After two weeks of holiday nonsense, the group got together to continue our Hollow Earth Expedition campaign. The characters, now bolstered with Amazons, hawkmen, panthermen, Waffen-SS, and Atlantean turncoats, turn their fleet of airships toward Ultima Thule, with an eye to restoring Amon to the throne, and staging their next action against Atlantis…

Lady Zara, once thought dead, but actually rescued by the “green women” and given to the Amazons to heal, quickly drops herself back into the thick of things. She is surprised to find Hunter in charge, and tries a new tactic to help them prepare for their assault on Ultima Thule — winning General Inanna to their side by offering to try and rescue her daughters, Princess Shria (whom they had traveled with until she was captured with Olga) and Mara. The general knew that would be near impossible. The Amazon general, Aella, offered something sweeter — a return to command of troops. Be a general again, but on their side. She will not be welcomed back by the emperor; she lost her ship to a small force! But with them, she might have the chance to become important again. With a damned good roll, they won her over and shot apart most of the big fight I had planned for the night.

Inanna countered by demanding to be freed, immediately, and given her fancy cabin back. They acquiesced. She then aided them with a developing a plan to hit Ultima Thule, and introducing to Hunter some of the ideas of modern combined air-ground operations that wouldn’t be developed for decades. The big win, however, was went she talked them past the the air traffic control for Captain Memnon, the man running the city since Amon was deposed. She claimed Deutshland was an Outlander prize they took in battle.

This got Shiva to the ground while LZ-128 held the air. As soon as they hit the grounds of the palace, General Aelaa of the Amazons, and Gus Hassenfeldt and SS-Obersturmfuhrer Werner led the combined troops into a short fight, using surprise to overwhelm the honor guard and troops on display for General Inanna’s arrival. Shiva and Deutschland traded shots with the antiaircraft heat ray batteries in the towers around the city, disabling them, while the ground forces pushed forward to the strategy room of the palace and killed Memnon. Amon then reclaimed his throne and ordered his people to stand down.

Ultima Thule was taken!

Over the next week, the characters started working on their next steps. Dr. Gould, predictably, wanted to try diplomacy and they sent a courier to Atlantis; Hunter and General Inanna focused on putting together a coherent defense of the city, while Gus — who was offered an officer’s position with Amon’s forces — was in charge of teaching their rag-tag forces how to shoot. Werner offered to take a representative of the hawkmen, panthermen, and Amazon back to their respective homes in Deutschland to solidify their alliance, and after a week, headed out from the city.

We knocked off there for the night with the ball in Emperor Mot’s corner.