Difference between revisions of "Tomb Raider Underworld Story"

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Returning to Croft Manor, Lara enters its crypt and examines the sarcophagus of her grandfather, Reginald Joseph Croft. Locating an electric switch, she discovers a hidden passageway. In the caverns below she discovers her father's secret study, where Thor's second gauntlet and a recorded message await her. In the message, Richard explains to her that the Norse believed that Avalon contained a powerful weapon. To prevent this from falling into Natla's hands, he destroyed the map detailing the location of Thor's remaining treasures - his belt, Megingjord, and his hammer, Mjolnir. It transpires that all four artefacts are required to enter Avalon.
 
Returning to Croft Manor, Lara enters its crypt and examines the sarcophagus of her grandfather, Reginald Joseph Croft. Locating an electric switch, she discovers a hidden passageway. In the caverns below she discovers her father's secret study, where Thor's second gauntlet and a recorded message await her. In the message, Richard explains to her that the Norse believed that Avalon contained a powerful weapon. To prevent this from falling into Natla's hands, he destroyed the map detailing the location of Thor's remaining treasures - his belt, Megingjord, and his hammer, Mjolnir. It transpires that all four artefacts are required to enter Avalon.
  
As Lara returns from the secret study, Croft Manor is rocked my an enormous explosion. Picking her way through the flames to reach the main hall, Lara finds Winston and a wounded Zip, but barely has time to dodge as Zip opens fire. Zip is convinced that Lara herself had shot him and caused the fire before taking the [[Wraith Stone]] as used by Amanda in [[Tomb Raider Legend]]. Convincing Zip that it wasn't her and sending them out of the manor to safety, Lara climbs into the Tech Room to study security footage, but encounters a [[Atlantean Lara Copy|Lara's Doppelgänger]], explaining Zip's earlier confusion. The sinister copy mirror's her every move - until, that is, it throws out an arm to shoot the nearby [[Alister Fletcher|Alister]] in the chest, mortally wounding him. In the short fight that ensues, a furious Lara is comprehensively outclassed by her double, who disarms and disables her before making an abrupt departure. Lara carries Alister's corpse outside, where Zip and Winston are waiting. She resolves to continue her search without delay: "I need Thor's belt to get his hammer...and I need the hammer to kill a god."
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As Lara returns from the secret study, Croft Manor is rocked my an enormous explosion. Picking her way through the flames to reach the main hall, Lara finds Winston and a wounded Zip, but barely has time to dodge as Zip opens fire. Zip is convinced that Lara herself had shot him and caused the fire before taking the [[Wraith Stone]] as used by Amanda in [[Tomb Raider Legend]]. Convincing Zip that it wasn't her and sending them out of the manor to safety, Lara climbs into the Tech Room to study security footage, but encounters a [[Lara's Doppelgänger|Atlantean Lara Copy]], explaining Zip's earlier confusion. The sinister copy mirror's her every move - until, that is, it throws out an arm to shoot the nearby [[Alister Fletcher|Alister]] in the chest, mortally wounding him. In the short fight that ensues, a furious Lara is comprehensively outclassed by her double, who disarms and disables her before making an abrupt departure. Lara carries Alister's corpse outside, where Zip and Winston are waiting. She resolves to continue her search without delay: "I need Thor's belt to get his hammer...and I need the hammer to kill a god."
  
 
Directed to Southern Mexico by a photograph (taken by her father) of the desecrated wall map in Thailand, Lara explores Mayan ruins to find the entrance to Xibalba and, at the heart of the complex, another Proto-Norse temple. She encounters are carving that depicts a scene from Ragnarok (the Norse legend that tells of the "final battle of the gods" and ends with the flooding of the world), which relates Thor's pivotal battle with the Midgard Serpent. "Thor kills Jormungandr with his hammer, Mjolnir," reads Lara, "but then he retreats only nine steps before he succumbs to the serpent's venom." After draining Jormungandr's pool, she retrieves Megingjord - Thor's belt - and discovers that it powers his gauntlets.
 
Directed to Southern Mexico by a photograph (taken by her father) of the desecrated wall map in Thailand, Lara explores Mayan ruins to find the entrance to Xibalba and, at the heart of the complex, another Proto-Norse temple. She encounters are carving that depicts a scene from Ragnarok (the Norse legend that tells of the "final battle of the gods" and ends with the flooding of the world), which relates Thor's pivotal battle with the Midgard Serpent. "Thor kills Jormungandr with his hammer, Mjolnir," reads Lara, "but then he retreats only nine steps before he succumbs to the serpent's venom." After draining Jormungandr's pool, she retrieves Megingjord - Thor's belt - and discovers that it powers his gauntlets.

Revision as of 18:22, 3 September 2009

The Story of Tomb Raider Underworld will focus on Lara's search for her mother and Thor's Hammer.

Full Story

Tomb Raider Underworld begins with Lara Croft exiting the catacombs beneath her manor. Heading through the hallway, the mansion shakes violently, and two explosions go off; one ahead of her, one behind her. "My God!", she exclaims. Finding her way through the study and the foyer, she reaches the main door to find Zip and Winston trying to escape. Zip turns and fires at Lara who dodges the bullet. Winston tries to stop him, but Zip won't hear of it. Lara rolls to cover and listens as Zip fires several more shots. That was one week into the future.

Presently, Lara's search for Avalon, and the truth of her mother's fate, begins in the Mediterranean Sea after she receives advice from Professor Eddington, a former associate of her father. Entering an elaborate undersea ruin, she finds engravings that apparently reveal it to be Niflheim, a location from Norse mythology. "Not Avalon exactly," Lara muses, "but the Norse equivalent."

At the heart of the ruin of Niflheim, Lara encounters an imposing statue of Thor, son of Odin, and a pedestal bearing a single ancient glove. She speculates that this may be one half of Jarngreipr, the iron gauntlets that enabled Thor to wield his hammer, Mjolnir. The glove itself crumbles at her touch, but a strange device remains; when placed on the back of Lara's hand, it glows with a radiant blue light. Before she can investigate further, Lara is ambushed by a group of mercenaries and knocked out cold. She regains consciousness to find the artefact taken, and to hear the mercenary leader convey the message that "Amanda Evert sends her regards" before he destroys the exit to the chamber with a well-placed explosive.

Locating an alternate escape route from the ruin, thereby foiling Amanda's apparent attempt at exacting a highly personal form of revenge, Lara returns to her yacht to discover a ship nearby. After climbing on board, she fights her way through a heavily-armed crew until attacked by the mercenary leader encountered in the ruins below. Their brief battle causes an explosion, killing Lara's opponent instantly and - we soon learn - scuttling the vessel.

As Lara presses forward, she overhears a conversation between Amanda and another woman imprisoned inside a glass tube. Amanda is frustrated that the gauntlet device retrieved by Lara does not seem to function. In a significant, though subtle, moment, her caged companion informs her that the object had "bound" itself irrevocably to Lara. Learning that the ship has taken on water, Amanda departs, leaving Lara face-to-face with Jacqueline Natla: the Atlantean queen encountered in Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider Anniversary.

Natla greets Lara casually, entirely unsurprised by her arrival. Confirming that the portal that caused the disappearance of Amelia Croft was part of an ancient transport network, she reveals that Lara's father Richard had found the "wrong Norse underworld". Lara's mother had apparently travelled not to Niflheim below, but to Helheim. To gain access to Helheim, Natla informs Lara that she'll need to find Thor's hammer - and that search should begin in Thailand.

After Natla's glass cell is hoisted from the ship, Lara escapes the sinking vessel just in time to see Amanda hanging by a rope as the helicopter departs. She has a narrow escape when Lara opens fire with deadly intent, a bullet scoring a gash along her cheek, but Lara is distracted when Amanda throws Thor's gauntlet into the waters below. Lara dives in and successfully retrieves the artefact.

In Thailand, Lara makes her way through the ruins of the lost city of Bhogavati, eventually passing a boundary where the architecture begins to closly resemble that of Niflheim. She encounters a colossal door that glows with the same blue luminescence as Thor's gauntlet when the two are in proximity; equipping the device, Lara puts her hand to the surface of the stone and moves it aside with casual ease. "I can see where the rumors of Thor's godlike strength came from," she remarks.

In the room where the gauntlet's twin should lie, Lara finds only an empty pedestal and a map that she believes to have been recently destroyed. Examining the pedestal closely, she notices a message scratched into it's surface: "Natla - I see your goal and am your puppet no longer - RJC." Recognizing it as her father's work, she notes the unusual use of Richard Croft's middle initial in his monogram, and discerns a deeper meaning that Natla had missed. "That's where you hid the artifact," she exclaims with amusement. "You sly old fox."

Returning to Croft Manor, Lara enters its crypt and examines the sarcophagus of her grandfather, Reginald Joseph Croft. Locating an electric switch, she discovers a hidden passageway. In the caverns below she discovers her father's secret study, where Thor's second gauntlet and a recorded message await her. In the message, Richard explains to her that the Norse believed that Avalon contained a powerful weapon. To prevent this from falling into Natla's hands, he destroyed the map detailing the location of Thor's remaining treasures - his belt, Megingjord, and his hammer, Mjolnir. It transpires that all four artefacts are required to enter Avalon.

As Lara returns from the secret study, Croft Manor is rocked my an enormous explosion. Picking her way through the flames to reach the main hall, Lara finds Winston and a wounded Zip, but barely has time to dodge as Zip opens fire. Zip is convinced that Lara herself had shot him and caused the fire before taking the Wraith Stone as used by Amanda in Tomb Raider Legend. Convincing Zip that it wasn't her and sending them out of the manor to safety, Lara climbs into the Tech Room to study security footage, but encounters a Atlantean Lara Copy, explaining Zip's earlier confusion. The sinister copy mirror's her every move - until, that is, it throws out an arm to shoot the nearby Alister in the chest, mortally wounding him. In the short fight that ensues, a furious Lara is comprehensively outclassed by her double, who disarms and disables her before making an abrupt departure. Lara carries Alister's corpse outside, where Zip and Winston are waiting. She resolves to continue her search without delay: "I need Thor's belt to get his hammer...and I need the hammer to kill a god."

Directed to Southern Mexico by a photograph (taken by her father) of the desecrated wall map in Thailand, Lara explores Mayan ruins to find the entrance to Xibalba and, at the heart of the complex, another Proto-Norse temple. She encounters are carving that depicts a scene from Ragnarok (the Norse legend that tells of the "final battle of the gods" and ends with the flooding of the world), which relates Thor's pivotal battle with the Midgard Serpent. "Thor kills Jormungandr with his hammer, Mjolnir," reads Lara, "but then he retreats only nine steps before he succumbs to the serpent's venom." After draining Jormungandr's pool, she retrieves Megingjord - Thor's belt - and discovers that it powers his gauntlets.

On Jan Mayen Island, Lara opens Valgrind, the "Gate of the Dead", to enter Valhalla. Fighting her way past Thralls, an army of undead that exist to defend the temple, she collects Mjolnir from a room that blazes with it's incredible power. With Zip having discovered the location of Amanda and Natla, Lara returns to Thailand, and infiltrates Amanda's sister ship. Using Mjolnir to smite any mercenaries foolish enough to stand before her, Lara fights her way below deck to confront Natla. "Avalon, Helheim, I don't care what it's called - where is it?" she demands.

Lara learns that any desire she may have for vengeance against Natla will have to wait, as only the Atlantean knows how to open the way into Helheim. When Amanda enters the room, she and Lara are poised to fight, but Lara's doppelgänger suddenly intervenes to hurl Amanda through a glass panel in the floor and into the depths below. Lara furiously attacks her near-identical nemesis, but once again, cannot land a clear shot before it escapes. When Natla comments on her behavior, Lara smashes the glass prison and barely controls the urge to execute her on the spot. "Get out of my sight," Lara growls.

Lara ventures to a site in the Arctic Circle using coordinates provided by Natla, who - true to her word - performs the ritual that partly opens the entrance to Helheim, enabling Lara to finish the task with Mjolnir. Lara steps inside the main chamber to find a dishevelled figure facing away from her, wearing a tattered navy blue suit and skirt. For a cruel moment, there is a glimpse of Amelia Croft's vacant face before it becomes apparent that the other half of her features have been torn away, revealing the lifeless blood and bone beneath - she is a Thrall. The creature staggers toward Lara with arms outstretched as if to embrace her. Steeling herself against the sheer horror of the moment, Lara unloads both pistols, sending the Thrall tumbling into the void.

Natla chooses this moment to reveal herself - and, for that matter, her role in Lara's misfortunes. "I've lived many times longer than your entire civilization, and I've never seen such delicious irony," she gloats. "When I heard what happened to the wife of the great Richard Croft, I knew I could set him on a desperate quest to find what I desired most. Then he betrayed me in Thailand, and for that I killed him myself. But when you showed up with Thor's gauntlet, I knew I could send you off in your father's footsteps, confident they would lead us to this very spot."

Though ostensibly Amanda's captive - her "pet Atlantean", as Lara wryly described her at an earlier date - we learn that Natla has been exactly where she wanted to be from the start, manipulating those around her to achieve her goals. As Lara hefts Mjolnir to strike her down, the doppelgänger launches a surprise attack, and restrains Lara. Natla leaves to activate the ancient device, Lara then breaks from from the doppelgänger and they fight, which ends with Lara pinned to the floor. As the creature raises its fist to strike a deadly blow, Lara is astonished when Amanda, using the Wraith Stone, hurls it into the abyss. "Trust me, I wanted to let it finish you off," she admits, "but the Midgard Serpent will tear the world apart, and only Thor's hammer can stop it!".

With Amanda holding an endless stream of Thralls at bay, Lara sets about disabling the Midgard Serpent. Jormungandr, Natla reveals, is actually a name for the network of tectonic ridges that encircles the Earth's ocean floors. "When this relic unleashes its fury below, the very seams of the planet will burst. 'The Midgard Serpent will rise up and spew poison into the air, and all of the world will be consumed by its fire and ash'," she exults. "Ragnarok! The seventh age is upon us!"

Lara performs the necessary actions to destabilize the Midgard Serpent, but Natla uses her powers to hold it in position. With a mighty throw, Lara hurls Mjolnir at her, knocking Natla and the doomsday device into the depths of the eitr. The waters of the deadly blue lake beneath begin to rise. "After killing the Midgard Serpent, Thor dies from its venom anyway," Amanda observes bleakly, recalling the Norse legend. "The good news is, we saved the world. The bad news is, now we're gonna die here - just like your mother."

As Lara turns to respond to Amanda's callous remark, she is struck by sudden realization. Scanning the cavern, she espies the stone portal that brought her mother here. Finding that a chunk of one of the surrounding stones has broken free, she holds it in place to reactivate the transportation ring, but realizes that this means she cannot reach the sword that triggers the portal. Amanda is astonished by Lara's suggestion that they cooperate to escape. Faced with the clear opportunity to condemn her sworn enemy to certain death, conflicting emotions cross Amanda's face as she grasps the sword.

Impulsively, Amanda's arm darts out and clasps Lara's hand at the very last moment. Both are hurled through the portal, landing unceremoniously on the cold stone floor of the Nepalese monastery where Amelia Croft disappeared many years before. As they stand, Amanda glares, poised to strike with the Wraith Stone. Lara responds by sheathing the sword from the stone and faces Amanda with empty hands. "So, it's back to this, is it?" observes Lara.

"What, you think we're even?" spits an incredulous Amanda in reply.

"Would killing me make us even?" asks Lara, sadly.

Amanda considers Lara's question for a moment before the angry smoulder of her Wraith Stone dissipates, then leaves. Lara bids a final farewell to her mother and departs.