The Black Campbell

The group got together tonight for the next installment of our Hollow Earth Expedition game. We had left off with a cliffhanger, three of the characters being ambushed on the way to a secret Terra Arcanum location by a half dozen Indians, who has faked a broekn down car to stop them, then bracketed their car with a pair of motorcycles…

We replayed that sequence, then jumped to a few hours earlier, when Lady Zara received a surprise visit from the Lloyds underwriters in Calcutta that her claim was finalized; the pay was quite generous, and they had even arranged for them to see a new seaplane sitting out at RAF Dum Dum. She quickly grabbed Olga and headed for the airport, while the boys joined Majors Thomilson and King (both Terra Arcanum) for a ride out to a cotton plantation that the organization was gifted by a member whose heirs had died in the Great War.

The Indian driver took the ladies out to the hangar where they inspected a Sikorsky S-38 and a Douglas Dolphin, but it turned out to be a ruse to get Olga away from the group…the Indians were local Comintern agents, and they were led by “the Ghost” — a GPU agent that can “cloud men’s minds”, and Galina Obreva, a powerful telepath and mind controller. This led to a desperate fight between the two women and the commies, some bullets winged their way, and a hair’s breath escape in the 1932 Terraplane that they’d been driven to the field in.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was surprised when Major Thomilson gunned the Alvis Speed 20 they were in and ran straight at the two gunmen who were by the Wolseley Hornet, spooking them. He cut around the car and ran for it, but the pair of Ariel 500cc motorcycles were right with them. Dr. Gould managed to drop one of the riders and his armed pillion rider, while Gus Hassenfedt — deeply offended by the attack — slid off the back of the car, cold-cocked the pillion from the downed bike, then gathering up his pistol, took up the motorcycle to get in the action.

While the Alvis and second motorcycle roared away up the dry dirt road, throwing dust everywhere, Gus dropped one of the rifle men from the Wolseley who were firing on the rest of his party, then intimidated the other into laying down his arms and waiting for the authorities. Moments later, the Terraplane arrived and Zara ordered him in.

Gould and Hunter, along with the majors, found themselves in a gunfight where they could barely see the enemy behind them for the dust. Bullets were exchanged, the pillion rider on the second bike jumped onto the running board of the Alvis only to get knocked out by Hunter (and run over by the three ton car.) A hard braking maneuver by Thomilson put the Ariel into the back of the car, sent the last or their attackers into the vehicle, after which he was subdued…

However, the downed bike was left in the middle of the road, where moments later, Zara — speeding like a rally racer in the Terraplane — spotted it just a moment too late, clipped the wreck, and promptly rolled the big Hudson off into the jungle. Everyone inside was injured in the roll-over and the car caught fire. They also discovered the real Lloyds adjusters body, thrown from the wreck during the crash.

After, the group joined up and made it to the plantation, where they got fixed up by the kansamah (butler) of the place. King and Thomilson got Hunter to try and get Gould to join the Terra Arcanum(an easy sell, as he wants to return to the Hollow Earth.) They also found out the man they’d captured was an agent connected to “Sonny” Velasco, a COMINTERN agent from Gao, and that the Russians had all disappeared as mysteriously as they had arrived.

Arrangements were made for their gear to be stowed and the sale on the S-38 finalized by the next morning. The characters were safe on the plantation in the middle of the Indian jungle for the moment…or were they?

Had the Russians gotten a hold of Olga, I surmised that the characters would most likely go after her, which would have led to a rescue adventure in the Soviet Union. As it is, there are a few options for the next few adventures, but it looks like the crew is headed back to the Interior World.