Tefe (Amazon)

Visit One - Anacona Mine
We (Phantom, Slice and Macabre) chose to go directly to the mine as that's where the interesting stuff happened. After wandering around in the jungle for a while (Phantom developing a ghostly levitation power), we found the mine where a score or so miners were busy digging up gold.

We chose to We met Alberto, the foreman, who told us what had happened 10 days ago - they all passed out, and then they woke up again. They didn't see anything or find anything unusual and they have no idea what caused it. Then, the whistling started, coming from the Jungle and freaking people out. About half the miners left - one of them taking with him an obsidian 'machete' that he'd found. The CNN journo turned up and went into the jungle with the native tribe that lives nearby.

With Slice and Phantom using various powers we determined that there were some (about half) of the miners who were in rude health, and displayed a definite touch of essence. One guy (Marco) had a 'dolphin' on his soul, and another had a sea serpent of some kind. They're faint, but there. None of the miners had any real idea they'd been changed, and there was some consternation when Slice told them they'd been exposed to Essence energy that their faces would fall off (A la Macabre or Phantom)

On the whole, the miners were friendly and helpful, but afraid of the whistling noise in the jungle. After some blundering exploration in both the daylight and the dark, where we found absolutely nothing, Slice had the great idea of checking out some of the miners. It turned out that the cook was dreaming the whistling due to his anxieties about them having pissed off the Curupira, a local forest spirit. It was his anxieties that were causing the noise and after Slice explained what was happening he felt much better, and the whistling abated. The miners are much happier (and think we scared the beast away...).

After some more scratching our heads we came home, asked some experts about the tribe and they said we don't know much, and we don't have good maps, but the mining company might. So we went back and Alberto showed us his maps (so long as we promised not to mine any gold) where we discovered a 'blurred' area similar to what Wifi saw in Australia at the Temple of the Round Eye'd Warrior.

Visit Two - Jon Paulo Valley


Returning to the rainforest in the rough location of the blurred satellite imagery we (Nuke, Phantom, Slice and Macabre) trekked up the valley towards a large golden structure that Phantom had spotted. Rather than blundering in (like normal) we actually did some scouting around and found a temple of sorts (which was actually a Bunker), covered in gold. There was a Carnegie Mellon anti-grav transport there (along with a few goons), as well as some of the indigenous peoples. A small number of them (their leaders) were overseeing the removal of the gold by the others, with the CM goons hurrying them along.

We opted for a night-time attack and were able to take out the anti-grav platform relatively quickly before coming under fire for an unseen archer. We were then assailed by a small number of CM goons as well as four Rune-empowered tribals (a giant, a bull-headed man, a man with a silver hand and a woman who threw ice - the giant and bull-head also had fierce red eyes which burned with rage, the silver-handed man had very bright blue eyes). These were eventually dealt with and the archer was identified as the CNN reporter Susan Scott, who also had a rune on her forehead. She was quickly taken down and stabilised by Slice. All the runes were wiped off heads which removed their 'powers' and enabled us to chat to the locals.

It turns out the Rune and Crystal Skull had turned up and entralled them before empowering the warleader and shaman and instructing them to start harvesting the gold.

They explained that Rune and Crystal Skull had killed the Crocadile Spirit that resided within the Bunker and had stolen what the locals desribed as the 'Dream Disc', which we think was probably the Glyph - hence releasing the localised Bloom energy.

We asked them about the Orb and they told us that it had been thrown into the lake by a rival tribe, many years ago as part of a ritual - some more information is available here. We returned their 'sacred' gold but they gave us some non-sacred gold (looked the same to me) in return and we were able to take the Essence that Carnegie Mellon had snaffled from the Bunker.

Scott was grateful but suggested that the links between what had transpired here and Carnegie Mellon weren't substantial enough to go to press but that she would investigate further. All of the Carnegie Mellon goons weren't carrying any traceable equipment with them. We did however, take a suit of armour from a goon who no longer needed it, for study. It seems that CM are specifially adapting their gear to combat our group.

Fallout
Nuke spoke with Hubble and introduced her to Susan Scott in an attempt to make the Tefe Bunker a World Heritage Site as well as pass on details of what Carnegie Mellon had been up to.

Visit Three - Lake Guatavita
Lake Guatavita is a small lake that appears to have been formed by a meteor impact. It has a legend involving a serpent god and the local tribe (read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Guatavita).

Turns out the legend is true! But more on that shortly.

After freeing the natives in Jon Paulo valley from Runes mind-wangling runes, Phantom, Slice and Macabre were told that the Orb that was once at the natives holy site (a bunker) was stolen years ago and taken by another tribe to the lake, where it was cast in as part of their rituals (see the wiki page for details). We decided to investigate.

The area was being observed by a couple of cops, who we avoided. In retrospect this was probably because CM had been here previously. Using an essence scanner we determined that there was something in the middle of the lake, which was duly investigated. Phantom found himself in a large stone cyclopean chamber with 4 exits, and Slice and Macabre joined him shortly thereafter.

Upon exploring the place, it was found to be roughly laid out like a grid, with rooms of similar size, shape and architecture (which is also the same as the bunkers). In one chamber we found the telltale signs of Rune. In 4 of the chambers we found a skeleton:
 * A child with damage to the eyes.
 * A man with damage to the pelvic region and some gold jewellery.
 * A shaman, judging by his golden mask and other accoutrements.
 * A woman with some gold jewellery.

There were also 4 'outlier' rooms at each cardinal point (N,E,S,W in the absence of any better descriptor - interesting to note that compasses did not function here) and each outlier contained something different.
 * The North rooms entrance was blocked by a glowing green forcefield which turned out to be Soul energy (Phantom saw this). There were 4 souls trapped within the wall - a child, a woman, a man and a shaman. These correspond to the 4 skeletons, and the 4 actors in the legend of the lake. More on this in a moment. Beyond the barrier we could make out a sarcophagus similar to that in the South room and something golden rested on top - but we couldn't make out what.


 * The East room contain a large silver-metallic robot scorpion thing (it had pincers but I can't remember if it had a tail) and the shredded remains of some Carnegie Mellon footsoldiers. Evidence that this thing is devastating in combat. As we looked into the room at it, it activated and began to pursue us - slowly, but with menace. We spent most of the rest of our time here avoiding it and playing cat and mouse.


 * The South room contained a large (15') sarcophagus which had been cracked open. There were a few large feathers, some blood and not a lot else. The tomb was carved with the image of a bird man. This, it seems, is what CM had taken. We have no idea why.
 * The West room contained a giant snake, massive, and sleeping. Nearby was the crushed remains of a CM goon.

We deduced that the Souls trapped in the forcefield needed to be freed, and reuniting with their bodies to do so. Gathering up 3 of the corpses we took them to the barrier at which point the snake woke up, travelled to the barrier and scooped them all up, carrying them off to the next room.

Phantom walked through the wall into the tomb room, and found that the golden object was the Orb we sought. Didn't want to open the sarcophagus though, despite suggestions from Macabre.We could, theoretically, have left at that point however we wanted to resolve the soul-wall-skeleton situation so had to take on the snake.

This proved mercifully easy as a single stone to the forehead killed the snake outright. We were then able to take all the skeletons to the wall whereupon the souls reintegrated with them. Unfortunately we then had to fight the skeletons - though once they were destroyed the souls were at peace so we'd done the right thing.

The final kicker of this expedition was that the giant robot then stomped up to the sarcophagus, tore it open and destroyed the creature within. We didn't fancy our chances against the robot and unfortunately didn't stop it from happening.

The orb, it turned out, allowed us to get out. It 'wanted' to do something and when we allowed it, it transported the 3 of us back into the lake.

Things we don't know:
 * What the bird-creature was
 * What the state of the bird-creature that CM found was
 * Where they took it
 * What the orb actually is and how it works.

Things I suspect:
 * The snake was the guardian of the tombs and served to protect them from the robot.
 * The robot was placed there by the opposing faction to destroy the bird men when it could, but it couldn't bypass the barriers.
 * CM broke down one barrier and Rune sacrificed a bunch of goons to buy time whilst she got whatever it was from the other sarcophagus (there's no evidence for there having been a barrier, that's supposition on my part).
 * I suspect they tried to use the skeletons, but were driven off by the snake and/or robot.
 * The bird-men were on the side of the 'Green' essence energy.