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[RichGreen]

Saturday 27th May (contd)

The rogues (well, the pirates) are a-plotting for much of the afternoon: a sleeping drug is bought at great expense from an apothecary and a cross-dressed Merritt scouts out the Governor’s Palace in a widow’s outfit.

At 8pm, Carlos del Diaz escorts Bloody Mary to the ball with Merritt along as her page boy. Peregrine also gets inside the ball, using a stolen invitation. Meanwhile, Rodrigo climbs on to the roof and then inside through a top floor window. William stays on watch in the Plaza Mayor. As Rodrigo sneaks about upstairs, trying to avoid the eyes and ears of the guards, Mary and Peregrine are tripping the light fantastic, and on the whole managing to not make fools on themselves on the dance floor. Merritt has been put to work in the kitchens, bringing canapes and glasses of wines to the frolicking nobility. During his trips back and forth to the kitchens, he observes a tray of food being taken through a mysterious locked door. By questionning the other lads, he learns that this door leads down to the dungeons beneath the palace where Clever Dick is being held until his execution tomorrow.

Outside, William is getting bored when suddenly, a hideous undead form appears in front of the palace entrance, coalescing from a swirling cloud of tomb dust. Cuauhtemoc has arrived at the ball! The mummy kills both guards and goes inside; William, brave enough to resist the aura of despair surrounding the unliving thing follows at a safe distance.
Cuauhtemoc wreaks havoc in the foyer and then moves into the ballroom, causing mass hysteria among the assembled nobility of Cartagena. Bloody Mary, Peregrine and Merritt are all paralysed with fear at his appearance, and Peregrine is doubly unfortunate to be standing in the way and is struck hard with a vicious slam attack. Realising what he is looking for is not in the ballroom, Cuauhtemoc heads upstairs where Rodrigo has been spotted by the guards and shot at by one of them. Rodrigo tries to dive out of the window when the mummy approaches but misjudges his leap and just ends up crashing to the floor. Fortunately, Cuauhtemoc ignores him, bashing down the door into the governor’s study and retrieving what he was looking for – an obsidian tablet – from inside a secret compartment concealed behind one of the bookcases.

Back downstairs, Merritt has shrugged off his fear of the living dead and headed down into the dungeons, closely followed by the captain, William and Peregrine. Merritt’s shout of “the French are attacking!” is enough to send the gullible prison guards racing upstairs, and the pirates are able to spring Clever Dick Richards from his cell after Bloody Mary has won over the dog holding the cell keys. Having achieved their objective, they hurry back to the ship. Upstairs, with Cuauhtemoc nowhere to be seen, Rodrigo picks himself up off the floor and peers into the study where he is happily surprised to find a bag holding 1,000 doubloons and several nice-looking pieces of jewellery left inside the governor’s secret cache. Grabbing the loot, he too makes haste for the Fortune.

Back on the ship, Clever Dick reveals the hiding place of his piece of the treasure map: it’s been tattooed on to his head! Bloody Mary calls for the ship’s barber.

Peregrine is not in a good way – he appears to be suffering from a terrible rotting disease.