Kidnapped to Hollow Earth, Part 1

Fresh from their latest adventures, the heroes were relaxing on a ship heading home to fortune and glory when… wait what ship is this?  It’s a crashing ship!

 

Kidnapped onto a spaceship resembling a giant silver arrow, the heroes found themselves crashing in a strange jungle where the horizon curved upwards and the sun never sets

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There was no time for introductions!  The heroes stumbled immediately upon a group of saber-toothed tiger kittens, and slaughtered all but one for the feast.  They fought off the angry tiger mother, skinned her to make a sling, then set off towards the shining beacon in the distance, collecting the bounty of avocados found along the way.

They encountered Colonel Throckmorton, hunter from the Royal Society for the Continuation of Zoocryptological Extinction, and his lackey The Crossbow Kid (v1). 

Throckmorton explained that the Ghost-Who-Walks has been bringing monsters in from a mysterious portal, making the Hollow Earth his private hunting preserve.  Some of those monsters have escaped into the surface world, which is why the Royal Society for the Continuation of Zoocryptological Extinction has set a prize for the greatest hunters to kill the Ghost-Who-Walks and shut down the monster threat.  Throckmorton warned the heroes not to trust Flat Earth Fred, so as soon as the heroes recruited The Crossbow Kid (v1) they set off to find Flat Earth Fred.

After running into a group of lumberjacks from the now devastated Finland (where the Hollow Earth connects to the surface world), the Psychic Detective engaged in a massive drinking contest and collected enough booze to satisfy his needs for the rest of the expedition, or the next several hours, whichever came first.  The heroes were directed to the fortress laboratory of Flat Earth Fred, also from the Royal Society for the Continuation of Zoocryptological Extinction, convinced that if he could win the prize then his theories that the Earth was a flat disk, riding on the back of a turtle, and that the hollow earth was in the belly of the turtle, would at last bring harmony to the Earth.

The Lizard Shaman and the Sky Raptor thought this was nonsense and began smashing various pieces of technology while the Castaway, the Kung-Fu Wizard, the Adventurer, and the Psychic Detective learned more about the Hollow Earth from Flat Earth Fred.  The Ghost-Who-Walks makes his lair at the Pyramid on Ship-Trap Mountain.  He rarely hunts the Amazons who live in the Avocado Jungle of Death, but has continuously harassed the Dinosaur Knights who built their Stilt Castle across the Bamboo Forest in the Blasted Plains.  The Bear Tribe once lived on Ship-Trap Mountain, but have been chased off by the Ghost-Who-Walks and now make their home in nearby Ragged Mountain.

The Heroes don’t notice Jungle Boy run off with the last remaining sabertooth tiger kitten, but greeted the Genius Chimp just as the Dinosaur Knights ride up with The Crossbow Kid (v2) as their guide…