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[RichGreen]

Thursday 20th April (contd)

The three dead crewmen are buried on the island (God rest their souls!). After some to-ing and fro-ing between the Fortune and the beach an "away team" is assembled of Captain Scarlet, Rodrigo, Merritt and Rob to head inland in search of the "great treasure", with "Competent" Samuel as a guide. Diego and Felix, two of the crew of the Rising Eagle, are to stand guard on the beach over the ship's boat.


Friday 21st April

With a storm brewing, the expedition sets off into the dense jungle as the rain starts to fall down. After a short while a brightly coloured parrot starts following the crew as they hack their way through the undergrowth. There is much suspicious muttering about "magic parrots". Soon afterwards, the pirates are surprised by an attack from a carnivorous tropical vine which lashes out at the captain, knocking her unconscious. The vicious plant strikes again, killing Samuel, and taking out the plucky Merritt who tries to drag the captain out of trouble. Rob runs and hides up a tree where he is soon joined by two parrots; Rodrigo also makes a tactical withdrawl from the vicinity.

As the plant pulls the lifeless body of Samuel into its foliage and starts devouring him, Merritt comes round and manages to crawl slowly away. Rodrigo shoots one of the suspicious "magic" parrots off its perch, and Rob stabs the other one to death with her dagger. Then, lieutenant-wannabe Peregrine arrives on the scene, having followed the party's rather obvious tracks from the beach. He suggests lassoing the captain and pulling her unconscious body towards the others. His plan works and the pirates' bold leader is draggged back to safety. She soon comes round, but bears a nasty wound from the lashing tendril which is bound to form into a nasty scar.

Giving the dangerous vine a wide berth, the party presses on. With Rodrigo scouting ahead, they soon reach their goal: a ruined Mayan temple surrounded by crude mud huts, standing in the shadow of the volcano. Small lizardfolk and their not-so-small guard lizard can be seen patrolling the village. The pirates decide caution is the better part of valour and sneak around the camp and behind the waterfall, climbing up the side of the pyramid's steps.

Rodrigo climbs onto the temple roof and then jumps down to attack the giant blackscale lizardman inside. The others run in to help, attacking the huge tribal leader and his smaller henchmen. The pirates prevail and it doesn't take them long to find a secret door beneath the altar leading down into darkness.

At the bottom of the stairs, they find a stone door covered with intricately carved pictograms. Unfortunately, the door is trapped and a savage scything blade swings down to injure Rodrigo. Beyond is a 20 ft square room containing a large, stone sarcophagus on a raised dais. The sarcophagus is carved with skull and snake motifs. As soon as Merritt enters the room, the
sarcophagus lid flies off, slamming into him very hard.

There is a screaming sound and dust swirls out of the sarcophagus, forming into a skeletal human figure clad in a feathered headdress and holding a sceptre. The undead monstrosity says something in a foreign language, laughing in a dry throaty voice, before taking a vicious swipe at Merritt, enough to kill him! Then, it dissolves into a column of tomb dust and swirls past the others and up the stairs.

Everyone present gets the feeling that an ancient evil has been unleashed on the world. However, Captain Scarlet is not easily swayed from her purpose, and checks inside the coffin where she is gratified to discover the great treasure has been left behind, including a crystal skull, gold body ornaments, jade masks and a headdress made of exotic feathers.

The pirates make their way back to the ship and are relieved when Merritt comes round. Like the captain, he will bear a hideous scar forever from the day's adventures!