Chapter 6:
Reconaissance
(05/19/01)
Ripple only made it a few hours inside of Vivictus’ castle before she
got creeped out by it (the fact that the entire place seemed to be an enormous
living organism had something to do with that). She attempted to escape, but was attacked by a guard system
consisting of a living rug and some strange, vicious, dog-like things and
knocked unconscious.
Back on the ship, Gabriel came to Jennifer’s room. He said he had a very bad feeling about
Ripple and Wan being in the castle alone, and she agreed. He suggested that the cabal go back down to
the planet, get Ripple and Wan, and get out.
Grudgingly, Jennifer agreed, and brought Kenley, Marcus, Maria, and Teal
along with her. When they reached the
castle, they located Wan right away and told him to come with them. Jennifer then reached out with
Correspondence to find Ripple’s location.
They got a lock on her position and began pursuing her through the
castle, fighting off the dog-things along the way.
Before long, the cabal found Ripple, unconscious in a dungeon
area. A strange man who said his name
was Tom was there with her. A brief
conversation established that he was a psychic secret agent from the 1950s who
had been working for British intelligence in Russia. He claimed to have come through a “grey hole” that had been in a
Russian compound and spat him out here.
He showed the cabal the grey hole, but they had no idea what it
was. Confused and curious, the cabal
convinced him to come back to the ship with them, in the hopes they would be
able to help him find out what had happened.
On the way out, Marcus showed the cabal a jar containing one of the
“children” and announced that he had taken it out of Vivictus. The rest of the cabal freaked out at him,
but it was too late. Shortly after we
got back, Vivictus came to the ship and demanded that we return the
planimal. Marcus refused, Vivictus
attacked, and a battle ensued. Things
were bloody at first, but soon Jennifer and Kenley managed to kill Vivictus
with Forces.
However, the battle landed one member of the cabal in some serious
trouble. When Gabriel tried to help
Jennifer and Kenley out with their spell, he made a few mistakes and got hit by
some serious Paradox. When the smoke
cleared, he had turned completely into stone.
Marcus said the transformation seemed permanent, and no one in the cabal
knew how to reverse it. The entire
cabal was very worried for Gabriel, but no one had a harder time with it than
Jennifer. Suddenly all too aware of
what her mentor meant to her, she did not leave his side for the rest of the
voyage.
The cabal spent the next few days in orbit, then took the batteries and
got out, heading for the nearest planet.
Along the way, Marcus tried to talk a member of the cabal into allowing
him to implant them with the planimal so he could do experiments. Everyone
refused, so Marcus retorted by making a human of his own to stick it in. The planimal-infected man was named Steve,
and everyone was a little scared of him and his total devotion to Marcus. Things got even worse once Marcus announced
that his planimal had produced an egg, since no one was quite sure what he’d do
next.
Several days later, Ripple had a private conversation with Marcus. Effectively, she told him that his rash and
disrespectful actions on Lord Vivictus’ planet had shown to her that he was not
the person she had originally thought he was.
She had lost interest in their relationship and decided it would be
better for both of them if they stopped seeing one another. Dejectedly, Marcus agreed, and their romance
of more than a year came to a sudden end.
The next planet the cabal arrived at turned out to be entirely covered
in water. While determining there was
no land in sight, Kenley made a joke about going fishing with Steve. Completely nonchalantly, Marcus replied by
loading Steve into a harness and dangling him into the water, where he was
promptly eaten by an enormous fish. The
rest of the cabal was horrified, but Marcus shrugged it off and went off to try
making another body.
The cabal spent a few weeks trying to ascertain the position of Earth,
then started planet-hopping toward it.
The nearest inhabited planet at which they arrived was very magically
active. The cabal just had to check it
out, so they landed, acquainted themselves with the locals, went shopping (Wan
bought a talisman), and learned they had arrived at a place called Atlantis.