The Molyneux Expedition

Don't  bother looking up the history of this infamous expedition as it's yet another fictional expedition into the wilds of "Jimland". The game was one of the very rare occasions that I had a living participant as #1 son agreed to lead a new expedition into the interior of Jimland.
The Molyneux expedition was a modest affair caused by lack of funds. Led by the expedition's namesake  George ( a Frenchie and a scout) , with Doctor Frederick Minden and Hubert St. Edward interpreting . Three askari and twelve bearers, all laden down with food completed the expedition.
As no-one was available to comment on the expeditions exploits we have to rely on the commentary gleaned from various returning members by Frederick Cartington.
In the meantime, once more:
From the journal of Frederick Cartington:
"As the members of Max's expedition lounged in the humid climate of Jim's Landing a small vessel arrived carrying three Europeans, all obviously explorers, their leader being a very confident (bordering on arrogant) Frenchman that went by the name of Monsieur George Molyneux."
"No sooner had they arrived, they outfitted an expedition ready venture into the wilds the very next day."
"Packing nought but food they headed North along the easily recognisable tracks that were very familiar to us."
"They returned some nine days later full of tales of derring-do, treasure and other escapades, with the help of many of the members of the expedition I have put their story together  and relate it here."

"Day 1 : They headed north encountering a native trader and little else
 Day 2 :  Venturing off the path north-westwards they encountered some pygmies that were engaged in chat by the Interpreter and later discover a hidden cache of medicines.
Day 3 : Rather than risk being lost in the swamp, they retreated back from whence they had journeyed and headed north again along the track and noticed a very large statue they would later cache and retrieve, as all their available bearers still had food and it would take at least four of them to carry the thing.
Day 4 : Heading SW they encountered yet another cache of food - things were just getting better and better for the party.
Day 5 : Things got quickly worse as five loads of food turned bad [probably because of the found food imho - Fred.]. They encountered a small group of Slavers in a village that seemed unconcerned and disinterested by their presence.

Expedition in the centre, pygmy melee weapons to their left and blowpipes to the right.

Day 6. Food was now becoming scarce, an Askari fell into a ravine and they were ambushed by pygmies [All was not as easy as it had first seemed].

Pygmy spearmen start closing in on the left and their blowpipes (deadly) head toward the expedition into range.

The expedition falls back and a gun-line is formed.

The Pygmies get within charge range

Two pygmies go down to rifle fire and one askari succumbs to a blowpipe dart

With another pygmy dead the remainder flee.

"Days 7,8 and 9 : Few incidents on their return leg of  the journey, they encountered no hostiles heard some jungle drums and a bearer ran away, found some gold objects and a wandering unladen pack animal.
  
"Though their journey seem implausible to the casual observer the amount of loot returned was indeed vast for such a short trip. Their hubris knew no bounds as they aimed to set out on another mission immediately, but that is another story..."

Route for George Molyneux's first Expedition

"From what I could make out from their descriptions of their journey, here is their route as best I could make it out.":




 The game took about an hour or so and buoyed by his unparallelled success George Molyneux (in the guise of my #1 son) wished to set off on another expedition immediately.
The second expedition, played on the same day as the first, was also the last (figure) game I played.













So that's it then from the wilds of Cumbria, where the interweb is intermittent, the weather is foul, TV is reduced to 2 channels that work and in the wilder parts it is rumoured that the local populace still eat their first-born.


Next week I'll relate the story of George's second expedition as I'm back in civilisation but won't have managed to completed anything, despite four more hours painting last week !.

Thanks for taking the time to visit, hopefully you found something of interest and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.