Real-life Mystery Dungeon Crawling

[Mychaelh]

Here in Thuringia, where I live, there seem to be no such Erdstall-tunnels. Never heard of it before at least.

The local 'thrill' here is to try to get access in secret Nazi underground complexes from WW2. Have done it myself, when I was younger... and more stupid.
(It's VERY dangerous, because there is a high possibility of booby traps, installed by the SS shortly before the end of the war.)

Inside it looks like this:
-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7YcrJ6qOc

(I actually was in there and remember some of the places shown, but the video is not from me).
I like this video, brings back memories of the good old times of real LIVE roguelike dungeon exploration (no game save possible, hehe).

[Jack Dandy]

Indeed Mycha, and not to mention, Permadeath.
I've heard of these places before, sealed off bases that no one dares venture into. That's some creepy stuff. Urban exploration is fascinating.

[Mychaelh]

Permadeath... exactly. But, when you come out alive again after such a trip, you get a feeling hard to describe.
Better I warn you all again. DON'T do this kids. It IS stupid (...kind like playing russian roulette).
Better play Legend of Grimrock. Keeps you out of a lot of potential shit.

Greetings to Israel from Thuringia.

[Jack Dandy]

Right back at you- Thuringia looks like such a beautiful place.

But I digress; The best I can manage one of these day is to attempt to explore some caves we have near my home.
But since I live in a mountain, there's this likely chance I'll get mauled by wild boars. And I don't want that.

[Mychaelh]

Found this about the ultimate 'nazi dungeon trap'. Don't know if it's real or just fabled.
Cool story, nonetheless:

Source: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... c2a161b3e1
(page 7)

...the uncovering of this device is not my work. This report comes to us from Dr. Axel Stoll...

...the example he uses is the early Reich Chancellery. The lower floors of the Reich Chancellery were flooded during the latter stages of the war. This tactic was used numerous times on high-value underground facilities to prevent the advancing Allied Powers from learning Nazi secrets. Therefore, there may be other examples still out there.

The device under discussion is some sort of electro-magnetic cage. Dr. Stoll calls it an "energetischen Käfig" [="energetic cage"] or "elektromagnetische Birne" [="electro-magnetic bulb/pear"]. Within the area of this cage a special electromagnetic field was present.
This cage would be used to surround a specific room or area within the larger facility. Presumably, within this room, objects of tremendous value would be stored and therefore needed ultimate security, even more security than simply housing them within this high-security underground facility.

Dr. Stoll is unable to name his sources for security reasons, but goes on to tell a fascinating story.

In the former East German Democratic Republik (DDR), strong, able-bodied divers, who where former members of the State Security Service (MfS) of that communist government were detailed to dive into the Reich Chancellery and surrounding vicinity with the goal of recovering documents, material stores and technology.

These operatives were not boy scouts, nor was East Germany a worker's paradise in the 1970 and 1980s, which is the period in which our story takes place.

The DDR is the countrywhich spawned the dreaded secret police, the "Stasi".
Stasi was one of the most efficent, innovative and ruthless intelligence organizations ever conceived. Stasi could be thought of as the KGB coupled with German innovative efficiency.
It is from this background that the divers were lowered by ropes into the black pool which were the lower floors of the Reich Chancellery.

What the divers encountered in the blackness was terror itself.

...Some of the divers, described by Dr. Stoll, surfaced with prolific symptoms. Their faces were contorted into a horrible grimaces. The problem was that this terrible distorted expression would not relax. their contorted faces were frozen into a mask of permanent deformity. Not only were they disfigured but somehow they had been aged during the dive. Now they appeared to be visibly older, perhaps aging up to fifteen years in a few minutes. But that was not all. Functioning like an almost perfect security system, the divers could not remember what had happened during their dive. Their memories had been blanked out. This was not temporary amnesia. This amnesia proved to be life-long.

Dr. Stoll, a Geophysicist, explains the workings of the device this way. Within the cage, "Käfig", which is the space to be secured, a human body encounters an almost null-point of energy near the physical center of the device. At this point, energy is actually drawn out of the human body! This withdrawal of energy alters the human body and the human being, as a rule, for worst. This sucking away of human energy can lead to death.
This electromagnetic or psychic vampire constitutes the ultimate in security systems.

In Grimrock-terms, this would be a 'all-stats perma-drain'-trap.

[Mychaelh]

Nullpunktenergie (= 'Zero-point energy'):

-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy

[Mychaelh]

From the guys, who also made the Jonastal video linked above:

"An abandoned mining village with a slate mine. At that time, it will be the 2nd slate-producer in Europe. In WWII there were tested V2-Rocketengines and produced liquid Oxygen.

(Achtung: Spider !!! - but only short)
-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93yrx1R8 ... ure=relmfu

[Jack Dandy]

This is gonna keep me busy for a while. Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

[Deebe]

Just a fascinating thread! And a little bit scary

We have none of those exciting caves where I live, but reading about this stuff from the internet is just fine, for now.

My only real life dungeon crawling experience is from exploring and old cellar, which turned out to be a hobo's sleeping place.

[Mychaelh]

Most scary real life dungeon crawl I had, when I was student in Jena. We explored an old air-raid shelter in the hill right behind the house out of a spontaneous party mood.
Our light source:


Of course, in non-stop usage they melt in aprox. 5 min. as we soon found out. ...
Welcome to the darkness...