Hunt for Atlantis

[PaxGirdsman]

Treatment
The children of gods (the players) help their godly parents find Atlantis in a bid to stave off the apocalypse. Epic allies, horrific foes and terrifying betrayals await as they Hunt for Atlantis!

Tone
Fantasy and light horror, with a sense of urgency as the characters get their assignments. Think Indiana Jones in terms of tone, pace and flavor.

History/Culture
The characters are the children of the Olympians, the Aesir and Vanir, the Ennead and other pantheons of deities. They are infused with godly power they must keep hidden from mortals until the time is right and they too ascend to godhood.

The setting and culture of the world is Earth, but in a strange near future, with weird science, hidden magic and more. This is system-agnostic, and gamemasters/dungeon masters/narrators/referees are encouraged to throw in any tropes, systems or mechanics with what narrative explanations they desire.

The gods are able to do what they do based on their embodiment in the world through Ichor. The gods' children, being only part deity, have access to limited Ichor, which grows as people learn of and witness their adventures.

The players are not the only children of the gods, though such children are rare. Others are not necessarily embroiled in the gods' drama.

Timeline
The characters spend time doing other things between episodes, and should be rewarded with system character development (XP, treasure, Advancements, etc.) for that. When they come back together, a few months to a year should have passed. All development rewards should be equal.

Locations

• Hawaii - Beautiful, tropical, paradisaical and hiding dangers and insanity. Dr. King is in a private lab, on a small, privately owned island.
• Subsaharan Africa - The sun-baked sands of northern-central Africa. The characters must meet with a caravan of Touareg, one of whom is a person who can take the form of a werewolf.
• Helheim - A realm of fire and pain. A vast plain of dust and heat in which the souls claimed by Hela are broken and trained for the end times.
• Atlantis - A beautiful city, arranged in concentric circles, made of stones carved of sandstone infused with strange materials and bound by the red gold orichalcum and surrounded by 30 meter walls. It looks like nothing the characters have ever seen, and is crowned with a sandston, lazuli and orichalcum spire in the center.

Characters

• The Players - Children of Myth and Legend
• Dr. King - Dr. Adama King is an unethical scientist and occultist, creator of the artificial race of Menehune, and of the Face-Scaled lizard. She's seeking a way to artificially manifest the divine substance Ichor
• Leaders of the Pantheons - None of them want their particular end of ages, and so all are trying to prevent it by any means possible.

Non-Human Creatures

• The Menehune - Despite their size (approximately .75 to 1 m tall), these beings are single-celled. They are engineered to reproduce daily to a maximum population size through the use of a mīkini makuahine (mother engine).
• The Face-Scaled Lizard - Another creature of Dr. King's creation, it has scales the size and shape of faces along its torso, backed by air sacks. It can inflate these air sacks to let out a cacophonous scream that stuns everyone and everything around it for 3 meters.

Episodes/Sub-Plots

• Episode 1 - Of the Line of Zeus: Zeus's grandchild, Jason, who has been prophesied to slay Zeus, has been born of an Amazonian child of his named Clio, and he wishes to kill it. The characters are hired by Clio and members of other Pantheons who cannot have children to defend the child and negotiate a solution for them. they will be approached by the other gods and offered riches to give them the child. The characters must negotiate a solution, and it will probably not satisfy all.
• Episode 2 - The Island of Dr. King: Magicians and scientists recruit the characters to investigate. They encounter the Menehune and the Face-Scaled Lizard. When they get to Dr. King's lab, they can capture Dr. King without incident, and notice notes, diagrams and maps regarding Atlantis. They can copy these if they want, and find five sets of possible coordinates.
• Episode 3 - The Mercenary: The characters are contacted by the Amatsukami to provide assistance to one of theirs, a half-blood by the name of Hitomi Endo (EN) / Endo Hitomi (JP). A willful demon entered him during a confrontation, and he needs the characters' help to end his mortal life and take the demon with him to the Amatsukami's realm for judgement and incarceration.
• Episode 4 - The Hunt Begins: The Pantheons had retained the information from Dr. King's lab through mortal servants. They gained the assistance of a Touareg caravan, who had come upon an intact antikhythera mechanism with unusual constellations. The characters will meet with Ikhenoukhen ag Ihemma, and help the Touareg with a local tribe of mad werewolves who have been harassing them in order to get the mechanism.
• Episode 5 - Highway to Hell: Ihkenoukhen fell in the battle, and the caravan leaders are refusing to give the mechanism to the characters until they rescue his soul, which was taken by the other tribe's patron: Hela.
  The characters must travel to Helheim. Hitomi will join them, having sacrificed her own Ichor to trap the demon during transit to the Amatsukami; she is dejected and outgrouped by the Amatsukami, both for being not of full blood and for having given up her Ichor.
  The characters will will find Ikhenoukhen on a St. Andrew's Cross, in between sessions of extreme torture. They encounter Hela's servants: bitter souls whom Hela claimed before their time through illness or misadventure. When the characters finally free Ikhenoukhen, Hela should arrive dramatically, chasing them away.
• Episode - Hitomi's Final Sacrifice: With the antikhythera mechanism, the characters can finally filter the available coordinates and locate Atlantis under the waves. When they find it, they discover it has been protected from flooding by a shield of high pressure air, and undead are roaming the streets.
  They will also discover why the gods are interested in Atlantis: The Astral Elevator, which grants access to the gods' Upper Realm, the mortal Middle Realm, and the lower Elemental Realm, as well as the God Machine, a machine in which a person must be placed as the Soul of Atlantis, and which distributes the powerful destinies that give a being Ichor with which to become a god.
  Clio arrived with the assistance of a mage, wounded and dying with Jason, pressing the crying toddler into a character's arms. The forces of the Pantheons are gathering outside of the Great Gate of Atlantis at the end of the Episode, and Hitomi gets into the God Machine, to become the Soul of Atlantis.
• The Final Showdown - The characters, now possessing the power of Atlantis, meet the forces of the combined pantheons in a siege on the fields before the Great Gate of Atlantis. Zeus and Odhin are leading the charge, and present themselves before the gates.
  Zeus attempts to lay Jason low, with a thunderous attack, but only wounds him. Jason, now missing an arm, rises with glowing eyes and attacks Zeus. They disappear into the distance in a chaotic ball of bright blue, radiant purple and shining golden lightning.
  The battle continues from there, with various Pantheon leaders and members, of the GM's choosing and justification. If the characters do anything epic, and in particular if the players make incredible choices, they should dramatically apotheosize into their godly forms.