Atlantis in Call of C'thulhu

[Darius West]

 

I am seeking the input of other Keepers, allow me to explain...

In my C'thulhu Campaign it is now early October 1921 and one of my players' characters has purchased the islands of North Cat Cay, south of the Biminis, for the purposes of development and hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a resort down there.  Frank was all too happy with the opportunity to work as (historically) he was down on his luck at the time (somewhat as a result of one of his staff becoming a berserk axe murderer... I KID YOU NOT!).  The character has a cunning plan to do with supplying the Rum Runners of the Bahamas with cheap sloops produced in Boston, and a steady supply of cars to drive around Nassau which are sold at auction.  Frank just mailed him to say that he has, unfortunately, "discovered" something while digging the foundations for the building that is supposed to house the utilities.  The discovery is large blocks of stone much like the Bimini Road discovered historically in 1968.

I am opting for the interpretation that the Bahamas are part of sunken Atlantis as per the Bermuda Triangle supplement.  My current plan is that the building that has been discovered partially includes the sea wall of the island, and that North and South Cat Cay are both accumulated sand on top of these structures, but North Cat Cay also has the ruins of a Pharos style light-house that has collapsed, a la Ostia.

I am interested in suggestions to spice things up and how other Keepers have interpreted Atlantis within the CoC setting.  My preference is to keep the threat level low to mid range, and crucially to build a sense of wonder so players will WANT to investigate further afield in the region.  The aim is to bait the hook and whet their appetites.  I am the sort of Keeper who likes to give my players plenty of rope so they can hang themselves stylishly.

So please, I would love to read any suggestions you care to make.

 

Edited June 22, 2016 by Darius West

[Hexelis]

Deep Ones are an obvious adversary, good for low level and as they go along you can always throw in more deep ones, hordes of deep ones, and finally possibly an appearance by Dagon or Hydra.

[Darius West]

That's true, Deep ones are a good fall back.  I was thinking more something like a magical item that probably shouldn't be messed with... that players will inevitably mess with...

Something a little like the crystal ball in this link  http://www.philipcoppens.com/nap_art15.html but more problematic.  

[Mysterioso]

Seems like a chance to pull some Clark Ashton Smith related material into the game.

[Darius West]

So far I have decided to provide the ruins of the lighthouse with a few things.  A crystal ball that acts as a visual communicator... but with what?  Shards of a large lens that if all the pieces are found will produce a 2 million candlepower light capable of stunning anyone who looks at it, but weights 50lb and needs to be powered by magic points or a ley line. There is also a parchment bag with a string. You pull the string and it heats up rapidly and turns into a flying lantern that is very bright and hot and  flies straight up.   There is also a lot of high quality orichalcum wire that was once used to tether a rescue kite.  As to monsters, I am thinking one lonely but terrible wraith of an Atlantean lighthouse keeper.

[Vorax Transtellaris]

You may want to check out GURPS Atlantis for ideas.

[Darius West]

Thanks Vorax.  I will definitely go have a look. 

[Darius West]

For what it is worth, I opted to solve my little Atlantis dilemma by incorporating Nephilim, as it has an interesting background that is rich in Atlantean lore that fits quite well with CoC after a bit of tweaking.  In my Campaign, the Nephilim are basically a species of terrestrially generated Spirit parasites who are also the larval stage of the Elder Gods, and their presence on Earth is one of the things that drew the Mythos in to feed.  Essentially the humans are an afterthought, a bit like being the wildlife on Peleliu prior to the US Marines landing to fight Japan.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Darius West

[10baseT]

1 hour ago, Darius West said:

Essentially the humans are an afterthought, a bit like being the wildlife on Peleliu prior to the US Marines landing to fight Japan.

LOL, love that.... it soooo paints the picture and the mood, semper fi.

[Warchilde]

I was a huge Robert E. Howard fan before I discovered H. P. Lovecraft and CoC, I was already into roleplaying, and I did an Atlantis scenario years ago. I located mine in the Canary Islands and used a ziggurat "airport" instead of the typical pyramid. Atlantis was essentially the domain of Howard and he had written that they were incredibly advanced with multiple variants of oricalcum, crystal based technology/ magic and even flying ships, hence the airport aspect of the ziggurat. In my adventure it was more of a D & D dungeon crawl through a half dozen levels filled with Deep Ones and hybrid Atlanteans and I've always wanted to revisit it but have never gotten around to it. You could incorporate something like that where they can actually explore a massive, but mostly intact, ruin before finding a handful of survivors and then meeting the climatic monster, maybe the Atlanteans have been making human sacrifices to appease the creature. This could lead to many interesting possibilities like learning Senzar, ancient Atlantean technology or spells, finding an antediluvian library filled with sanity shattering scrolls, ect, ect, ect. LOL 

[Darius West]

Good stuff Warchilde, and somewhat similar to where I went and am going with it.  I had a good deal of fun with Atlantis and my players are still very excited about it.

There are 3 player characters in the party:

"The Cat": International man of mystery.  Could even half of what they say about him be true?

Aurelie Butcher-Bourgeois: A bohemian seeress from a rich family who is in some sort of open relationship with The Cat.

Frank Torgeir:  Circus strongman, now chauffer and bodyguard to The Cat.

As background, The Cat has been doing business with the Rum Runners of the Biminis and Bahamas.  Essentially he has a shipyard where he builds or reconditions sloops, fills them with re-plated stolen cars, and sells the whole lot at auction to the Rum Runners, making a tidy profit.  Some of that money has gone into the purchase of South Cat Cay where The Cat has hired Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a Resort complex capable of standing up to any hurricane that he can use to further cement his domination of the Rum Running.  It turned out that South Cat Cay is actually built on the remains of an old Atlantean Pharos, and that Mr. Wright is actually the present incarnation of the Nephilim "Imhotep".  There they found a crystal ball that linked to another crystal ball and with magic they figured out that it was near Berry Island.  They could also see a pyramid under water.

After a preamble that involved chartering a boat and using the side effect of a gate spell to provide them with gills temporarily, the party wended their way to the pyramid after recovering the other crystal.  They had by this stage managed to win Wright's trust after am incident with wraiths in the Pharos so he came too.  Wright, being a Nephilim could understand Senzar.  The pyramid subjected them to a "ritual cleansing" announced by a hologram that only Wright could understand, and they were all hit with a series of nasty rays before they were finally healed.  They were then allowed entry through huge Iris doors.  They found the Pyramid was devoted to Atlas and staffed by cyclops automata which Wright was able to ascertain were going through the motions of maintaining the facility on an emergency footing.  After a bit of fancy footwork the party figured out that they could effectively apply for Atlantean citizenship and take up "jobs" in the Pyramid provided they could supply enough paper and ink to get the cyclops bureaucrats to provide forms. They also realised that the cyclopses were willing to pay in gold for cargoes of "essential goods".  Literate Atlanteans had access to documents stored on "Crystal tablets", but sorcerers had to store their spells (by law) on Emerald Tablets.  The party came within a hair's breadth of causing a "security breach" that would have killed them all by opening a gate withing the Pyramid, but thought better of it thanks to Aurelie being on the ball, and set it up outside.  They found that the system for negotiating transit to the rooms was managed by way of statues that animated, and would quasi-teleport you withing the structure if you kissed them.  Some parts of the pyramid were intact, other parts were too damaged to enter, but the party has so far managed to redeem $20,000 US in gold and they are pretty happy.