In 1923, Sir Prescott Thorne and Admiral Alexander Vale found the frozen remains of Captain Ashworth’s lost Reliant expedition. Its damaged log described an unnamed Pacific coast, a stolen stone tablet and something the dying crew had been fleeing.
Six bound in gold
The largest surviving fragment carried a crude island map and one translated inscription: “Six bound in gold, kept from the ones who bind.” Two years later, Thorne and Vale agreed to mount a treasure hunt beneath the respectable cover of an archaeological survey.
The five explorers
In September 1926, Thorne and Vale departed Port Célestine with physician and linguist Dr. Ekaterina Morozova, ritual historian Professor Markel Sokolov and photographer Lady May Lin. Only Thorne and Vale knew the expedition’s true objective.
The warnings
After three weeks at sea, the water went flat, every bird disappeared and an unpowered radio recited the five names in reverse order. Inland, the Marokai warned the expedition repeatedly to leave. The explorers continued until a coordinated ambush carried all five to a shrine containing six gold tablets.
The ones who bind
Morozova and Sokolov discovered that the Marokai ritual was not random cruelty or superstition. It was a practiced defense against something older than the tribe—something that learned roads through names, voices and memory. The tablets were not treasure. They were locks.
The last account
Eighty-three days later, a naval search recovered ash, packed crates, Thorne’s helmet, Vale’s broken compass, a bound skull and Lady May’s camera. No bodies or gold were found. Prescott’s private diary remained hidden near the shrine until his descendant recovered it eighty years later.
The archive in Huntington Beach
The surviving evidence now lives within Savage Shores, a private home tiki bar assembled as an immersive expedition archive. Return to the interactive recovered account, inspect the six golden tablets, or open the cocktail ledger.