Brigid of Amber

A Party Gone Definitely Right and Certainly Wrong

It was a few months after joining the campaign when I decided to have Brigid to sponsor a Party. The hope was to lure her father, whom she had not seen since he left her at the orphanage. The gamemaster agreed and one session was all about the setup and the Party itself.

The invitations said the theme was “Creatures of Light and Darkness”. Most of the attendees were in costume. One player’s character came as the Great and Powerful Oz, a floating head above a curtain. Two NPCs, a couple who were notorious for not getting along, came as Zeus and Hera.

Myself, both Brigid and I were in a funk. Brigid was in a funk because of certain events that threatened to disrupt the Party. Myself, I couldn’t remember why. All I remember was that it was time for Brigid to be announced at the party, with all of her Amber titles, when another voice came from behind me.

“And long may she reign as the Unseelie Queen!”

The gamemaster got me. The page who was carrying Brigid’s train was actually her father. The bit about being the Unseelie Queen also threw me, as Brigid is decidedly Seelie. It was a position she never took advantage of. But the Party did have the intended effect. Brigid got to sit and talk with her father and get some of her questions answered, as did cousin Ombra.

Amber Parties Always Have Their Rough Spots

Downstairs, the party was going on fine. The punch was spiked by at least three or four people (traditional, almost, for an Amber Party) and much frivolity was manifested. And something else upstairs, the likes of which was also an Amber Party tradition.

Uncle Bleys was missing, so some of the other player characters decided to summon up a demon to help search for him.

It almost immediately turned sour.

The candles around the circle had black flames, the pentacle was cracking, and everyone was pulling out various Swords of Power and other Instruments of Impending Doom. Having none myself with Brigid, she instead transformed into a partial version of her avatar form, a humanoid phoenix. When the pentacle finally imploded, more swords pierced the demon than space allowed, while Brigid moved to protect one of the people around the circle.

And protected the wrong person. Within the demon was Uncle Bleys, pierced with almost a dozen swords, one of which is enough to slay even an unprotected Amberite. That’s when Death, who was waiting outside, said, to Brigid, that she protected the wrong person but could still save him. That’s when I said something like “I don’t know how it will happen, but I know she can make it happen.”

Bleys, Brigid and Trumpet (the Trump artifact who looked and sounded like Iago the parrot from the Disney Aladdin movie) all burst into flames and turned into a pile of ashes. Shana, the Silver Valkyrie, was told by Death to take the ashes, build a pyre at the peak of Mount Kolvir, put them there and wait for sunrise. She did so, leaping out the window where her flying horse was waiting for her, and when the first rays of sunlight lit up the pyre, there was a huge blaze and Brigid and Bleys appeared, naked in the embers.

Its probably not the way the gamemaster envisioned the rescue of Bleys but that is what roleplaying is all about.

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