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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9679613" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Indy in the Andes (based on Vault of the Condor by Garnett Elliot)Pottery shattered onto the tree. The path forward was covered in sap, which was bad enough, until it attracted swarms of bullet ants!JP's house was crowded. After a few weeks of honeymooning, his wife had not so subtly suggested that he take some cases outside of New Orleans, and Professor Chenoweth had a great one. In the Andes, there was rumored to be a dagger that could pierce the veil of tears, granting power over life and death.JP’s sister-in-law, arriving with cookies, mentioned she knew about the Piercer from her archaeologist husband. Before he died, he had been seeking it. Alice her society friends had hired a professional from Marshall College to retrieve the thing on JP's behalf.The group moved to the backyard. On the case: detective Zelda Saeki, smuggler Ivan “Ivo” Kochev, JP, Thaza O'Rourke (the cat burglar raised by apes!), and Filipino mercenary Calvin Davino. (Unfortunately, Calvin's player had to leave halfway through the session, so his contributions will be elided.)Zelda heard some Japanese whispering from the next yard over. Agent Lorna Geary slid her a cool hundred-dollar bill, telling her that the artifact, when retrieved, should be stored in JP's house. Saeki didn't need to steal it, just make sure it could be stolen. Zelda, not wanting to piss off her General father, agreed.Unfortunately, the group’s normal method of transit (begging Devika for a ride on her jet) was unavailable. Chenoweth worked for the American Museum of Natural History; Ivo and Thaza got him to sign a “deposit check against future artifacts”. From there, their criminal expertise got the group tickets on a steamer that left the next night.When they arrived in Callao, the city was in an uproar. Apparently some American had pissed off the local crime boss. That resulted in a car chase that’d leveled parts of downtown. Instead of sneaking through, the group decided to put Zelda's charm to the test… and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams! Somehow, instead of being under suspicion, the group got the key to the city. Ivo did some digging at the local university, and discovered more about their intended target:From there, it was a truck ride to Cusco, and then a multi-day hike into the mountains. A local tour guide was happy to help (offering them a dinner of corn beer, manioc root, and roasted guinea pigs), but refused to head to the sacred site. It was guarded by the Malinche, a tribe that had spent the last several hundred years resisting all ‘invaders’.A short hike later, the group could see the temple in front of them, across a grand gap: 300 feet, with the only bridge being a six-foot-wide fallen tree.They were halfway across when the hidden tribesmen attacked with pottery! The sap pots weren't deadly, but with the tree only wide enough to cross single-file, the players had nowhere to hide! Zelda opened fire on the most likely bushes, killing three warriors.  JP, ever practical, drenched his outer jacket in the sap, successfully drawing all the ants’ focus so his teammates could cross the bridge. Thaza, at home in the jungle, ran to the end of the log, grabbed a vine and swung into the middle of the Malinche! A few dozen bullets later, the attackers melted back into the mountain. Routed, maybe, but not defeated…As an expert burglar, Thaza was just as useful in the temple as out. In the first chamber, she spotted a pressure plate trap, one that would've filled the stone room with water and drowned all of them. They jury-rigged the trap open, then snuck into the next chamber. They weren't sneaky enough though. As Ivo's eyes adjusted to the light, he was tackled by Antisuyu, the deadly panther!Worse, its mate Chinchaysuyu jumped onto Thaza. When the panthers pinned humans, they tore flesh. War veteran Josiah Patrick Diamond tried to help out, but he and Thaza were barely a match for one of the beasts. Zelda tried emptying her pistols into Antisuyu’s side, to little effect. Whenever she tried to get a good angle, it would swing Ivo into her way!Thaza suggested they fight dirtier, not harder. With some effort, they lured Chinchaysuyu back into the trap! The creature might've have been cunning, but that meant nothing to the pressure plates, which activated and filled the chamber with water….In the other room, Antisuyu had defeated off the unathletic Ivo. Zelda tried to backpedal, firing wildly, but decided discretion was the better part of valor and, after a minor mauling, played dead.Two on one, it was a difficult battle, but Thaza stabbed the creature repeatedly, allowing JP to wring its neck.The temple had more perils, but soon the group was through, hiking into frozen peaks and avoiding enemy patrols. The belligerents had even rigged the path with an eight-foot-diameter boulder… which meant little when Thaza free-climbed the mountainside and flanked them. Finally, after days in the wilderness, they reached the final peak, where Sapa Huyacan had thrown himself free and been reincarnated in midair.Inside, about to be sacrificed, was Dr. Indiana Jones himself! Thaza threw a flare as a distraction, while Ivo snuck the frostbitten man to safety. Zelda provided covering fire with her Nambu pistol, and JP rushed the arbalists with his fists. Our heroes were oxygen-starved and outnumbered. The situation looked dire… Until Thaza grabbed the Dagger from its plinth and threatened to throw it off a cliff! Some tribesmen surrendered, and were immediately killed by their high priest for cowardice. It was enough to turn the tide, with more than a few of the blood-thirsty foes sent flying on Diamond Airlines. Unwilling to face the indignity of being defeated by foreigners, the priest sacrificed himself the way he had planned to kill Indy. He opened a hidden pillar, choking to death on dirt, plaster, and molten gold!The Piercer of Veils ebbed with energy. Without any foes left, one of the group would have to sacrifice themselves if they had any hope of rescuing Connecticut’s greatest archaeologist. JP stepped forward, and in an act of faith, mixed his blood with the professor’s! In a flash of golden light, Indiana was restored and JP was rendered… normal! No longer pulsing with radiant positive energy, he nearly collapsed.The trip back was much, much easier, and soon the group was having seafood in New Orleans. Jones, guilted by Thaza, was unable to put the relic in a museum. Scrupulous Zelda told everyone about her deception, and the group decided to obey the letter of the deal… setting a trap for a would-be thief, who was caught noisily and caused a neighborhood incident. Ivo quietly sold his collection of trinkets and valuables on the black market, coming out way ahead. Smuggling had always been this dangerous… It had seldom been this profitable.[ATTACH=full]407976[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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