Session 1 (Prologue/4) - The God of Mitnal

Some time in 1923
 
the team:
Charlie Roberts. A private detective from new york. wears a trenchcoat and fedora.
Florence Merica. Daughter of a wealthy family. romantisies adventure, became a pilot. half italian half english.
Hans Stuffenschitz. German physicist who defected to america. Late 50s, greying. Teaches at Yale.
Evelyn Caverly. 27yrs, journalist. dark hair and eyes. Writes articles on crime for the police. Spanish ex husband. From new york.
Bartholomew Livingstone (me). late 30s, athletic, moustache, an archeologist/historian who works at a new york museum. Frequent expeditions to various areas.
 
 
after recieving a telegram from jackson elias, the group heads to campeche, mexico as per his request. Put our bags in the hotel, the manager is called carlos. After having a drink, the party heads to the railway station to seek out the Guillermo mentioned in the telegram.
Guillermo comes out of the station and speaks in broken english: Jackson Elias is not here but left a letter for us. He arrived about a month ago asking for help to go into the jungle to look for mayan ruins. He set out east on the train with 4 men. Elias came back a week later for supplies and said that he had made a discovery!
The letter contains instructions for reaching Jackson Elias' camp. The next train leaves in the morning, and Guillermo promises to acquire some supplies for us.
Charlie asks if there could be any rivalry or competition out to steal this discovery. Guillermo mentions the only thing he can think of is a gringo who came and sold a lot of weapons 9 months ago, his name was Esteban Santos.
Word on the street is that people have been disappearing out in the jungle in the last 6 months. People are very superstitious, despite being catholic, they believe in the old aztec and mayan gods.
The group decides to disguise themselves in local garments to head out of the hotel the next morning, to attempt to avoid being followed. We are given a pass for the train, which is normally freight only. The train has minimal crew. We are riding in one of the open flat cars with a few locals.
The 126th mile is the farthest point away on the loop, which is where jackson elias told us to stop off. The train track cuts through the rainforest, stopping here and there at small dwellings to unload and load people or goods. There are a lot of sisal plantations.
Later it starts to rain and becomes very humid. there are a few locals left in the middle of the car, an old woman is mumbling and clutching her rosary. Charlie curses the fact that he cannot light his cigarette in the rain and humidity.
We reach our stop, finally, in the dark. The engineer jumps off to check on us. The train fireman looks very worried, and the engineer mentions it is because his brother disappeared here.
We can catch the train again around midday if we wait by the tracks.
The group walks single file, a lantern holder at each end, down the path following the river. Mexican owls can be heard screeching above us, which Livingstone points out are associated with Ah Puch.
The jungle gets denser and darker, and Florence slips on a rock, hurting her ankle.
As bartholomew is clearing the jungle from the path, he notices an inscribed piece of stone with the carving of a skeletal figure flanked by two owls, with smoke rising around him. Mayans dressed in animal costumes surround him, they seem to be presenting items to him. A taller figure appears to be holding a pyramid. Evelyn takes a photo with the help of a few extra lanterns (74).
Evelyn sees something move into the forest, but can't make out what the dark shape was. She mentions it to the group, wondering if it was a jaguar. Bartholomew mentions that we should keep moving in that case.
A few minutes later, we reach the camp. It is somewhat overgrown, the tents destroyed, empty supply tins strewn around. it looks like it could have been abandoned for a few weeks. There are empty gin bottles and tobacco, suggestive of Jackson Elias.
A red glow flares up in the jungle ahead of us, and the smell of sulfur hangs in the air. A figure rises up with the sillhouette of a beaked head. He holds up a flaming skull, and yells something in spanish.
Charlie fires a warning shot at the figure. Two more people rise up on either side, looking ghostly and white, moving toward us. Evelyn tries to speak to the figure in spanish.
The unanimous decision is made to run, and the group flees back down the path. They don't seem to be following.
A sleepless night is spent somewhere along the path.
We head back along the path, stopping to check the carved stone in broad daylight. Evelyn takes some better pictures. Arriving back at the campsite, nothing much has changed.
There is a flat rock in the camp with traces of bloodstains on it, Hans thinks it is human blood. Perhaps from an altercation.
There is a biped track leading into the jungle where we saw the figure last night, and an indentation in the brush where another figure was. Further in there are empty tequila bottles, smell still lingering, discarded roaches, and some burnt looking ground with papery remnants scattered around.
The trail continues with broken branches and trampled undergrowth.
The jungle starts to open up, and soon an ancient river valley comes into view. A mayan pyramid can be seen down in the valley. About a dozen men can be seen moving around down the bottom. There are horses and donkeys tied up.
We know that Jackson Elias only took 4 men with him, so surely it can't be his group.
We can't be sure if these men are friendly or not, so decide to stop and observe them for a while before approaching. Each man is armed with a mauser rifle. They appear to be milling about, on guard duty. After a while, two people leave the temple and are replaced with two more. There is one caucasian man in the camp, the rest are mexican. But it's not Jackson Elias.
The team decides the best way to find out more information is to draw them out, then take a hostage for questioning. Now that it is dark again, Hans rigs up two bombs: one to cause a boom, the other to stun.
The first one goes off, and after a while a group of three men come to investigate. They get showered by the next explosion, and we fall upon them to incapacitate them. One of the guys smashes his lantern and catches on fire. Bartholomew dunks him in the river and manages to keep hold of him.
The party carries them a good mile away, doing their best to conceal their tracks. Now time for questioning. Charlie sits in front of the man with his machete drawn, and Evelyn begins questioning. The man says they are hiding from the police. He says the gringo is "Kimble", also known as Esteban Santos. He doesn't know who they are selling the guns to. He recognises the name of Jackson Elias, and says he is held captive in Mitnal Pyramid, because he stumbled upon their camp.
They admit that it was men from the camp who dressed up to scare people off, as they didn't want to be discovered. Arturo, Kimble's right hand man, was in change of that.
Charlie says he knows Kimble, he is an ex military man who is wanted by the texas rangers. He is a known smuggler and potential murderer.
The best plan of action seems to be to offer a hostage exchange - his three men for Jackson and his men. As we approach the camp, men start yelling. Men line up to meet us, and we see Kimble and Arturo standing in the middle.
We request for Jackson Elias to be returned to us, and when Kimble finds out that he is a writer he mentions that he is surprised, as he assumed he was working for the feds. He agrees to the hostage exchange, on one condition: We return his hostages to him, then in a few days time, they will pack up camp and leave, releasing all their prisoners then. It seems fair, and he seems to be speaking the truth.
Charlie requests to check on Jackson and his men before we agree, and he is accompanied into the pyramid. He is alive, but in bad shape after being held hostage for two weeks. There are 3 porters with him, and two local children.
We agree to the deal, retreat to set up a camp nearby, and wait out the two days.
Two days later, we hear two gunshots. Upon reaching the pyramid, we find that Kimble was true to his word - the camp is gone, and our hostages remain tied up, and alive.
Jackson Elias thanks us, and apologises for dragging us into his mess.
The group takes the train back to Campeche, ensuring the two children are entrusted to the locals to get home. After retiring to the hotel for the night, the next morning Carlos gives us a letter from Jackson Elias. He has left for Morocco, but promises to send us a copy of his book when it is finished!