Present: Bernard (Jamie), Cooper (Ian), Felix (Kevin), Gazala (Richard), Jacob (Chris), Jean (Jeff), Mesmer (Shane), Wonton (Darryl)
Absent: Fleur (Stephen)
Rather than leave or bury the two bodies of the Arab trackers anywhere near our camp, and the trail into the canyon that led to the sarcophagus, we wrapped the bodies in a tarpaulin and stowed them in the back of the truck. And we decided that first thing the next day we would put the tracking skull into the cave with the sarcophagus and collapse the cave with the dynamite.
The night was again uneventful.
"Dis too quiet" worried Wonton, "I very worry"
"Someone should definitely stay here and guard my truck" confirmed Cooper.
Cooper, Gazala, and Mesmer took the fuses and made up the dynamite team.
Bernard, Felix, Jacob, Jean, and Wonton remained to guard the camp.
Bernard took a position on top of a raised dune nearby, in fact, the same spot where yesterday he sniped the two Arabs. If gave a good view over the camp and the approach from the distant road. The others made sute the Citroën was behind the truck and hidden from the direction that anyone would approach if they were coming from the road. Then they all relaxed and waited.
Just over an hour later, the temperature already climbing, Bernard called down that another vehicle was approaching. Jean and Felix had previously located a couple of small rocky mounds where they could tuck in, hidden from the direction of the road, but closer than Bernard, and also able to cover the approach. They settled in, while Wonton and Jacob hid themselves in the truck.
Another gleaming new Citroën AC4 hardtop halted in the sand about 100m away from the camp. From Bernard's vantage point with the binoculars, he could make out two Arabs in the front, arguing. He lined up the vehicle's radiator block in the rifle sights and strained his ears.
"No, you frick'n get out there" one of them was shouting.
"Stuff that, you do it" yelled the other.
Neither of them appeared to be willing to approach the camp, and shortly the car stated to back away.
"Boom"
Bernard's shot echoed round the hills, and a billow of steam hissed up from the Citroën's radiator. But they didn't stop. In fact, they spun their vehicle in the sand and began to speed away.
"Boom"
Another rifle shot from Bernard, this one harmlessly passing through the rear window and out through the windscreen, narrowly missing the driver, who belatedly ducked as the windsreen shatteredin front of him.
Even though they wouldn't get far with a dry radiator, Bernard, Felix, Jacob, Jean, and Wonton jumped into the first Citroën and took off in hot pursuit.
"Boom"
Bernard took a last long-range shot, and through good fortune, took out a tyre. The fleeing Citroën went through a series of escalating fish-tail swerves and then rolled up onto its side in the sand.
[Bernard's Rifle skill requires a two-dice roll as he is not proficient. But his skill is 17, so he only needs to roll two-D20 with both less than 17. At long range, he adds another dice, so has to roll three-D20, all under 17. After hitting the tyre, the fleeing driver was required to make a Drive skill roll. This failed and he lost control of the car. Hence the roll]
We sped towards the rolled vehicle, hoping they would be injured or at least temporarily incapacitated.
"Boom ... Boom ... Boom"
First a heavy thunk into our own radiator, closely followed by our front tyre bursting as two rifle shots came from beside the rolled car. Jean deftly kept the vehicle under control and brought it to a stop about twenty meters from the enemy location. Leaning out of the driver side window, Jean rattles of a long series of bursts from his machine gun while Jacob and Felix dash off to each side about five meters and dive to the ground. Wonton squeals and ducks down in the back of the Citroën.
One of the Arabs slides around the side of their overturned vehicle and takes a shot at us.
"Boom ... Boom Boom"
His shot whistled off behind us, and return fire from Felix and Jacob dropped him.
"Surrender" yelled Felix, "toss out your rifle"
A rifle comes flying over the top of Citroën.
"Walk out backwards with your hands in the air" yelled Felix.
The second Arab staggers out backwards from behind the Citroën, his hands stretched to the sky.
"Boom"
The back of the Arab's head blows apart in a misty cloud of red.
"What the?" screams Felix
Bernard waved out from the top of his dune, and jogs down towards us.
"He had a knife" he yelled.
A search of the two bodies revealed even less than that of the first two. No ID, no photos, no money, just plenty of nothing and more questions. Although one of the men was still alive. Jacob bandaged him up, Felix secured him, and we tossed his unconscious body into the back of the truck for later interrogation. We wrapped the other dead body in another tarpaulin and tossed it in too.
"Ow deed they know come ere?" wondered Wonton out loud.
"A marker, on the road" suggested Jean.
So, we rushed back to the truck and took a trip over to the distant road to check for some form of marker or indication of how the two sets of trackers had found us.
Nothing!
Although both their sets of tracks left the road at the same place that the tracks from our truck also left the road.
"They just followed our tracks" concluded Felix
Backing the truck up into a less obvious hollow, we began the process of brushing out all three sets of tracks, for about a hundred meters from the road. We ducked back into cover every time a vehicle approached, but there were no more Citroën AC4's and they all just rumbled past. We figured we could get the tracks all brushed out and be back at the camp by nightfall.
Meanwhile, back up the canyon and heading towards the sarcophagus cave, Cooper, Gazala, and Mesmer had heard the distant volleys of gunfire and wondered if they should hurry back.
"No, no" argued Gazala, "by the time we get back there, two hours, all finished"
So, they continued. A bit further along, and about thirty minutes before reaching the cave, Cooper heard a strange rustling and creaking noise from a side canyon. Gazala quickly unslung her new rifle and dropped down into cover. Mesmer threw off his robes, and quite starkers, began his invisibility chant. Cooper drew his pistol, and also dropped down into some cover, carefully watching the end of the canyon that the odd noises had come from.
 |
| An odd creature assembled from old skeletons |
Gazala looked it over, and despite it looking like the weirdest thing she had ever seen in the desert, she thought that a grenade would deal a goodly amount of damage. She slipped two grenades out of her pack and lined them up on the ground, for when it came into range. Then she made sure the rifle was fully loaded, made herself comfortable, took a sip of her water, offered a prayer to her ancestors, and settled in to wait.
Mesmer finished his Invisibility ritual, none too soon, as the burning sun was starting to cook his back and he suspected that it would be burnt red again before the end of the day. As the sweat beaded up across his shoulders and began to trickle down his back between his shoulder blades, he uttered the final chant, waved his hands just so, and faded from sight.
All the skulls on the creature spun immediately in his direction, and it stood taller. Looking directly towards where the invisible Mesmer crouched, it started to run, no longer a disjointed slow shamble, but a purposeful and coordinated run.
"Oh crap" Mesmer whispered, leaping up and running in the opposite direction.
Almost caught by surprise, Gazala quickly dropped the rifle and picked up a grenade. Flinging the pin behind her she lobbed the grenade into the air and watched it arc towards the running creature. Offering another prayer to her ancestors, she ducked further down behind the closest rock.
"Boom"
Peering over the top of the rock, Gazala was quite surprised to see the creature, hardly damaged, and still running flat out towards .... Cooper.
 |
| Cooper fires off a pistol shot |
"Boom"
Gazala scooped up her rifle, sighted it centre mass, and squeezed the trigger.
"Boom"
The two bullets hit their targets, shattering chips of bone off the creature as they pass right through and into the rocky ground beyond. But it remains on its feet, not even slowing, as it closes in on Cooper. Gazala backs quickly away, rifle trained on the creature. But as it engages Cooper she can't get another clean shot, so she continues to back away, quickly.
"Why me?" wondered Cooper as he dropped the pistol and drew his machete. As the creature threw itself at Cooper in a frenzied attack, Cooper swung his machete towards the thing's chest.
"Maybe it's a chest?" wondered Cooper as his blade swept through the air, totally missing.
The creature's multiple swinging arms struck Cooper and he staggered back, blood welling up from a deep cut across his shoulder. [Cooper missed, and the creature hit for 8 damage. A hit dealing more than half of the targets maximum hit points deals a "major" wound. Major wounds affect all skills and require an additional dice to be rolled for every action, the least favourable result used. If rendered unconscious with a major wound, players need to roll successfully against their Toughness stat, or bleed to death, immediately!]
 |
| Mesmer sights his rifle on the creature |
With the strange creature now the only the standing target left, Mesmer fired.
"Boom"
The creature tumbled over backwards and didn't move.
Mesmer jumped up, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and rushed back towards Cooper.
First Aid was applied, bleeding halted, and the imminent threat of death averted.
In fact, the two points of First Aid were enough to bring Cooper around and he groggily sat up.
The dead creature, now just a pile of old skeletons and shrubbery, lay scattered on the ground beside Cooper. Cooper stared at it for a few seconds, and then calmly pulled his few grenades out from his backpack. With a deft flick of his hunting knife, he removed the bases of the grenades and poured out the gunpowder into a pile on the ground beside the "body" of the creature.
"Hey" asked Mesmer, "What are you doing?"
"Just need to blow this thing to smithereens" Cooper replied.
"Oh" exclaimed Mesmer, "Um, need any help?"
Cooper pulled a dynamite fuse from the bag and began to mount them into the pile of gunpowder. He wired then together and was just laying out a very short tail when Mesmer, "helping", knocked the fuse out of the gunpowder. Cooper cursed, and then reset the fuse.
Suddenly Cooper stopped, looked around, and scrabbled back from his improvised explosive device with a shriek.
"Ah" he shuddered, "maybe this isn't such a good idea"
[Cooper had failed his Sanity roll upon seeing such a strange creature and obtained a temporary Insanity as a result. This required him to act in the worst interests of the party for a period of two-rounds. Ian felt that blowing up the creature, wasting the fuses, and potentially damaging everyone present fitted the bill nicely. Cooper was on one point so would likely have died if the gunpowder had gone off. Shane had intervened by having Mesmer undo Cooper's efforts in the guise of assisting]
Cooper, Gazala, and Mesmer gathered up their equipment and continued on towards the cave.
"What's that noise?" asked Mesmer a few minutes later.
A rattly buzzing was emanating from Gazala's backpack, and upon investigation they found that the large ruby gem was vibrating around inside the magical skull.
"That's never happened before" states Mesmer.
As they approached closer and closer to the cave, and the sarcophagus within, the gem became more and more violent inside the skull. By the time they reached the mouth of the cave, the gem was slamming from side to side of the skull. It almost looked like it was trying to bash its way out. But they were on a mission, with clear instructions from Bernard. Place the skull inside the cave with the sarcophagus and blow the entrance so everything is well and truly buried.
Mesmer carried the rattling skull into the cave and placed it close to the sarcophagus, which was still wedged as deeply into the cave as the party could previously get it. Cooper retrieved the dynamite from where it had been hidden and began to set a series of charges running from the cave entrance back down the length of the cave. Gazala took her rifle and binoculars and climbed up to the top of the nearby peak to check around. She could see back to the camp and noted two smoking vehicles sitting out in the desert nearby. No sign of the party truck though, and no sign of any other people.
"BOOOM"
The ground shook. Gazala hurried back down to the cave location and joined up with Cooper and Mesmer. They moved off down the canyon until the sun dropped below the hills and it started to get dark. They found a reasonable spot to camp for the night, and Gazala told the others that she would stand watch for the night.
"Are you ... sure......?" grunted Cooper as he curled up under the little tent and fell into an exhausted sleep.
"Okay with me" confirmed Mesmer as he also slipped under his bedroll and began to snore.
 |
| Gazala slits Cooper's throat |
A little later Mesmer awoke. Something had disturbed his fitful slumber. As he peered out from under the side of the little tent, he saw a large shadowy figure rise up from behind Gazala and bend down as though whispering into her ear. Gazala then slowly rose and crept towards the tent. Mesmer couldn't move, he felt paralysed, he couldn't even yell. Gazala drew her knife as she ducked into the tent and with a quick swipe, she cut Coopers throat from ear to ear. As bright arterial blood gushed out across Gazala's robe, she turned and looked straight at Mesmer.
Mesmer tried to back away but was frozen to the spot. Gazala raised her knife and leapt across the tent towards Mesmer. The wicked magical blade gleamed greenly in the dark as it swept towards Mesmer's throat.
"Arrrghhh" Mesmer screeched, as he jerked up from his bedroll.
All was quiet, Cooper was snoring beside him, and Gazala looked over with concern from her spot just outside the tent.
"We most go back to the cave" stated Mesmer.
"No way" argued Gazala.
"Then we must get further away" countered Mesmer, "Something is not right"
They quickly packed up and carried on down the canyon in the dark. It was pretty slow and tough going, and after a few hours of struggle, they decided that that would have to be far enough. Quickly throwing up the little tent they all squeezed in and dropped into an exhausted sleep.
Cooper awoke to see Gazala crouched over his nether regions, licking her lips suggestively. She bobbed down and engulfed his swelling manhood between her warm lips. Cooper grinned and leant back.
Mesmer had the same dream as a few hours previously.
Gazala on a killing spree with her glowing knife.
They all awoke, sometime just before dawn, and scrambled up and away towards the camp. Cooper still grinning, Mesmer nervously keeping an eye on Gazala, and Gazala wondering what the hell Cooper was grinning about.
Around dawn they arrived at the camp. The truck was parked just behind the tent and the rest of the crew were just waking and preparing breakfast.
Jacob tended to the injured Cooper, healing him for two more pints [and eliminating the major wound in the process]. After a good feed, Cooper went out to see if the Citroën's could be made to run. He was still grinning but reported that one vehicle was a total write-off and would need towing, but the other might be okay after some heavy-duty repair work.
Inspector Heroux called in on the radio and reported that one of the night-time guards had cut off his left hand and attached the skeletal hand he was supposed to be guarding. They shot and killed him. He'll check in each morning at 9am, so we should have the truck running and the radio on then. We gave him the number plates of the two Citroën's, and he will try to find the owner.
"Ten bob it's Tariq" bets Cooper.
That night we set up guard shifts, but its only Wonton that has a strange dream. Once again Gazala is out and about cutting people's throats. Wonton takes a quick look around after waking from that dream, looks about, sighs, and goes back to sleep.
In the morning Mesmer argues that it's critical to return to the cave and check why the strange dreams are occurring. He thinks that the skeleton is extending its influence beyond the sarcophagus, and we must not leave it like that.
Bernard and Cooper suggest that it's much more important to get rid of the bodies and the Citroën's before more trackers turn up at the camp, and possibly overrun us. So, it's put to a party vote, fix the cars and get rid of the bodies, or head back to the collapsed cave.
"Well, that's just stupid" states Mesmer in a huff, and gathered up some supplies and headed off up the canyon to check on the cave, all on his own.
"Oh, for Achmed's sake" moans Gazala, and gathered up her stuff and went with him.
Wonton scooped up the tracking amulet and followed them.
Bernard just sighed and sent Felix after them.
Bernard, Cooper, Jacob, and Jean stayed to deal with the cars and the bodies.
The God's chuckled ....
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