The Cave – Ch. 12, part 1

Summary: The Cabal prepares to enter the last known place where the original Cabal disappeared.

Recap: The Cabal doesn’t even think. They attack the thin, emaciated being. With a wave of his hand, the being stops time around members of the Cabal and then hits each of them with bolts of energy, knocking each of them down to the ground. After laughing maniacally, the being identifies himself as Emma-O, master of Unit 731. Dr Wu is his student – a student he never would have found had not Kemosiri approached him with the Shinwa Taizen. Dr. Wu’s interest slowly became obsession and made it all that easier to convert him to his cause.

The members of the Cabal slowly get to their feet and prepare another attack. Emma-O waves his hand again and stops time in the room sending waves of paradox rippling throughout the room only to be absorbed by Emma-O. When the characters come to, they find both the human skin scrolls and the prone form of Dr. Wu, gone. The Cabal cannot find Emma-O.

As the group returns to their sanctum, Kemosiri admits to feeling remorse at inadvertently getting Dr. Wu involved in Emma-O’s cult. Dr. Wu was an innocent bystander. He feels the need to redeem his actions.

Tenzin prepares a healing ritual for each of his Cabal mates. While he is busy healing them, the rest discuss their next moves. They reach a conclusion that they don’t even know where begin searching for Unit 731. Mori surmises that the most logical place to search is where the last Cabal disappeared. Their last action was to attend a geology class at a local university. After briefly checking in with Ms. Ogawa, they disappeared.

With a bit of research, and remembering that Koya (the Yamada Taro) kept repeating “Jomon”, they find that the Kobe earthquake epicentre on an island just off the coast. On the island, the Japanese authorities had found a cave with pottery dating back to the Jomon era. That is where the Cabal decides to search for Unit 731.

But what to do with the scrolls? No one believes they are safe in their sanctum. Even with wards around the safe, Emma-O is powerful enough to break anything magical they might use. Kemosiri wants to keep them while they explore the cave, but Mori objects and argues vehemently against that option. Mori tells Kemosiri that the scrolls are having too much of an influence on him and he must divest himself of them. He points out that Tatsu and the Consilium have noticed has more than given him permission to kill Kemosiri if he gets out of control. This shocks Kemosiri and despite his lust for the scrolls, he decides letting them go and giving them to the Consilium for safekeeping is the best course of action.

Despite their misgivings, they give the Shinwa Taizen to Tatsu. They no longer suspect him as being with Unit 731. They now believe that everything they had seen in visions or video was false or designed to mislead them and throw them off track.

The Cabal travels to Osaka and ventures into Kobe. There, they are waylaid by a motorcycle gang (all Sleepers, apparently). Mori calls down lightning and strikes one of the gang members (and loses 1 wisdom for such an act as well as absorbing damage due to Paradox). The gang reluctantly lets them pass.

The Cabal reaches the boarded up entrance to the cave and break through the flimsy wooden barriers. In the gloom, they see dusty remnants of ages old pottery as well as small ceramic dolls reminiscent of dolls from the Jomon period. Under an old World War II tarp, they also find the slightly scorched remains of immaculately decorated wooden scroll cases – all empty.

Next: the Cave, part 2