Message:That session was very enjoyable. The Climaxes work better for this Indy-Jones / Supernatural genre of storytelling with the five-stat, death brings Inherited Roles rulez.
We finished the Amazon Climax with one death (of Iron Squires). He then died twice when his Inherited Role had a Stat at twenty+ (rebirth as NG). The ugly consequences of the Alien Memory Stones.
We fought a giant slug that was actually a swarm of smaller ones. We rescued our rival Q-Tiki from sacrifice in the Ball Arena. We found both Memory stones, Ruby and Emerald, retrieving each from different watery sinkholes.
As the set-up foretold:
“It's eerily night; here that may be a saving grace. You hear chanting, several groups in various directions. Not welcoming. These sound less like a ritual and more like a scavenger hunt, rite of passage, cheers of competition.
The city has over 100,000 people. Primitives are everywhere. You will need to stealth around, selectively avoiding the busier sites. Soon the whole will be rioting, chasing the group. Most of the encounters will be trying to avoid the torch and club wielding natives. Hooga Shaka, Hooga Shaka.
You also notice green coats and obliterated human corpses stain the routes. Was it some great animal that tore the men to pieces, grinding down the bones, or something worse?
Threat level is at Act One.
Apply that bonus, penalty. For every letter Site you reach, you add a D4 time passage. Would be suicide to split group, so let's do that. No, you must stay together. Anyone who falls out of ranks will need to be found and rescued. Might as well advance your life stage, knowing the last guy's head has been shrunk. Find it in a museum in San Diego in a few hundred years.”
We moved so well, using our dynamite with such tactical aplomb that we did not ever reach Act Two before we escaped with our prize.
Our puzzle was a Viking poem in which we created a final verse figuring out that the poem used a pattern of Alliteration ~ x A A, B B y, C z C.
“Glorious Earl Ethelstan
Ruled rightly the barons
Slain as he slept
Usurper crown craven
Tax traded the whale-road
Killed many his kin
War ravaged region
Cried clergy peace a deal
Treachery the treaty”
Here was the final (sub) boss battle, a two-step victory Test:
Big Boss Idol
Once the second Cenote is found and the second gemstone is acquired, then the large guardian will animate. It seems immune to bullet strikes and slashing swords. It is a lumbering, crushing sandstone monstrosity.
Look-Study...Test Eagle-Eye
Touch-Use...Test Genius
Conversate-Catechize...Test Raconteur
Smash-Desecrate...Test Agility
Invoke Arcane Sign-Prayer...Test Recall
Look-Study...Test Eagle-Eye ~ Fail and next player rolls Agility to DODGE. Success to properly assess the situation. That the party must obtain a STRIKE followed by a KILL-SHOT. This may need to be performed again once other details (from rolls) further defines the situation.
+++ Only if previous Touch-Use (Genius) has been made, then report the group must release the value on the sand, draining the lifeforce from the Titan.
Touch-Use...Test Genius ~ Fail and next player rolls Agility to DODGE. Success to notice the twist lid, a valve on the idol's backside; that might be twisted free. But how? Why?
+++ Only if previous Dodge (Agility) has been failed, then report the group may use the sacrifice of someone's injury (death) as opportunity to Touch-Use (Genius) and defeat the monster. Then report the group used this loss to properly time the value opening and defeat the monster.
Conversate-Catechize...Test Raconteur ~ Fail and next player rolls Agility to DODGE. Success to properly distract the monster and direct another to gain the party (as a whole) the STRIKE result. Will a set number of those weaken and break the idol?
Smash-Desecrate...Test Agility ~ Success to DODGE the crushing steps of the animated statue. Fail and take random wound.
Invoke Arcane Sign-Prayer...Test Recall ~ Fail and next player rolls Agility to DODGE. Success to gain the KILL-SHOT. But only immediately after the party gains the STRIKE result. Otherwise, you're too excited to concentrate; but that could change based on the successful roll of the player before you?
-^-^-^-^-
More next week heading up the Nile with Backstory and Encounters.
Yours,
IronRed
11-Jan-2026