So I was thinking of having my team head to Mount Ararat (sp?) Anything I should know about local customs, legends, threats, etc, that aren't readily available or widely known?

NOAH WILL BE YOUR GRAVE.

~J

Read; Dragons of the Sixth World.
Aden lairs on or near Mt Ararat(I don't know how to spell it either)
Also, he and Golden Snout are in a power struggle over the reigon and both control various groups. By default the section also touches of several local customs.
Sorry to tell you to go buy the book but hey, You asked for info, that's where it is

"Religious Fanatics" who will be angered by you "Stepping on sacred ground" would be a hazard. Mt Ararat is in the middle of a strict religious community. What they lack in weapons, they make up for in numbers (and the karma & rep hits when you toast them).

IRL: There's nothing left of the Ark. Just a few bits and pieces of wood and an impression the shape of a gigantic boat. Unless you want to do that 'Ark is an alien starship' thang....

Find out from the locals what areas of the Mountain Aden has claimed as his own lest you risk becoming a tasty treat.

thanks for the tips guys, I appreciate any and all info, again as far as what you would suspect, surmise, infer, or know that's not readily available elsewhere, thanks!

Kag's line. From the anime "Spriggan" where said Ark was an alien biosphere control facility.

Watch out for Fatman and Littleboy while you're there, and if you see a little kid walking towards you, run.

~J

Greatchicken where did you hear there was nothing left? The last documentary I seen and the last I read, the mountain has been off limits to everyone, and no one has yet actually offically been up to it. Though some "witnesses" have been up there, they claim it is broken into 2 pieces but largely intact.

In our time, the rules in Turkey and surrounding countries are very strict about what you can take out of the country. They make it a point to not even allow rocks- yes, rocks- out without property authority. By pottery? You better get a card that details exactly who made it and when so authorities know it's a reproduciton, not an actual piece.

And they allow no one on the mount anymore. It's frustrating to some scientists. I can't imagine the backlash of having a Dragon move onto the mountain. I bet there's all sorts of people who'd like to see Aden dead for that insult.

And what the heck is Aden DOING with whatever is up there?

Nope, it's a Spriggan reference through and through.

~J

For us Earthdawn RPG freaks I'd say that the "Ark" is the very well preserved "Earthdawn" airship. I can see some confused scientists when they find well preserved mummies of Windlings, trolls, orcs and perhaps a T'skrang all having bits and pieces of what seems to be medieval clothing and weapons (and the occasionally VERY powerful foci.)

There's no actual proof that the Ark even exists on the mountain. All existing evidence is shaky at best.

Could be a run in it's self. Get prove that the Ark does/ did exsist. as a guide use survival of the fittest (first part) in as to hard hard it could be...

That Noah's Ark is on a mountain (with pictures) has been thoroughly refuted. The pictures were of natural rock formations with the snow melted just right (like the face on Mars with lighting conditions), and the guy who supposedly went there to get it had his chunk of the ark tested and it was actually California Redwood treated with chemicals to dye it and make it appear older.

Now if you want to say THAT whole thing was a conspiracy in your game while secret powers tried to secure it for magical foci just before the Awakening, or some other story about it in case one of your players reads Skeptical Inquirer or other skeptics websites/newsletters/magazines. Supposedly the ark structure is still mostly intact in that the guy who "went there" claimed to go inside of it.

If you want, the Ark of the Covanent is still floating around. It's supposedly kept by an order of monks somewhere in Africa that will not let ANYONE inside the room where it's kept because it will kill anyone whose soul is not pure enough who looks upon it. They're pretty well armed and I've known at least once they let a documentary crew into their complex (if you can call it that) to film the door to the room that holds the Ark, but not into the room itself.

The Abstruse One

You could make the ark actually appear as an astral construct.

That's a smashing idea!
Say your on the run to find the Ark. And you do, intact, as an astral construct.
With Someone's astral signature left behind. What do you do?

There was a man on coast to coast... two, three years ago, who had an interesting conspiracy theory that placed the Ark in Arkansas. The little bits and pieces I remember sounded quite interesting. He pointed to area along the Mississippi River he called "little Egypt". I'm not sure if this is a more well known term. However, there are several communites that have Egyptian Names, Like Memphis, TN and Cairo, Illinois. He brought up some alleged ancient writings that proved Hebrews and Egypitians had made trips to the middle of the US thousands of years ago carrying something imporant. They buried it under a specific mountain, and the geographic area bears a striking resemblence to the wording in scripture. Oh, and supposedly the word "Arkansas" is an American Indian word, I can't remember which tribe, that means "bearers" or "keepers" of the ark. I wish I could remember in better detail, but I'm at a loss on the particulars. I was in seminary in the time and was quite bemused by the show. Oh and he was supposed to have found giant statues buried underground and was trying to get the funding to excavate a "huge" cavern under a certain mountain. But since it's been so long and I haven't heard anything else, that may have fallen through.

Good 'ole Art. I wonder where he keeps these lovely people.

Maybe they brought two of everything into Parianth before making it vanish.

What if the Ark was a Kaer? Mt Ararat could be one...mayhap that's why Aden lairs near there. 2 of every parlaitithan critter brought in to preserve them from the horrors, perhaps even some powerful purification magic...Oh yeah, there'd be some toxic and corps out to get some of that!!!

Damn my next campaign is writin' itself in my head now...

From a purely mountaeering idea, Araat is trecherous, lots of frozen areas that aren't that solid. In the 1920's a french team of experienced climbers tried to make it to the peak and could only go half way. Regular urban runners should have a chance. each person has to be able to carry their own weight. more likely a run might be against someone trying the mountain, raiding his supply base camps to cut the supply lines.

Google it, I'm lazy...or check out snopes.com, I think it might have something on it...

And I was talking about the "historical" Ark of the Covanent, legends and stories of which (as well as the fact that Hitler spent a lot of money trying to find it) were the basis for the Raiders of the Lost Ark film. In RotLA, the Ark ended up in an unmarked crate buried in some random military warehouse. What I'm talking about is the real world though. There are a group of monks in Africa somewhere who claim to be the keepers of the Ark of the Covanent. The History Channel aired a documentary about it a year or so ago. Again, google for it, I'm lazy

The Abstruse One

it'd be cool to do a run where the runner's don't find anything, except for maybe a cryptic clue to the ark's real location (somehow tying in why there'd be a clue in the first place) or evidence that something was there, and more info would be found in the culture/lore of the nearby villages.

You know, given the location of Ararat, the region (where the Bible says it landed, not a specific mountain) I would imagine that it has been photographed over and over by Soviet and US satelites being on the border of a NATO nation and the Soviet Union itself, not any more but you know what I mean.

That's how all the ARK on the mount stuff started...US pictures that were buried in a classified doc folder called the Arart Anomily that some pilot who was surveying the border took... check para-normal.com and a few other GIS sites if you want the full story

I remember when the Histroy Channel did a little peice on it. The end results were, of course, inconclusive. But I still consider it one of the less far fetched parinormal legends out there.

Expecially compared to the re-occuring rumor that Aliens built the pyramids.

definetely sounds like a doable run. I'm leading them up to it though. This would probably be the culmination of the campaign.