Thump, Roooooo, Ker-Plangg

Night fell like a dead uncle. Erk-Thump. In the newly-renamed Blue Benedict Room, Flora and Gerard were handling the situation. Gerard was in trump contact with GM-knows-who discussing military matters. Flora trumped in Magni to deal with Benedict’s expeditionary forces. She then brought in Giselle via trump as well. Giselle peered under Gabriel’s cloak. Yep, rigor warriortus. Giselle and Flora vanished to investigate Benedict’s death in that way that only blondes can. Magni went to the post-coronation party. He opened his mouth and the most obnoxious, alarm-like noise came out. Rooooo.

Most people ran many directions. Magni and Gregory ran down to the disturbance, the trump-bubble (“trubble”?) near the barracks. Bleys ran for the side door. Aedan followed him. Martin ran around appeasing people. Gabriel walked around appeasing people (beneath that fiery exterior, he’s really quite a mellow dudenot)

Touching the nasty sword that was poking through the trubble allowed Raj to interact with the other side. So Raj finally got to use the points he spent on “Skill: Using a Cloak as a Tool” to wrestle Searlas out of Osric’s realm and into Amber. Ker-plangg. Raj and Searlas headed toward the palace. En route, they encountered Gregory and Magni and the four young men all proceeded to the library where they watched Searlas remove some of his armor. He never put it back on as far as I can tell, so it’s undoubtedly just sitting there rusting.

Shing-Clang, Shlorp, Bonk, Whish-swish, Vrrmmmm

Meanwhile, Bleys and Aedan were checking out the scene from Fiona’s workshop on the fourth floor via a fancy scrying device called a “bowl.” They argued over what to look at and duelled. Shing-clang, shlorp. Aedan was nicked on his thumb but he managed to run Bleys through the heart, if only Bleys had a heart where mortal men do. Everyone knows that vampires can’t be killed so easily. In other words, Bleys was fine.

Gerard put in an appearance in the library. He refused Magni’s assistance and headed down to the trubble. Magni followed him. Gabriel was assisting the soldiers in their valiant barricade building. He analyzed the trubble and noticed that it was frozen. Trump gates need to be unfrozen to work. This didn’t fit in with his theory, so he discarded it and pronounced the trubble unfrozen despite glaring evidence to the contrary. The nearby soldiers looked sheepish. Then, to their chagrin, Gerard walked through the trubble. Magni bonked. Bonk.

Back at the library, Searlas waved Magni’s sword in the vicinity of Gregory’s head. Whish-shish. Aedan arrived and pointed his pistol at Searlas’ head, which really intimidated him although he didn’t show it. Much testosterone was exuded. Vrrrrmmmm. The manly men discussed Searlas’ extreme reluctance to put two and two together and make four as he refused to acknowledge the fact that 7000 heavy cavalry galloping into Amber’s courtyard constituted a threat. Searlas said that he was only following orders, which didn’t work for the Nazis or the East German border guards, so don’t expect it to work here. Searlas claimed that Osric was merely testing to see if the centuries-old blood curse that kept him from existing in Amber had expired.

Blah Blah Blah

Giselle and Flora spent five minutes determining that Benedict had, in fact, killed himself. They then spent forty minutes discussing what to wear to his funeral; twenty-five minutes discussing what food to serve at his wake; and thirty-nine minutes discussing the merits of eyepatches.

Martin arrived at the library. Discussion ensued, with the end result being that Searlas would go back to Osric’s realm and try to convince Old Mental Case that bringing an army wasn’t the best way to get invited to the party. Raj would accompany him.

They went to the trubble. Searlas went through. Raj bonked. Bonk. In Fiona’s workshop, Martin, Bleys, and Aedan watched. Aedan trumped a grumpy Gerard in. He then confronted Gerard and convinced him to stay for a moment until King Martin could talk to him. It was rather impetuous of him as Gerard was angry and could have ripped Aedan’s arms right off. Martin thanked Gerard for his efforts, fruitless as they were. Yes, you read it correctly: Gerard was unable to convince Osric of anything. Try to act surprised.1

La La La, Dee Dee Dee, Bamf, Oooh, Mmmm, Ahem

The partying in celebration of Martin’s coronation continued in the Great Hall. The two Rebman cliques kept their distance from each other. Magni, however, schmoozed with all of them. Llewella’s daughter Rowena sang torch songs. Magni played violin. La la la, dee dee dee. The titanic sank. Hey, these things happen. Deal with it.

Giselle returned to Amber and reported her findings to King Martin, who was preparing for the morning’s Investiture Ceremony by the High Priest by drinking the heavy stuff. His breath became flammable, so if any of those Fae imps are still loose in the castle they had better watch out.

Aedan impetuously opened a neat-o cool box he found in Fiona’s workshop. Bamf. He found himself in a distant trap-like shadow composed entirely of wheat fields, more wheat fields, and chiggers. Eventually, Gabriel trumped him out and refused to say what was in the box. Aedan stripped naked and left his clothes in Fiona’s workshop. Bleys loaned him his cloak to wear as he proceeded with great dignity down the stairs.

Of course, he met Giselle and Flora. Flora escorted Aedan back to her rooms where she rubbed anti-chigger cream over his almost completely-naked body. Oooh, Mmmm. Giselle trumped Aedan and they discussed her recent sojourn in the Courts of Chaos. Flora provided Aedan with some tasteful men’s clothing that was NOT left behind by Magni not so long ago.

Aedan got dressed. Ahem.