Entry 9

We are away from Vicereen - revealed as a place of unparalleled iniquity - but on a craft of uncertain provenance.

Returning to Vicereen from our mission to scout the giant floating eggs, I was granted access to a state of the art laboratory within the University to continue my studies. But what studies? With the changes taking place in the world around me, I have enough for five lifetimes.

I elected to continue my studies in challenging Death. Even though the fall of Shaidar had not resulted in the ultimate apocalypse I'd feared, still humanity has been decimated and more thousands will die in the chaos descending upon our society. The saving of life must be my prime goal. (I may also find a way to prolong my own existence to undertake the other studies the world is presenting me.)

The assistants I've been given have so far failed to bring me subjects suitable for re-animation. What they have brought paint a sad picture of society under "King" Errald Eckles. I remain convinced that he is a well meaning man but under his rule children who are not blue are being beaten to death or worse.

Methuselah, Tyrann and Hanna left the city to check on our crew mates. They reported to me that their camp has grown into a shanty town as they have been joined by normal hued refugees from Vicereen. These refugees bear stories of food shortages, families divided by the uneven mutation of skin, blue-skinned citizens who wished to leave being ordered to stay and even having their families taken hostage in order the blackmail them into remaining. Truly this city is a divided and dysfunctional place.

When they returned they brought the scout Sarah. Alas she still seems to be enamoured with me. In addition she seems to have developed the ability to send her spirit into the bodies of others. She has demonstrated this to Methuselah and Tyrann who seem to have taken a perverse pleasure in the experience. Tyrann, in particular, seems to revel her discovering the more brutal events of his past.

I managed to dissuade her from looking into my mind and immediately tasked my assistants with bringing me people near to death. What insights might we gain if Sarah is able to inhabit a dying body and report back her experiences? To date the fools have failed to bring me any useful subjects.

Methuselah and Tyrann seemed to indulge themselves in some fantasy of releasing the captive families of the refugees but upon discovering the fact that the cells are below the palace and that King Eckles has established a group of guards with exceptional abilities who can read minds, track escapees, teleport in pursuit etc. have abandoned these flights of fancy.

They was some talk of stealing a ship from the harbour in order to set sail and seek an answer to the strange storms we saw stealing ships crews at the start of our adventures. However, I simply went to ask the King to fund a scientific expedition across the world. Not only did he do so, he insisted upon gifting us a FLYING ship, created by his advanced followers. When I chose to name it BELLEROPHON after the famed rider of the winged beast Pegasus, one of his entourage created a three dimensional figurehead out of thin air. (Again I could not see where the mass had come from. It has to come from somewhere. Somewhere in the world Mass is in defecit. I hope this does not come back to haunt us in the future.)

The only stipulation the King had was that we should be accompanied by Damien - one of his servants who has the ability to telepathically report back on our journey. (I expect we'll be forced to kill him at some point.) We rejected any further crew and have filled the ship with crewmembers from the ill-fated CHIMERA. We have been forced to leave our rock-skinned Rhinotaur aground, however.