Sunday, August 21, 2022

Free Old School Pulp Download 'Under the Sand-Seas' January 1941 issue of Super Science Stories For Your Old School Post Apocalpytic Solar System Campaign

"Six hundred miles of devouring red desert lay between them and the nearest city -- and the bust of a long-dead Martian smiled with the knowledge that could get them there!"



It's been a long while since we've looked at 'Under The Sand Seas' by  Oliver E.Saari from the January 1941 issue of Super Science Stories magazine before. But this time we're going to dive in deeper into the nineteen page novellette. 
"Under The Sand Seas' follows the crew of an air plane on a Sciencitific expediation deep into the 'Sand Seas' when their plane crashes into an enourmous magnetic anomly. The plane doesn't survive and begins to take on sand. All around the crew there are tumble weed like Martians. And the magnetic anomaly is in  point of fact actually an ancient Martian crypt opened by telepathy. 
The Sand Sea is incredibly dangerous capable of swallowing a man whole easily without a trace. The weeds are a race of semi intelligent wind evolved beings who are blown about by the fierce winds of the Sand Sea. The only hope is the battery powered five or six man sled the party has w
The Sand Sea itself is the blasted remains of the Ancient Ones one of the first races of Mars ruled by Tarum of the last of the Scientist Kings. Tanrum the Last perfected infinite atomic energy using the element of gold as it's atomic fuel. And that infinite energy was used a Super Science weapon and the result was the Sea of Sand! The weapon caused the  complete destruction of the Ancient Ones civilization. 
And the expediation worries that it might cause destructive issues upon the Earth. 
What are the OSR game applications of 
Under The Sand Seas' by  Oliver E.Saari? Quite a few actually. The infinite atomic energy weapon systems are very dangerous. And that brings up the defense capabilities of the systems themselves. The fact is that these weapons systems must have been designed to kill some very dangerous monsters or an evil race. And this is where the Hyperborea rpg comes into play. Not only does the Sea of Sand have other artifacts within it but the sea itself must have areas of extreme radiation due to atomic weapons being tested or deployed. Now it be that these infinite atomic energy systems were created by the Ancients to combat the Hyperboreans?! It's possible given the time frame and the fact that the Professor discovered the atomic generation's secrets within 
Tanrum the Last's crypt. The fact that those secrets were spelled out on the writings on the walls of the crypt. 

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