Flaming White Apes

The following morning we headed ashore to speak with the chief once again. He and some of his tribe met us on the beach as we arrived. We asked him some detailed questions about the volcano, the evil, the demon, etc. but getting any relevant information was difficult. All we could discern was that the tribe believed that there was a demon living in the volcano and he was coming out (possibly at night) to terrorize the jungle. Because of that, they are afraid to go in to gather food and water.

We decided to see if the ape leader could shed some more light on the issue. In one of the huts, he and the other ape were being attended to by some of the tribes’ women. When we entered, one ape was unconscious but the leader was awake, although very weak. Telepathically, the ape greeted Elvis and immediately asked if we would help them defeat the evil. We were determined to first get a better understanding of what exactly was going on. The ape described the evil force was like the wind – the “spirit” of the volcano. He feared that a group of young apes violated their sacred taboo and foolishly entered a cave in the volcano and that was what awoke the demon. In the cave the young apes discovered the jewelry that they were trading with the tribesmen. However, some time has passed since the apes were last seen and the leader doesn’t know what happened to them.

I began to “speak” to the ape and he turned to me directly to “listen”. It appears that with this telepathy, you must concentrate on only one person at a time to be able to communicate. The ape was getting very tired, but I wanted to know what happened to the four ape corpses we discovered on our way to The Crown Rock. He said that he knew of this tragedy and it was the evil wind that accosted them and tore their bodies apart. After he answered my question, he fell unconscious. With this information, we headed back to the tribe one last time. We mentioned to the chief that we were planning to go into the volcano cave to investigate and he became very scared and concerned for us. I asked him if he has ever seen the volcano erupt and he said he had. Apparently, it’s not too frequent, but the last time was about 10 moons ago. He believes that when it does erupt, the volcano wants some sort of sacrifice.

We cautiously headed towards the volcano as planned. Elvis whipped out his spyglass to scout ahead and noticed a cave opening at the base of the volcano. Once inside, we found the walls of the tunnels to be irregularly shaped out of volcanic rock. We heard a noise down one pathway that sounded like a footstep that someone – or something – accidentally made. Bravely (or stupidly) we decided to find out its origin. While walking along the corridor, we heard a ruckus behind us followed by someone yelling in pain. Hans tripped a pit trap and fell ten or so feet onto some spikes. We lowered a rope to pull him up and as we did, screaming was heard in our heads and rocks were coming at us from all directions! We turned to find six red-eyed, shaggy albino apes attack us. We were really caught off guard but Elvis continued to help pull Hans out of the pit. With our two best fighters preoccupied for that moment, the apes took advantage and beat up on us quite handily. We were able to defeat one of the bushy beasts; however we were outmatched and decided to make haste for the exit.

The group vs. angry white apes (first encounter)

Back at the village, we went to tell the ape leader of what happened and he believes the white apes we encountered are the foolhardy, young apes that entered the volcano caves weeks earlier. They are now cursed with the taboo and have been transformed. He seemed distraught about the news so we left him so he could rest. We went back to the ship and rested for a few days until we felt strong enough to take on the white apes again. Once we returned to the village, we found it had been ransacked and the hut where the apes were resting was in shambles. Worse still, there was blood everywhere and the apes themselves were missing.

We went back to the caves and prepared a trap for the apes. Laying a bear trap on one side of the pit, we planned to lure them into an area then set them ablaze with flaming oil. I nervously went to taunt the apes and they began to chase me down the corridor. Initially they stopped short of our trap and began to throw more rocks at us. We pulled back a bit more expecting the apes to follow us and they did. The bear trap snagged one of the hirsute buggers then Chris set the oil on fire. The most of the apes lit up like a bonfire and the corridor filled thick with smoke from their burning white fur. Even with that advantage, they were still quite difficult to defeat. With the help of a few paralyzing darts we were barely able to claim victory. Once again battered, we headed back to the village and the tribe was happy for our victory, yet their joy was tainted with some anguish. That night, the tribe lit a huge bon fire as both a ceremony to protect the tribe and to celebrate our conquest over the apes.