The Black Campbell

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.

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.

One of the readers wanted a recap on the characters of the current Hollow Earth Expedition. My games tend to wind up with loads of long-running NPCs that flesh out the players’ worlds, so here’s the primer:

PLAYER CHARACTERS (aka “The Guys in the Credits”)

LADY MARGARET “ZARA” ANSOM-BOSE (player: Ysharros; deceased..?) — She was the impetus for the campaign, then the player had to back out over work and personal scheduling. The character was the classic pulp “modern woman” who smoked, drank, caroused, and flew planes. She had money, being the ex-wife of an oil tycoon, and was lost a while back in one of their fights.

GUSTAV HASSENFELDT (player: Jim S): Son of a German doctor and missionary, he was raised in German East Africa until the Great War. He’s a big game hunter with a reputation for scrupulous honesty, bravery, loyalty, and recently for leaping before he looks. He is the moral center of the group, and their ranged “brick.”

DAVID GOULD, MD (player Matt M): A Spanish Jew, he was run out of Spain for getting too friendly with a powerful(and Catholic) politician’s daughter. He’s a bit of a scoundrel who is starting to develop into a “hero.” He has Atlantean blood, causing Atlantean technology to operate for him. He is fixated on Atlantis and “saving” the Inner World.

JOHN HUNTER (player Ponz): A late comer to the game, Hunter is an Italian-American, a former US Marine during the Great War, and an “overseer” with the Terra Arcanum, a secret group trying to protect the world from the technology of the Atlanteans (or so they say…) He’s become their brick — a fierce close in fighter. Recently, he was made Sky Marshal of the races allied against Atlantis…for some reason, people trust this guy.

IMPORTANT NPCs (Supporting Cast)

OLGA MUHIDNOVA/LADY MORANA: A Russian Jew and some kind of “psychic battery” the Soviets created or trained, she is a deadly killer. She and Gould became lovers, and she seemed to be mellowing into just friggin’ dangerous. She was captured before the group was ejected from the Hollow Earth in their last big battle with the Atlanteans, and has spent over a year in the emperor’s clutches. According to new intelligence, she is being trained as some kind of psychic or magician, and has taken the name Lady Morana (Slavic goddess of death and magic). She supposedly gave the emperor his first son.

PRINCE AMON: The former ruler of Ultima Thule, he was overthrown by the emperor’s forces for trying to snap up Gould before the emperor could. He’s been their companion and a decent friend, but now that his return to power is close, they don’t quite trust him, anymore.

“UNCLE” ZEK (Zebulon Edward Koenig): A former agent of the Terra Arcanum, he was a protege of Nikola Tesla, and was lost in an operation to stop Rasputin from using an Atlantean warship to take over Russia in 1908. (See Tunguska…) He is a master tinker and inventor, and his daughter Erha is a top notch pilot of the half-assed planes and other things he’s created.

GENERAL INANNA: One of the “white Vril” — the almost albino-like, tall rulers of Atlantis and Valhalla, she is the emperor’s tursted consort and top general until a lucky counteroffensive by the group took her flagship. She is a prisoner, now, and they are hoping to use her for leverage.

OBERSTURMBANNFUHRER GEORGE WERNER: This SS officer is the head of the Nazi expedition into the Hollow Earth, he has been a thorn in the group’s side and occasional ally. He is actively playing Amon, hoping to gain advantage for the Reich. His base of operations is the airship LZ-128 Deutschland, which was built in secret.

REAR ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD: Famed arctic explorer, expert airplane pilot, and the head of the American expedition to the Hollow Earth. He is also a member of the Terra Arcanum, a master. His base of operations is the airship ZR-3 or USS Los Angeles. Byrd is trying to match Werner’s moves, without exceeding his legal mandate.

OSHA: A mermaid princess, she is King Triton’s daughter and Gus Hassenfeldt’s lover. She holds a strange charm over him that even he thinks is unnatural. While they were out of the Hollow Earth, she had his child — a “walker” or legged merman.

LORD TREVOR ANSOM: Zara’s uncle (and the guy they rescued in the first adventure.) He was a captain in the British Army in the Great War, and suffers from shell shock, absent-mindedness, but is a brilliant philologist and historian. He came along on the Los Angeles mission to find Zara.

BIT PLAYERS (Speaking parts)

Emperor Mot of Atlantis: Our Ming the Merciless.

Princess Shria: A former ally captured with Olga, she is the daughter of Mot and General Inanna.

King Woden: King of the Vril of Valhalla.

Lady Sigrun: A Valkyrie that is Woden’s emissary to Los Angeles.

King Triton: Leader of the merfolk. Osha’s father.

Prince Glaucus: A walker and Triton’s son and ambassador. Osha’s brother.

Princess Aditra: Ruler of the hawkmen since her husband was killed by the Inanna’s last attack.

General Akator: The hawkman general.

Captain Thoth: Head of the Emperor’s secret police.

So, we ended the last session of our Hollow Earth Expedition campaign with Gus Hassenfeldt — in typical form — leading a company of Waffen-SS that were aiding with the collection of specimens to return to the surface world against the forces of General Inanna, who showed up with the Imperial Warship Shiva while USS Los Angeles and Deutschland were away, the airships being driven off by a tropical storm.

With predictable results… Supported by the heat ray batteries on Shiva, and with air cover from three light saucers, the Germans met a superior number of Atlanteans in the big clearing in which the warship had landed. Within two minutes, half his number was captured or killed, and the rest routed and falling back into the cave complexes the cargo cultists from the destroyed Sanctuary had been living in.

The rest of the survivors and German soldiers, under the leadership of Lord Amon and now-Gunnery Sergeant Hunter, retreated into the caves, to draw the Atlanteans in and take them down. Without their air cover, and without the artillery of Shiva, they stodd a better chance of survival and escape. However, while setting up in one of the larger caverns — one with a collapsed section of roof that had allowed for water to run in and a small grotto of plants to grow — they found themselves looking up at the underside of Shiva…and an opportunity! Taking every able-bodied cultist and soldier, they led them up the slick and dangerous rocks to the ground under the warship.

During this time, the Atlanteans had prepared to go into the caves — 300 soldiers armed, armored, and well-led. They had removed their injured, taken the Germans injured captive, and were pushing into the caves. With the soldiers gone, Amon knew there were only 50 or so crew; they had just as many people and the element of surprise. The characters boarded the ship through the open bomb bays, only to find the ship being prepared for battle — but not to repel them. Rather, another group was attacking, and the ship was taking hits from above! After a brief skirmish or two, they took control of the ship’s batteries, only to find the ship under attack by the hawkmen! Inanna’s saucers were cutting up the waves of hawkmen, and Hunter and Gus turned the heat rays of Shiva on her saucers, downing two of them.

Amon and Gould led a team to take the bridge, finding Inanna there. Amon stayed the troops from killing her, believing her a better bargaining chip against the emperor. She was one of his greatest military officers and one of his consorts, after all. With control of the ship, they sealed her up and with the aid of the hawkmen, quickly subdued the Atlantean soldiers.

The hawkmen, they learned, had spotted Shiva approaching, and assuming the ship would turn its guns on the Aerie after dispatching Gould’s group, launched their attack. General Akator, their leader, brings their princess’ pledge to join the fight against Atlantis.

After a day of Gould treating the injured, Hunter getting the survivors and Germans settled in to sound the ship and have her ready for a fight, and Gus seeing to getting the one downed saucer recovered, they were able to start talking about what to do next. They got the hawkmen to release their prisoners. Amon talked some of the Atlanteans into joining them, and was pushing the others to head for Ultima Thule while they had the momentum, and take back his city.

They were stopped by the arrival of Los Angeles and Deutschland, which had been late returning after they encountered Shiva. Inanna had realized they were Outsider ships and assumed they were aiding Gould and his group. They damaged both airships, but Los Angeles used their Tesla electroforce gun — which had earlier been altered to disrupt the repulsion field of the Aeire but had never been used — to almost destroy Shiva. All three ships ran for it.

Admiral Byrd and Obersturmbannfuhrer Werner joined them on Shiva, and the machinations began in earnest. Inanna is questioned, and during the interview they find out that Olga is now known as Morana (the Russian goddess of magic and death), that she is the emperor’s favored consort for her “powers”, and that the emperor has been training her. Inanna opines that she is likely to be even more dangerous than Mot, himself. She is descended from creatures even more ancient than the vril, or the Atlanteans. Things like her come along rarely, and they are always agents of destruction.

Inanna then tried to convince Byrd to give her asylum from Amon. Amon tried to convince the two commanders to join his quest to free Ultima Thule — to which Werner immediately agreed, but Byrd pointed out he was outside his purview; this is a scientific expedition, and the United States doesn’t go around attacking nations without provocation. The characters suspect that Amon might use Shiva to not just battle Atlantis, but replace the emperor. Gould is worried the Nazis will cozy up to Amon for their benefit, and Byrd isn’t trying to stop them.

In the end, the characters decide that Shiva has to be the flagship of their alliance, not Amon’s city, and they work hard to convince him to accept this. They decide with the leaders of the various rebel forces to place command in the hands of a outsider, not one of the various factions. Hunter suddenly finds himself, as the only guy with real military experience (except Lord Trevor, Zara’s uncle, who was a captain in the Royal Army, but is also suffering shell shock…) finds himself commander of Shiva and a Sky Marshal of their combined forces.

With 200 hawkmen warriors, 50 hale Waffen-SS, 46 cargo cultists (including Zek, their resident mechanical genius), a handful of “walker” merfolk (merfolk with legs), and the characters, they now have the opportunity to gather allies from some of the local tribes and advance on Ultima Thule.

This was one of those sessions where a single moment changes the course of a campaign. I had assumed we’d see another slaughter, and the characters running for their lives in the jungles of the Hollow Earth. I was planning for that eventuality.

While prepping, I realized the size of Shiva — 900×700′ — was large enough that portions of it would cover the cave complex. I added that in for flavor, and the players ran with it. The fact they’d drawn the Atlanteans into the caves meant they could stage a relatively easy assault on the warship with close to equal numbers and surprise. With the ship in their possession, they now have the means to retake Ultima Thule and possibly take the fight to Atlantis.

It also saw the balance of power in the characters shift from Gus and Gould as the “leads” toward Hunter being a powerful character. He’s been one of the better fighters, and his USMC background has come up a few times — including Byrd making him the master-t-arms on Los Angeles — and played right into the course of the game.

And we get to call someone Sky Marshal…which just sounds all manner of pulp.

The characters found themselves starting the night with members of the science teams from Los Angeles and LZ-128 Deutschland led by RADM Byrd and Werner, attending a dinner in their honor in the Great Hall of Valhalla. Their hosts were naturally curious, asking about their world, countries, customs, weapons. This led to a demonstration of the utility of Hunter’s marine saber vs. the heavy broadsword of one of the warrior vril (with Hunter dressed in woman’s armor — the only stuff small enough for him.) Hunter did the Corps proud and beat the bigger, stronger opponent, gaining the nickname “martin” (as in the small, but vicious tree weasel) from the vril.

They spent the next week exploring the place — the massive halls and streets of Valhalla, seeing the communal dining, the workers — mostly humans from the surrounding villages that come here for service (“It’s considered an honor,” one tells Hunter.) — and eventually the Mountain Hall, the depths of the place where the strange dwarves like those they encountered with Ivora the Magnificent toil building weapons, armor, and making the place run. They have technology, but the denizens of Valhalla eschew it for a simpler lifestyle.

Gus got to go on a hunt with them, impressing the Valhallans with his shooting prowess thanks to the scoped Griffin & Howe .375 magnum he uses, taking shots at a quarter mile! Gould and his brother researched the history of the Inner World (or Asgard to these people) and the Germans and Gus both copied maps of the place.

After a week, they realize the Valhallans have been pumping them for intelligence, as much as the teams have been the people that live here. Byrd an Werner have been opening dialogue and relations with the leaders, and have secured enough blau gas to fuel the airships, as well as wrangling a representative of Valhalla to join them on their mission to make contact with other people. They re also in search of irrefutable proof of their trip to the Hollow Earth. Pictures won’t be enough — they need live specimens to bring back. The team convince Byrd that a trip to Sanctuary is a good idea. They can hunt small dinosaurs, maybe convince one of the half-man racs to join them on the trip back to the surface world.

The representative chosen is Lady Sigrun, one of the Valkyrie, who joins them on Los Angeles, to the chagrin of Werner and the Germans. She is disappointed to find out the ships are essentially big balloons…these are not real warships!

Their course will take them 2500 miles, over dangerous mountains and around treacherous weather, but they finally reached the Aerie — home of the hawkmen — near the Sanctuary. They were met with formations of the hawkmen, closing in on their ships. Byrd and the party climbed to the top of the hull, where the marines were preparing the .50 machineguns. Using the white flag and attempting to contact the swarms of hawkmen warriors, Amon called out to them, identifying themselves.

Without warning, a small group broke away and looked like they were going to land. Instead, they grabbed Amon and Gould and flew over the side of Los Angeles. Gus Hassenfeldt attempted to grab one of the warriors, hampering his one wing, and sending Gus and the warrior tumbling in a deathly embrace over the side of the airship toward the ocean below! Hunter and Byrd had the marines fire warning bursts to try and clear the hawkpeople off, but Deutschland — seeing the attack and hearing the machineguns — opened up with their strange “gauss guns”, hosing the area with magnetically-accelerated ball bearings.

Their peaceful first contact a shambles, Gould and Amon captives of the hawks, and Gus on his way to a crushing impact on the surface of the ocean below, we broke for the evening…