Bruce (Arthur Michael Vincent Pulfrey-Downs) commits the ultimate crime by skipping out on lunch, forcing everyone else to forage for themselves. Chuck shows up and blames Bruce for causing him to spend money. Tim (Serpentine) appears, but is quickly distracted by an article on the long-term serious health effects of consuming too many healing potions. Mike (Jack Smith) romps in to report that his week was far worse than anyone else's week. Chris (Michael Sangaree) shows up and ignores everyone else's whining. Paul (Kumar Singh) appears to cheers and adulation because Chuck had indicated that he thought Paul was only barely conscious when he talked to him.
Pulfrey-Downs is disheveled. Pulfrey-Downs is frightened. Pulfrey-Downs is filthy. But Pulfrey-Downs has his submachinegun, so everything is okay.
The characters are pinned down in a hut on one of the Enoch Islands in the Pacific. They are under fire. They are none too happy about their current position. Michael Sangaree tries peeking out a window to see who's shooting at them. Bullets whiz by his head as he throws himself back to the safe, safe ground. One bullet bounces off his cranium, but he barely notices.
Jack Smith decides that gunfire is nothing he should be worrying about. He simply walks out of the building, rifle in his hands. He guesses that the gunmen are some of Mycroft's goons, so he feels even less regret at slaughtering them than normal. He starts attracting bullets right away. Uncharacteristically, he dodges. Then, reverting to type, he shoots back.
With Smith's example impossible to ignore, the other characters pour out of the hut, downing gunmen like ninepins along the way. As an appetizer, they discover that there is quite a collection of spear-armed natives gathered around the hut and intent upon the slaughter of the Westerners. Pulfrey-Downs decides to sidestep the issue and sneaks past them into the jungle. Michael Sangaree follows him. Kumar Singh marches into the thick of the natives and becomes a One-Man Army. No native can stand before him. Serpentine channels the ghost of Rutger Hauer and ends two more ("I shall make this the Hut of Death!").
Serpentine feels the earth move. He concludes that something big is on the way, but nobody is nearby him except for Jack Smith, so he stays mum about his suspicions. Jack Smith is spending his time wisely, whacking natives upside the head with his rifle butt and paying no attention to unusual sounds. By this time, Kumar Singh has surrounded himself with a pile of bodies. He loves Sparks! And he says so very vocally. Sadly, his excitement and bloodlust are enough to prevent him from noticing the vibrations that are so apparent to Serpentine's keen senses.
For their part, Pulfrey-Downs and Sangaree are trekking through the jungle, searching for the Mystical Source of Goons. Specifically, they want to find out where Horatio Mycroft's guys came ashore.
And Mischief is sitting in the window, enjoying the sun and confident that she can defeat any of the characters single-handledly.
Serpentine and Kumar Singh all hear a tremendous noise behind them. Then Jack Smith is less fortunate: he had turned around to strike down some natives so he is very able to see what is causing the noise. The shaman's hut explodes into fragments. Massive tentacles lurch and surge into the air. More tentacles heave themselves out across the ground. It takes several moments before the full extent of the thing is visible.
Serpentine gasps and asks, "How did it get out here?" Kumar Singh takes advantage of his education in natural philosophy to explain, "It must be like an octopus: it can fit itself through any opening it can get it's head through." Neither of them are particularly reassured by this knowledge.
The goons fighting Kumar Singh turn away from the tentacled shape in horror. Kumar takes advantage of this to attack them. Serpentine simply runs away from the monster, reasoning that this won't look like cowardice because he's also running towards some goons. The tentacle monster bypasses three natives (Serpentine has a moment of inspiration and cries out, "Oh! It ignores them because they're natives!") and advances on the characters. Serpentine indicates that Michael Sangaree and Pulfrey-Downs should thank him: he's creating a diversion that is keeping the monster away from them. Jack Smith is terrified by the monster and runs past everyone, screaming like a girl.
On his way towards the shore, Kumar Singh reflects, "It strikes me that we're not going to be able to outrun this thing." Serpentine suggests, "I think we should split up, so only one of us dies. Or maybe we could fight it together. Except that I'm a little hurt: I've been shot through my shoulder blades."
On the plus side, the characters discover that Mycroft's gunmen aren't natives in the creature's eyes. The characters hear screams.
Mycroft Horatio Pulfrey-Downs' men arrived on the island in three small launches. From their vantage point on a bluff over the native village, the characters are able to see Mycroft's super-science submarine waiting offshore.
A group of about twenty of Mycroft's goons are herding the villagers together. The three launches are pulled up onto the beach, protected by six guards.
Pulfrey-Downs takes charge of the situation. He tells the others that he, Kumar Singh and Serpentine will sneak down and steal a launch while Jack Smith stands in position on the bluff to snipe at the guards. At the last minute, Michael Sangaree joins the assault party, albeit with less grace than the others: his path down the bluff is characterized by a certain quantity of tripping and tumbling.
Jack Smith opens fire on the guards as the assault group gets about halfway to the beach. He is so well-hidden that even after sniping away half the guard party the survivors have no idea where he is. The rest of the assault group is not nearly so fortunate. They are spotted by a sentry on the submarine only a third of the way to the beach. The mortar gunner on the submarine takes a few shots to find his range. After that, the characters start to take damage from shrapnel.
Even with the mortar fire, the assault group manages to overcome the surviving guards and put a launch into the water. They almost forget Jack back on the island until Serpentine points out that if they don't loop back for him he will probably shoot all of them as they leave. Jack makes it down the bluff and into the launch, narrowly avoiding another mortar shell.
Michael Sangaree mans the tiller and guns the engine, marking out a course directly for the submarine. The characters are able to see that the mortar bay is recessed, with a sophisticated periscope for aiming. None of the crew are easy targets. Robbed of the chance to pick off the gunners, Jack Smith blazes away at the periscope tip instead. This is quite a difficult shot (+3 difficulty for target size, +2 difficulty more for range, and no ability to set and brace because the firing platform is unstable). His shots go wild.
Pulfrey-Downs moves to the bow to offer Smith helpful tactical advice. He notices a tell-tale wake in the water ahead and calls out, "Torpedo!" Sangaree takes evasive action. He lurches the launch to one side, neatly evading the thing. Then Jack shoots it. Boom.
Serpentine takes a glance back at the shore and notices that the tentacle-monster gets bigger when it eats goons. The characters speculate on the chance that something swarming with tentacles might be aquatic. Pulfrey-Downs (the academic genius) scoffs, "Oh, what are the odds? Hey, look! It's heading for the water." It is quickly obvious to everyone that it is just as happy in the water as it is on land. Possibly even happier.
About the time Michael Sangaree is evading the second torpedo, Jack Smith manages to make a successful shot at the mortar bay periscope. The characters assume tha the shot is successful, because the mortar falls silent afterwards. And then Smith shoots the torpedo. Boom.
The characters see that Mycroft's sub is under steam and apparently diving. Michael Sangaree fires off a flare to summon the Flying Dutchman, while pushing the launch farther out into the water to avoid the tentacled horror.
The characters head to the skies. They have some thoughts of using the DAMP apparatus to detect Mycroft's sub, thoughts that are quelled by the fact that Pulfrey-Downs already knows that Mycroft Horatio recently completed the installation of his DAMP Resonance Interference ("DRI") apparatus on his submarine, rendering it completely undetectable with DAMP.
Michael Sangaree sets course for Brazil. Jack Smith calls out, "Carnaval!" Sangaree corrects him, "We're going to the part of Brazil where it isn't any fun to catch the diseases." Smith scowls.
The characters are currently in the lead in the race for the Gems of Urighu with five gems. Mycroft Horatio Pulfrey-Downs has one gem, as does the Chinese villain who originally built the Earthquake Projector (he found it in the Sargasso Sea). Neither Subekhatan nor the Nazis have a gem, much to their dismay.
The session ends with the characters on their way to Brazil aboard the Flying Dutchman. Each character regains one point of Willpower and heals all wounds (thanks to Fast-Heal Elixir) during the trip. Pulfrey-Downs has only one dose of Fast-Heal Elixir left after dispensing enough to cover everyone's injuries. Each character gains three experience points.
We need a map of Brazil.