Send Valbullion?
Before proper colonization of Terrenus, when the people were still simple in make and mind, a meteor struck the heart of the lake and widened it to 9,500 square miles. Time and nature, working in concert, filled the crater with water through endless seasons of rain and floodwaters and formed what is currently known as Ponkapoag Lake.
Ponkapoag Lake is the largest body of water that the nation of Terrenus has to offer. The lake isn't very long or wide, but its depth is phenomenal. To date, the Terran government has delved over 20 miles into the lake and has yet to reach the bottom. However, their expedition upturned some startling revelations that helped bring to light some anthropological discoveries that would echo through the history books for ages.
Government funded expeditions are sent down into the lake once every three year cycle, pushing to the limits the capabilities of any newly updated technology and finding new ways to use old tech. Each expedition uncovers another level of the lake's depths to explore, and each layer seems to have housed a city or civilization at some point in time, though exact time is hard to pin down.
Approximately one mile down from the surface, the side walls deepen substantially and then curve back to the center as a ledge. On the ledge are built edifices unmistakably designed as homes, filled with objects of both functional use and of purely aesthetic decoration. Rangefinder cameras float around aimlessly but never go beyond the perceptible roof or floor of this specific layer. Film negatives, light bulbs and even full photographs are also found on this level.
The second layer provides the atmosphere pressure and conditions necessary for two unique types of flora to thrive and spread out. One plant type is the macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae universally known as seaweed. The other type has no verifiable lineage that matches it with any of the known plant-type in the entirety of Valucre. Bits and pieces of incongruous material found on this second type of plant, however, match up precisely with material taken from the layer beneath it. Although there was some initial concern with allowing this second, alien plant to grow unhindered, it seems to have adapted to the eco-system harmlessly and doesn't seek to breach the limitations imposed by the layers. It continues to grow under close study.
The third layer is touched by the stars. The impact from the ages-old meteorite has shattered the buildings and left them in ruins. It also deposited a core of space metal in the lake. The existence of the metal was discovered some time ago but the secret has remained guarded and passed down in tense whispers among the lineages of certain families too greedy to share their wealth. The metal is hard to mine, its deposits having been scattered throughout the lake upon impact. The pressure of the depth combined with the nefarious presence of aquatic creatures provides an unpleasant obstacle. A master diver would spend days, maybe even weeks, in the lake before gathering enough of the ore to make a blade of decent length. The meteoric steel increases the kinetic energy of any weapon five-fold.
Canon
1. As of late in the current year, the Gaian Academy has been relocated to the center of the lake.
2. Due to the involvement of a scientist by the name of Dr. Asa, with the help of a few hired hands, in attempting to study marine life in Ponkapoag Lake, an odd race of extra-terrestrial beings awaken and spread out from the lake.
-Click here for information on the body-snatchers