Yesterday began my summer campaign.  There was supposed to be up to six players, but in the end four players showed up.  The other two stated that they were still interested, we'll see if they don't come into the game in the next few weeks.

So we rolled up characters, and we got the following:

Federico I - Halfling.  Note: With a Str 3!
Federico II- Magic User. Spells: Shield, and Bleach! As the magic-user, he's de-facto leader of the party.
Christian - Mystic!
Jong - Thief, with Str 4.  Jong arrived late to the game and was unbelievably frustrated at rolling a 4 for Strength, and only then found out that he was actually not the weakest character of the group!

Note that overall, the ability score rolls were pathetic; except for Christian, who got ridiculously high rolls on all of his stats.  I had to explain to the players that in RC D&D "basic", low or high stats isn't usually the best indicator of whether or not your PCs will survive (hell, in Basic D&D odds are your characters WILL NOT survive, until through luck, skill or extreme caution you get one to about 4th level, at which point he starts having much more of a chance).

However the characters all rolled above-average for hit points, which is probably way more important for measuring survivability at Lv. 1 than your ability scores.

In any case, with the characters made we got the ball rolling: the PCs were all part of the Alphatian Home Guard when the Glantrians activated their superweapon in 2009 and sank Alphatia below the sea. The last thing the characters remembered was everything going dark, and then.. suddenly, waking up in their barracks as if nothing had happened; and thinking maybe it had all been a wierd dream, until they stepped out the door and saw a big red sun floating in the sky above them.  What's more, the populace at large was acting as though nothing had changed.  Oh yes, and their chronometers indicated that three months had passed, and it was now well into 2010.

It took a few weeks for things to get sorted out.  Once the Empress Eriadna, miraculously alive again for reasons unknown, demonstrated that she really is the Empress, the various kings of Alphatia swore allegiance to her.  And after that, Eriadna examined the military position Alphatia found itself in:  the vast bulk of the Alphatian armada was missing.  It had been flying over the Known World region at the time Alphatia sank, and presumably the Armada, or whatever is left of it, would still be up in the surface world.  The great ships of the Alphatian fleet, like the Princess Ark, were not around to protect the motherland.  Eriadna decided to organize her priorities.

First, a massive shipbuilding project was announced, which incidentally required new shipyards to be built first, since the main shipyards of the empire, in Floating Ar's islands, were now also vanished along with said islands.

Second, and here's where we get to the PCs; Eriadna orders a number of military expeditions.  The PCs are gathered with the rest of the barracks (the PCs are a team of agents of the Alphatian Armada's Adventurer's Corp., specially trained, dungeon division). Admiral Harald "Hap" Happenblap briefs the troops.  He starts, by explaining to the bewildered soldiers that Alphatia is now a floating continent in a place known as the Hollow World. He explains that the Empress has known about the existence of this hollow world for some time, but that she had classified it "Top Secret", which is why no one else did.  The HW, they are told, is a vast world found in the hollow interior of Mystara; the red sun they see in the "sky" is actually the very center of the planet, and approximately 20km below them is the "surface" of the hollow world, a vast area of land, water, oceans, and all types of terrain, with various cultures on it. Not much is known of this world, but it is known that there seems to be some powerful immortal magics at work in this place, which might explain why the majority of Alphatians believe that Alphatia has "always been" in the HW, and why certain magic-user and even cleric spells don't seem to work here!

Hap tells the PCs that the Empress Eriadna has ordered that, until new warships can begin to be constructed, all available warships will be dedicated to defensive patrolling of the empire. Meanwhile, she has ordered the commandeering and conversion of various flying merchant ships, which will be sent in an expedition through the polar icecaps toward the surface world, in an effort to enter into contact with the remnants of the Alphatian Empire above.
Finally, she has ordered a half-dozen Small Ships, Alphatian Cutters, to travel to the different regions of the Hollow world to conduct a thurough cartographical, sociological, and military analysis.  To see what power can be found in the HW, and whether the cultures in each region are friendly, aggressive, and if any are of any potential danger or value to the Alphatian Empire.  It seems clear that Eriadna has an eventual vision of Alphatia as ruler of all the Hollow World already in mind.

The PCs find that they've been assigned to one of the latter missions, to a Cutter known as the HMS Fortune. The captain of that ship seems a likeable chap, and the rest of the crew effective, except for possibly the carpenter/handiman, Baldrick. Even Jong, who's character was frantic about having to go out and risk his life when he'd thought that the Home Guard meant that he'd never see combat, is rather enchanted by the pretty 2nd Officer, Lt. Astridia. Meanwhile, the PC's team is rounded out with a cleric and a fighter.  The cleric is Father Matthews, a cleric of Asterius, and an all-around nice guy.  Young and dedicated, you find out that he's shortly due to be married to his childhood sweetheart, and he "misses her already".
The fighter is Jorge Shrub, a frat-boy son of a powerful father, who's the family embarrassment because he hasn't got any magical talent. Jorge's dad is an important vice-chancellor, who used connections to get him into the Home Guard so he wouldn't have to go fight in the war, and could still say he'd done "military service".  Jorge mostly likes hanging around drinking beer and snorting Zzonga (a popular alphatian drug), and wearing his flight suit.  But he certainly isn't happy about the idea of having to go into combat.

The Fortune takes off, after the captain announces that the ship has been assigned to explore Northern Iciria, which is good news for the group because that's where the one and only Alphatian presence in the hollow world (before now) is located; Alphatian Neatharum. The Fortune will head there first, use that as base camp, and then travel around the mysterious continent analyzing cultures and threats.   The PCs are told that the human culture native to Neatharum, the Neathars, are very primitive, almost cavement, and of no danger to Alphatia; Alphatia is in the process of trying to "civilize" them, but its harder than they would have expected.  Meanwhile, they are told of the bellicose and possibly dangerous Azcans to the east of A-N, and of the malpheggi Swamps to the south, with rumours of a lizardman society there.

The ship flies its way down to the Atlass ocean, and then quickly cruises along toward Iciria.  When they get to the coast of Iciria, the captain spots a natural bay, ringed by mountains, and curiousity gets the best of him.  A short detour before heading toward neatharum, he reasons, wouldn't be any great problem.  He orders the helmsman to fly a detour over the mountains, to be able to see what's in the bay.

They are flying over the mountains, looking below, the captain spots a town on the other side of the bay from where they are, a primitive looking town with stone buildings, and curious giant stone heads dotting the hills around the town and over the coast.  Suddenly, one of the mountains experiences a volcanic eruption, dangerous close to where the Fortune is flying!  The captain orders evasive maneuvers, and the ship lurches, trying to get away. But then, a giant rock hurls through the air launched by the volcano, hitting the bridge area.

The captain is dead, the first officer is dead, the second officer is missing, the helmsman is dead. The ship is rapidly plummeting toward the mountains. Baldrick is hiding in a bucket.  Father Matthews, in a supreme act of heroism, rushes onto the flaming bridge and guides the helm, flattening out the rate of descent in a desperate effort to try to save the ship.

The ship crash-lands in the mountains, many km away from the volcano, but also some 50 km from the sea.  The PCs are hurled in different directions, but miraculously none of them are seriously harmed (the fuckers rolled an 19, and three natural 20s on their saving throws!).  They quickly get up and search the ship for other survivors.  They find that all the boltmen and airmen are dead, the entire bridge crew is dead, except Lt. Astridia, who's missing.  Its thought she may have fallen off the ship when the rock struck, in which case she's almost certainly dead; unless she had Levitate or Fly.  Jorge Shrub is also missing, and presumed dead.  Father Matthews is found, his neck broken.

In fact, the only confirmed survivor other than the PCs is ensign Baldrick, the ship's handyman ("the bucket protected me!").  Federico II takes control of the situation, as the only spellcaster present, and orders that the ship be looted for all possible supplies.  After burying the dead, he starts to cook Christian's horse, who also died in the crash, figuring that there's no sense in letting good horsemeat go to waste.  Did I mention that Federico's character is a desperate glutton?

The group appears to be hopelessly stranded in the mountains.  But Baldrick has a cunning plan: he thinks he might be able to make the ship, which is broken..."not-broken", with his toolbox and by "improvising" ("for example, if I don't have glue, i could use saliva!").

The PCs figure they have nothing to lose, so they leave Baldrick to try to repair the Fortune, while they go up the side of the mountain to explore some mysterious caves Baldrick had spotted.  After all, they are adventurers!

The team heads into the cavern, and one of the PCs notices that at the entrance there are some crude paintings, that would indicate that this cave at least once held intelligent life. They head inside, and despite having two guys with detect traps, they fail to detect the trap, and after they're a ways in, they hear a click and a bunch of rocks collapse over the entrance/exit to the cavern, trapping them inside, unless they want to dig, which for now they don't.  They decide to keep moving forward.

A ways later, and after running into a pit trap that proves to be non-fatal, the pcs reach a foul-smelling cave.  They notice a few objects there; a very crude shield, some rock carvings, a few religious fetishes... but while they're examining all this, a creature that was very well-hidden springs out to attack them.  Fortunately, the PCs are fairly keen-eyed (again with the natural 20, fuckers!) and two of the four PCs are not taken by surprise.  The creature is a large humanoid "iguana-man" with four arms, a fierce row of teeth, and a terrible smell.  The PCs spring into action, the halfling taking a shot at the iguanaman, while the Mystic charges in and kicks him.  The iguanaman hits back, though, and pretty quickly the  mystic has fallen, unconscious.

But then the other pcs are ready to act: the halfling, thief and magic-user all fire their slings, and end up seriously hurting the iguanaman.  Frightened, he tries to run through the exit toward the north, but a quick parting shot from the halfling finishes him off.  The PCs have made their first kill!
Federico's wizard, being something of a "Naturalist", examines the dead creature and declares that it is some kind of species of troglodyte, but very different from those he has read about.

The group decides to proceed.  There's an exit to the north and another to the south:  The group reasons that since the iguanaman-troglodyte was trying to run to the north, there's probably something dangerous up there, so they go south first instead.  Travelling a ways, they get to another cavern, which appears to have been the treasure chamber of the Iguanaman.  There, they find a few thousand Electrum coins, strange looking coins bearing a bird of some kind on one side, and a thyatian-looking head on the other which appears to belong to a king named "Theoanderos III".  They also find 18 slivers of jade.

By that time, Jong was only semi-conscious, so we decided to call it a night.  On the whole, the players seemed to be excited with the premise of the campaign, surprised at having been left to their own devices so quickly, and generally pleased with their characters.  I only hope they'll be as pleased with whatever their next characters will be... heh, this is D&D basic after all!

What will happen to the PCs? Will they escape from the dungeon? What else lies in those caverns? Is there any connection to the mysterious town on the other side of the bay? Will Baldrick be able to repair the ship with a few tools and his own bodily fluids? Will the PCs ever be able to reach Neatharum, without having a clue about where they are?  Has the beatiful Lt. Astridia survived? Has the vile little slime Jorge Shrub? If so, where are they now?

All this and more will be answered in the next installment of... The Hollow World!

RPGPundit

Summer?!  Pssssh.  It's nigh Winter here in the hemisphere that matters.

...

...on second thought, I'm movin' down there.  Winter bites.

"Jorge Shrub"? Ouch...

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Summer?!  Pssssh.  It's nigh Winter here in the hemisphere that matters.

...

...on second thought, I'm movin' down there.  Winter bites.

These last few days its been pretty heavy here, well over 30ºC each day, but now its finally rained, and everything is pretty pleasant.

You should totally move down here.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Sosthenes"Jorge Shrub"? Ouch...

What's wrong with that? He's an irresponsible slightly cowardly heavy-drinking doped-up fratboy who just wants to continue to be a loveable goof-off and feels entitled to be given everything on a silver platter.

He's a perfect minor "villain".  The "Reggie" in their archie-comics world.. :cool:

RPGPundit

I daresay Sosthenes "linguist-o-meter" was beeping heavily.

It's just that Bush jokes are sooo 2003...
And the name would make Piers Anthony cry.