In which our heroes travel into the heart of darkness, as they trek up the Amazon River in search of a lost team of anthropologists.
Act 1: Shadow of the Jungle
Act 2: River of Death
Act 3: The Black Cross
Act 4: Enter the Rapa
Act 5: Flames of the Lost City
Original Game Notes (Zipped Word document)
It begins with a telegram from Brazil, asking our bold adventurers for their assistance. It tell of the missing Price expedition, and asks them to contact Dr Price. This they do, and make arrangements to travel at once to the harbour city of Belem at the mouth of the Amazon.
A little research reveals that the Price Expedition was led by Professor Walter Price, and consisted of his niece (and secretary) Elaine, a professional adventurer named Laurie, his assistant, Dr Stephen Carter, a linguist named Dr Aston Warby and a local expert, Dr Angel-Luis Montoya. Their goal was to seek for the lost city of Muyacca Chucca, whose legendary inhabitants made their home atop a towering cliff, and had incredible technologies at their disposal, including some manner of advanced optics.
After an uneventful flight, trouble by no more than a little turbulence and an attack by Air Pirates, they arrive at Belem Airfield. Here the Adventurers are met by Dr Karen Price, a tough looking woman with her arm in a sling - she sympathises with their Air Pirate incident, explaining that similar circumstances saw her forced to bail out with no chute; hence the sling - and Dr Karl Robards, a handsome fellow, very solicitous of Dr Price and fairly inoffensive. Dr Price is the Professor's daughter, while Dr Robards represents the charitable foundation that funded the expedition.
Dr Price explains that the Price expedition has been out of contact for two weeks now. She is very worried, as the expedition contains pretty much all of her family in the world: Her father, the Professor, her fiancé Dr Carter, her cousin Elaine, and her oldest friend Laurie. She knows only that her father believed that he had found a man called Mauana who knew the location of the lost city, and that he has now disappeared. She tells them that the market has a number of merchants selling jungle supplies, as well as jungle guides hawking their services. There is also a museum in Belem, which her father often visited.
After settling in at Dr Price's HQ, the Adventurers split up. Zachariah and Li Mi head into town to talk to the guides, while William and David seek out the museum.
Zachariah and Li Mi learn that Mauana was a crazy old Indian, who came out of the jungle ten or twenty years ago now. He was a good guide, but had not been into the jungle in two or three years. White Hair and the Red Giant came to seek him out, and hired him. For a small remuneration, the guide gives them the address of his wife Carmen. He tells them that if they wish to go into the jungle in search of the others, he will not take them for any money. He says that White Hair was asking about dangerous things; the dark spirits of the Jungle: The Rapa.
In hushed tones, he explains that the Rapa are the ghosts of those murdered in the forest. They move on silent feet, rip the hearts from their victims and drink their blood. None who see them live to tell the tale. The Old Man (Mauana) knew this, and only took the White Hair's money to support his family.
At the museum, William and David see many pressed flowers and stuffed animals, and a Muyaccan arrow; a cracked crystal arrow head, attached to the fire-blackened stump of a shaft. They seek out the curator's office, and find a door labelled Dr Eduardo Velasquez. Entering, they find a pretty but harried young woman, surrounded by stacks of paperwork, and a pile of boxes containing uncatalogued artefacts and specimens.
William asks after Dr Velasquez, and the woman says that he was killed in the jungle, by poachers, five years ago. She is his daughter, Melissa, and runs the museum now. She confirms that the Professor came to the museum to research his expedition, but admits she does not know what he was reading. He has keys to the building, and knows the collection better than she. He was a good friend to her father, and to herself, and his generosity has kept the museum going.
She explains that the Muyaccans had a crystal-based technology, and - according to legend - a great power source; the power of the Earth itself. Some have suggested geothermal energy, but there are no volcanic vents in the Amazon. Others say solar power. The arrow is one of only a few known Muyaccan artefacts, and was given to the museum by an Indian, years ago. The notes are incomplete, and there is no name given.
Melissa promises to do all she can to help, and to speak to friends in the guide community who often sell their finds to the museum.
The Adventurers meet up, and are threatened by an unusually large and powerful-looking Amazonian. He warns them to not seek the city, and to give up the search for those who seek the city, citing his respect for life as his reason for the warning. The Adventurers are intrigued.
Our bold souls go to visit Carmen, Mauana's wife. She answers the door with a bruised face, and she threatens them with an antique shotgun. The gun goes off, leading to a tense confrontation. The Adventurers retreat, and William goes back alone to talk to her. He persuades her he is not evil, and learns that Mauana was haunted by the 'hidden door'. Finding the door convinced his tribe that he was mad. He was cast out, and wound up in the city. He had nightmares about it, and spoke of it when drunk. Sadly, she can not tell them where it was.
She also tells William that other men - Americans - came and threatened her and her children. One was tall, the other big. The tall man did the talking, the big one just did the physical work. He punched her in the face, and also threatened to break her son's arm. They wanted to know about the door, and where the Price Expedition was going. They told her they would come back. That was why she bought the shotgun.
Returning to their temporary base, the Adventurers receive a note from Melissa Velasquez. She tells them that she found the rest of the file on the arrowhead, which Price must have put back in the wrong place. Mauana was the Indian who donated the piece, she tells them. There is also a note of where he claims to have found it, which she hopes will give them something to go on. Melissa also recommends the best equipment suppliers, and a guide named Tamula.
In the morning they set off, and after two uneventful days, wind up at an abandoned village. There are signs of a firefight, and thirty-some fresh graves, some child-sized. This probably makes up about half of the village.
At that moment, a band of natives leap from the treeline and run screaming to the attack.
Moments before things looked to get seriously ugly, Zachariah suddenly realises that this must be a tribe his sister, Esther, once told him about. In fact, she was good friends with them, and they gave her a necklace as a token of their regard, which she gave to him when she knew he would be travelling into the Amazon.
Following Esther's instructions, he fires his concussion pistol into the ground - a traditional gesture indicating that you have a weapon but are not using it - and holds up the necklace. The natives stop, and talk among themselves. Finally, a young man comes forward who speaks some English, and he is horrified to learn that they almost attacked the brother of the tribe's beloved 'Green Eyes'.
The tribe invite the Adventurers to join their frugal meal of monkey tortillas, and the young man explains that White Hair and the Red Giant - Professor Price and Edward Laurie - came through some time ago, to consult with the village Oracle. He does not know what about; only that they were headed deep into the jungle.
Then, a week ago, more Americans came, wearing black crosses on their arms, and led by a man with serpent's eyes. The Oracle warned the villagers that these men were bad, so they told Snake Eyes nothing, and the Oracle would not see them. When they were told this, the men became angry, and began killing the villagers and firing their huts. Then they took the Oracle and left. The young man - who is the chief now that his father is dead - tells the Adventurers that the Oracle is a young girl. She sees things which are hidden, but is all but helpless in the real world.
The Adventurers swear to punish these evil-doers, and to return the Oracle to her village.
The Adventurers continue down the river, watching a caimans drift past them. On the banks, they see the remains of villages, burned, destroyed and abandoned; a trail of devastation left by Dr Price's pursuers.
After a few more days, they hear a scream and a splashing up ahead. They gun the engines on their boats, racing towards the sound, and see a woman, standing on the remains of a sinking boat, while caimans thrash in the water around her, trying to climb onto the driftwood.
William, in the lead boat, makes a few cunning adjustments to the focusing mechanisms on the muzzle of his concussion cane, and fires into the water. The hulls of the boats rattle, as a great shockwave rushes through the water, well and truly stunning the unsuspecting reptiles. Pausing only to plan a few possible dampening devices to prevent the vibration of the boat in future in his head, William order's the guide to throttle forward so he can grab the woman as they speed past.
The guide is expensive, but he is worth the money. The boat skips over the backs of the caimans with nary a jolt, and William deftly scoops the woman into his arms, and sets her down safely. As he does so, he gets a good look at her, and realises that she is an Indian girl, about 16 years old, dressed in Europeanised clothes and clutching a small baby in her arms.
The caimans recover themselves, and three head after William, while two aim for Zachariah and Li Mi, following more slowly due to Zachariah's limited riverboating skill - he has five dice for a Pilot roll, the guide has ten, since he only does a few things, but does them well - and because they are towing the baggage boat. Li Mi throws a concussion grenade at the approaching caimans, leaving them shaken, but not stirred, and Zachariah jinks to avoid the blast.
Having first made the necessary basic introductions demanded by good manners, William draws out his Martini rifle, and pops a round in the lead caiman's back. Seriously hurt, the beast veers off, and its erstwhile fellows decide it makes more tempting prey than a speeding boat. Zachariah opts not to try and take a shot while steering with his knees, and leaves it to Li Mi to lob more grenades. After only one more, the caimans give up and go away.
The Adventurers stop for the night, and William learns that the girl - who speaks fairly ropey Protugese (protugese? Portuguese; protogeese would be something quite different: Episode 6 - Lair of the Proto-Geese!) - is called Maua, and her son is called Mani. They are the sole survivors of the massacre of her village, and she was trying to get to another village for aid. She is ever so grateful to William for saving her, and attaches herself to him like a limpet.
A few more days pass, and the Adventurers are hailed from the bank by a large, bearded white man, who introduces himself as Dr Paul Revello, and begs their assistance with a non-specific crisis. Approaching, they see that the Doctor is somewhat distraught. He is also standing on a jetty, over the remains of five sunken boats. A Brainskim reveals that he is suppressing specific thoughts of the crisis, hence his inability to discus it. As they try to calm him, a young Englishwoman approaches, excuses him, and takes up the story with greater clarity.
She tells them that she is Dr Susan Pritchard, and she and Dr Revello were part of a Red Cross group working from an old mission. There were three doctors, four nurses and twelve native assistants at the mission, the latter group helping out in exchange for basic medical training. While Dr Revello, two nurses and four of the assistants were away, a group of Americans came, demanding supplies, having not planned their expedition properly. There were about twenty armed men, and maybe five native trackers, as well as a young native girl.
Dr Pritchard told the men that they could not spare any supplies, except maybe enough to travel back downriver to Belem to properly equip their expedition. The men became angry, and attacked them. They shot the natives out of hand, and Louis, the third doctor, when he tried to stop them. They attacked the nurses, took their supplies and spoiled most of what they could not carry, shot holes in the boats, smashed the engines and destroyed the tools and spares. She confirms that they wore black crosses on their sleeves, and says that they called their leader 'Major Cross'.
The Adventurers see for themselves the destruction caused here. Dr Revello is in denial, having returned to find out what had happened. Two of the nurses - both young women - are in absolute shock and are unable to do anything much except cling to each other and shiver. Dr Pritchard is bruised and beaten, with a nasty burn on her arm, but is holding everyone together by force of will. This will - unfortunately - be for naught when the supplies run out in a few days. They can not go to the nearby village, because the illness Dr Revello went to treat turned out to be the first few cases in an epidemic which gripped the whole village. The group needs enough boats to carry ten people and their remaining supplies, or they will die.
Rising to the occasion, the Adventurers draw the boats out of the water and manage to patch three of them. Although their engines are pretty badly damaged, William is able to cannibalise enough parts from the other three to get two running. Towing the third boat downstream, that should be enough to get them to Belem. They also share their supplies for the evening meal, so as not to deplete those of the Red Cross group, and donate two rifles for their protection. In return, Dr Pritchard agrees to see Maua safely into the custody of Dr Karen Price.
Maua is reluctant to leave her saviour's side, feeling safer heading into the deep jungle with William than back out with anyone else. William takes her aside and explains the peril to her, and - with assurances that he is not abandoning her, and will find her again in Belem - persuades her to go with Dr Pritchard.
William also works into the night, tweaking the engines on their own boats for greater performance, in order to make up for lost time.
In the morning, they bid farewell to the Red Cross party and Maua. They speak to the guide about catching up, and he says that he knows the shortest routes. If the Americans are tracking the Old Man's path, they will take these same routes, but he can travel faster by these means, as he is not following.
They set off through narrow channels and waterways, and after a day or so come across a grim sight: A crudely-fashioned cross, on which hangs a pendant. Stopping to investigate, they see that the pendant is a St Christopher, and the name on the cross is that of Dr Aston Warby; the Price Expedition's linguist.
As they meditate on the death of one of the ones they were to rescue, Li Mi becomes aware that the jungle has grown too quiet, while William's uncanny auditory acuity detects the approach of many quiet feet, and the creak of tensing bows.
Arrows whistle from the trees as our heroes dive to the ground, David knocking Zachariah - who has not actually heard anything - down with him.
Zachariah throws a concussion grenade at the treeline. William fires a shot at a particularly ropey looking tree, and David snaps off a couple of rounds from his pistols, bringing down a branch and sowing general confusion. The guide shouts a warning that they have disturbed the Tree Frog tribe, and that the arrows are poisoned, telling them to get back to the boats. Li Mi legs it.
Another volley of arrows follows. An arrow lodges in the armoured cloth of David's chest, while a second hits him in the arm and draws blood. Li Mi is hit through the right thigh. Fortunately, the wounds are fairly minor - Li Mi's is worse, as she was not wearing William's specially made armour - and neither succumbs to the paralytic effect of the tree frog poison on the arrows.
Li Mi runs back to get Zachariah while Zachariah gets up and runs away. David also flees, while William covers their retreat. Li Mi almost runs into Zachariah, and - against his protests - hefts him onto her shoulder, whereupon an arrow pierces the armour of his trousers, lodging squarely in his right buttock. Luckily, he also does not succumb to the poison, but he isn't what might be termed happy.
Li Mi flees, but not before another arrow lodges in the armoured cloth over Zachariah's other buttock. William beats a fighting retreat, and receives a graze to his arm from the much reduced volley of arrows. He shrugs off the poison and they all get back in the boats.
The guide, Tamula, is frightened by this encounter, and unwilling to go further. He thinks that the Price expedition must all be dead, and that if they continue, the Adventurers will also die. Unwilling to bear this burden, he says that he must go home, but he will leave them the boats. He can make it on foot; it's just them he fears for. As they treat their wounds, William appeals to his better nature, and Tamula, shamed, agrees to continue with the Adventurers.
In the early evening a few days later, William - at the head of the lead boat with a small, brass telescope and his uncanny sensory acuity - spots a sentry lying on a branch. His sensory acuity is in fact so uncanny that he is able to make out his name (Roberts; it's written on his lapel) and that he is carrying a Tommy Gun and wearing a black cross on his sleeve, as described by the folks at the Red Cross station.
Quickly, our intrepid band pulls over to the bank, and Li Mi sneaks up to the sentry, who is in fact half asleep. The mercenary camp can be made out, some three hundred yards from the bank, so Li Mi takes a risk, crawls along a higher branch, hangs down by her legs and smacks the guard on the back of the head, even managing to catch his Thompson before it splashes in the river. She drags him back to the others.
The sentry is tied and blindfolded, then questioned by David - who is of course an ex-cop, and knows how to do these things - and while he is uncooperative, they have a plan. David asks the leading questions, and Zachariah brainskims the guy.
Roberts fumes and swears at them, telling them they're dead meat. He hears Li Mi say something, and assumes that they are Japanese. David tells him not to scream or he dies. Roberts swears some more, and David kicks him in the balls.
He screams.
Go figure.
Zachariah, brainskimming at the time, is half 'deafened' by the noise.
After this, the process goes fairly smoothly. They establish that there are no other sentries, but about twenty mercenaries with rifles, Thompsons, grenades and light machine guns. They were pursuing the Price expedition and are now following them cross-country. They have captured Edward Laurie, who was returning along the party's path, and he has refused to talk, despite numerous sound beatings, and who is now held in the camp. Major Cross is a great boss if you don't mess with him, but scary enough that David can't get a word out of Roberts voluntarily.
So they knock the sentry back out - William refusing to let David and the increasingly bloodthirsty Zachariah do away with him now he is a prisoner - and start trying to work out plans. With the guide's help, they make it appear that the sentry was taken by natives, knowing that the hostages will be in danger if it looks as though the mercenaries are being stalked by a well armed rescue team.
Li Mi scouts out the camp, and produces a rough plan, showing that the camp is set under a steep bluff, with heavy tree cover on three sides, and light tree cover giving way to grassland on the fourth. The baggage and magazine are close to the bluff, with a small, guarded tent between them.
Our gallant heroes make a plan, and dispatch their guide to find a hornets nest and a troupe of howler monkeys. Li Mi leads Zachariah and William up to the bluff, while David remains to guard their retreat. Their plan is to so fear and confusion, using adapted concussion weapons to shoot arrows with deadly accuracy, thus disguising their true nature and cutting down the numbers of mercenaries a little. There will be no attempt to rescue the hostages, as they are safer where they are, and they will slow the mercenaries down.
Commence l'attaque.
The guide sets off the monkey decoy, lobbing the hornets' nest into the tree full of howler monkeys, thus attracting the bulk of the mercenaries to the front of the camp. William then shoots a fire arrow into the back of the guarded tent, suspected to contain hostages. The guard is a little slow on the uptake - distracted no doubt by the monkeys - but eventually notes this, and dashes inside to get the hostages out. At that same moment, Zachariah puts an arrow in the guard on the magazine.
William waits until the hostages are clear, then fire arrows the magazine, finally drawing attention from the monkey decoy (I love using that phrase). They send a volley of arrows at the mercenaries, as Major Cross organises his men. William takes down one of the men setting up a rifle grenade, and the grenade goes off, firing straight up and back down among the troops. Cross holds his men together however, and an arrow meant for him take one of his men instead as he drags the luckless bugger across in front of him.
Back at the boats, David hears several forms moving through the undergrowth towards the camp, some of whom might come up to the bluff.
Things start to get hairy as the mercenaries return fire. Below, the young Oracle is trying to tell the guard something that he keeps ignoring. He shakes her off, even as he gets an arrow in the chest, but doesn't quite fall.
At that moment, William hears a noise in the trees behind him, and as the dying guard tries to raise his gun to fire at the Adventurers' position, a great, dark shape hurtles between our gallant heroes, springs twenty feet down the bluff, landing on the guard, and BITES HIS HEAD CLEAN OFF!
Looking down, they see a black jaguar, bigger than a tiger, and behind them the undergrowth rustles.
Waiting at the boat, David hears a splash. Turning, he spies a massive, black shape, crouched in one of the boats, in the act of crushing the head of the hapless captive sentry betwixt its massive jaws. As he raises his Tommy gun, David hears a rustle in the undergrowth, and turns to she a second Rapa emerging from the trees to his left.
"Clever girl," he whispers.
Then the Rapa springs, and the screen goes dark.
Back at the camp, our surviving heroes weight up the situation. There are two semi-mobile hostages in the camp - Tatuie the Oracle, and Laurie, the explorer - and one very large jaguar, as well as about a dozen goons, some of whom are being led into the jungle by Cross, who has heard the approach of the rest of the Rapa pack. The baggage canopy is about half the height of the bluff, and on fire.
Li Mi springs athletically down to the canopy, and bounces straight off, landing cleanly on her feet. William follows the same route, aiding his leap with a quick blast from his concussion cane to give him extra distance, while Zachariah grabs a handy tree root and rappels down the bluff.
The Rapa springs at the goons in front of it, killing two before the rest are able to bring it down. Two of its fellows leap down the bluff behind, while our heroes make their way to the hostages. Zachariah throws a concussion grenade to keep the mercenaries occupied, and William drops one with a concussion shot.
The Black Cross mercenaries break and flee, pursued by one of the Rapa. The second however thinks that Zachariah looks like a tasty morsel, and rushes at him. Zachariah barely scrambles out of reach, while William puts a shot into it with his concussion cane, and Li Mi finishes it off with a stout kick to the head. With a great sighing whine, the mighty beast collapses unconscious across Zachariah.
Li Mi pulls Zachariah free, and the Oracle seizes William and Laurie and starts tugging them towards the light tree cover to the west. They follow, listening to the screams of the mercenaries as the Rapa catches up with them, and the gunshots and yells from Cross' part of the company.
Shortly after the screams go silent, the Rapa leaps back out of the jungle, again sighting Zachariah as the most likely morsel. William shoots it as it charges, and Li Mi leaps into its path, ducking under its claw swipe. Noting the relative ineffectiveness of the concussion blast, William fires and arrow, and puts the beast down. Zachariah shoots it in the head for good measure.
Tatuie leads them out onto the grasslands, and in the near distance they see a great wall of stone; a craggy pillar a hundred miles around and a mile and a half high. This, they suppose, must be the lost plateau of Muyacca Chucca. The Oracle takes them to one of the deep clefts, and tells them that the Rapa will not approach here. Laurie recognises this as the place where the passage to the plateau can be found.
Laurie explains that the Price expedition came this way, ascended the passage and encountered the Muyacca. The guardian tribe who live in a village at the top of the passage were wary, but welcoming once assured that the outsiders meant no harm. The people of the city were also most hospitable, until suddenly they were accused of stealing a sacred relic - an accusation which Laurie writes off as 'ridiculous' - and arrested.
Laurie escaped, intending to return with friends from one of the local tribes before his friends could be executed at noon of the day of the full moon. Alas, he was captured by the Black Cross, and it is now only a day and a half until the time of execution. Moreover, he lacks the strength to make the ascent, and certainly the ability to do anything much about the situation if he could get up. The Muyacca are strong and skilled, he cautions, and armed with strange weapons, including exploding arrows.
The Adventurers declare their intent to continue with the rescue, despite long odds and the Oracle's warnings. Laurie tells them that the city is built into a hundred-yard high stone stack rising from a lake in the centre of the plateau. The executions will likely take place at the top of the city, in the grand plaza before the High Temple. Until then, the prisoners will be held in the lower levels. The Guardians - he adds - might help if convinced of the prisoners' innocence, as they despise bloodshed.
The Adventurers ascend the winding stair, and reach the top of the plateau, utterly exhausted all, not long before midnight. The Guardians' leader - the man who accosted them in Belem - advises them to go back, and not throw their lives away to try and save those already doomed. When they refuse, he offers them shelter and food before they go on.
In the morning, they convince him of their sincerity, and swear to him that they do not seek pillage, and are convinced of the Price Expedition's innocence. In exchange for their word that they shall not kill any of his people, he gives them a boat, and advises them to enter the water gate at the rear of the tower, where the fishing boats come and go.
The Adventurers are led to the great lake, and take their boat across the water. William incapacitates the guard from a distance with his cane, and Zachariah alters the sleeping man's memories so that he thinks he merely slipped. The go up a small flight of stairs to a door, and knock out another guard. Here they abandon the idea of brainwashing all the guards they meet, and just decide to be as quick as they can.
Led by William, they narrowly evade a spear trap, but trigger the super-fun death slide on the dungeon stairs. Fortunately, they escape near certain doom by virtue of being swish motherfuckers, and simply slide down the stairs and spring nimbly over the pit trap at the bottom. Moreover, William's superb engineering brain notes precisely which step triggered the effect.
They easily dispatch a couple of guards - William pocketing their crystal spearheads for study - and open the cell where the prisoners are held.
"Don't worry," William and Zachariah say. "We're here to rescue you." Elaine: Do you practice saying that? William: No; we just end up saying it a lot.
Professor Price warns his niece not to be ungracious. He also cautions that the traps in the city - designed by generations of paranoid high priests - are linked to a central alarm system, so they decide to quickly flee.
They ascend the stairs - evading the trap - and dash along the corridors until they spot a group of guards.
Our heroes make swift work of the Muyaccans who have accosted them in the corridor, dropping the archers before they can successfully fire a single arrow, and the spearmen with little damage, beyond a graze to Zachariah's shoulder. Professor Price applauds their gallantry, but notes that he personally deplores violence. Sophie Reed tells him to run now, debate the virtues of executive action later.
They make their way swiftly back to the docks, with Li Mi in the lead.
Hearing voices ahead, Li Mi investigates and finds two guards, erm...guarding the door to the docks. William and Zachariah pop round the corner and drop them both with their concussion weapons.
William cautiously peeks through the door, and jumps back as a group of bowmen fire at him. He sees the arrows begin to glow about five feet from the bow, and the door is blasted to splinters as one of them strikes it and explodes, causing some minor harm to William. With his keen eyes, William was able to make a quick count before ducking back: five or six bowmen, as many spearmen, and one dude in a big headdress, apparently some manner of priest.
The situation is like this:
_________________________________________________
| | | |
| | D |
| ------ S1 | O |
| B1 -NETS- | O W |
| -NETS- ------- | R |
| -NETS- B6 -CRANE- |_______| Z |
| B2 -NETS- -CRANE- |_______| L |
| ------ P -CRANE- |_______| |
| ------- |_______| |
| S2 |_______| |
| ___________________________ |_______| |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| B3 | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | B __| | S3 S4 | |
| B4 | O | | | |
| | A |__| S5 | |________
| | T | | |
| | | | S6 S7 | PRICE
| B5 | | | | EXPEDITION
| | | | GC |________________
|_______|_____--WATER GATE--_______|_|__________|
S=Spearman B=Bowman P=Priestly-looking dude W=William Z=Zachariah L=Li Mi GC=Gate Controls
So, the aim is to get past the defenders to the boat, open the gate and leave. There are in total six bowmen, seven spearmen and the priestly-looking dude.
William leads the charge in impressive style, leaping from the 7' high mezzanine-type thing at the top of the stairs, shooting Spearman-1 and using his unconscious form as a crash-mat. Zachariah continues the offensive by busting in, and capping off like a total mad thing at the three bowmen (3, 4 and 5) on the far walkway. He hits nothing, but then he wasn't planning to. All he needed to do was look like he really means it, which he does, admirably, causing all three archers to leap into the water and swim for some approximation of safety.
Li Mi follows, and heads down the stairs at the spearmen.
Jinking and weaving, William makes for the cover of the crane, evading a pair of arrows which explode harmlessly behind him. Zachariah meanwhile continues his forward momentum, steps of the mezzanine and lands flat on his face.
Li Mi leaps amid the massed spearmen, a frenzy of flying feet as she windmills-kicks them all into unconsciousness. A move that would be even more impressive, had they not at the same time stabbed her repeatedly with spears, leaving her to collapse, bleeding among the unconscious forms of her foes.
Spearman-2 attacks William, as does the Priest, wielding a crystal-bladed battleaxe. William evades the spear, but not the axe, which shears through his armour with an efficiency beyond that of the finest sharpened steel, although fortunately not quite well enough to do more than minor damage. Zachariah gets up and dashes to cover, evading a flurry of arrows.
Zachariah exchanges fire with Bowman-6, putting him down, while 1 and 2 shift position. William hooks the Priest's axe, and redirects it to smack painfully into the Spearman.
William tries to Priest's axe down, but fails, although he does put off his aim enough that the next swing misses. As the two remaining archers move around, Zachariah shoots one, but fails to drop the other. In return, he receives an exploding arrow in the leg, causing him much hurt and dropping him to the floor.
William shifts his grip and fires the concussion cane into the Priest. It doesn't kill him, but does overbalance him into the water. Zachariah misses the archer, but the archer returns the favour, his glowing arrowhead hissing as it strikes the water. William then finishes the bowman with a concussion round.
Job done, they round up the Price Expedition, and get everyone to the boats. Sophie Reed administers first aid to the needful, William collects a few of the arrows for study, and they flee.
As they run through the jungle, blasts of light start charring trees around them. Professor Price stops to marvel at the Muyacca solar collector/amplifier, before his niece and his assistant grab his arms and start propelling him forward. In all this excitement, no-one sees Dr Montoya grab a pack from the undergrowth.
They reach the Guardian village, where the Muyaccans do not fire the solar beam, and the leader, Ake, has his people tend their wounds after they assure him they kept their promise and killed none of his people (I guess the poor bugger with the axe in his face was chalked up to the Priest's account).
They go down the passage, and Ake seals it behind them, something he says should have been done long ago.
Our heroes emerge from the tunnel to face a terrible sight. Laurie is on his knees, with Major Cross holding a gun to his head, and one of his mercenaries has Tamula - the guide, last seen heading off to create a monkey diversion - at a similar disadvantage. Cross' second in command, a very large man, has a knife to Tatuie the Oracle's throat, and there are two goons holding rifles on the Adventurers.
Finally, Dr Robards - the Price Expedition's financier - is holding a gun to the head of Karen Price, who still has her arm in a sling.
Robards tells the Adventurers he never thought that they would be so persistent. He explains to Price that he is doing this for the vast wealth that can be gained by exploiting the Muyaccan crystal artefacts, and - incidentally - because Karen Price loves Stanley Carter and not him. Cackling like a madman, he tells them that it is her fault that they all have to die.
He calls out to Dr Montoya, who produces his pack and tosses Robards a crystal skull, in exchange for his pistol. Releasing Karen, Robards holds the skull over his head, and it - and he - begins to glow, startling the mercenaries as much as anyone.
The Adventurers react first.
William shoots an arrow clean through the forehead of the unnamed second in command (his name was Baker, but that ceased to be important when an arrow punched through his skull). He released Tatuie and died. Using his mental powers, Zachariah caused Cross to drop his gun, which he did, looking mighty pissed, while Li Mi took down the goon holding their guide, but missed a second rifleman.
Karen dives forward, tackling Carter to the ground, as a beam of golden energy strikes the ground where he was standing with a massive, concussive blast.
A goon, Dr Montoya and Cross fire on Zachariah - Cross drawing a second pistol to do so - while another goon targets Li Mi, and Robards goes for the object of his obsession with the Muyaccan energy ray.
William shoots an exploding arrow at the skull, which detonates with minimal effect. Zachariah goes defensive, and Li Mi leaps for Cross, smacking him across the face and making him mad. The bad guys hit nothing.
Cross and Li Mi each throw everything they have into a single, massive strike, and knock each other cold. Zachariah drops one of the goons, and Karen recovers a gun from somewhere, and shoots Montoya. William goes on the defensive as Robards turns the skull on him, and Montoya flees.
For several turns, William evades Robards' attacks, while Zachariah fails to drop the last rifle goon, who thankfully has no better luck. Karen shoots Robards three times in the head and chest, but the bullets are repelled by his golden glow. Once, William fails to dodge, and despite his armour absorbing and dissipating much of the impact, he takes a nasty slap form the concussive discharge. On another occasion, a near miss also hurts him, as flying earth and rock pelt his legs. Finally, Zachariah takes down the goon.
William charges Robards, who fails to dodge, but he merely bounces from the shield as though Robards were rooted to the earth. Zachariah's pistol has no effect on Robards, except to make him shift focus to this new attacker.
William shoots the rock wall above them, dropping a ton of rock on Robards' head. The pile shifts, and he begins to emerge unscathed, but then he fumbles the skull. The glow dies, and the pile of rock collapses in on Robards.
In the jungle, Montoya flees, and sees one of Cross' men in a boat with a large, covered load. He grabs the man's shoulder, but sees that the man had been tied at the wrists before his upper arms and chest were eaten.
The covered load looks up at him with glass-green eyes, and with a roar, it springs.
Karen Price apologises for sending the Adventurers up against armed mercenaries, and feels terrible that Robards' twisted love for her put them all in peril. Everyone is just relieved that no-one died.
Except for the bad guys, and of course Aston Warby. And Mauana, the Price Expedition's guide, who died of a heart attack at the top of the passage, and was buried in the Guardian village.
William gently rejected his would-be child bride, and took the arrows and spears back home to study. Professor Price insisted the skull be left behind.