Hi There everybody!

Blue goo here, and boy am I busy.

It's been awhile since I've had any of the big boy (or girls) visit me, but today I got a doozy.

Sheesh this one darn near freeze dried himself. Not to sure how he did it, but some of the folks around the ward are talking about "Elderkin" and such.

Nope. I have no idea what those are, but they can't be good.

Ohhhh. The pretty Purple haired chica has come up to my tank and seems to be concentrating on a card of some sort. She looks worried. Nope, nope now it's bit on the scared side. Hmmm, now it's changed to determined.

Gah!

The freaky, scary sidekick of purple haired chica is busily wrapping her face around the sides of my tank!

Back off freak girl!

Yeesh, and I thought lord Mojo was freaky...well lord Mojo was freaky, but this was starting to get personnel with freak girl.

Yeah that's right, follow your mistress purpled haired chica right on out of here.

* * *

Well after several hours, my patient is doing better. He hasn't gained conscious yet, but I'm doing a damn good job of healing him.

* * *

Aaaahhhhhhhh.

The pain, the pain. Please, for the love of the Unicorn make it stop! If I ever get my hands on the redhead destroyer of Thari, I'm going to give him the blue goo enema of which all other blue goo enema are but mere shadow.

The redheaded pain in the ass has been going at for aver 6 Hours now, and I don't think I can take it anymore. I mean ear stub boy probably couldn't hear anything if he was conscious, but I've got to live through this abomination of Thari being read at me until the redhead stops.

Maybe if I can build up enough momentum I can thwup my way out of this tank and drown him!

Oh! Oh! Oh thank the merciful Unicorn, a truly dazzlingly beautiful woman has shown up and is sending the red read away. I'll remember you red if I ever get my hands on you.

Pretty woman is also looking worryingly at a card. She seems to be mumbling something. She takes a seat and starts to read a book.

* * *

Well, my patient has recovered enough to moved to a normal medical ward. Too bad because I really enjoyed the company...but I'll be looking for that redheaded-poetry- reading-freak for some future good times. Ohh yeah!

Sabine decided that I was in need of a vacation. I really had no idea what this was There was no such word as "vacation" in the Village vocabulary. She told me that "We" need a break from all of the work we had been doing. This of course puzzled me because I had found all of this so far very Entertaining, but she had looked a bit frazzelled as of late so I asked her to find some things that might be fun to do.

Before I left, I Had some things to take care of:

- Kirsten needed to be fixed. I took her to Jacob and had him bind her. She wasn't too happy about that, but the fact that Jacob's blood has a part of the process, and that his blood "aged" her up to her late teens more then made up for this (When I took her to weir for some training she kept showing off her breast's for any body who would look).

-I went on a mission to find and retrieve Augustus's wives and children. This went very well. He is very pleased with his "station" in life, and agreed to keep things running smoothly in Limbo. I also promised to take a few of his children to Amber to be educated.

-I put Derkon and Badger in for Knighthoods for their service to the crown. Token's really, but I've been told that they carry some prestige with them. So that's good.

-I talked to Zherevyev about going for Broken Pattern. This both scared her and made her very happy. It is unknown if she would survive or not, but she feels that she has lived a long time and this would either be a new adventure, or the paying off of a life debt. She wanted me to take her back to her home to train and to get ready for the Test.

-Jurgen and Gertruda were given a little well deserved leave. I put them in for promotions.

-Finally I made deals to with the troops that I recruited to go home, but to make themselves available in the future if I needed them.

-got everything situated in Purgatory. Johnothon is working out well, Bricktop is going to keep an eye on things, and we have a trump of the Helgram contact. Life is good.

So, time to do nothing.

Sabine called it skiing. It was very odd...but fun once I got used to it. the better I got at it the less I needed to use my powers to aid me. Sabine was a natural, and she later told me that she had done this a few times before. As the days went by, I only need to use probability to make sure that people were not in my way, and to make sure that the ski patrol folks were looking the other way when I went down the hill.

I learned this a bit late in the game when I got a Ticket for "Skiing out of control" The woman would not see my point of view that I was perfectly in control the whole time and that I was not a danger to anybody. Luckily, the court date is a month away...so no biggy.

A few day's later Flora trumped me and said that she was setting up a training session with modern equipment in her shadow and that everybody was invited. Diego had not responded, but she didn't mind to much about this.

People came and went. The training went for about a week. Sabine was really enjoying herself. She was pushing her abilities to the limit. Mom was giving everybody a run for there money in the "I'm the biggest git" award.

Mom tried everything, including firing the Boys while riding a motorcycle. It took her several times (and lots of cuts, bruises, and broken bones), but she succeeded.
She had a grin a mile wide when she finally pulled it off.

Dara showed up for a few. Her and mother caught up on all of the things that had been going on since Inferno.

Later that day SJG showed up for the fun. Later he joined my up on the veranda to some nice cool long necks. We talked about the possibility of Zherevyev walking the pattern. He figured that if Tanatheel made he couldn't see any reason as to why Zherevyev couldn't.

Good to know.

While staggering back to the Spa portion of Flora's little set up looking for Sabine, I find my Mother. She informs me that sabine has gone off to the "isolation" room for some quite time while cocooned in blankets and wraps and all sorts of oddities. Mother was fussing at the masseuse, and told herr to step aside and ordered my to take her place.

Disturbing.

I am going to have to work with her on the concept of boundaries.

The reason that she did this, I feel, was as some sort of a test...to see if I would balk, or argue, or whatever odd test of loyalty crossed her mind at the time.

We discussed the disappearance of Deigo, and his orientation. It was decided that Benedict had denied him some boon and that Diego had gone off to sulk for awhile.

The next morning Sabine and I left to go back to Amber. We decided to stop over in Dom-Daniel and meet people that she gone to school with. The made us a great dinner.

The next morning I met with the leaders of the August moon school to let them Use my royal seal as part of there charter. This was to lend some importance to there standing. I also donated money to both the Old citadel and the August moon schools.

Also while staying in Dom-Daniel we kept hearing the oddest stories about Diego. He lives on at least in Memory here. Sabine had a wicked thought an said that we should take over his old hotel. That was some funny stuff. We went to go check it out.

Casa de Deigo was filled with treasure and bad taste. The treasure was divided between Amber, The Old citadel, and the August Moon schools. The bad taste was sent packing with the servants. On a lark we went over to check out the "burning Crab School's" fortress of solitude. Sadly, where the coin machine had been, was note saying that it had been confiscated by Amber Security. Too bad, it would have made a fun acquisition.

Sabine wanted to hang out with her friends for a few more days as part of her vacation. I went to check in with Benedict as to what was new on the radar scope. Trumped him and after several hours discussion with him and Rinaldo, it sounded like either Brand or Deirdre had escaped from the Abyss and were having fun at our expense.

A whole lotta things have been blowing up lately.

Diego seems to have gone off in a pout, and is not responding to trumps.

Zhartra was ripped a new one...sending Jacob in to a panic.

Uncle Bleys has recovered. It would seem that the soothing ode's penned by Oberon so many years ago have a healing effect on the flipping loony.

And Kirsten was unhappily bound.

I guess I'll talk about Kirsten first. She was not happy about Jacob binding her. In fact when he trumped her back to me she was fairly pouty. She wasn't even happy about the fact that Jacob's blood/binding had brought her up to at least to the appearance of a young woman in her late teens. She did not take any solace from the fact that she would have been killed if she wasn't bound. It did make her think, but not happy. She did perk up a bit as she trained in the Mirror-verse. I could almost see the gears turning in her head at the possibilities of the Mirror-verse.

Spent some more time in the Mirror-verse. It's seems that our dear sweet cousin Diego has yet again dropped the ball. He was supposed to have been fully trained and explored this hellhole. But no. That would have interfered with some quality ass kissing from the Amber public, or some such nonsense.

Galena is our guide on the Great Mirror-Verse expedition, or maybe it should be called the "Lost World". Things were just clicking along until we got a hold of something. We tracked it down and lo and behold another Helgram. They are everywhere. And yes we did not negotiate the Mirror-verse with Incarnadine. We will have to kick their asses all over again here. Tori was able to get some good info out of the Helgram. This was of course passed on to Flora.

But all of this started off with Jacob trumping us in a full bore panic over Zhartra being almost killed. Tori and I did a few magic tricks to keep her alive till we were able to get her back to Lynxia. This was when we learned that Diego was in a snit. He was not responding to trumps. If he had showed any sort of talent, besides the ability to piss off random members of the Family, or pine after Moire, I would have thought that he was responsible for Zhartra's current condition. Tanaitheel was brought in to work on Zhartra, and this is when the Great Mirror-verse expedition moved out.

Well, things have been hectic as of late.

No real way to beat around the bush.

First off that Wayward cousin of ours, Diego, disobeyed Gerard (again) and rescued our Uncle Bleys. I called him on it in the Family meeting. He seemed to feel that he deserved the praise and adulation of the Family with his "Selfless" deed. And yes, that is why Tori and I were forced to baby sit the crazy nutter later that Day.

Flora is in charge now. She seems to want to make a good impression on her brothers. She rules with an Iron Fist. It would seem that the fear of being a failure has driven her around the bend. I get the feeling that after years of playing the harmless little kitten, she needs to prove that she was really a tiger all along. I really hate to say it, but she is a bigger hard ass then Benedict.

So much is going on that I have not had any time to spend with Sabine...that is outside of the mission aspect of things. I shall have to try and tie up loss ends and make some time.

Benedict has finally grown a heart...and it is Dara shaped. After seeing her broken and busted in Lynxia, he hauled Badger, Gerard, and mom off on a genocidal tour of Inferno. Hopefully for his piece of mind much slayage will be had by all.

Tori and I seem to be getting along much better...after getting off on the wrong foot all those months ago. We were able to get the Hellgram's to agree to leave Amber controlled shadow. Though I don't really trust Incarnidine's word, I do have a healthy respect for the Helgram's.

I talked to Jacob about binding Kirsten. He seems to think that he will be able to do this and tells me that he will need to work on the wording but after that all should work out.

And lastly, the Regent Flora has decided that everybody needs to be trained on how to navigate in the Mirror-verse. so I'm off for training.

My cousins and I seem to be getting along better nowadays

Tori, Fineas and I really did a number on the Helgram's. I know that Fineas wasn't really happy about the outcome, but I felt it was the best chance to get them back on their side of the border. Yesterday was tons of explosive power, tomorrow might be worse with the added bonus of the Logrus masters. No having stolen parts of their research, achieved the release of Baran and the Hellmaid's, and getting the Helgram's to leave is a very good day.

When we got back to Bricktop's headquarters Baran and the Hellmaids were delivered per the agreement. They were all very stoned out of their gourds. Tori tried to figure out what Baran had told them, but she too was soon overcome by the lingering effects of the Drug. Even though his capture was really Dara's fault, I was not in a position to take it out on the current regent's Daughter. But Baran had pissed off Tori (and every other female out here including Kirsten), and he had provided the Helgram's with way too much info. I told him that he had fullfilled his contract to Amber and would be returning to Dom-Daniel shortly. As a Postscript: baran body parts are selling briskly in Dom-Daniel. Tori picked up bits for Sabine, Dara, Mom, Genevieve, and even Kirsten.

Badger led Tori and I to some sort of shapeshifting minor power in Inferno. Tori wanted to have it guarded, and I took a sample to play with…or maybe a little carrot for Kirsten. It has been a lot of fun hanging out with Tori. She is quite masterful with magic, though I do see a lot of the Helgram magic in her stylings.

I do find myself fascinated by the Helgram's. Each time I meet Incarnadine it is almost like the Helgrams are family. It's as if I understand them better…well better then some members of my Family. We made a deal exchange "ambassadors", and Tori and I had some thoughts as to who that should be. I think that Chaos must be like a larger version of the Village.

Today I met with Benedict for the first time since he has taken on the chore of Regency. He wares it with some misgivings. He was shocked to hear the Dara had been injured by the Garu in Inferno. I could see a small hint of fatherly concern breaking it's way through the hardened steel shell that is Benedict. He said that he would look into some non-family people for the exchange with the Helgrams.

Talked to Jacob about Binding Kirsten…it seems to be the only humane thing to do. I don't want to turn her loose back in Limbo again (Somebody would just have to deal with her in the future like Dara and I did with Varnai), and Genevieve has already done to much in keeping her in line to put her in that position permanently.

On a lighter note: Fineas, Jacob, Rinaldo and I had some good times rounding up a bunch of black spheres.

It is amazing how cooperative people get when you have lifted them off of the floor by their throats.

Freddy's guard was in Contact with Freddy via a mastoid. Great. After pounding him against the wall of the elevator until he unconscious, I relieved Freddy's guard of his ability to communicate. I tossed the guard over to the bullet pocked concierge's desk and put on the Mastoid, and pulled out trumps of Gertruda and Jurgan.

"Hi Freddy, this is Prince 13 how are you doing I get the feeling that you do not want to talk to me How sad for you"

Freddy went on a great lengths to tell me about some sort of league that he was trying to thwart and that he thought that I was part of it. I told him that he was really quite insane and hung up.

Jurgan and Gertruda wanted to know if I had any grenades on me, and I told them that I had been wishing the same thing just moments ago.

The Elevators started to come down again and we made our way to the safety of the Planters. The Doors opened and a large explosion rocked the lobby. I have tired of toying with Freddy. In the blinding flash that happened next I recall the stories Fineas told of Toriana during her exploits against the Hendrake's. After the dust has settled, I Trump Toriana and ask her if she is busy and would like to help. She jumps at the chance and I pull her, Chungo, and Heinrick though. I offer her a pistol, and she tells me...

"If I'm in a situation where I actually need to use a Gun we are all in a world of hurt".

I brief her on the situation and pull Kirsten through from Oykot. Tori and I checked out the Penthouse and sensed heavy magic in use. I set about ripping the magical wards and shield down and Tori blows up Teleporter that was just starting to operate.

The elevators were out of the question, so we decided to make a run up the stairs. Everybody was making a good show of it except for Chungo (but he was making up for it with some really funny quips).

They had made it up to the roof top. We could hear a helicopter starting to fire up. I tossed a chair through a window and levitated up with Jurgan and Gertruda. Tori went via the stairs with Heinrick, Chungo and Kirsten. The guards and the Helicopter were quickly taken out. Tori grabbed a hold of Freddy's mind and made him walk over to me and hand over the Item that he had been trying to Teleport away. It looked like a crystal hard drive of some sort. We ask him what it is and he tells us that it is a magical data encrypter. A magical device that emulates a Computer. He was making it for Master Starwind.

The fact that Freddy mentions the name of Master Starwind is unfortunate since he shows up in the Chaosian Magi-bubble communication device and kills Freddy and all of his minions before going poof.

The next bit of fun occurs when Master Starwind remotely blows up the building. Tori Trumps all of us to safety in Arden. From Arden we trump back to Bricktop and start to look for the three geeks. We are able to find one of them by the name of Johnathon still alive. We are able to get his info from him a get a good idea of how it all works.

I trump Flora and ask her if we can use her research center in her shadow to go over this and the Sand Delwin thing. She tells us that she has no problem with this. She give Tori a trump of the place and we head out. When we get there I try and trump Fineas and he is not answering. Tori trumps Jacob and pulls him through.

After a while, when we had gone over all of the info that diego had provided and looking over all the info once Flora people had had a chance to go over it with a fine toothed comb, we discovered that it was all a clever ruse to throw us off the trail.

Back to square one.

Jacob tells us a little bit about what Zhartra has he and Rinaldo doing...and it sounds like she has the two right men for the job.

Fineas trumps me back and I pull him through to go over and add to the stew of information that we have cooking.

After spending some time getting all of our ducks in a row Everybody except Jacob goes back to Purgatory. We have decided that the "guy" that Tori had seen was our number one suspect and to ignore the planted evidence. Jacob takes off to go and do some Zhartra tasks.

Back in Purgatory we track everything back to the city of Prewtna. We teleport in, have a big fight, loose our quarry, and get a Magi-bubble tsk-tsk-ing from Incarnadine. Fineas, being in a bit of a cheeky mood, explodes her bubble with Werewindle.

From the Desk of Prince 13

to The Times via The Press Gang, LLP

Dear Sirs

The recent attacks on Prince Fineas, are from my point of view, unwarranted. He has been a steadfast supporter and standard bearer for Amber and the Family. His lists of accomplishments thus far are unsurpassed and should be celebrated in all corners of the Kingdom. In my humble opinion, Prince Fineas is the First among equals.

As to the comments upon my conduct of the war, I hope that future events speak for themselves.

In closing, I must dash, a good many Hellgram's to kill.

Best regards, 13, Prince of Amber

Grenades...

I shall have to remember to pack Grenades into the space area. A slight oversight on my part. Kind of like when I neglected any sort of offensive spells. That which does not kill us makes us not only stronger, but wiser.

I have come to this conclusion late in the day. It started well enough, following a lead provided by Iain I found myself at the University of Technology Yendis. I cast about trying to track small magicy bits down. I had narrowed it down to an apartment building and what looked like a engineering building. I flipped a fifty cent coin and made my way to the dorm. As I got closer I was able to figure out that the spells that had been cast were of the very small category.

I moved back to the what I thought was an Engineering building. The building turned out to be an IT building (building no. 10). Walking in was very easy. Eluding the CCTV system was a little bit of and exercise, but a fun one. I made my way up to the third level and tracked the spell casters down. They were in a computer lab trying to teach a Sprite to decode something on the computer. The Sprite was held by the spell. The three geeks were of the usually geeky sort. One tall, dark and commanding. One very short and questioning. And the last was blond and Fey.

I made my way to an office just down the hall and started to magically lock them into the room. First off so I could have time to observe what they were doing, and secondly so I could see what they would do in a panic. The first part became mostly boring after a few hours, and the second part provided entertainment right up until early the next morning.

When they figured out that they had been sealed into the room magically, they at first panicked, and then they called "Freddy".

This is what has me in the pickle that I current find myself. Freddy and his friends swept in to the building like a para-military force and fled. I was able to follow them with some clever tricks. The trail led to the Ana Grand right on the south side of the Yendis Harbor. Very swank.

I walked in and was set upon by some sort of snooty frenchman by the name of Jean Luc. He introduced himself as his title; Concierge. After several minute of me telling him to call "Freddy's" room, with an audble sigh he finally relented.

I introduced myself as "Paul-Devon" of Amber moving. Speaking of moving, you should have seen how quickly they got people downstairs to shoot at me. This was when the desire for Grenades hit me. It took a while to take out my attackers using spells. I pulled out the Boys to fire through the elevator doors as they retreated. I was able to stop one of them. I pointed the Boys at him and told him to hand me the Mastoid gently but quickly. When this was done I coldcocked him. I lowered the hefty gun at Jean Luc and told him that there had better be no police on the way. He whispered "oui" and looked like he was about to go and do something useful for a change.

One thing that I heard as the others were fleeing up the elevator shafts..."he's one of the Opposition". An odd statement for a Hellgrim to make, and the fact that there are no Logrus tendril's currently zeroing in on my position. These must be some more "allies" for me to make. A bit harder now that I've cocked it up.

Out of Jean Luc's vision I pulled out the trumps I was going to need in the next few minutes. Jurgan and Gertruda (both currently in Rupmul Alauk)...Probably Zherevyev rather than Kirsten...And I might need to bring in the Big Gun...Tori.

The Babysitter is in charge.

I am not happy about this at all.

At least Gerard Trumped me to let me know without me stumbling into Amber in obliviousness. Well it will be interesting, that's for sure. I can see Benedict having all of us come to the Castle and conduction interviews to see what we can do. Maybe a Resume so that he can reassign us to things that we would be more suited to doing. But, an amusing thought has occurred to me...maybe Diego will have to actually start doing something. Something other than burying people in gifts.

The other day was a bit on the mixed side. Sabine and I had a good time at the Marcus' wedding/coronation. Good food and good dancing. Toriana was nice to me and called me by my name. All good. I'll have to tell Mother about Diego bringing all of Dantay's Concubine's to the affair (5 women and 1 guy, Mother would have something to say for sure). On the down side, The heads of Sand and Delwin (Tori explained that they were our Aunt and Uncle, and that had been helping Zhartra) were found in a box. This really put a damper on things, Emotions were running high between several folks. And it looks as if the Amber rags rumor's about Diego's and Toriana's animosity were correct.

The box contained papers (in code), a really nice spell rack bracer, and of course the preserved heads of Sand and Delwin. Diego was in a big hurry to haul the box off, so after we all had a look, we let him. Fineas, Tori, Jacob, and I talked about some guy that Tori had been tracking. We all got a good impression of him through a sketch that Tori provided us. We all agreed to meet up in a few days time to try and make head or tails of what is going on with the heads.

Back in Purgatory, everything is starting to fall in to place. I have found some contact's and hope to make some good head way in a weeks time. I trumped Mother and Told her about everything that had happened at Tir, Seems that she kind of liked Delwin and Sand, or at least did not hate them as much as the rest of the Family. Though, she did snort herself off of her chair when I told her About Deigo. As she was laughing she mentioned "over compensating" and the word "Beard". I not to sure about the latter, but I do understand the former.

Iain and Rhyoko are doing a good job in Oykot and Yendis. Iain said something about "never trust a man who keeps pigs" as he lead me though a pig feeding area. I replied "but you had better trust a man who keeps Vampires"...He turned a lovely shade of pale at this. Ahh, the things I can say when Sabine or Zherevyev are not around.

When I brought Kelamon through to Yendis she told me that this would be the last trumps that she would be doing for a while. I asked her why, and she told me that she was going on a vacation for a while. Tori and Flora would be picking up the slack for now. I told her thanks for her effort, and that I have really appreciated what she has done for us.

One thought that I have is...I wonder if Gerard and Kelamon are going on vacation together. The burden of more work might make Tori grumpy, but the fact that her parent's might be getting back together would make her ecstatic.

But, The Babysitter is in charge now. The wheel has turned....

Translator ring number 33.

I could teach them to talk the languages, but that would take time I do not have. So I have settled on Translator rings for the lot of them. And as a free extra I'd toss in an anti-Ty'iga shield.

Just before leaving Qweentoe, I sent the most adaptable of the people from the Village (as well as working duplicates of everything taking from the Village) to the Arden ranger station with a note from me explaining everything. I also trumped Fenmor to let him know of their impending arrival. I put the woman I knew as 375 (but who now insists on being called Wendy Frith) in charge of the move.

The others I split up in to three groups: One group was sent to Toekay-o, another to Sydnee and the last one came with me to Kouala Lampoor.

The reasons for all this movement became necessary after an incident while scanning. They were able to lock on to a passive scan. The Hellgram's had not been able to do that before. The reason they were able to do that became clear with the disappearance of Boran. I had hoped that he had just gone off to help his "Other Employer", but this did not turn out to be true. He must have been captured by the Hallgram's in Kouala Lampoor. I had left Dara in charge with him, some rangers, and couple of Hellmaid's. Based on what I found this morning in the Castle, Dara decided that it would be better to go off and get drunk with Jacob, and Martin than to do as I had asked her. She could have waited a day to go and meet the Family (That was the plan at least). The People with Boran must all be dead.

Translator ring number 34.

In the morning while waiting for Dara and Mirelle to wake up, I went to Lynxia to pick up all of those that had needed to visit it over the last several weeks. Jurgan, Gertruda, Kirsten, Zherevyev, and Badger were all as fit as a fiddle. A few of the Glencoran's were eager to go back to Purgatory, but most wanted to stay and learn. The asked me if it was ok, and I looked at the Director, and he nodded his approval.

Before heading out this morning I had tried to get a hold of Boran, but no luck. He did not come a crossed as dead, but merely drugged or unconscious. Dara looked sheepishly about this, but we moved on. The two people with Hangover's (Mother and Dara) decided to volunteer to go and check out the Shadow Path from Inferno to the Dancing Mountains to see if the Hellgram's were moving back to Chaos or not. Dara would later Trump me and ask if the could help out Badger's people in Inferno. Better them than me...I really wanted no part of the place.

Back in Qweento, Tenoch asked if we could get rid of some bad people he referred to as "Drug Lords". He told us that this would help us get a hold of their electronic money laundering services, ID's, bank accounts, and local weaponry. It was a fairly easy task accomplished by Myself, Sabine, Jurgen, and Gertruda.

Translator ring number 35.

Other bit's of entertainment this morning (Besides watching Dara and Mirelle get on to their horses), were Diego's gifts. Now as I may have said before, this just was not done in the Village.

Never.

But here they were.

All bright and shiny.

I checked them all.

Thoroughly.

Every last piece.

Nothing.

This only got me riled even more. I could understand if he was sending me something as punishment for what he may have perceived as cowardice in the mostly useless retreat from Tir, but there was nothing here. On the ride out I talked to Sabine, Kirsten, and Zherevyev about it.

Sabine was of the opinion that it was harmless, and that he was trying to get in my good graces or wanting a favor in the future.

Kirsten said that he wanted in my pants and that I should be careful not to have my back towards him in the future.

Zherevyev gave Kirsten a dismissive look and agreed with Sabine. She thought that he may be trying to curry favor with me, since what she had been hearing while in Lynxia was that he was having trouble with several of the other family members.

Later, when we were all settled (and Dara check in), I asked the same of her and Mother. Dara understood my dilemma (having lived in Chaos until just recently) and my fears. She too agreed with Sabine's assessment. Though she felt it would be a good idea to keep the practice of thoroughly checking all gifts from any member of the Family.

Mirelle, quite independently, came to the same conclusion as Kirsten, and laughed herself off of her horse.

So, based on this input, I can safely say that I have several possible conclusions in regards to Diego's Gift:

1. He is Gay and wooing me based on the custom's of his Shadow. Low probability, but worth keeping in the back of my mind.

2. Having angered several members of the Family he is seeking me as an ally based on the custom's of his Shadow. A much higher probability.

3. He is buttering me up for a future favor. One which I will feel obliged to give him based on the large pile of stuff he gave me. This, I would think is the highest probability.

4. He is trying to kill me, but is sending innocuous gifts so that I will lower my guard. Always a probability.

Translator ring number 36.

The Boran search did not go at all will. But, I would say that this is the reason they were able to locate our operation in Qweentoe. The Hellgram's had taken everything about our operation straight out of Boran's mind. I sent 2 people that I had known as 67 (now none as Iain "Bricktop" Mason) and 142 (Ryoko "Bignose" Seto) to Sydnee and Toekay-o respectivly. Things are going well.

Translator ring number 37.

I trumped Holrune and talked to him about Boran and "He-Who-Shall-Not- be-named". Holrune didn't know that Boran was working for HWSNBN but would pass on the info about him through safe channel's. I caught up on the news from Dom-Daniel, and Holrune mentioned something about weird going's on in a shadow called Vashti. Something to worry about later.

Fineas trumped me and told me the good new on the out come of the coup in Tir. Marcus was going to wed Rhanda (daughter of the cat, from the sounds of it). I asked him if he would be willing to take over one of the Purgatory operations and He said that he would think about it, but would get back with me when we could discuss it face to face.

Everything is just clicking along wonderfully!

Translator ring number 38.

Gifts

Gifts, Hoo-haws, and Gee-gaws

Everything has been checked. No bugs. No wires. No spy devices of any kind. No coins that will turn into bugs. No gems that contain poisonous gas. Everything checks out ok.

Based on my Education at the hands of Duchess Lornaya Chantris, I must send a note of thanks To Diego. This is easy enough to do, and to have it sent via the next outgoing Vulnavian ship.

But it is curious, as I have done nothing to deserve such a boon. Also curious is the fact that there is no note or message to explain the large heap of goodies. The money is easy enough…put that back into the Coffers of the Royal treasury. This simple act seems to please Gerard very much. Why Diego did not do this himself only adds to the mystery. Maybe the news articles and rumors have some truth to them after all. The silver I had distributed to the weapons makers for our use. This donation to the cause has made both Count Emrys Feldane, and Sir John Gaunt very delighted.

The Gems I had shipped to Nampara. Some of them would nice little trinkets for Sabine, and the rest will be good for bribes and greasing some future wheels.

But as to what to think of Diego's act of generosity I really have no clue. Gifts were not done in the Village. Mostly because they would end up in the ocean shortly after receiving them.

No one trusted them.

The Gifts or the Gift giver.

Ever.

I will need to talk to those who are used to dealing with gifts for some input. Ideas as to why Diego did this and the correct course of action to follow in the aftermath of the gifts.

The hoo-haw seems to be Fineas' new toy. It glows like the midday sun. It is chock full of Pattern energy and has a lot of power. There is a feeling of intelligence about it. I would love to get my hands on for a few minutes and see the how and why of it. My guess would be that it is an extreme use of Pattern user blood. I cannot fathom the amount used. Gallons would be a good starting point. I did offer to make a Shielding scabbard form him so he is less of a beacon out in shadow. He seems unconcerned. It must have some ability hide it's self.

Dara was a dear and taught us a little trick that she and the Hellmaid's use. Very handy.

The Gee-gaw is that my Mother did name me something after all. Paul-Devon. This should make Toriana very happy and put an end to her Reese fixation, unless of course Reese really is a Pooka of hers. Any delusions after this are really her and her Fathers problem. Mother also seems pleased with Sabine, though she is concerned with fact that I maybe sleeping with the rest of the Universe it seems. Mother comes across like dour Jacob.

Benedict is an odd sort. You can see the babysitter residing behind his eyes. Though I feel that this is something he is loath to do. Good.

He seemed pleased with how I am dealing with the Hellgrim's, and only made a few suggestions. One of which was to deal with the Garu shadow first. I really have no desire to deal with it at all, putting it off till the end when some other event might make it moot.

I walked away From her. It was the only thing I could think of to do. I threw down the STEN and walked away.

I could tell from her voice that she was stunned by this.

She asked where I thought I was going. I told her to the Shadow Purgatory and the city of Queento since the Hellgrim's where my responsibility to defeat.

She was still in a state of shock.

"Well where's the bastard Oberon?" she asked.

"Died Saving the Universe, or maybe part of him is living on in Dworkin's mind, I'm not sure that Jacob understood what was going on completely."

That Hit her like a two-by-four...

"But what about Brand?"

"Dead"

"Fiona?

"Dead"

"Eric, Bleys, Corwin, Caine, Dierdre...."

"Dead, Dead, unknown, Dead, Dead..."

Shock and horror crept acrossed her face.

"...Gerard, Flora, Llawella, and Random"

"regent gerard is in Amber, Flora in fighting the Jesby's in Johrom, Llawella is recovering in Rebma, and King Random died in Gerard's Arms after the defeat at Patternfall.

More shock and more horror.

"You are welcome to come with me Purgatory while I get things set up and then we can go to Amber."

In stunned silence she climbed into one of the trucks.

In Purgatory Boran was now in charge...Dara having gone back to Amber for some unknown reason.

I got in touch with Tenoch to get things set up in Queento in regards to the Crew I hauled in from the Village. He wanted more gold, but was willing.

Boran told me that he had found out a few things, but really needed to have more support from the rest of the crew. I told him that I was heading back to Amber and would round everybody up and bring them back here.

Merrille and I trumped back to Amber via Gerard's trump. Gerard was shocked to find out that Mayoral thought that there was a royal warrant on her head, but told her that if there was it would be reminded.

As Gerard filled her in on what she had missed out on in the last 3 decades, she slowly got drunk and passed out.

I summoned a page (Her name was Micah) and had a room made up for dear old mom. I carried her up stairs to her room.

Sabine and I partook of the Castles bathing and massage facilities and got ready for the party that was been held this evening.

surprise, surprise....

Tori had found Benedict...The babysitter had been found. I am not to happy about this, but I will pick his brains for info and tactics on how to deal with the Hellgrim's.

Also here were Three more of Corwin's kids. Douglas, Vialle, and Dierdre. Not very original our uncle Corwin.

Llawella was up and about now. This was a good thing.

And a curious woman by the name of Galena. She had been found by Fineas.

Revelation

Epiphany

Paradigm shift

All good words. The fact that Sabine was right is a tad unsettling, but I'll get used to it.

So this is real. All of it. Sabine is real. The Village is real. The actuality that I am some sort of super human. All of it is real. The fact that the Village was some sort of Prison that my Mother dropped me off at. The sign out side the gate must have said "Free Daycare" or some such thing like that, And she just wondered off and forgot where she left me. This last bit is important, but we will get back to that later.

It is freeing in a strange way, similar to the time that #2 told me that "He was not our Babysitter". This was not the Village, where everything you did and said was watched and recorded. At the point that #2 uttered those words I knew that I could go out and do anything I wanted, in any way that I would feel comfortable about (within reason, of course). I could deal with my cousins in a manner that would profit me the most (again, within reason). If Toriana were to refer to me now as Reese…pow right cross to the jaw. It is a good thing not to have Babysitters.

But back to REAL. Sabine, Kirsten, Zherevyev, Badger, Gertruda, and Jurgan…all real.

Toriana - Real. Arrrgghh. Start smaller, less scary.

Amber - real. Ok, that works.

Diego - Real. Just as scary as Toriana.

Rebma - Real. That’s just plain wrong.

Clackers - Real. As in real tasty! Grin…snort…I crack me up.

They can all really die (as well as me). No reset - Game Over. This is now both a gift and a curse.

Freedom.

Freedom is another good word.

Freedom from the Tyranny.

The Tyranny of the Village.

This is not a computer program designed to test my loyalty. I am free to really do what I want to do. The lessons of paranoia well serve me well, but now I have the Freedom not to have it be the driving force behind my decisions.

The Babysitter is dead.

Satisfaction

This is another good word.

I felt great satisfaction when I handed the Village #2 a Walther and told him.

"I'm the new #1, and it would be much easier for everyone concerned if you resigned instead of having to be fired"

He left the room and a muffled pop was soon heard from outside.

Very satisfying.

Another Satisfying sight was when the Village headed for the sky in a big orange glowing cloud. Kind of a two sunrises vision. I love the smell of cordite in the morning.

But right now is a bit different.

A woman who claims to be my mother is standing 100m away from me holding a bow. She has managed to keep my guns from firing, and has pinned Kirsten to a tree with 5 well aimed shots. She calls herself Mirelle and thinks that this is a good time for the mother and child reunion. I have managed to unpin Kirsten from the tree and gently hand her to Zherevyev so that they can go to Lynxia. The one claiming to be a mother has tossed a Card to me, and has challenged my legitimacy.

Where is Sabine anyway. Think woman, think. Gun shots, coming from where I am. And yes, I did shoot at Mirelle. If you try and kill my people you should expect to be fired upon in kind. That’s why my STEN doesn't work right now.

It is time for explinations. And yelling. Damn I wished STEN would fire...

Transmission start....

You know things are going badly when your level of frustration reaches a
point when Jacob's approach to adversity seems level headed and rather
decisive. I have reached this point. There are heavily warded Hellgram
Logrus users a mile away and it is going to be a pain to get to them. I had a
Thought of taking on of these Jet liners and crashing it into the Building,
But Zherevyev and Sabine gave me the evil eye and got very angry at this
idea.

Note to self: In future just go and do it and don't discuss it with my
portable consciences. Just a thought.

But that was yesterday Today we took a lovely train ride down the coast to
a beach town by the name of Langet. Kirsten and Zherevyev are hiding out
of the sun. They told me that they had found some tasty native men that
they are lightly feeding off of. Boran is chasing the skirts, with some
success. I guess gold does wonders to change poor girls minds.

An hour ago Sabine hit me with the Whole "we need to talk" thing. It had
started to bother her that I do not think that this is real. She didn't want
to be with anybody that thought that she was an illusion, And she really
didn't want to be sleeping with anybody that thought that she was an
illusion. She really has no idea of what a computer is but she knows that
one did not make her. I was going to inform her that according to the
books from the Tar Tarngir Library all she really is somebodies imagination,
but I didn't need to have her even more pissed off then she was right now.
She told me that my belief was making me vulnerable to illusion attacks
(except for the fact that one can detect that). She cast a spell on me...and
I was back in the Village. exactly where I thought I should be. Wasting
away, Nobody taking care off my body. Sabine seemed really pleased with
herself. She no idea what I had seen, but said that a simple spell like that
would put me in harms way. I pulled one of the thought transfer gems from
my pocket and passed to her. Her face blanched, and she started to shiver
a bit at what she saw and felt.

When she was done I handed her Tanitheel's Trump card and told her to
make the arraignment to go to the Village. She perked right up and took
the card to talk to Tanitheel. Could it be possible that this is real? Yes, it
is in the realm of the Possible. I have adjusted to stranger things over the
past several months. But if it is real, things are going to have to change.
Right now I do not know what, but something. If it is real I'm going to kill
#1 and take over the Village. It would make a nice little research center. I
will put #7 out of his misery. But number one on the list is that the next
person that calls me Reese is going to get their ass kicked from one side of
Amber to the other. That will feel really good.

Will I be more careful? Hmmm, Unknown. I've seen lesser minds die in
computer simulations and die in real life as well. So not much of a change
needed there. I will have to start to take life more...more leisurely. If this
is not a test, I can go even farther into the "I'm not your babysitter" mode.
Take a page or two out of the wastrel Diego's book.

For those that want to be caught up on my goings on, and not spend so much
time in my newly curious mind, Here you go.

This new shadow is Purgatory. A shadow similar to Flora's Earth shadow (I
wonder if they have Gurka's here?). We (Myself, Sabine, Zherevyev,
Kirsten, and Boran) arrived in a wide spot in the road called Vina Punta.
After we got our bearings, and figured out what was up, we traveled north.
First by truck to Potosi. Next, by Train to Las Pahz, and on to Qweentow.
This city had the best mix of things we needed. Low security measures on
communications, and easy feeding possibilities for Kirsten and Zherevyev.
On the way we had to keep upgrading our security papers to fool the next
set of foolishness at the next border.

We hired somebody who called himself a hacker. His real name was Tenoch
and he introduced us to the wonders of the network of this shadow. Prior
to this I spent my time reading the outrageous tabloids for hints of the
Hellgrams. These were helpful, but you had to do a lot of manual sifting.
Very time consuming. The computer systems were not much different then
the ones back home. I adapted easily, but Sabine and Zherevyev took some
time learning. Kirsten grew frustrated and helped others look for things.
Boran also tossed out good ideas every so often. We found little bits of
things that sounded like Hellgram activity, but no big glowing you are here
level items.

I spent the next day just letting the shadow wash over me and taking it all
in. Then a flash...and another...and another. I worked out the location and
started to triangle it. Got it. I grabbed the Atlas of this shadow and tried
to match everything up. It looked like the City of Koalua Lompour. Tenoch
made reservations for us on a sub-orbital transporter.

I enjoyed it, great fun. Nobody else was to happy with the experience.
Koalua Lopour was a sprawling jungle city. We rented a automobile and
made our way to where I felt the flashes. We followed it out to the ocean,
and tangled in the Mangroves we found some bodies that looked as if they
were hacked apart by Logrus Tendrils. So we had found the Hellgrams.

Back in town I spent some time trying to feel the city. Taking it all in, I
soon felt a huge presence of a magically shielded building. It was soon gone,
but I had the location fixed.

Sabine and Zherevyev quickly shot down my idea of flying one of the large
jets into it. It's what, I felt, Jacob would do. This I think, was the start
of Sabine's mood. Yes this is where it began.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

The dinner with Incarnadine went nowhere, so Dara and I left. We went
back to Glencora to get things in order. I spent the next day getting all of
the new "recruits" used to the vagaries of this shadow. Looking back on it
all, I can see now that the Hellgrams were just testing me to see what I
was made of. The more I dealt with them the more like family they seem.

The attack came that evening with The werewolves (Gareaux) from the next
shadow over, coming at us like lightning bolts. They were brought in via
logrus on the north and south. I had Sabine and Badger take the majority
of the army out into shadow so that we could hide them, and make taking
them into Coriolanopolis easier.

The battle was long and hard fought. Badger and Sabine came back and
helped but Badger was mauled by one of the Uber-werewolves (Gareaux).
Several of Dara's hellmaids were also wounded. When the battle had
settled down Dara trumped her operatives that she had sent to treat with
the Hellgrams. They had fought a running battle and were very banged up.
Some had been poisoned, and none of the were in anything near good health.
Dara had the gleam of vengeance in her eye, and wanted some Hellgram
heads on a few pikes. Badger all of the rest of the wounded were sent on
to Lynxia.

The assault on Coriolanopolis the next morning was a bit of a let down. I
had gathered some Gareaux of my own and turned them loose on the city as
a distraction. Sabine was not very happy with this (I will be paying for this
for a while), but Dara was happy. And then it hit us, as we entered the
Hellgram strong hold, they had left. They had left behind a mocking letter
hoping to meet with Dara and me some time in the future. Dara was beside
herself with rage.

I gathered up the Gareaux and took them back to there shadow. I did my
best to impart upon them that the next time I show up I will again lead
them to great hunting. They were very satiated and didn't seem to want to
commit one way or the other. Dara reported to me that her hellmaids told
her that the Hellgrams had developed a spell that blocked Trump, and that
was how they were trapped. One bright spot at least...something to
research.

Pope Alexander wss in his prime in this place. After the burning of a few
heretics Coriolanopolis settled right down. I contacted #2 and reported to
him all that has transpired and focus on the Hellgrams ability to block
trumps with Spells. This troubled him, though he is glad that the Hellgrams
had left the first of the three shadows.

The next day Fineas trumped me and informed me that the Gryphon's were
attacking the shadow from which Amber's gun powder is extracted. To
arms, To arms. The battle went our way from the start. Two of the
Gryphon's were slain outright and the rest were sent packing without any
samples of the gun powder. Though, they must have gotten a sample from
somewhere, or at least found out about this shadow from someone. Either
Lirazel, or maybe a Rebman traitor.

The next bit is very odd. First off #2 wanted to have a standard way of
dealing with Chaosian prisoners. The Rebman contingent (Morwyn and
Diego) were of the opinion that the only good chaosian is a dead Chaosian.
Fineas and #2 were of the opinion that if we treated our prisoners well and
made trades, that it would bode well for any of us that may got captured in
the future. Theie argument carries the day, though Diego wonders off in a
sulk. There are several plans to deal with the Gryphon's. The one that wins
is to try and woo them (the Pattern users) to our cause.

The next bit of oddness is the woman Zhatra. By my count she claims to be
our Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother. She also claims to be
gaised to "save" the universe. No discussion on how and/or why. She had a
nifty fade in/out power. She is related to the Unicorn and the Tiger.
Fineas and #2 propose that she be our go between with Chaos to try end
this war. She grudgingly agrees.

As I am getting ready to leave and take my troops back to Coriolanopolis,
Zhatra comes up to me and conducts an interview. The only thing that I can
see is that is an Icon, or and interface with the real world. I give her the
answers that they would want to hear. After about ten minutes she smiles
and fades out.

On the way back to Coriolanopolis I make a detour for the troops. A R & R
shadow to get there morale back, Or at least show them that more of this
could happen in the future if they keep up the good work.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

The negotiations with Glencora went on for more time then I would like to
think about. She kept wanting to know about my power and why the "earth"
liked me so much. She didn't seem to be buying the whole "I-was-sent-by-
the-powers-of-light" shtick. She finally agreed, but insisted that she
wanted to know more about the difference between the Pattern powers and
the Logrus powers. Glencora is very perceptive, Hopefully I can keep her
curiosity at bay before I have to tell her anything important. Who knows
which of my allies could be a spy for the Hellgrams.

Next I talked to Boris and Ivan about places inside of Corialanopolis in
which a large army could be brought into. They told me that they could
think of a few city squares or the hippodrome. The hippodrome had been
used as a place of rebellion before, shortly after the Hellgrams had shown
up. The Hellgrams had crushed them with great efficiency. I was not very
happy about the Hippodrome and asked them if they knew of anything about
an arena or ampatheater. They knew of the ampatheater and they
described were it was and passed the info in to the rock. I looked over
there info and found that there were not many places in the city that would
be very good. The hippodrome offered good protection if we could take it
and secure it in a quick and efficient manner.

I thanked them and went in search of Badger, Sabine, and Dara. It was
time to go and gather some more troops. We had need of artillery, archers
or musketeers, an air defence, some more ground pounders. Part of the
reason was to give some more training to Dara (who was lacking in
technique), and to see if Badger and Sabine could learn to focus their
Broken Pattern better. While we are waiting for Sabine and Badger to
arrive, Dara reports on what her Hellmaids have been up to. The hellmaids
had reported been spied on, several attempted poisonings, kidnapings and
other things typical of the House of Hellgram. I was beginning to really
enjoy these people. They made feel at home.

The search goes fairly well. I can tell that I am going to have to spend
some more time studying the histories of various militaries, as well as
having Sabine learn the things that SJG had already taught me. Badger and
Sabine had some trouble with the navigating part of things. It would seem
that the Broken pattern does not allow for focused and defined searches.
You must know exactly where you are going to, and not search. A slight
flaw in the power...good to know. The first group we found were a shadow
of 1400's inglander Archers and some knights. The had been decided to
pack it in after there king had died. Showing up in a glow of light and gold,
I made them and offer of gold and transportation away from the Borbon's.
The Knights and Lords wanted to distribute the gold, but instead I divyed it
up to the men. This made the Nobles a bit angry (I could tell that they
were going to take a delivery fee out of the mens share), But the men were
very happy. The Nobles got even more upset when I told them that Sabine
was going to lead them to where I wanted them. Sabine soon put this right
when she took the head off of one of the least liked knights. They all fell
into line and were headed back to Glencora.

Next on the hit parade was the Artillery. Nice big mortars with exploding
shells. Explosives that would work in that accursed shadow that is. Not to
much of a hassle. Really. After a days rest we were able to find a crooked
Commander of a depot and captured some Gattlings and Mortars. The
carriages, horses, and some troops that haul it all. I also was able to get
some personnel that would be able to teach how to use them. Badger lead
them back to Glencora.

Working with Dara was both fun and painful. She kept trying to do things
like she had seen the Logrus Masters do things. I studied that, Just to
know a little bit about how Logrus worked would be a big advantage. Next I
had her work on searching for things, and how to feel other powers and
scan for things. When she was a little bit more comfortable on the how to
part of the exercise I let her look for something that would be able to take
out the Razorbeaks. We ended up in airy cloudy world. Dara had found
some sort of airborne Jellyfish. She said that she had seen these back
when she was a child in Chaos, and tried to find something on this side of
the universe that were similar. They would do fine. She told me that she
was going to take them to a shadow nearby to the Hellgram shadow where
these things would be able to live and feed until we actually needed them.

After some searching I was able to find some powder that would work in
the Hellgram shadows. I have wagon loads of it "sent" to Glencora for some
samples of Chaosian blood.

When everybody got back to Glancora I typed up a report for #2 informing
him of all my preparations, accomplishments thus far, allies gathered, and
my attempts to negotiate with the Hellgrams to just leave. When I was
finished I scanned about for any logrus use...detecting none I trumped #2.
Not exactly want I wanted to see...A full frontal of #2 with the Royal
Scepter more or less at hand. Several of the daughters of Agher were also
present. I smiled and did my best not to show surprise or shock and turned
up the charm a bit. Considering his position he was very chatty. I wanted
to sigh off as soon as I could, but he wanted to get a brief briefing of the
situation, When I was done he told me that bad things had happened and
that I was to contact Jacob as soon as I was able. I thanked him for his
time and told him that I give the report to SJG. He nodded and was gone.
Thankfully. Though I wish that I was able to record all of that so that
some day I could share it with Tori.

I trumped SJG and gave him the report and a longer version of the
briefing. He said that he would look at it and make recommendations as
needed. He also told me of Fineas' success in Shandora. Bully for him.
Now it was only the Hellgrams, and the Gryphon's to worry about.

With that done I gathered Sabine, Dara, Badger and Kirsten and I trumped
Jacob. He told me that he needed to talk, so he pulled us all through. He
and Fineas were standing around something that Fineas had been burying.
Jacob looked at everybody and said "this is a family matter everyone
except Dara get lost". He told us about his and #2's experience with the
mythical Dworkin, Some papers that Tori had, and some sort of super
weapon. He also told us about Corwin, Blayes (Insane), Benedict (shacked up
with Great-grandma) and some other little tid bits that Tori had bragged
about. He tried his best to make sense of the history as Tori had imparted
to him. Not much of it made sense. Sabin came up and told me that the
were going to head back to Glencora. I told her that I would catch them up
when I could.

Next Jacob trumped Tori and demanded the papers so that we could take a
look at them. From the sound of the conversation from our end...Jacob
would have hell to pay when Tori caught up with him. First we took the
papers back to Amber and compared them to the info that we had from the
Tir Tarngir Library. Some help but not much. Fineas told us that Flora had
access to computers and had been helping him with the Tir Tarngir Library,
so we should get her help. Jacob wasn't to happy about this, but anything
helpful would be good right now.

Fineas told us that we were in the Shadow earth. Flora helped and Dara
filled in a lot of blanks. The best that we could figure was that it was a
design for a "Madness Logrus Master Bomb". Not anything that any of us
wanted to deal with. Jacob Trumped Tori to let her know what info we had,
but she was in a snit and told him to take it back to the "Jewel Safe" in
Amber. Fineas was tasked with Helping Flora cleaning any files off of the
computer system. I talked to Flora about where she had gotten her Gurka
troops. She provided a file on them and everything that I would need to
now to find my own. She told me that I wasn't going to be allowed to get
them from this Shadow, but someplace similar would be fine by her.

When I got back to Glencora Dara Briefed me some more on the history of
the Family and of Chaos. Not at all like #2 had told me. Much, much
weirder. When she was done with her history lesson she told me that one
of the Hellgrams by the "name" of Incarnadine had made a deal to talk to
me and see what I had to offer. Fine I'll meet with her, I kind of wanted
to see what they would be like anyways.

We met in a shadow not far away and a Cafe. She was sitting behind a
table (the only one with a long tablecloth) and did not rise to greet us.
Dara whispered that most Chaosians can not fully mimic our appearance.
We greeted each other and Dara introduced me to her. When the food
arrived I had to do my best to nonchalantly get rid of the poisoned items
off of Dara's plate and drink. I found it odd that she would not be able to
sense this. Perhaps some more lessons when we had the chance.
Incarnadine did not provide much except that Blays was available to us as a
bargaining chip. Not much of a starting point. We talked at length for and
hour, trading threat and counter threat, but getting nowhere. I was in need
of a few clarifying points and needed to talk to #2 about them, so I
excused myself from the table (whispering to Dara not to eat or drink
anything while I was gone) and headed for another part of the room to
Trump #2.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

Things were going worse for Kirsten this time. I must have been too big a leap in
power going from Yohannes to Varnai. I sat and thought happy thoughts
like #2 taught me...trying to produce the outcome that I desired. Kirsten
was still thrashing though, and looking a bit gaunt. This can't be good. I
have one of the Castle Yohannes servants go and get some blood from a few
of the feeding cattle. Kirsten had eaten about eight pints already.

Sabine gave me the evil eye over this. See doesn't seem to think that this
is a good idea. I've told her that Kirsten is now part of the team. I take
care of my team members, and make sure that they are rewarded when
actions warrant it. Just like she could have died while walking the broken
pattern, Kirsten could be killed by this. That which does not kill us makes
us stronger.

Still, Sabin is not happy. She seems to think that I have been under the
influence Derkon. That the kindly, though now slightly drunken,
Necromancer has too much sway over me. I have a come back, but I don't
seem to think that mentioning to her anything about the "Power of the
Triangle" would gain me any points right now. She goes off to talk to
Badger.

I've tried to tell Sabine about my background but she doesn't seem to get
it. The Village is just too weird for her to comprehend. And I don't think
that she likes the implication that I do not think that any of this is real.
The conversation would go something like this:

"Do you love me?"

"Of course I love you...their is no other in the universe"

"But you don't think that I am real"

"Well no, not really. But it is nice to know that you are out in the universe
somewhere"

"Screw you and the Trump you came in on"

And that is the rub. The Village taught me not to trust anyone. Even if
they were going to be around awhile. One day they might betray me, or just
disappear.

In fact the concept of a Team is against what the Village is about. But I
did it. I do it now, and I did it then. I made sure that those under my
command were taken care of. Who knew when I might someday be put
under their command, or they might be the ones running the mind games on
me. I always liked the feeling that by being nice to someone might work out
in a positive manor for me in the future.

Ahhh. Some more blood. About five gallons of the stuff. Kirsten started
in on it like someone dying of thrust. I trumped Fenmore and asked him if
he could talk to Col. Sir Bors for me and get at least four pints of Chaosian
blood. Fenmore is a little taken back by this request, told me that he will
look into it.

The two Swan maids come (Hilda and Gilda) in and informed me that they
were ready for their next assignment. I instruct them that over the next
week they will need to go to several places. First off to Castle Von Klatka
to deal with that Vampire. Then to Castle Zherevyev to make a deal with
that Vampire, and finally to Glencora to deal with the earthy Rebmen-want-
to-be's. Though out of all of these, Glencora is the key. The others I
could just destroy and not have that much problem, but Glencora was the
breadbasket of the entire river valley. Badger and Kirsten have told me
that their troops are pretty good as well. Good horsewomen and good earth
mages. Glencora will also be a good place for a staging area. Troops could
be brought in and made ready without much of a drain on resources.

Alexander came in and crossed himself, He wanted me to know that the
Magyar Horsemen were just about ready. They have almost adjusted to
this reality and have been drilling with the Svitz troops. Good. I thank him
for the update and he leaves shaking his head.

Kirsten is done with the blood. She seems older, and a bit bigger. Her skin
is not as ashen and it looks fuller. Good. But soon she started to rampage
around again. Hmm, I am bleeding from a gash on my face the length of my
hand. Well, who knew she could do that. I guess that that must be the
"wound from a distance" power that she and Fandril had talked about. Not
a bad power, but I think that I will have to bend it to a more practical, less
threatening (to me and mine) use. Maybe I should influence her so she
would be inclined to use it against a mutual enemy instead of "just anybody".
There...it has stopped.

A trump call. It is the Colonel, and he has my blood. He notified me that
He really does not want to know what I am going to use it for, and hands it
through. I thanked him and ask him while I've got him on the line, I had a
progress report for him and the Regent about the Helgram front. He
thanked me and signed off.

I walked over to the IV stand and hooked up the Chaosian blood and waited
for it to take effect. Think good thoughts...think good thoughts. I Fumble
through my Trump deck and found Dara's card. I focused on it, and waited
for her to answer.

When she answered I could see that she was in the Lynxia hospital. She
told me that her Hellmaid would make a full recovery. I talked to her about
a plan to lessen our load against the Hellgram's. It mainly dealt with
allowing them to take as many of the Uber-werewolves in the next shadow
over, back to Chaos. She informed me that the Hellgrams were way to
cagey and would see that as a trap. But, if done properly, in the traditions
of chaos, some of them might go. She would send a few of her Hellmaids in
to check it out and see if a deal could be made. I thanked her for her
assistance and signed off. Looking over at Kirsten I could tell that she was
finally resting peacefully.

Great!

I left the Crypt and made my way to the courtyard. I found Ivan and Boris
there. I told them that they needed to try and come up with a place in
Coriolanopolis that was big enough to bring an Army into. They hemmed and
hawed for a minute, but said that they would think of some places that
might work. I thanked them and gave them a two memory rocks. I told
them that when they had a thought up a few place that would work to try
and think of them in as much detail as they could and give me the rocks.
They went off to the battlements to work on it.

It felt good to be in the sun again and I found Sabine and Badger enjoying
some wine, cheese and bread in a nice sunny spot. They were working on her
Broken pattern training. Badger had her working on hexing spells, and she
was doing quite well. Sabine was glad that I was done working on Kirsten,
and could now get back to what I should really be focusing on. Sabine likes
that excitement of the chase, the close fight, but large unwieldy campaigns
tended to make her fussy. at least that is what I like to think.

The next few days went well. Kirsten continued to gather power and
strength. I put my influence in when ever I could. The Swan Maids
reported in from Von Klatka's and all went well. Von Klatka's area and
militia were several times better then Yohannes' was. Von Klatka was very
eager to join when he saw the head of Varnai. We worked out a deal (Same
standard one that I offered Fandril) and the Swan Maids moved on to
Castle Zherevyev.

The Vampire Zherevyev was a lot more alert and prepared then Varnai or
Von Klatka. She captured the two Swan Maids and had them Trump me.
The trump contact threw her for a bit of a loop, but she dealt with it. I
(and the crew) went to meet with her. I entered the first room of her
Castle and was struck by the overwhelming sense of death. I thought it
best to stay right there. Looking over her lands I could tell that things
where better here then the other places I had been. Good "cattle"
husbandry. She also has a keen military mind.

After she had looked over Varnai's head and talked to Von Klatka,
Zherevyev saw that it was a good deal for her and took it. She also let on
that she was very worried about the "feeling" evil that she had felt from
the south. I had to take control of myself when the two vampires started
to complain about a great evil that was not them. Both Von Klatka and
Zherevyev told me that they had been approached by minions of the south,
but that they were willing to join up with me since I (with help from the
crew) had defeated Varnai.

Next on the Tour of this hell hole of a shadow was the witches of Glencora.
These are the type of women that I would love to introduce to my male
Cousins. Fineas, while being amused and disgusted by them would charm
them out of their knickers. Diego would haul one of them off for either
experiments of what passes for sex in his universe. Jacob....ahh Jacob.
They would see him as the bad boy of which all other bad boys are but a mere
shadow. He would be the project that they could not resist...a fixer upper
that would keep them busy till the end of their days. And they would love him for it.

For the most part Glencora is dirt Rebma...it makes my skin crawl. First the
run around...I'm used to that now. I can see why Jacob's approach has such
great appeal. Next, interviewed by the assistant. Toward the end of the
day the Head Witch came out and tried to seduce me. She declares that
the "earth" loves me, not like the "others" which the earth hates. I told
her that I was a representative of the "Realm of Light". Not far from the
truth...or at least as we like to see ourselves. Really we are not much
different from our enemies. The thing is, we just have different batteries.
After a long interview the Head Witch agreed to join, though she was
concerned with the size of our forces. Nothing that a little bit of shadow
searching can't fix.

Later, Dara trumped me and told me that she was ready to come back, and
would I be a dear and pull her though. After she stepped through she
reported to me that things are going well between the Hellgrams and her
Hellmaids. Her representatives where loving the treatment that they were
getting and that we should have word in a few days.

Good. Now to strengthen the hammer.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

The next Morning we took stock of our situation. We discussed the
possible Razorbeak problem. Right now, none had been seen or felt. I had
an idea of finding a creature that ate only Razorbeaks, But Badger said that
if the Razorbeaks were in this shadow full time everything in it would have
been eaten. Good point. The Air Mages of Alonzo said that they could set
up a detection ward and kill them with magic. This would be very in keeping
with the region and wouldn't raise any alarms. Good, make it so. They went
off to set something up. Next item on the agenda was finding some good
light cavalry. I would take that on since Badger and Sabine might have
some trouble with it. They decided to take on the problem of getting some
more supplies. I swear this is the one consuming problem of this
campaign...not enough food. Boran, Jurgan, and Gertruda would take one
platoon of Rangers and a two platoons of locals to investigate Fandril.

The next time I talk to Flora I need to ask her where she found her Human
Gurka troops. They would be really handy right about now. But, ever
onward.

I was able to find what I was looking for in either a nearby shadow, or some
other part of the current shadow. They called them selves Magyar's and
the were fantastic on horses. Could fight as good as I had seen outside of
amber. They were mercenaries, which was perfect really. There were four
groups of 1000 I would have wanted to get all four, but that would only
raise the bidding, so I set my sights on the best and the third best groups.
Before the bidding I wondered off to find a wagon train of people that
were hauling wagons full of gold back to somewhere. Using my weapons and
a lot of magic I was able to drive off the defenders and hauled the booty
back to the auction.

The bidding was tense but using my abilities I was able to persuade
everybody that they really wanted the second and forth groups. I paid the
Clan elders their gold and Briefed my new recruits. They were a gung-ho at
first but this waned after a few shadow shifts. I was able to convince
them that they were almost to where I needed them. This brought up
honor issues and they toughed it out.

When we got back to Castle Yohannes, I turned the troops over to Pope
Alexander for indoctrination. He was in his element. Sabine and Badger
were successful in finding more food stuffs. It should last us about a
month. I would need to get the Glencoran's on board soon. When Boran,
Yurgan, and Gertruda came back we discussed the how best to take on the
Fandril's. Boran wanted to know if we had made them any offer yet. "No"
I told him "we had rebuffed several of there probings...and killed several of
their patrols that had wondered into our area, but we hadn't made him any
offers". We needed to do this quick. I trumped SJG and asked him if
Tanitheel was available. "No" he said, "but if you need flyers I could give
you two Swan Maids". Well it was better then a poke in the eye with a big
fist, so I told him that the Swan maids would do fine.

I gave them one of my trumps and told them to get as near as they could to
Castle Fandril and trump me so we could make a quick approach. While they
were flying to Castle Fandril, Yurgan, Gertruda, and myself worked and
trained the new recruits.

The next day the Swan Maids trumped me. They were in a good position. I
had Badger and Sabine get everybody together and we started to send
them through. In the end, Standing outside Castle Fandril were Boran,
Kirsten (under a parasol), Badger, Sabine, Yurgan, Gertruda, Pope
Alexander, 500 of the Swiss Merc's, 2 of the Air Mages, the two Swan
Maids and me. I challenged Fandril to come out and treat with me. He
came out and was shocked at the army that I was able to sneak past his
defenses. He wanted to challenge me to a fight. I asked him what kind of
fight he wanted to do and he thought about it and said "magic to first
blood". Fine, I prepped all of my shield and we went at it. He was no match
and gave up quickly. He tried to make sure that I was not a Vampire, so I
took of my shirt and stood out in the midday sun. This seemed to placate
him and he got down on his knee and pledged his loyalty to me (I had him
kiss Pope Alexanders ring...this seemed to make both of them very happy).
Afterwards Boran gave a little demonstration of his power. He could make
his hand huge, and disembodied. This seemed to unnerve some people, and
other were wanting to know how he did it.

The core Group (Badger, Boran, Sabine, Kirsten Yurgan, Gertruda and now
Fandril) went into Castle Fandril to discuss our next move. Varnai was the
next target. Fandril and especially Kirsten talked in awe and fear of the
Vampire Varnai. He was 9 feet tall, weighed several tons, had ghost army's,
could not be killed by any of the standard Vampire killing modes, loved
running water, could wound anybody he could see (line of sight, any
distance), and was out hunting day and night. Herumph. Ghost army's
sounded right up Derkon's alley. I trumped him.

He was nursing a large drink and shaking a bit. His aura was very dark,
almost a dark as Jacob's the last time I saw him. I told him of the Vampire
and the Ghost Army's and he shuddered a bit, but agreed to help. He would
need to get some things together...so would I please trump him in about an
hour. Sure, no problem.

Next I trumped Dara to see if she was free to help. She said that she was
in Shandora helping a bit, but was at a point that she was beginning to feel
uncomfortable...she was close to breaking her agreement to not attack the
Hendrake's. She sent a message to Fineas telling him that she had done all
that she was capable, and would now fulfill her agreement with me. I pulled
through her and several (50) of her Hellmaids (Badger, Sabine and I all
noticed that about 12 of them were now broken pattern users). Kirsten
filled us in on the theoretical ways to kill Varnai. Most of what Kirsten
theorized about, sounded like we could do with Pattern hexing and
probability control.

When Kirsten was done I trumped Derkon to see if he was ready. He was
and I pulled him and one of his assistants through. Kirsten started to make
a real good crawdad imitation (she put her arms up and backed up to the
wall) when Derkon came through. This is the first time in a long time that I
had seen her so freaked out. Good, nice to know.

I sent the Swan Maid off to find a place to trump everybody through. in
the mean time Dara and I had a Pattern contest to see who was better...I
won (either she was holding back, or I am actually better then her). It was
decided that I was going to be the person that was to keep Varnai and his
powers pined down using Pattern Probability and hexing. The next day the
Swan Maids trumped me and told me that they were in position and ready to
go. I sent through everybody including Fandril and a couple of his Mages.

The hunt took us to a ruined city. The entire place was a wasteland.
Nothing was alive...except us. Derkon dealt with the ghost's (I had asked
him to collect them...this produced another prolonged shudder). I was
tracking Varnai using a combination Pattern and magic. The air Mages were
making sure no Razerbeaks were present. So off we went. Dara and her
HellMaids cornered Varnai and took him with no losses and only light
damage. Kirsten, Fandril, and the Air mages were at once in awe and fear
of what they had just witnessed. Dara took Varnai's head while the rest of
us chopped and burned the body and I had the Swan Maids scatter the ashs
in a large area inbetween here and Castle Fandril. I collected a vial of Blood
to give to Kirsten to see how it might improve her abilities.

I trump everybody back to Castle Yohannes. I take Kirsten down to the
Basement and chain her to the wall. She was a bit scared and started
begging me not to kill her. I told her that I had a gift for her, and held out
the Vial of Varnai's blood. She licked her lips greedily as I unstoppered it.
She opened her mouth wide and I dribbled it in. She started to shake and
act like a wild child. I pulled up a chair, hoped that the chains would hold,
and started to think happy thoughts about her and her new powers. Hoping
that they, though her, would serve me well.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

The next morning I assembled my group and headed to Nampara to use the
Trump painting of Dom-Daniel. The City of Dom-daniel was shrouded in the last hint of twilight as the Rainbow Hue's fell away from us as we stepped into the court yard of the Old Citadel School.

We went to the predetermined meeting place and found Boran almost
cowering in the corner. He greeted me and immediately launched in a long
winded and meandering apology for something involving Tori, Jacob, and
Gwyneth. It really made no sense, so I stopped him and made him start
over and explaining things as he went along. The long and the short of it is
that; while employed by another Mage (for whom Gwyneth was contracted
to do work for) he was sent to find out what had happened to Gwyneth.
After searching several of her properties Boran and his Employer came
across Tori messing around in one of Gwyneth's Palaces. When they
Confronted her about the whereabouts of Gwyneth Tori attacked them.
During this attack Tori Trumped in Jacob for support. The battle was a
stand off, With Jacob and Tori retreating through a trump. Boran's story
sounded like pure Tori...Attack first ask questions later. I chuckled at
Boran (which made him a bit more nervous) and the others joined in
(knowing glances all around). I told him that what was between His
Employer, Him, and Gwyneth was his own business. Being a "Gentleman" I
had no need to know who Employer was or what They did...as long as it did
not interfere with his contract to Amber. Boran told me that there was no
conflict and was willing to hear what I had planned.

I started off by telling him that the urgency had lessened since the death
of King Swayvil. This was a bit of a shock to him. I hadn't realized that
the news had not traveled to Dom-Daniel yet. I filled him in on the details
and what Dara had passed onto me. He said that he would need to contact
his other employer about this and would I mind waiting. I told him "no", I
wouldn't since it would give me time to pass this info onto the more useful
mage schools in Dom-Daniel. I visited Old Citadel School and the Autumn
Moon School (Badger and Sabine wanted to be the ones to give everybody
the good news at their Alma Mater) since they had been the most helpful in
the fight with the Chaosians.

Everybody Met back up at Aix. Boran picked up the tab while we discussed
the Hellgram's and their Shadows. Boran had no problem with the battle
plan.

Back at Castle Yohannes I got everybody introduced and Settled. Pope
Alexander was very interested to meet with Boran. It was decided that the
Air Wizard at Castle Alonzo should go first. They would be granted a
chance to join of course, but if they did not, we would take them out. I put
Yurgan and Gertruda in charge of this operation. Boran and Kirsten were to
help. The Plan in sequence 1) Alonzo (Air Mages, 2) Fandril (fire wizard), 3) Varnai, 4) Von Klatka (Vampire), 5) Zherevyev (Vampire), and then make a deal with the Glencoran's (Uber-Gaian-Matriachial-Theocracy) to
supply our push to Coriolanopolis.

Sabine nudged me and said that we were now fashionably late for Diego's
Investiture. Good, no need to be nice after his treatment of Flora. I don't
care how much your horns are up, there is no good reason to want to have
sex with your Aunt.

As Sabine and I were cleaning up and getting dressed for Diego's big Gala,
Every alarm in Amber seemed to go off at once. I put my traveling clothes
back on and went to find SJG. He said that there was a Logrus attack in
the City of Amber. I made my way to the Armory and got my Boys Anti-
tank rifle and bullets and ran to the roof.

Toriana was there and a thought crossed my mind about winging her with a
shot but it soon passed. I had a Page bring me a chair, a cigar, a small table
with a nice brandy. I started to scope the city for a good target. I could
see several very large lion things that several of my family members were
fighting. Too much movement for a clear shot. Sabine, Badger, Chungo, and
Elmore showed up to strengthen the Castles magical defenses.

Finally..in a window I could see a Demon getting ready to shoot a crossbow
at somebody not in my field of vision. *BLAM* one more for good
measure...lower...*BLAM* I took off the Bastards arm and most of his
shoulder as I watched him fly across the room. He stared to shift as he
leapt out the window *BLAM* (a large hole in the brickwork) and he was
gone. Tori took an interest in what I was doing and took out a Trump card
and talked to somebody that I could only assume was down in the city. The
last words I heard from her was "pull me through" . Peace at last.

When everything was dying down Badger, Sabine and I made our way to the
remains of Diego's Gala. Diego was nowhere to be seen of course (Probably
off sniffing Moire's Throne), But Rinaldo and Fineas were there putting on
a good show for the Masses. Fineas was a treat to watch as he glad-handed
the Nobles and made small talk with the common folk. No wonder the Press
liked him so much.

While I was walking around I noticed two Clackers that were dead. I pulled
out my location Trump of Castle Yohannes and wrote a little note saying
that this food was a gift of Prince Diego and that everybody should enjoy.
Sabine gave me a nudge and told me that I was being naughty (with a wink)
as I shoved the bodies through. Sabine told me that she hoped that it was
gone by the time that we got back there sine she felt that eating Clackers
was only slightly less disgusting then Kirsten's cows.

We continued to party with Fineas' babe d'jur Ky Tung, his very inquisitive
Aide-d'camp, and Rinaldo until very late. We (Sabine, Badger, and me) went
back to Nampara to sleep.

The next morning I met with Mariana to see how she was doing in her new
position. I told her that she had done a wonderful job with the House and
that both she and Fritz were doing well with the Thari. They were both
almost to a point that they wouldn't need the translator spell any more.
They both would have a slight Shandorian accent (hers stronger then
Fritz's) but that would be fine. Not that anybody in the family had my
accent (Tori's was almost nasally from her time in Rebma, Diego's sound like
some of the more swarthy people of the Village. The ones who kept blaming
everthing on somebody named Franco. Jacob's was a long slow drawl.
Sometimes we thought that he would never finish a sentence. Fineas' was
similar to mine, but with a bit of a wink to it). I told her that as soon as
whatever passed for School around here started classes she should sign up
Fritz, My treat. She seemed very pleased with this. In her excitement she
told me that If I could swing it, she would really like some Brownies to help
out around here just like Fineas' Manor had. Who knew that Fineas'
recruitment of the Tir Tarngir Brownies would come back to haunt me like
this. I told her I would see what I could do as soon as I had some free
time.

We trumped back to Castle Yohannes later in the afternoon as soon as
everybody had recovered from the Gala. The place was in a state of
excitement. It seemed that the Clackers went over very well, and they
were wanting more if I could get them (all things being possible...why not).
Yurgan, Gertruda and Boran briefed me on the taking of Castle Alonzo.
They didn't want to surrender and fought it out. Boran's hand was slightly
hurt and he was nursing it. The castle was taken with ease, and we even
gained a few of the apprentice Air Mages in the bargain. They had the
foresight to see how things were going and came over to our side.

Tomorrow Fandril.

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

After last nights questioning of the Gryphon prisoners I really didn't have
the strength to make it to Nampara, so Sabine and I decided to stay in my
room in the Castle.

There was a knock at the Door. I ignored it. The knocking happened again.
Better get up make this damnable knocking stop. It was one of the Castle
Pages and he informed me that the Regent wanted to talk to me ASAP. I
found some clothing and followed the Page back to the Regent. He was
working out and when he saw me he told me that I shouldn't be drinking so
much. I mumbled something about making shadow paths and questioning the
Gryphon prisoner Kirron.

He shrugged off this info and told me that he was wanting the younger
members of the Family to attune to the Jewel of Amber. He told me that
it had some interesting powers and it could control the weather in Amber.
This didn't sound very useful to me, though I made noises that made it
sound like I was excited about the prospect.

I told him of my plan to Make a shadow path from the Helgram area to Tir
Tarngir in hopes of setting those two houses at each others throats. #2
chuckled at the notion and gave me his approval to proceed.

I headed off to the Bathes to clean up and found Sabine already enjoying
the facilities. I told her that Badger and I were going to give some On-
the-job-training for her Broken pattern ability today. She sounded pleased
and told me that she was going to go and get ready.

On the way out we stop and check up on the Coin maker. There are two
coins ready and as Sabine fishes them out of the shielding box, I do some
minor fixing and tweaking on the machine and start it up again. Jurgan and
Gertruda sniff around to see if anybody has been here or not.

Badger and I give Sabine some training as to what to do and we start to
make our way to the Werewolf-Helgram shadow when I sense that we are
being followed. I take over the patch construction and try and do my best
to cover up the path and circle around to try and capture our tracker.

The plan almost works. We come in behind them, but they are able to shape
shift in to a flying thing and get away without taking much damage.

When we are sure that we had rid ourselves of our follower, I make my way
to the Helgram end and start to make the path strong and real. This is
going along well when Gerard trumps me to tell me that Rinaldo's
Investiture is soon and he was pulling me through to attend. We all came
through and got ready.

The investiture wasn't all that interesting except for Fineas' date and the
Fact that King Swayvil died. Prior tot the Death I talked to Dara about
what her plans were for the future she was vague but said that she would
talk to me about it later.

King Swayvil's death came to amber as a wave. Odd things were happening
in the Villa that Lirazel was staying at. Toriana and Fineas went to go and
investigate. Later I would find out about the Death at the impromptu
celebration back in Amber City.

I talk to an excited Dara and she told me that The Geas was lifted and
things may be getting back to normal. Chinaway may keep up his attack on
Amber but the other houses would be heading back to Chaos to lay claim to
the Throne. She also told me that she would be willing to help me out
against the Hellgrams if I needed it. I thanked her for the info and
continued on with the party.

Before retiring for the Evening I go downstairs to the Dungeon and Pay a
visit to Kirron and Alcazar. Alcazar seems really keen to part of a prisoner
swap. He also gives me some info on the Queen of Air and Darkness. She
sounds like somebody I would rather not deal with thank you very much.
Kirron on the other hand just spews forth more of his houses superiorness,
but soon he confides that Chaos will be in the grips of a Civil war and not as
interested in attacking Amber until the new King had been crowned.

I left them thinking that something good might be coming to them if they
were helpful and headed back up stairs to our bedroom.

Transmission start....

I woke up before the sun made it over the ocean. Something about this
place has me more on edge than I normally would be at home. Not that the
level of watchfulness is any higher here...It's just done in away that I don't
seem to be able understand. People watching you, taking notes. Ever
present electronic devices recording everything. That was what was normal.
Unblinking, Non-judgmental machines taking in, sifting, and filing away every
little detail to be used later. That was the Duty of the #2. To sort, to
sift To judge.

Not so here. The Judges are my new Family. The new Number Two doesn't
seem to have any duties. He has told me as much. "I am not here to be you
and the rest of the Families Nanny." he had told me. Or at least he will tell
me so. That was what the Dream showed.

They have no regard for resources. I have seen the 4000 in the dream. On
spikes. What a waste.

So He Doesn't want to be the Nanny. One could interpret this many ways.
I choose to see it in a more liberating way. The most freedom I have ever
felt. I will choose what orders to obey and which ones can be ignored (we
will se what the computer program does about this). No Nanny means no
intervention. Well, except for the Brat. He'll be the Nanny when it comes
to her. Or maybe, more aptly, the Nursey. After the Jacob/Morwyn affair
the sky seems to be the limit. A slap on the wrist, a pat on the back, and
off you go.

Sadly the only one of My family members that I find myself trusting is the
one that the whisperers tell me not to. Things about his blood line. Things
that do not matter to an outsider. But, I do feel that Fineas can be trusted
like any equal back in the Village. Face to face and never turn your back
them.

Jacob though, has proven to be the surprise in the bunch. Who knew that
inside that gruff, silent, loner exterior was a sociopathic whack job. When
the contracted Necromancer has to go off on a several day drinking binge
just to get the screaming out of his head you know you've really done
something. No wonder the Remen troops were in fear of him and would not
disobey his standing order. Fineas mentioned in passing that Jacob was a
sunburned-crackhead-freak. I am beginning to see that he has gone way
beyond that.

The Brat is still the Brat. The universe seems to be unable to punish her
for her arrogance. But, from what I've been hearing, the whole of Rebma
is just like her. It makes ones skin crawl just thinking about it.

The newest Member of our happy little band of brothers is Diego. He
seems to be his mothers son. He and the Brat have a lot in common.
Hopefully for him, Tori doesn't find this out. In a moment of what some
would call a lapse of reason, Diego confided to us (Fineas, Rinaldo, and
Jacob) the reason he hates Flora is because she made him horny.

I am insulted that He pouted like a little girl over that fact that Jacob and
I decided that his little party with the Gryphon's was not worth our time
and effort. Though I can see why Fineas did it. His Propaganda machine
must be kicking in big time over the "Glorious fighting withdrawal from the
House of Gryphon". He played Diego masterfully. Allowing Diego to fuss
and fret over every little detail, While he himself had a straight forward,
no nonsense plan to kill as many Gryphon's as possible. Nice.

My mistake, I have forgotten Fineas' Brother Rinaldo. I can picture these
two in my mind. Two little red headed kids telling their mother "he hit me
back first" with an evil gleam in their eyes. They both have the same
preoccupation with there mother, Some have said that this leads to
unheathly lifestyles...since they are both of the blood, maybe they are
already there.

One begins to wonder about their Mother. She bore the both of them from
the same father. This would seem to be an oddity among the younger
generation. The elders didn't seem to have enough time (as their Father
did) to procreate. And the fact that they have not brought her to live in
the comfort and glory that is the "One True City". Either they are
embarrassed by her, or she has something to hide. She seems to be a
mistress of Trump. At least as good if not better than Kelamon. An other
Rebman exile? Somebody else that upset Moire's delicate sense of
propriety? This will have to be figured out.

But now back to our story....

I woke up to the sound of knocking at the door. Sabine kicked me and I got
up. It was the Page Matt with a request for my presence from the Regent.
It also included a request to see Sabine. It was time for her testing to see
if she was ready to take the Broken pattern. We got ourselves presentable
and headed to his rooms.

He was in the middle of a work out when we entered the room. When he
was done with his rep he got up and went into his Bedroom and came back
with a pretty gem on a chain. He asked Sabine to approach him. She had
goose bumps as she did so. He held the gem up to his eye and focused on
her for a few minutes. He said that she looked ready, but he wanted to be
sure that she was physically capable since the walk would kill her if she
wasn't. SJG walked into the room as if on que and put Sabine through her
paces. After about an hour (#2 had gone back to his exercises) SJG
pronounced Sabine fit enough to Walk the Broken Pattern. #2 clapped and
told her to go and get some rest, and that we were going to his fathers
private Broken Pattern. Sabine was worn out but she had a vital glow about
her when he told her this.

Sabine headed to the baths, then to get a massage and then straight to
bed.

When she had left I handed #2 the copy of the family tree that I had
been able to cobble together from the Tir Tarngir library. We talked about
all of the implications of a whole other branch of the family. He said that
he would take a look at the library when Rinaldo got it put back together
and working.

He then asked me if I was going to help Diego in his defence of Tir Tarngir.
This was a very large bolt out of the blue...not that much different from
asking me what I was going to do with My wife Toriana. I told #2 that
Rinaldo, Fineas and I had tried to talk Toriana into taking command of that
new front, but that she had balked, so we had decided to abandon it after
we had liberated the library. I confessed that I did not know that Diego
had and kind of military experience, or the desire to participate in the war
with chaos. He told me that he was going to help Diego even if nobody else
was, and that he was not the Regent to be our baby sitters. He was
starting to get into his grumpy/sulky mood...time to get out of the Castle
and find some useful things to do.

I made my way downstairs and talked to Dante's concubines for a while. No
real info except for wild lying about the Gryphon's power and military
force. Like sex slaves know anything useful, but Cousin Diego seems to find
them valuable, so I won't do interrogate them as strenuously as I
should...they'll be his problem now. Speaking of problems...where was
Kirsten.

I tracked down Kirsten. She was subtly impressed with Amber, but she
complained that there was nothing to "eat". I told her that it was her lucky
day, and that we were going to solve this problem of hers. She looked a bit
fearful, and balked a second when I signaled her to follow me out to the
stables. I started to quiz her about her need for blood; what she got out
of it, what she needed from it, What it felt like for her to drink
somebodies blood, and how she felt afterwards. She thought it odd that I
was asking her these questions, but soon she was in full gab mode. The
first place that I shifted us to was a nice pasture with some grazing
animals. I told her to try one of these and she got off of her horse walk up
to the nearest one and bit it's neck.

She lapped at it's blood for a while but had a dissatisfied look on her face
and said "it's fine".

"No" I told her "tell me if this is what you were describing to me or not".

She replied "not".

I asked if the creature being sentient played a big part of the "food"
aspect.

She thought about it for a few seconds and decided that that must be part
of the need. She smiled as she got back into the saddle. I had to think on
this for a second. Then I got a flash. What if I found something that was
sentient and wanted to be eaten. That this was it's whole reason for
existence. No guilt for anybody getting eaten, no worry about her taking
out somebody because she was hungry. No need to kill her before she had
out lived her usefulness. And if Jacob was given command of the Helgram
front, Somebody he could relate to. Who knows what powers she got from
her elder Yohannes, Maybe she could Jacob a run for his money. Enough of
that, we were off to find some cattle that were begging to be eaten.

It took awhile, but I was soon able to find a shadow that was almost Village
like, but they were masters of genetic manipulation. Shadow Rateotu was
yet another eye opener for Kirsten. I was able to make a deal for 150
sentient-talking bovines. Kirsten said that they would meet her basic needs
and we headed back to Castle Yohannes with the herd in tow.

On the way back I had an interesting thought about the Gryphons and the
Helgrams. Neither one knew what the other was up to, except for what the
Basilisks were feeding them. I needed to start some strife between them.
I could haul a pack of the werewolves from the shadow next door to Tir
Tarngir. The Helgrams may or may not know that the Gryphons had taken
Tir Tarngir. Hauling the pack would set up a slight shadow path. With some
tweeking a little bit later it would be a full fledged Patterny shadow path.
Would the Helgrams follow it, and what would they do to the Gryphons when
they got to other end....

When I got back to Castle Yohannes I got everything there squared away
and headed off to set this new plan in motion. It was hard work using most
of my skill, but in the end I was able to have a pack of the Werewolves
follow me to Tir Tarngir. Man am I tired, time to go back to Amber to
rest.

In Amber there was much rejoicing. Several Gryphons were captured and
awaiting questioning in the dungeon. Tori was busy with the Logrus master
that they had captured leaving the "Normal" one for me. We bantered back
and forth. He knew that I was the "good cop" so things went pleasantly.
When the drugs were just about to drag him under I tried Tori's trick that
she had used unsuccessfully on Lirazel. I made contact with his mind and
plunged inside. It was a weird feeling, so it took awhile to get everything
focused. He was starting to close off his mind so I went after the info
nobody in the family had; Who were Flora's children.

For the most part they seemed to be inexact copies of us. Kamorra was
Fineas', Tharin were Jacob's , Illeane and Sabaton was Diego's, Vaila was
the Brat's, and Marcus was mine. It get there physical and mental images
and the Nexi back from Tir Tarngir. Now time for sleep...

Transmission end....

Transmission start....

We decided that Jacob was best able to capture the Gryphon woman and sent
him on his way.

Well this whole battle must of been Toriana's idea. No one else could have
come up with a plan this incompetent. A success, but at a high cost. No info,
no intel, No nothing. Just kill, kill, kill.

As I made my way back down to the bottom of the tower, I ran into a fellow
that introduced him self as Rinaldo, Brother of Fineas. He claimed to know
nothing either, since Fineas had just pulled him through a trump contact just
a few minuets ago. I asked him where his brother was and he told me he was
down at the Gryphon Palace.

At the bottom I found Ivan and Boris collecting jewel encrusted sex toys. I
handed them some weapons and armor that I had found and bid them to follow
me.

I confronted Fineas about the Cluster fuck, and he told me that none of this
was in the plan. The plan was to sneak in and capture on of the Gryphon's and
sneak back out. He wanted to question one of them before making a big
assault. Good man. But, he thought that either Jacob or the Brat came up
with another plan and that was how we got to where we were.

We decided to plunder the Palace for anything useful. I was looking for
anything that was patterneny or Magical and Fineas was looking for paperwork.
We found more paper than items.

We found that Jacobs troop had captured some of the Gryphons sex slaves.
I could see no use for them, But the Remen's refused to follow my orders. I
was this close to gutting the sergeant, but Fineas stepped in and hauled the
sex slaves back to Amber for Col. Sir Bors to question.

Ahhh, the Library. The Library of which all other libraries are but a mere
shadow. The operation to haul off this booty lasted for four days. The most
interesting find was a copy of a history that contained a family tree. there
were all sorts of names that #2 had not mentioned. The most interesting was
the line of Queen Morgana of Tir Tarngir (that must be where we are). We
were working our way through the book when Rinaldo stormed into the room.
He had had a run in with our dear sweet cousin Toriana and was still trying to
work off the head of steam that he had built up. After a few minutes Toriana
came in demanding to know who Rinaldo was and what we were doing. I told
her that we had taken a vote and that she was to be put in charge of Tir
Tarngir/Gryphon front. She glared at me. Fineas dropped the boom on her
about her attitude, personality and everything about her that was so
disagreeable. It was moment that brought a tear to my eye. Toriana turned
the same color as her hair and trumped out.

As I stated before, the Library took four days to move. I brought in Sabine
and Badger to help with the defenses of the castle (Kirsten was also brought
along). Diego showed up when things were almost finished and told us that he
had decided to defend the Castle from the Gryphons. Sounded like a suicide
mission to me. I had Sabine and Badger work on setting up the Castle wards
and make the defenses workable. When they were satisfied that everything
was in working order we headed back to Amber.

When we got back to Amber I worked on a few need to tasks and when I was
done with that I met with #2. The meeting went well, After some confusion
on #2's part he told me that he would check to see if Sabine was ready to
take the Broken pattern. We also Talked about Jorham and the Hellgram zone
and what my next task would be. This brought up the fact that there is a
severe stepping on of toes by the Princlings, and the we need to have a family
meeting to make some decisions as to what are focus should be on in the near
future. I brought up my views on the Tir Tarngir fiasco, and that Fineas' plan
should have worked if it was allowed to continue to its logical conclusion. He
thanked me for my input and I was dismissed.

Back to the salt mine.

Transmission end....