After concluding the Star Wars campaign, I thought of a new campaign to game with my son. We viewed the Indiana Jones movies together so I suggested to go for an Indiana Jones campaign. I played one years ago with 7TV rules, but decided to convert it to Fistful of Lead because my son learnt those rules during the Star Wars campaign.
The story so far:
1938. The Spanish Civil war rages on. General Franco is winning with German support. The German high command is preparing plans for conquering Europe. The Führer is looking for possible allies.
Meanwhile in the jungles of Central-America:
Indy is searching for the lost temple of Hoaxcoatl together with his friend El Pacino, interpreter Kate Miller and British agent Rupert Jenkins. The fabled sword of Cortés is is said to be hidden somewhere in the temple complex. The sword was a gift from the Spanish king to Hernán Cortés. It was captured by the Aztecs and vanished without a trace.
With the help of Indy's arch enemy, Doctor René Belloq, the Prussian baron Otto von Drüben also found the lost temple. Von Drüben is a fanatical party member who wants to offer the sword to the Führer, so he might secure Franco's support in the upcoming war.
The game:
Indy's team and the group led by Von Drüben enter the table in opposite corners and must explore four locations: the tower, both temples and the square with statues. One of these locations contains the sword. It takes a succesful difficult task roll to search for the sword and find out if it is in the searched location.
The card deck contains two hidden trap cards, one dangerous animal card and a card for the natives and also one card for their chief. Once they are on the table these cards are removed from the deck and the natives receive standard activation cards. The dangerous animal just moves towards the nearest character, intending to attack it.
The natives move in a random direction until one of the explorers enters their line of sight. Then they will attack. Kate Miller speaks their language and may attempt to persuade (regular task roll) the natives to help Indy's team.
My son wanted to play the bad guys this time, so I got to play Indy and friends.
The first turn immediately reveals the natives card. They enter from a random table edge, which happens to be right next to the edge where Von Drüben and his men are.
Indy and Kate move to one temple entrance while Rupert and El Pacino move to another entrance.
The Germans cannot enter the temple from where they are and have to move around it to get to the entrance on the other side.
The natives are spreading out and moving towards the explorers.
They've spotted Indy!
Kate searches the temple, but the sword isn't there. Rupert and El Pacino move around the temple towards the second location: the square with the statues. Von Drüben and his evil assistant Kotzbach are closing in fast.
Leutnant Brantt and the grunts are ordered to deal with the natives.
Before the grunts can assist, Leutnant Brantt is charged by three natives with really big clubs!
It turns out that clubs are no match for an MP40.
Three other guys with really big clubs are charging Indy over at the other temple. Kate must have overestimated her language skills because she failed her regular task roll when she tried to convince the natives to help them.
Indy is unable to stop them. He and Kate are both knocked out of action!
Kotzbach searched the square with the statues and found no sword. He did find a very angry jaguar.
Von Drüben left his assistant to deal with the jaguar and went for the two remaining locations, followed by Belloq.
Heavy fighting between the German soldiers and the natives take three more natives out of action. Leutnant Brantt is down, pierced by two arrows.
The native chief card emerges and he enters the table to lead his warriors!
Unfortunately he is shot immediately by the grunts.
Leutnant Brantt's recovery roll succeeds and he gets up, firing wildly at the natives, missing them completely.
The soldiers move forward to support their leader and trigger a trap!
Two of them fall down in a deep spiked pit. The leutnant goes down with two more arrows in his body.
He fails his recovery roll: it's game over for Brantt.
Kotzbach has dealt with the jaguar but is now charged by a machete wielding El Pacino.
Despite his point of shock, Kotzbach easily parries the blow and inflicts a wound on El Pacino. He even has time to search the area for the sword: nothing. Two possible locations remain: the tower and the temple where Brantt met his end.
Von Drüben has gone around the temple and snuck inside, onto the roof.
Again: no sword. Belloq is now on his way to the tower where the sword must be.
Supported by fire from Rupert, El Pacino recovers from his wound and cuts down Kotzbach.
Rupert hurries to the tower in an attempt to stop Belloq, who has almost deciphered the glyphs at the top of the tower.
El Pacino covers Rupert's getaway by taking on the three natives that took down Indy and Kate, soundly beating them.
Rupert has almost reached Belloq. He fires a wild shot at Belloq. Missed. Belloq disappears into the jungle with the sword of Cortés. He is joined by Von Drüben who managed to evade the natives. The surviving German soldier escapes into the jungle, but is never seen or heard from again.
Rupert and El Pacino patch up Indy and Kate and bring them to a hospital. Both will need time to recover and can't take part in the next game.
Stay tuned for part 2!
