Notes Taken by Samantha and Alastair Beadle.
Bullets continue to impact across the deck of the Unicorn's Flight and we see that the same is happening to the other ships in the convoy.
A number of sailors get hit and Caitlin is splattered by bits of body. Gil starts to change shadows and imagines the winds increasing, which they indeed do. Etienne then creates dark clouds and rain starts to fall. Jihx imagines some large winged creatures coming from behind the clouds and attacking the airships. Suddenly the main mast of our ship cracks and topples over narrowly avoiding Dolf. Arun disappears.
Arun has transformed into a dragon and cast an invisibility spell. He heads up towards the airships. He launches a bolt of plasma at the nearest ship (passing through it end-to-end) and the ship starts to slowly descend.
The wind is increasing all the time but the airships continue to keep up with the convoy. Jihx turns on his armour and using his sword he fires on the lead airship with a plasma bolt from the sword. The gondola of the airship is hit and parts of it are ripped apart in the high winds. Bullets continue to be fired at us. Caitlin dodges the bullets easily. Dolf has been hit a lot, his right arm is hanging badly injured. Even so, Dolf uses the remaining ballista to fire on the airships but has little effect. Etienne uses her magical powers to cause a tower of fire to descend on the leading airship but the fire just fizzles out. Gil reduces the density of the water so the now sinking ships are more buoyant. An island and mermaids are imagined to take any sailors in the water to the island.
Jihx fires again on the lead airship and the ship starts to descend then a lightening bolt flashes from its gondola and hits Jihx in the chest. He falls over. Caitlin continues to dodge bullets and pull sailors from the bullets paths, saving many lives.
Some the airships are now firing on the large winged creatures, stopping them firing on the convoy. The winged creatures are killed off in short order.
The winds continue to increase and many of the ships in the convoy have disappeared from sight. Etienne goes below and rescues her horse and tells the sailors to make what repairs they can. Caitlin then imagines them in a shadow where engines don't work. This appears to have no effect as the airships continue to follow and are still able to fight against the strong winds.
Arun approaches a second airship and after landing on top of it uses his dragon-forms claws to rip open the skin. Inside he sees a number of huge spheres and a number of struts and catwalks. Going around the outside of the airship he examines an engine, of which there seem to be six, on struts jutting from the main body of the airship. It seems to be a pod with a propeller and purple light flickering inside. He then moves and fires down the length of the airship. It too starts to descend.
The rain is now falling heavily and starts to change to sleet and snow; the winds are now about 90 mph. Caitlin is finding the terrible weather very trying. Etienne again tries her magical powers but has no effect on the lead ship. Dolf saves some sailors from going overboard, then the remaining mast starts to crack so Dolf goes and holds it up.
Arun has to cast a flying spell as he finds the strength of his dragon form failing against the high winds. As he casts the spell he unexpectedly becomes visible and decides to dive towards the sea. One of the airships swings a spotlight around onto him and bullets rain down around him. From the boat we can all suddenly see the dragon appear and dive into the sea.
The weather continues to worsen and visibility is effected. Dolf falls overboard as the last mast breaks. As the snow and sleet falls more and more, the visibility gets very poor and all sight of the airships is lost as they disappear into the snow.
Jihx imagines the ship running aground on an island and it does. We assemble all the remaining sailors and cargo. Using the Trump decks Gil and Jihx contact Dolf and Arun. Dolf is floating around in a very rough sea with icebergs floating by; unsurprisingly he is very happy to be assisted onto the ship.
Arun is underwater in a dolphin-like form (to the surprise of Jihx). It is suggested to him that he tries to follow the airships back to where they came from to find their base. Arun does this, finding he can easily follow them as they seem to leave a trail as they pass through the shadows (this feels like the disturbances caused by using Pattern to move through shadow).
Caitlin uses her Trump and opens up a doorway to the Amber courtyard. She starts to pass the sailors and cargo through, including Jihx's horse (Dolf's horse was killed). She follows them to get out of the cold.
Etienne heals Dolf's wounds, then with Electra she goes to the shadow Gil recommends to her to re-rack her spells (it is a fast time world he uses to draw Trumps). Jihx, Gil and Dolf set off in the lifeboat to locate the remaining ships and sailors of the convoy.
Arun catches up with the airships. Poking around underwater inside the wrecked one (which is slowly sinking) he hears the people from them as they recover something from the downed airship then sink what remains. The downed ship is named "Vindicator". The airships leave, and Arun follows them to the second one, watching from a distance as men are lowered to it to rescue the crew and recover some kind of large metal box (2 x 1 x 1 metre) with hanging cables coming from it. This airship is named the "Revenge", and like the Vindicator its remains are sunk. After they sink the second downed ship, the airships continue on, followed by Arun.
As Caitlin arrives back in Amber she is greeted by a guard. She tells him what happened and asks that the information is passed on to Gerard. She then goes off to change clothes and warm up. As she puts on another large long black coat she gets a message from Gerard asking to speak to her. He asks her what happened. She tells him about the airships and the insignia. Gerard's look darkens when she describes the black unicorn symbol. He takes her to the library (which is huge) and over to a very old-looking, very dusty set of shelves. He shows her a book containing the symbol as the frontispiece; it seems to be some kind of biography. He tells her the symbol is of Finndo (the younger brother of Benedict), son of Oberon, who was assumed to be killed thousands of years ago. However, Gerard does not recognise the other wolfs head insignia.
Dolf, Gil and Jihx pass through shadow finding a few of the ships and their crews, and eventually reach the island we had passed by. As time passes they find six large vessels and about half the sailors. When it seems everyone who can be has been found Jihx opens up the Amber courtyard Trump and the sailors and cargo are passed through it. Dolf assists the remaining ships to get back on track to reach Amber by sea.
After a number of hours we all assemble back at Amber, apart from Arun.
Arun follows the airships for a day. They end up in a barren world of dark grey badlands with a silver sky and a lurid orange sun; it is quite hard to shift shadow there, and the place feels fairly real. Arun summons us all and we all enter the shadow. We seem to be close to a range of mountains. In a cup shaped depression at the base of the largest mountain there are thirteen Eiffel-tower like masts, with the remaining airships moored to ten of them. There are also barracks and airship hangers surrounding the towers, forming what seems to be a large military base. The base is surrounded by some kind of fence, with guard towers dotted along it. In the cliff face over the base is a large cave (large enough to admit one of the airships).
We discuss what to do (attack the base; destroy the airships; find Finndo and any other Amberites and talk to them).
We decide that we should try to talk to whoever is there but we leave Arun behind with the Trumps of us all so he can contact us all but he will remain in contact with Jihx all the time. Arun gives his Trump to Dolf in case he is needed...