In light of his difficulties, Handel returned to his Zondo persona the next morning. He then wandered through Castle Amber listening for rumors. He heard that one of the local nobles, the son of Feldane, had been insulted during the previous evening, and had issued an open invitation to a duel. Having learned the response to his prior adventures as Handel, Zondo retired to his room to work on a new spell of some sort.
Jyfféer returned to the library to continue his research. Michele, curious as to what could be so interesting at the library, went to investigate. When it turned out that Jyfféer's interest was in the library's books (imagine that!), Michele decided to abandon the library and explore the rest of the castle.
Michele encountered a gymnasium, where a large man and a small woman were engaged in a fencing duel. The man sported a crew cut, wore urban combat fatigues, and wielded a large sword. He appeared quite annoyed at his opponent, and was making every effort to kill her. She was fighting defensively with a large, Spanish style rapier, demonstrating her superior skill with her weapon. She was wearing renaissance-style clothing, and had long hair tied back. While she was quite fleet of foot, she looked more tired that her opposite number.
Accompanying the duelists were their seconds. One was a huge square fellow, shaven bald and wearing a 20th century military uniform with a number of decorations, approximately Colonel in rank. Sitting next to him was the other, a disreputable type in a shiny Italian suit, no tie, and smoking cigarettes. He was talking to the man in the military uniform, who was trying hard to ignore him.
As the duel progressed, the man overextended himself. The woman tripped him and he fell on his face. With her sword at his back, he surrendered. As she began to walk away, he made as if to throw a knife at her back, but a sharp word from the man in uniform stopped him. The military man shook hands with the man in the Italian suit, and led off his defeated companion.
Michele managed to catch up to the victors, and introduced herself to them. The woman was named Scarlett Deford, and her second was named Chester Fortune. She was fighting a man named Jador over a perceived insult. They, too, were guests in Amber.
Meanwhile, Drake D'Argent explored the city. He wandered through an open market, where the hawkers made every effort to try to interest him in their wares. Then he went to a tavern to have a drink. He noticed a lot more people in the area he was in were non-Amber types (i.e. not humanish). One in particular that caught his eye was a short man with large ears growing around his forehead, who was trying to sell stuff.
While overall, the day seemed rather uneventful, Drake did notice that somewhere along the way he had acquired a bronze brooch in his purse. A brooch that radiated magic, at that. Drake tucked it back away, and did not mention it to the rest of the party. At least, not at first.
Later that evening, everyone got together to exchange their stories from the day. Scarlett and Chester had accompanied Michele back to the Inn, and we discovered that they had in fact been looking for us. They had come to Amber with Agathon Dragutin (someone who used to be a dwarf, but changed to something less dwarflike).
Chester passed out a piece of paper with a laser printed message, "Required at home, come promptly," signed by "Dalgoda." He had been given the paper and told to give it to us (our names appeared on a list he had been given). He couldn't (or wouldn't) tell us who gave it to him, but he had reason to believe it was authentic. Like us, they made their trip through a shadow rift. Scarlett, it turned out, was from Cârnford, and Chester had visited there.
Zondo left the Inn, and Chester went with him. The rest of us retired to Drake and Michele's room to continue our conversation in a more private setting. Zondo and Chester rejoined us a short time later.
Drake's brooch showed up on a chair--he had hidden it under his mattress when he had returned to his room. He then put it in his pouch, but it disappeared again.
Meanwhile, we discussed ways to make our way back to Cârnford. Though some in the party had the ability to walk shadow to a limited extent, none was skilled enough to seek out new paths through shadow. Similarly, none of the sorcerous abilities in the party would facilitate our desire to return to Cârnford.
The brooch chose that moment to reappear in Michele's pocket. Since it seemed quite determined to call attention to itself, we decided to examine it. It was an elongated clover shaped pin, and it looked somewhat Celtic. It had Nordic runes inscribed on the back, which Drake was able to decipher: "Constructed by Thoree son of Tharou for Gizur the Fire Wizard."
After another discussion, we decided to headed off into Forest Arden. Michele noticed that the brooch was giving her direction somehow. Following its lead, we made our way through the forest. Though we never left the forest, we were evidently moving through shadow; the environment subtly changed around us. Things stopped changing after a few days, and we found ourselves in a more temperate climate than before. The brooch stopped directing us, confirming that we had reached whatever destination it had chosen for us.
As evening turned into night, we set watches and retired. On the third watch, Scarlett and Christina woke us. The had heard a low humming noise, and had wanted the party to be awake and alert for the possibility of danger. The humming was faint, only perceptible in the still of the night. It sounded like it was coming from above us and moving.
Michele climbed a tree to investigate, and saw a shuttlecraft hovering overhead. The shuttle was identified with the call number NCC-1779.3 and the name Akagi. A voice came out of the shuttle asking if we needed assistance. When we indicated in the positive, the shuttle landed in a clearing, and two people emerged. They were both wearing form-fitted, futuristic looking uniforms with metallic pips of some sort at the neck, and insignia over their hearts. One was dressed in a red top, the other in orange. We learned that we were in Yellowstone National Park. The man in red introduced himself as Lieutenant Farhquar (fär¹cär´) of the U.S.S. Akagi, and he presented his crew, Ensign Caillebote (the one in orange), and Chief Sekula (who remained in the shuttle).
Zondo asked Farhquar to take us to San Francisco, and we all boarded the shuttle for the trip. Zondo engaged them in conversation, to little effect. Michele talked quietly to Sekula, who appeared to be vaguely Vulcan (though he didn't have Vulcan ears), and was reading from a hand-held computer device. She told him we came from Amber, an alternate universe, which he found intriguing.
After a short, uneventful trip, we arrived in San Francisco. Surprisingly, our clothing is not entirely unusual. We presumed that our objective was somewhere off planet. Shiolàn and Chester were talking quietly between themselves. Suddenly, Shiolàn announced that there was a planet on which things were appearing out of nowhere. There was a ship leaving to investigate in about four hours. He had discovered this information from the computer network, which was sentient. After a little more mental effort, he managed to get us on the manifest and give each of us 1000 credits (monetary units). We changed into Starfleet uniforms, and hired a commercial shuttle to get us to the ship. With artificial gravity and inertial dampeners, the experience turned out to be rather dull.
We boarded the ship in our new guises, among them, Petty Officer Jyfféer, Ensign Drake D'Argent, Asst. Med. Officer Michele, Commander Fortune (who, fortuitously, was part of the bridge staff), Medical Officer Zondo.
Before we managed to actually get underway, the ship went into Red Alert. Several party members made efforts to keep themselves out of the action (and conceal the fact that they had no actual skill at operating a starship). Melanie and Christina went invisible. Drake disguised himself as a turbolift door. Jyfféer faked an injury, and was tended by Michele, et al.
Then, Commander Fortune announced over the communication system that there had been a coup. He blasted through the spacedock doors, and we emerged into space.