Session 10: Walking Wounded

Players and Characters:

Lydia ........ Cyrus
Shai ........ Sonnet
Scott ........ Benedict
Jarrod ....... Osric
Rob ........ Finndo
Deborah ...... Sybil
Fred ........ GM

Stat line up:

-2 Poor
-1 Mediocre
0 Average
1 Fair
2 Good
3 Great
4 Superb
5 Epic
6 Legendary
7 Legendary +1
etc.

Pre game quotes:

On game titles, unfortunate puns:

Shai: "Heh. Are we walking? That's optimistic."

Appealing to a higher court:

Deborah: "I'm just being difficult."
Jarrod: "You? SHOCKING!"
Deborah stares.
Jarrod: "You can blink cutely at me all you want."
Shai: "You can hit him, actually."
Jarrod: "Hey!"

It's all in how you look at it:

Rob: "I have something for Benedict to do while he's... recovering."
Scott: "Oh no."
Rob: "Oh, it will make Benedict happy."
Scott: "Excellent."

For AmberCon NorthWest, Lydia is running a campaign based on Kings' world and history - including the writeups of baronies and people that players submitted to Fred over the duration of the Kings campaign. Among these was a flyaway Baron Ardestin Cecerome and Baronness Melicent Cecerome based loosely on Deborah's appalled reaction to both taxes and Rob's apparent lack of panic over finances (she's bitter, he's jovial; they live in a hut). Never Ever Joke Around Lydia:

Deborah: "Melicent Cecerome was a joke. Remember? The Cecerome write up?"
Shai: "So you're going to play Melicent?"
Deborah: "God hates me."

I don't do the quotes for fun or because people fuss at me if I don't. I do the quotes because if I'm a good girl, Fred gives me a fate point (and he says please, and then I get a cookie - Buffy reference). On being a fate point slut:

Deborah: "I now have a screenful of quotes, so we should start."
Fred: "How did you get a SCREENFUL?!"
Deborah reads off the first screenful of quotes to Fred.
Jarrod singsongs: "Bro-ken."

***************************************************************

When last we left our party, they had just finished slaying the royal family of Ghenesh (a neighboring power to Amber). They were still in Ghenesh; they had lost all of their things, ranging from Sybil's belt of bottles to all of the trumps (which blew up two sessions ago) to Cyrus's coupon. Benedict had fallen from a two story height following a fairly bad fight; Sonnet had been pummeled and had broken multiple bones and ribs. Mind you, somewhere off in the distance, there is still Osrat - the Osric doppleganger who now has Pattern and Fae abilities, yay! - to deal with. Not to mention all the lovely political issues back home.

So there we are, broken, lost, minus our stuff. Pattern can be used to locate items - er, stuff. Only the Princes and Cyrus have the Pattern ability (being of the blood of Amber). We set about claiming our stuff, fairly stubbornly. On irreverent terminology:

GM: "The pattern jockeys can ensure recovery of certain things; they cannot recover the trumps."

The party discusses the fact that they have no trumps (since the trumps blew up when we went in to tackle Ruustro). Rather daunting, to have your communication device explode in your hand - unless you're Finndo. On using what you've got, no matter what (also known as The Vermonter Approach):

Finndo: "That's okay, then. Finndo is adaptive. Finndo is going to replenish his trumps and then he is going to figure out what happened, for two reasons: 1) to prevent it from happening again and 2) to use it on Osrat."

Benedict and Sonnet are transported in a wagon because they're both quite unwell. Sybil is dancing constant attendance on Sonnet, having her watched by air elementals, fussing over her. Benedict finds this irritating and throws both the elementals and Sybil out. Now, mind you, Benedict is not the most cheery soul to begin with, but having his back ripped out by a shadowcritter (session 9 - Reference Rudy) hasn't helped the mood:

Scott: "Benedict is extremely..."
Deborah: "Surly?"
Jarrod: "SHOCKING."

Letting your true colors shine through:

GM: "Benedict is more mobile [than Sonnet], but they've got him drugged."
Deborah: "He's like that DRUGGED?"

Lucan consistently gets leg wounds when the party gets into a fight. One man's normal is another man's drugged:

Fred: "Lucan of course has a leg wound _again_."
Shai: "Is he back to normal?"
GM: "Yeah, mostly."
Jarrod: "He's still stoned?"

The party travels back to Amber from Ghenesh through Savoy, home of Ismerelda. On the way out to Ghenesh, Ismerelda had a witch accompany the party to 'help' and, more likely, to report back to. The witch did not survive the first night in Ghenesh (not our fault!). Sympathy for the devil not so much:

Finndo: "We cheat if necessary to shave time off; we will be travelling back through Savoy."
Lydia: "Where Lady Ismerelda has tragically oh so tragically not had any news of us."

Finndo and Sybil have concocted a plan for dealing with Osrat; the plan requires a key ingredient or three from Benedict. Jabbing several times in quick succession on the paranoia button:

Deborah to Rob: "Do we want to talk to Benedict yet or is he still useless narcotic boy?"
Scott looks to Deborah. Scott looks to Rob. Scott looks to Deborah. Scott looks to Rob.
Scott: "Damn you both!"

Cyrus has raised the awkward question of what we say about events in Ghenesh and how to handle the expected mess. Handwaving, how-to:

Finndo: "To answer your question, Cyrus, the official story is that there were dark magics in the city which have been destroyed and the true city has been restored after a long time in exile. The royal family is no more as part of the destruction of the magics and we anticipate a certain amount of chaos to follow."
Jarrod: "Well. _Details._"

Sonnet, following her experiences in Ghenesh, is recovering. Ways for a Karm to worry everyone else:

Sonnet: "You have never seen Sonnet this quiet."

Selm, the reader will recall, is the fellow Oberon sent into Ghenesh to find the Princes when it seemed they had been gone too long. Selm was right on hand to save Osric's neck in the midst of the fight. Appreciating a man's style:

Osric: "Osric has been spending a considerable amount of time talking to Selm."
Deborah: "Osric is talking to Selm?"
Scott: "Considering that Selm saved his life..."
Jarrod: "Well. Selm happened to be at the right place at the right time."
Scott: "Still..."
Jarrod: "That's why. That's very much Osric's style."

The party makes it to Savoy. At Finndo's insistence, they spend a night not just in Savoy but in Savoy Palace. Folks have a fairly poor impression of Savoy and Ismerelda, who used rubies to eavesdrop on them, set them up in a cross barony feud, and whom Finndo got by the throat at the very end. On strong feelings:

Finndo: "Ismerelda is one of our dearest closest friends!"
Cyrus: "And we remind her of that!"
Sonnet: "Yes, we survived hell and we're coming back for a visit."
Cyrus: "Just in case you forgot, this [Ghenesh] could be you next time."

Remember the eavesdropping rubies we found, last time, in our saddlebags, our feed bags, sewn into our clothing, on the furniture, in the doors? Yes. Still bitter:

Finndo: "I task Selm with finding that no rubies find their way into our stuff."

As soon as we cross the mountains into Savoy, the elementals return to normal - no more of the little guys in fez bargaining for money nonsense. Sybil expresses her feelings about this by summoning several and making them hop, cartwheel, and spin around for her before bothering to seal them up in her bottles (she's replenishing her supplies). She gets chided for this. Etiquette for the treatment of the damned:

Cyrus to Sybil: "The fae should not play with her food before bottling it."
Jarrod: "She doesn't eat them..."
GM and Jarrod: "Much."

So. Back to the fact that we're reigning up to the baronial palace in Savoy. When Diplomacy stands alone - very very alone:

Finndo: "In any case, we will warmly greet the Lady Ismerelda."
Everyone: "YOU will warmly greet the Lady Ismerelda."

Finndo obligingly warmly greets Lady Ismerelda. Finndo gets in some practice blithely explaining how he and his party murdered the entire royal family of a neighboring power. Lady Ismerelda gets some practice responding heatedly to news (psych!):

Ismerelda: "It is good to see that you are well."
Finndo: "It is good to be well. I take it that the interference with scrying has stopped?"
Ismerelda: "Only recently. What did you do?"
Finndo: "The royal family of Ghenesh had found a tie to some dark power. In dealing with the latter, it would seem that the former is no longer around."
Ismerelda: "That is fortunate."

Isn't she sweet to immediately leap upon her neighbor's weakness and gnaw on his vitals? Isn't it thoughtful of him to suggest she do so to his advantage? Aren't they just _made_ for each other?

Finndo: "The city of Mekesh has been... restored to what it was in the past."
Ismerelda: "I will have to attain new relationships there, mm?"
Finndo: "I expect things will be chaotic for a bit; an excellent time for a neighbor to take advantage."
Ismerelda: "Any requests in that regard?"
Finndo: "Enrichen your coffers with trade there. The more we know, the better."

I've got my fingers in my ears and I'm singing 'lalalalala I can't HEAR you'...

Cyrus: "Finndo, I have a somewhat unfortunate question to ask."
Finndo: "Certainly."
Cyrus: "Which is why, if the dark powers have had a hold over the [Gheneshi royal] family all these years, there has only recently been a problem seeing through the mountains and with caravans disappearing."
Finndo boomingly cheerful: "I have absolutely no idea, but there is only so much one can worry about these things."
Cyrus stares: "Maybe for YOU..."

The party settles in to their rooms in Savoy and look about for rubies. Ismerelda has gone to no particular trouble to bug the rooms this time but, as the GM points out, it's a special style of decor:

GM: "There's a certain amount of bugging of the room that is inadvertent at the moment, since certain items can't be easily moved -"
Jarrod: "Like the walls."
GM: " - like the walls and the very heavy bedframe."

Sonnet has been unusually quiet and flatline ever since Ghenesh. Unfortunate phrasing:

Shai: "There is only one thing that Sonnet wants at this point, and only Lucan can provide it."
Everyone laughs.
Deborah: "Selm?"
Shai: "No, Selm can't provide this."

Ismerelda's guests have two clearly badly wounded people among them. In Amber, hospitality factors in survival:

GM: "Well, she [Ismerelda] seems to be assuming that you have been attended to, rather than send a witch to Benedict with herbal and then non herbal remedies..."
Rob joking: "Benedict seems to have exploded in a badly wounded homicidal rage."
Scott: "It's amazing how effective he can still be."
Rob: "I've never seen someone killed that imaginatively with a crutch before..."

With friends like these:

Lydia: "Cyrus is really manifestedly unenthused about going home."
GM: "Why is that, Cyrus?"
Jarrod: "It'll be fun!"

It's time to put Finndo's plans for Osrat into motion. After Savoy, the party travels through Homewood,which has, among other things, an enormous forest. We have not explained this plan to the GM. An accepting GM waits for the doom to present itself:

Finndo: "... and he's going to find the biggest ash tree he can find."
GM: "Ooookay."
Finndo: "To make a spear."
GM: "You in fact have a good woodcarver working for you, if necessary."

Selm has ridden back to Amber with the Princes' party. Cyrus has a gift for asking awkward questions. Selm has a gift for answering them:

Cyrus: "If you were there two months, Selm, what did you see?"
Selm: "There's only so much I could allow myself to see because I was a guard, and guards guard, right? What I did see of the harem troubled me and caused me to question the practices of the people there. The sultan himself seemed uneven in temperament. Generally a calm polite man but occasionally he would rage for no reason. There were talking plants; still dealing with that one."
Jarrod: "You never did rescue your little rhodo, did we?"
GM: "Well, we checked for him afterwards, and he was no longer there."

Explanations we didn't need:

Finndo: "That certainly explains why there was tickling in the brothels. It was all being dreamed by kids. What happens in brothels? Tickling!"

Breaking it down to the most basic idea:

Selm: "By and large, I was able to determine what you had been masquerading /as/ and so I went into the palace; I had a few men about town, but it was likely you were being held prisoner in the palace."
Cyrus: "Who else was in the palace? We spoke with that guy - the vizier."
Selm: "There were the girls in the harem, some regular staff, the very large eunuchs particular to the harem, 6 children, the sultan... "
Cyrus: "Maybe the vizier was part of it, or he was killed."
Finndo: "It's safest to assume that most anything we saw there was dreamed by the children. Disconcerting, but pointy as well."

Sybil is trying to keep her eye on the ball. Judgement on state secrets not so much the fae specialty:

Sybil: "I hesitate to bring this up and I know Lady Sonnet would never mention anything so unpleasant, but what about Osrat? I know it was lovely to visit Ghenesh and kill everyone in sight, but What About OSRAT?"
Selm: "What is she talking bout?"
Sybil: "Oh! Was this a don't say thing? I'm sorry!"

Let's add to your pain:

Finndo: "No, of all people, Selm should know."
Sybil: "Oh."
Finndo: "And Finndo gives him the 2 minute brief."
Selm: "That's profoundly disturbing."
Finndo: "Even more disturbing was that there were also rats of Sonnet, Benedict and Sybil."

And what did Selm take away from this conversation? A healthy aversion to bathwater:

Finndo: "If you're interested in a funny look on his face, mention it to Lucan sometimes."
Selm: "Right. I'll do that from a distance."
Osric: "Just don't get between him and a bath."
Finndo: "Love nips."
Selm: "Right. Remind me never to vacation in Graanlibakken."

Sybil conspires with Finndo about the 'project' (the spear). The ideal gift is not just something someone would never get for themselves, but _flexible_:

Cyrus: "What exactly are you making?"
Sybil: "Nothing!"
Finndo: "A gift."
Cyrus: "People don't like your gifts very much, do they?"
Finndo: "Well, I expect one person who's receiving it to love it very much, and the other person to like it NOT AT ALL."

Well, a young man has to pass his fancy _somehow_:

Osric: "Osric spends every moment getting his hooks deeper and deeper into Selm. Selm is useful and handy and he's THERE." He makes claws out of his hands and sinks them into an imaginary victim.

The relative value of poof:

Finndo: "Bear in mind that Selm has always been one of those poofy boys."
Cyrus: "One of those poofy boys who happens to beat Karm's ASS."

We make it, at long blessed last, back to Amber Castle. When paranoia becomes a reflex:

GM: "Just as you get in sight of the castle, there seems to be a great stirring and you hear someone shouting about the Princes having returned. The military formation is tight and everyone is very emotional - there's almost a more profound response to your return than you would expect."
Dead, wary silence.
Lydia: "Uh Oh."

Obligations, preferences for parental role in:

Finndo: "We should go see Dad."
GM: "Osric?"
Osric: "Yeeesss?"
GM: "Do you have any particular things you want to do before that?"
Shai: "Go see Mom."
Osric: "Yes."

Ask a question get an answer, an inference, an understanding and a suspicion:

GM: "She [Cymnea] is not in her quarters."
Osric: "Anyone know where she is?"
GM: "Yes."
Osric: "Will they TELL me?"
GM: "She's in the King's quarters."
Osric: "REALLY. How _fascinating_."
GM: "Roll observation."
Osric: "Good."
GM: "This person was instructed to give his answer only in the way he did; someone told him 'don't give the returning princes all the details'... all this was subtle little ticks and brief pause, so I don't want you to get the sense that he was just gaping."

Seizing the moment, any way you can:

Osric: "How has she been?"
Guard: "Well. I try not to pry into Her Majesty's affairs, my lord."
Osric: "That's really interesting. I'll just find someone else to ask."
GM: "You get very similar answer; at least one of them almost seems surprised that you're asking. How could you not know - oh wait. That kind of pause."
Finndo: "Meanwhile, Finndo has had time to look good."

Finndo prepares to have his royal debriefing; he selects his supporting players. On knowing your staff:

Finndo: "Briefings and Sybils don't mix so well. Basically, Cyrus, Selm, Osric, Finndo."

Meanwhile, Sybil has been dancing obsessive attendance on the wounded Sonnet along with Lucan. Lining up for the expected Karm abuse:

Shai: "Sonnet is actually very quiet, which is worse."
GM: "Lucan is hunched down, waiting for her to explode."
Deborah: "And Sybil is upright and wide-eyed, waiting."
GM: "I can just see this. Sybil insisted loudly that she be with Sonnet and then she and Lucan just sit there, staring." He imitates Lucan hunched down, staring, whispering, "Do you think she's awake?"
Jarrod: "I can just see Lucan: "GOD THIS SUCKS. I liked it so much better when I was stoned.""

Meanwhile, outside Oberon's chambers, Finndo is still seizing that moment:

GM: "The four of you get to the chambers; I imagine you wait for Osric to rejoin you?"
Finndo: "Gives Selm and Finndo time to look good."

Neutral, neutral, twitch. But I wanted to /gossip/:

GM: "There are a few members of the King's Guard as well as the Queen's outside the door."
Finndo: "Interesting. I raise an eyebrow at Selm."
GM: "Selm has gone to polite, expressionless mode."
Finndo: "That's too bad. I do the same."
Cyrus: "Cyrus has gone to jittery mode."

Absence failing to make the heart grow fonder:

GM: "Did you check on your wife?"
Cyrus sighs: "Yes."

Absence failing to make life easier, really:

GM: "You come away from that brief welcome home session absolutely convinced that she is not going to leave the castle even if it is over her dead body. And Aine - dear god. She informs you very nicely and very brightly the twelve wonderful things she learned on fifteen subjects today."
Cyrus: "Cyrus is delighted and afraid."
Aine: "And they bring me cookies!"
Cyrus: "That's good!"
Jarrod: "More cookies, less reading."

Meanwhile, briefing wise, things begin. It should be recalled that Cyrus was revealed to be a bastard son of Oberon's (to wit, a child of Cymnea's husband that Cymnea did not bear). To every devil his due:

Cymnea is sitting there alone; she stands as the men come in: "I'm so pleased to see you're back."
Finndo: "I bow to mother and remark on how delightful it is to see her again."
Cymnea has a small smile. She gestures them to their seats: "Selm. How are you?"
Selm: "Successful."
Cymnea: "I see that. Yes." She inclines her head to Cyrus but does not greet him.
Finndo: "Finndo thinks 'if I had known Mom was going to be here, Cyrus would not have been part of the briefing team.'"
Osric smiles: "Guess I should have told you that."
Finndo: "Yes, well."

Readers will recall that the Gheneshi princess that Benedict had managed to save - and restore to innocence - was murdered in cold blood by Finndo to prevent _any_ member of that royal family surviving to claim retribution from Amber. Guilty, much?

Cymnea: "I hear Benedict was wounded."
Finndo: "He is recovering."
Cymnea: "Pity about the girl."
Everyone freezes.
GM gently: "She means Sonnet."

Assuming - correctly - that the state is lying to its people. Cynicism, applications of:

Finndo: "Mother, I apologize for being forward, but why are you here instead of Father?"
Cymnea: "Not long after the baron was sent on his mission to find you by your father, your father became agitated by something he wasn't terribly willing to talk about. He took Piero and sailed for the southern seas not long after. He insisted it was important."
Finndo: "Very well. I take it his absence is well known."
Cymnea: "Reasonably."
Finndo: "What are we saying?"
Cymnea: "That he is on a diplomatic mission to the southern kingdoms."

One reason why Ismerelda is not the scariest woman in Amber - grass is green, shadows ate my children, lalala:

Finndo: "Allright, we're here for a briefing so best you know. Some power of a shadowy nature established itself in Ghenesh."
Cymnea: "Shadowy how?"
Finndo: "Literally. As in composed of shadows."
Cymnea, quite naturally: "Ah."

Sane vs not so sane responses:

Lydia: "Your mother scares me."
Jarrod: "I love Mom."

Imagine being married to this woman. To understate wildly, Cymnea does not seem particularly inclined to emotional gushes of concern:

Finndo explains about the Ghenshi dreaming. "Presumably this was responsible for the interruption of scrying and also the disappearance of the caravans, as travelers would find themselves transposed into the city or shunted to the surrounding area where they would be eaten."
Cymnea: "Were you transposed?"
Finndo: "We were."
Cymnea: "Interesting."
Finndo: "The short form is that the source of the power has been dealt with and that none of the royal family survives."
Cymnea: "Ah. Pity."

Meeee-ow:

Finndo: "Savoy is already moving to re-establish trade ties as strongly as possible. I do not know why they chose to act now, but things are stabilized as much as possible for the moment."
Cymnea: "I take it Isemerelda's help didn't help much?"
Finndo: "Ismerelda's help got herself killed early on."
Cymnea: "Ah."
GM: "She doesn't add pity to that."

This should have set off more alarms than it did. Silly, silly players:

Cymnea: "Court has been postponed."
Finndo: "Interesting."
Cymnea: "There are many things I will be doing without your father around, but I'll deal with that later."
Finndo: "I take it he has gone out of his way not to be found?"
Cymnea: "I haven't tried but I rather think your intuition is sound."

Tact, the painful kind:

Finndo: "We will do the best we can to help maintain the semblance of normalcy or what passes for such around here."
Cymnea: "Thank you."
Finndo: "And with that, we will withdraw."
Cymnea to Cyrus: "My best to yours."
Cyrus: "Thank you."
Finndo: "We will withdraw in such a way as to allow Osric to stay behind if you wish."
GM: "Selm follows your lead, and I imagine Cyrus gratefully does as well."

A mother's trust of her boy:

Cymnea: "So, was he telling me everything?"
Osric: "Well. The highlights, yes."

There's that point of rivalry, again. It took a moment to correlate 'her' to Ismerelda, but it was figured out once it became clear that if Osric meant 'Ismerelda' then he was deliberately stretching the truth to cast the worst possible light on his brother Finndo:

Osric: "Well, yes, it would seem you were quite right to tell me to avoid her. Finndo seems quite taken with her."
Cymnea: "That shall have to be cured."

For the reader's education, the GM sped things up and passed over a month fairly quickly until the year is well into the heart of Spring. By that point, Benedict has been on his feet for three weeks, tender but completely mended. Sonnet by that point has been hobbling some, but her bones have mended. She doesn't need her crutches. On responses, sensible:

Scott to Shai: "Benedict helps you out a bit, sword exercises."
GM: "During this time, Karm materializes."
Scott: "Or maybe not."

See, Karm does care about Sonnet. An awful, awful lot. Maybe the GM needs to redefine 'scary' in his head:

GM to Sonnet: "Karm dotes. He's protective in that doting way rather than protective in that scary way. You get all of your stuffed animals from childhood brought here; there are your favorite flowers from childhood rotated out regularly so that nothing is ever allowed to wilt in your sight, etc, etc, etc."
Sonnet: "And we go riding?"
GM: "You don't go riding. Daddy won't let you. You'll get hurt."
Sonnet: "And I get bedtime stories!"
GM: "Yes, you get bedtime stories! And if Sybil is around for some reason, they are perfectly normal bedtime stories."

When even the people on your side aren't on your side:

GM to Cyrus: "By the end of this month, you will have concluded that your wife is entirely Cymnea's creature by now - "
Finndo: "Uhm. Finndo is making sure that's not entirely the case."
GM: "- but Finndo is blunting that somewhat."
Finndo: "Well, he's working on that, but more importantly, he is working on being Uncle Finndo to the child."
GM: "Aine absolutely adores Uncle Finndo because he can talk about whatever she learned about that day and Cyrus will sometimes do an I See and that's Just Not Enough for her."

We still haven't explained our intentions to the GM. A really, really patient GM allows the players to set themselves up:

Finndo: "Finndo is having an iron head made for the shaft, and set back from the head is a circle."
GM: "What material?"
Deborah: "Funny you should mention that."
Rob: "Iron."
Finndo: "And this is brought to Benedict."
GM: "That's in the first week."

The Plan is, essentially, to load up as much firepower as possible and 'Club Until Dead':

Finndo to Benedict: "Finndo has been checking on [Benedict], but he's going to ask how you're doing? Are you going bed crazy yet?"
Benedict: "Yes."
Finndo: "I have brought something that might interest you," and he sets the spear and the carving knife on the desk. "I do not pretend to know everything you learned from Piero, but I know enough to know it has something to do with the unmaking of binds. It may be worth noting that Osrat is just a rat with three things bound to him - Osric's blood, Sybil's power, and the Pattern. It may just be easier to unmake him then to kill him. Now I don't know how to do it, but iron and ash are both potent against the fae."

The GM is going around the room asking each of us how we spent our month. When all you have is a hammer, /everything/ starts to look like it has hammer applications:

Finndo: "Beyond that, Finndo is replenishing his trump deck, figuring out how that got done to trumps, and doing the appropriate appearances. Talking to people who would need to talk to the throne, doing the whole crown prince thing."
GM: "During the course of this, you cross check some of your occult references and so forth, and this is when you realize that trumps can be used for attack purposes. Up to this point no one has realized that trumps can be used to overload the guy on the other end."

Helpful suggestions to the doomed:

Finndo: "I try to trump Oberon."
GM: "What skill do you think is appropriate to that?"
Jarrod: "Fucked?"

Finndo does in fact manage to open a tenuous, shaky trump connection to Oberon. Hey, Dad, guess what!

Oberon: "Hello?"
Finndo: "Hi, Dad."
Oberon: "Finndo?"
Finndo: "Yes."
Oberon: "What's up?"
Finndo: "We're back, Ghenesh is destabilized and we're wondering what you're up to."

Now that's optimism. A father's trust for his son:

Oberon: "Is there war?"
Finndo: "Not at the moment."

Curt, simple instructions:

Oberon: "Allright: I'm really in the middle of something here - "
Finndo: "What can we do?"
Oberon: "Keep things from blowing up! God, this is hard. I have time for one more question."

Finndo: "What do you want me to do?"
Oberon: "Whatever you do, don't sail after me."
Finndo: "Allright."
Rob: "God that's ominous."
Scott: "Yeeesss."

A son's trust for his father (and these are the two that get _along_, folks):

Finndo: "And then I go through Dad's correspondence."

The Southern Kingdoms are known to not pose that much of a threat, not the way the northern or western powers do; they're a bunch of Bermudas: island nations, tropical, fairly isolated. So Finndo knows the cover story has likely not that much substance to it. Finndo goes through the correspondence looking for a clue as to what prompted Oberon's and Piero's departure. Failing to find anything, he falls back to plan b, which involves trumping the new Governor of the Isles of the Sun - our old friend Sejak. Sejak was the Baron in charge of Tanauril - the Barony of blood sucking trees and dark druids - who was reassigned to the Isles of the Sun following the party's 'help' in his Barony.

Keep in mind that Sejak has never heard of, let alone seen, a trump before. Being trumped is like having someone appear in front of you and in your head at the same time. Bit shocking if you're not prepared for it. When pirates are the lesser evil:

Finndo: "Hello, Sejak."
Sejak slides back, visibly startled. He peers: "You're not actually there, are you?"
Finndo: "Nope. I'm in Amber."
Sejak: "That's profoundly disturbing."
Finndo: "It's a useful trick. You look like the position agrees with you."
Sejak: "The weather does. And the lack of druids."

Sonnet grew up in part in the isles; as the adored daughter of the deadliest man in the kingdom (Daddy, he hurt my feelings!), the pirates and smugglers - an extremely active part of life on the Isles - found it very very hard to say no to Sonnet's wishes. This is _why_ Sonnet fights with a cutlass; she made friends with the pirates. A girl's fond reminiscences:

Sejak: "I take it this is no social call."
Finndo: "No, it's not. I take it my father stopped there on his way south."
Sejak: "Briefly."
Finndo: "Did you notice anything odd in his manner? I'm trying to understand his disappearance."
Sejak: "He dropped off his crew."
Finndo: "Interesting. Did he pick up a new one, or did he just sail out with Piero?"
Sejak: "That is how he left, yes. I don't now how he made the ship sail itself, but -"
Finndo: "I imagine that Piero had a hand in that. Is the crew there?"
Sejak: "Oh, yes, they're vacationing. I'm using a few for law enforcement."
Shai: "Those are my friends!"

The governorship of the Isles is a tricky position; a weak governor, easily bribed, will find that he is dealing with unashamed and vicious pirates. A strong governor will discover that all the pirates have transformed into merchant princes. Define 'understanding':

Sejak: "Ah, yes, the Pirates have reverted to being Merchant princes."
Finndo: "I thought they might."
Sejak: "We have an understanding."

Not what the man wanted to hear:

Finndo: "And Finndo goes back to swearing."

Different definitions of 'conversation'. When most of us say 'conversation', we mean 'talk'. Cyrus seems to mean 'baseline violence, more likely murder':

GM: "Cyrus, what are you up to?"
Cyrus: "Cyrus is being Daddy. And he has to have a conversation in the city."
GM: "A conversation in the city."
Cyrus: "And in the kitchen."

Cyrus' wife and daughter are in town; therefore, Cyrus is sober. To the rest of us, that's uncharacteristic behavior:

Cyrus: "I'm sober."
Jarrod: "Really?"
Cyrus: "Yes."
Jarrod: "Consistently?"
Cyrus: "Yes."
Jarrod: "Wow. Tragic."
Cyrus: "Yes."

Osric spends the month borrowing tricks - Oberon's Pattern shield trick - and trying to get the magic 8 ball trick out of Cymnea (no go). And one more thing - on the virtues of efficient help:

Osric: "And he'll check on his little army unit."
GM: "They dispersed for the winter and reassembled. When they heard the King went south they kicked up the activity to high gear. The people you left behind to do that sort of thing do that sort of thing."

The trouble with adulation, too much of:

GM: "Sonnet?"
Sonnet: "When Melody isn't around being the doting sister as well, I'll attempt to have a serious conversation with my father."

When the cat's away, the mice - well, the wife - will play:

Finndo: "Oh. Can I do a check to see just how bad Mom is being?"
Deborah: "Yes."
Finndo: "I just want to know what pies she's sticking her fingers into, but unfortunately I got a fair."
GM: "You definitely get enough to get the sense that she's getting people who were on the fence between her and Oberon more towards her, but."

God help me:

Deborah: "I'm at 20k and we're 1.5 hours into the game; I need you people to not be witty. Jarrod, this means you."
Scott: "Write that down."
Lydia: "We're very sorry. We'll be boring."
Scott: "Write that down, too."
Shai, deadpan monotonous: "Were riding through the forest; there are trees. There is an oak tree. There is another tree."
Jarrod and Shai: "You might be eaten by a grue."

Helpful suggestions a specialty!

Cyrus: "You know sadly having his wife in town is going to completely cramp Cyrus's style."
Finndo: "You can go farther afield, where tickling awaits."

The GM was going around the room to each of us to ask how our characters spent their month back in Amber; he had just Scott and myself left. I was still furiously catching up to the latest comments. On being the red-headed bastard step-secretary:

GM: "I could do Benedict first, but then you'd have more to type."
Deborah: "I'm almost done, just Lydia don't talk, Jarrod don't talk, Scott don't look at anything."
GM: "Write that down."

Osric and Cyrus worked some more on the Pattern - and in Cyrus's universe, there are _always_ indigenous happy people. Defining one's worldview aka It's nice of the man to admit it:

Jarrod: "It'll be funny if Osric starts to doubt his own universe. Maybe people ARE supposed to be happy!!"
GM: "That would be the universe that Fred isn't the GM of."

And the Lydia worldview:

Jarrod: "There will be Disney EVERYWHERE."
Rob: "Why is the candlestick singing?"
Fred: "It's only happy if it's happy in that scary way."

Southern girls:

Sonnet: "Sonnet, when she has a moment, sends a two word note to Selm: 'Thank you.' "
GM: "Selm sent two words back: 'Nice outfit.'
Sonnet: "She sends a reply, 'So, do you like the color?'"
Deborah: "For god's sakes, stop flirting!"
Jarrod: "Might as well ask her to stop breathing."

The GQ take on lethality:

Cyrus: "Also Selm is sufficiently paranoid that I like him."
GM: "He's paranoid in that way that doesn't come off as paranoid. He seems to anticipate things effectively."
Rob: "Paranoid with STYLE."

Getting the idea across:

Benedictsends Finndo a note requesting a trump of Piero.
Finndo: "A note comes back saying that would be a terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible idea. Signed, Finndo."
Scott: "The note comes back, "Allright, then."

Some lives, you just can't win:

Jarrod: "Yes, Benedict trains, Osric plots and Finndo schmoozes."
Lydia: "And Cyrus regards his liquor cabinet mournfully."

Emphasis:

Rob: "You have to understand, Finndo actually has a trump of Piero but he's afraid to use it."

Wheedling:

Sonnet: "Will Papa allow her to train with _him_?"
Karm: "You shouldn't be swinging a sword around."
Sonnet: "Yes, Papa."
Karm: "You broke enough and there's plenty of muscles you use outside your arms."
Sonnet: "Yes, Papa."
Jarrod: "You should be baking cookies!"
GM: "You're getting all the benefits of hyperprotective Karm, but you're also getting all the negative side."

Late night rituals at Castle Amber:

GM: "Some of you are drifting off around midnight, some of you [Finndo] are awake hunched over a desk, some of you [Cyrus] are pretending they're drinking while sitting and staring at the liquor cabinet, some of you [Sonnet] are tucked into bed much too early and staring at the ceiling."

Assumptions (incorrect, as it turns out):

GM: "Everyone roll alertness. Those of you above superb hear a scream."
Osric: "Must be Benedict again; I go."
Sonnet: "I'm bored out of my mind, Dad's not here; grabbing my crutch, my sword and spring loaded poison dagger Sybil got me."

What we call 'not a good sign':

Finndo: "Oh, I just fell asleep at my desk. "
GM: "Exactly how bad did you roll?"
Finndo: "Poor."
GM smirks, "I'll get back to you."

'Oh shit' moments a house specialty; clever explanations on the fly, not so much:

GM: "Cyrus, you think you drifted off - no wait, you're standing. There's a knife in your hand, there's blood, there's a serving wench on the ground in front of you..."
Cyrus stares.
GM: "And Karm just stepped out of the door nearby. He looks down at the girl. He looks at you. He draws his sword."
Cyrus: "This is not good. Where am I?"
GM: "Looks like a hallway."
Cyrus: "I so fucking do _not_ want to fight Karm. I think I'm going to run, yeah!"
Karm takes a step forward.
Cyrus: "Running, yeah. 'Didn't do it; not my fault!'"
GM grins: "That's what you say?"

A lady never swears in front of Daddy:

GM: "Sonnet, you come out of your room and Cyrus is running towards you with a bloody knife. Your father sees you come out and says GET BACK INSIDE!"
Sonnet: "Fu - the fuck dies before it gets out."

The sound of panic:

Cyrus: "I think I'm going to follow Sonnet into her room."
Rob: "I think someone's getting a self destructive bonus."

Now Cyrus is unarmed over the body of a murder victim, with Karm chasing after him, shouting murderer and incensed by Cyrus' attempt to get into Sonnet's bedroom. It can't get much worse - oh wait. Yes, yes it can.

Sonnet: "I shut the door!"
Cyrus runs into Sonnet's slamming door.
GM to Cyrus: "You drop the knife when you run into the door and yes, you get your self destructive award now. Karm is shouting MURDERER! and running after you."
GM: "And Benedict arrives."

Keeping one's focus on the heart of the immediate problem:

GM: "Osric, you're getting your stuff, you hear someone shouting 'Murderer!' and you see Benedict's back, sword in hand, and he's running towards the scream. You're round a corner; Cyrus is staggering towards Benedict, running quickly, blood on his hands."
Lydia: "Being chased by Karm."
GM: "And he's got Karm behind him."

'I laugh in the face of danger. Then I run and hide until it goes away!':

GM: "Sybil, you are the furthest away; behind Osric."
Sybil: "I skid to a halt behind Osric. HE can go first!"

A not insensible suggestion:

GM to Osric: "You have a cowering Fae."
Scott: "You have a cowering thermonuclear weapon."
GM: "Please do not frighten the thermonuclear weapon."

Decision time for Cyrus, who is now stuck between Karm and Benedict, a body at his feet, and nowhere to go. Remember, Benedict and Cyrus have a rivalry; they are not what could be called 'friends'. And Cyrus was not only found over a body, but just tried to go into Karm's daughter's room. This is a situation formally referred to as 'not good':

Cyrus: "I duck past Benedict; I go through him if I have to. Is he armed?"
GM: "It's Benedict."
Shai: "It's Benedict; he's armed even when not carrying a weapon."

Unnecessary question:

GM: "Are you going to play dirty?"
Cyrus: "Yes. How wide is the corridor?"
GM: "You can get around him but there's not much room."
Cyrus: "I'm going to go through him."

Cyrus attempts to go through Benedict; this results very quickly in Cyrus being off balance, leaning forward, on the tip of Benedict's sword. Benedict swings at Cyrus, sitting him down on the floor - and still at swordpoint. Karm is still there. Every cloud has a silver lining (usually lightning):

Lydia: "Actually, all things considered, I'd rather be at his swordpoint then at Karm's."
GM: "But you're sitting down, able to be perforated from before and behind."

Opportunity knocks:

Sonnet's in her room, hearing this. She opens the door.
GM: "There's a dead woman in the hall."
Sonnet: "No servants in sight?"
GM: "No one ran towards this because, well."
Sonnet: "I look at the body."

Benedict is a Prince of the realm. Karm is not. Cyrus is not. It is good to be Prince:

GM: "Karm draws up, nods, puts his sword away."
Benedict: "I keep my sword where it is."
GM: "Prince's prerogative."

What Cyrus would give to be holding Cam's hookah right about now. Oops:

Benedict: "Is he groggy?"
GM: "No, he looks fairly awake."
Cyrus: "What's the last thing I remember?"
GM: "You were in the library, you remember feeling a little tired, but you weren't ready to go to bed yet - but then you were."
Cyrus: "Was that my knife?"
GM: "Yes."

There's Benedict going armed. And then there's Cyrus going armed:

Benedict to Karm: "Divest him of his weapons."
The GM starts counting on both hands. Extensively.

Shameless, not stupid:

GM to Cyrus: "You think he left the one on the inside of your left thigh, but he got the rest of them - and this is a fairly thin knife. A ropecutter."
Cyrus: "I even voluntarily give him some of the weapons."
GM: "Do you give him the last one?"
Cyrus: "No."

Knowing when you're down:

GM to Benedict: "Karm lays all the weapons out in the hall; you do recognize the knife as Cyrus's. Karm is taking care to touch the things very faintly. Now you guys don't have fingerprinting, but Karm seems aware that psychometry can be done."
Cyrus: "Cyrus is not actually making any attempt to fight at this point."

While they're arresting Cyrus, Sonnet examines the body. The style is certainly believable:

GMto Sonnet: "It doesn't look like there was a lot of struggle; the strike came in low but in such a way it would produce a lot of shock."
Shai: "Kidney?"
GM: "Yeah. It was enough for her to scream, and then her blood turned poisonous and she died in the ensuing chaos."
Shai: "Now which way was she lying - would Cyrus have been behind her, potentially?"
GM: "Hard to say. You don't know how much the body torqued as it fell; she could have been heading either way. Signs do point to someone coming up behind her and stabbing her in the back."

What, did Daddy scare the guards, too?

Sonnet: "I ask the guardsmen if any of them know her."
Guard: "That looks like Jenny; she's from the kitchens. You should get back to your room; this isn't a safe situation."

Shooting down the wistful thinking:

Cyrus: "Cyrus does his best to wake up from what is turning out to be an unpleasant dream."
The GM simply points at the ominous music that suddenly starts.

Don't think of me as your half-brother. Think of me as your judge, jury, and executioner:

GM: "I imagine Osric and Sybil are maintaining a certain amount of distance from this to keep tabs with it; some of the guards have brushed past and showed up; they're looking to Benedict for instruction."
Benedict: "'Bind him.' I look at Osric."
GM to Cyrus: "They have chains around you in short order; your wrists are in front, but the chains are pretty short."
Benedict: "Take him to the dungeon while we investigate this matter."

Usually, it's Osric saying this:

Cyrus to Osric: "Are you in earshot?"
Osric: "I'm always in earshot."
Cyrus: "I think we should talk!"

Here. Have some rope.

Benedict: "According to my judgement, who do I call - Mother or the Crown Prince?"
GM: "It's entirely your judgement."

Drawing comfortable conclusions:

Benedict: "What happened, Karm?"
Karm: "I heard a scream, I came out of my room to find Sir Rosewood standing over the girl."
Benedict: "Well, it's certainly his knife."
Karm: "And he was holding it, with blood all over his hands."

A guard is sent to wake Finndo, who arrives on the scene to be briefed by Karm and Benedict. Getting in all the damaging detail:

Finndo: "What did he do after?"
Karm: "He ran. He tried to get into my daughter's room; that's when he dropped the knife."
Finndo: "And then?"
Benedict: "He tried to bull past me."
Karm: "Through you, actually."
Benedict: "Yes."

Smile when you say that:

Finndo: "Where is he now?"
Benedict: "On his way to the dungeons."

You know it's bad when you've actually driven the GM to _pity_:

GM tosses Lydia a fate point, "Just in general. That's an apology if you spend too long in the dungeons."

Time for a Quality Lucan Inappropriate Response :

Lucan comes round the corner, yawns, looks down: "Shit."
Sonnet: "Her name was Jenny, she works in the kitchen; know anything?"
Lucan: "Jenny? _Damn_, she was cute!"

That wasn't a hint for my amusement, boy:

Sonnet: "Who knows her? Think there's anyone down there now?"
Lucan: "There's always somebody in the kitchens."
Sonnet: "Could you find out?"
Lucan goes.

Heavy is the head...

Lydia: "Finndo now has Oberon early morning syndrome."
Rob rubs a finger between his eyebrows: "Headache RIGHT HERE."

Look what I got for Xmas!

Osric: "Osric now has a mystery to chew on..."

The Non Cover Art Moment: Lucan does _not_ dress Sonnet when Daddy's in town:

Shai: "Sonnet's in pigtails and bows and flannel with little flowers on it."

Hostessing:

GM: "She is new - 2 months new - and they had her serving the guests in the castle because she was easy to look at."
Finndo: "Finndo will set things in motion to speak to whoever hired her."

Hi. I'm your shadow, brother:

Finndo: "Where is Osric?"
Osric: "Osric is about to head down to the dungeons."
Finndo: "Then you'll have Finndo in tow.

With friends like these:

Finndo: "Actually, one question of Benedict. "It seems to me that Cyrus could have killed her without a scream.""
Benedict: "I will be the first to admit this is not his style. He does not strike me as quite this foolish."
Jarrod: "You don't know him very well do you?"
Finndo: "He is plenty foolish."

So he had a plan afterall:

Lydia: "You would be running, too, with Karm behind you."
Deborah: "He ran towards Karm's daughter's room."
Lydia: "Cyrus headed for 'people who might actually listen to reason' as compared to Benedict and Karm."

Not the clever self defense that we were looking for:

Osric: "What actually happened?"
Cyrus: "I think I killed her."
Osric: "You... didn't like your dinner?"

Just checking:

Cyrus: "One moment I was reading in the library; the next I was being chased by Karm."
Osric: "This does not ordinarily happen to you, I take it?"

New definition: 20 as 'several':

Cyrus: "No. I was reading a book in the library -"
Osric: "What book?"
Cyrus: "Military tactics."
Osric: "Do you remember having a knife with you?"
Cyrus: "I always have a knife with me."
Osric: "You have several."

Again with the 'not helping':

Cyrus: "It is my knife."
Osric: "You remember nodding off or you said you did -"
Cyrus: "No. I don't remember nodding off."

I'm an _effective_ (if insane) murderer, dammit!

Cyrus: "If I really wanted to kill someone, first, I wouldn't do it in a corridor and second, I would cut their throat. No screaming."
Shai: "And you wouldn't do it outside Karm's door."

Well, duh:

Osric: "Right. I have suspicions."

'Nowhere to run' not a viable defense:

Cyrus: "As for the running, if Karm were chasing you, you'd be running, too."
Osric: "Understandable, yes. Where were you trying to go?"
Cyrus: "I was looking for someone to reason with, into which category I don't think your brother or Lord Karm fall."
Osric: "I'll see what I can do but for now you'll probably have to stay here."
Cyrus: "I understand."

Sybil followed Osric down the stairs to the dungeon but he would not let her inside. Finndo has a different approach to getting her out of the way. Iron fist, velvet glove:

Sybil: "Osric went in but he won't let me follow."
Finndo: "How are you?"
Sybil: "I'm fine, thank you."
Finndo worriedly: "You should probably go check on Sonnet."
Sybil: "OH!" She dashes off in a burst of concern.
GM: "Shameless."
Jarrod: "Officer thinking, brother."

Not something you hear every day:

Osric (in the dungeon with Cyrus) to Finndo: "Brother, just the man I wanted to see."

Amber-style big brother advice:

Finndo: "Cyrus, next time this happens, the appropriate thing is dropping the knife, going down on your knees and begging Karm not to kill you."
Cyrus: "I hadn't thought of that."
Finndo: "He's very good at not killing people too."
Cyrus: "I hadn't noticed that."

Huh. You don't say. mmmmmhmmmm:

Finndo: "Unfortunately, you did run at the scene, creating an impression of guilt. What happened?"
Cyrus: "I was reading in the library, and then there was blood."
Finndo: "That's an abrupt transition."

The defense would like to object based on having more style than this murder:

Finndo: "Was anyone else in the library?"
Cyrus: "No. Yes, it's my knife. Yes, that's her blood, I think -"
Finndo: "But you would have killed her with a garrotte."

The trouble with employers who know their employees (and helpful peanut galleries):

Cyrus: "And I might also point out the difficulties in disposing of a body in that corridor."
Finndo: "Well, that I wouldn't put that past your creativity. "
Shai: "Sonnet has a catapult."

The defense request that the defendant be shut up before he confesses - too late:

Finndo: "It would appear to seem as if you were involved, but I am reasonably sure this is a setup. We will take care of this."
Cyrus: "I might point out that I am reasonably certain that I did kill her."

Session goal achieved!

Finndo: "I am reasonably certain as well. I assume you are still armed?"
Cyrus: "Cyrus gives Finndo a look."
GM: "What does the look say?"
Cyrus: "YOU DUMBASS."
Jarrod: "The requisite you dumbass."

Only Finndo could shmooze while arranging to slip deadly weapons to an incarcerated murderer:

Finndo: "So I don't have to leave my knife down here." To Osric, he adds, "I just want to make sure someone doesn't come in to kill him while he's armed only with a pillow, which I have no doubt he could use effectively."
Cyrus: "A second knife might be appreciated."
Finndo: "Guards will not be counting the cutlery after the next meal."

No creative shenanigans out of you:

Cyrus: "I think you should say something to Lady Rosewood; I'm not sure what, but I'm sure you could lie more creatively than I."
Osric: "Brother [Finndo], you and I should have a chat."
Finndo: "Yes."
Osric to Cyrus, firmly: "Please stay here."

Osric and Finndo actually collaborate:

Osric: "My doppleganger had been experimenting with the connection between trumps and dreams and Cyrus was just on the edge of sleep."
Finndo: "There's one major flaw of that."
Osric: "What?"
Finndo: "Benedict had no trump of Cyrus."
Osric: "That being said, this whole thing smacks of sorcery."
Finndo: "This smacks of something. I think that if you do not object, that it would be best if you spoke with mother."
Osric: "Oh I fully intend to. She's my third stop."
Finndo: "Excellent. I'll speak to Cyrus's wife and child to offer reassurances. And the next step is to investigate this girl and see if anyone saw Cyrus."

This is not the time - no, apparently, any time is a good time to argue trivialities:

Osric: "It's not entirely impossible that he managed to obtain a trump."
Finndo: "It's as close to impossible as I can conceive."
Osric: "Very little is impossible."
Finndo: "Very little, yes, but there's a very short list of places from which trumps can come."
Osric: "They had access for a very long time."
Finndo: "This smacks of sorcery, no doubt."

Benedict has been investigating the guard roster. On timing:

GM: "Some of the guards closest to the girl nodded off."
Benedict starts to turn purple.
GM: "Then you get a trump call."
Finndo: "Is this a bad time?"

Hey, he's not Crown Prince for nothing!

Benedict: "The guards supposed to patrol this particular section of the hallway nodded off."
Finndo: "Before any reprimand, have them report to Osric and tell him that; they may not have nodded off out of dereliction of duty. I assume you are investigating the roster?"
Benedict drily: "Very perceptive of you."

Oh, wait, maybe he was:

Finndo: "As part of that, Cyrus's last locale before this was the library. That's a long ways off. "
Benedict: "It is."
Finndo: "See if you can find anyone who saw him between the library and the girl."

Benedict summons the two guards who fell asleep on duty near the scene of the murder. Sometimes, you just need to feel better about your day:

Benedict: "Benedict gives the guards a loooooooooong look."
GM: "They're maintaining really good military posture."
Benedict: "In the face of fear."
GM: "Scared shitless, yes."
Benedict: "Report to Prince Osric immediately."
Guards: "Yes sir!"

Benedict escorts the guards to Prince Osric. Amber, The True City, was not the source of due process:

Benedict: "Brother."
Osric: "Yes."
Benedict: "Brother Finndo wished you to inspect these guards; they happened to be inspecting the corridor where the girl was murdered and they nodded off."
Lydia: "Allegedly murdered, please."
Shai: "It's Amber, guilty before innocent."

No innocent was slain here:

Lucan: "Hey. Girl was hired on 2 months ago: had her wages sent off to the family in the city; been boffing a couple of the guards in the castle."
Finndo: "Interesting."
Lucan: "Yeah. Sometimes they knew each other, too."
Finndo: "Charming. I am interested in establishing Cyrus' movements; somehow he got from the library to here. Someone must have seen her."
Lucan: "I'll look around."

On guards, unnecessary intimidation of:

Osric: "I look at them like their heads will explode if they lie to me."
GM: "They're pretty damned embarrassed; they think they fell asleep naturally."

Finndo trumps Sonnet (who is in her room with Sybil in attendance). There's a first time for every girl:

GM: "Finndo just appears next to you, Sonnet. You don't see this, Sybil."
Finndo: "Lady Sonnet?"
Sonnet: "I didn't hear you come in."
Finndo: "I'm not there."

Trading lackeys:

Finndo: "I assume Sybil has found you?"
Sonnet: "She has."
Finndo: "I'm sorry to interrupt."
Sonnet: "Has Lucan found you?"
Finndo: "He has: I sent him on a second task; I hope you don't mind."
Sonnet: "Not at all."

Sybil has been loudly encouraging Sonnet's get dressed, get armed, kick some ass and get to the bottom of this urges. Apparently the bottom is the floor:

Sonnet: "Did he [Lucan] mention she was off duty?"
Finndo: "No, but he did mention some of her behaviors. I assume Sybil is with you?"
Sonnet: "Yes. She seems to like that I am doing something."
Finndo: "I would be grateful if you and Sybil would interview the floor."

'But you're safe here with me, Scarlett':

Finndo: "There are some secondary coincidences to this; the guards closest dozed off."
Sonnet: "Mm."
Finndo: "Yes. I feel more secure already."

Living with James Bond is wearing on the ego:

Finndo: "And then I'll offer my reassurances to Lady Cynthia." He hangs up, "And if I find Selm there, I am just gonna cry."

Logic is not a famous Fae attribute:

Finndo to Sonnet: "Your talents are best put to use making sure the questions Sybil puts forward are of use to anybody."
Jarrod: "Steeeer the Fae."

Distraaaaact the Fae:

Sonnet: "Do you think the floor would be more useful or the walls?"
Sybil: "Mmm. The walls see more."
Sonnet: "But the floor has her blood on it. Or the ceiling? I leave you to ponder that."

Please. Feel included in your fate:

GM to Cyrus: "Just let me know if you want to ... "
Jarrod: "Kill anybody."
GM: "Do anything."

Osric gets to Cymnea's chamber. A unique reason for restraint:

Guard: "She's been informed sir; I think she's asleep."
Rob: "And their heads explode."
Jarrod: "I don't want to wake up mom..."

Red alert:

Benedict: "I am taking a look at all the rosters and patrol sheets and making sure that everything's kosher."
GM: "You know exactly who was on shift; you don't find all that much fault with it. It's not what you'd do in a super paranoid mode, but -"
Benedict: "But we are in a super paranoid mode now."
GM: "You step it up."

Finndo calls on Lady Cynthia Rosewood, Cyrus' wife. Not exactly the shocked gasp one would expect:

Finndo: "Again, my apologies for the late hour, Lady Cynthia. I will only hold you for a moment; I thought it best if you heard from me. Your husband has been detained under suspicion of murder."
Cynthia: "Under suspicion of what?"
Finndo: "Murder."
Cynthia smirks, unsurprised.

The man produced a child with this woman. Think about what that must have involved. (Actually, it explains the drinking nicely.) This woman has no reflection:

Finndo: "While there does appear to be some circumstantial evidence against him, I am sure that your husband will be released soon; we'll get to the bottom of this."
Cynthia: "You do know he is of low birth, right?"
Finndo: "... Yes."

We're proud of our efficiency expert!

Cynthia: "I wouldn't put it past him."
Finndo: "In fact, neither would I. However, I do know he is a more competent murderer than this."
Jarrod: "_There's_ a left handed compliment."

Ice doesn't melt in her mouth, does it?

Finndo: "It seems to me very likely that this is a setup; we will find the real culprit very soon."
Cynthia: "Do keep him in chains, would you? On the off chance."
Finndo: "If there is anything I can do in the meantime - "
Cynthia: "I am concerned for Aine's safety."
Finndo: "I will make arrangements."

Sympathy for the damned:

Rob: "And file that away. Jeesus."

Disappointments:

GM: "I am watching Lydia learn about his wife."
Lydia: "I expected her to be more polite."
GM: "He woke her up."
Lydia: "I expected Finndo to lie better."

Same shit, different day:

Finndo: "Yes?"
Lucan: "Hey."
Finndo: "How'd it go?"
Lucan: "Nobody saw a frigging thing."
Finndo: "Get some sleep; tomorrow I need to know about her family in town."
Lucan: "I will make sure to include it in the morning chatter."
Finndo: "Take care."
Lucan: "Yah."

On-Call Sucks, doesn't it? And surely Finndo didn't know the library was completely clear, right?

Osric: "Yes?"
Finndo: "I was just wondering if you'd had the opportunity to inspect the library."
Osric: "I haven't yet, but I don't know what you think I'll find."
Finndo: "I have absolutely no idea, but that is the point at which oddities began."
Osric: "If you insist, I'll go look."
Finndo: "Thank you very much."
Osric sighs: "Osric will pull himself together, go down to the library, and Look For Stuff."
GM: "Short form, you don't find anything."

Finndo issues invitations to breakfast the next morning; the party meets to discuss their findings and speculate - with the exception of Cyrus, who is still incarcerated. Evidence you don't hear on Law & Order:

Sonnet: "The torches nearest the library noted that Cyrus did leave at one point and was not particularly stealthy about it but a few torches in about a hundred yards into the shortest path, he began being stealthy, creeping along the hall."

A very very good point we should have paid attention to earlier:

Finndo: "Let me put forward an interesting question, even if he had intended to kill her, how would he have known? How would he have known she was going to be there?"

Finndo brings the meeting to its next point. On trusting your family, why you don't:

Finndo: "I am just going to come out and say it because I have men in sufficient positions to not be eavesdropped on. I am very curious as to Mother's role in this."
Lydia: "But she doesn't know who Cyrus is."
Rob, flatly: "HA ha ha." Very flatly, "No."

Masochism, how-to:

Finndo: "And, frankly, it's rather disturbing, but I think his wife feels no real pain in seeing him in chains. "
GM to Finndo: "And you know if he was executed, she would gain his lands."
Deborah stares.
GM, defensively: "I am playing her as written by Lydia. I have to come up with motives beyond her simply being a harrowing bitch."
Finndo: "And she _has_ been spending time with Mother..."

Adding opportunity to motive is not wise:

Sonnet: "Well, if we let him out, who would notice?"
Finndo: "We could shift him to house arrest..."
GM: "You suspect if by house arrest you mean Cynthia..." The GM just shakes his head.

Using your powers of Evil for Good aka Inventing Incentive:

Sonnet: "And you can send him to Rosewood."
Finndo: "And we can strip him of his lands and thereby light the fire under his wife's ass."
Lydia: "You know. I know Finndo is evil, but I always forget."
GM, singsong: "You shouldn't..."
Finndo: "And we should find out everything we need to know about this girl's life."
GM: "While your mother may have a hold on Cynthia, Finndo knows how to push her buttons."

'Your deep and abiding loathing is not really a secret':

Benedict: "Did you question him as to why he ran?"
Osric: "Karm!"
Finndo: "He attributes it to panic, and Karm. "
Osric: "He didn't think you [Benedict] would listen."
Finndo: "Which is a reasonable concern on his part, I must admit."
Benedict: "I wouldn't kill him."
Finndo: "No, you'd have beaten him - look at you, you're smiling at the thought."
Osric: "He's got you dead to rights."

Proving their point:

Finndo: "He [Cyrus] deserves to be beaten with a stick."
Benedict: "I volunteer."

Cyrus arranges to have Lucan take a note to a person in the city - he arranges, specifically, for Lucan to only contact the network that will eventually bring the note to the address of the Black Orchid. Finndo, on the other hand, is much more unabashed:

Finndo: "In contrast, Finndo is sending a note directly to the location in question, not to anyone in particular but marked very noticeably with his seal. Inside, pertinent details about the woman, the family she was giving money to in town, and a polite remark that any and all information about this girl will be met with generosity."
Lucan comes up to you, "Anything you need in the city?"
Finndo: "Take this to this address [the Black Orchid]. They'll know what to do."

A bonny lass, and fair, and missed - oh, how she is missed:

GM: "It's not long after handing that note off to Lucan that you pretty much know everyone she was sleeping with."
Lydia: "Here is a list."
GM: "There was the occasional visiting nobleman whose bedchambers she was suspected of visiting - single men, or men without their wives. In talking with some of the staff, you get the impression that part of the regret of her passing was that she was such a fine lay."

The trouble with baaaaad influences:

Jarrod airquotes: "Off. Duty." Adds, "Or off somebody."
Deborah: "I expect that out of Fr-"
Rob: "Try to find out if she was coming or going - sorry, dear, couldn't resist."
Deborah sighs.

Finndo researches the murdered girl. Crying boinkage:

GM: "She went offduty around 10 or 11; she was in her bedroom briefly, but got up for no apparent reason; maybe she didn't sleep; it wasn't long after she lay down. Nobody followed her because they thought someone had arranged time."
Finndo: "However, I am willing to bet her path took her past none of the people she was boinking."

The girl had common sleeping quarters with other servants. You know that college roommate with the overactive sex life? Yeah. New motive for murder:

GM: "Enough people got tired of her getting up that they gave her a bed near the door."

So much for hoping:

GM: "Of her personal effects, there was a cheap piece of jewelry with sentimental value, but no private diary, nothing that says This Way To Solution."
Jarrod: "DAMN."

Moonlighting:

GM: "The girl doesn't seem to have had much of a life outside of working and boinking - "
Jarrod: "Working and working."

Next, they go through the murder victim's things. Why bust down an unlocked door? The Osric approach.

GM: "The trunk is locked -"
Deborah: "And it stops him how?"
Scott: "Not for long."
GM: "What's your decision about the lock? You could break it."
Osric: "I could, but she probably keeps her key under the pillow."
GM: "Actually, it's not under the pillow but along the bedframe, wedged in between the mattress. You open it; it's empty. The bottom doesn't seem false."

The trouble with having the undivided attention of a Prince of Amber is that, sometimes, you have the undivided attention...

Rob: "Time to check on the roommates."
Osric: "Anybody else there?"
GM: "People in and out; some of them look at the bed, shake their head, and head off to their duties. They're keeping a radius."
Osric: "I grab one." Chuckles, "An unlucky one."

You can't trust _anybody_ in Amber, can you?

Finndo: "Lady Sonnet?"
Sonnet: "Yes?"
Finndo: "Are you feeling up for some breaking and entering?"
Sonnet: "What did you have in mind?"
Finndo: "I have a list of names (these being the ones she has boffed). I have arranged for them to be at castle functions at these specific times."

She likes lists, remember? Such a thoughtful employer:

Sonnet: "Hrm. Looking for anything in particular?"
Finndo: "Anything that would indicate spies or wizards would be useful, but just keep your eyes open."
Sonnet: "Do you mind if I enter them before this time period?"
Finndo: "The list is merely for your convenience."

Benedict is not helping with the investigation; instead, Benedict has left the Castle and made his way down to the City of Amber. A man's gotta do...

Benedict: "Benedict's take on it is he's guilty, I'm not sure why people are going to so much trouble for him; don't particularly want to help."
GM: "Entertainment, then?"
Benedict: "Lookin' for some good seafood."

Ominosity ampage:

GM holds up a finger while he rolls some dice. The music changes.
Scott: "I don't like that one bit."

You can run, but the GM will draw you in anyway:

GM: "You think you see Lucan running across about a block down, Benedict."
Benedict: "I'll follow."
GM: "You jog a little bit and catch up. You know from the way he's moving around that it looks like he's running from something while trying not to look like he's running from something."
Benedict: "From me?"
GM: "No, he doesn't seem aware of you at all. And you'd expect him to be at home down here."
Benedict: "I start to see if I can see something following him."
GM: "There's some guys over that way who might be looking for someone; you can't tell if it's Lucan or not. If it is, man did he put in some distance."

And the ladies swoon:

Benedict: "I will stay on his trail; I'm watching his back."
Shai: "Thank you. That's very nice. Sure Sonnet isn't speaking to you, but it's very nice of you."
Deborah: "He's a gentleman, in a surly homicidal way."

'Wounded' is very relative around this crowd:

GM: "He stops, catching his breath. It looks like he might have been cut shallowly on one side. He checks that, waves it away like 'oh I've had worse'-"
Jarrod: "Not demons through hell chewing through my leg."

_Someone_ thinks Benedict -> safe:

GM: "And he spots you."
Benedict: "Ben looks."
GM: "And he walks right over to you. Thinks for a while. 'Hey, it's Benedict! I'm safe!'"

Lucan's is not a complicated life:

Lucan: "Howdy."
Benedict: "Are you allright?"
Lucan: "Yeah."
Benedict: "Who's following you?"
Lucan: "Some guys. I dropped off a pair of messages at the same address - had to ask around but it turned out to be the same address - and a couple of guys bushwhacked me. I got cut but got away after that."
Benedict: "Did they say why they wanted to bushwhack you?"
Lucan: "They mainly wanted me dead."

Please list reasons and motivations in triplicate on these forms and file for permit to bushwhack:

Benedict: "Do you know why?"
Lucan: "They... didn't like what I delivered?"

Ticket closed, sir:

Benedict: "Could you.. point them out? "
Lucan: "Yeah."
Benedict: "Are you done with your other duties?"
Lucan: "Well, I don't think I can get the messages back."

It's not easy being bloody:

Benedict: "We'll see if we can fix that. Do you want to take care of that?" He gestures to the wound.
Lucan: "No. Blood makes you scary."
Jarrod: "Chicks dig scars."
Lucan: "I hate flesh wounds. I get them all the time."
Lydia: "It's a very big and painful papercut."

Relishing another's pain:

Deborah beams, "Cyrus is getting so screwed."
GM: "It's Cyrus's turn. The early fuckage was Osric, and then intermittently Sybil, and sometimes you three, and now it was Cyrus's turn."

Take not too much relish in another's pain:

Deborah, gleefully: "I know; I'm enjoying this so much."
GM: "Yes, well. The Great Dildo of Fate will point somewhere else again."

The trouble with borrowing other people's agents:

Benedict: "Who asked you to deliver this?"
Lucan: "Finndo and Cyrus. I didn't read them. You know, first, but no, I didn't. You never know what Finndo's done with the -" and he waggles his fingers in the air and nods knowingly.
Benedict: "Well, it would have been useful."

A brief glimpse of glory swiftly gone with the wind. Defiance accomplished:

Benedict: "What's it like in there?"
Lucan laughs: "Heheh. Once they realized I wasn't there for business - There was some oooh and some enaaaah and some occasional eeeeccch but then someone cam out from behind a curtain and said 'that'll be all'."
GM: "I defy you to quote that."

Benedict and Lucan find that Lucan's pursuers have vanished. The GM explains why. Second deadliest men in the kingdom don't normally get jumped by thugs aka streetwise demographics:

GM to Benedict: "You look like a dangerous man. You've got two weapons with you and they're /obvious/; they're not concealables. They're like 'uh huh, that's not something I'll be asking about.'"

Small comforts. Very small:

Lydia: "I was asking whether or not anyone - that stabbing took place near a door, or just in the middle of the corridor?"
GM: "It was conveniently between torches so you were at least taking care of low light..."

It is determined that the murder victim would have pawned jewelry and trinkets to send on to her family. Finndo finds the Castle contact that the murder victim used to get messages to the pawnshop. He gets the victim's specific contact information and asked if it varied. The contact gives him a particular address that was used last time, right in the thick of the poor quarter; he thinks her contact was her brother, but can't remember clearly. On motivating clarification:

Finndo: "Shiny money."
Contact: "Ooooh. Let me think. Luke or Lurk or L something - Lance?"
Finndo throws him some coins: "Very much worth your while if you recall anything else."

Not so much paid as accustomed:

Benedict: "I try to get from Lucan a specific description of any of his assailants."
Lucan: "They're the kind of people you see in the quarter, but they had that hard look to them."
Benedict: "Professional."
Jarrod: "Experienced."

The trouble with curious Karm servants. Cyrus meant for Lucan to hand the letter off; Lucan walked the letter through the maze of contacts to its destination. A little editing never hurts:

Benedict: "And the name of the first contact?"
Rob: "Bob."
Lucan: "Just some guy."
Benedict: "Were you given specific instructions?"
Lucan: "Told to talk to him to find out where this should be delivered today."

The GM is describing the murder victim's duties. Old fashioned, exhaustively thorough, personalized service in this Castle:

GM: "This involved taking things up to people's quarters - ROOM service."
Deborah: "Coffee, tea or me?"
Shai: "Would you like breakfast as well?"

Not Precisely Comforting:

Lydia: "See, the thing is, Cyrus doesn't really have any enemies."
Everyone: "Except your wife."
Scott: "The queen."
GM: "The queen isn't much of an enemy. Much."

Benedict walks Lucan back to the mountain and lets him run home from there. Once in the castle, Lucan checks in:

GM: "Sonnet, you get a note from Lucan. 'Got cut again just one more scar I'm okay.'"

Lucan checks in with Finndo. Helping those who help themselves too much:

Finndo: "Hey. Nice cut. Dare I ask?"
Lucan looks sullen: "I was delivering a message for Cyrus as well. It turns out it was for the same address, although he didn't start me there."
Finndo: "Too fucking sneaky for his own good."

The value of Karma:

Lucan: "My fault; I should have told you why I was going to the city."
Finndo: "Eh. I think you paid enough for that."
Jarrod: "Buncha savages in this town."

What was that about too sneaky?

Finndo: "Let me know next time Cyrus sends you on an errand."
Lucan: "Sure. Want me to keep asking for it? I know I keep asking for it normally."
Finndo: Yeah. And don't mention my message to him.

Flexible career moves:

Finndo: "Sonnet gets a map of the boinkage people. Some staff, some higher up staff..."
Deborah: "Oh god."
GM: "Yep. Making sure she had the soft jobs, didn't ruin her complexion - no scrubbing, no standing over a hot stove."
Shai: "She was laying on her back and climbing the ladder at the same time."

That rare, golden moment when the players get there ahead of the GM:

Finndo: "Very quick question: did she have any burns on her arm?"
Lydia: "Oh ho."
GM: "Why is that relevant?"
Rob: "That is how Ismerelda's witches communicate."

The unfortunate facts of life:

GM: "She had no visible scars - aside from the knife wound."
Finndo: "All her teeth?"
GM: "Yeah."
Finndo: "I grow more and more suspicious of her coming from the slums."

Strike not the dragon's tail, for there is a Whole Lot Of Dragon attached to it, and you will only make the Dark, Ugly, Past Dragon grumpy:

Lydia: "Benedict's about to learn the sleeping dragon lesson."
Deborah: "The sleeping dragon lesson?"
Lydia: "Finndo was able to schmooze his way in. Benedict's going in much more..."
Scott: "Yeah, Benedict will walk right in."

Osric ventures to see his mother about the murder. Who is shocked to discover that Cymnea is not brimming with compassion and benefit of the doubt? Actually, it's contagious:

Cymnea: "She was a serving girl. Maybe he was sleeping around on his wife and didn't want her to find out?"
Jarrod: "Yeah, well, I won't say what I'm thinking."
GM: "She was too old for him?"
Jarrod: "Not that, but that's bad too."

It's _not_ a happy indicator when the Queen resorts to flattery:

Osric: "There's a lot of coincidences involved, and I just don't believe in coincidences."
Cymnea: "Tell me what you know."
Osric starts laughing.
Cymnea: "Relative to this. Telling me everything you know would take too much time."
Scott makes elaborate, obvious buttering-the-bread motions.

When you know someone a little too well:

Osric: "I've had plenty of opportunity to watch him work and it's just not his way."
Cymnea: "I wouldn't know."
Osric: "Well, yes, I would. I've seen his work. Often."

Sir Cyrus the Hurricane:

Cymnea: "Is he that effective?"
Osric: "In a force of nature kind of way, yes."
Cymnea: "Interesting."

Remember when the dream Osrat kept saying that last line? (Session #6, Waking Ours - editor Edna) Someone has a cruel, cruel sense of humor.

Osric: "And he's managed to make it from the library to the corridor where he was found without anyone seeing him and the guards on that corridor just conveniently fell asleep - both of them."
Cymnea: "That _is_ peculiar."
Osric: "Mmhhmmm."
Cymnea: "What do you think it means?"

Job satisfaction for the GM:

Jarrod gives him a Jarrod look.
GM: "What?"
Jarrod: "I hate you."

In defense of the accused, I would like to say that I still have uses for him:

Osric: "There's clearly someone who wants him out of the way; unfortunately the candidates are troubling."
GM: "She [Cymnea] is considering something. Do you say anything else?"
Osric: "He's been useful to _me_. Don't let a tool hang for this."
Cymnea: "So you think he was a tool?"
Osric: "Oh yes."

Ominosity at 11 on a scale of 1 to 10:

Cymnea: "I'm going to decide to trust you."
Scott: "Ooooh."
GM: "Let's take this outside."
Jarrod: "OH GOD."
Rob: "Sweet baby Jesus."
Jarrod: "I'm scared now."
Scott: "Yeah. When your mom decides to trust you - run."

A boy can look past the little flaws in a mother:

Jarrod: "But I like Mom."
Rob: "Except for the fact that she's evil."

Another woman we don't like:

Rob: "The good thing is that Finndo now has enough circumstantial evidence to release Cyrus back to house arrest."
Deborah: "But not with that woman. Talk about ice bitch."
Lydia: "Well, Cyrus has a very good reason for not wanting to go back to his room; if he is possessed, he doesn't want to do anything to his wife or child."
Deborah: "His child, maybe."

Time for marriage counseling:

Lydia: "Cyrus worships his wife."
Rob: "She hates him."
Lydia: "But he adores her."
Rob: "And he is incapable of seeing anything wrong with her."

Relative sanity:

Scott to Rob: "You know, we're a pretty dysfunctional family but compared to them [the Karms], we're the cleavers."

Awkward truths:

Lydia: "Cyrus doesn't want to have a conversation about who hates him because he really doesn't know."
Rob: "Finndo doesn't want to have that conversation because he doesn't want to say 'your wife'. "
Lydia: "OH he knows."

Osric and the GM stepped out of the room to have Osric's conversation with Cymnea. When they return, Jarrod looks thoroughly pained and the GM is giggling, and not in an 8 year old girl gets a new My Little Pony way. It's more 'minion of darkness' giggling. Sharing the pain:

Jarrod: "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Rob: "We can assume only evil came of that."
Jarrod: "I may have to write this down."
Shai: "And for a change it does not involve me."
Jarrod: "Let's not jump to conclusions."

'Good morning; have you noticed you're in a murder mystery?'

Finndo: "So interesting change of events: the young lady's health is remarkable enough to be noteworthy. I sent Lucan down to the city to investigate; he got ambushed, coming back. Someone does not want this woman investigated."
Sonnet: "I am shocked."
Osric: "No, I imagine not."

Osric seeks Finndo out after his conversation with the Queen. Using Cyrus' defense against Finndo:

Finndo: "Anything with Mother?"
Osric: "Nothing. Well, not so much nothing. I don't think she had anything to do with this."
Finndo: "So nothing."
Osric: "Let me put it this way. Given what went on with all these coincidences, who do you think was behind this?"
Finndo: "Besides Mother."
Osric: "No, I meant that. But given how this was done - Mother's better than that."

She's such a sweet, loving rose, after all:

Finndo: "The problem is that we've a short list of sorcerers."
Osric: "So who would want to do harm to Mother?"
Finndo: "I can't imagine."

Things you Just Don't Want To Know about Mom:

Osric: "Well I don't have all the details, but it might be a former lover."
Finndo: "That is a creepy creepy thought."

Back to being on call:

Sonnet: "The question would be: why now?"
Finndo: "Because there is neither Oberon nor Piero, and both of those provide a certain amount of protection against a great many things. That said, can you investigate any further?"
Osric: "I suppose."

Finndo has a Plan. Bets that this will involve Lots Of Bloodshed?

Finndo: "I send a message to Selm that he should avail his ass to the castle, post haste. Why, because I'm going to need some secret police real soon."

The young need not the sleep, apparently:

Sonnet: "If we let him out, someone should keep an eye on the five men she slept with."
Deborah: "ONLY five?"

Cyrus is about to be let out into house arrest. When dealing with a violent Karm, dot the i's, cross the t's and pray:

Finndo: "Sonnet, be so kind as to inform your father that he [Cyrus] is being moved, just so he doesn't happen to run across Cyrus and kill him."

The trouble with employers who know you, redux:

Finndo: "Come on; we're moving you to your new quarters."
Cyrus: "Ah, fantastic. It should not be to my old quarters."
Finndo: "No, that would be an astoundingly bad idea. Short form, I am moving you, you will have two guards with you at all times. I know that you can get away from them."
Cyrus: "Yes."
Finndo: "Don't."

Only Finndo could have managed this:

Finndo: "And I want you to avoid three people: "Karm, your wife and the Queen."
Cyrus: "Why? Karm I can understand, and perhaps the Queen, but why -"
Finndo: "Because your wife is probably upset about the - "
Cyrus: "Embarassment?"
Finndo: "- way things are going. There is some indication that there are going to be politics involved and the Queen does not need a reminder. And Karm is Karm."

You have to give the man points for retaining optimism:

Cyrus: "The Queen does not know."
Finndo: "I place no stock in that. The Queen does not know openly. However, there is the possibility that sorcery is at work that may involve the queen as a target and that the scullery girl is not what she seems."

Benedict trumps Osric. Learned Paranoia:

GM to Osric: "You're getting a trump call. It's not Osrat."
Scott: "Is it me?"
GM: "Yes."
Scott: "Just checking."

DANGER, Will Robinson, DANGER:

Benedict: "I'm about to undertake something that could quite possibly be dangerous."
Osric: "You, brother? I'm shocked."
Benedict: "I wanted to let someone know in case I'm not back in 2 days or so."
Osric: "Where?"
Benedict: "Slums."
GM: "That sets off a warning bell for you, by the way. Serious warning bell."

Not so much on the unspecific:

Osric: "Doing what?"
Benedict: "A little follow up."
Osric: "Don't be cagey; what are you doing?"
Benedict: "Lucan was injured today after delivering a pair of messages, one from Finndo and one from Cyrus, to a place called the Black Orchid. It appears that they were waiting for him. I want to know why. So I'm going to go hunting."

When you have to correct your family on how quickly to show concern:

Osric: "Oh. Well. Good luck. I'll look for you if you're not back in 2 days."
Benedict: "Make that by morning."

Finndo takes Cyrus to look at the murdered girl's things. Cyrus realizes that the cheap jewelry is actually a message tube, cleverly concealed. Cyrus points this out to Finndo. The value of living your life in permanent assumption of flaming, falling doom:

GM to Finndo: "This is good work; you realize that in your appraisal of it as cheap, you were intended to find it to be cheap."
Cyrus: "I am more paranoid than you are."

No Kidding:

Lucan: "How the fuck did that happen - oh wait Cyrus."
Finndo: "It is safe to say that you have -"
Cyrus: "She's not a scullery maid."
Finndo: "- have killed a spy. Selm should be here soon."

Selm enters the room. Our plans just get bloodier and bloodier:

Finndo: "Excellent. Cyrus has killed a spy. Here is a name. Here is an address. Take some men. Round up everyone who looks like they need rounding up."
Selm: "I don't think I have that many men."

Finndo trumps Osric. Osric's day is not improving:

Osric: "I'm popular today."
Finndo: "How quickly can we have your men here?"
Osric: "A few hours."
Finndo: "Round them up; the woman was a spy. We're going into the city."
Finndo: "We're invading the city?"
Finndo: "We're raiding the place she used. Selm's numbers are insufficient. Are your men suitable to the task?"
GM to Osric: "Your great big read blinking light is going lblinkblinkblink."

Presenting a man with a fait accompli:

Finndo: "Next, I am actually going to personally inform Karm. I am going to summon him here."
GM: "Summon him where? Where Cyrus is?"
Finndo: "The guards are here. Ah, Karm, come in." He tosses the necklace to Karm. "Cheaply made, no great effect - spy. At the very least Sir Cyrus seems to have done us a service. We are finding out more at the moment but he is being released to house arrest."

Explaining the facts of life:

Karm: "He ran."
Finndo: "You are a very frightening man. "
Karm: "Yes."
Finndo: "It is a very valuable commodity and very useful to the kingdom, but it does result in people running."
Karm: "Your brother?"
Finndo: "I will keep him informed."

Osric trumps Finndo. His sensibilities get offended:

Osric: "What are you going to do with all of these men?"
Finndo: "That's an interesting question and the biggest ones will come when we see which ones run."
Osric: "You're going to - that's hardly subtle."

Opposite worldviews:

Finndo: "You are correct and while I would love to be subtle, there's hardly time for subtlety."
Osric: "There's always time for subtlety."
Finndo: "Not, as in this case, when those we are pursuing could easily be gone."
Osric: Why don't you let me take a try at it?

Straight lines, why not:

Finndo: "I take it there's something you're not telling me."
Osric: "Volumes."

Secrecy and trust don't usually go together:

Finndo: "I take it volumes include the latest epic."
Osric: "Well. Some. Just give me some time."
Finndo: "I'll tell Selm to hold till dawn."

The Ick Factor:

Rob: "Finndo's making arrangements for the body to be delivered here."
Jarrod: "Delivered?"
Rob: "Yes."
Jarrod: "Ew."

Finndo, Osric and Cyrus have a Conversation. Oh, dear:

Lydia: "Osric is getting that look on his face, isn't he?"
Jarrod: "Yes, yes he is."

Osric may actually not know just the thing to say:

Finndo: "I assume you have something you don't want me to hear."
Osric: "It's not so much that, brother, as that I don't want you going off doing something ill conceived."
Finndo: "I see. Then it is doubly important that I know."
Osric: "Cyrus, are you familiar with someone called the Hand."
Finndo raises a brow.
Osric: "I'll take that as a yes."
Cyrus: "What about him?"
Osric chuckles. Sighs. Works his fingers together.
GM starts laughing and making exploding bomb noises.

Don't Need To Know:

Finndo: "You're not saying he and Mother..."
Osric: "Noooo..."
Finndo: "Ohkay."
Osric: "Dear God."
Finndo: "Then elaborate."

So you go to that brothel, too?

Osric: "He knows things he shouldn't "
Finndo: "Yes he does. That is the reason I contacted him."
Cyrus: "How do _you_ know him?"
Osric: "What ever for?"
Finndo: "Because he is very handy for finding things in the city."

Osric the Implacable. Kinda scary:

Osric: "Yes, and he is trying to destabilize the family."
Cyrus: "Interesting."
Osric: "He needs to die."

Viewpoints. Notice that Finndo simply agrees to Osric's requirement. If Osric had known it was this easy to point...

Finndo: "What do you mean he is trying -"
Osric: "He wanted to raise the stakes."
Cyrus: "He has some interesting contacts."
Osric: "He needs to die."

Back to the subtlety argument:

Finndo: "Allright. I will contact Selm. The Black Orchid is his residence. He will die there."
Osric: "Don't you think he will see 200 men coming?"
Finndo: "This is why I brought in Selm!"

When your dark history comes back to bite you on the ass, you find yourself objecting to the death of the man responsible for your incarceration as a murderer. Fate must have it in for Cyrus:

Cyrus: "What does he have to do with all this"
Osric: "She [the murder victim] was one of his."
Finndo: "That would do it."
Cyrus: "How... did I end up killing her?"
Osric: "Let's just say he started dabbling in things he also shouldn't."
Cyrus: "Ah."
Osric: "Yes."
Cyrus: "That seems unlike him. Particularly why compromise one of his contacts."
Osric: "It doesn't have to be him personally. He has access to things he shouldn't."
Cyrus: "Yes, but it seems unsubtle. A man does not rise to where he is by being unsubtle."
Osric: "I'm certain he's involved."
Cyrus: "Well, but is he the perpetrator or the victim, so to speak?"
Osric: "Oh, no, this was certainly his doing."
Cyrus: "To what end?"
Osric: "Well, lets just say that she was a messenger. She is of very little importance, personally."
Finndo: "Finndo shuffles out his deck to trump Benedict."

Finndo trumps Benedict, who is in the city searching for the source of Lucan's thugs. 'The right tool for the right job':

Benedict: "Yes."
Finndo: "I was about to ask you if you were in the mood to kill someone but you seem quite dressed for it to begin with."
Benedict: "As it happens, your observations are correct."
Finndo: "Osric has pointed his finger at a Criminal called The Hand who operates out of the Black Orchid."

We'll send backup. Really. Trust us. Have a nice time:

Finndo: "Very well. Here is the situation as it stands. We are anticipating performing a raid at our earliest convenience to bring death to this gentleman. This may take some work - while all the street trash he has working for him are of no great concern, he has been dabbling in the arts. Do you know where the Black Orchid is?"
Benedict: "As a matter of fact, I do."
Finndo: Very well, let me describe a man to you. He is the one to watch for. We will be sending reinforcements down your way shortly.

Rob as a player - well, as Rob - is infamous for pulling coherent, ingenious plans out of his ass on the fly. Worry when the GM has anticipated this:

GM: "Are you going to be accompanying them, or -"
Rob: "Finndo has anther plan."
GM: "Ooooh yeah."

Finndo, Osric and Cyrus have remained together at the Castle; Finndo is working on two trump sketches, one of the Black Orchid and one of the Hand. We seem to have this perpetual need for a few good killing men:

Finndo: "Benedict is there, it seems. I will send Selm to him. And I'm going to be sketching."
Cyrus: "Yes, I suspected you might be. We're going to pay him a visit, aren't we?"
Finndo: "It's a thought."

Politics, blackmail, murder, what's the difference:

Cyrus: "Why did he want her to die?"
Finndo: "Politics."
GM to Cyrus: "You're familiar with those kind of politics and they're not called politics."

Pleeeeease? With sugar on top?

Finndo: "Osric, I may need your assistance with this."
Osric: "Of course. What would you like me to do for you?"
Finndo: "First, let's make the appropriate tactical arrangements but I believe I may be able to attack from afar."
Cyrus: "Are we sure this has to be done this way?"

Item 23, check. Item 24, check. Item 25...

Finndo: "I am yielding to my brother's judgement in this; if he says he has to die, he has to die."
Osric: "Let's just say I don't want him to get around to casting anything."
Lydia: "This is turning out in Cyrus's favor. There's only one other person left to murder that I haven't got around to yet."

Finndo has summoned Karm; Karm has responded. On the art of understatement:

Finndo: "Karm, I find I have need of a frightening man."
Karm: "I can provide those services."

Ah. A challenge. Good.

Finndo: "I have found a source for the troubles."
Karm: "Magic."
Finndo: "He seems to have found a means to hurt the Queen."
Karm: "That seems to be harder."

Are there annoying little aspects to this job? Because, if there are...

Finndo: "Selm and his men will be there; I was hoping to send the deadlier men inside."
Karm, of Cyrus: "He's not going to run, is he?"
Finndo: "Knock him unconcious if he does."

This is what we call 'understood delivery standards':

Cyrus: "A quick and clean kill is what we're looking for."
Finndo: "Yes, but that's not necessary to say in front of Karm."
Karm: "You're looking for his vocal chords not to function before he hits the floor."

And this is what we call overkill:

Scott: "You're sending Benedict, Selm /and/ Karm..."
Shai: "To take out a whorehouse."
Scott: "Scary."

Sybil and Sonnet, meanwhile, have been off doing whatever it is that sweet blossoms like Sybil and Sonnet do. Time to sit in the solar, swing their dainty feet, and embroider admiring tapestries of their men slaughtering innocent whores. Knowing your value:

GM: "Are you going to involve the women in this?"
Shai: "Not Sonnet with Karm there."
Deborah: "Sybil could add footnotes, or melt the building when they're done, but really - kinda overkill here."

Oh, right, THAT:

Sonnet: "Sonnet's going to do some snooping, particularly on the gentleman who's just ranked enough to have his own quarters."
Scott: "Oooh, smart. Yes. WHAT information was she passing?"

Back to Benedict, in the city. Hi. Good to see you again, my Prince:

GM: "It's round about 40 minutes before they get down there. You don't see Selm at first; you see his men."
Benedict: "Good."
GM: "They're insinuating themselves around the area, just... casually. None of them look at you; you aren't sure if some of them have seen you. "
Benedict: "Look for Selm."
GM: "Low whistle. Finger points up."
Benedictlooks up.
GM: "That's above. You see the tip of a crossbow sliding back."

If you're sending me into certain death, and all...

Cyrus: "Oh, can I have my sword back?"
Finndo: "Oh, right, I suppose."

Selm and Karm are trumped into the office in the Black Orchid, Benedict has positioned himself on the front door, and Finndo and Osric concentrate on the trump of The Black Hand. Things do not begin auspiciously:

GM: "Benedict, you're at the door."
Benedict: "Sword out."
Old Woman: "There's an elderly woman who comes forward. My lord, what is the issue?"
Benedict: "Where is the Hand?"
Old Woman: "He is not here!"
GM: "That was practiced."
Benedict: "Yes. Where is the Hand?"
Old Woman: "I don't know."

On reputation:

Benedict: "Get out."
GM: "She hesitates. Recognizes who you are. Flees."

One universal rule for the peanut gallery: think not of suggestions for the GM:

Shai: "Hopefully the Hand is not a Master of Disguise."
Jarrod: "No! No helping!!"
Shai, helpfully: "Cause he'd have walked out past Benedict."

Cyrus is trumped into the Hand's office; no one is there. Benedict stalks into the building through the front door. And, at the castle, Osric and Finndo attempt to trump attack the Hand. Metaphors. Way too many metaphors:

GM: "The trumpy folks get a sense of motion, zooming in - and bounce off a rubber wall."
Finndo: "Keep up the pressure."
GM: "Vooo oooo vooo. This thing is streeeetchy, and it's very much like rubber; the more you push, the more it wraps around you."
Finndo: "Then I will become psychically pointy."
Osric: "I'm just a battery, I guess."

Only Cyrus:

Cyrus: "I search methodically and without caution."

Did we mention the Black Orchid was a popular whorehouse?

GM to Benedict: "Someone without caution is tearing around. You check some of the rooms around there and in one of the rooms you see Cyrus. You are now having a stampeding women problem as well as some lords who are very eager not to be here. So this is causing a problem, and you're wading through the sea of people but you're not seeing the guy."

I'm rubber and you're glue:

GM: "Trumpy guys, it's like you're arguing with a really tenuous piece of gum."

Appreciating the finer qualities the establishment has to offer:

Cyrus: "If I were running away from here, where would I go?"
Rob: "Secret door."
Cyrus: "There's got to be a secret door, there's gotta be several."
GM: "There's a back door that doesn't look like a back door that you vaguely remember; you never used it yourself. You hear some screams from another direction that suggests that Karm has just looked initimidatingly at a bunch of women with /really/ good lungs."

Flowerchildren, unite!

GM to Benedict: "You're wading through masses of people and you're certain he's not hiding in numbers at this point..."
Benedict: "Is there any resistance?"
GM: "This is a place where people have sex; they don't make war."
Jarrod: "Make love, not war."

Cyrus has found the secret back door, opened it and stepped out. On objections, clever:

GM: "You don't see anyone and then someone steps in the way."
Cyrus: "I step back out of knife range to see who it is."
GM: "Looks like Selm; he's got a sword out and he's lunging. Defend yourself."
Cyrus: "Superb."
GM: "He gets a cut in on your arm; it's enough to back you up a step and he... just... walks forward."
Cyrus: "Hey!"

Oops:

GM: "He's not saying a damn thing, he takes another strike at you."
Cyrus: "I actually tackle him."
GM: "Okay, dirty fighting."
Rob: "Selm is having the same thing happen to him that happened to Cyrus."

Assessing the situation: FUBAR:

GM: "As you going to tackle him, he's still got all of Selm's skills. You rush past him in the alley so you have freedom of movement. He turns around, raises a hand, snaps, and two men rush in. They're still his man."
Cyrus: "I was originally just trying to disarm him, but he's too good and now I'm going to try to kill him."
GM: "He gets in another scratch on you."
Cyrus: "What's in the alley?"
GM: "Two soldiers who might be men who work for - ah, Selm! Duck! and some some trash and -
Cyrus: "How many people can come at me at once?"
GM: "Selm and these two guys."

Somedays, you just can't win:

GM to Benedict: "There's swordplay nearby; out back, possibly."
Benedict: "Allright, towards the swordplay."
Cyrus: "Anything to grab onto above?"
GM: "Above? No. They haven't invented fire escapes, yet."

Gack!

Cyrus: "Okay. I hit him. Roll. Fuck."
GM: "What's your result?
Cyrus: "Bad. Great. No, worse, good."

It was extremely kind of the GM to do it this way, for the record. Bet someone's pulling different dice next time:

GM: "Okay, if you could choose where he hit you if it was a bad hit, where would you choose?"
Cyrus: "The non-sword arm."
GM: "Okay, you are injured, it actually scores pretty deep into the meat of your arm. It's throbbing now and you can't use it. But it more or less saved your life to do that."
Lydia: "My dice are very bad; I have consistently rolled three negatives."

Benedict arrives on the scene of Cyrus bumrushing Selm; Cyrus is badly wounded on his off-sword arm. I think Benedict meant Cyrus, not the men, but it's nice to know they take orders:

Cyrus to Benedict: "Selm's been possessed!"
Selm stabs at Cyrus again.
Benedict: "What the hell! GET BACK!"
GM: "The men get back."

Always the hero:

Benedict: "Selm!"
GM: "He goes to strike -"
Benedict: "At me?"
GM: "No, Cyrus."
Benedict: "I go to interpose."

Scott seems perpetually doomed to roll what his opponent rolls:

GM: "You interpose, barely. Benedict got in there at the last minute and lifted the blade away. Selm turns to Benedict."
Benedict: "Legendary + 2."
GM: "Even."
Jarrod: "This sounds familiar."
Deborah: "Not again."
GM: "You get a scratch on him."

Other solutions. Oh /now/ you don't want to kill him:

Cyrus: "I want to kosh him; we don't want to kill him."
GM: "You have managed to find a club. Benedict, you clip him. He's good, but he's not on his game."
Benedict: "He's not prepared,."
GM: "Or any other number of reasons. It doesn't knock him out, Cyrus, but it does knock him forward."
Benedict: "I try to disarm him."
GM: "Clattering. Then he leaps forward, trying to strangle you. And he rolls a -4. What do you want to do to him?"
Benedict: "Step aside, smack him to the head."
GM: "His men are looking at you like, 'What?'"

Because I was going to let him just cut me up again?

Cyrus: "He was waiting back here."
Benedict: "Epic alertness."
GM: "You hear shouting in the distance."
Benedict: "I take the two men with me. Cyrus, stay here, don't let him go."
Cyrus: "I tie him up with some clothes."

That's all very nice. RUNNING!

GM to Benedict: "You're tearing off that direction, piecing things together that quickly. You see that some other men that you knew were supposed to be here that aren't these two, aren't. You figure they say someone, chased after them, you figure towards the dock."
Benedict: "Book."

Giving it your all, except for the part where you don't get him:

GM: "You can get there much faster than they can. You're going to 'I'm An Amberite I'm A Locomotive' mode. You get up to the other guys chasing him, you hear them exclaim, "Shit!" Clearly you're some supernatural sort of creature and you've more or less uncorked this in front of them, and the guy in front of them - are you?"
Benedict: "I'm more or less blowing it all on him -"
GM: "And he dives off the front of the pier."

Standards! We have standards here!

Benedict: "I dive after him."
GM: "You're in the water. You see the guy ahead of you. His pants have just come off. His legs - fins -"
Jarrod: "Not without dinner and flowers."

Oh boy:

GM: "He's just become a fish from the waist down."
Benedict: "Oh. How fast am I going?"
GM: "Not as fast as he just did, but you did get to see that."

Back at the Castle, Finndo and Osric are still trying to trump through to the Hand. At long last, Jarrod rolls well. Ever heard the Good Doctor exclaim?

GM: "Meanwhile, you two [Finndo and Osric] rip through something; there's a moment of stepping into a dark room and there's someone who's not who you're trumping who answers. Both of you roll against graces for this - and invoke Family for this."
Rob: "Interesting."
Jarrod: "OH BABY! FOUR PLUSES!!"

Shit. Shit shit shit:

GM: "Osric gets through before you [Finndo] do for any number of reasons. It's Quinn. He says, "Hello, nephews." And there ends the session."

*****************************************************

Belated significance catching:

Deborah looks blank.
GM: "Quinn is Cymnea's brother."

Remember session one? At our introduction to Cyrus, the Hand had him deliver a note to the palace. Ever have the feeling you've been set up all along? We have:

GM: "You guys just ran into one of the big secret knots that's been going since the campaign started."

Same difference:

Rob: "That was amazing."
Lydia: "That was insane."

Genetics:

Rob: "Have I mentioned my deep and abiding hatred of sorcerers?"
Lydia: "This isn't just a sorcerer."
GM: "And he's a son of Nod. He's a badass."
Scott: "Was Nod a badass?"
GM: "He produced Wendra and Cymnea. Yes. Nod was a badass."

The players end the game happy; the characters always seem... worked up:

Rob: "Finndo is now... unhappy."
Deborah: "Finndo is always unhappy at the end of a session."
GM: "But now he has someone to express his unhappiness to!"
Jarrod: "Osric is pissed. Let me put it this way: "You can tell he's pissed.""

Damn laws of physics...

Rob: "Finndo is now going to realize they can possess more than Cyrus and that's just not acceptable."
Scott: "DAMN! There was one thing I forgot to try. Unravel."
GM: "That would have been very interesting under water."
Jarrod: "Suddenly you're swimming in an awful lot of hydrogen."

Catching up on old to-do lists:

Lydia: "Cyrus needs to murder more of his secrets."

Player-specific GM plans:

Fred reads his GM notes for that session: "Let them run with whatever they want to run with before screwing Cyrus mercilessly."

Determined, obstinant, pig headed optimism:

Lydia: "He was rescued by Benedict OH SUCK."
GM: "Yeah. When I realized you guys were including Selm in the plans..."
Rob: "Well. If he had possessed Karm, we would have been SO FUCKED."

Insult to injury:

Lydia: "This session has not increased his [Cyrus'] love for Benedict."
Scott: "Not increased...?"
Lydia: "Yes, when he realized that not only did Benedict knock him down but then he rescued him...?"

Something that would have been good to know YESTERDAY:

Rob: "Finndo saw Quinn and went from 'this is just a problem with us' to 'someone gave Dad a line of shit to get him and Piero out of the way'. Whatever Dad is pursuing is BULLSHIT."

Thinking of trumps as telephones:

Jarrod: "So you're saying the call got redirected?"
GM: "Yes. Essentially."
Shai, sounding pained: "Answering machines."