Lead-InTwelve friends, eight other travelers, and five tour guides are on a vacation trip that they have planned for years. The twelve friends all shared a deep interest in ancient civilizations and generic historical lore for many years, and they decided to partake in an expensive expedition to multiple Mayan temples, and ruined cities both on and off the beaten path. The expedition will last four weeks.
Roughly three weeks into the expedition the friends are excited to reach the latest to be toured ruined city of Copan in the extreme western part of Honduras. There was a recent discovery in a new tunnel dug at Copan. Because they paid for a serious expedition, they are allowed to partake in excavating a small part of the new tunnel for two days. Session 1: 08/08/07 – IGD: 08/08/07You arrive in Copan, Honduras on August 7th, 2007 and check in to the Hotel Camino in Ruinas de Copan. Some of you watched Apocalypto that night in the hotel…coincidence? Photo:
Casey heads to library with Bobby and Kristin to research the area and the ruins in particular – librarian (Camilo Castillo) helps, locals didn’t know this was here at all, was a horrible ruler (king and queen), Apocalypto style, in ancient times, lots of human sacrifice (thousands). Casey goes to find Head Guide (Garritt Jacobsen) who knows Mayan – after a couple hours, Garritt translates – some breach scenario happened a few thousand years ago –ish sacrifices started happening to eliminate the breach. Heart-ripping was the non-auto sacrifice method. Vern and Doc head to the dig. Three alcoves recently discovered, stoneware still in two, one looks like an artifact may have once been there, Mayan inscriptions in the alcove. Doc discerns that one passage has been stoned up more recently than the rest of the ruins. Mayans discovered a pigment called blue that does not erode or fade. J-Z2.0 stays at the hotizzo, searching on the internet for anything helpful, and finds a sonar map that may match these ruins. We go to the ruins. I notice a discoloration in the bricks in one wall. Bobby takes out a UV flashlight and shines it on the bricks. Bobby figures out that there is lots of trace blood all over the area, as if someone was bleeding when making the section of wall, potentially covering an entrance. Photo: Doc starts to pick down the wall, and opens up a whole other corridor area. Photo: Vern and Kristin are digging at the bloody wall. Photo: Alcoves have pictographs with pictures of a guy like I saw in the museum. I make a Bubba Ho-tep quote. No one gets it. 2-0 tries to translate the writing/pictographs and each scene depicts the ritual – the type of metal for the hook and how to perform the ritual. There are a total of 7 sets. We bring Garritt over to take a look. He recognizes the names of the rituals. All are mutilation rituals. We ask Garritt to get more info about them. We now know what the rituals are. Photo: I pick up a container, and break the seal with a special tool. Air rushes out. I fail my Fort save, even with 2 action dice. Morgan Sutton (UK archaeologist also fails). Lose two points of WIS temp damage. I minute later, I make a save. Yay me. Inside the container is a brain about human-sized. It is fairly well-preserved, and has not rotted. Have Morgan go get the team medic (Gabriel Ortiz) to come check it out. The brain can possibly goo it’s way out. The brain is slightly larger than the opening. Finley Perkins and Alicia Mata are with Doc. Doc starts exploring the corridor. He finds an alcove with a shelf of sorts with writing above it. Alicia takes the brush away from Doc. Doc finds an anteroom. Doc sent Alicia to tell others about the room. Each of the dead-end type alcoves have oval-shaped patterns in the stonework. Photo: Kristin and Vern open a passageway into a previously undiscovered room. A very subtle escape of air comes out. Photo: We enter the room with a dais and several pools and columns, and a crevice in the wall. There is a crack in the floor, and a couple of the columns have collapsed. They shine a light into the first well/pool, and they see a dark reddish semi-reflective material about 10 feet down. Bobby checks out an alcove – has a bowl instead of a shelf. In each alcove, there is mucky dried residue of something in the bowl. Looks glowy. The second well has a dark greenish colored reflective material about 10 feet down. Kristin lowers a brick down on a rope, and there’s a crunching sound like stepping on glass. Kristin scoops up colored glass from the well. Vern thinks that perhaps it was created by intense heat. The glass does not seem to be man-made, nor part of one piece or sheet. The third well is a paler green. Photo: At the dais, there is a slot in the wall, the slot is 4” x 4” by 6” and square in shape. There is dried goop on the bottom of the shelf. I put some into one of Bobby’s Petri dishes. I shine a light into the slot to see if I can see anything. Nothing is inside. On the pillars, there are more pictographs. They seem to not be as descriptive. They seem to be vaguely identical. I use the camcorder to video all of the pillars as I go. Kristin get samples of the glass form each of the second and third well. At the third well, she stops suddenly and shivers, just like 2-0. 2-0 steps up to the crack, and wiggles a bit as the floor gives a bit, but doesn’t fall in. At the bottom, it sounds like some of the debris drops into a pool of something, making a splashing noise. He shines his light in, but doesn’t see anything of interest. Kristin steps up and takes a look down the crack, but doesn’t see anything. Vern moves toward the crack and fails his will save, and shivers. I move toward the crack, but I don’t shiver. Neither does Doc. Bobby steps up to the crack and almost loses his balance and falls in, but miraculously, doesn’t. He looks down into the crack, but sees nothing. The fourth well has an orange colored glass. Kristin drops a Petri dish in. Session 2: 08/22/07 – IGD: 08/08/07Garritt and 4 others come running into the room, wondering what happened. Doc says that the flashlights just got dimmer. Vern moves toward the entrance of the room and his lights dim, along with everyone else’s. He says “Oh, hell.” Bobby breaks out a chem-light. After about 1 ½ minutes, the lights extinguish. Vern says that we lost our exit, the passage is a dead end now. I yell at Bobby some more. Photo: Bobby goes to the backpack. Vern trips over something and crashes into Garritt, then stands back up. Kristin whimpers in the dark. 2-0 notices that the ground seems to be somewhat sticky, kind of like a movie theater. Bobby opens the backpack and sees all my gear covered in goo, and in the bottom of the pack is the heart stone which is oozing. “Shit, shit, Casey, shit, back up!” He realizes that the stone now looks and feels like a heart, and pulses and oozes with each pulse. He snatches his hand back, and jumps back. The chem light starts to dim, and the aroma of nauseous smelling air vents up from the crevasse. I have a heard time breathing, but it lessens as I reach the pack. My breathing gets better. Vern asks what the hell I am doing. Just be ready, I tell him. Bobby and Vern hear scraping/scratching sounds coming from the pit. Bobby tosses the chem light towards the pit. A rat swarm bursts out of the pit and into the light. I pull the heart out of the pack and hold it near my chest in both hands – it starts beating in synch with my heart. Garritt pulls a hunting knife and advances on the rats. 2-0 retreats from the rats and slips and falls on the floor, then stands back up. Bobby shoots at the rats, and hits. Vern backs away from the rats toward the wall and readies an attack. I tell Bobby I’m backing away and retreat from the rats. The rats swarm over Garritt, Bobby and 2-0. Photo: Garritt attacks the rats, but misses. 2-0 gets gnawed on by rats, and goes the opposite direction away from me. Bobby pulls out another chem light and lights it, then moves closer to me. I move to the other side of a well. Doc retreats near me. The rats swarm over Bobby again, and he is nauseated. Garritt comes after the rats. 2-0 stays where he is and swaps out the battery on his laptop. I move away again, along the wall. Doc attacks the rats with his survival knife and hits, saying that he thinks the rats are following him. Bobby shoots at the rats once they move, and misses but is no longer nauseated. Garritt hits the rats with his knife, and kills them. 2-0’s laptop battery dies again. The stench permeates around the rat corpses. Doc pokes around in the dead rats for some reason – this makes me concerned. Bobby calls for me, and I answer him, and he moves to me. I ask Doc what the rats wanted with him, but he doesn’t know. Bobby asks “Are you OK? That was not a rock I pulled out of that bag.” I respond that there is more that he doesn’t know. The light goes out. Photo: 2-0 searches the alcove where the entrance was, and disappears through the wall. He turns around to a blank wall and several people are standing in the hall with torches, trying to find out where the entrance went. He steps up to the wall, and it’s solid. Bobby pulls out a rope to tie around me. I feel as though a snake is tightening around my arm, and it bites me, and I scream to get it off me! Bobby feels the rope wiggle in his hand, as though something tried to bite him, and it hisses as he drops it. Doc heads towards us, and tells us he is coming. Vern searches the area where 2-0 was, but 2-0 isn’t there anymore. Kristin runs into a pillar and falls down. NPC guy comes up to 2-0 and asked what happened, and says that they have been searching for us for 3 hours. The wall came back. To us, the time has only been about 15 minutes. 2-0 tells them that the lights went out and weird shit happened, and the rest of us are still in there. He searched the wall and just came through. He searches the wall again, from this side, and his hand sinks into the wall. Bobby pulls another chem light and lights it. Doc takes his knife and gashes his own forearm, screaming, but quickly calms down. Bobby approaches to disarm Doc, and Doc is paralyzed with fear. I ask Doc what happened. He says that he was covered in spiders, but none of us saw them. Bobby and I relay the story of the snake/rope. Bobby bandages Doc and me with the first aid kit, then puts it away and pulls me toward the exit. Bobby searches the area for a way out, and seems as if the wall is pixellated when up close (or grainy) like the details are fuzzy. 2-0 gets a rope and tries to feed it through. On our side, a piece of rope appears from out of the wall. We all jump back from it. We faintly hear 2-0 saying to grab the rope. I grab the rope, and Bobby grabs me and the rope. We both hit the wall, then the ground slightly vibrates, almost like an earthquake. I decide that this wall is like the wall in Harry Potter, and close my eyes and walk through the wall, hitting it and hurting myself. The floor starts shaking harder. The ceiling starts to cave in. Falling rubble hits 2-0, as well as all of the rest of us. Many of the people around us are crushed, including Garritt. The ground stops shaking. I check Garritt out, and I think he is bleeding internally. Vern tends to him, and Garritt wakes up. He tries to stand up, falls over, and says he has broken ribs and a concussion. He starts babbling nonsense, almost thinking out loud. He talks about quitting, and I notice him fiddle with a ring which appears to glint/glow, and then he puts it in his pocket. Garritt said the word “Darcaza” in his ramblings. It is actually two Spanish words put together, meaning “To Give Chase”. Mandy from Germany, William Bradshaw, Morgan Sutton, Finley Perkins and Alicia Mata are also hurt. I stablilize Mandy, and I try to stabilize William, but he dies. I stabilize Morgan, and Finley, and Alicia, with Bobby’s help. Photo: Kristin searches the exit and does not find a path. Time seems to move faster to 2-0 than to us. Session 3: 09/05/07 – IGD: 08/08/07Things calm down considerably after the latest round of oober wacky screwy stuff. The door out of the room is still walled up, however 2-0 can converse from the other side of the wall, and is discussing with the group on what to do and how to get out. Everyone begins to search the wall to determine if they can get out like 2-0 did, but all failed in finding a way out of the room. Vern began to search the entire outside wall structure of the room, and found no way out. 2-0 decided to back away from the wall and go get medical treatment since he was badly injured. When he turned around he noticed that many of the dig site personnel had their hands upon him trying to pull him away from the wall. The indicated that he had been standing nearly perfectly still for about 3 hours straight. To 2-0 it seemed only minutes. 2-0 left the dig site and stepped out into the dim sunlight. What he witnessed was also bizarre to say the least. He noticed that the sunlight was dimmed as if there was dense cloud cover. He looked up to see that the Sun was in a complete and total eclipse! After taking in the situation he noticed some more things that peaked his interest. The townsfolk were going about there business, wearing sunglasses, squinting in the dim sunlight (huh?), and casting shadows (double huh?). But the sun was eclipsed and no one should be casting shadows! 2-0 then noticed that not everything was casting a shadow. 2-0 was not casting a shadow, nor were any of the ancient Mayan built structures or statues in the dig site area. 2-0 headed to the hospital to get some treatment (spends about 3 hours in treatment), and then after treatment went to the library to get on the computer. During his trip to the library, he noticed that the eclipse was no longer full, but a sliver of sun was shining through. In the dig site Evan, Kristen, Bobby, and Mandy begin to experiment with the bowls to see if blood in the bowls would open up the wall. They picked up rat carcasses and began to squeeze out blood into the bowls. Kristen’s bowl unnaturally filled to the top (he did not put that much blood in the bowl), Bobby’s bowl had only what he put in it, and all of the blood in both Evan and Mandy’s bowl unnaturally disappeared. They tried several variations of this until they realized that no combination seemed to work. In the library 2-0 did full research on odd Mayan rituals that matched the alcove rituals, and came up with a very strange coincidence. He found reference to a sacrificial ritual that was only performed in one room. The room picture in the archive matched perfectly the room where everyone was trapped. 2-0 then looked up eclipses and found no known eclipse to happen on 08/08/07. He did find that there is a reference to something called a dark moon, but he found no immediate relevance to the dark moon and what would cause the eclipse only for him. The reference site is located at: After 6 hours of research on the internet (total 9 hours after leaving the dig site) 2-0 notices that the sun is almost done with the eclipse. He knows what to do. He reaches the dig site, and sticks his hand back in the wall to tell everyone what must be done for them to escape. The ritual he found indicated that before the eclipse is over, a human sacrifice must be made or those under the “dark moon” influence will be stuck indefinitely. The ritual dictates that a heart must be taken from the chest of a human being, blood squeezed into all four bowls, slice the heart in half (precisely), and then put a half of heart in each of the two 4” x 4” x 6” crevices on opposite ends of the wall. Evan whips out his handy knife and plunges it into the chest of William Bradshaw (who recently had died). Cut open the chest cavity with deft skill. Everyone watching and listening had to make will saves and sanity checks as they witnessed a human body being desiccated. Evan then tenderly cut out the heart. A minute later some drops of blood had been squeezed into each of the bowls, and every bowl unnaturally filled to the brim. Evan then deftly cut the heart in two halves where the wall of the right and left ventricles would be. He placed a half a heart in each of the crevices at opposite ends of the wall. Will saves and sanity checks all round caused much havoc as the ritual effects happened. Various degrees of saves and sanity check results were failed or made. Evan was the only one to fail his Will save and fail his Sanity check. Much sanity loss ensued, and Evan gained some Mythos knowledge permanently. The image and sensory perception shifts to a time when Spain invaded Copan. A Spanish troop entered the temple, and with great surprise were nearly all killed the last time…the last time this happened. A single Spanish captain and his troops stand in a long room with 5 wells, 10 columns, 4 alcoves with bowls attached to the walls, and 2 dais’ with 4” x 4” x 6” holes at chest height. A deafening sound, explosion, pierces the air. Debris flies around them, debris from the explosion, no…eruption, of the ground beneath their feet. A crevice approximately 10 feet wide and 25 feet long opens up and swallows a well and several of the Spanish troops. Hot, unbelievably hot, air gusts out of the crevice and the remaining 4 wells. At that moment you realize that the room is the culprit, not the priest, not a deity, not another entity…the room! The room wants sacrifice, the room wants death. The room remained quiet until today. That night Garret approaches all of the people who were trapped in the room with him, except for the archeologists’ native to the dig site. He indicates that he is part of a larger organization, and he would like to employ some or all of you as freelance contractors to hunt down interesting items for the organization. He does not disclose, even after prompting, the organization’s name. Nor is he willing to give any information on the nature of the organization. He does indicate that he can pay you for your freelance services. Here are the terms if you accept:
Mandy immediately accepted the terms of the freelance proposal. You six took a little time to decide what to do, but ultimately decided to freelance for the organization. Post Session Activities – IGD: 08/09/07The archeologists’ native to the dig site are saddened that such a tragic accident has occurred at their precious dig site. One of their own has died. William Bradshaw the lead archeologist of the Copan dig site died in the accidental cave-in. You all know the truth, but the archeologists have decided to cover up the real story. The claim to the public and to William’s family is that the site suffered a partial cave-in trapping 11 people with many injuries and a single death. The brave archeologists, runners, and assistants valiantly risked their lives to excavate the caved in section to free the buried people. The six of you slept through the night, but were highly fitful while doing so. You all had vivid nightmares, and you were so enthralled that you could not wake up on your own. However once you did awaken, after the sun came up, you could not remember anything about the nightmares, but you do recall being horrifically scared throughout the night. The only things you remember were fleeting images of rats, spiders, and snakes. You spent the entire day in your rooms and touring anything but the dig site. Post Session Activities – IGD: 08/10/07The next day some or all of you managed to gain your nerve back up to re-enter the dig site. The archeologists and fellow tourists had apparently opened up two more chambers, and were on the verge of opening up a third. As you approached the third chamber, the last large piece of rubble was removed from the entryway. Photo: Three Alcoves were revealed, and your better senses failed you and you to enter the hallway and explored. Photo: The first alcove had pottery, the second and third alcoves appeared to be empty until further investigation. The third alcove revealed a secret door leading to a room with a singular coffin. The coffin contained mummified remains that will be excavated and evaluated by the archeologists. Photo: After searching the third alcove again another secret door that revealed another alcove that was highly protected. In the alcove were a shelf and a singular tomb on the shelf. The archeologists would not let you keep the tomb, nor open it since it was so brittle. Photo:
Further searching the first alcove revealed another secret door with nothing in the secret room. Photo:
The other rooms were excavated on 08/09/07, and were cleared out before you got there on 08/10/07. Photo:
Post Session Activities – IGD: 08/11/07Your expedition group left Copan and finished out your travel arrangements for the next five days. During those five days Garritt continued to chat with you, when you were in a semi-private settings, about how he will contact you for your freelance work. Garritt provided you a website address and a login for the site. He will post assignments on the site on the first of every month. The first freelance contractor or freelance team to accept one of the assignments posted will be wired funds into a bank account. Each bank account will be opened for two transactions (a deposit and a withdrawal) and then closed. You concluded your expedition on 08/16/07, and flew back to your respective homes.
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