STARGATE: Slaves Of The Gods - Session 1
STARGATE : Slaves Of The Gods - session 1 held November 13th 2007
London, 1936.
Discovering certain evidence to suggest that Professor Daniel Jackson and Ms. Catherine Langford, who had been lost at sea eight years ago returning from an expedition in Egypt, may have somehow survived the noted engineer Sir George Hammond convenes an extraordinary meeting of the Royal Society to propose an expedition be mounted to ascertain the fate of Professor Jackson and his fiancée, Ms. Langford.
Despite some reservations the society agrees to fund such an expedition, to be organized and led by Sir George himself. Sir George immediately places an advertisement in The Times looking for people willing to participate in such an expedition. His advertisement soon leads to results as, one after the other, the PCs make their individual ways to Sir George's house in London.
The house is somewhat eccentrically adorned, matching the somewhat ... eccentric ... Sir George himself. He greets each of the PCs enthusiastically (they arrive at separate times, as they do not at this point know each other), accepts their application to join his expedition, and gives them a ticket. The ticket is for the SS Sankt Erik, an icebreaker departing Southampton in a month, bound for Ross Island in the seas around the Antarctic circle. Sir George advises everyone that his secretary will arrange for any reasonable expenditure in the ways of provisioning and equipment.
Upon leaving Sir George's house, each of the PCs notice a car outside Sir George's house, with a driver who is working very, very hard indeed at being inconspicuous.
Mister Andrew Tolworth, the investigative reporter, does not immediately act on this information.
Later, when Ms. Elizabeth Frobisher observes the car upon departing Sir George's house, she challenges the driver. However, the driver denies everything and simply maintains he is waiting for his wife, who is visiting friends in a nearby house. Unsatisfied with this response, Ms. Frobisher resolves to keep an eye on the car from a nearby street corner.
John Smith (if, indeed, that is his real name...) also spots the car ... as well as Ms. Frobisher ... when he too departs from Sir George's later that same day.
The final visitor to call upon Sir George, Captain Malcom Lovelace, also spots the car ... and recognises the driver! It is his old C/O from his army days, Colonel McCoy. Walking over to greet the colonel, he is quickly told to be about his business as he is ruining everything.
That night, two of the player characters are visited by men from the British Secret Intelligence Service - more precisely the elusive "department Z" - and informed that they would be doing their country a very great favour if they'd keep a very close eye on Sir George during this expedition. British Intelligence believes Sir George has an ulterior motive for this trip, quite beyond the stated purpose of discovering the fate of Professor Jackson's expedition.
In the following weeks, the PCs prepare for their trip by provisioning and equipping themselves for the long and icy journey, though each notices they are being surreptitiously observed by nondescript men in nondescript cars wearing nondescript grey suits.
Ms. Frobisher also spends some time researching Sir George, and discovers that whilst he is a noted and respected - even brilliant - engineer he is considered something of a crackpot in scientific circles. He has some preposterous idea about the Earth being hollow. Ms. Frobisher discovers that certain uncommon legends state a gigantic chasm at the South Pole leads to this so-called "Hollow Earth", and that various other entrances and exits may be found around the world. Ross Island, their destination, is not known to be in any way unusual in this regard, however.
Researching their destination, Ms. Frobisher finds that Ross Island has three volcanoes upon it, one active the other two extinct.
Arriving at Southampton upon the stated day, the PCs make their way to the SS Sankt Erik. John Smith observes that they are being observed from afar by an inconspicuous man in a nondescript grey suit. They are greeted at the gang plank by Sir George, and welcomed aboard by the ship's master, Captain Langstrom. As they board they observe an extremely large wooden crate being loaded into the hold, Sir George explaining that the crate contains certain equipment and instruments for the voyage ahead.
As the ship departs for its lengthy journey to the Antarctic, the male PCs are dismayed to find that they will all three be sharing the same cabin. It will be a long, long trip ...