(Savage Lost) #2.7 - Tomorrow We Journey Into the Danger

As the storm clouds abated over the lost jungle, our heroes were being escorted to an unfamiliar sector my the strange blue monkey men.  They seemed friendly...

Maja Millie - crack archeologist who had just rescued and healed on the blue monkey men she had encountered 

Barbara Kacey - newspaper photographer on assignment a LONG way from home.  Running low on patience and film.

Lord Jon-Smythe Cuppenbrush - ex-British adventurer, full-time British gentleman whose patience was running thin.

The blue monkey men took them to a strange clearing with a large rock in the center.  More of the these creatures, all of them armed, formed a circle around the heroes.  

This may bode poorly for our heroes...

No one could understand anything from the opposite group, and Kacey Barbara was first to snap. With the monkey men encroaching on her, she used one of her last flash bulbs to scare them back to the circle.  More monkey men with spear came crawling out of the trees, posed menacingly, but did nothing else.

Drums could be heard up in the trees and the monkey men opened up the circle to allow an aged and highly decorated elder to enter.

He stared at Maja Millie, sheathed his metal sword, held his fist to his chest and shouted "Met-i-us!"

"Oh my God, Maja, he's saying "Kill Them!"  Kacey hollered, arms outstretched towards the archeologist.

Maja pointed back at her "Aye-yi-yi! Will you be quiet!  They're trying to communicate with use."

It took most of the evening but a rapport could be formed with elder, even with the language barrier. They later learned that the monkey men, who called themselves the Akala, though Maja was "Kil-dem" and Kacey "Aye-yi-yi."

Lord Cuppenbrush seemed of little help, having relied on translators for all his adventures.  It took most of the evening to convince the Akala that our heroes needed food and weren't strange beings who wished to be cooked.

Mettiaus and Maja Millie play a bad game of charades...

On the second day, the heroes knew enough basic language that the elder's charades were easier to understand.   They were forced to climb ropes and discovered and entire village hiding in the canopy of the jungle, safe from most predators.

After a great feast of fruits and small game, Mettiaus led them to a perch of sorts that viewed most of the mysterious valley that they had ended up in.  He pointed towards a cliff face across the valley.  Against the white stone, our heroes could see wisps of smoke climbing in to the low hanging clouds.  Mettiaus spoke at link, sometimes assisted by the gesticulations of Blauen, the Akala that Maja had rescued.  The women were quite confused as to their performance, but the stoic and annoyed Cuppenbrush finally spoke up.

"Ladies, their feared enemies, the Ahdo, live on the other side of this valley.  They hunt the Akala to eat them.  Those drums you can barely hear off in the distance?  Those drums signal a sacrifice to their Monster God.  Unlike many primitive cultures on Earth, the Ahdo don't sacrifice food, animals, or wealth to their god, rather using intelligent beasts, like the Akala.  Mettiaus is worried.  He believes all his kind are accounted for, and we are the only "intelligent" beings left.

Maja Millie gasped, "We are.... and NILS!  We need to rescue him!"

GM Notes:  Another strictly role-playing session using Rory's Story Cubes and Savage Worlds to resolve skill checks.  No one was prepared to try to communicate with the Akala, so we almost came to blows a few times.  

I discovered I needed to play a new game with the girls, charades.  Maja stood up and tried to tell a story about them losing their supplies and how hungry they were.  I believe I now understand how the Hawaiians created the hula to tell stories, because that's what it looked like. 

Next:  Episode #2.8: A Rescue!