Editing AmberShadowOfADoubt:Session4

==The Face of the Enemy==

We start in London with Bleys currently visiting us.  Last session, he had proposed a deal of mutual aid -- his aid against the Nazis and their creatures in return for our aid to dethrone Eric and put him upon the throne of Amber.  The PCs were skeptical, so he suggested he could help them in a trip to the North Sea -- as a sort of "freebie" to consider his offer.

He begins by reviewing our information on the subject -- our intelligence on the enemy, the ships going into the North Sea, etc.  After some reviewing, it is agreed that Bleys, Hector, and Federico should sneak into Brixton, get themselves captured, and put on a merchant marine ship headed for the North Sea.  With them inside, they could in principle pull in any of the others via trump (or be pulled out via trump themselves).  

Manfred recieves a trump call from someone who calls herself Dara -- but whereas he had known Dara as a woman with large sweeping horns on her head, the being which called appeared as a swirling column of ash, 8 feet high.  She explained that she was another Dara than the one he knew, but the Dara he knew was nearby.  The two of them then came through the trump contact to talk with him.  He was at his work as quartermaster, but ushered them into a back room he had.  He asked whether one of them should be Dara Junior, and the horned woman suggested the column of ash could be called that.  

Having met previously in his life, they chatted about things as he brought out the good wine and cheese for them.  He told them about Bleys' offer, and Dara Senior said that sounded fine.  Roughly, she explained that they were annoyed by Eric -- and that Bleys is acceptable, Corwin is better, and Brand is wonderful.  Dara also asks about Brand, but Manfred had not seen him in over two years -- and they, too, had not heard from him.  Manfred asks what they really want, but they are not completely clear.  They suggest to contact them, and Dara Senior tells Dara Junior give him her trump.  Her trump is of a young woman, freckled and short-haired but still pretty.  

Meanwhile, Bleys, Federico, and Hector are loaded out with other deportees and put in the hold of a cargo ship in the Channel.  Soon they begin to move off, but there are strange oddities.  There is no engine noise despite their movement.  They see small scuttling creatures on the ship, and when they break out onto deck there are no crew or pilots.  

Waiting safely in England while this happens, Janica talks to Manfred -- and she expresses concern over their helping of Bleys.  She says that Bleys seems more concerned over taking the throne than protecting people, and that even his help may simply serve his own ends.  Manfred agrees, and says that they clearly need to know more before committing to anything.  He mentions that he had met Bleys' brother Brand in the past -- describing him as a little more sulky and sultry than Bleys, with a devastating pout.  

Alexandra has a nightmare about a red-headed man named Brand who pleads for her help.  Somehow (??), she ends up at a tower in a distant shadow where she fights a beautiful dragon, eventually killing it with large rocks.  She then fights her way into the tower, and up to the room.  She does not find Brand, but apparently those holding him left while she was fighting her way in.  She does find signs that they had interrogated Brand there for a year or more, and they were apparently trying to find out how to fix the Pattern.  

Meanwhile, as the ship continues into the North Sea, Bleys tells Hector and Federico that the people in the hold are not just sick, but being transformed.  The people start to take on a grey clay-like pallor, their skin becoming perfectly smooth.  

Manfred then contacts Janica, telling her that there is another person he knows who may be able to help.  He shows her Dara Junior's trump of the young woman, and suggests that she may be able to contact them with people who could divert the Black Road so that it does not pass through their world.  

: '''Manfred:''' She looks different though, more ashy compared to this.  
: '''Janica:''' So the picture is from a while ago? 

Manfred concentrates and greets Dara, then introduces Janica -- who now sees the living column of ash.  She give Manfred a look of shooting daggers with her eyes for his understatement.  

: '''Manfred:''' "I forgot to mention, she's also taller than her picture."
: '''Janica:''' "Miss Dara, it is so nice to meet you.  Manfred has told me so little about you."

Manfred explains that they are concerned about the incursions of things like giant squids on their world attacking them.  He asks, explaining that he would like the message passed to divert the road so that it does not pass through the world.  However, Dara Junior explains that this world is unusual in how large and technologically advanced it is -- allowing them to move millions of people.  He asks what their ultimate goal is, and Dara explains that their end goal is to have control of the place of Amber, which she explains as a place of power which will always have a king.  Janica asks whether they, too, could use aid fighting against the Black Road.  Dara explains that her people are allies to the Black Road of a sort, like Mussolini's Italians to the Nazis.  

Afterwards, Janica goes hometo bed (she and Manfred are on shifts to be awake for Hector's call at any time).  First, though, she calls Hector to warn him against Manfred, saying that Manfred is in league with the squid creatures.  

At this time, though, the ship is being drawn to an island (??) in the Baltic.  The ship moves faster and faster -- still with no engine -- until it is drawn down through a whirlpool into an underworld, the Hollow Earth.  There is a black jungle all around and huge batlike flapping things.  Creatures come to unload the boat -- whose people are all now turned into gray zombies.  Hector, Federico, and Bleys take command of the zombies, though, and lead a charge to attack.  Their guns don't work, but explosives seem to turn into red-colored tentacles.  

Taking heavy losses, they leave the ship.  Bleys then shadow-walks the survivors off of the Black Road, but it takes time and they are harried all along the way.  In the end they get out, but out of 1500 people who were there, only 200 survive.  Late in the attack, Hector was run through with a sword, badly wounded, while Bleys had to cut his heel off to escape.  Once off the Black Road, Bleys and Hector trumped out while Federico stayed with his people.  Bleys called in his sister Fiona for help, who takes Federico and his grey zombia people away to a safer spot -- a colorful desert mesa.