Exile Game Studio

[Jason 31 ohio]

Well folks, after more than a year's absence, I am finally working again on my campaign. We only got two game sessions done before everything went all screwy with my gaming group. My birthday is at the end of August, and I am going to run the third session and tie up the first chapter if I can, culminating with the party arriving at Stonehenge and meeting the Secret Society lead by Winston Churchill, who is actually a descendant of Alexander the Great and wants to revive him from his stasis sleep so he can conquer the entire world.

Below I have a timeline for the campaign, notes on the history of the Hollow Earth, and some notes on how I want the campaign to eventually end up. With luck I can do one session a month. We have two people moving at the end of the year, but I have a couple more who want to jump in. This will allow me to fill in certain needs as the campaign progresses. Please feel free to steal any of these ideas for your own campaigns, and as always feedback is more than welcome.

Timeline:
February, 1940 Start of Campaign
Zeppelin leaves New York, is attacked and crashes on island. Meet Dr. Galevko and escape attackers into drilling machine. Find Nexus and artifacts, escape to Britain. Inducted into Secret Society.

April, 1940
Players halfway through training in flying, sent to raid Vatican City for artifact to activate Nexus.

July, 1940
Players return to Nexus and activate lift to hollow Earth, Basecamp established and initial exploration of ruined city.
Week 1: players explore initial site and clear out dinosaur nests and other baddies
Week 2: construction equipment arrives from SS and construction of runway and hangers/barracks begins
Week 3: Chraracters explore surrounding for water supply and edible food supply. Introduce Botanist NPC to party who is secretly U.S. Agent. Encounter with more animals living on River.
Week 4: First air power begins to arrive at camp as runways completed

August, 1940
People start disappearing in basecamp, investigation and fight with Cthulu-esque monster. All supply runs stopped until investigation complete. Monster is part of race that lived on earth before hollow earth was settled. Most killed off by aliens but a few remain. This one set up in ruins after aliens left/died. Party defeats monster and normal supply runs resume.

September, 1940
Exploration of Hollow Earth continues with air power, revealing that players are on large island off coast of larger landmass. Air searches reveal village of alien/human crossbreeds. Crossbreed denoted by red pupils. Speak derivative of ancient Greek. Natives are initially hostile or neutral to party and it’s team. They will require the players to perform a series of tasks to earn the trust of the tribe.
Task#1 Party must travel overland to sacred shrine and return with rare flower that grows there. Shrine is overrun with apemen. Party must only carry traditional/ceremonial weapons.
Task #2 Party is to travel to another village and negotiate for a ceremonial dagger to be used in the first village’s ritual. Both villages are allied, but party does not know that. They have to prove their intentions to both villages, which control the local area.
Task #3 Party to prove compassion by helping ailing tribe some distance away. Opportunity to find cure for disease after one of the party is infected.
After tribe trusts party, will reveal that they actually use alien flying machines and equipment that only they can use. Reveal history of Hollow Earth and prophecy of coming war (revival of Alexander).


History of Hollow Earth:
Earth originally had a solid core. Several millennia in the past, the core became unstable and grew quickly, consuming the lower mantle before shrinking back to a small mini-sun. The shock of such a massive upheaval caused vast destruction on the surface of the earth, splitting the mega continent into its modern fragments. Fractures in the crust allowed water, air and animals to settle in the hollow earth. Constant sunlight and heavy moisture caused the hollow earth to become a verdant jungle, teeming with all sorts of plant and animal life. Centrifugal force held water and inhabitants to the inside shell of the earth. The inner shell is roughly 65% covered in water, with groups of archipelagos and four small landmasses each about the size of Australia.

Several hundred years later, the aliens arrived on earth, the last remnants of a species that was dying out. (Aliens look like 8’ tall humanoids with fiery red hair, all red eyes and four digits on each appendage) They detected the hollow earth, and decided it would be the perfect place to hide and try to find a way to save their race. They constructed the elevators and nexus facilities to allow easy access from the hollow earth to the surface. The race was dying from a genetic disease, and they tried experiments on the early humanoids to see if they could somehow stave off their fate. Their work caused the rapid evolution of man, and gave birth to Homo Sapiens. While their experiments never succeeded, and the aliens eventually died off, some cross-breeded with humans to create the race of man living in the hollow earth. The half-breeds have bright red pupils and pale, almost white hair. The civilization started by the aliens in the hollow earth fell into ruin as the machines were unable to be used by normal humans, and the cross-bred humanoids were not in sufficient number to keep the infrastructure going. Some traveled to the surface, there founding the Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Babylonian, Egyptian and Chinese empires.

The current (1940s) state of the hollow earth is of large, wild jungle inhabited by multiple tribes of the descendants of the original alien cross-breeds and test subjects. All speak an early form of Greek, although some still speak the High Speech of the aliens. No physical remains of the aliens exist, but their cities and facilities remain, spread throughout the hollow earth. Most are overrun by the jungle, but a few remain partially inhabited by men.


Long term story points:
1. At some point the party will meet up with a Russian search party, probably while investigating a ruin. There will probably be a gunfight, knowing my players. This will introduce the Russians to the Hollow Earth.
2. Russians will be from Communist Russia and their commander in the Hollow Earth will be General Joseph Stalin. A cunning and wily foe who cares a great deal for his men. The party will not actually meet him, but there will be several Colonels under him for different projects such as alien artifact research, biological weapons and so on.
3. General Stalin secretly hates the communists, and is in fact a “White Russian”, helping his countrymen in Alaska. Also, he has a female companion who will turn out to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, and Joseph wants to return her to the Czarist throne in Russia.
4. The Secret Society will show no outward signs of their evil plot, but they will send the party to find and retrieve lost technology. I am thinking of having them find a index or map of alien installations in the hollow earth, so that the secret society can start sending them for the exact equipment needed to revive Alexander the great.
5. The revival of Alexander will feature the party looking on, but unable to interfere as Winston Churchill kills Dr. Galevko to use his body’s energy to trigger the restoration of Alexander. After which, the party will be left in a deathtrap as Churchill and the rest of the SS escapes.
6. I will probably use a Russian prisoner to plant the idea of going to Stalin for help against Churchill. I am not decided yet if Stalin will know the true purpose of the Secret Society, or maybe know a little bit. That will depend on how the campaign progresses.
7. Alexander will want to restore and take command of the Alien’s spaceship before he returns to the surface. I am thinking the power supply, control computer and access key will all be in different parts of the hollow earth, and it will be a race between the Secret Society and the party to find all the pieces. Of course, Alexander will steal them from the Russians to enact a final desperate battle to control the spaceship.
8. As an prologue story, the party may help Stalin to restore the Romanov princess to the throne, depending on how everyone feels at this point.
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I may grow up, but I refuse to grow old.