The chronicles of the exiles, 2.

By Aratana

After the tiring events of the morning, and after Sir Frederick left Amber really quite quickly, I decided that I needed a rest, and went upstairs to my room to sleep.

I awoke to find it about breakfast time the next day, and went down to breakfast in the main hall. Eating breakfast were Bleys, Flora, Gerard, Corwin, Thor, and at the head of the table, Benedict. As we were eating, Julian entered, followed by Random, Bleys and Gerard.

You could say that things went slightly quiet, the silence broken by the almost audible staring.

Benedict arose from his seat and welcomed everyone. Meanwhile, Bleys and Gerard looked surprised. At about this time, Darius and Bryan and someone called Ricardo, who looked astonishingly like Darius (only healthier, if you removed the bandages), walked in for breakfast. Darius and Ricardo went and had a little chat. Bryan and I had a little chat. Thor drew from his pack of trumps the trum of Darius. Darius locked up slightly, as did Ricardo. Flora left the two Gerards talking to each other and came to see Thor for a little chat, which I joined in with after a little time. Some people were looking at the sword I was carrying. It was still glowing slightly.

Flora remarked to Thor that events had indeed been remarkable lately, and that someone had indeed adapted quickly to the multiverse. Thor replied that that could really be expected of his mother. Benedict was of course not listening, but ate his breakfast with icy surgical precision. Thor made another remark. Flora looked at him as if he was some kind of insect with many legs and no redeeming features. She mentioned that he might wish to find out about "What happened to Danville". Benedict finished his breakfast, stood up and left the hall. There was a brief commotion and everyone still in the hall ran over to the balcony that overlooked the courtyard.

Benedict was standing in the courtyard opposite Benedict, swords drawn, frozen in perfect balance , totally immobile, each waiting for the other to make the first move....... We watched.

Flora got bored after a couple of hours and left. Random left a couple of hours later. Someone asked me who I thought would win. I shrugged my shoulers, drew a coin and tossed it. It landed on its edge. I left. Thor left. Darius left, leaving Corwin, Bleys, Bryan and Ricardo watching the rather surreal fight scene. Eventually Bryan and Ricardo left with Bleys and after some confusion, arrived elsewhere.

We all reconvened at Dinner with the exception of the Benedicts, who were still in the courtyard. Darius had a headache. Bleys came in looking slightly paler than usual and had a very private word with Corwin. Bleys then announced that there may be an attack on Amber in the near future. Bryan came in, bearing a scroll, and gave this to Random. The scroll bore Julian's seal, which had been broken. By Julian. The message read "Arden is barred to all". Bryan confirmed that "Julian says this applies, even though it was written by Julian". There followed a short conversation about this turn of events. Apparently Julian had started it, but due to the imminent attack, no resources could be committed to that fight.

At this point, Fiona walks in, sits down and starts to eat whilst talking to us. Darius asked her where Dworkin might be. She said that she did not know. Darius mentioned that he might need Fiona's.... advice. Fiona mentioned that "Someone recently did something that hasn't been done in a long while". Make of that what you will.

At this point Fiona walks in, sits down and starts to eat whilst talking to us. Fiona, meanwhile, bowed slightly, and then left. Fiona (who was eating) casually remarked that "This multiverse didn't need blowing up." Darius paled slightly. Fiona continued, sayng "By the way, Bleys, as I came in, the guards mentioned an attack...." .

Thor looked as if he might be concentrating at this point. Rumours that he might have been attempting to trump to a safer multiverse have only circumstantial backing, and may be entirely false.

The amberites present, particularly those younger amberites who where "new", strangely enough, rushed out to the walls. We noticed the airborne attacking hordes as they came in. A V-shaped formation of about a thousand dragons led the attack, followed by fifty nasty looking winged-with-two-arms-and-two-scythe-type-limb bearing creatures. Behind these were five large bat winged demons, one of whom was larger than the rest. As the shadow of the cloud of things passed over Amber, there was clanging in the courtyard. The Benedicts were blurring at eye-defeating, near mind-bending speeds, exchanging cut, thrust and parry. The dragons attacked, and the younger amberites manned the walls alongside the elders and the guards.

Thor, Darius, Bryan, and myself were spaced on the battlements and received the attack. There was much drawing of pattern swords from the assembled amberites, except for Random, whose bronze sword developed a red sheen whilst his Jewel of Judgement glowed slightly. Noticeably, Random's opponents also glowed red in a terminal fashion when it hit them. Thor was hard pressed and took shelter under a dead dragon's wing before one found him and clawed him. Gerard came to Thor's aid, and they fought the clawed menace back to back. Bryan and I moved over to defend the area Gerard had just moved from. Bryan was dealing with Dragon with consummate ease, and dealt with many opponents before being hoisted up by a blow and hurled over the battlements.

It's a long way down Kolvir.

Thankfully, this allowed him the opportunity to develop strange parachute like appendages, and fall to the ground without scattering himself over it.

Fiona cast a spell that annihilated about a third of the flying demon things that were coming in toward the centre. Any that were hit started glowing from within until the glow reached their skin, and burnt through it. Ouch.

By now, defenders were getting scarce, and I was defending about 250 metres of battlement. After calling for reinforcements, I decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and backed off toward the stairs before valiantly using them. Thankfully the dragons noticed that about 700 of their friends were dead or dying, with several seemingly unstoppable juggernauts of destruction carving paths through their ranks. They flew away.

Down the stairs, in the courtyard, the Benedicts were still fighting. The flying demons, somewhat foolishly perhaps, designated this area as a prime landing site. What follows can be described as masterful, as the Benedicts started using them as cover, dispatching the demons merely incidentally during the fighting. There were none left after about a ninute and a half. Their commander (the really big one) had been watching the duel with interest, and fluttered down from his perch, landing behind the only non-Benedict life-form in the blood saturated arena, a thoroughly worried dragon. The Benedicts moved over to the Dragon. There was a brief amount of slicing and dicing, as Benedict, Benedict, and the commander exchanged blows through dragonmeat. Worryingly, the commander seemed quite happy in this situation, and was utterly unhurt. He then turned and left via the main gates, out through Arden, as did Selney. His four co-generals flew off.

Benedict and Benedict disengaged from combat and walked into the castle at this point, talking to each other. This surprised many people

The aftermath of a very eventful day involved people going off and doing their own thing, before going and getting food. Fiona and I entered the great hall to see Fiona and Darius talking. The air took on a noticeably chill edge. The Fiona with Darius was very surprised to see that I was with the other Fiona. The same can be said of the Fiona accompanying me, however, who thought that Darius shouldn't be with the Fiona he was with. Darius made a comment. He developed a very intense headache (in addition to the one that he had developed earlier), as both Fionas stared at him. Realising that they were in the same place [1], they both decided to blow the tripswitch. Darius passed out. The Fiona's left by opposite doors.

After this interesting turn of events, Flora arrived, and we all had a nice friendly chat about people, two of people, and possible events. Bryan made a most stupendous error:

Flora: "There are somewhat more relatives than usual. This complicates matters."
Bryan: "Thankfully we left the more psychotic ones behind."
Flora: [Icy stare (Our Flora was "left behind"). ]
Darius: "He's new to this."
Flora: [to Bryan] "That was your chance."

Then Merlin arrived and the conversation recovered somewhat. While Merlin talked to Darius and Bryan, Flora and I played Kanuth. It was a low scoring game, which ended 1602-1598, in my favour. Beginner's luck, I think.

Session ends.


[1] This makes a campaign record for the highest quantity of psche in one place at one time.
That this place was Darius' head may explain the odd headaches.