Goals:
- Get Zee from the Monday group to the Saturday group
- Not so tough – McLean is looking for Zee already – he just needs to capture him – but to do so we need to get Zee away from the rest of the Monday group temporarily
- Get DEE from the Saturday group to the Monday group
- Harder – maybe McLean hires DEE to spy on the Monday group (since they interfered with his acquisition of Zee) and report back to him?
The creature is in the cargo bay, and they will probably flush it into space. Bryant objects, but hopefully DEE does not listen to him. Or if he does, the creature begins to tear shit up. Bryant refuses to leave the cargo bay when DEE suggests evacuation.
Regardless, Bryant will have to show his true form to fight the creature (in the cargo bay or in space). That is, he will call on his piece of the Occultem Lapidem to consume the creature, except for the Hand. Max feels his piece of the O.L. flair up in response (Will save DC 20 to avoid losing control of it). Afterwards, McLean consumes a large quantity of the metals he brought along.
When questioned, Bryant is very candid:
- His job at Mercabah is only a cover.
- "You know who I really am," he tells Max.
- He is actually serving the Caretaker.
- The Caretaker gave him the coordinates of the Hand, and told him to retrieve it, and also that it would be dangerous.
Each of the PCs was brought along for a reason:
- Vadril is being groomed to assist the Caretaker in creating a great machine. (Yes he’s smart, and yes he’s a royal, and yes this is his field of expertise, and yes he was on the verge of a breakthrough… any other reasons it must be him, and not anyone else? How is Vadril related to Noonian Soong, if at all? Whatever it is, McLean doesn’t know – the Caretaker demanded that Korlax be the one to program the machine.)
- DEE has FTL travel, and is one of the most advanced AI programs in the galaxy. Bryant wants him to allow Korlax to study his inner workings, so that he might learn from his design. Perhaps DEE is the physical basis upon which the Deus Ex Machina will be built (infused with souls), and thus DEE is even more important.
- Rae was invited because she is an alien who might be responsible for Percepi’s destruction, and McLean wanted to observe her. He has a hunch that she is not dangerous, but definitely important somehow.
- McLean can sense the nanites burning within Matt. Max can feel them too, once McLean points it out. McLean wanted to rule out the possibility that Matt was the holder of the third piece of the Occultem Lapidem. But Matt is obviously still primarily organic. Also, McLean hoped that Matt’s unique cerebral structure might be able to offer insight into Vadril’s research.
- Max was invited so that McLean could try to make amends for what has happened in the past, and explain that they should not be enemies. McLean tells Max that he is one of the Three prophecied.
- Zee was supposed to be delivered into Bryant’s hands and brought along on the trip, but Bryant’s allies failed to produce him on Thursday (June 8) as scheduled, saying that he escaped into the Great Forest with others.
At any rate, McLean believes that by bringing together these people, something crucial is going to occur.
Anyway, they have 30 more hours to kill. Something interferes with DEE’s return jump computation: the Hand, if it is on board – it corrupts reality (Emmanuel is not of this universe). So the calculations are off. The party ends up slammed to an unknown location: the Fearful’s planet! Zee is with them, but DEE’s ship is not, nor is Bryant.
Assuming they don’t kill McLean, the jump leaves them on the Fearful’s world, with Zee instead of DEE and Bryant. Josef is still with them, but he still doesn’t remember anything. (Josef will definitely get infected right away, even if no one else does, so he can communicate the Fearfuls’ thoughts.)
Unfortunately, Zee is unconscious, so they have to carry him around for a while, or just leave him there. Who knows.
Anyway, the Fearful’s planet is extremely Earth-like – they may think they are on Earth, actually. However, none of them are familiar with the terrain. The sky looks different, and there are two suns. So on second thought, it’s probably not Earth.
They wake up on a jungle beach. If they start cutting up the jungle and killing animals, that Fearful individual will be upset, and the ecosystem will react accordingly (like an immuno-defense system). Large jungle creatures will attack them, plants will wrap around them, etc.
However, if they proceed cautiously, they will spend enough time in the jungle to notice things. Upon closer inspection, all the creatures here have a milky white fluid over their eyes (it’s subtle – DC 15 visual Senses to notice it). DC 20 notices that the plants have it, too – Anyone immune to disease is unaffected by this fluid, and the virus refuses to touch those with mystic abilities – but the others must start making Fortitude saves (DC 15) every hour to avoid being infected (but they won’t know what’s going on right away, since their eyes won’t turn milky white for at least a day).
Once people are infected, they can begin hearing this Fearful individual’s private thoughts. It is Jungel (Norwegian for "jungle"), a jungle. The thoughts are extremely slow (complex metabolism) but over a minute or so they can make out the thought of realization that something foreign has arrived.
'’Men,’’ it thinks, glacially slowly. ‘‘Are you lost?’’
If they manage to communicate with Jungel, and tell him they are not from this world, he thinks, ‘‘I will guide you to Fjell the elder (Norwegian for "mountain"). He knows more.’’
Those who are infected somehow ‘‘know’’ the way through the jungle that they must travel (Will save DC 10 to resist). After traveling for four hours, the trees abruptly become stunted and the ground becomes a quagmire. Those who are infected know they are crossing some sort of threshold. They have entered the domain of the swamp Fearful, Myr (Norwegian for "bog"). ‘‘Myr will lead you now. He knows the way.’’
Traveling through the swamp is slow going, and another five hours pass. Finally, they reach a point where the ground firms up as the path steepens. ‘‘Fjell,’’ thinks Myr simply. Up and up they travel along a bleak, rocky path. They pass hardy-looking vegetation, and in the distance they see some kind of mountain-goat-like creatures, which watch them until a very large, muscular cat pounces on them, catches one and begins ripping it apart (the others scatter).
After another 20 minutes of hiking, and they are met by a woman wearing skins, and carrying a spear, with a sling around her waist. Her eyes are milky white.
POSSIBLE STOPPING POINT
She does not speak English of course, but can communicate to anyone infected mentally. However, use of mystic magic completely freaks her out (Fjell can feel mystic energies, since the Fearful are capable of feeding on them).
Anyway, if they make friends with her, she explains that she speaks for Fjell, and leads them over a rise in the mountain. From this vantage point, they see a village (Nephilim), with buildings made of stones and straw roofs. More humanoids can be seen going about daily tasks like skinning animals and planting gardens.