Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Quest for Atlantis: An Adventure of Doom


Atlantis is a legend as old as the art of story telling. It is a concept that has captured the imagination of billions for several thousand years. The history of Atlantis would appears to begin with Plato our earliest documented reference to the lost city of the sea. But something about the idea of Atlantis has resonated with us. Perhaps there was no city named "Atlantis" full of technological wonders and an advanced culture. But what if the rest of it were true? We have many references to lost cultures. Eden, the Land of Nod, Thule, and dozens of others. Could the human race have lost something so long ago that now our stories of it are broken, blurred and scattered?

Science itself is confronted with strange oddities that can not easily be explained. Often these anomalies are boxed up and tucked away to be quietly forgotten. If it can not be explained, well then it probably was a fluke. But the flukes add up and the pile becomes larger. Few have ever considered the sum of all out-of-place artifacts. But in 1935 tensions are rising. Millions are without work and Nationalism is out of control. Any hint of a new power or lost science is quickly (and quietly) investigated by the desperate nations of the world. The Nazis would kill for it. The Brits would do anything to keep it from the Nazis. The Yanks need it to end the Depression. The Vatican would see it destroyed. Russia would bury it and use it in secret. The Empire of the Rising Sun would use it to build the greatest war machine seen in the East. The world would go mad for it.

Perhaps the origins of mankind go back further than anyone would guess. Maybe evolution was only half the story. The other half of story may be buried in the deserts of Egypt, the Temples of the Amazon, or even high Himalayas. The quest for Atlantis is not a search for a lost city beneath the sea, but the search for the lost origin of Man. But the story of Atlantis is often a tale of warning. Uncovering too many secrets too soon might bring down the same destruction that doomed those poor souls so long ago. Who will unlock the secrets? What world power will rise? Who will fall in... Another Adventure of DOOOOM.
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Adventures of Doom is a True20 Pulp RPG set in 1935 and designed for family play. Check other posts with the AoD tag for more.

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