Showdown at Rembe, Breakfast at Brand's

	The Earth Jewel recovered and their allies assembled, 
the Four Equestrians of the Apocalypse decided to show Osric 
and Finndo who the REAL experts in gratutious destruction 
were.

	Armies were dispatched by Ishmael to attack Therin and 
Rebme via Arden. Roderick commanded the Therin invasion, 
while Benedict and Flora led the armies against the forces in 
Rembe, presumably under the command of Finndo.

	As the armies were sent off, Fiona, Dworkin, Ishmael, 
Rianna, Rose, and Katsura attempted to force a trump contact 
into the Rembe Pattern chamber. No luck; the combined weight 
of Osric, the Rembe Pattern, and a Palantir - perhaps the 
master one - combined to foil the breakthrough attempt.

	Ish quickly sketched a trump of the hallway outside the 
Rebme Pattern chamber. Opening it, they were confronted by 
wall-to-wall Fire Demons, and quickly closed it. Trumping to 
Rebma along with an assault force of Hendrake Fire Demons 
and Katsura's monks, they trumped into the hallway along with 
a tidal wave of Rebma seawater which destroyed the waiting 
defenders. Blasting away the ward on the Pattern chamber 
door, they rushed in.

	Osric was waiting for them at the center of the Pattern, 
laughing maniacally. Between him and the four stood a horde of 
golden warriors.

	Katsura vaulted over the warriors, taking a slight wound 
as he did. Rianna trumped in Jurt, who was a energy-laden 
madman at the time. Rose began to fly over the melee towards 
the Pattern, while Ishmael caused the Fire Jewel in Osric's 
hands to erupt in a small gout of flame, rocking Osric a bit.

	Jurt began tossing around blasts of energy like the loon 
he was, blasting golden warriors to powder left and right. 
Rianna alternated neural disrupts on Osric with trying to avoid 
being skewered. Ishmael and Katsura advanced on the Pattern, 
with Rose closing in from the air.

	Osric unleashed a tremendous shower of lightning, 
blasting everyone in the room. Ishmael was tossed back, his 
shield melting to slag. Katsura was a bit charred, but still 
standing. Rianna magic-negated the bolts heading for her, and 
Rose was caught full-force, automatically converting to water 
and splashing to the ground. Katsura and Rose's backpacks of 
blood ruptured from the blast.

	Snarling, Jurt hurled a blast at Osric. Osric met it with 
one of his own, and the two energies dueled, with Osric 
beginning to push Jurt's blast back.

	Rose attempted to expel the blood in her out onto the 
Pattern. She did, blotting out a good chunk of it. Unfortunately, 
a bit of her substance was mixed in with it, and she ignited.

	Charging through the blazing Rose, Rianna turned her hose 
on the Pattern. Ishmael did the same, closing in from another 
side, while Katsura threw a magic negation at Osric to give 
Jurt a hand.

	Osric whipped his bolt around to blast Ishmael, allowing 
himself to take a hit from Jurt. Ishmael hurriedly held up a 
trump of John and opened it seconds before the bolt hit - it 
went through, blasting John across the Therinian countryside. 
Ishmael was knocked backwards by the rest of it, his armor 
charring away.

	Blasted by Jurt, Osric semidissolved and began to slowly 
reform. Ishmael threw his backpack, sending it smashing into 
the rearward part of the Pattern. Blood fountained out, blotting 
out another huge portion. Rianna advanced further, hose 
spraying.

	A deformed Osric reformed at the Pattern's center. 
Katsura lunged at him, and was easily disarmed and sent 
reeling. Osric was about to kill him when Rianna hosed him and 
the Pattern's center down with blood.

	Osric screamed, and a wave of fire exploded outward, 
blasting everyone into unconsiousness.

	Ishmael woke up in a dark void between shadow, falling. 
Using his ring and a bit of his shirt, he quickly drew a trump 
sketch of Fiona and trumped her. She pulled him through to the 
Ember Pattern.

	There, she informed him that three months had passed. 
Rebme had been utterly annialated; Benedict, Flora, and a few 
troops had managed to escape. Finndo's condition was unknown. 
John had been captured, and was now in the dungeons beneath 
Castle Amber. And a giant Logrus-using squid formed out of an 
entire shadow was coming to destory the Ember Pattern - the 
same beast Oberon had conjured to get rid of the Rebme one.

	Ish scowled, and trumped Rose.

	Rose had woken up inside a glacier with a large white 
dragon. Climbing out, she discovered that she was stuck in 
some sort of ice world - and, worse, was unsure of exactly 
who she was. A lot of jumbled memories were in her.

	Ishmael trumped her, and pulled her through. The 
situation was explained, and an effort was made to trump 
Rianna and Katsura. Those two couldn't be reached, and Ishmael 
and Rose trumped to Amber to search Brand's chambers for his 
Patternblade.

	They found his notes, and a hat, and a chest with an odd 
pattern-made lock on it.

	Ishmael was just peeking under the bed when two people 
suddenly appeared in the room...

	Meanwhile, Rianna and Katsura appeared in a maze of 
tunnels. Wandering around, they ran afoul of the Machin Shin, 
the Black Wind. It chased them for some time, finally being 
evaded when they escaped through a door out of the Ways.

	Ishmael saw that the two - a woman and a man - were 
the same ones pictured with Brand in a tapestry on the wall, 
and appeared to be his wife and child. Acting unsurprised, he 
attempted to pass himself off as 'Manfred', Brand's faithful 
manservant. When a suspicious Jasra (the wife) tried to prode 
Ish's mind with a spell, he used High Compelling to create a 
false memory of himself as Brand's manservant.

	Guessing that he might need backup, he trumped Rianna 
again. She answered, and he pulled her and Katsura through, 
introducing her as the daughter of Brand. Then, seeing that they 
were distracted and that Jasra wouldn't be fooled long by the 
memory, he aimed a swing at Luke (the son) with Dicer.

	Luke parried with Werewindle, cutting Dicer in half. 
Ishmael eeped.

	A melee broke out, with Neural disrupts hitting Jasra and 
Luke. Ishmael leaped backwards, firing a crossbow bolt at 
Jasra, just as Katsura shocked her with his sword and threw it 
at her, stabbing her through the stomach. Ishmael's bolt hit 
seconds later, and she screamed and vanished in a flash of 
light.

	Enraged, Luke slashed Rianna and leaped at Ishmael, 
sword raised for a killing blow. Katsura distracted him, taking 
a nasty wound in return, and Ishmael shot a bolt into him and 
blasted him with the trumpgun. Luke vanished in a flash of 
light just as Rose arrived from the bathroom.

	After binding Katsura and Rianna's wounds, they 
stumbled out of Brand's quarters. There was still a lot to be 
done.

Quotes:

Mike: Okay, Dworkin, Fiona, and the rest of us are going to join 
together, stare at the trump, and...
John: And form Voltron!

"Not to worry. We beat them before with only me and Rose, and 
look at the force we've got here! How hard can it be?"
"We're all going to die."
-Ishmael and Rianna, discussing the invasion

"AVON CALLING!"
"YOUR PIZZA'S HERE!"
- Battle cries from the four upon breaking into the Pattern Chamber

"I HAVE THE POWER! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"As someone said, I never thought I'd ever actually be glad to 
see Jurt with stupid amounts of power..."
- Jurt's blasting spree, and Ishmael's comment on him

Arthur: I charge through the flaming puddle of Rose.

Kelly: I just hope I live through this.
Mike: You're a puddle of burning logrus-charged water in the 
middle of an exploding Pattern chamber of fire. It's been nice 
knowing you.
Kelly: Well, hey, a bit of me might survive. Just get an 
eyedropper.
Mike: We'll drop you into a lake near the Logrus. Sort of a Chaos 
burn ward.

John: In the distance, a white dragon is chasing two cavemen 
across an ice floe.
Kelly: I use the Logrus to grab some clothing.
John: In the distance, a white dragon is chasing two naked 
cavemen across an ice floe. Not their day. You have some hide 
clothing, now.

"What happened?"
"You were caught in an exploding Pattern that wiped out the 
shadow you were in, killed Osric, possibly killed Finndo, and 
lost the Fire Jewel. But that's okay, because now you're here at 
the Fire Pattern, where a giant logrus-using squid made out of 
an entire shadow is about to attack and kill us all."
"..."
"But that's okay, because I have a cunning plan."
"Now THAT I remember! Look what happened with the last one!"
"Hey! It worked, didn't it!"
- Rose and Ishmael, reunited.

"Is something wrong?"
"No, Brand's wife and son just dropped in for a chat. 
Everything's peachy."
- A Castle Amber maid and Ishmael.

"You should have killed me."
-Rose to Smaug?