(Savage Lost) #2.12 Finale "THOSE WERE THE REAL CONQUESTS"

Lost in some mysterious valley for days, our heroes had just eluded danger to enter the "Forbidden City" of the native Akala. 

While most of the city was a mixture of ancient architecture, one tower did defy explanation.  It was a gleaming metal structure, ascending into the fog.

Upon reaching it's front door, the heroes were confronted with a keypad and touchscreen, a strange apparatus for our folks from the 1920's, much more so for primitive monkey people.

Entering the Metal Citadel

Our Heroes:

Maja Millie - Noted archeologist and currently cradling a strange Crystal Skull, obtained from the wicked Ape God, Atil-a-Kong. 

Nils Lingonberry - Swedish Adventurer.  Holding the Crown of Kamula from the encounter with Atil-a-Kong.

Lord Jon-Smythe Cuppenbrush - British Gentlemen, Big Game Hunter, and ex-soldier. 

Barbara Kacey:  Newspaper photographer out of film and her element.

But Maja Millie notice a strange light coming from her satchel.  The crystal skull she had discovered during their fight with Atil-A-Kong, the Ape God, was now glowing brightly.  She positioned it closer to the controls o the wall and doors opened with an effortless *swoosh*. 

Looking at the countless buttons with strange symbols inside the elevator car, Maja looked for a pattern on them and guessed the highest "number" in the pattern.

The elevator shot up like a rocket, cycling through all the symbols until finally slowly down, hopefully at the top. 

The doors opened up to a hallway with concrete floors and metal walls.  Stepping out of the car, small fluorescent lights came to life along the edges of the floor and ceiling. 

Nils walked up to door, pistol in hand, and hit the electronic panel besides it.  As the door *swooshed* to the side lights came to life, and a lone figure stood in the back of the room.  A robot head looked up and was immediately hit by a bullet, exploding in a fireball. 

"What was that!"  Lord Cuppenbrush inquired.

"I don't know, but eet blows up gut!"

Nils incinerates the first encounter.

Not seeing any exits or loot, Maja Millie shut to the door to block off the fire and smoke and chose a different direction.

A short trip down a different hall and they got a full view of cousins of the first encounter.  Again, the lights flickered on and two robotic creatures with some form of gun attached to their arms slowly came to life. 

Lord John slid over to allow the rest to move in and get a shot at the robots.  He missed with his revolver and Maja Millie attempted to use the Crystal Skull to shoot energy bolts.  She couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, and each shot make the Skull glow brighter. 

More robots...

Lord Cuppebrush managed to disable the further robot, but another emerged from the walls!  Nils then boldly charged into room, shooting the near 'bot in the head before kicking it away! 

Nils to the Rescue!

Deciding to save his limited ammunition, Lord Cuppenbrush drew his cavalry saber and charged the mechanical construct.  It could only defend itself by parrying the blow with its gun, but upon impact, the saber snapped off the hilt. 

A quick energy bolt from Maja Millie dispatched the final robot.

The next room was huge, taking a full ten seconds for all the lights lining it to come to life, revealing a huge mechanical spider! 

Oh boy!!!

Lord John and Maja Millie managed to hit the horror, knocking out some of its mechanical eyes and some sort of weapon mounted on its head.  When Nils had the chance, he could only aim his pistol and answer with a resounding *click*.

Completely out of ammo, the Swede chucked the pistol at the creature, and the spider returned fire with some form of energy blast.  Nils, barely got of the way from getting vaporized. 

A Close Call By Nils

Kacey Barbara had already bolted towards the only other door in the room.  Lord Cuppenbrush grabbed the Swede and stumbled towards the door, a few of shot hitting something essential on the beast. 

Maja Millie tried to create some sort of covering fire using the Crystal Skull, but each shot missed and the skull grew to a blinding light... and began to vibrate. She threw to the artifact and the spider-robot seconds before it exploded. 

The Crystal Skull Explodes!

As the boom from the explosion finally subsided, Lord John crouched in the doorway, trying to shield his comrades with great futility.  Both Maja Millie and Nils were knocked out and bleeding badly, he was holding on my true grit and the photographer was at her wits end.  Most of the lights had been knocked out, and the few that remained showed the mechanical "spider" was still alive, albeit with only five of it's six legs.  But something  was on top of the creature, almost riding it. 

"Good Lord, that mad shaman Mettiaus is on the spider!  Quick, Barbara, grab Maja."  We must  leave immediately." 

The photographer grabbed her friend and they stumbled down the hallway.   The Akala shaman had difficulty controlling the machine, its lone weapon firing wildly into walls and collapsing parts of the ceiling.    The hallway was a long run which terminated into another door.  Lord Cuppenbrush hit the panel with his elbow and the door slowly *swooooooshed* open, revealing warm fetid jungle air, but the outside blocked with rocks and vines.  The gentleman and photographer slashed the vines and pushed their compatriots over the rocks, all the while dodging the explosive blasts of the spider.  Lord Jon rolled over the rocks last, as a shot hit the entrance, forcing things to collapse on themselves. 

Back in the African Jungle, but Still Lost!

Lord Cuppenbrush took a moment to rest and proceeded to patch up his friends.   The odds didn't look too good for four injured Westerners, lost in the jungle with barely any food, no clean water, and three bullets for a single revolver, but they persisted in finding a way out of the jungle and back to civilization. 

A little more than two days into their trek, they heard human voices coming closer.  Throwing caution to the wind, they made as much noise as they could muster, and soon were surrounded by a well-armed party of natives.... led by their good friend Bob Njano! 

Bob Njano had travelled back with the Shield of Ma-Nu-Fa and the Jade Heifer of Hathor from their earlier expedition, secured them in the Royal Museum, and immediately headed back with extra native hirelings to look for his friends.  It took three days, but they arrived back at the river and quickly met up with the gunboat to take them back home. 

The Shield, Jade Statue, and Crown of Kamula, earned them enough to rest in peace and tranquility as long as they wished. 

There your have it, Season Two of the Pulp Campaign is in the books.   This season was a lot more consistent than Season One, but it also may have been it's downfall.  The girls loved the Akala, hated the Ahdo, and simply could not understand why the dinosaurs got frightened by their over-eagerness to pet them.  Upon further review with the cast, we will return for Season Three, although it will be (a) back in Egypt and (b) probably in the January 2018.  Our attention will be turned to Mousling Fantasy Role-Play and the My Little Pony RPG (with some playtesting for Rat-na-Rock).  Most of the palm trees need a break (and thorough refurbishment) before we go further. 

Campaign Pros:  The jungle cloth from Jo-Ann Fabrics worked great.  The "Blue Martians" got some use plus I got to use the weird bug mini Mike got for me back during Cold Wars.  Using a Beanie Baby monkey for the "Ape God" scenario was genius and guarantees I use that scenario for conventions.

Campaign Cons:  The jungle cloth was a big dark for some of the pictures.  Kacey Barbara was a one-trick pony with little use except extra dice for lucky rolls.

The finale was inspired by part of a scenario from The Land of Counterpane.

And finally, most of the scenario titles (and basic plotting) for the second season were derived from chapters from The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.