Post by Catsmate on Feb 6, 2016 11:26:20 GMT
Roopkund lake is a picturesque high altitude glacial lake in the Chamoli District of the Uttarakhand state of northern India. It lies in the lap of Trishul massif near the base of two Himalayan peaks: Trisul and Nanda Ghunti. The lake exists at an altitiude of approximately 5,000m and is surrounded by rock-strewn glaciers and snowy mountains. There is no permanent population but the area is popular with adventure trekkers.
The lake's principal claim to fame is the hundreds of human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. They were discovered in 1942 by a forest ranger during the summer ice melt (the lake is covered in ice for most of the year); he found the clear water of the lake, exposed by the warmth, showed hundreds of skeletons. Initially it was feared that the bodies were Japanese troops, part of an attempted invasion of British India across the Himalayas. However examination of some of the bodies indicated they were long dead and artifacts recovered were far too old to be Japanese troops.
For many years after the war the skeletons were a curiousity, believed to date from the nineteenth century. Some were removed from the lake along with wooden artifacts, iron spearheads, leather footwear and a number of rings. However genetic and radioisotope testing carried out in 2004 indicate the skeletons were far older, from around the ninth century CE, and were mostly from the area of modern-day Iran (about 70%, with the remainder being Indian). Further the cause of death in almost every case was blunt force trauma to the head, leaving short and deep cracks in the skulls. The impacts seemed to be from smallish rounded objects that fell from above, with almost all the injuries being to the head and upper torso.
The conclusion reached was the group was probably a party of pilgrims, with local guides and porters, who were caught in a freak hailstorm.
There is a local legend of a minor goddess so enraged by the defilement of her mountain sanctuary by outsiders that she rained death upon them by flinging hailstones "hard as iron"
Game use.
Well by itself it's one of those weird incidents that do happen and get used a space-filler in newspapers or background in RPGs. It'd also work as a red herring, with these seemingly odd deaths having a natural (albeit freakish and unusual1) cause.
But it could become the basis for something more unusual. Maybe there was a 'goddess' in the mountains, or someone impersonating a deity; Cessair and Qataka did it after all, and it's the standard modus operandi of the Goa'uld. Was someone from elsewhere, or elsewhen, lurking in the mountains? Perhaps building a base of operations for a Sinister Plot? Or just trying to repair a damaged vessel and escape?
The use of weather modification as a weapon is interesting, perhaps the application of device intended for a completely different purpose. The shapeshifting Rutan created an artificial fog to isolate Fang Rock, maybe one of them was involved? Or at least their technology, used by a different villain like the Master or Meddling Monk.
Maybe it was the Silurians; an effect of a device a recently awoken hibernation shelter had created to begin the process or returning Earth to a climate suited to them. Is this linked to the climate changes in South/central America that would trigger the collapse of Central American city states and the end of the Classic Maya civilization?
Or was a temporal exile from the World War VI era meddling with dangerous technology as part of a plan to take power in a primitive period far from the fifty-first century?
And why kill the three hundred or so travellers at all? Was there a enemy of the 'goddess' amongst them, or did she want to prevent word of her sanctuary spreading?
Links.
Roopkund on Wikipedia.
The Skeleton Lake
Amusing Planet article
1 Well not that unusual in India, the Deccan Plateau is notorious for large and deadly hailstorms with nine people dying in one in 2013.
The lake's principal claim to fame is the hundreds of human skeletons found at the edge of the lake. They were discovered in 1942 by a forest ranger during the summer ice melt (the lake is covered in ice for most of the year); he found the clear water of the lake, exposed by the warmth, showed hundreds of skeletons. Initially it was feared that the bodies were Japanese troops, part of an attempted invasion of British India across the Himalayas. However examination of some of the bodies indicated they were long dead and artifacts recovered were far too old to be Japanese troops.
For many years after the war the skeletons were a curiousity, believed to date from the nineteenth century. Some were removed from the lake along with wooden artifacts, iron spearheads, leather footwear and a number of rings. However genetic and radioisotope testing carried out in 2004 indicate the skeletons were far older, from around the ninth century CE, and were mostly from the area of modern-day Iran (about 70%, with the remainder being Indian). Further the cause of death in almost every case was blunt force trauma to the head, leaving short and deep cracks in the skulls. The impacts seemed to be from smallish rounded objects that fell from above, with almost all the injuries being to the head and upper torso.
The conclusion reached was the group was probably a party of pilgrims, with local guides and porters, who were caught in a freak hailstorm.
There is a local legend of a minor goddess so enraged by the defilement of her mountain sanctuary by outsiders that she rained death upon them by flinging hailstones "hard as iron"
Game use.
Well by itself it's one of those weird incidents that do happen and get used a space-filler in newspapers or background in RPGs. It'd also work as a red herring, with these seemingly odd deaths having a natural (albeit freakish and unusual1) cause.
But it could become the basis for something more unusual. Maybe there was a 'goddess' in the mountains, or someone impersonating a deity; Cessair and Qataka did it after all, and it's the standard modus operandi of the Goa'uld. Was someone from elsewhere, or elsewhen, lurking in the mountains? Perhaps building a base of operations for a Sinister Plot? Or just trying to repair a damaged vessel and escape?
The use of weather modification as a weapon is interesting, perhaps the application of device intended for a completely different purpose. The shapeshifting Rutan created an artificial fog to isolate Fang Rock, maybe one of them was involved? Or at least their technology, used by a different villain like the Master or Meddling Monk.
Maybe it was the Silurians; an effect of a device a recently awoken hibernation shelter had created to begin the process or returning Earth to a climate suited to them. Is this linked to the climate changes in South/central America that would trigger the collapse of Central American city states and the end of the Classic Maya civilization?
Or was a temporal exile from the World War VI era meddling with dangerous technology as part of a plan to take power in a primitive period far from the fifty-first century?
And why kill the three hundred or so travellers at all? Was there a enemy of the 'goddess' amongst them, or did she want to prevent word of her sanctuary spreading?
- One possibility is to invoke the 'predestination effect' that crops up in time travel fiction. The PCs are intrigued by the story and travel back to investigate further. There they travel with the doomed party, discover the alien and trigger the hailstorm attack. Some players may object to being railroaded in this way, but others may appreciate the idea.
Links.
Roopkund on Wikipedia.
The Skeleton Lake
Amusing Planet article
1 Well not that unusual in India, the Deccan Plateau is notorious for large and deadly hailstorms with nine people dying in one in 2013.