So, tonight was an example of how something can go beautifully right and wrong at the same time. The characters were left in various cliffhangers: several of them toppling to their deaths, and one captured by the Emperor of Atlantis, and their former friend Olga — now a sorceress self-named Lady Morana.

We opened with Dr. Gould, hallucinating from the massive hit he took from the Emperor’s “ring of power”. He was in a black space with a trio of eyes, one atop another, gazing on him in disappointment at being distracted by the Inner World. That prison is the past, he is needed now…but before they can say much else they are interrupted by Olga’s voice askng “Who are you?” to the Eyes. The presence is stunned — she has been resurrected! Kaarna! “No, she is here, but she is not speaking,” Olga tells it. In a panic, the eyes close. gould wakes up from this dream to find himself prisoner on the imperial barge, headed for Atlantis.

Meanwhile, Gus Hassenfeldt and Lady Zara fall to their near-death, landing in a pool in one of the other suspended gardens. After doing some quick first aid, they try to get to the top of the strange building they are in, making their way through plant growth that has taken over the lower levels. Eventually, they reach the top promenade to see the barge and its saucer escort flying away. They also find their saucer shot up and their pilot near death from smoke inhalation. Once everyone had gotten attention, they settled down to the business of survival: finding plants they could eat, hunting some of the birds. After a few days, they were finally rescued by Lord Amon and Zek , who had come for them, despite the impending attacks on Atlantis’ forces.

Gus stumbled on the idea of using the uniforms from a few of the dead imperial guardsmen so that he and Amon can sneak into the royal tower and rescue Gould. It’s an insane plan, but they needed the doctor for something big…the fate of the Inner World could hang in the balance! Under the cover of a heavy thunderstorm, Gus, Amon, and Zara head for Atlantis to save Gould.

Over those two days, Gould was nursed back to health by some of the half-dressed slave women (ain’t they always?) in the palace before being brought before the head of the secret police, Cpt. Thoth — the vril who wears a strange beaked mask to hide his disturbingly damaged face. He is pumped full of drugs to make him malleable, then with the Emperor and Morana/Olga, he is taken to see the “Great Machine” which gives this place existence….

Their saucer arrives without incident and Amon and Gus, using Zara as the ol’ “prisoner they’ve captured” gambit, get taken to Thoth, who immediately recognizes them. This led to a full blown firefight with a half dozen armed policemen, a dozen or so “observers” who keep tabs on the goings-on in the city, and Thoth. In the process, Thoth seals the room and lets poison gas into the chamber (his mask filters it out.)

Amon is shot, Gus manages to disarm, then demask, Thoth, who surprisingly fights back! Despite a horrible crack to the head with a heat rifle, the secret policeman continues to attack! Gus tosses the mask to Zara who wears it while pulling Amon to the doors. His face isn’t the only thing damaged, he tells Gus; his injuries prevent him from feeling pain, including the gas that is steadily killing all of them. Gus gets a hold of the guy and uses his face to smash the buttons on his control panel, opening the doors and allowing them all to escape.

Thoth dies, but they get a hold of his lieutenant, Iris, whom Zara shoots and questions for Gould’s whereabouts. With Amon out of the action, and Zara going to find their other friend Shria, Gus gets into one of the imperial elevators and heads for the Great Machine, deep under ground.

Unfortunately, Gould has already seen the thing — a massive crystalline device that burrows deep into the ground below. Pulsing with energy and tied into the electromagnetic field of the Earth, the machine is keeping the pocket dimension of the Hollow Earth inflated and created the central sun. Olga’s presence has supercharged it, and he can feel it filled with energy and information. Mot goads him into joining with the machine, but wasn’t counting on Gould gaining control of the device. It’s all too much, however, and when Olga tells him to let her into his mind, he does. With that, she has him “turn the key”, opening the prison forever!

The world twists and turns, wracked by lightning storms, the ground tearing itself open, and the sun balloons in size, heating everything unbearably…the city is falling down around their ears, the canals are draining into the new fissures in the ground, the clouds are boiling! Then it is as if a wall of rock in superimposed on them; like they are sliding through it — save a few places where the superimposition does not hold…then the world turns inside out!

In the ruins of the imperial tower, Gus gazes out on the destruction, and beyond to the setting sun on the horizon. In the sky overhead, a moon — except no moon is a blue and white mottled ball with its own small moon. He manages to find a way down on of the elevator shafts to find Gould, and together they climb back to the surface.

Outside in the wreckage, they can see Earth, a bit smaller than the moon, in their new night sky

We ended the night there and have put the campaign on hiatus because 1) it’s a great stopping point for the game, and 2) I have no idea what to do now. It was an exciting night, with a good fight, creepy moments, big set pieces, and one hell of a cliffhanger, but it all came together because, well, I forgot to save my notes for the night.

Which brings me to the GM tips section of this piece: what the hell to do when you’re not really prepared on game night? Have one, maybe two basic things you want to accomplish. I wanted 1) a rescue attempt, 2) a showdown with Thoth, and 3) the reveal on the Great Machine.

The rescue attempt is boilerplate Star Wars: Imperial guard uniforms and saucer (it’s an imperial transport…), they slip in to the big secret base, and eventually have to fight their way out. I kept it simple — a single CON roll to convince the other guards they should be there until they got to Thoth. A good death trap to go along with a creepy major henchman with some kind of hook (he’s horribly disfigured and doesn’t feel pain.)

What i hadn’t planned on was Gould going along with their plan quite so easily. He had a few options: Destroy the inner world and keep the surface safe, stabilize the inner world and make it more accessible from the outside, or decouple it from Earth entirely.

I was going to go with a Space:1889-esque beat and have the Inner World settle over Venus to get my jungle world with dinosaurs to complement the dying Mars, but it seemed more reasonable to create a new Earth, trailing ours close enough to be seen. This new angle gives me a few options for future games — they can try to find their way home (probably through one of the “Eyes” like the one they originally traveled through); they can engage in some sandals and sorcery action; or I can shift the focus to a pre-WWII Earth that just got some Atlantean technology injected into the mix, and which now has a new world only a few light seconds away.

The last option presents a classic alternate space age WWII — rockets and Nazis in space!

Or, I’ve jumped the shark. I guess we’ll see.

Advertisement