Wrath of the Volcano God Part Six

 

 

WRATH OF THE VOLCANO GOD

A Pulp Adventure

Part Six

The Witch Doctor stepped between the native warrior and the woman prisoner.  He spoke in a commanding tone and swept his hands wide as though pushing the two apart.  The warrior, Nyfu, frowned as he returned angry words with a wave of his fist.

Bethany threw her hands up in a placating gesture.  "All right, all right!  Let's do this!"  Then she plucked her dagger from the ground and adopted a ready stance.

Nyfu's frown vanished in a moment of wide-eyed surprise as he drew his own primitive blade.  Hokumba, the Witch Doctor, gasped and backstepped out of the fray.  The rest of the tribe whooped and hollered at the sudden sport. 

With a primal growl, Bethany lunged forward and the battle began.  The two circled one another, a cloud of slashes and stabs, a dangerous dance as they dodged one another's blows.  They grunted and yelped, and issued sudden shouts meant to disarm the other.  There were clangs and the shrill scraping of stone on steel as they dueled and blocked with their knives.  Whenever Bethany wandered near the circle of surrounding natives, they would block any possible escape with the business-end of their spears, urging her back toward the middle of the impromptu battlefield.

*  *  *

As the tribe was distracted by this spectacle, Lewis swung out of the jungle on a vine.  He dropped effortlessly a few feet from the stake, and was only noticed by the two natives who stood nearby.  Without hesitation he dealt out a one-two punch that dropped one native, and a roundhouse which felled the second.

"Mr. Clark!" Sarah gasped, the relief plain in her voice.

He pulled a knife from his belt and started sawing at her bonds.  "Have you down in a jiffy, Miss Turnbull!" 

"What about Miss Gale?" Sarah asked.  "That warrior will kill her!"                                             

Lewis shot his gaze toward the fight in the ring of natives.  "She seems to be doing alright, so far.  But the distraction won't last long, and she'll need some help."  The vines that had held Sarah firmly to the stake fell to the grassy ground.  "Where's Johnson?"

"Locked in a cage on the side of the Kazooli camp!" she replied.  "I'll show you!"

As the duel raged on amid the cheers and jeers of the native tribe, Lewis and Sarah skirted the encampment until they came upon a bamboo cage not far from the edge of the jungle.   Wayne Johnson stood by the bars, leaning this way and that in an attempt to look past the throng of natives and watch the fight.  He jabbed at the air as he rooted for Bethany, almost as though it would cause her to mimic his actions.  He saw her lunge forward and he hooted in approval, but when he saw the native dance away, he threw his hat to the ground in disgust. 

Grumbling, he bent down to retrieve his hat, when he looked up he found Lewis and Sarah cutting open the door to the cage.  "About time you showed up, where ya been?"

"No time for that now," Lewis said as he pulled the cage door open.  "We've got to get out of here!"

"Not so fast," Wayne said as he stepped out of the cage, "They took my gear and stowed it away in that hut.  I ain't leaving without my guns."

"Hurry!" Sarah pleaded.

The trio rushed into a nearby hut, where they found a half dozen pistols and a pair of gun belts, still sporting spare bullets, as well as Sarah's camera, and a few other bits of gear that were weird and foreign to the Kazooli. 

Wayne was surprised at the find.  "What's all this?" He overcome the shock and retrieved his own gun belt and pistols.

"Perhaps scavenged from the crew of the Josephine's Joy?" Lewis suggested as he grabbed a belt and a couple of guns. 

"What difference does it make?" Sarah snapped.  "It's not enough to fight off the whole tribe, and we still have to find a way to help Miss Gale! 

Wayne found the red sticks he'd taken from the derelict's hull and smiled.  "I think we come up with something suitable."

*  *  *

Bethany swung around, her blade slammed against Nyfu's sharpened stone.  Fueled by anger, the native warrior swung again with all his strength.  Bethany lifted her own knife to block his blow, and his stone blade sent it spinning from her hand.  Wide-eyed, Bethany watched the dagger fly from her hand.  She turned her wide eyes toward her adversary and realized he was just as surprised as she was.

Nyfu recovered from the shock, raised his stone blade for the death blow.

Unseen a moment before, a red stick was tossed into the fire at the center of the encampment.  The campfire exploded, spitting fire onto the nearby huts and sending the natives in a panic.

"Whoa!" Bethany cried as she and all the natives watched in fearful wonder.  Recovering from this new shock, Nyfu turned back to his prey.  She slugged him with a haymaker, knocking him off his feet once more.  By then, natives ran screaming in all directions, and she bolted for the stake.  Her steps faltered for a moment when she saw that Sarah was no longer tied there.  But amid the din of the surrounding panic she heard  her own name.

A quick look around and she found Lewis Clark waving her forward.  With him were Sarah Turnbull and Wayne Johnson.  She ran up to them.

"I guess the rescue was a success!" she exclaimed.

"It ain't over yet!" Wayne replied.  "We gotta get out of here!"

"The temple's this way!" Lewis shouted as he led the way.

Meanwhile, panic reigned in the native camp.  Frightened tribesmen ran in all directions, frightened by the omen given to them by the Volcano God.  Only Hokumba kept his head.  He stood in the center of the camp shouting orders to his followers.  After some minutes, he organized a bucket brigade to douse the fires consuming the huts. 

With that first order of business achieved, he organized the remainder of the tribe into a posse, and led them in the pursuit of interlopers who dared invade their island.

*   *  *

Lewis led his team on their charge through the jungle.  They emerged from the trees into a short field, before them stood a tall spire of rock, a bulbous outcropping of stone bore a series of caves that gave it a skull-like visage and crudely carved steps led up to the leering maw. 

The group paused and gaped at the weird monument as they caught their breath.  Then the rustling of fronds in the jungle behind them told them they were still being pursued. 

"Come on!" Lewis urged them, and waved for them to follow him up the stone stairs. 

The Kazoolis emerged from the jungle and looked up at the skull-face with revered terror in their eyes.  They saw the interlopers top the stone steps and vanish into the skull's dark mouth.

Hokumba screeched to a halt, spread his arms wide to stop the advance of his warriors.  He pointed at the temple entrance, and decreed the blasphemous trespassers were now at the dubious mercy of Tiki-Taki.  Behind him, the mob of warriors gasped at this terrible fate.

But one warrior pushed his way through the throng.  Nyfu stepped before the mob and argued with the Witch Doctor, he waved his stone knife toward the temple, pleading to continue the chase.  But the Witch Doctor was adamant, with a dour face he shook his heavy head, forbidding the young warrior's desires.

Disgusted with this decision, Nyfu spat some choice words back at the Witch Doctor, then turned and continued alone.  Ignoring the Witch Doctor's commands for him to return, he bounded up the steps to the Temple of the Volcano God.

*  *  *

Lewis led his team toward a dull red glow at the end of a long dark hall.  It was a wide room, riddled with pillars, with primitive totems lining the walls.  The floor ended in a precipice that stood only a foot above a pool of lava--the source of the eerie red glow--which covered the far end of the room.  A narrow rock bridge stood out like the plank of a pirate ship, and ended on a small island where a hand-carved pedestal proudly displayed the giant ruby that was the Heart of Tiki-Taki.

Mesmerized by the beauty of the historical find, our explorers gaped in awe.  They watched, dumbstruck, as the jewel twinkled and winked in the glow of the liquid rock.  With thoughtless, mechanical precision, Sarah grabbed the camera that hung from her neck and snapped a picture.

Before she could be proud of her automatic response, she was seized from behind.  With a scream, she suddenly found herself once again in the meaty embrace of Igor Klugman.  One thick arm wrapped around the lithe girl, his other pointed his pistol at Bethany and Wayne, as if daring them to make a move.

Lewis turned at the sound of her scream, and found himself facing the business end of Carlsbad's revolver.  "Well, well, well..." cooed the disgraced professor, "Fancy meeting you here..." 

To Be Continued...

Fireball Island

 Howdy folks!  You're just in time to join me on a Terribly Arsonous Safari, so let's go!

Imagine an expedition to a lush tropical island, riddled with volcanic fissures that belch out massive fireballs that roll down jungle paths, leveling all that stands in their way!  At the center of this dangerous tropical paradise atop the angry volcano sits the primitive idol Vul-Kar, who watches over a gigantic red jewel--which is the goal of our very expedition!

This is the premise of the Milton Bradley game Fireball Island!  Released in 1986, this is easily the second coolest board game ever!*

This is the first game I was aware of that had a three dimensional board.  I don't mean like Mousetrap, which had a flat board that you built 3-D elements upon.  And I don't mean like Life which had that built-in spinner wheel and little built-in plastic hills so the board would fold correctly.  No!  This was a single large piece of vacuum-formed plastic depicting sloping trails divided by rocky outcroppings, ravines and pits!  

See, you start on this one plateau--I don't remember if it said so in the rule book, but I was always under the impression that we airdropped onto the island.  Then you make your way through winding jungle trails, past crumbling temples, across rickety bridges and the occasional shortcut through twisting caves all in an attempt to take the fabulous jewel for yourself and reach the only escape boat before the other players!

Once someone takes the jewel from its place beside the idol of Vul-Kar, they must avoid the other players who are now trying to steal the jewel for themselves and reach the boat first.  On top of this, everyone must look out for Fireballs, which are activated by certain cards and dice rolls and--according to the rules--MUST try to hit a player--even if you have to hit yourself!

Don't worry, you don't die or anything.  Getting hit by a fireball only means you lose a turn...and your place on the board...and the jewel if you have it.  I mean HAD it.  This gives the other players a chance to catch up...or leave you behind!

There is also a deck of cards--players can each have up to four at a time--that can affect how you or other players move.  

Up to four people can play at once.  I gotta tell you, when there are only two players, its pretty tame.  Three players gets interesting.  But when there are four players, the game can get pretty wild!  Everyone racing for the jewel, playing cards on one another, stealing the jewel back an forth between players, and fireballs rolling everywhere!

As you can probably guess, this is a popular game among my family.  Many an evening was spent playing this game with brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews.  Why even today, when my niece comes to visit, she STILL insists on playing a game or two of Fireball Island!

Back in 2018, Restoration Games held a super-successful Kickstarter campaign to raise the money for a reboot/reimagining of the game.  As I said, it was super-successful--in fact they met their goal in the first hour--and they came out with a new version and a series of expansions.  Now, I haven't played any of the expansions, but I did get to play the new version once.  It is VASTLY different from the original.  I'll have to play it a few more times to get used to it, I guess.

So far, I still like the original best!  You should still be able to find it on places like eBay, if you're interested.  Maybe even with all the pieces!  It's highly recommended! 

I guess that all for now, folks!  So I'll see ya next time!  Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell

* The coolest board game ever was obviously Dark Tower (no connection whatsoever to the the novels by Stephen King).

Wrath of the Volcano God Part Five

 

 

WRATH OF THE VOLCANO GOD

A Pulp Adventure

Part Five

The tiger exploded from the undergrowth, a snarling burst of fury.  It charged for the lithe girl in Igor's firm embrace.

Carlsbad jumped away, and let loose a shrill and fearful shriek.

The jungle cat leaped for the pair.  Igor flung the woman aside just before the tiger tackled him.  As the two savage brutes wrestled on the verdant jungle floor, Bethany jumped to her feet and bolted into the jungle. 

The tiger was a frantic flurry of razor-sharp talons, and even Igor Klugman's strong hands could not hold the cat the bay.  In desperation, Igor unholstered his pistol, thrust the barrel into the killer cat's toothy face and fired.

The animal yelped as it jumped off the big man.  With frantic ferocity, it wiped one paw against the powder burns that now covered its left eye. 

Free of the predator's weight, Igor sat up, leveled his pistol and barked off a second shot.  A miss!  But the big cat was spooked, obviously this prey had a bite it had not encountered before!  The thunderous resound and the fiery flash were enough make this hunter think twice.  It growled at the big man as if in retort, then disappeared into the lush underbrush, no doubt in search of an easier meal.

Carlsbad sighed in relief, looked around.  He swore, then cried:  "The girl!  After her!"

Bethany bounded through the rich foliage and soon came upon a winding stretch of water.  It was a flowing brown ribbon that cut through the green jungle.  It wasn't very wide, and looked shallow enough to fiord, though congested with a logjam of fallen tree trunks.

She paused upon the bank as a second look revealed the fallen tree trunks were in truth a float of crocodiles.  They seemed to eye her with an evil gaze as one rolled in the muddy water and some opened their jaws as though in anticipation.  With no more action that this, Bethany was convinced to reconsider her path.

Suddenly there was the snap of a branch in the jungle behind her.  A rustle of fern leaves sounded off to one side.  A heartbeat later, Carlsbad emerged from the jungle.  Bethany turned and sneered at his gloatful grin as Igor appeared a few feet to her left.

"You shouldn't wander off like that," Carlsbad said in a smooth growling voice, "It's far too dangerous to go off by yourself."  He flashed his teeth in a disconcerting smile.

Bethany glanced back and forth between the two men as they closed in upon her.  She frowned back at the former college professor.  "Don't be such a sissy, this place is a piece of cake!  Watch!"  She turned and sprinted for the river, despite Carlsbad's surprised screams.

She launched herself from the muddy bank, leapt for the nearest croc.  She landed on its back, and jumped for the next one.  From one to the next, she leap-frogged her way across the narrow river, leaving a path of thrashing lizards in her wake.  Her boots touched down on the far bank and turned back to view the stunned faces of her pursuers.

The amazement written on their faces matched the feeling she had inside, but the adrenaline overwhelmed its inevitable grip.  "Catch me if you can!" she chided them, then ran into the lush cover of the jungle, leaving the river, the crocodiles, and her pursuers behind.

*  *  *

Lewis groped and stumbled his way through the dark cave.  He rounded a curve and found a light ahead, glimmering with the promise of an exit.  With his hope buoyed, he rushed ahead.

There was an exit, a wide mouth in the cliff wall, easily large enough to walk through.  He quickly learned this exit was high in the center of the cliff, no more convenient than where he entered.  He turned skyward and found the cliff peaked only about a dozen yards above him, and a copse of palm trees leaned out over the edge as though they were expecting him.  Thick vines grew from that clump of trees, and clung to the rocky cliff-face. 

Resigned to this fate, Lewis inched his way along the ledge and took the leafy rope in his strong hands.  He tugged on the vine to test its strength, and was pleased when it didn't break.  Thanks to a combination of strong fingers and elbow grease, Lewis shimmied his way to the top of the cliff. 

Perched at the edge of the cliff, he looked around to get his bearings.  A streak of smoke stained the blue sky above the palm fronds, and he knew it leaked from the lip of the volcano.  With an estimate of where that landmark was, he could compose a mental map with his approximate location, and the relative locations of the demolished derelict, and the scuttled seaplane.  Armed with this knowledge, he continued his trek across the island.

He trudged through the jungle for nearly an hour before he heard the telltale rustle of another path being forged through the underbrush.  Lewis hid himself behind a tree and waited to see whether the newcomer was man or beast.  Moments later he found Bethany Gale approaching as she stumbled through the leafy terrain.

Lewis stepped out from his hiding place and called to her.

"Clark!  You're alive!" she exclaimed as she rushed to his side.  Suddenly she stopped and frowned.  "Where's Clapsaddle?"

Lewis hung his head.  "He didn't make it."  She released her breath in a short, baleful moan.  "Have you seen any sign of Miss Turnbull, or Johnson?" he asked.

"No, just Carlsbad and Klugman," she told him.

"Then we have to keep heading for the temple," he said, pointing in one direction.  "They should be making their way there."

"Right," Bethany agreed, "Let's go."

*  *  *

After an hour of marching, the jungle thinned and came to an end at the edge of the foothills that ringed the smoking volcano.  As they crested the short hillocks, they spied a smaller pillar of smoke stemming from some point south of the volcano, not too far from where they expected to find the Temple of Tiki-Taki. 

At last they found the source of that smoke.  It was a bonfire ringed by a collection of grass huts, in turn surrounded by dense jungle.  The encampment was alive with Kazooli warriors who danced around the fire to a rhythmic drumbeat.  Lewis and Bethany scanned the little village and soon spotted Sarah Turnbull as she was pulled--kicking and screaming--from a bamboo cage.

The natives pulled the blond girl before some authority figure dressed in a cloak of exotic feathers and a headdress made from the skull of a jungle cat.  He was Hokumba, the tribe's venerated Witch Doctor.  He regarded the slim girl with an appraising eye, administered a blessing with a wave of his feather-adorned scepter.  The warriors dragged her away, to a stake at the north-end of the village, beneath the stern gaze of the skull-face formed in the side of the volcano.

"This can't be good!" Bethany exclaimed.

Lewis ran his fingers through his hair, under his hat as his mind raced.  There was no time for fancy plans, there was barely time for action.  "You got a gun?" he asked.

Bethany checked her gear.  "No, just a knife."

Lewis harrumphed, handed her his pistol.  "I'm going in to get her," he told her.  "Cover me!" 

With an incredulous frown, she found the gun in her hand.  Before she could stop him, he bounded across the hills toward the native village.  "Can't be good!" she said again as she sought a better vantage point on the next hill.

Bethany crouched behind a bush and looked over the village below.  She watched, waiting for Lewis to make his move.  A voice cried out in surprise behind her, she turned and found herself staring into the business-end of a half-dozen native spears. 

She sighed.  "No good at all!" she declared as she raised her hands where they were clearly seen.  Her knife and gun were quickly seized by the natives.

The Kazooli patrol marched her down into the village, interrupting the celebration.  From her vantage point, Sarah called out in despair upon seeing her companion's capture.

"Hiya kid," Bethany called to her, "How ya holdin' up?"

"They're going to sacrifice me to the Volcano God!" Sarah wailed.

"Well...there's an experience you can't get in school..." Bethany suggested. 

Suddenly, she found herself before the Witch Doctor.  Hokumba looked her over, conferred with the advisors at his side.  The group looked back and forth between Bethany and Sarah, appraising them both.

"I wish I could tell what they're saying," Bethany remarked.

Sarah cocked her head to one side and listened intently.  "It sounds like they're debating whether you would make a better sacrifice than I."

Bethany snorted.  "Well, that would be one way to get you down from there..."

A cry erupted from the village, interrupting the conference between the Witch Doctor and his fellows.  The warriors parted and Nyfu stepped forward.  The noble savage made a passionate decree as he advanced through the mob, thrust one accusing finger at the newly-caught woman.  He punctuated the end of his speech with one deft wave of his hand, and Bethany found her knife embedded in the ground by her feet.

"I remember this guy," Bethany blanched beneath his gaze.  "What's his problem?"

"Apparently when you struck him, you bruised his pride!" Sarah told her.  "Now, he demands the right to fight you in a duel...to the death!"

To Be Continued...

I Want To Live In A Republic Serial

 Howdy friends!  I Toast And Salute you in greeting!

I want to Tell A Secret to you:  I love those old Saturday Matinee serials!  Okay, maybe that's not much of a secret.

Just in case you're new around here, I'll give the obligatory summary:  Back in the 30's and 40's when you went to the movies you got to see, like, two main features and a selection of short features.  The main features were full length movies which would last anywhere from one to two hours long.  Short features, or short subjects were a half an hour or less and included newsreels, cartoons, travelogues, short humorous films, and serials.  Serials were episodic stories with little plot and lots of action, they were designed primarily for younger audiences.  You had to come back each week to see each chapter of the story, sort of like a TV show, except you had to go to the movies to see it.

Serials were often based on comic strips, comic books, and pulp stories, but also featured several original characters who were inspired by these.  After all, original characters didn't have to be licensed for use like trademarked characters did.

Sometimes the heroes were super-heroes like Superman or Batman, or the Shadow or the Spider.  But more often they were police detectives, or government agents, soldiers, boat captains or news reporters.  Sometimes they were a little more exotic, like stunt pilots or carnival daredevils.

But it doesn't seem to matter much what their occupation is, people in serials seem to all be exceptional examples of mankind!  Generally speaking, there's a Hero and two or three Trusted Sidekicks.  They fight against the machinations of the Mysterious Villain, whose identity they cannot confirm until one of the last two chapters of the story.  The Villain has an extensive gang of expendable characters and two or three major Henchmen.  

These are the main characters in the serial, and they appear in every chapter.  There are some tertiary characters, usually including police chiefs, kindly scientists, or corporate or government benefactors.  These tertiary characters also have a good chance of surviving the story, though they may occasionally get kidnapped and placed in a life-threatening trap.

The Hero and his Sidekicks encounter the Henchmen and engage in a fistfight in every chapter!  No one ever seems to get seriously hurt (unless they are an expendable, nameless thug, and even then, they often get arrested).  The worst that usually happens is someone getting KO'd just long enough to think they're going to burn up in the fire, or get blown up by the impending explosion.

But that's not all!  These major characters display a countless array of astounding skills!  They can run, jump, climb, and swim!  I don't know about you, but that's more than I can do.  They can drive a car, ride a motorcycle, ride a horse, pilot a boat, pilot a plane!  They can indulge in repeated wrestling and fisticuffs that demolish all the furniture in the room!  They can fire guns (with all the accuracy of an Imperial Stormtrooper, but still, they know how)!  They can fire a bow and arrow, use knives, use swords, use weird laser cannons stolen from the good-hearted scientist who invented it!  They drive cars by standing on the running board and then jump before they go over the cliff!

Wow!  I wish I could do half of that stuff without getting so much as a scratch!  Is it cheesy?  Yes!  Yes it is!  But that's why I say I want to live in a Republic Serial!  ...Well, okay, it wouldn't have to be a Republic Serial, because serials were basically the same whether they came from Republic, or Mascot, or Universal, or one of the others!

What movie, TV show, or book would you like to live in?  Love to hear about it in the comments below!


Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell