Evil Forces

Evil Forces

Produced for:	Fantomen 14/1978
# of pgs:	32
Writer:	Norman Worker
Artist:	Jaime Vallvé
Original colorist:	N/A
Producer:	Semic Press

"Evil Forces" is a 1978 Team Fantomen story, written by Norman Worker, with art by Jaime Vallvé.

Plot synopsis

The story starts with a nightly scene from a ruined abbey in France where a group of people dressed in long robes hold a ceremony to ask the Lord of Darkness to stop a wedding from going through.

The Phantom has received a letter from Diana who is visiting France to attend her cousin Marie's wedding. Diana is concerned about her cousin and asks him to join her in France. After the wedding ceremony Diana tells him that the groom Jean-Paul Laurant has received anonymous phone calls warning him from going through with the wedding. Marie leaves the wedding reception to open a package that contains a block of ice with a devilish face. She faints from the shock. The Phantom and Diana attend to her and it stands clear that somebody has gone to great lengths to send the couple a gruesome wedding present.

The Phantom and Diana decide to stay a few extra days and follow the newlyweds to Jean-Paul's old castle that he recently inherited, Château de Vantellaine. Jean-Paul plans to open a hotel there. During the drive there on the winding mountain road somebody tries to kill them with a rockfall.

At the castle they are met by the family lawyer Lejeune and Mr and Mrs Defarge, housekeepers. Lejeune shows them around the castle and tells them of the great parties held in the castle by a forefather, marquise Gernain de Laurant, whose oppresion of the locals led to an uprising where the marquise and his wife was killed. When Marie is left alone in a room, she sees a ghostly face looking at her through a window. When Marie retires to her room, Lejeune and Mr Defarge arrange for Marie to drink a sleeping potion, then carry her off to the ruined abbey nearby to perform a snake ceremony to her.

Marie wakes up and is scared out of her wits by the men in long robes and runs off. Outside she faints near the edge of a cliff, where she is found by her husband. The Phantom investigates the ruins and finds a doll used to perform black magic. It stands clear that something evil wants to scare off the new inhabitants of the castle. The Phantom, Diana and their friends relocate to another village nearby for a few days. Visiting the village of Vantellaine, the Phantom starts to ask questions about the castle and discovers that the castle grounds are used by a satanic cult.

Meanwhile, Diana has borrowed a bicycle to return to the castle to pick up Marie's wedding ring. When she has not returned for hours, the Phantom and Jean-Paul return to the castle. They discover that she has been taken prisoner by the satanic cult but fall through a trap door down to the cellar. While the satanists prepare to use Diana for their ghastly ceremony, the Phantom and Jean-Paul manage to get out of the cellar and find various artifacts that verifies that the castle is used by a group of devil worshippers. The Phantom interrupts the horrible ceremony and frees Diana. Lejeune who is the leader of the cult disappears when the smoke turns into a devilish face that sinks over him. The cult members disappear in a panic. Outside they meet Marie who has brought villagers with her to help rid the castle of the cultists. Now the villagers are prepared to help the newlyweds with their plan to start a hotel in the castle.

Appearances

Recurring characters

One-time characters

Marie, Diana's cousin
Jean-Paul Laurant, the groom
Julien Lejune, lawyer
Mr and Mrs Defarge, housekeepers

Locations

Bengali
- Deep Woods
- Morristown
  - Morristown Airport
France
- Charles de Gaulle Airport
- Abbaye de la mort noir
- Vantellaine
- Château de Vantellaine
- Cap Galeray