Session 82:  "By the way, I tried to save you from your horrible fate, but
then monsters came out."

	Mok wakes up first.  Dworkin is still there.  He wants two steaks
for breakfast.  Mok goes to the other teepees and yells "Wakey, wakey!"
Much grousing ensues.  Claudio chases Mok around, trying to get him to
shut up.  Dworkin whines for steaks.  Mok passes this on.  Merlin groans.
Melanie conjures herself breakfast.  Dworkin wants what she has.  Melanie
sighs and conjures the same for him, since she wants to get going.  So
does Claudio.  Mok asks if people from Chaos have no sense of humor.
Dworkin claims he was the only one who did.

	Ragnar does surveillance on Gerard's flagship, disguised as a
dolphin.  There's another dolphin that hangs around.  He uses sonar to spy
at night.  The dolphin approaches the ship, then vanishes.  Ragnar dives
underwater, then shifts into a pelican and flies above the ship.  The
ship's carpenter is pacing and staring at the water.  Ragnar dives and
sees nothing, so he craps on the man's head.  The man swears quietly, then
reaches over the edge and appears to touch the side of the ship.  Ragnar
shifts to infra-red.  There's a big blob on the side of the ship.  It
moves down.  Ragnar dives and shifts into a shark, then follows the blob -
which now seems to be a dolphin.  Ragnar shifts to a dolphin and follows.
The dolphin is heading towards two underwater rocks, sending a signal
ahead.  It slips between the rocks and disappears.  Ragnar checks the
rocks for spells.  There's something etched on them.  Ragnar tries to
duplicate the dolphin's approach.  Something weird approaches.  Lights out
for Ragnar.

	The posse mounts up and follows Mok/Dworkin.  As they go through
Shadow, they keep passing conflicts between magic-users and
technology-users.  Mok wonders if maybe the point isn't to kill off all
the sorcerers.  Caine admits this would work for a few generations.
Finally, Dworkin tells Mok they're almost there.  The Shadow they are in
appears to be a bit more medieval than Amber.  It's the dead of winter,
and the landscape is barren.  They approach a crossroads and see three
humanoids riding towards them at breakneck speed from the right.  The
riders keep looking behind them.  Suddenly, a creature appears about a
mile behind them.  It's squat, eight-legged, claws, legs, your basic
reptilian spider.  Yuck.  Caine and Claudio ready their bows.  A second
creature appears.  Mok asks for a bow.  Merlin suggests asking Dworkin to
make him one.  Dworkin tries to show Mok how to conjure.  His first
attempt produces a rather small bow.  Melanie calls a halt.  A third
creature appears.  The first creature reaches the riders and hamstrings
one of the horses.  Sky shoots the creature.  The horse limps on.  Claudio
joins in.  Sky rides towards the horses.  Claudio flies after her.  Sky
brings down the first monster.  Caine goes after the riders.  Sky and
Claudio take down the second monster.  There is a hunting horn, and about
20 men appear, riding towards the first group.  Sky and Caine bring down
the third monster.  The two groups of riders join up.  Melanie turns
invisible and checks out the area where the monsters emerged.  She doesn't
see anything immediately.  Sky rides towards the riders.  Claudio flies
towards them.  They shoot at him.  He flies away, turns briefly invisible,
shifts back to human form, then rides back on his horse.  The men are
thanking Sky for helping them.

	Mok gives up on his attempts to make a bow.  Dworkin tells him to
go see what the little girl is doing.  Which one?  The invisible one.  Mok
realizes he can't find Melanie.  Dworkin suggests calling out to her.  Mok
rides in the direction Dworkin indicates and calls out her name.  Melanie
senses a disturbance in the force.  Monsters begin emerging.  One begins
sniffing in Melanie's direction, while the rest head for the riders.
Melanie moves downwind of the monster.  The monsters are noticed by the
others.  28 total emerge.  Caine engages the monsters.  The one that was
sniffing around calls over a few others.  Claudio notices this and asks
Sky to join him.  Sky says they have bigger things to do.  Claudio
convinces her to join him by pointing out that she'll be a widow if
Kaedric finds out he's lost his wife.  Sky rides towards him.  Mok rides
away from the monsters.  Claudio tells him to turn and fight.  Mok reaches
Claudio, then turns and draws his sword.  The three begin heading towards
where they think Melanie is.  Melanie shifts to demon form and takes off.
The monsters stop and sniff the air.  Claudio vaults off his horse, shifts
to demon form, and begins fighting the monsters hand-to-hand.  Mok stays
on his horse.  Sky takes down another one.  Isaac fights two, while Sky
stands behind him and shoots.  Claudio is holding off three of them.  Mok
is fighting one, but he's not doing too well, since Dworkin is shouting in
his head.  Caine is doing fine.  Merlin is managing.  He's hitting them
with Logrus.  Claudio finishes his off in ten minutes, then takes out
Mok's.  Melanie flies to Mok and suggests Dworkin check out the gate.  He
does, but can't figure it out.  Claudio joins Isaac and Sky.  They kill
the rest.  Melanie asks Mok/Dworkin if they're there yet.  No, they have a
little farther to go.  Which way?  Towards the men.  They join them.

	Fifteen of the riders have survived.  One of them thanks Claudio
and asks where he came from.  Amber.  Is it beyond Cadwall?  Yes.  Claudio
says they're looking for the source of those monsters.  He and every other
imager in Mordant.  When did this start happening?  Last year.  The man
introduces himself as Castellan Lebbick.  Claudio says he's a Prince of
Amber.  In that case, they should see the King.  OK.  Have they seen a
tall, thin man, or a red-haired woman?  Nope.  Melanie shifts back to
human form and drops her invisibility spell.  They accompany the riders to
a castle.  There is a large hole in one of the walls.  Lebbick says that
was made by the champion.  He's a seven-foot-tall guy in armor, wielding a
laser.  Apparently, a bunch of imagers found him and pulled him out of a
mirror, at which point he went berserk and blasted his way out.  Two of
the imagers died.  Claudio has Sky conjure him some clothes, since he
shredded his last set.  They are shown to an anteroom where they clean up.

	Ragnar wakes up, shifts to infra-red, and sees through his
eyelids.  There is a woman-shaped blob sitting nearby.  Lots of magic
around.  He's not bound.  He opens his eye, sits up and addresses the
woman.  He assumes she knows all about him?  Some, but not the most
important questions.  She suggests they trade questions.  Ragnar asks if
she's Demeta.  There are those who know her by that name.  Is he working
for the Crown of Amber?  Not at the moment.  What does she prefer to be
called?  Tianen.  Does he work for the Crown of Chaos?  Not at the moment.
He's occasionally on retainer for both crowns, but looking for her was a
side project.  Was he looking for her only to kill her, or for more
entertaining reasons?  Well, he wanted at least a conversation.  Why did
she poison him?  Why did he look for her?  To find out why she poisoned
him.  He was looking for her before that.  No, he was just trying to
become her, not knowing she existed.  She has no more questions, now that
she knows that he's not going to bring the crown of Amber down on her.  If
he is, she'll just cut and run.  He jokes that she could always assume
he's going to turn her in, and just turn everything over to him.  She
thinks he should build from the ground up.  It builds character.  Does she
have any goals for this operation of hers?  You see, he was planning to
set things up so that he could paralyze Amber, and then he was going to
torment Hendrake with this fact.  Tianen says that having a stranglehold
on the city doesn't really affect the royals.  Ragnar is considering
asking her for a job.  She admits it might be nice to be able to turn
things over to a competent deputy.  She has long-term ambitions, after
all.  He asks what those are, since he'd hate to have them be something
he'd object to.  What would he object to?  Something that was good for
anyone else.  It would only be good for her.  Sounds intriguing.  At the
very least, it's the basis for a business arrangement.  Assuming he
doesn't sell her out.  She points out that he's been involved with Sand
and Flora, and has done something for the Crown Prince.  True, but he
doesn't owe the Amberites anything.  So, did he actually kill Finndo?
Yes.  Then his sorcerous resources can't be that bad.  He borrowed Sand
for the occasion.  He was under a deadline.  Otherwise, he would have
worked his way into Finndo's confidence, then stabbed him several times in
a couple of years.  And if he works for her, how many times will he stab
her in the couple of years?  Depends on how much she's worth.  And whether
she compensates him for more than her fair market value, of course.  She
says she'll think about his offer, and teleports out.  There's no door in
the room.  There's lots of art on the walls, though.  Ragnar doesn't
recognize any of the people, but there are several sea and landscapes.  He
tries one and it bursts into flames.  He looks in the mirror and sees a
reflection of the room, but he's not in it.  The mirror room is slightly
different.  He walks through the mirror and opens a door.  He's in the
stone hallway of a castle.

	Claudio asks Dworkin if the mirrors are like Trump.  Maybe.  It's
been a while since he's been here.  He gripes about being asked to solve
everything.

	A servant girl asks Ragnar if he's lost.  He asks the way to the
privies.  She shows him.  They pass the anteroom where the posse is
gathered.  Mok spots Ragnar and calls his name.  He joins them.  Mok asks
how he got there.  Stealth.  Mok flirts with the servant girl.  Claudio
calls Ragnar over.  Is there money in it for him?  There could be.  OK.
Is he busy for the next couple of days?  Claudio wants to put him on
retainer.  Ragnar asks Melanie to vouch for Claudio.  Melanie asks Claudio
what he's doing.  Hiring a bodyguard for her.  Or rather for him, because
Kaedric will kill him if anything happens to her.  Melanie is amused.
Claudio tries to hire Ragnar to capture Job Wickling.  Ragnar says that
even if he could, Claudio couldn't afford him.

	Dworkin takes over Mok and makes him sleep with the servant girl.
He returns to the anteroom with a big grin.  Then Dworkin goes to sleep.
Mok is not amused.

	The posse is informed that the King is not seeing visitors. 
Eremis, head of imagers, talks to them instead.  He shows them a room of
mirrors.  One of a seascape.  It's for putting out fires.  Another is of a
slug.  The third is of Benedict.  He is sitting by a fire, outside of a
cave. Melanie asks Eremis about it.  He says that's a new one.  Can the
man inside be freed?  It's against the precepts to pull someone out of the
mirrors, since it's theorized that they have their own lives.  Melanie
says that the man in the mirror resembles a person they're looking for. 
Eremis offers to find out who made the mirror.  Melanie asks to see more
mirrors.  The tenth one is Fiona.  She is in a garden, sitting at a table,
drinking tea.  Melanie asks Eremis to find out who made that mirror, as
well.  Both Benedict and Fiona have annoyed expressions on their faces.

	Mok tries unsuccessfully to wake Dworkin.  He goes to an outhouse
and tries to conjure steak.  He winds up with a ham sandwich.  Dworkin
isn't interested.  Mok uses more stimulating means to wake Dworkin up.
Ew.  Dworkin is crabby.  Mok tells him about Benedict being stuck in a
mirror.  Mok blathers a confusing theory.  Dworkin goes back to sleep.

	Claudio asks Caine for advice on what to do next.  Wait for them
to find the imager, then bring Benedict and Fiona out of the mirrors.
Caine suggests getting some sleep.  OK.  They are shown to guest quarters.
There are no mirrors in any of the rooms.  Melanie casts defensive spells
on her quarters before going to sleep.

	Claudio wakes up to knocking.  Sky moans and pulls a pillow over
her head.  The knocking is coming from the wardrobe.  Claudio opens the
wardrobe.  There's a man standing there.  He tells Claudio to be quiet,
and offers to show him a thing.  He's Havalock, the arch-imager.  He looks
a lot like Dworkin.  Does Claudio want to come look at the pretty?
Claudio uses his ring to tell Sky that he's going with Dworkin's Shadow,
and then follows him into the wardrobe.  Havalock will show him a secret,
but he can't touch it, or Havalock will be very angry.  Claudio doesn't
dissuade him.  Havalock has a small mirror that emits a beam of light like
a flashlight.  He brings Claudio to a small, cluttered room, where there
are two standing mirrors tilted horizontally in their frames, facing each
other.  He tells Claudio to look between the mirrors, but not into them,
or he'll go insane.  There's something red and jewel-like in there.

	Claudio contacts Sky through her ring and tries to tell her what's
going on, but she takes off her ring and goes back to sleep.  He manages
to contact Melanie with a correspondence spell.  She strengthens the
spell, and he lets her know what he's found.  She wakes the others.  They
search, but can't find Claudio.  Melanie asks Claudio what the mirrors are
of?  The Pattern and the Logrus.  Dworkin says not to break them.  Claudio
should move them apart slowly.  Melanie relays this to Claudio.  Claudio
knocks Havalock out.  Melanie asks Claudio how they can get to his
location.  Claudio explains.  They go through the wardrobe and join him.
Claudio and Melanie move the mirrors apart.  Dworkin tells Melanie and
Claudio that they will survive if they look in the mirrors.  They don't
believe him.  When the mirrors are separated and tilted upright again, the
Jewel ring falls.  Mok catches it, but it's too hot to hold.  He drops it.
Melanie feels Trump return to normal.  She tries to raise the Logrus and
is successful.  Havalock wakes up and stumbles into the Pattern mirror,
breaking it.  An argument ensues as to what will be the consequences of
this, until, at Claudio's urging, Ragnar breaks the Logrus mirror, just to
keep things even.  Havalock is subdued.  He says that if the mirror
fragments are separated, a prophecy can be read.  This is done.  Many
images appear.  Melanie records them.  This uses up the rest of her supply
of magical energy.  Dworkin transfers into Havalock's body.  He says he'll
need to view Melanie's recording to determine the prophecy.  Melanie
agrees, in exchange for him sharing the prophecy with her.  She picks up
the ring.  It, and her own shard ring, are pulsing in time, as if to a
heartbeat.  Dworkin asks for the ring back.  Melanie reluctantly returns
it.  Dworkin sends Ragnar and Claudio to strong-arm the two who imprisoned
Benedict and Fiona into releasing them.

	Melanie questions Dworkin about Ulysses' pregnancy.  She asks if
the Serpent also sires offspring on a similar cycle as the Unicorn.  Yes.
So the Serpent had a child back when Oberon was born?  Two, actually, but
Dworkin doesn't know what happened to them.  He thinks it's unfair that
the Serpent gets two children.  They're only supposed to be worth half of
the Unicorn's child, though.  Melanie comments that she doubts that will
be true this time, given that the father of the Unicorn's child is
Ulysses.

	Fiona and Benedict are freed.  Both look peeved.  Fiona imprisons
the imagers responsible for trapping them in a Shadow pocket.  Melanie
Trumps Claudio, Sky and Isaac back to Claudioways, then stops by Ivory to
replenish her magical energy stores before returning to Chaos.  Everyone
else returns to Amber.

	End of campaign.


Quotables:

"So breathe fire on (the dolphin).  Oh, right, it's underwater." -- Chris
to Jason

"Well, I used to be able to make pretty good booms." -- Mok
"I'm happy for you." -- Dworkin

"By the way, I tried to save you from your horrible fate, but then
monsters came out." -- Mok to Melanie

"When did this start happening?" -- Claudio
"Last year." -- Castellan Lebbick
"I wonder how long ago that was?" -- Mok

"That's true, (Amber) has an army, and we never use it." -- Shade to the
group at large

"If this weren't plot, it wouldn't be happening." -- GM to the group at
large