(Written by Ben, who still is not technologically advanced enough to get on the internet at home.)
It was a dark and story night off the south coast of England….meanwhile in the Caribbean it is hot and sunny, as usual. The crew of the Black Prince find them selves up river. Duncan acquired a map, stolen from the Spanish ambassador. Of course the map is for treasure, and X always marks the spot.
A small elite squad headed further up river in three boats. Buck insisted on bringing extra crew and boats to haul off the huuuge amount of treasure they were obviously going to find. Some Griffons attacked them while they were in the boats and after some running and screaming, falling in the river etc the griffons were fought off.
Slogging through the jungle, they came across a 100 ft high tree stripped of all its branches, except two in the form of a cross. From the top of the tree a ziggurat could be seen two miles away, overgrown with vines. In front of the ziggurat the remains of a city could be seen, now overgrown. All is quiet in the clearing. no hostile tribes, no drums in the jungle.
Suddenly there is movement off to one side of the clearing. Footprints in the mud, it seems the group was being watched.
An amazing series of tracking rolls by Duncan, to follow the footprints, led the party to a native village. The chief, “Tofu Seafood” (he must have been a Jedi master in another life) comes out greet them. Well after much excitement in the village the chief calls for a feast. Whilst waiting for the food to cook he offers everyone some recreational smoking; some Peyote. Getting bored waiting for the food the chief jumps up and calls for the group to follow him, to the ziggurat; the great temple of Unka Lunka. He runs all the way through the jungle, across the abandoned city, up the great staircase to the top of the ziggurat. Ignoring the nest of baby Griffons at the top, he pushes a sacrifice alter to one side to reveal a secret stair case. Down he goes, followed by the party. Down a ramp, to a giant stone skull statue. Turns the lever in the left eye socket and pushes the skull out of the way to reveal another secret stair. On he goes. The party first lights some torches and quickly follows the chief, down into the dark of a great chamber. Pools of molten lava are on the floor, in-between rows of very nicely painted columns. Tofu Seafood is standing in the middle of the great hall and call out in a great roar…some ethereal ghostly figures rise from the floor and start to fight Tofu. He strikes one of them down with his great spear, but the ghosts are too much for him, he is hacked to pieces and falls dead into the lava. The part is alone in the dark, looking down on the death of the mighty Tofu (told you he was a Jedi master in a previous life).
As Tofu Seafood died, his very nice, youngest daughter leans forward and offers you a plate of roast wild boar. She gives Nicholas an extra special smile. You are all seated around the camp fire with a wild boar roasting on a spit. It would seem the journey into the ziggurat was all a dream, a waking dream in the spirit world. The chief Tofu is very much alive.
The next morning after you have feasted on wild boar and on the chiefs youngest daughter, The chief wishes you great luck and gives to the mighty warrior Nicholas, his long spear (apparently it is a wedding gift) and some more peyote. Anyway….journey to the temple, fight the griffons, Buck stumbles into a pit trap and fall into a dark snake lair. By some miracle the snake gets past Bucks parry and bites him (there was some confusion about +2 to attack because of the snakes small size. If only Steve was there to clarify the rules). By even more of a miracle Buck doesn’t die. A few more traps and poison darts on the way down into the ziggurat.
Fighting the ghosts proved to be a problem. Buck had the magic spear from the chief, but he broke it. Thomas decided to smoke some more peyote but got a bit confused and everyone looked like a ghost. So what to do when surrounded by ghosts….start shooting…no really!! There was Buck on one side and Nicholas on the other, who to shoot? Nicholas persuaded Thomas not to shoot him and shoot buck instead by the old favorite “look out behind you !”.
Anyway Duncan ran across the burning lava to retrieve the treasure (a golden idol) but his shoes caught on fire. Eventually the golden idol was retrieved and Thomas stopped shooting people.
And the group went back to village for a nice cup of tea.