Return to the Valley that time forgot. The complete campaign

[Tsune]

And now, the last scenario of the campaign. Scenario 7th: Across the Sacred Mountais of Fire!

The heroes, guided by Rhana, arrive to the mountain pass. There, they say goodbye to the blond godness and, without loosing time, enter the pass in order to leave the Valley. The sound of the war drums has accompanied them since they left the native village, and the warrior cries are heard increasingly nearby...

They enter the pass that cross the mountain, and soon they arrive to its entrails. The lava flows between great rocks, and some tremors announce that it is not a safe place to stay. They look around to find the way across the lava river, but they can not hesitate, as the sound of the pursuit arrive to them.

The objective of the scenario is to locate the exit and leave the Valley before the volcano explodes! There were 10 encounters across the board: two of them were clues to locate the exit and have to be found both to do it. The rest were some traps like lava geisers, a dead explorer with a book that points to another Lost World in South America (the Lost Valley III  ), and other things.

There were some scenario rules:
- a counter to know when the pursuers arrive (when the counter arrived to 10 a group entered de board).
- a deck of 14 cards. A card had to be selected each turn. 4 of them were rocks falling from the ceiling by tremors in an area of the board (at random), 8 of them were nothing, and the other two were big tremors: the first of them would be a nasty surprise and announces the possible explosion of the volcano, and the second one announces that in five turns the volcano will explode!!, but they could use hero points to gain aditional turns (two points each addional turn).

There were some more rules, but I will explain them later.

A picture of the board:

[Tsune]

The group start to cross the pass slowly towards the rock bridge, while trying to locate the exit:



But there is not time to loose! The pursuers already are there! They seem to be very angry and charge them without hesitation:



But then, something terrible happens!: a great tremor breaks the rock bridge, that falls into the lava. Too soon!!!! Exhausted and wounded as they are, this is a very bad news to them, as it requires a big leap to reach the other side now...and only some of them feel confident to do it. Pressed by the enemies, some of them decide to take another way that at first seemed more difficult, but now is an option as good as the original one:



Soon the combat starts, but it is not a good place to fight. A bad step and it can be the last one! And the warriors prove to be deadly foes en close combat:



Will Wiston survive? a Dodge test allows him to grasp the edge at the last moment, and when the warrior is going to push him to the lava, a friendly shoot makes the savage flee. Wow! 

[Tsune]

But he is not the only one in danger. The warriors are pressing hard, and the edge is closer at each blow... One of the heroes, the archeologist, makes a last stand to gain time for his friends to cross to the other side:



But he can not stand more time, and finally falls to the lava!... to land on a floating rock that at this precise moment was there!! (there were two floating rocks that moved 1d6" each turn following the river flow... to help the heroes in their way to the other side, and luckily for him, it was under him when he fell  ). But he was not free of danger, as the rock do not seem a sure place to stay (each turn, a test has to be made: 1-3 the rock continued to float, 4-6 the rock would sink under the hero weight):



Meanwhile, Winston had been able to climb and reach close to the rest of the group, but there is not place enough for all them as the pass is very narrow. They will have to fight each inch of it, as more warriors enter the board and, even worse, a new big tremor announces that the volcano is going to explode!! (they have now 5 turns to leave the board, and the exit has not been located yet...):



At this moment the future looks very, very dark for our heroes... rocks start falling from the ceiling, the volcano is going to explode in a few minutes and the natives are winning the combat and pressing the heroes. This is a very sad moment in the campaign as Benito the chimp jumps to avoid the warriors and falls on Winston, who is on the verge of losing the balance. There is no room for both of them and having to decide among the chimp and himself, Winston push the chimp and Benito falls into the lava river... 

[Sterling Moose]

Poor Benito, wont somebody save him!!!

[Tsune]

But there is not time to cry for the falled ones... the archeologist have been closed to the coast by the lava flow, but the rock sinks and the heroe has to make a great jump to reach the shore (and a few heroe point are used in the attempt). But he is now safe... or not? At least, a weak light appears at the horizon, the exit is at last located!:



But it is a weak light indeed... the warriors continue harassing the heroes and Prof. von Hauptman has to stop to fight them and close the pass to the pursuers:



Will the heroes success? At this moment it seems NOT!  The volcano will explode in two turns and some of them are very far from the exit... and they are not able to save too much hero point as are used to avoid be thrown to the lava or to increase the jump distance. They are tired and wounded badly and each jump seems more difficult each time. At this point, the face of some heroes (and players) were reflecting a sad feeling:



Only the persevering attitude of the heroes continues the fight, but it is not enough as it is a race versus time too, and each turn of fight is a turn less to reach the exit:




Now, only the hero point used to avoid the explosion allows the group to be alive. Some of them has reach close to the exit, but they do not leave the board, trying to help his mates shooting to the warriors or only to be able to use their own hero points to avoid the explosion one more turn giving their friends the possibility to reach the exit. Would have they managed the points well enough? Don't know, but some are used to avoid an unexpected lava geiser:

[Tsune]

Not, Benito was no saved! 

But the player that plays Winston will have to live with that, as the rest of players booed him all the game from that moment  , and two days later, when we were speaking about the games, the players continue to remember poor Benito and the treachenous player 

[Tsune]

A view of the game situation: the cameraman decides to throw the camera and be able to run faster and some heroes are close to the exit, while others are running towards it. On the other hand, Winston and von Hauptman remain in close combat with the warriors, while other natives start to throw their lances from the distance. But the bad luck appears in the form of a rock falling from the ceiling and killing the two remaining porters that were close to reach the exit, and almost one of the heroes who had to make an heroic jump to avoid be caught in the accident:



At last, Winston manages to withdraw from combat, and shoots down his pursuers. The warriors remaining seem to think that it isvery risk to try to cross the narrow pass under the gunfire, and shout and throw their lances from the distance:



The volcano is going to explode, and there are no remaining point to avoid it. Almost all the heroes could leave the board, but not all. Proff. von Hauptman shouts "go, go!" and a grin appears in his face when a big tremor shakes the area:



Winston is the last one leaving the mountain pass, but not before looking back to their friend. But nothing can be made to save him (not hero points remaining). The rocks fall with the continous tremors and the heroes have to run for their lives, as the pass falls apart and the exit is buried under the debris...



THE END

Well, I think they have been two great and very fun games. They both were a big challenge, and at the last one seemed, until last, that half the group would perish in the volcano. Some of the players thought it, and when finally were able to reach the exit, were very, very happy. They escaped from the grasp of death and that was very pulpish!!

I think, on the other hand, that they used a pair of hero point that they did not had to retard the volcano one more turn, but it was fine 

At the end, they had insufficient proofs to be considered a successful expedition (only 26 and they had to obtain 30 as they had to left a lot of equipment in the native village). But I am sure that, with the films they carry with them to the civilization, it will be easy to obtain new funds for a new one, this time to South America as the book they found points.

Thanks for reading. I hope it has been fun.

[gamer Mac]

WOW
Great couple of games.
Really like the lava board. I might just have to steal another idea from you.
Really brilliant scenarios. 
Pity about the Monkey

[Grimm]

WOW more and more nice stuff !!

I realy like the village with these fantastic pit and now these siple but very nice lava board !!

I must copy a lot of these gaming boards !! If you allow that 
Grimm

[Tsune]

Yes of course, you don't have to ask

I got a lot of ideas and am inspiried by the pictures of this forum too!

[Saya]

ArrrrrrrHHHhhhh!!!! amazing, incredible, very very very inspiring story, figures and board!!!!!
 Felicitaciones!!!!!