contentAs noted in the previous entry, the entire group od characters had jumped into the raging river to escape the pursuing Makimbo. The characters struggled in the water, thrashing about and trying to keep our heads above water, but to no avail. Attempting to swim, we found ourselves sucked down into a whirlpool like effect that felt like going over a waterfall, and suddenly found ourselves surfacing in a tranquil lake.
Dragging ourselves to the lake edge, we all surrendered ourselves for a few moments to lying on the shore. Thomas Redfield, the big game hunter, sensed that something was wrong about where we were, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. After the group took inventory (we had our weapons, some equipment, and a bit of food, but that was all), Kate Barr, the torch singer whose fella we had come to find ((he's dead, btw)), and Wanda Rotherdam, the fiancée's secretary, consoled one another over William Johnson's death, while the rest of us went to see what we could see in the area. A scream from the two women brought us running back, and we had to fight a Makimbo warrior who must have followed us to wherever we were. At least we got a couple of weapons, a spear and a stone knife off him.
Going back to looking around, Thomas Redfield pointed out to the rest of us that the vegetation and some of the animals we saw seemed...larger...than what he knew of them. Add to that the stifling heat and the fact that the sun didn't seem to move at all during the sky, despite what seemed to be the progression of time, and it suggested that we were somewhere...else. This was definitely brought home when we encountered several creatures that can only be described as turkey-like lizards or dinosaurs, some 6 feet high each. We set up camp near the lake, eating turkeysaur for dinner, and then camped out rather comfortably. Not really being comfortable outside urban environments, although I had some experience in wilderness situations, my Yancy Clarke made himself as useful as he could be.
The next morning saw the characters attempt to find a way out of the lake, and back to the African continent, but to no avail. Over Kate Barr's objections, the group decided to set out and explore a little and see what could be learned. If nothing else, Adam Handley, the con man, said that he rather hoped we might find some friendly natives. We stumbled upon the wreckage of what appeared to be a Boeing 247 in some trees, and were attacked by a couple of velociraptors before the meaning of the wreckage had sunk in or its exploration could begin. We barely escaped with our lives with the assistance of a group of people who resembled cargo cultists, and discovered that they were the *descendants* of the survivors of the plane crash.
They took us to their village, and made us welcome, and amidst suggestions that something about these people was not quite right, Nick declared that the game session and the scenario were done.
I had a terrific time playing HEX in Nick's game for some four or five weeks, and loved every minute of it. It's so rare that I get to play in a game at all, that I treasure these times. The pacing of the game was a bit uneven in places, no more so than in last night's finale of the scenario, but that's to be expected in HEX. While it's fine to have the action almost constant in a four-hour demo of the game, it's impossible to keep up the pace during the course of a multi-session scenario in a campaign setting. I thought that Nick did a tremendous job of running the game, and look forward to the next time I get to play HEX. (And there had better be a next time, right, Nick??,
spross??)