The Funnel Of Death

http://vianica.com/attraction/52/cosiguina-volcano

This is the second part of my Con of the North report on running a six hour marathon of the Ubiquity-based Leagues of Adventure RPG. The first part of the report was here. 

The PCs had commandeered a Royal Air Navy airship in London, and in spite of Nathaniel Walker's incredibly poor sense of direction had successfully piloted it to the vicinity of the Cosiguina volcano in Nicaragua. Cosiguina was where Nathaniel's brother, William Walker had departed for the Hollow Earth a few years earlier. It was a race against time to rescue him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Vanderbilt

http://www.examiner.com/article/
on-tunnel-boring-machines-and-mole-men

In the way were the forces of none other than Walker's arch enemy, the shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. Mr. Vanderbilt was hot on the trail of William Walker, and had constructed rail lines up the slope of the volcano which would be used to deploy a mole machine in a cave on the inner slope of the volcanic caldera.

Our heroes were determined to reach that cave - an opening to the Hollow Earth - first. So they crashed the airship on the inner slope of the caldera, and sledded part of the airship's gondola - and the pilot's personal ornithopter - right into the mouth of the cave. But the mole machine on rails continued its advance. 

The heroes were pursued by Vanderbilt's advance men who entered the cavern hot on the trail of the airship crew.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gatling_gun

Before their pursuers could set up their Gatling gun, one of the PCs henchmen - a bomb-throwing anarchist - made short order of Vanderbilt's advance team by tossing an improvised bomb. Of course, this took care of our heroes' pursuers - as well as caving in the cavern's entrance.

From there, as the saying goes, there was nowhere to go but down. That involved a battle with a giant centipede, as well as with three pterodactyls. The pterodactyls were quite formidable, but through sheer luck and dogged persistence, our heroes - with a little help from Mays, the daring female aviator and Doctor Crisis, weird science inventor, they managed to get the entire party safely down a huge funnel made of cascading rivers and waterfalls, all the way down to the Hollow Earth. 

Oh yes, and the mechanical man Vanadine Ironsides managed to explore a bit of the underwater shoreline directly beneath the funnel. Walking the bottom, as it were. It was a fun adventure!