Pulp Alley – Perilous Island Campaign – Sinister Swamp

Our heroes have made it the Perilous Island, a strange and forbidding place. They’ve set up basecamp close to the beach and they, and the other leagues, have started to explore the island.

At this point we need more information on the whereabouts of Lord Darrow and we also need to know what he is up to. A good resource of all that is Lost Pages – parts of Lord Darrows journal and full of clues. One league needs to collect four pages for us unravel the mysteries and find out where to find Lord Darrow.

Our tracker found faint traces of a trail earlier today which we followed. The jungle of the island gives way to a fetid swamp and we follow the trail to the middle of it. Stinging insects are making life miserable and everyone’s spirits are down.

Suddenly we see strange idols in front of us. We have probably found a place of importance.

The gaming area with the three idols circled. All terrain pieces are perilous terrain.
The CSSS sets up in the near right corner, Phrenologist in the far right, Belgians far left and Cult near left.

Oh, dear. There are the other leagues, all intent of finding clues. (We are glad, sort of, to see our 'friends', the Phrenologists back in the game) Hmm, I wonder what that moaning noise is?

So, once again we will see a fight for clues. This time all plot point can be found around the three idols. 

The idols. This one is the one closest to us.

The trickiest one, on top of a rocky hill.

The last one, farthest away.

A 3” radius around the idols are extremely perilous (meaning you will get a peril when you enter or when you activate in it) and it is, by coincidence, there you must search for plot points. You can only search with one character each round and and there is a maximum of five plot points to retrieve. The reward deck is initially five true cards and one Red Herring. If you draw the Red Herring you got a zombie instead and the Red Herring is returned to the deck. So, the longer you go the higher the chance of a zombie…

The leagues... Our heroes - the CSSS. From left to right: Soura Innocenza (sidekick), Padre Sicorio (sidekick), Monsignore Cadaverico (leader), Padre Scuro (ally), Padre Orrore (backup lvl 2 shooter), Soldato Morto (ally) and there is also the dog Josef (backup lvl1 animal)

The Prenologists are back in the game. Clothes are dry and they are pining for a fight.

The Cult of Ra. Lots of them as usual.

The Belgian league.

Let the fight begin:

Nothing much happens the first turn. All leagues advance and the cult splits into two groups. 

Turn two starts with a bunch of zombies crawling up out of the ground around the idols. Each player got a random amount of zombies to place and in the end we got three around the closest idol and two each around the other two.

The phrenologists really hate it when their skulls take a second life and they did their outmost to kill as many zombies as possible. Here one goes down and soon the other follows. Back into the ground for you!

Padre Scuro advances and lets go with both barrels.

He downs two of the vile zombies. Well done!

On the other flank the Belgians advances into the totems' unholy circle.

Now it is time for Soldato Morto to let go with his SMG. A well placed burst on top of a bunch of cultists...

...and two of them meets Ra far faster than they intended.

Soura takes care of the last zombie. A shot to the head and it is down and out.

End of turn and surviving zombies move towards the closest living target. What is this? A zombie nun! The unliving remains of a group of  missionaries. She goes towards the obvious targets. The men and woman in black she recognises. What twisted  and demented logic.

As if that wasn't enough? Three more zombies crawls up from the blood drenched soil around the closest idol.

Only one comes to unlife around the middle idol.

And another three finds fresh meat around the third.

Another double barrel from from the blessed shotgun and two more zombies bites the dust.

Followed by a burst of 9mm bullets and another cultist is down and out.

The last zombie goes down in a shower of lead.

Our wardog Josef snarls and attacks the undead nun only to be hit by a well aimed bible in the head. He is down and out.

Battle rages around the far idol

A red-headed Belgian falls to a Phrenologist shot while the Belgian leader unlocks the first plot point. Turns out to be a red herring. Laughter and tauntings! Served him right, etc...

Cultist leader tries to take out Padre Sicario and they are locked in combat, but not before the Padre wound him with a well aimed shot. Monsignore takes a plot point... only to find out that it is a red herring! Groan. There was some laughter and jeering... Totally uncalled for.

More Belgians have advanced and it is the zombie's turn. They advance and lock several people into combat. No losses though.

That #¤%! zombie nun!

Another turn and even more zombies crawl out of the muck. Some just se the light for a short while before they are shot to pieces.

It is very fun to shoot into melee as people can't defend themselves. 

More blood-letting and the Belgians unlock their first real plot point.

Padre Scuro swings at the zombie nun and gets one iron hard rotting fist between his eyes. He is down!

Enough is enough! Here's one very annoyed nun. She sometimes feels like her undead counterpart on early Saturday mornings but this has just gone too far. Stop it and die once and for all!

One whack with the cross is all that it takes stop that moaning. Soura Innocenza felt nun the worse for  killing her emaciated counterpart.

There is a fierce battle around the idol while Monsignore finally unlocks a plot point.

A new round and even more zombies! There seems to be an excess of undead nuns on this island.

Our heroes are plagued by undead and cultist. Padre Scuro with his shotgun is out and Soldato Morto is in hand to hand with a zombie. Things are looking rather grave. Probably how everythings looks most of the time for a zombie...

It's everyone for him- or herself in the melee around the far idol.

More and more people go down. But living...

... and undead.

Padre Sicario falls...

...as does Padre Orrore.

In a last effort Soura runs around the hill so she will be well situated in the last round. She still has got one last chance to unlock a plot point.

A new round and our two downed heroes pull themselves together in one last effort to repulse both zombies and cultists.

That is well needed as even more zombies spawn. 

Soura activates and ducks perils and challenges while climbing up the hill. But the opposition is sneaky and  she falls within reach of the idol and the coveted plot point.

At this point we can see that there is no-one that can unlock a further plot point on this final turn and we call it a day. Everyone collects their fallen comrades and link back to their respective camps.
The takings have been slim, only the CSSS and the Belgians have collected any loot and none of it was the coveted lost pages.

Next game will be Blood Sacrifice! (and it is tonight)