Act 1 – Pyramid Scheme ( “Why did the Chichen cross the road?” )
Our story opens in the jungle outside the pyramid complex at Chichen Itza. The temple is the center for a huge cult movement, led by Tepeyet, a local Mayan priest. The temple courtyard is full of robed cultists, all going about their business. From the looks of things, they are gearing up for a big ceremony in the temple at the top of the pyramid.
SARALYNN: “Maybe we should try to get up there.”
MEEHO: “Let’s look around a little more…”
After a lengthy reconnoiter session, the party realize that the cultists have a security patrol making the rounds of the temple grounds. This patrol consists of five jaguar-weres being led by a man in a long gray robe. In addition to that, Ecco spots a sniper hanging out on the roof of the temple.
The cultists are in general, walking toward the pyramid, chanting and periodically whacking their heads with books.
CULTISTS: “Eee Aye Esu Domine”, *WHACK*. “Don Eye Ess Ees Requiet.”
Becky: “Isn’t that…”
GM: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
Paula: “That’s kind of inappropriate, don’t you think?”
GM: “Hey. It’s the only chant I can think of. I don’t speak Mayan.”
Paula: “Yeah…but that’s Latin!”
GM: “Deal with it…”
CULTISTS: “Eee Aye Esu Domine”, *WHACK*. “Don Eye Ess Ees Requiet.”
They decide to head over to the bathhouse and pick up a few cult robes. In order to get there however, they have to circle around the vast majority of the complex. This also involves crossing the road that passes between the pyramid Temple of Kukulcan and the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza. This involves crossing a very open stretch of road. They spend several minutes waiting for a moment when nobody is looking…an arduous task at best!
BABOON: “Stay down. Wait for it. Wait for my signal.”
JAY: “Now! No wait. Stay down. Wait. Now!”
Paula: “Say. Why did the Chichen cross the road?”
GM: “I could kill you for that.”
Eventually, they succeed in reaching the bathhouse – an I-shaped building on the eastern edge of the complex. They arrive there at the same time as the patrol. There is a tense moment as the jaguar-weres and their handler walk past. To the amazement of all, it is the handler who spots them. The handler’s hood sways to one side, and several elongated appendages slide out into the night. *Cht-Cht-Cht-Cht-ChtChtChtCht*.
ENISE: “Those things around his head…they’re snakes!”
The medusa lowers its hood and utters the command for the jaguar-weres to attack the party. Of course, combat ensues. Most of the players do fairly well with their mundane weapons. But it is Enise…the wild-woman with a death-ray who turns the tide of combat. When the last jaguar falls, the medusa runs for help. Jay chases the medusa and bring it down with a diving blow. Up until that point, the combat had been taking place out of the sniper’s line of fire. Suddenly Jay finds himself the target of long-range weaponry! Once again Enise saves the day by narrowing the focus of the gun and aiming at the temple roof. The sniper bursts into an impressive pyre of flame.
Becky: “I love having the big gun! Ah hahahahahahahaahaa”
A short time later, the party manages to get enough cult robes to move on to the next phase of infiltration. Suddenly Maggie announces that she is receiving another transmission signal. The satellite is powering up again! This is when they spot the secret entrance on the pyramid. Although all the cultists seem to be climbing the stairs to the temple at the top of the pyramid (a task which involves filing past a medusa and jaguar-were guard), there are a number of jaguar-weres entering the bottom of the pyramid…through a door which seems to disappear when closed. With time running out before the satellite beam, they rush the secret door, and sneak into the darkened interior of the pyramid.
The pyramid is a maze of twisty narrow passages, all alike. Somehow, they manage to pick the exact shortest route through the maze. (Lucky, lucky bastards!) To sum up, they kill another five jaguars, three medusas, and one banshee. During the combat, the party is shocked by how well Meeho does in combat when he is forced into it. Despite numerous traps and tricks, the search for the secrets of the pyramid goes largely without a hitch! They climb up one level, and work their way toword the “center” of the pyramid…
Act 2 – Energy ETs (“How many lightbulbs does it take to screw up a doctor?”)
While continuing through the darkness, Jay’s tracking system identifies some footprints on the floor that seem to disappear right into an adjacent wall. The party members spend a few minutes searching, and eventually find the trigger for a secret doorway. As quietly as possible, they slide the door open and peer cautiously into the room beyond…
This chamber is circular, and packed around its circumference with twenty bio-mechanisms which throb, pulse, and glow with witchfires. From each of the mechanisms a bundle of cords unites into a cable, which in turn runs across the floor and up into a glowing cloud which hovers in the room’s center.
Becky: “I’ll bet that’s our gate.”
GM: “The gate is a fiery presence in the room which just seems to draw your eye to it…making you feel like you don’t want to take your eyes off it.”
Paula: “Okay…I try real hard to look away.”
GM: “Make a roll vs. willpower.”
Paula: ” Ooh…only a three.”
GM: “Okay…you concentrate really hard…and then you look away.”
Paula: “Oh…Is that it?”
GM: “Yes. Would anyone else like to spend their time looking away?”
Players: “Yeah. Sure. I guess.”
GM: “Okay. You all look away.”
Paula: “Wait! What if I had missed the roll?”
GM: “Hmm…well then I guess you’d be the only one looking at the gate right about now.”
Paula: “But they didn’t even have to roll!”
GM: “Neither did you.”
Everyone decides to forget the gate for a moment and continue looking around the room. The gate shifts through random colors up and down the spectrum. Below it on the floor is a circle inscribed in small, glittering chips of a metallic substance which have been formed into a mosaic resembling an integrated computer circuit. Portions of the mosaic glimmer every so often in red, blue and green as unknown energies travel the intricate traces. The room extends to the very top of the pyramid where a huge red lens sits in a massive framework of stone and vines. The lens filters the incoming light to a sultry red. It also reveals three balls of energy floating in the air above their heads. The balls are two-meters in diameter, and buzz with a sound like fluorescent lightbulbs.
JAY: “Those are Energy ET’s!”
ENISE: “What is an energy ET?”
JAY: “Remember when Dr. Gailbreath was telling us about the extra-terrestrials…and how he has only seen three of the races? Well, this is the fourth.”
ENISE: “Good. They’re aliens. I understand aliens just fine. I know how to handle aliens.”
Enise stealths into the room and points the Death-Ray at the nearest ball of static. The beam of the Death Ray spreads out and engulfs the hovering alien. There is a huge discharge as the energy ball dissipates into nothingness, and a small pebble drops harmlessly to the ground. The sound attracts a Jaguar-were and a Medusa who enter the chamber from a door on the far side. The remaining two ET’s quickly move themselves behind the new arrivals. Calmly, Enise aims at the charging Jaguar. The beam of the ray-gun catches the cat across the chest, and it is flung into the glowing cloud. There is a brief flicker of energy in the mosaic tile on the floor as the jaguar disappears through the gate. Deciding to let some of the others have some fun, Enise backs away from the charging Medusa, hoping to lure it out into the hallway where the others can ambush it. To her surprise, as soon as the Medusa reaches the secret doorway, it stops its charge and simply shuts the door in her face.
Slightly put off, by this unlikely turn of events, Enise grabs the edge of the door, and slides it right back open. The Medusa is of course, still standing right there and fires off a few quick shots with its Browning. At the same time, the snakes lining the medusa’s face strike out at the doctor. Unbelievably, the bullets and snakes all miss. The Death Ray is fired again, igniting the Medusa’s robes and flinging it like a fiery comet to the far side of the portal chamber.
If she was expecting to see the ET’s still sitting there, Enise was disappointed. The room, in fact seemed to be devoid of any creatures at all. That is, until she crossed the threshold into the room. From the point of view in the hallway, the doctor walked into the room, and was immediately struck by two lightning-like energy discharges from the air above her head.
Becky: “Ouch! It’s an ambush!”
GM: “You won’t be able to survive both of them hitting you like that”
Enise takes stock of the situation. The portal lies directly in front of her, and the two ETs are behind. Other party members are blocking the doorway, making retreat impossible. And any delay (such as turning and firing the ray-gun) would leave her open to another attack. The glowing cloud of the portal offers her only viable alternative for escape. Without another thought, she steps into the cloud, and vanishes…
Jay and Wil are following Enise into the gate room. Suddenly, Enise is struck by twin bolts of lightning from somewhere over her head. The two of them instinctively back up a step and are then shocked to see Enise dive forward into the gate.
JAY: “The two ETs are hovering over the doorway.”
WIL: “Shotguns?”
A broad grin spreads across the cyborg’s face, darkening his features.
JAY: “Definitely!”
The deafening roar of twin shotguns spraying double-barreled pellets of doom ensues. The ETs die within seconds. This time, the discharge of dissipated energy is followed by the sounds of two pebbles falling to the ground. Jay picks one up and examines it. He is holding what appears to be a very small stone, covered in gold inlaid circuit patterns.
JAY: “This is all they are. That two-meter ball of energy is all for show.”
WIL: “It’s a good thing we’ve been using area-of-effect weapons!”
A quick check of the room reveals no other creatures. At last, the party files into the gate room. Jay and Wil decide to follow Enise into the gate, and the others search the room. Within seconds, Maggie locates the piece of equipment that is controlling the satellite. The next few minutes are spent trying to destroy every piece of bio-machinery in the room. The destruction of the alien machines has no effect on the portal. Maggie rummages through her backpack and pulls out an odd-looking piece of equipment.
MAGGIE: “This device is called a Distorter. It should be able to close the gate. The only catch is…we have to be on the other side of the gate to make it work.”
THANN: “All right. Baboon, Raymond and Ecco…you three stay here and guard this side of the gate. We’re going through to retrieve the others and evaluate the situation on the other side.”
Act 3 – Land Beyond ( “Are you my mother?” )
Going through a dimensional gateway can be quite an ordeal. The gate in the Temple of Kukulcan is no exception. The gateway projects a vibrant field of cascading light around the players as they travel. It’s as if a glowing curtain comes down around them and fences them in. When they finally arrive on the other side, the curtain fades slowly, and the players are left aching as if they had run for several kilometers.
The gate on the other side resembles a “henge” of rock forming a crude archway. This arch rests upon a dais of black stone, which in turn rests in the center of an overgrown area of mutated plants. The plants range in height from under a centimeter to four meters tall. Strangely, they are all bent toward the gate and shaking, as if a high wind were buffeting them. It is completely still and quiet within the gate, however. The sky is a polluted gray-blue, and no sun is visible, yet there are multiple shadows on the ground. Every few minutes, one of the players sees something “moving” under the ground, as if a giant worm was crawling just a centimeter beneath the surface.
When the others arrive, Enise, Jay and Wil are preparing to step off the dais and into the weeds.
WIL: “I can sense something…big…in that direction over there.” he points. “I can’t tell for sure, but I think we should check it out.”
MAGGIE: “No! We’ve got a job to do. We don’t have time for sight-seeing.”
MEEHO: “Wait. Maggie, how long will it take you to set up the Distorter?”
MAGGIE: “I don’t know…a half hour or so…”
ENISE: “Then that settles it. We have some time to explore.”
Maggie begins assembling the device, but reluctantly agrees to wait for their return before activating it.
Stepping off the dais yields a different experience. A wave of pressure sweeps over the PCs as they step out of the gate. Although there is no wind, the effect is the same on their faces and hair. Something is rushing at them and toward the gate. The farther they walk away from the gate, the shorter the plants are. About 10 meters away from the gate, the plants form a unified height of 10 centimeters. They players can feel the pressure of wind, without the sound. They can, however hear the eerie rustling of the plants around them.
SARALYNN: “It’s like a river of evil.”
WIL: “…more like a giant pool of empathic energy…and the gate is a drain.”
ENISE: “Oh great…and we’re in the drain, right?”
Again Wil points in one particular direction.
WIL: “It’s that way.”
MEEHO: “Well, at least the plants will point the way back to the gate…we can’t get lost.”
As the players proceed from the gate, they notice a trail worn into the vegetation. The trail looks very old, and the floor of the trail has been worn down to rock. Following the path, they eventually begin to notice a pulsing light on the horizon. The flashes of light reflect off the gray haze in the sky. The trail ends at a steep hillside that leads down to a large valley. At the end of the trail is a four-meter high obelisk with Mayan carvings on it. Oddly, the side of the obelisk facing the gate appears to not be totally solid…as if the stone matter is being taken particle by particle toward the gate…sand-blasting a path through the vegetation. Standing right next to the obelisk is like facing into a sandstorm.
JAY: “This is really odd.”
SARALYNN: “Oh yeah? Look at THAT!”
The others follow her gaze. Down in the valley, two kilometers away and at least half a kilometer tall, is a huge stela…the source of the pulsing light. The pulsing is caused by several arcs of light striking the stela from a half-dozen glowing balls of energy that are bobbing and circling the stela. These six energy ETs strike the stela in unison, creating one bright flash every ten seconds or so.
As the players observe the odd ritual going on across the valley floor, Meeho is distracted by the sound of electricity…
*zzt* *zzt*
Approximately ten meters away, they find another energy ET. This one is lying on the ground, giving off irregular discharges of static energy.
SARALYNN: “It looks hurt.”
Even at their approach, the creature makes no attempt to flee or move from the ground. The 2-meter ball of energy is glowing dimly, but after each discharge of static, the players notice a slightly brighter region of energy…a ball perhaps six inches in diameter bouncing off the inner layer of energy.
ENISE: “It’s pregnant!”
SARALYNN: “I can sense something from the ET. The birth is going wrong. The baby can’t get out.”
MEEHO: “We should do something.”
ENISE: “I have no clue how to help.”
MEEHO: “We’ve got to try something!”
Meeho kneels down next to the ball of static. He can see the ball, trying to move away. He can see the baby bouncing off the inner layer of the energy membrane. The movements of the baby are starting to decrease in speed…the glow decreasing in intensity.
SARALYNN: “If we don’t do something soon, the baby will die as well.”
Meeho takes a deep breath, and drives his arm into the energy membrane of the ET. This produces an instant static shock…annoying, but not deadly. The static charge of the ET crawls along his arm…he can feel the hair on his head begin to stand on end and wave in the odd breeze of empathic energy. The baby bounces off his arm, and then seems to cling to his hand. Very slowly, Meeho draws the new life out into the world. Once outside the energy membrane, the baby seems to recover almost immediately. It bobs and weaves around Meeho playfully.
ENISE: “Congratulations Meeho. It’s a spark.”
The mother ET is another matter. Despite the improvement in the baby, she continues to discharge. The players decide to try to carry the mother ET to the stela. After all, there are six more ETs over there…perhaps they can help. They do their best to cradle the ever-dimming mother in their arms. As they walk, they notice a chanting sound emanating from a small collection of huts. The huts are not in the direct line of their path, and so they elect to not investigate the chanting. At this point, the mother ET falls again…this time glowing so weakly that the players fear moving her any farther. SaraLynn suddenly feels an empathic link form with the creature.
ET: “Leave me…save him.”
With that, the energy ball winks out, leaving only a small pebble inlaid with gold. Tears form in Enise’s eyes she gingerly lifts the stone from the ground, and places it carefully in her pocket.
MEEHO: “You know…Doctor Gailbreath told us how the aliens were subverted by dark influences. It seems to me that we have an untainted life here. Maybe we shouldn’t take it any closer to the other ETs. “
Enise and Meeho stay with the baby while SaraLynn, Thann, Wil and Jay go to stela.
The stela looms ever larger the closer the PCs get to it. Within 50 meters of it, an incredible calm descends. There are six energy ETs hard at work energizing the stela. With each bolt of energy that strikes the stela, a particular relief carving on it glows brighter with energy.
THANN: “What the hell are they doing.”
SARALYNN: “They are summoning something. Something big.”
WIL: “I don’t know that that symbol stands for…but it can’t be good!”
Indeed it is not. For mere micro-milli-moments later, the relief blossoms into an energy geyser. From the center of the eruption emerges a winged serpent…a Quetzal!
The Quetzal flies into the air and arcs quickly around. It sees six juicy glowing balls of energy right near it and attacks them. It opens its mouth and literally sucks the nearest ET into it. Once that is done, it spreads its wings and directs a massive bolt of energy (a breath weapon of sorts) that catches two of the ETs in its path, destroying them instantly in a deafening screech. The remaining three ETs take advantage of the creature’s distraction, and flee headlong across the valley, over Enise and Meeho’s heads, and beyond toward the gate.
The Quetzal doesn’t remain distracted by its meal for very long, and soon comes rushing after the three balls of food. Enise sees the winged serpent charging in her general direction, draws the death-ray, and blows the damned thing right out of the sky! Enise moves closer to examine her latest victim. The Quetzal lies on the valley floor, twitching and smoldering. One more shot from the ray-gun finishes it off.
ENISE: “Did you see that!? I took it out all by myself!”
THANN: “I don’t mean to sound like I’m in any way demeaning your efforts…but it seems to me that we just saw three of those energy balls go charging back toward the gate.”
MEEHO: “So?”
THANN: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Maggie the only one back there?”
The party double-times it back to the gate. There, they find Maggie unconscious on the dais. There is a faint ozone smell in the area, and her clothes look like they absorbed quite an electrical jolt.
Act 4 – Collapse ( “Just piss him off…” )
Enise revives Maggie.
MAGGIE: “…Wha…What happened?”
ENISE: “Just hold still while I check you over…”
MAGGIE: “Oh yeah…the aliens. They came flying in here like a bat out of hell, and *zap*!”
THANN: “What about the Distorter?”
MAGGIE: “It’s ready…I’ve programmed in a four-minute delay. We should be able to set it and get out of here.”
With that, she activates the device, and everyone jumps into the gate.
Emerging back in the gate-room reveals more destruction in the fleeing ET’s hit-parade. Baboon, Raymond and Ecco are all lying on the floor, unconscious. To the dismay of the players, the three aliens are still quite active. Everyone has guns drawn and are pointing them at the aliens, which are bristling with energy…and into the middle of it all, steps Meeho with a little energy ball on his shoulder. SaraLynn can sense the sudden confusion in the aliens. All in all, they have the makings for a pretty good stand-off.
ENISE: “What do we do now?”
MAGGIE: “We wait another three minutes.”
And so a nervous waiting game ensued. Everyone afraid to move, and break the nervous truce. One Minute. Two Minutes. Three Minutes. The gate flickers momentarily, and then resumes its normal glow.
MAGGIE: (murmuring under her breath) “Shit…I was afraid of this.”
ENISE: “What went wrong?”
MAGGIE: “I don’t know, but I have to find out.”
With that, Maggie jumps back into the portal. The three aliens reacted by rushing toward the gate, and Meeho reacted by stepping into their path. One alien manages to follow Maggie. The others hover dangerously in the central pyramid shaft over everyone’s heads.
Paula: “Let me project thought to the aliens.”
GM: “What thought?”
SaraLynn summons her mental skills and projects the thought: “We want to destroy gate.”
The ET’s respond by letting fly twin bursts of lightning.
Enise fires the death ray directly up toward the ceiling. The beam, still set on wide focus from the Quetzal attack, not only destroys the aliens, but singes the walls of the central shaft all the way to the top. The majority of the beam’s blast strikes the large focusing lens at the top of the pyramid, knocking it askew.
Thann and Jay go after Maggie. They arrive in the Land Beyond expecting to find Maggie unconscious again. To their surprise, she is quite awake. The ET hovers in the air above, firing off bolt after bolt of energy. Rather than hitting Maggie, the bolts seem to be absorbed by the gate.
MAGGIE: “The Distorter doesn’t have enough power to take out the gate.”
THANN: “What can we do?”
MAGGIE: “I’ve been watching the readings on the Distorter. Every time Mr. Lightbulb here lashes out, the gate’s energy level goes up. I think I can redirect some of that energy into the device.”
THANN: “Great. Can we help?”
MAGGIE: “Yeah…keep him pissed off.”
After several minutes, Maggie resets the device. A final bolt of energy arcs down the wires and the Distorter emits a loud squeal. Even as they dive through the gate, they can see the shimmering of the Distorter begin to crumble the arch…
Maggie, Thann and Jay suddenly appear on the gate-pad, beneath the glowing cloud-gate. This time, there is a definite reaction when the Distorter activates. The gate pulsates wildly, flaring outward a couple of times, and suddenly sucks into itself. It reduces to a pinpoint of light, then winks out.
When the gate winks out, the floor begins to spark and crackle where the mosaic/circuitry pattern is. Like a sparkler lighting or a fuse burning out, the sparks spit around the pattern faster and faster. The intensity and speed of the sparks increase geometrically as more energy is pumped into the gate-circuits from the alien machinery lining the room. Suddenly, a huge pyro-kinetic burst of energy erupts upward through the central shaft of the pyramid, striking the mis-aligned lens at the apex. The lens seems to bend the energy beam, changing its heaven-ward trajectory, and redirecting it toward the ground outside.
The pyramid suddenly shakes with the ferocity of a major earthquake. The vine-constructed walls around the players, suddenly begin to unravel, the vines thrashing wildly around. Huge stone chunks break free from the upper levels, and begin to rain down the central shaft.
ENISE: “It’s collapsing! Let’s get out of here!”
The party desperately retraces their path to the secret entrance. Although the very walls a coming down around their ears, they press on. Several times, the stronger party members pause along the way, using their bodies to help support a section of wall while the others pass. The rumble of the collapsing pyramid fills their ears. They are choked by great clouds of dust and debris. And suddenly the relatively cool blast of night air washes over their senses as they emerge safely!
Everyone feels a sense of relief and, perhaps, triumph at the pyramid’s collapse. The cultists who survived the collapse vacate the area of Chichen Itza. Confused and afraid, they disappear into the jungle. As soon as the last of the pyramid stops crumbling, Wil and SaraLynn both suddenly stagger, as though struck by an intense psychic blow. SaraLynn turns to the north, and notices that a strong, bluish-white glow has appeared, like a powerful searchlight shining up into the sky from the ground. The source of the light appears to be coming from the location of the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza, several hundred meters to the north.
Becky: “That’s right…the gate to Io wasn’t in the pyramid…it was off to the side.”
Even the less empathic characters can feel an energy in the air as the light grows stronger.
WIL: “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”
SARALYNN: “There is nothing inherently evil about that light…”
WIL: “True. But there is definitely something evil behind it!”
MAGGIE: “The energy blast must have somehow triggered another gate.”
MEEHO: “Yeah. The gate to Io.”
MAGGIE: (turning to him in surprise) “How would you know where it goes?”
ENISE: “Because we’ve seen it.”
WIL: “That gate will destroy the world…”
MEEHO: “And it’s all our fault.”
To be concluded…
This adventure originally took place on December 11, 1994.