The Black Campbell

We had a break to test play The Zugspitze Maneuver while one of the regulars was out on work travel, and took up our Hollow Earth Expedition campaign against tonight. We had ended on a cliffhanger — the party’s airship, USS Los Angeles having followed the massive German LZ-128 into the lensing effect of the Northern Polar Entrance, only to be tossed and twisted as they made the transition into the Inner World…could the decade-old airship — not the most robust of vehicles — survive the forces?

In short: yes. After a tumultuous passage, the crew of Los Angeles set about finding their position, gaining altitude from the snow-capped mountains below, and looking for their opposition. They quickly find the German ship three miles off their starboard bow, similarly drifting on the winds and conducting repairs. The Soviet semi-rigid had followed them through the entrance, but looked to have crashed five miles away in the mountains. After radioing to Deutschland, LZ-128, the learned that the ship was captained by Earnst Lehman — the most famed airship captain in DELAG (the Zeppelin cruise line) and that the mission commander is an Oberststurmbannfuhrer named George Werner — the same Werner that had led the Gestapo expedition to Tibet, and whom was assumed dead in a plane crash with the other Nazi survivors after they left India. Himler himself had promoted and tapped Werner to lead the new expedition, which had opened the entrance thanks to a civilian guest…Aaron Gould, David’s brother!

The two airships formed an alliance and after speaking with Amon about the possibilities of finding fuel — the Germans use blau gas, a form of propane and hydrogen that is similar enough to coal gas to easily distill; and Los Angeles gasoline, but her engines can easily be converted back to blau gas — they decide to risk going to Hyperborea, home of the “white vril” — the albino-like vril from the north — who live in Walhalla. After a day’s travel at half speed to conserve fuel, the airships find the massive, city carved out of a mountain.

Walhalla (1896) by Max Brüchner

They are immediately intercepted by a dozen of what appear to be hawkpeople…but they are women in armor, their wings part of some kind of rocket or jet pack they use to fly: the Valkyrie! Led by Mist, they demand to know what the ships are, and their intentions. (The size of the vessels, and their lack of knowing they are lighter-than-air craft, make the twin dirigibles highly intimidating…) Admiral Byrd and Dr. Gould manage to convince them of their non-beligerancy, and to be allowed to seek harbor at the mountain hall.

After some complex maneuvering to use a huge lightning rod as a mooring mast, they put Byrd and the party over the side, and from Deutschland, Werner and two of his archeologists, Herman Wirth and Wolram Sievers — both “experts” in Thule mythology. These men are fervent anti-Semites, who are desperate to find a way to access the Hollow Earth without the Gould brothers, and who cannot bear the thought that these targets of Nazi racial hatred are closer to the Aryan perfection than they are!

Led through giant mythic halls of the city that are like something straight out of Thor, and surrounded by hugely tall, beautifully Nordic looking, armored and armed warriors (men and women) who are part Marvel extra/part SCA, they are brought before King Woden and his queen, and questioned. Along the way, they reveal that they were the rebels that were killed by Emperor Mot’s people; lost to the ocean! He is wondering why they shouldn’t just turn them over to the Emperor to curry some favor.

The party convinces the king to listen to their petition to open relations between Hyperborea and both Germany and the United States. They could work together against Atlantis, but Woden is cautious there — while he and his warriors would welcome a fight with Mot, and believe they would win…the time is not yet right. However, if they could forge an alliance with the mermen and hawkmen once more, he would consider it. Along the way, they find out that the dwarves that live deep in the mountain can make the blau gas for the airships. they are dangerous, treacherous creatures, but they know their place.

After, an offer of dinner and debauchery has the combined landing party back on Deutchland to carefully pick people to represent the mission. They decide on the scientific contingent (including the party), the admiral and Werner. They also meet David’s brother, safe and sound, and under the protection of Captain Lehmann. Gus manages to convince Werner to release the brother Gould under a promise from the admiral that he will be returned when they attempt to transit out of the Inner World. Werner, meanwhile, starts to cultivate Gus with his personal, signed copy of Mein Kampf and a Nazi party lapel pin. Gus, ever the optimist about his nation, takes the gifts…where might this lead?

We ended there for the night, with a new faction introduced, new technology, and hopefully some interesting character development. They have yet to figure out how long they have been gone, but it’s been a while.

This week’s play saw our heroes finally arrive in London to inform Zara’s uncle, Lord Trevor Ansom, of his niece and only surviving relative’s probable demise in the Interior World. They passed through France by train, arrived in Dover only to be held up for almost a day due to the weapons they had brought with them. Without permits for the equipment, they had to wait for bureaucracy to be served.

Once the paperwork was settled, they got to the capital and were met by a Geoffrey Reece, a local private investigator and operative for the Terra Arcanum, who was there to drive them in his Morris Cowley around and generally keep them out of trouble.

Their meeting with Lord Trevor and the revelation of their discovery “beyond the Eye of Shambala” staggered the old academic, who had already surmised his niece was dead or as good as. On hearing of their plans to return, the old school professor demanded to be included in their next expedition — as a renowned philologist and archeologist, he would be indispensable. Also having encountered the weirdness of the disappearing city in Africa that started the campaign (a modified version of our White Ape of the Congo module), they figured he would be an excellent addition.

The next day they did some shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch — back when it was an outfitter and not some fashion shop for skinny-jeaned millennials — which allowed Gus to finally replace his gun bag and his hunting rifles. But on exiting the shop, Dr. Gould was contacted by the Russian psychic, Galina Obreva: they know about him, about his two brothers and other family…maybe they have the same abilities he does. The GPU won’t be waiting long to take action against them, and can the Gestapo be far behind? But if he willing joins the Soviets, helps them get into the Hollow Earth, they will be safe.

Gould refuses. At that moment, Gus and Hunter swear they see their missing companion Olga going into Regent’s Park. Dashing into traffic to catch her, Gould realizes they’ve fallen into a Soviet trap! That’s when “the Ghost”, Arkady Lenshev, knocks Gould, Amon, and their minder Reece cold and they never saw him through his ability to cloud their perception of him. Before Lenshev could instruct the burly dockworkers he’s got with him to bundle Amon and Gould into the delivery van, Hunter realizes it’s a trick and circles back for a one-on-one punch up with the man.

Gus is befuddled to have lost Olga, but instead sees Galina and knows they’ve been had. He tries to get at her, but she takes over his mind, causing him to freeze in the middle of Oxford Street traffic. He barely escapes being hit by a horse-drawn truck filled with German beer and a motorcyclist. He loses Galina, but sees Hunter and Lenshev going at it, while the dockworkers drive off with Gould and Amon in the back. He grabs the downed motorcyclist’s Scott Flying Squirrel and races off after them.

In the van, Gould wakes to find himself being trussed up. With a great effort, he rolls over, knocking one of the bad guys over, who in turn knocks the other baddie and Amon out into the street. For his efforts, he gets kicked in the face and knocked out.

With a last moment aid by Lord Trevor, armed with a blackthorn cane from A&F, Hunter is able to knock Lenshev down and run to aid Amon, while Lord Trevor checks on Reece. Lenshev quickly hoofs it and with Galina escapes.

Meanwhile, Gus chases the Morris van with his Scott motorbike, nearly gets pasted by oncoming traffic, but eventually gets behind the van. The last mook throws a length of chain at him, and missed, and Gus decides to board the van by ramming the rear bumper, launching himself into the back and onto the bad guy. (It is a pulp game, after all…) He and the mook wrestle, and in the mist of it, Gus kicked Gould out of the van when it’s taking a turn and has slowed down. For his attention, he gets choked nearly unconscious by the bad guy, but is able to find worm his way loose and shoots the guy at point blank range.

Not wanting to spend time in a British jail, Gus bails out of the van and quickly loses himself on the Underground. The rest of the group has crowded into Reece’s Morris and meets him there. They are visited by the police shortly afterward, who are following up on Gould’s claim of being attacked by communists — most likely a response to their having thwarted an attack on the Marquesa de Montealegre (utter crap, but it sounds good and is verifiable to a point) in Spain. The others corroborate the lie for the most part and the police set them free on their own recognizance while looking for the Russians and their allies.

The group holes up in Zara’s old country home outside of London for a few days while Gould telegraphs a warning to his faily in Spain and Hunter tries to get them Terra Arcanum protection from the GPU and Nazis. Gould is worried that the longer they stay on the surface world, the more danger he puts his family in…

They finally take a liner to the United States, and from there a train to the newly-opened (and beautiful, even today) 30th Street Station in Philadelphia — Hunter’s home town. They are put up by the navy in the Benjamin Franklin Hotel and dine with Admiral Byrd that evening at the Rittenhouse Club. There they learn the main issue with their transport has been Byrd’s support of the heavier-than-air end of the Division of Aeronautics, and he is having to eat crow and aid Admiral Moffett in defending the program from Congress and the budget cutters, especially after the near disaster Akron had offshore. (In our campaign, I had Akron survive her final voyage through a massive storm. Why? I like airships.)

That accident does mean the navy needs a big win with an airship, and a polar expedition — which is what Byrd is selling their mission as — sounds like the ticket. It also means they can’t take Akron and her five scout airplanes…instead, they are pulling the recently decommissioned Los Angeles — sister to Graf Zeppelin — out of mothballs. This takes time as they get her back into flying shape, load her with helium and fuel, and get the victual and crew together.

In the meantime, Hunter is planning to see his family and delinquent friends, and then they are accompanying Byrd up to New York City to meet with a scientific advisor who has been studying the ray guns they brought back from the Interior World.

That was where we left off for the night, with the Soviets and Nazis giving chase, an airship flight in the offing, and a visit with the Terra Arcanum’s mysterious scientist.

The last two sessions with our heroes traveling steerage on the Surface World. After having been sucked through the “Hole in the World” in the Hollow Earth, they had been deposited in the Arabian Sea, where for four days they were adrift — kept afloat only by the high salinity and some scraps of canvas they were using as flotation devices. Hallucinating, half-dead, they were finally rescued by the RMS Majolo, out of Calcutta and bound for Tilbury in England.

They were nursed back to health over the next three days, and deposited in Aden with only a few pounds from the good graces of the ship’s doctor. Fortunately, Gus had operated out of the port before, and had a few contacts, as well as a small bank account here. With enough money to get some clothing and a cheap used Enfield rifle and Webley pistol, they set up in the Mariners’ Hotel. They were able to make inquires to the local consulates — a German, US and UK one were present — to get some kind of passport. Gus was in luck, the others not so much.

This lead to Hunter’s using his larcenous skills to pickpocket a few documents, a Greek passport for Amon, and a Spanish one for  Gould. Gus and Hunter, however, were able to get temporary documents.

That evening, a German official arrived to present Gus with his new passport (complete with swastika) and make an offer directly from Reichfuhrer-SS Himmler himself! He offered to meet them in Trieste, to discuss their recent adventure and offered to provide them with the passage to Italy. After some argument between Gould and Gus, they agreed to head for Britain and try to gain some kind of support from the Royal Geographic Society or British government, and barring that, try the United States.

They were able to buy steerage passage to London. Two days later, they stopped in Alexandria, where the Terra Arcanum has a “library” — a safehouse cum storehouse for artifacts. Hunter had worked out of the place and knows the librarian, a Sam Gilroy — a dissipate former academic from England. They’d already gotten word from the consulate about their having been discovered in the sea, and their original report in India had reached the masters of the organization! After quizzing them on events, Gilroy put them in touch with a VIP from the Terra Arcnum — Admiral Richard E Byrd!

The admiral had claimed to have seen the Northern Polar Entrance to the Hollow Earth in 1926, but it was never seen again. He posits that his co-pilot might have had Atlantean blood, like Gould, and that was why they found it, but never again. He is in the process of putting together funding for another Antarctic Expedition, but is willing to change their focus to the north pole, once more. He already has subscriptions from the American and National Geographical Societies, as well as the Navy. He was already putting together a large mission with scientists and sailors…just what they need for their return to the Inner World.

They jump at the chance.

Their next stop in Gibraltar hooks them up with American passports, to throw off any German pursuers, and they take a train north to England. Part of the deal was they would inform Lord Trevor, Zara’s uncle, of her disappearance, and attempt to get the philologist and archeologist on their team.

This led to a stop in Madrid, where Gould made an attempt to warn his brother about their heritage and the dangers, but realized how insane it sounded…then they ran into his former lover, the now-Marquesa Inez de Montealegre. After some character development, talk about our feelings stuff for Gould and Inez, they boarded their train north to San Sebastian.

The train was stopped by bandits, leading to a gunfight between the characters and the bandits, before they drove them off. With the marquesa’s support, the Civil Guard in Vallavolid hailed the characters as heroes of the day and released them to continue their trip the next day.

We left it there last week, as they were entering France and heading for Paris, then London…

Technically, it’s SSSR-v6 OSOAVIAKhIM, a Soviet-built seni-rigid airship designed by Umberto Nobile, an Italian aviator and inventor who was, after 1928, on the outs with Mussolini and was in exile in Russia. The name is from the acronym for the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet…original, as only bureaucrats can be.

The ship is centered on a keel from stem to stern, and an envelope that has smaller gas cells inside — it’s part blimp, part dirigible. SSSR-V6 is based heavily on Nobile’s previous airships, Norge and Italia, which he used for polar exploration in the mid to late 1920s. It is, through the 1930s, the Soviet Union’s largest airship and most successful, until her loss in 1938.

At 344′ long, she has a total displacement of 685,000 sq.ft. — about a quarter the size of USS Los Angeles or Graf Zeppelin. It is, however, quite light, and only loses 3 tons of her total 13 ton lifting capacity, and is powered by three 190hp gasoline engines that can reach a face-peeling 58mph.

SSSR-V6: Size: 16   Def: 10   Strc: 10   Spd: 60   Ceil: 8,000′   Han: -2   Crew: 15

Our Hollow Earth Expedition game kicked off with a bang — the characters, trapped in their Atlantean flying saucer, sinking under the sea after having been hit by heat rays from war saucers from Atlantis. After a tense escape and rush to the surface, they were rescued from the hovering saucers by merfolk, who took them to a grotto in a cave system under the nearby mountains, and which connects to the merfolk’s home.

The destruction of the large war saucer Durga had produced a blast that stunned or killed dozens of merfolk, leaving the characters in a tight spot with King Triton. Eventually, his son Glaucus intervened on their behalf. They were able to exit the cave complex, finding some of the Sanctuary survivors in the process, before returning to find the old liner badly damaged by fire, their pirate ships sunk, and Zek’s airplane destroyed. The Atlantean saucers had decamped. After searching the ship, they were able to find a few survivors, including Zek and his daughter.

After collecting as much food and other supplies as they could from Sanctuary’s stores, they returned to the caves to try and plot their next move. (One of the players was pretty adamant about attempting to use the whirlpool under the Aerie, assuming it some kind of gate, as it is through there supposedly much of Sanctuary’s found cargo comes from.) They were desperate to rescue Olga and Shria, both captured by Thoth, Emperor Mot’s secret police chief during the attacks.

This led to a hairbrained scheme to find and collect the balloon from Ivora’s crashed airship, Sela, and use it to float their lost saucer with the aid of the mermen. With two dozen people, they trekked two days through the dinosaur-filled jungle to the crash site, build a boma and fires to keep the animals at bay, then spend another three days getting the balloon out of the trees, rolling it, and lugging it and the hot air engine back to Sanctuary.

They were able to repair the engine, patch the balloon, and eventually they attached the balloon to the saucer. Using the engine and a long length of tubing made from jungle vines, Zek, Hunter, and Amon inflated the balloon from a small launch. The plan was working, the balloon was very slowly lifting the saucer when Gus decided the process was too slow and attempted to aid the ascent by trying to restart Agni’s engines…a fumble, followed by a good roll succeeded…but sent the saucer up too quickly, out of control and blinded by the balloon. This capsized the launch, and during their rescue attempt of Gus, the characters (plus Amon) were able to get aboard. Just in time for the saucer to lose power over the whirlpool called the “Hole in the World.”

The balloon acted like a parachute, giving them time to seal the saucer before they were sucked into deep water, tumbled and spun in darkness, only to surface a long time later. They found themselves in the saucer, which was again starting to sink, and escape to the surface to find themselves under a sky at sunset, the stars coming out, in the middle of a endless ocean! (Causing Amon no small amount of terror; he’s never seen the sun “go away.”)

Now they are trapped in the Outer World, with no way to get back to rescue Shria and Olga…

This evening was fun for the endless pulp-fiction moments that kept cropping up. The campaign is proving to be a lesson in go big or go home when it comes to playing pulp. The bigger and more ridiculous, the better.

The rule book deals with drowning and suffocation, but the cliffhanger of our latest session also has a few other issues the heroes will have to deal with — atmospheric pressure (from water) and decompression…

With their flying saucer sinking under the ocean, they have only a few turns to figure out how to get out of the craft…but in that time, the saucer has sank some distance. so that leaves them with a few issues to address:

The first, air. They should have time to hold their breath, but they will be exerting themselves early on. From the core rules,

“…your character can hold his breath for one minute per point of Body rating. In combat, your character holds his breath for one turn per success on a reflexive body roll. After this time passes, your character will be forced to take a breath and suffer the effects of whatever he breathes in. If he inhales water or thick smoke, for example, he will receive one nonlethal wound per turn until he is able to breathe normally. Your character cannot hold his breath again until he has had a chance to catch his breath.”

It will take several turns before they can exit the craft under the best of conditions. By the time they are out, the saucer will have sank between 100-200′ (between 30-600m-ish), with an increase of 1 bar/33′ or 10m…they could be exiting somewhere in the range of 9 bars of pressure.

So, rules for high atmospheric pressure and decompression:

Characters exposed to high atmospheric pressures will suffer 1 non-lethal in damage for every 3 bars of pressure (every 100′ or 30m of depth.) Also, holding one’s breath becomes more difficult at these pressures, as the lungs are not strong enough to fight the crush of the pressure. Holding your breath requires a Body+Will with the difficulty increasing one success for each 100′ of depth. (You can reflexively hold your breath without a check down to 100′) This damage only lasts as long as the  person is under pressure.

That said, rising or decompressing too quickly will cause the damage to remain and possibly worsen as the body cannot reabsorb nitrogen and other gasses released by the drop in pressure. This can be cured with safety stops and a slower ascent of about 30fpm to allow the body to adapt to the lower pressures, but in an emergency assent (as these characters will have to attempt), the character can ascend at speeds up to 100fpm. That still leaves two minutes for the characters. If the character has to surface at unsafe speeds, they will take 1 non-lethal in damage for every 100′ they have to ascent at faster than 60fpm.After the character has reached the surface, they must make a Body test versus the damage they took. If they fail the test, they take lethal damage equal to the number of failures in addition to the non-lethal they have.

(Example: Steve has to ascend from his crashed and sining seaplane. He was able to catch his breath before exiting the craft, but has to ascend 200′ to the surface before his breath runs out. He has 2NL in damage from the pressure, and has to roll a Body+Will vs. 2, and succeeds. He has a Body of 2 — he has two minutes, if he doesn’t exert himself, to reach the surface. He opts to rise as fast as he can, but it will still take all of his two minutes… The speed of his ascent means the damage will not got away on reaching the surface as he experiences “the bends”. He makes it to the surface, but is suffering from decompression sickness. He rolls his Bodyx2 vs. the 2NL and rolls a 1. He now has 2NL and 1L in damage, which will heal at the normal rates.)

Had Steve has a Body 3, he could have ascended slower, and risked a non-lethal or two for breathing water, but that pressure and drowning damage would have gone away once he could get to the air.

The group finally had everyone back together again for the session this week. We picked up a few days after the raid on the Sanctuary and the removal of the chua te, the pirate king, Trihn from the place. The characters are mostly recovered from their injuries during the fight, they’ve been working to sound the old liner that serves as the trade port, and looking for the other cargo cultists that escaped into the jungle. They’ve been building  docks for the pirate ships, having talked those crews into allying after Trihn was packed off to the merfolk to answer for his crimes against them. And they are preparing for their meeting with the hawkmen of “the Aerie” — a mountain topped by a Greco-Roman-looking city that floats a half mile above the “Hole in the Ocean”, a giant whirlpool that swirls into darkness under the rock.

After some character interaction and catching up the one player who was out for a fortnight, they flew to the Aerie in their Atlantean flying saucer, Agni, only to be met by scores of the creatures, armed and flying in intricate formations. They landed, and Gus Hassenfeldt in a fit of exuberance and naivety rushed out to greet the creatures. Eventually, the characters — with the aid of Prince Glaucus of the mermen and Lord Amon (late of Ultima Thule) — were able to establish enough of a rapport with the incredulous Prince Sycrat of the Hawkmen, to have a sit down and talk about an alliance against the cruel Emperor Mot of Atlantis. With some judicious use of style points and a decent “take the average”, they were able to sell the hawkmen on an alliance, with the hawkmen and merfolk working to extend their lines of communication, and find other ready to rise up and fight.

On their way back to the Sanctuary, however, they spotted several gleaming objects in the sky — Durga and her escorts, returning to investigate the Sanctuary. They decided to submerge the saucer in the ocean and wait it out, but Glaucus — able to communicate with his people nearby — learned that the saucer fleet had gone to Sanctuary and one of the ships had landed on the old liner! Obviously, the chances that Captain Thoth would discover Olga and Princess Shria, both still aboard the craft, were high. With that, they decided to take the bold (and very pulp) action of attacking the fleet!

Bursting from the ocean in their flying saucer, they got an incredibly lucky hit on Durga that disabled the vehicle. The great war saucer fell out of the sky and exploded when it hit the ocean, doing damage to the nearby pirate ships and the shockwave killing some of the nearby merfolk in the water. Disoriented from fireball, Lord Amon almost crashed the saucer, and a bad initiative test led them to be hit by the escort saucers’ heat rays. While the saucer wasn’t destroyed or incapacitated, they landed hard on the ocean…at which point the water rushed through the damage in the hull and started to pull them under.

We ended the night with the cabin filling with water as they struggled to get the exit open. Then the lights went out…

One thing this campaign is teaching me is every time I think it’s time to pull back and be a bit more “realistic”, I find the better choice is to do the opposite: more over the top, more cliché, more action over plot and character. The result has been one hell of a good game, thus far.

So, I settled on a flag or standard for Atlantis for our Hollow Earth Expedition campaign. I wanted something that would “speak to the Nazis” when they eventually show up, but blended well with the Vedic beats we’ve been using for the “gods” — the devi and asura — that once ruled the Inner World (and may have created it as some kind of prison…)

The city will have a similar radial canals to curving ones, with four great towers in the center.

The emperor’s standard, of course, is the same thing, but in gold.

One of the big bads, Captain Thoth, has been chasing the characters around with a fleet of flying saucers. Most of them are smaller vessels, like Aruna or Agni , but the head of Atlantis’ secret police is toddling around in a super-szied version, Durga.

War Saucer Durga

At 60 feet in diameter and with eight dual heat ray batteries at the rim (above and below!) of the machine, Durga is an imposing craft. (The landing gear of the vessel retract into spaces proximate of the cannons.) As with most of the Atlantean craft, she bear the swastika of life and change, but the upper dome is also painted in the eight-pointed starburst of General Inanna’s flag.

The outer third of the saucer is primarily drive and weapons spaces, and the internal layout has a central command desk with four radial crew spaces that then curve to the right, mirroring their flag.

The flag of Atlantis

The vessel can carry approximately two platoons of troops and their gear in tight quarters. In local memory, no one has heard of one of these machines being destroyed.

SIZE: 8   DEF: 4   STRC: 24   SPD: 350   HAN: +2   CREW: 10   PASS: 24; 16 Dual Heat Ray Batteries —   Damage: 10L   Rng: 500’   Cap: n/a   Rate: Beam**   Spd: A

**Beam weapons fire like autofire weapons. Use the same rules.

Command flag of Gen. Inanna

Battle Flyer Shiva

But it is the aerial warship Shiva that is most terrifying in the Atlantean arsenal. At a wondrous 900′ from stem to stern, almost 600 across the beam, and with seven decks — including a launch and recover deck amidships for light saucers — Shiva is the only one of her kind left flying. A dozen repulsion units keep her in the air, and she carries a massive broadside of heat ray batteries. She can — if she sacrifices some of her lift — pack up to 500 troops into the vessel or a dozen smaller saucers. It is rumored the Emperor has a stateroom aboard her from which he can look down on his domains.

Shiva usually patrols the skies above Atlantis, and is commanded by General Inanna, if the emperor does not take personal control.

SIZE: 16   DEF: 2   STRC: 36   SPD: 200   HAN: 0   CREW: 50   PASS: up to 500; 20 Dual Heat Ray Batteries (2 fore and aft, 16/broadside) —   Damage: 10L   Rng: 500’   Cap: n/a   Rate: Beam**   Spd: A; Bomb bays — Damage: 12L (area), Cap: 24 Rate: A   Spd: S