________________________________________________________________
 
 Message: 36758127, 138 lines
 Imported: 2:05am EDT, Wed Jul 6/94
 Subject: Mer's Log 2
 To: Kris Fazzari, ambergroup@umich.edu
 From: merrie@umich.edu
 
 			Mer's Game Log, Session 2,
 				  or,
 	In Which We Interact with the Dogs of the Featureless Plane
 		And Also Interact a Bit Too Much with Assorted
 				Reptiles
 
 	We learn that Randal, the new kid who is really an old kid, 
 trained with Sebastian at one point.  Randal trumps into Amber;  the 
 process feels weird, there are temperature fluctuations, and he hears a 
 rumbling sound.  He cleans up after a night of partying and gets 
 infromred on recent events.  He pauses to admire the smoke damage and 
 broken door at Cat's room  (Cuel did it).
 	Li Chan and Isabel think for a while.  It takes some doing, but 
 the mightily brained duo comes up with finding out who Sagan works for, 
 and also to check with Li Chan's ever so reliable contacts before going 
 to House Barriman.
 	Kilroy is looking for Zane when Randal runs across him.  It is 
 Kilroy who fills in the detail of the recent exploits of the younger 
 generation.  Randal decides that it sounds like fun and asks to come with 
 Kilroy.  Kilroy trumps Catherine, who is wearing leather only as an 
 Amberite can.  "Have you seen Zane milady?"  "No, but Cuel set my room on 
 fire."  (fire, fire, huh, huh, cuel, fire... Hm...  Nevermind.)
 	Randal gives his trump of Zane to Kilroy, who trumps Zane, who 
 doesn't seem particularly into this whole conversation thing, and what's 
 that rumbling noise?  Randal and Kilroy trump through... into a 
 featureless gray plane, where the rumbling is louder and there is no Zane.
 	Isabel and Li Chan travel to his home in rural Chaos.  Isabel 
 thinks manipulating shadow to get horses is a fine idea, but that brings 
 the coppers right down on them--  flying horses instead of squad cars, 
 and darkness instead of flashing lights.  (We're still waiting to see the 
 reenactment on Chaos' Most Wanted.)  Isabel brings Pattern to mind;  she 
 and her intrepid amigo dismount and lay down their weapons.  More bad 
 Hong Kong movie scenes come to mind.
 	Catherine is getting drunk in a bar when a handsome someone 
 offers her a horn of meade.  She accepts...  this is Lord Tempest. 
 Catherine feels the stirrings of a Trump call and accepts it after she 
 excuses herself to storm-boy.  It's Sebastian.  He has a clever plan... 
 she can help rescue Fiona by going to see Vale!  Catherine is suitably 
 thrilled.
 	The real new kid on the block, Finn, goes throught the gates of Amber.
 	Kilroy and Randal look behind them to see that the plane has 
 sprouted features, specifically, a pack of somethings.  More Geometric 
 Dogs!  Oh, no!  Kilroy tries to trump Sebastian, but there's nothing 
 doing.  Kilroy begins to twitch and look transparent and foam at the 
 mouth, until his mind is filled with an alien presence, at which point he 
 stops whatever it is he was doing.  Randal tries touching him, but before 
 they can bond, the dogs attack.  They sustain damage, but defeat the 
 critters.  Randal trumps Sebastian, who agrees to help Randal if "you 
 agree to owe me a favor."  Sebastian fails to reassure the men of the 
 featureless plane.
 	Byron is in Marda, trying to find Sebastian in order to find 
 Catherine and Kilroy.  Waldheim trumps him and assigns more folks to 
 Byron's bodyguard detachment, including the utterly incompetent Kim and 
 Mim, a silent Dominick and a large horse.  The horse is not a horse of 
 course...   Dominick only talks through mindtouch, and Kim and Mim are 
 better dressed, but that does little to reconcile Byron to this.  They 
 all go to see Sebastian together.
 	Oddly enough, Cat doesn't react well to the horse in the audience 
 chamber. She also refuses mental contact with Dominick.
 	Li Chan talks the police of rural Chaos out of taking 
 Isabel and himself in for questioning.  They arrive at Li Chan's family's 
 place, where the family immediately suspects that they are engaged, or at 
 least having sex.  Isabel is interrogated, Li Chan is interrogated about 
 Isabel, a good time is had by all.  Li Chan asks his cousin to help him 
 make a trump of Sagan.  Isabel is tested and an old man torments her with 
 the recitation of meaninful parables.  Finally, they are let go, with one 
 trump artist coming along, the beautiful Fong Wei.
 	Sebastian trumps through a bleeding Kilroy and Randal, who are 
 just covered in Logrus energy.  Cat removes it with a Pattern object.
 	Catherine trumps Isabel to test if only Sebastian's trumps are 
 infected.  This theory is disproved when some of the dogs jump through 
 the trump and attack Isabel.  The retainers of House Braich that have 
 been following to make sure Isabel and Li Chan don't cause trouble are 
 useless, but Li Chan has more warfare in his little finger...  the dogs 
 are toast.  And Isabel doesn't do too badly, either.
 	Isabel trumps Finn as a test, hears the dogs, closes contact 
 immediately.  Cat does the same thing to Isabel. 
 	Sebastian insists that Catherine go on the mission he has devised.
 	Finn is drinking in a bar... Bloody Miguel's today.
 	Kilroy is morphed into a hideous lizard creature thanks to his 
 cuts from the dogs.  His guards and the rest of the castle have a hard 
 time believing it's really Kilroy and *not* some hideous lizard creature 
 come to attack them, until they notice that the lizard does seem to have 
 impeccable fashion sense.  Cat and Randal come to see the commotion, as 
 does Byron.  Randal looks a little green and scaly himself, but maybe the 
 recent trump call from Cuel and the dryness of the air...  Byron offers 
 to help put Kilroy back into human form, and prevent any similar 
 transition in Randal.
 	Byron trumps Waldheim, and they all go through this trump to 
 Amber.  Kilroy, Randal and Cat go with him.
 	Isabel, Li Chan and Fong Wei lurk around the favorited hang out 
 of Sagan's, ever so successfully...  finally, Isabel decides to write a 
 note to Sagan.  Someone shows up.  Isabel hires him to track down 
 Verdin.  Fong Wei gets the trump of whoever it was that showed up.
 	After some body spasms and pain, Kilroy is back to normal, thanks 
 to Waldheim.  Randal is disinfected less dramatically.  They go to 
 shower, and of course, change clothing.  They leave Waldheim's quarters. 
 	Byron opens a gift from Mandor to find a little Mandor inside! 
 The rest of that group waits for Kilroy to change so they can go see Vale.
 	Isabel and Li Chan take Fong We back to his family, and then head 
 for Amber.  Isabel's hellriding goes awry and they end up on the back of 
 a flying dragon.  She decides it would be best to shift shadow around the 
 dragon. 
 	Byron has some conversation with Mandor, the silver ball, or
 rather, a facsimile therof, and then the party sets out towards Vale. 
 They ride off... into a shadow storm.  Undaunted, they try to find a way
 around.
 	Isabel notices a shadow storm ahead and tries to get the dragon 
 to fly around it.  It doesn't have flying on it's mind though, and begins 
 to lose altitude.
 	Catherine notices a large dragon descending on her party.  They 
 scatter.  Byron pulls out with Logrus into a near by shadow.  Cat and 
 Kilroy ride into the shadow storm.
 	Isabel and Li Chan sit tight aboard the dragon, 'cause it's 
 flailing around a lot. 
 	Catherine brings Pattern to mind...  fzzt-pop!
 	Byron tries to move to Catherine using Logrus, fzzt-pop! and
 he falls unconscious.
 	Randal watches the dragon.
 	Catherine brings Pattern to mind...  oh... deja vu...  She 
 manages to find a way out of the storm, and they end up near the dragon.
 	Isabel and Li Chan note that the dragon is squirming less, and 
 climb down and run like hell.
 	The two groups meet up. Introductions and explanations are passed 
 around.  Dominick agrees to help Li Chan and Isabel in their quest.  He 
 then insists they all come help him search for Byron.  He is the only one 
 who enters the shadow storm, however.  The party waits a bit, and then 
 decides to go to Amber via trump.
 	Byron wakes up, tracks the party and goes to Amber as well.
 	Isabel finds that Julian is assembling forces to help some Kurt 
 fellow in Kafsha.  Julian is outraged at her news that the very assassins 
 that killed Fiona and Bleys are the police force trying to "solve" the 
 case for House Barriman.  Julian tells Isabel that Sebastian is studying 
 Li Chan's trumps.  However, Li Chan is getting suplemental trumps quite 
 ably by himself from Phaedra, including the one he wanted of Sagan.