In 1943 Herge started another two-book adventure with The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun...a story that took several years to complete (being interrupted by the liberation of Brussels and the end of World War II). Seven explorers, home from Peru with the ancient Inca mummy of Rascar Capec, looted from an Inca tomb, are struck by a mysterious illness. Beside each unconscious explorer lies the fragments of a crystal ball. Tintin and Captain Haddock learn of an ancient curse upon those who violate the Inca's tomb. When Professor Calculus is kidnapped, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock take up the chase in the first part of this remarkable South American adventure.