II-XI. Ashore in the Yucatán. Sunday, March 4, 1725 Anno Domini

• Having discovered what he thinks is the entrance to the Treasury, Sir Randel advises the members of his company and then arranges for everyone to go to that hole the following morning in small groups or individually so as to not draw attention.
• On Monday morning, March 4, the crew rappel down into the cave and begin exploring. Their explorations lead them to what seems to be a small construction buried deep within the cave; within is a single, small strongbox filled with old coins. A treasure, indeed, but not that impressive of a haul.
• As the crew are discussing next actions, everything shifts around them without them noticing. There is suddenly a large solid gold two-headed snake statue. Each member of the crew has a sudden and intense flash of future individual memory that was bought by a mountain of gold.
• As they are recovering and bickering, one of the many shadows coalesces into Mister Gordon Reade who rambles about how he is the Steward of this treasure and none of it will leave this place. More shadows seem to gain human-like shape and the crew begins to withdraw toward a doorway … that might not have been there before.
• The flight of the expedition leads them into a stone maze of some sort, during which there is a quick scuffle between Misters Lucroy and Palange who have been more badly affected by the intense greed that afflicts the entire crew; blood is drawn and the image of Mister Reade cackles. Good! The Treasury requires a blood sacrifice! Sir Randel snaps at the two, intent on shouting some sense back into them.
• With the faceless shadows still pursuing them, the crew enters a vast treasure room which Mister Lucroy all but dives into. The others alternately pick some pieces or look for another exit.
• To Doctor Spenser’s eyes, each member of the expedition have barely visible two-headed snakes wrapped around their necks, which he takes to be a curse of some sort. Recalling the Irish faerie tales he frequently reads, he murmurs something in old Gaelic and then, serendipitously discovers an old leather bottle filled with druid water. He splashes some upon himself, feeling the curse lift immediately.
• Mister Reade reappears while this is happening, and Sir Randel, unsure how to proceed any further, calls out a challenge. As the two men are approaching one another, though, Mister Palange fires The Gun at Mister Reade and the shot seems to blow the man apart like he was a shadow!
• Having been splashed by the rapidly dwindling druid water, the crew are once more back in control of their senses and begin looking for a way to escape. Once more, the two-headed snake statue is present, now next to a great pit filled with corpses of varying ages. After some discussion, the crew decide to simply toss the statue into the pit, even as they can sense that it disapproves. The moment the statue strikes the bottom, the entire Treasury trembles and begins to shake. It is definitely time to flee!
• The crew flee back toward the large pile of treasure, with some of them pausing briefly to grab several handfuls, before darting toward the tunnel they hope will lead to safety. Behind them, the ceiling begins falling in and the crew must run faster! They emerge once in that small construction within the cave, nearly tripping over the small strongbox which is quickly snatched up.
• Outside the small building, they are surprised to discover Mister Reade’s body. He is clutching at his chest and has an agonized look on his face.
• Retracing their steps to the hole, they are surprised to discover Mister Long loitering above them. He informs them that his Master is going to be very displeased at what they’ve done before he instructs some unseen helpers to begin.
• And to the horror of the crew, an immense stone slab is slid over the top of the hole, cutting off all light. The crew … is trapped.

Player Notes:

• Full house for a change.
• As mentioned previously, I’ve skipped over a lot of stuff in an attempt to keep the outline short … and even still, its too long.
• The “druid water” stuff I pulled out of nowhere came from an Irish faerie tale I discovered called “The Greedy Fox” – it didn’t really go into any crazy detail about what “druid water” is or does, but the GM rolled with it and let it remove the magical Greed. I used the last of the water in the game by pouring it on the statue (though that did nothing), but Spenser is absolutely keeping the bottle.
• I think CommJunkee was mildly irked at Andricus for stealing his moment with the gunshot even though it made perfect sense.
• Gigermann grumbled that the final escape was as life-threatening as he anticipated, but based on Spenser’s encumbrance levels – he was literally a half pound from entering Light – I calculated that if he’d grabbed the basic lift of treasure like everyone else, he’d have been shifted into Medium encumbrance, which would reduce his Move to 3 … which meant the collapsing ceiling would have buried him. So it was a good thing Spenser didn’t grab any treasure apart from what he already had…
• I think the hard cut-off time and late start messed with Gigermann’s plan – I was expecting a fight of some sort and I think that might have made things flow a little better? Not sure.
• Gigermann has mentioned maybe doing a one-off session 12 later in the year to act as a denouement or follow-up to properly end the season. Time will tell.
• Next week we’re doing a Session 0 for our impending GURPS Star Wars game.

See the Daniverse Blog for the GM’s post-game debrief.