The Butterfly Effect: Palaeo Diet Pulp with the Chronographic Society (3/3)

The adventure concludes … (if you missed part 1, click HERE, or part 2, click HERE)

Some months later … the information provided by the Mayan inscription (as photographed and drawn by expedition members in the Amazon) has been instrumental in defeating the plans of some bad actors, using Dr Muller’s research, to control the weather. Details need not concern us now. But professor Logarithm continued to puzzle over the rest of the inscription, especially some rows of glyphs at the bottom.

Then late last month he addressed a meeting of the Society to announce his findings. 

The bottom of the inscription although incomplete describes the journey of the Heavenly Twins (Mayan semi-divine humans, a bit like Hercules or Maui) into the abode of the Gods, where they performed valorous deeds but eventually were killed by the jealous deities.

So far it’s normal ethnological stuff. A lot of cultures have legends like this. But then, the inscription seems to state that the gateway or portal they used - which was created by the goddess Itzpapalotl (“Obsidian Butterfly”) atop the Great Pyramid of Nongprue - closed after them but will re-open on [complex Mayan date calculation]. At which time the Gods would  … [remainder of the inscription missing].

The reaction from the audience at first was underwhelming. Very interesting. Adds greatly to our understanding of MesoAmerican psychology. Etc etc. Then a hand went up and old Admiral Fisher spoke. “That date falls about six weeks from now, if I’m not mistaken. Winston and I think a precautionary response would be appropriate.”

And the rest is history, although until now found only in the annals of the Chronographic Society.

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The Heavenly Twins

The adventuring party travelled to the ruined Mayan city of Nongprue, in San Theodoros, “just to see”. After delays caused by a local coup d’etat (General Alcazar has once again been ousted by General Tapioca), they arrived at Nongprue, deep in the jungle, a few days after the estimated date in the inscription.

Here’s a high level view of the ruined city, with the relatively intact Great Pyramid in the centre. All seems quiet. In fact very quiet. No birds singing for example. And their local guides and porters will not stay, though the small military escort insisted on by the San Theodoran government is made of sterner stuff.

The adventurers confer. They’ll split into teams of two and explore, looking for signs of unusual activity. Tintin, Haddock & Snowy get the job of climbing the pyramid so they can survey the area from above, and examine the stela on top, which presumably is the portal. Chang and the professor will go clockwise around the site, and Castafiore & Irma anticlockwise, meeting up on the far side. The soldiers (commanded by Lt Diego Rivera) will guard the camp.

Each time an adventurer (not counting Snowy as he’s not human) or a soldier outside the camp fails an activation dice, a beast* (vengeful demon sent by the old gods) may appear 1L from the human who failed. This is additional to any “normal” beast reaction caused by the activation fail. * Roll 1D6 for each beast appearance. On ‘1,2,3’ no beast apoears. On ‘4 it’s a Swarm. On ‘5 it’s a Lesser Mummy. On ‘6’ it’s a Greater Mummy but there may be only 1 Greater Mummy in play at a time.

To stop the arrival of demons the stela portal atop the Great Pyramid must be destroyed. This can only be done by an adventurer climbing up (at skulking pace, taking 2 actions), and once at the top declaring an attack and then activating with at least 13 PIPs across 3 activation dice. Any activation fail in this task means the adventurer is wounded and returned to the bottom of the pyramid. Piece of cake. But at first the adventurers don’t join the dots. First they’ll have to receive some exposure to the power of the portal.

Turn 1

The reconnaissance teams set off. Castafiore immediately encountered a swarm (all today’s swarms are army ants). She and Irma closed to just within 1M for a closer look. Chang encountered a Mummy (all are Lesser unless stated otherwise) . He shot at it but missed and the mummy summoned another swarm. Then Tintin triple-failed his activation, and two mummies appeared including a Greater Mummy. Today’s Mummies are zombified Mayan warriors. So things are looking weird and dangerous already.

Turn 2

Castafiore shoots at the swarm facing her and Irma, and disperses it. Chang’s swarm moves into contact with him, hindering his activations, but he manages to evade it by falling back towards the camp. Logarithm prudently also ducks back. Haddock fails an activation and the nearest Mummy reacts by moving away. Haddock then skulks towards the Greater Mummy. Tintin and Sniwy both get triple-success activations. Tintin skulks forward and shoots at the Greater Mummy, but misses. The G Mummy roars (threat display presumably) but Tintin survives his morale roll and stands his ground. Snowy runs ahead and attacks the G Mummy, causing it 2 wounds, one of which turned out to be “well-placed”, so the Greater Mummy is destroyed.

Turn 3

Castafiore & Irma finally get to move out, with no further interruptions. Chang takes an aimed shot at the swarm annoying him and disperses it. The remaining mummies are too far away to react. Logarithm skulks forwards. Tintin gets a double activation failure and 2 more swarms appear. Haddock OTOH gets a triple success and dog-legs to the R, past his friend’s train wreck, and is at the foot of the Pyramid on the E side, ready to begin his ascent.

The photo above shows the end of turn 3. At lower L Lt. Rivera, in the camp, watches the slow progress of the adventurers and wonders if they will need military assistance. Also on the L, the airburst shows the swarm Chang has dispersed, with Logarithm skulking next to it. Beyond the ex-swarm is a Mummy. In the C Snowy is still growling at the fallen Great Mummy, and Tintin is nearby. Another mummy, and 2 swarms, are at the foot of the pyramid in front of Tintin. Over on the R Castafiore & Irma are making their way around the E face of the pyramid. Haddock is out of sight behind the vegetation clump with yellow berries.

Turn 4

Irma manages to call another Mummy into action. Castafiore deals with it by moving within range and unleashing her special weapon. She sings a few bars of her signature tune (the “Jewel Song” from the opera “Faust”, by Gounod). The Mummy fails three rolls against its resilience and moves away 3S. It ended up outside the perimeter wall, and was not seen again. Meanwhile Tintin finds he is just within M of the closest Mummy. He shoots at it and misses. The Mummy lunges towards him, and both nearby swarms also close in. Snowy is then attacked by the Mummy, each receives a wound from the other. Haddock reaches the top of the pyramid. Castafiore & Irma continue to explore.

Turn 5.

Chang takes an aimed shot at the Mummy in front of him. It’s a well-placed hit and the  Mummy is dropped. Logarithm then moves forward to reach the W edge of the pyramid.  Tintin fails all activation dice, because of the annoying effect of the swarms. The Mummy attacking Snowy roars, and Tintin skulks 2S away. Snowy takes this in stride and renews his fight with the Mummy, and shreds it.

Castafiore & Irma have seen Haddock atop the pyramid, and can see Chang and the professor with only a non-functioning Mummy visible. So they decide to climb the pyramid too, and both succeed.

In the above photo, Haddock Castafiore & Irma are on top of the pyramid admiring the views. Chang is at bottom L, looking at the Mummy he just shot. Logarithm is at the bottom L corner of the Pyramid. In the C Snowy is sniffing the Mummy he has just deactivated, and the nearby two swarms are just hanging about. Tintin is cowering at lower R in the shelter of the perimeter wall.

Turn 6

It’s time to see if the adventurers can destroy the portal, by pushing the stela over the edge of the pyramid. It’s pretty clearly the source of the Mummies (tho the Swarms could just be local army ants), and who knows what it could generate in the future if not closed down. 

Haddock tries first, but cannot move it. There is a flash of blue light, and he takes a sound and is instantly transported to the foot of the pyramid. Irma and Castafiore decide to work together (contingent plot point) so jointly roll 3 activation dice and add +2 to their score. They roll enough (3D6 = 12 + 2 = 13 minimum) and manage to push the stela over the edge. 

As it hits the ground and breaks into pieces, the Mummies (tho all on the table are already OOA) and Swarms (very much alive and annoying) all instantly vanish. Haddock and Snowy stay wounded though. But I’m sure Chang will be able to patch them up.

Here’s a final photo (which I forgot to number) as everyone gathers around to look at the fallen stela. Maybe it will be possible to take some chunks back to the San Theodoros Muséum in Los Dopicos?

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Cheers from Pattaya

Mark