Warning: if you're reading this log and you want to some day play in the published adventure "Canyon O' Doom", don't. You'll just be holdin' your breath waiting for stuff that isn't even in the book. Have pity on your poor Marshall.

Pressing on through the fungal jungle, they come into a clearing which has a crude hut in it. In front of the hut is a strange figure - humanoid, but coated in growths like the forest around them. It shambles forward (and Cady, for one, stumbles back) stopping right in front of Tobey. It makes some incoherent noises - its mouth is grown over - which Dr. Haskins thinks are an attempt to say "Longstreet" (one of the members of the Powell expedition). The human-pink inner mouth and the human-looking eyes seem to support this.

Tobey, meanwhile, is so disturbed by the thing that she tries to light herself on fire using some of the lantern oil, fearing fungus growing on her. Sophie is able to put her out and subdue her, luckily.

In the hut, they find another one of these strange figures, curled on his side. It's hard to tell, but Cady's penetrating gaze says it's one-armed, at least in skeleton. Strangest of all, there's a huge mushroom growing out of its side, rooted through the body into the ground. "Doctor Powell, I presume?" says Haskins.

The thing opens its eyes and begins breathing, the gills of the mushroom cap flexing in time with the breaths. "You have me at a disadvantage." says Powell. Dr. Haskins talks with him, learning that the expedition was routed by the Eaters of the Dead and fled down here, then could not get out past them again. Apparently one man - maybe Croft - was lost in one of their escape attempts, and never seen again. Longstreet and Powell are the only other survivors, if they can be called survivors. There's no other way out except past the Eaters.

Powell seems happy enough with his new state, rejecting the idea that they should attempt some sort of cure. He tells them that there is a shrine further along in the cavern, old Havasupai work. They decide to press on quickly rather than invite Powell's fate.

On the path to the shrine, they encounter what at first seems like a jagged mirror hanging in the air, but soon reveals itself to be something stranger, a space filled with mists that looks the same from whichever direction they look at it. They briefly consider that their path lies through it, but the talisman seems to pull them onward. They come to a large clearing with an ornately carved pedestal on it. There is something on the pedestal, and close by is a shriveled corpse, face down and hand outstretched to the shrine.

They cautiously wait to approach. While Summer Rains starts praying, Robert uses his gift of keen sight to look at the carvings, which seem to tell a story. The first scene is of evil spirits attacking little people. In the next scene, larger people sit in pow-wow, smoking. Then one of them stands up, hand on his chest and holding a knife. In the next scene, all of the big people are cutting their chests open with the knives. Then they hand their hearts to little people, who take them away to caves and forests. Finally, the big people pass through some sort of door. Dr. Haskins thinks the big / little difference is just indicating more and less important people, rather than spirits or gods. On top of the shrine is a dark blob that could be a very shriveled heart (and turns out to be when they finally get a good look at it).

Robert decides to approach the shrine, but as he does so a shrieking echos through the cavern like a huge flock of crows. The posse runs to take up positions around the pedestal as raven-headed men fly in from the direction they came from, carrying spears. But it is not just the raven-men they have to contend with.

Summer Rains, in a deeper voice than usual (and in a language no one understands) commands Tobey's and then Bart's manitous to rise up, and though each of the undead maintains control, it is quite difficult. Sophie shoots at the shaman but misses, and is then cowed by the cold stare of Summer Rain's suddenly fearsome eyes. Dr. Haskins then shoots her almost point blank in the chest, but the only casualty is her breast-band top, blown to scraps. Underneath is a chest as flat and masculine as Haskins's own, with a small raven-head tattoo over the heart. Cady tries to soul-blast Summer Rains, but the evil spirit prefers to be destroyed by the force of Cady's will than do so. Then Dr. Vorpwhistle shoots her (him really) with the EKG and blows him off his feet and a good distance away.

The raven-men then land and attack. One grabs for the heart on the shrine, but when he does so his hand, arm, and head burst into flames, and he staggers back to die. The others wield their spears, giving Haskins a wound in the side, Cady a cut on the cheek (almost putting an eye out), and nearly killing Sophie before she stumbles back. Bart is stabbed badly in the liver, but he wasn't really using it. One tries to attack Elder Tanner, but flinches away at the last minute, and Robert is also protected by the shell of the turtle, causing a thrust to the face to scrape off harmlessly. Dr. Vorpwhistle is less lucky - though he avoids being stabbed by splitting his legs over the spear, the raven-man's recovery is a hard bash to the groin, keeping the scientist out of the fight for a little while.

The posse's retaliation is nothing short of awesome. In quick succession Tobey , Edgar, and Sophie shoot and kill. Robert brings down two, and Cady summons a soul blast that actually physically manifests a spirit which tears another into bloody gobbets. The raven-men retreat to hover over Summer Rains, and Tobey and Joseph follow.

Summer Rains turns out to be durable even to the EKG, and gets up, invoking some magic to vanish from view. Tobey dispels that magic, and Elder Tanner shoots the shaman in the back of the head, but it bounces off. Sophie comes up to help, and some shots are made at the raven-men who are flapping around too much to be hit. Back at the shrine, Robert screws up his courage and takes the heart in his hand. Nothing happens, which seems to be a good thing.

After Summer Rains declaims something in his deep voice (with no visible effect) Vorpwhistle shoots him again with his EKG and blows him back into the fungus. Cady and Joseph each kill a raven man in their own way, while Sophie and Tobey close with Summer Rains and grapple him, Sophie much more effectively than Tobey, who has no idea how to make a good hold.

Summer Rain's summoning now takes effect and a huge tornado of tortured souls appears from the same direction as the raven-men. Dr. Vorpwhistle shoots it to no effect, and Bart tries to lure it away, also to no effect. Meanwhile Summer Rains head butts his way free of Sophie's hold and is shot again by the EKG, but this time flinches but stands fast. He tries again to awaken Tobey's manitou and again fails, and so does another summoning.

Robert and Cady try letting out some of Cady's blood onto the heart, but there is no effect. Robert asks if she trusts him, thinking about trying the whole heart cutting out thing on her (since he has shielded himself in the shell of the turtle). The tornado sucks up Vorpwhistle and flings him and his EKG to different corners of the clearing.

While Summer Rains stares down Tobey, applying his fearful gaze, Dr. Haskins rereads the carvings and tells Robert and Cady that this is the story of how the heart got here, not an instruction manual. Robert, realizing that he is almost in the hunting grounds here, calls out to Eagle to appear and guide him. Summer Rains slashes with his knife at Elder Tanner, who is wrapped in his armor of righteousness so the blow that would have cut his throat instead draws sparks. "Fucking Coyote," he exclaims (which actually are the only comprehensible words that he says in the entire encounter). A large eagle arrives, and lands on the mostly forgotten shriveled corpse. Another new arrival is a huge snake cloud thing - more of Summer Rains's playmates.

The tornado sucks up Tobey and flings her to the ceiling of the cavern. When she lands again, there isn't an unbroken bone in her body, though her armored bonnet (and the sandy ground) at least prevents her brains from being splattered and keeps her unalive. Dr. Haskins flips over the corpse, revealing a large scar on its (his) chest, and drags it to the pedestal, where Robert puts the heart on the scar. It vanishes into the corpse, and he starts breathing. Robert tries to help him along with some healing magic.

The tornado goes for Cady with little effect, and she takes the whirling spirits and bends them to her will, creating a stream of soul blasts that tears apart the snake cloud. Dr. Haskins gets to Summer Rains and entangles him in his whip, allowing Elder Tanner to gag him. Robert bounces a shot off the shaman again to no effect. Finally the ex-corpse, who now looks like a healthy middle-aged native man, rises to his feet and whoops. Summer Rains bursts into a cloud of ravens and escapes.

After healing the living (though not the dead), the Old One tells them his story. Long ago, the greatest shamans (the Old Ones) of the land entered the hunting grounds to do battle with and imprison the greatest of the evil spirits, locking them away beneath the roots of the tree. To survive forever in the hunting grounds and keep the evil locked away, they cut out their hearts and left them in the physical world.

Raven (the shaman, not the spirit), angered by the white man, found out about this legend many years later, and gathering like-minded young shamans (called the Last Sons), entered the hunting grounds and slew the Old Ones. Only one escaped, fleeing the chaos of battle and ripping his way out of the hunting grounds to recover his heart. Unfortunately, without a heart he couldn't get far enough in the material world, and collapsed only feet from his goal. Summer Rains was actually one of the Last Sons.

The Old One says that he must find out what has happened and consider what must be done, offering no immediate plans. But he does grant boons to the posse. For Robert and Cady, he removes their blue tattoos and the evil spirits within them, pulling the designs from their flesh with a spiritual hand. For Sophie he makes an enchanted knife to better deal with supernatural terrors. The undead he gives no gift, but doesn't destroy them (although he offers them peace, which they decline). To Dr. Vorpwhistle he gives a truth: the new science is inspired by the whisperings of manitous, possibly under the direction of the greatest of the evil spirits. Finally Dr. Haskins asks for the safe return of the expedition, and so the Old One transforms them into eagle feathers, and Eagle flies them back to their boats.

The journey back to Denver is safe and uneventful. By the time they get there, Tobey is able to hobble, and Bart has completely recovered. Edgar pays them their wages and a bonus, totaling a thousand dollars apiece. The papers get a somewhat watered down version of the story - the Powell Expedition was lost in some caves and perished - while Dr. Haskins returns to the Explorer's Society to give them a more complete description of what happened.

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

Thanks also to Meg for keeping a round-by-round chart of the big battle.

LB: Cady's answer to "Do you trust me?" (given after Edgar clarifies, though it would have been the same) is "Not particularly, but it's your call."

LB: The Old One asks if he can call on the posse again in future battles. Most agree, Robert immediately; Dr. Vorpwhistle offers the Old One twenty dollars for each time he does so. (In a similar note, Dr. Vorpwhistle doesn't actually get paid a thousand dollars by the Expedition; he gives Cady twenty dollars for the day's supernatural events instead).

LB: Joseph doesn't get a boon - he does ask the Old One if he can tell Joseph where Christ walked here, but the Old One was in the Hunting Grounds before Christ (or Coyote-as-Christ) showed up, and Eagle didn't care enough to pay attention. He thinks briefly about asking for a different one, but doesn't think of anything appropriate before we're eaglified and flown back.

MM: Summer Rains tries to turn Tobey's manitou a second time, again unsuccessfully. After beijng battered by the tornado she is pleased to realize that turning her at this point would not help Summer Rains.

MM: Tobey is pissed that the Old One left before answering her questions about how to fight the Last Sons. Eagle uncharacteristically humors her, and grants Robert a dream giving some of the answers (which Megan doesn't really remember, so she'd appreciate a GM reminder :-)

TG: The GM basically said "y'all need bigger guns". =)

GM: Summer Rains was immune to huckster magic (because the evil spirits didn't think it was worth it) and to normal weapons. Summer Rains was not immune to hand-to-hand combat or to Tobey's evil machete, though in both cases he had armor against it. Tobey was mostly asking about how to deal with Summer Rains in particular, no warantee is made that Last Sons are all of a mould.