Thursday, April 28, 2011

Akakor: Dungeon, (South) American Style

Following up on the weird South American jungle map I presented earlier, today we'll veer off the map entirely into the wilds of crazy von Däniken land and visit a “lost” city--one that got famous enough to appear under a weak pseudonym in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I refer of course to Akakor.

Von Däniken started talking about underground city complexes beneath Ecuador in 1974’s The Gold of the Gods, but one of his sources, German journalist Karl Brugger, got to tell his version in 1977 with The Chronicle of Akakor. Both accounts start with the same basic story: In 1972, Brugger met a Amazonian Indian (who spoke excellent German) named Tatunca Nara, who claimed to be a member of a hidden tribe that kept a great secret.  This secret involved ancient astronauts from a solar system named Schwerta, and a network of underground cities these space travellers built beneath South America. The most important of these cities was known as Akakor.

It all sounds fairly unbelievable, true--and it becomes even more so with the revelation that ol’ Tatunca Nara was really Günther Hauck, an alimony-dodging German ex-patriot. But the important thing from a gaming perspective is that these guys gave maps.

One of these is the upper (above ground) Akakor, and the other is the lower subterranean portion. Different websites disagree on which is which, so take your pick--"entertainment purposes only," and all that:





Here’s a nifty cross-section showing the underground portion, and one of the Star Trek-esque hallways:



Read more about it here, and find these maps (and more) here. Add some bullywugs, maybe some yuan-ti--or Nazis if your tastes run to pulp--and you’re ready to roll.  Crystal skulls strictly optional.

8 comments:

Zombiecowboy said...

Awe man! This kicks ass in so many ways. Another awesome Call of Cthulhu and/or Delta Green adventure seed. I could just see the DG Karotechia being all over this thing. On another note Ithink you helped me pin down something that I have been working on but was missing that certain something. So thanks! I will be a little more forth coming about that in the future but know you will be credited when the time come Trey. Keep this good stuff rolling.

satyre said...

*stops*
*looks at Mage: The Ascension a moment*
Nah.
*returns to current project*

Trey said...

@ZC - Thanks. If you delve into those links, I'm pretty sure you'll upon some mentions of Ahnenerbe, which does the work of combining it with DG for you.

@satyre - That's always the way isn't it? New ideas trying to seduce you away.

Unknown said...

Wow, that's amazing. Never knew about those maps. I could totally game those almost out if the box.

Trey said...

Yeah, they're a great find.

Martin R. Thomas said...

BTW, Trey, I meant to comment earlier that your "The City" and weird adventures posts.. well, basically, almost all of your posts, are the very best kinds of "Science Fantasy" in my book. Since you commented on my Science Fantasy post the other day, I thought I'd drop by to tell you that.

These South American dungeon posts are very cool. Totally reminds me of new ways to use the old C1 (Tamoachan) module.

Cheers!

Trey said...

Hey Martin, thanks--and thanks for stopping by.

I thought about C1 (after I wrote the post!) so I'm glad somebody mentioned it. :)

netherwerks said...

Nazi-bullywugs with crystalline skulls--why go only half-way?

Akakor and all this stuff is a lot of fun. Gold of the Gods might be one of the most useful books von Dakiken ever wrote...gaming-wise.