Post by Catsmate on Feb 3, 2016 11:46:42 GMT
The Door to Hell.
A sort-of sequel to my earlier seed, The real Project Inferno.
The mouth of hell really exists, and it's not in sunny Callifornia1 but in dusty, barren, Turkmenistan.
It’s a story straight out of Pertwee-era Who; a scientific expedition looking for new energy resources in some desolate spot, things Go Horribly Wrong and a disaster ensues. Only there was no wandering Time Lord to help out.
In 1971, a group of Soviet scientists began experimental drilling for oil in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, near the town of Derweze. Geological reports suggested a huge reservoir of fossil fuels existed close to the surface. And those reports were pretty correct. Unfortunately the fuel was natural gas rather than liquid oil.
The drilling tapped into a natural gas field, specifically a huge gas filled cavern. The ground under the drilling rig collapsed, forming a crater 80m wide and 30m deep. The drilling team evacuated without serious casualties, abandoning their camp and igniting the released vapours to prevent suffocation by the mix of gases (including methane, ethane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide) being released . They expected the gases to burn off in a few days.
That was 45 years ago, and the fires are still burning.
Today it’s called the Darvaza Crater and is a tourist attraction, especially for those interested in Soviet era human-made disasters.
Game use.
1. Background.
The PCs could be visiting Turkmenistan (see Reasons to visit Turkmenistan below) and hear of/visit the crater. Perhaps they’re looking for someone visiting/studying the site who has information or skills they need for a completely different project and the visit is incidental.
Of course this 'incidental' visit could embroil them in other adventures, perhaps someone ostensibly studying the crater wonders at their interest and decides to take action against them before they try and frustrate the Sinister Plot whose existence they're completely unaware of.
2. The UNIT era.
The entire story of the gas fire could be a smokescreen to hide the true (and of course far weirder) cause of the crater. Did the Soviets unearth something in the desert? And were they forced to use a nuclear bomb to eliminate the horrors unleashed? Did they tell UNIT? Or was UNIT behind the destruction>
Or did a damaged alien craft land in the desert (and what damaged it? Debris? Other aliens? PVO Strany?). Was it destroyed by Soviet forces? Or accidentally (or deliberately) by it's crew?
The party could arrive while the drilling was underway (the traditionally malfunctioning TARDIS perhaps) and get involved (strangers would stand out in the time and place). Will they try and stop the disaster? Do they even know about it? What happens? And what really caused the collapse and fire?
3. Modern day.
What is really going on at the crater? Are the tourists actually there to gawp at the fire? Or are they (mostly) members of organisations trying to solve the problem, or being shown an warning of what can go wrong when humans meddle with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
Reasons to visit Turkmenistan today.
While the Darvaza Crater is almost unique in being along term, above ground, fire there are examples of similar phenonema. Probably the best known is the Centralia coal mine fire (wiki) which has burned continually since late May of 1962. There a deliberate (and illegal) fire started to burn town waste spread to the coal seams under the town. It spread, exacerbated by the local government's refusal to deal comprehensively with the problem, with jets of steam erupting from the earth, and fissures appearing around the town as the underlying coal was burned. Levels of carbon monoxide and dioxide were a hazard to human health. In 1984 the attempt to evacuate the town began, proceeding slowly. Today seven people remain.
Of course in the Whoniverse the official account of events could be a cover-up for something far stranger. Silurians seem an obvious culprit (too obvious for many players); perhaps the continual human mining disturbed a hibernation chamber and the fires were an accident, or resulted from an attempt to destroy them.
Or there could have been something different under the town, something that's still there and prefers the elevated level of gases found there. Does the government know about this? (and therefore assisted in the plan in exchange for something) or have the aliens been manipulating events for their Sinister Ends.
It the manner of Zone Rogue a town abandoned ostensibly because of an ongoing mine fire would be an interesting place for a secret project to be carried out. And there are lots of disused mines around too, ripe for conversion into a Secret Undergound Complex. Centralia was an inspiration for Silent Hill after all.
Links.
International Science Times article
National Geographic
1 Or, contrary to the beliefs of many, Cleveland.
2 Presumably part of the Foreign Technology Division that so intrigues UFO enthusiasts.
3 Probably Novaya Zemlya
4 The Zemzen isn't actually a crocodile, it's a species of monitor lizard. They are carnivores however, may be venomous and can be quite aggressive.
A sort-of sequel to my earlier seed, The real Project Inferno.
The mouth of hell really exists, and it's not in sunny Callifornia1 but in dusty, barren, Turkmenistan.
It’s a story straight out of Pertwee-era Who; a scientific expedition looking for new energy resources in some desolate spot, things Go Horribly Wrong and a disaster ensues. Only there was no wandering Time Lord to help out.
In 1971, a group of Soviet scientists began experimental drilling for oil in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, near the town of Derweze. Geological reports suggested a huge reservoir of fossil fuels existed close to the surface. And those reports were pretty correct. Unfortunately the fuel was natural gas rather than liquid oil.
The drilling tapped into a natural gas field, specifically a huge gas filled cavern. The ground under the drilling rig collapsed, forming a crater 80m wide and 30m deep. The drilling team evacuated without serious casualties, abandoning their camp and igniting the released vapours to prevent suffocation by the mix of gases (including methane, ethane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide) being released . They expected the gases to burn off in a few days.
That was 45 years ago, and the fires are still burning.
Today it’s called the Darvaza Crater and is a tourist attraction, especially for those interested in Soviet era human-made disasters.
Game use.
1. Background.
The PCs could be visiting Turkmenistan (see Reasons to visit Turkmenistan below) and hear of/visit the crater. Perhaps they’re looking for someone visiting/studying the site who has information or skills they need for a completely different project and the visit is incidental.
Of course this 'incidental' visit could embroil them in other adventures, perhaps someone ostensibly studying the crater wonders at their interest and decides to take action against them before they try and frustrate the Sinister Plot whose existence they're completely unaware of.
2. The UNIT era.
The entire story of the gas fire could be a smokescreen to hide the true (and of course far weirder) cause of the crater. Did the Soviets unearth something in the desert? And were they forced to use a nuclear bomb to eliminate the horrors unleashed? Did they tell UNIT? Or was UNIT behind the destruction>
- The crater is about the right size for a kilotonne yield bomb such as the RA-115 backpack nuclear charge.
Or did a damaged alien craft land in the desert (and what damaged it? Debris? Other aliens? PVO Strany?). Was it destroyed by Soviet forces? Or accidentally (or deliberately) by it's crew?
- Maybe it wasn't destroyed at all. The Devil Goblins from Neptune has the US still operating a secret unit2 reverse engineering alien technology in the UNIT era (when such efforts were supposed to be under UN jurisdiction). Did the Soviets have a similar programme and ostensibly destroy the craft while secretly moving it elsewhere3?
- The Matryoshka doll model of layered mysteries; a simulated disaster to cover the destruction of an alien ship, that wasn't destroyed. Now add a few more layers...
The party could arrive while the drilling was underway (the traditionally malfunctioning TARDIS perhaps) and get involved (strangers would stand out in the time and place). Will they try and stop the disaster? Do they even know about it? What happens? And what really caused the collapse and fire?
- For an Earthbound option the Soviets could have stumbled over a Silurian hibernation chamber. Did they make peaceful contact in the name of Socialism? Or did things go as badly as at Wenley Moor. The still-burning fire suggests the latter. Unless it's cover for an ongoing arrangement of course.
3. Modern day.
What is really going on at the crater? Are the tourists actually there to gawp at the fire? Or are they (mostly) members of organisations trying to solve the problem, or being shown an warning of what can go wrong when humans meddle with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.
- Is the "gas" really leaking from under the Earth? Or through a portal to somewhere else? Alien planet, other dimension et cetera.
Reasons to visit Turkmenistan today.
- Visiting the Kov Ata cave system, to take the mineral waters, study the bats or communicate with the Silurians.
- Researching the Garabogazköl salt lagoon, perhaps examine the impact of the mining industry on the ecology. Or following in the footsteps of Konstantin Paustovsky.
- Following up on reports of strange occurrences in lakes and bodies of water during the Soviet era. Hey someone has to keep UNIT's records up-to-date...
- Visiting the mausoleum of Saparmurat Niyazov
- Collecting crazy dictators.
- Looking into the conical ‘meteor’ that crashed just after 6PM (local time) on 20JUN1998 in the Daikhan Daryalik collective farm, Kune-Urgench district, Dashkhovuz province.
- Attending the Turkmen Racing Horse Festival (last Sunday of April, it's a public holiday) to see the equine beauty pageant and purchase Ahal Tekke horse.
- Investigating the "tall robot like creature" seen walking in in the outskirts of Chardzhou (Türkmenabat), on 24MAR1990. It was described as over two meters tall, massively built, with "a bright circle of light on its chest from which bright beams of light emanated" and walking in "a strange mechanical way". What was a survivor from the Cyberman invasion of '86 doing wandering around Turkmenistan? Are there more? Will the party be searching the Repetek Nature Reserve for the remains of a Cybership? And have they heard of the desert crocodiles4?
This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers.
David DeKok
David DeKok
Of course in the Whoniverse the official account of events could be a cover-up for something far stranger. Silurians seem an obvious culprit (too obvious for many players); perhaps the continual human mining disturbed a hibernation chamber and the fires were an accident, or resulted from an attempt to destroy them.
Or there could have been something different under the town, something that's still there and prefers the elevated level of gases found there. Does the government know about this? (and therefore assisted in the plan in exchange for something) or have the aliens been manipulating events for their Sinister Ends.
- For a change perhaps their plans aren't so sinister. They just want a place to live peacefully and Centralia suits them, while being dangerous to humans
It the manner of Zone Rogue a town abandoned ostensibly because of an ongoing mine fire would be an interesting place for a secret project to be carried out. And there are lots of disused mines around too, ripe for conversion into a Secret Undergound Complex. Centralia was an inspiration for Silent Hill after all.
Links.
International Science Times article
National Geographic
1 Or, contrary to the beliefs of many, Cleveland.
2 Presumably part of the Foreign Technology Division that so intrigues UFO enthusiasts.
3 Probably Novaya Zemlya
4 The Zemzen isn't actually a crocodile, it's a species of monitor lizard. They are carnivores however, may be venomous and can be quite aggressive.