he could react Volkazz was pulled below.

Just after this Haplo reappeared, and Ulrich tersely explained what had happened. Then Haplo felt something grab his leg and pull him down like Volkazz, but by concentrating managed to halt his descent and managed to pull himself free. At this point Frederick took it into his head to kick Fasutus, for reasons unknown to this author, and both parties recived a nasty surprise - in Frederick's case it was a sore foot, and in Fasutus's it was no foot - or rather a twisted metal foot that was now lying on the floor.

After some discussion by the group it was decided to shadow walk to the current location of Atathon and N'taye. Upon arrival, a battle scene greeted the group, with the rest of the party on the opposite side of the line to new arrivals, and a magic circle on the line close by. Also worth mentioning are the various demons that were scattered about, and two glowing gates further down the line. It was also noticed that some of the demons had moved through the line and were now glowing red.

Frederick immediately weighed up the situation, balancing tactical assults with strategic outflanking maneouvers, eventually deciding to charge straight into combat with the demons, waving his sword joyfully and screaming at the top of his voice.

For the sake of the log, the side of the line which the new arrivals (Haplo, Ulrich and Faustus) were on shall be the LEFT and the other side the RIGHT. Also there was a glowing gate on each side of the line.

On the other side of the line, a demon which appeared to be slightly tougher than the rest of them moved in to attack Atathon, who grabbed the demon and started to send tendrils of logrus towards him. Danville also lent mental support to Atathon in his attack, and Volkazz attacked the demon while he was distracted. Volkazz managed to wound the demon, and simultaneiously Atathon's mental attack struck him, and he ended up in a heap in the floor - not before he'd managed to stick his sword into Volkazz however.

It was noticed at this point that something was beginning to form in the centre of the circle. Ulrich was busy ploughing into the demons close to the gate on the right side of the line, and as he went past the gate close to him, he kicked the side of it. This caused it to turn from glowing white to an ominously glowing red. Meanwhile Frederick was attacking more of the demons, and Haplo was concentrating on a trump card and slowly walking towards the line. As he approaced the line, it seemed to bend away from him at that point.

Volkazz, despite being wounded, was continuing to attack the normal demons. Frederick, seeing Ulrich's apparent success with the other gate tried throwing a dagger into the gate close to him. A moment later a demon walked out of it - a dagger sticking out of his chest, and a rather annoying expression on his face. N'taye was keeping well out of the combat at this point.

Faustus, on seeing the state of affairs, decided discretion was the better part of valour and shadow walked away, but not before a demon had managed to hit him. As a doubly nasty surprise, the demon also began to shadow walk after Faustus. Over on the right side of the line, Danville attempted to help Volkazz by grabbing the demon that was attacking him. Unfortunately, the demon responded by grabbing Danville and bodily throwing him away, just as another demon moved up to attack Volkazz.

Atathon, recovering from his draining mental assult, used the logrus tendrils to attack one of the demons who had moved through the line, and was glowing red. The demon defended itself, and Atathon lost concentration during the attack. Haplo, by this time, had moved and the line deflected away from him wherever he went. He started moving towards the gate, and the line was thus deflected into it. Disappearing into the gate, the line reappeared centred on the demon further up, on the left side of the line, and then moved into the circle where at was absorbed. This continued for a few moments, and then the gate (and the demon) were destroyed, and the line went back to it's original course (but still deflected away from Haplo).

Meanwhile, as Volkazz defended himself against the two demons, Danville gained psychic contact and fried the brains of one of them. Frederick was also having considerable success as he spitted the demon he was fighting on his sword, and looked around for new opponents. Seeing the demon on the circle, he immediately ran towards the circle, as were N'taye and Ulrich. All had certain problems entering, as there seemed to be some force shield protecting it. Unfortunately Frederick succumbed to a mental attack from the demon within the circle, and was forced to try and stop Ulrich from attacking - but to no avail, as Ulrich buried his sword deep within the winged beast.

N'taye, who had busily been chanting on the edge of the circle, looked pleased for an instant, then was forcibly thrown backwards out of the circle. By this time Haplo had moved around and was now reflecting the line back on itself, but instead of doubling back it was circling in on itself again and again forming an ever tightening spiral. This of course meant that the line was effectively being blocked from leaving the shadow, which was possibly having some far reaching effects.

Ulrich moved forward to help N'taye to her feet, as Atathon dashed into the circle and began frantically chanting - causing the face that was slowly appearing in the circle to begin to look a little less happy. Events seemed to be reaching an ominous climax at this point, and all the players decided it was time to leave - and left, apart from Haplo (still maintaining his concentration) Atathon and Danville. The image then disappeared, and Atathon and Danville both left, leaving Haplo alone. Finally Haplo was also transported via a trump (of unknown origin) and ended up in his home shadow.

In summary, at least one of the lines has been destroyed, probably partially due to it's redirection in the above combat. Also several demons and various other creatures, of possibly important origin were destroyed, but since we have no idea who they might be I'll skip over that. The next session is private backgrounds and personal advancement.