There is a black pyramid buried deep underground in the Alaskan wilderness, somewhere between Nome and Mt. McKinley. Exactly twice the size of the Great Pyramid at Giza — itself the tallest known human-made structure for nearly 3800 years — the dark pyramid is guarded by the U.S. military, or by a mysterious private militia that strictly controls access to the site. It is alien technology, or a remnant of a lost human civilization and generates its own energy, which may or may not be electricity. Regardless, it is estimated to be enough to power the entire state of Alaska…or the entire nation of Canada. Indescribably ancient (or a lost invention of Nikola Tesla) it was discovered in the closing months of WWII…or in 1949, or in 1992. And honestly, if you can’t find a game hiding somewhere around its perfectly square base, we just don’t have much to talk about.

…For Certain Values of ‘Ancient’

Despite it’s supposedly ancient provenance, evidence of the black pyramid’s existence didn’t appear until 26 July 2012, when reporter and cattle mutilation expert Linda Moulton Howe announced its discovery on late night conspiracy radio talk show Coast to Coast AM. That evening, Moulton Howe broadcast a pre-recorded interview with Doug Mutschler, “a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Warrant Officer,” who provided many of the initial “facts” (those are sarcastic quotes) about the pyramid, and first alleged the site’s current connection with the U.S. military.

Ghost Theory provides a good summary of Mutschler’s claims:

On May 22, 1992 China carried out an underground nuclear test in LonPor, detonating a one megaton device…under the desert of northwest China and was at first thought to be a major earthquake when detected by some seismologists.

According to Mutschler, geologists had used the detonation to undertake a seismographic study of the earth’s crust, only to find “a pyramid structure larger than Cheops” underground, somewhere west of Mt. McKinley. Mutschler recalls that the local NBC affiliate ran a story announcing the structure’s discovery about 6 months after the detonation, but when Mutschler attempted to follow up with the station to get a copy of the story (evidently not as part of his duties at Fort Richardson) they denied that the story had ever run, and asserted that they certainly didn’t have a copy to provide. Mutschler then called relatives to track down copies of the story that had run on other stations, but apparently none had: the discovery only appeared on Anchorage’s Channel 13 (in case you need to add some numerological significance to the whole thing).

Intrusion of an Alternate Channel 13?

Even leaving aside the entire ancient mega-pyramid angle, Mutschler’s story is practically dripping with RPG inspiration. The easy route is to conclude disingenuous TV station personnel were working (after the fact, of course) to protect the conspiracy attempting to hide the pyramid, but you could have as much or more fun in your game making everyone an honest player: what if the station never did broadcast the story? What if Mutschler and his friends inadvertently intercepted a story from an alternate reality…?

But it gets better, anyway.

It’s Hard to Cover Up Something This Big

The indefatigable Mutschler was transferred from Alaska to Fort Meade (the ultra-secret home of the National Security Agency), where he availed himself of classified archives seemingly confirming the pyramid story.

I thought maybe they’d have something about this pyramid. So I went to what I guess would be like a librarian. And I asked him if he had anything on archaeological sites – I didn’t say pyramid. But I said archaeological sites or underground facilities in Alaska.

He said, ‘Well, if we do, it might be in container X, Y or Z.’ So I went over there and I was just looking around and I didn’t really find anything saying pyramid, but I grabbed a couple of Alaska – like from two different safes. And I had just set down and these two guys came – you know, you can feel when someone is standing behind you. And these two goons go, ‘Hey, you don’t have a need to know for that information.’

…And the other guy somehow in that conversation, he goes, ‘They don’t want us messing with them up there any more. They don’t want you messing with them up there. They don’t want us or anybody messing with them.’

The morning after Moulton Howe’s interview with Mutschler, however, things get really weird. Inspired by Mutschler’s dogged (but ultimately only partially successful) search, the adopted son of a retired Western Electric engineer reached out to Moulton Howe to confirm the basics of Mutschler’s claims, and to add several new wrinkles. Moulton Howe’s new source claimed that his father had worked on a a powerful electrical system emanating from a very large underground pyramid of unknown origin in Alaska between 1959 and 1961.

‘Dark Pyramid’ Is Not a Good Codename

Digital Seance details the second (indirect) witness’s revelations:

After the war he earned a degree in electrical engineering and physics. After finishing college, my father was ‘re-recruited’ by the military to join a group of other experts to study and work at an underground structure in Alaska that in his words they called the ‘Dark Pyramid.’ He spoke numerous times of how seriously the government took this project and the steps they took to keep it a secret. (I always assumed it was a military installation.) He said it was a study of energy distribution. He went on to be the key leader of the ‘information Bubble’ for AT&T which of course was the pre-curser to the web and cell phone technology we all know today. In his later years, he would always complain when receiving his electric bill that it would be FREE if we knew the truth. Now I’m starting to think he knew a whole lot more than we ever gave him credit for. I am in the process of going through his old papers and studies to see if there is any reference to his time in Alaska. There may be no information since as he said it was ‘Confidential.’ If this Pyramid allegedly found in 1992 is true, our Gov. may have known about it far earlier than that and had taken extensive measures to keep it hidden.

So what happens when your PCs find it…or if your PCs are the ones trying to keep it from being found?

Image Credit: Greg Semkow