Two months after the incident in Osaka, the Inukai clan waits out the last days of winter. With enemies perched quite literally on their doorstep, Lord Inukai’s retainers busy themselves with festival preparations; despite the celebrations, they can’t help but look forward to the coming battles that will arrive in Spring. When the samurai receive a coded message, they must work together to confront an evil spawned from the consequences of their actions.

Imagine the real world BUT there is also magic and fantastical creatures like elves, centaurs, and orcs. This did not change history or culture in the slightest. Like, aside from there being orcs and magic, everything is literally identical. The Alamo happened. Crazy, huh? Now there’s a crystal ball, which is like an artillery strike, but it can also do useful things. Maybe not like grant a wish, but still it’s pretty useful. However, only special people called Dims can use crystal balls. In this world, a crystal ball winds up in the wrong hands and everyone is after it. Guns are involved.

The year is Tenshō 10, in the Twelfth month. Six months ago the betrayer Akechi Mitsuhide attacked his master Oda Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, burning it to the ground along with the demon warlord. Snowfall covers the mainland, and a time that should be spent in contemplative seclusion is now spent in clandestine war meetings. Stillness and oppressive silence envelope the countryside, but whispers of secret treachery fill the halls of every daimyō. In Settsu province, Lord Inukai and his loyal retainers meet to discuss the coming war for the title of Shogun.

A group of shadowrunners have been hired to acquire rare and ancient Japanese artifacts currently stored in a museum in Seattle. It seems their original owner wants them back. The team is happy to oblige, only there’s an additional twist: no blood must be shed during the heist. This may make the theft more challenging than any of the high tech or mystical defenses set in place. Or perhaps the artifacts themselves may be the final challenge. Ancient art in Japan is more than beautiful…it’s positively haunted.

The year is 1936. The passengers on PanAm’s trans-Pacific flying boat “The Orient Clipper” are planning to travel from San Francisco to Hong Kong in five days of four-star luxury. Each travels to serve their own mysterious and dubious agendas. But when they are cast into an impossible world of lost civilizations, prehistoric beasts and primitive tribesmen, they must pull together to escape the fate of so many others who have been marooned here. Can they gain the trust of the locals? Can they salvage the parts they need to repair their plane from the “graveyard of ships?” Can they avoid the titanic beasts and brutal corsairs that call this world their hunting grounds. Find out in this weeks episode of Hollow Earth Expedition- “Escape from the Eye of Thoth!”

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