Orient Expedition Orient Expedition was one of the various subthemes of Adventurers released in 2003 and discontinued in 2005 . These LEGO set s featured Johnny Thunder and his fellow scientists and adventurers . It was unique in that every set above 100 pieces came with stat cards and / or a piece of a game board that could be added to the Orient Expedition Board Game to maximize fun . This is was the last subtheme of Adventurers . The theme was about Johnny Thunder , Dr . Kilroy , Pippin Reed , and their new Asian friends going through Asia to find the Golden Dragon of Marco Polo and his three other treasures before the sneaky Lord Sam Sinister and his partners - in - crime did . Story . The Beginning . After the completion of their goal in the Dino Island theme and retrieving the legendary Silver Horn of Africa , Pippin Reed took Johnny Thunder to Venice . Dr . Kilroy showed them a piece of an ancient map of Asia with a riddle from Marco Polo . Soon after , Johnny found out that it fit into the other third of a map behind a glass window . The combined map formed two things . The first was the story of how upon leaving India , Marco left his golden dragon , a gift from the Emperor Khan , in Khan ' s palace that can only be unlocked by his three other treasures . The second was the way to the first of Marco Polo ' s treasures : the golden shield of Marco Polo in the Scorpion Palace , located in India . They headed off to India , but Sam Sinister , who had been listening in from outside overheard their chatter and rushed off in his car those to escape . India . Their journey in India starts with the three heading down the river on a boat . After dropping off their stuff , Johnny found Lord Sinister and Maharaja Lallu interrogating Babloo for information on the sunstone . He rescued Babloo and takes him aboard their boat . After an introduction , the four camp out for the night . Dr . Kilroy sneaked off to find the stone in the temple of the Tygurah . The Tygurah showed up , but broke the bridge that connected the temple to land , and fell into a chasm . Dr . Kilroy walked away with the stone , thinking to himself that the Tygurah should have been on a diet . In the morning , they leave the site and get on Babloo ' s Elephant . Lord Sinister caught up to them and tried to stop them from getting the first treasure . After a failed attempt to trick Lord Sinister into crashing , Pippin Reed told Babloo to make his Elephant make a U - turn and throw a fallen tree at Sinister . This crashes and breaks his car into pieces and they make a hasty escape . That night , the four make it to the Scorpion Palace but Lord Sinister , Maharaja Lallu , and his minions , the Scorpion Palace Guard s , capture them . Lord Sinister pulled the Scorpion statue ' s arms and a boulder made him , Maharaja Lallu , and his minions to flee the palace , but Johnny Thunder , Dr . Kilroy , and Pippin Reed ran into the palace after the boulder completely left it . After Maharaja Lallu was ready to leave Lord Sinister ' forces , Babloo and an Elephant army stopped him and captured him . Inside the palace , the three found a glowing circle in the ceiling . Using an Elephant , Johnny opened the circle to find Marco Polo ' s shield . On the back was another piece of the map ; the new piece led to Mount Everest . Lord Sinister again over - heard them and headed towards the mountain . Hearing his laugh , the three left Babloo and rushed to Mount Everest . Mount Everest . After becoming friends with Sherpa Sangye Dorje , he allowed the three to ride on his hot air - balloon , known as the Aero Nomad . The treasure on Mount Everest was Marco Polo ' s golden sword . Before they could find a landing spot , Lord Sinister started a battle in the sky on his black bi - plane . Sinister ' s first attack was to crash his plane into the Aero Nomad . Johnny quickly turned the steering wheel and dodged the attack . Lord Sinister tried his attack again , but Johnny Thunder pulled off raising the platform up by pulling a lever at the correct moment . This caused Sinister to crash into the snow because he was to curious about how Johnny pulled it off and not paying attention to the sky around him . They finally landed by the Temple of Mount Everest , not knowing that it was near , and once out of the balloon , Dr . Kilroy discovered Yeti tracks . Pippin Reed soon found a shrine and left the group for a moment to take a look at it . She found a cabinet with an emerald in it , but discovered the Yeti as its guardian . The Yeti started after her . The rest of the group tried to save her . As she was fleeing , Pippin tripped on a rock and the jewel and her camera went flying into the snow . That sparked an idea . As soon as the Yeti came near , she picked up her camera and took many pictures of it . The Yeti became blinded , forcing it to flee . The four returned to their search , but Lord Sinister and his new partner - in - crime , Ngan Pa , the Yeti hunter , trapped them before they could go any further . Finally finding the temple , Sinister trapped them in it so they could experience the hidden traps first and show him what he was up against . But , this caused Johnny to retrieve the sword first . A new piece of the map sent them to China to find Marco Polo ' s two final and greatest treasures ; the Golden Dragon and the Golden Helmet . They said good - bye to Sherpa Sangye Dorje and headed off to their next destination . China . Their journey through China began with a stop at the Great Wall of China on Dr . Kilroy ' s Buggy . There were two treasures in China ; the Golden Helmet and the Golden Dragon . Popping out of brushes nearby , three Dragon Fortress Guard s captured Johnny , Dr . Kilroy , and Pippin as prisoners of Emperor Chang Wu . Imprisoned , Pippin tried to take her anger out by destroying the bed in the cell . She broke it , and the leftover pieces gave Johnny an idea . It was to stack the pieces on top of each other and get Pippin on his other ' s shoulder to escape out a hole in the ceiling . It worked , and Pippin was on the outside again . Johnny handed her camera over to her and she beat up the guard with the keys to the cell . The three escaped , but their buggy was broken down . Dr . Kilroy found out that Lord Sinister cut the gas line . The three were forced to walk to the Dragon Fortress . They made it to city of Xi ' an at night . Jing Lee appeared to help the trio , but in exchange they had to help her take care of her sick family . Dragon Fortress Guard s came to re - arrest them , and also Jing . She stopped them , then everyone ran away . The next day , the four spotted the Emperor ' s Ship with Lord Sinister on it heading to the Dragon Fortress . Using a row - boat they discovered , the four sneaked aboard and hid in the cargo hold . They made it to the temple unnoticed , and Jing Lee showed them a secret passage . They all entered it , and Jing informed the others that they would have to face a beast within ; Jun - Chi the monster . They fled , but the way out was filled with Dragon Fortress Guard s . They fled to the only other exit ; a dead end with a balcony that Chang Wu and Lord Sinister watched the capture from . It had turned out that Sinister had gotten the helmet first , but also stole the other treasures from the four . Jun - Chi came bursting through the walls and scared everyone off . Lord Sinister sneaked away to find the Armoured Chinese Warrior statue that would led the path to the Golden Dragon . Johnny caught up to him , but was too late to stop Sinister from pulling the switch next to the statue . The statue came to life and scared Lord Sinister away , dropping all off the treasures as he went . While running away , a trap door opened from the floor , causing Lord Sinister to fall into a pit . Johnny put the Golden Sword on the statue , Jing put the helmet on , Dr . Kilroy put the shield on , and Pippin took pictures of all of it . The Golden Shield and Sword transformed into two keys that opened the doors next to the statue . Inside were two wheels that made a huge earthquake . The statue slid away and a chamber appeared with the Golden Dragon inside . Soon , the four placed the dragon on the back of the fixed buggy . Chang Wu finally wanted them destroyed and the dragon back , so he forced the Dragon Fortress Guard s to fire the catapults at them . They escaped and made it passed the Great Wall . Jing Lee promised to join their group , and they headed off for a new adventure . Audio Drama Based On Theme . Released in 2003 , it follows the basic storyline of the theme . Notes about said Audio Drama Main Design . Sets . The sets had varying styles , but they all had one style in common ; an Asian style . The sets contained many aspects that are shown in the real life areas . For example , in the Mount Everest part of the theme , the sets had a multitude of white pieces to show the snow as seen on the real mountain . The India sets had the forest aspect that also remains looking like the real world India . The China sets were similar in style to the sets from the Ninja theme and the real Chinese places and geography . In addition , a lot of Asian culture and beliefs are included . One example of beliefs is the Yeti , featured in the 7412 Yeti ' s Hideout set , in the Mount Everest part of the theme . They used the Yeti because it is believed to live around the Mount Everest Mountain and it was a stop for the characters to find the Golden Shield . Another would be Jun - Chi , who is based on the Japanese half dog half lion monster Shisa . It is unknown what belief of Asia the Tygurah was based off of . Finally , the dragon is another belief . The dragon has been used many times in Chinese and Japanese stories and legends . The actual minifigure is not based on a fictional dragon , but only LEGO designed the Golden Dragon in this new style . Depending on each subtheme , there was a colour scheme for each . In the Indian subtheme , brown and green pieces could be found in each set . A bit of white was also spread around in the sets . White was also the main colour of the Mount Everest subtheme . Brown and light blue were too part of the Mount Everest colour scheme . China ' s colour scheme was gold , red , and black . Game . How to Play . The Orient Expedition Board Game was played using instructions in the back of the instruction booklets . You move your minifigures , overcome challenges from the set ( statistics are shown on cards ) , and acquired items . The three skills are courage ( denoted by a shield similar to a police badge ) , speed ( denoted by wings ) , and luck ( denoted by a clover ) . On challenges , you would have to choose a skill to use , but there was always one skill which had a power of x , and so that skill couldn ' t be used to complete the challenge . If you won , you got the golden item . The 2 players would play the sides of the Adventurers and Lord Sinister ' s minions . Downloadable instructions can be found here . The Board . The game board is built from three sets . The left set is the 7418 Scorpion Palace , where the game mini - baseplates are forest green . It is then connected to the 7419 Dragon Fortress in the center . Its mini - baseplates are coloured a ground brown . To the right and connected to the Dragon Fortress is the 7417 Temple of Mount Everest set . The mini - baseplates for the set are coloured a light almost aqua blue with hints of snowy white . Each of the stops on the game board contain a vary of mini - baseplates . The 7418 Scorpion Palace contained 7 mini - baseplates , the 7419 Dragon Fortress contained 11 for being the biggest of the sets , and the 7417 Temple of Mount Everest contained only 5 . Minifigures . Adventurers . In this Adventurers sub - theme , the Adventurers are on a quest to find all the treasures of Marco Polo . Out of the three new Adventurers , Jing Lee is the only permanent member . The three main characters are Johnny Thunder , Dr . Kilroy , and Pippin Reed . In India , Babloo joined the group but left it after retrieving the Golden Shield because he needed to stay in his homeland . On Mount Everest , the three had Sherpa Sangye Dorje join . He allowed them to reach the mountain on his air balloon . After sharing food with her , Jing Lee tagged along to stop Chang Wu . After making past the Great Wall of China with the Golden Dragon , she permanently joined them . They consist of : Sinister ' s Team . The Sinister team is consisted of four members . The leader is Lord Sinister , who left the group after falling down the trap down in the Dragon Fortress . Chang Wu became in charge after this . His minions are the Dragon Fortress Guard s . The two other members are Maharaja Lallu and Ngan Pa . Maharaja Lallu had his own minions , called Scorpion Palace Guard s . Their purpose was to steal the treasures of Marco Polo and before the Adventures got to it . They are : Guardians / Creatures . The Guardians / Creatures were monsters of Asian beliefs . They were created to guard some special object or place that lead to the retrieval of the Golden Dragon . The Tygurah guarded the sunstone that could show the way to the Golden Shield . The Yeti guarded an emerald that opened the doors of the Temple of Mount Everest . Jun - Chi was created to guard the secret entrance to the Dragon Fortress . Finally , the Dragon Fortress Statue was to guard the passage way to the Golden Dragon . They were : Animals . There have been included several animals in the theme :