Warning: if you're reading this log and you want to some day play in the published adventure "Canyon O' Doom", don't. You'd just get all scared and refuse to play.

The expedition reaches Havasu Canyon without further incident, and proceeds up the canyon on foot, reaching a major waterfall late in the afternoon. Next to the pool, in the shadow of a cliff, waits the Havasu shaman Torak and about twelve warriors. Once the posse greets them, Torak tells them that he was been waiting for them, having received a vision of their path, and the indication that he should help them. The natives have made a camp nearby and brought supplies. They've clearly been waiting a few days already.

Several of the party see strange faces in the rock at the falls, but there is little discussion of that. Edgar thinks he sees Powell himself, looking excited. Elder Tanner sees the faces as more tortured.

They settle down to talk to Torak, who tells them that the Powell expedition came through and talked to the Havasu. Unfortunately, they got Torak drunk and he told them more than he should have, revealing the existence of the House of the Old Ones behind the waterfall. They even stole a necklace from him when he was unconscious - the talisman of the heart, which can guide from the lesser House to the greater through the caves underground. Edgar reveals that they have the talisman, and Torak tells them to keep it to guide them.

They ask more about the caves behind the waterfall, and receive few answers. There is a lesser House, where the ancestors of the Havasu dwell in spirit, though not in body (the posse is strangely insistent about that question, clearly worried about more zombies). The talisman can guide from that House to the greater House through the caves. Very few shamans have made that journey, and none within a hundred years, so there is little useful information. Torak does tell them that "the eaters of the dead" live in the caves, and have become more numerous and vicious in recent years. The eaters are man-like, and can be killed like men, so the group isn't that worried about them.

There's a lot of discussion about what to do at camp that night - it seems clear that Powell went into the caves, and the expedition should follow. Both Edgar and Robert agree. They decide to spend the next day getting supplies from the boats, which will take all day, and then enter the caves the morning after.

The next day everyone goes down to the boats except for Cady (who isn't any good at carrying things) and Dr. Vorpwhistle (who wants to work on converting a few of their shock rods into electric crank lights). They go cautiously, expecting that the Guardian Angels may have followed them and set up an ambush.

And their caution is rewarded. From a fair distance Bart is able to spot riflemen on the rocky slope above where the boats are concealed. He surmises that they would pin the posse down until another group rushed them from the side. Edgar and the Edmunds brothers deploy in cover at long range with their rifles, while everyone else saunters forward unconcerned and then takes cover at the last moment before the ambush is actually sprung. The Angel riflemen take a few shots as they realize their ambush is found out. Tobey gets a bullet bounced off her armored bonnet with a disconcerting crunching noise when she tries for a shot, and the posse decides they have to assault the slope. Edgar and the Edmunds brothers take pot shots with little effect (though they keep the enemies heads down).

Elder Tanner is first up, scrambling up the slope with no cover and shooting one of the riflemen with his pistol. Someone throws four bones at him from behind a particularly large and upslope boulder, and they rise up as actual angels, with halos and everything. Tobey then scrambles up and applies common sense (backed by her miracle) to them, removing their illusion and revealing them to appear as skeletons packed with organs and flayed muscles. Sophie, Bart, and Robert also scramble up the slope, Sophie going behind that big rock while the rest go from cover to cover.

Behind the big rock Sophie finds nothing, until a tall thin preacher appears from a heat haze, blasts at her with a pillar of fire, and disappears again. Joseph shoots one of the zombie things in the head, but with no real effect, and then decides to leave them behind and go for the guy who sent them. Tobey moves into that fray to replace him. Robert gets shot in the face as he moves up the slope, and despite his mystic turtle shell his nose is broken by the blow.

Things look rough for the posse. Even though bullets are mostly bouncing off Elder Tanner and Robert, their armor is clearly wearing. Elder Tanner takes a particularly bad blow to the side as he moves. But then things start to turn around. Tobey slices a zombie thing in the head, but it doesn't stop. She finds that getting it through the belly works much better. Robert gets higher than the Angel gunmen and his rifle skill makes short work of them, while Bart tries the same with much less effect on the other side.

And the next time the preacher appears, Sophie grabs him and is able to move that grab into a full on head-lock. Elder Tanner scrambles up to the scene, and shoots the evil preacher in the head (though he has turned invisible again, Sophie has such a good grip that she is able to give Tanner an easy shot.

Then the extra Guardian Angels arrive at the base of the slope. Unfortunately, everyone they were there to kill has already gone upslope, and they find no good targets. They take cover behind the same big rock the posse chose, but it proves useless against the flanking fire of Dr. Haskins and the river guides.

More impressive is reinforcement from the air. A winged demon lands next to Joseph, grabs him, and slams him into the boulder. Meanwhile, the zombies manage to grab Tobey and one of them chews her kneecap off, knocking her to the ground. Sophie is routed by the sight of the demon, and flees back down the slope.

"Wilkes failed, but at least I'll be able to take his killer's head back to Grimme!" - the big demon.

Robert's rifle bounced off the demon, but Joseph is able to put a bullet into its mouth as it comes for him again, and makes it bleed considerably. It decides that this is more fight than it came for and takes off. Unfortunately for everyone who likes giant scaly winged monsters, Bart has spent his time racing to Tobey, grabbing the big ghost rock rifle from her, and racing it to Robert. He uses it to place a giant bullet straight through the things head, bringing it crashing to the ground. The remaining Angels retreat, and the posse cuts down the zombies. Bart absorbs something from the corpse of the demon, later discovering it gives him the ability to grow bigger and stronger for a time.

"Bart Smash!" - Bart, in homage to everyone's favorite green hero.

Afterwards they take some time to examine the boats and discover that nothing has been taken or even disturbed much. They get the supplies and limp back to the pool, where Summer Rains straightens some broken noses (Robert's and Tobey's) and binds up some broken ribs (Elder Tanner) as well as tending to various scratches and such. They decide to rest up an extra day rather than going into the cave immediately. Doctors Haskins and Vorpwhistle have a fine time the next day going back to the ambush site and dissecting the demon corpse, then burning it at the end of their studies. Most everyone else rests up, ready to go into the caves in the morning.

Thanks to Jan Maessen and Andrea Humez for guest-starring as Edgar and Sophie.

Thanks also to Meg for keeping a blow by blow record of the combat while the Marshall was too busy to write it down.