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The Plot
Tomb Raider
Lara Croft has just returned from a hunting trip in the Himalayas where, having bagged a 12-foot tall yeti, she's itching for a new challenge. While enjoying a little R & R, she's contacted Jacqueline Natla, a conniving business woman who convinces Lara to recover a mysterious artifact from the tomb of Qualopec in Peru.
Wasting no time, Lara sets out on her quest to find one of the three pieces of the ancient Atlantean Scion, a talisman of incredible power. After disovering the fragment things get ugly, Lara finds herself face to face with one of Natla's hired goons. Using her cunning wits and athletic strenghth, Lara escapes!
As she delves into the reasons why Natla would double cross her, she uncovers a mystery that reaches back before the dawn of recorded time to the treachery that destroyed the Atlantean civilization and the disasters that struck the world when it fell.
Vilcabamba... A civilization that flourished for hundreds of years in the Peruvian rainforests of South America. Guide Lara through the lost Incan city while battling wolves, bats, bears, raptors, and more.
Labryinth...The Golden Age of Greece, and later Rome. Here Lara battles lions, alligators, crazed monkeys and more as she explores ruins of this ancient civilization.
Egyptian...Where the vast power of Egypt rose with the pyramids. Explore buried pyramids and a hidden sphinx while fighting pumas, crocodiles, and some surprising mystical monsters.
Atlantean...The pyramid of Atlantis where the mystery unfolds.
Tomb Raider II
As the game begins, we see a scene from ancient China. Qin Shihuang, the evil emperor, is standing next to three captured enemies who have been impaled on spears placed in the ground. They are still alive and struggling in vain to free themselves. A closer look at Qin Shihuang and his serpent eyes reveals that he is undergoing a transformation. He signals his followers to launch their attack against on a class of warrior monks holding the Great Wall. The attack comes in the form of a deadly barrage of arrows. Some of the defenders are killed, others are wounded.
A few moments later, we see the attackers making their way to the wall, being escorted by an enormous dragon breaths fire on the helpless defenders. A warrior in one of the lookout towers manages to land an arrow in the dragon's neck. While the dragon is not seriously harmed, it is now very angry. It turns and focuses its attention to the warrior. The dragon moves towards the tower, not noticing a wounded monk beneath it.
A bright object in the center of the dragon's chest captures the monk's attention. It appears to be some type of handle. Barely within reach, the wounded monk reaches up and pulls the object, a dagger, out of the dragon's chest plate. As he does, bright lights swirl around the blade, capturing the monk's attention. The dragon, whose source of power was the dagger, realizes that he is doomed. With his last bit of strength, he manages to kill his conqueror. The dragon falls to the ground and watch its flesh dissolve into the dirt, leaving only an enormous skeleton. The emperor's warriors, seeing their leader fall, have no heart to fight.
Days later, while combing the battlefield for weapons, a young monk comes across the dagger. Realizing the threat that this dagger posed to them, an old monk leads him to the Temple of Xian where the dagger was safely guarded. As the younger monk replaces the dagger into the altar, a blinding light erupts in the room and the door is sealed shut, hopefully forever.
Forever is a long time, especially for Lara Croft who has dedicated her life to finding such antiquities.
Lara begins her search in the Great Wall of China, the last know location of the Dagger of Xian. She charters a helicopter who lowers her near a cave which Lara believes is near an entrance to the inside of the wall. Making her way to the sealed door, she finds that she is not able to open it. She's also met by a thug who's determined not to let her in. Lara is able to disarm him, leaving him on his butt in the dirt.
Conversation 1: Lara and the Thug (Track 2 on the CD)
Lara: Pardon me, if that was just your
way of trying the doors for me
Thug: Hehehe. With a tommygun on my keyring.
Lara: Though not anymore. So after you.
Thug: Somehow you don't behave like you've got monk's blood.
Lara: I understand that somehow is in my favor. So indulge me about the dagger. I'd be
indebted with your life.
Thug: These doors are waiting for the right one, the right time to arrive, and then the
dagger's blade will honor the hearts of those who believe. So unless you pledge your
loyalty as well...
Lara: And which one is that?
Thug: To the sins and fortunes of Marco Bartoli.
The thug waves a flask of poison, drinks some and dies.
Lara: Perhaps not just yet, then.
Lara walks back to a laptop on a nearby crate and begins looking at files, hoping to learn
more about this Bartoli character. She finds what she's looking for.
Lara: Ahah! Gianni Bartoli: Villa Caravelli, Venice
Lara heads to Venice, Italy to find Bartoli and the knowledge he has about the dagger. While in Venice, she finds her way to Bartoli's hideout where his Fiama Nera cult resides, but does not find him there. Instead, she follows his path to an abandoned opera house, which Bartoli uses for a secret dock. Lara manages to sneak onto Marco's seaplane as he is leaving Venice. Climbing into the back of the plane, she hears two voices coming from the cockpit. At first, their voices are muffled by engine sounds and she only hears a word here or there. As she moves forward, she is able to make out what they are saying.
Fabio: This is great, I surrender nothing like we
say substantial. It's all very interesting, oh yes I'm sure of it. Believe me, but it's
not quite the same now is it?
Marco: Someday you will get a speeding ticket for the tongue, Fabio.
Fabio: Hey, it's just a gut feeling, but maybe you are wrong to look there.
Marco hits Fabio, causing him to momentarily lose control of the plane. Lara struggles to
maintain her balance.
Marco: Is your belief so fragile?
Marco: Relax, breath deep. The gut, Fabio, has no more direction than a simple through and
out. Honest perhaps, but not entirely. When my father left when I was a boy, he confided
to me that he was in life beckoned by something greater than impulse. He possessed the
seraph. But he was just a disciple in this design. His death plotting a path to be sought
by the one, his son. You understand? Have faith Fabio, not gutrot. We are searching the
right place.
Fabio: I know it. I believe it Marco.
Lara draws closer to the cockpit, not noticing the large man behind her.
Marco: Good.
Marco opens the rear door to the cockpit.
Marco: Iros (sp?), have you fixed that rail yet?
Iros rushes forward and grabs Lara.
Iros: Finished!
Lara finds herself trapped in a cell without any weapons. She manages to find her way out and discovers that she's on an offshore rig. Getting her weapons back, she battles her way through the rig to a diving area which Bartoli's cult is staging a large underwater expedition. While making her way through a tube above a large chamber, she overhears a conversation:
Marco: Blood or answers, I have no preference. You
should spill a bit of both.
Monk: Okay Marco, glad to have your heart.
Marco hits the monk. The monk groans in pain.
Monk: What do you want?
Marco: Come on, stick to your stomach(?). Tell me, where in Monastery should we look? Eh,
brother?
As Lara approaches the chamber, she finds the monk who has been beaten badly. A conversation follows:
Conversation 4: Lara and the Monk (Track 4 on the CD)
Monk: Oh, you are not one of them.
Lara: But you are a monk?
Monk: Brother Cheng Barkhang. You have come for me. I saw bright lights surround me.
Lara: That was gunfire. I think it was them who got taken away by it.
Lara spots some scuba outfits hanging on the wall. She removes her boots.
Monk: But you are my guide. My pathbeater to next incarnation. I have done my time here,
haven't I?
Lara: What are you doing here with Marco Bartoli?
Monk: Nothing, I live righteous life here for reasons rooted only in necessary evil as my
father was before me when he bombed Gianni's vessel deep into these waters. Now I'm here,
uh was here, to prevent his son from salvaging the seraph.
Lara: The seraph?
Monk: You not know my life's work well. You sure you not here for them?
Lara: Their Jackanory (story-telling) days are well over.
As the monk speaks, Lara changes into the wetsuit.
Monk: They want the seraph to unlock a malignant treasure we contain in our monastery in
Tibet. Since being stolen by imbecile vagabonds centuries ago, we've been without key to
it. Relying solely on cleansing of our prayers to keep it subdued. Then the occultist,
Gianni B, acquired it. Trouble we knew. He breathed life back into ancient belief. One not
to be stopped by any amount of head bowing. And now again it is here. Marco, infected with
madness. He has violent mind, but not yet the power to satiate it. So we reach for our
weapons once more.
Lara: The true Detox (cleanser) of evil.
Monk: Where can you be taking me? Thought this was my big break. Guess change as often
does rest(?). I need one.
Just as the monk finishes speaking, Marco appears on the balcony above and shoots him. Lara dives for cover and returns fire.
Knowing that she was about to draw a crowd, Lara looks for a way out. She spots a deep water submersible exiting through the diving tank. Swimming down and grabbing the outer rail, she rides the submersible to the bottom of the sea.
Hearing Lara outside, the pilot brings the mechanical arm around to grab her. While operating the arm, an enormous shark appears out of the darkness, scaring him. Instinctively, the pilot pulls the craft away from the shark, smashing the submersible into the rock wall. The craft is destroyed and Lara is left on her own at the bottom of the ocean, 40 fathoms deep.
Lara manages to swim over to a large shipwreck. Entering through the anchor chain hole, she makes her way through the wreck of the Maria Doria, Gianni Bartoli's final resting place. Gianni, who was Marco's father and a famous magician, was about the vessel with the seraph when it was destroyed. Lara searches the main chamber, the crew's living quarters and the top deck where she finally finds the seraph.
Lara uses an inflatable buoy to float up to the surface where sneaks her way back into the seaplane. Now that she possesses the seraph, she knows that she has needs to go to Tibet to unlock the door to the "malignant treasure" mentioned by the monk.
Using the seaplane, Lara flies to the mountains of Tibet. Suddenly, the engines cut out and she is left gliding through the mountain peaks. Soon, she loses altitude and slides into an ice canyon. As the plane slides, it hits several large rocks, knocking its wings off. Lara, seeing that the plane will soon hit a cliff face and be destroyed, finds a parachute and leaps out of the top hatch. Floating to the ground, Lara looks around for shelter.
With the aid of some "borrowed" snowmobiles, Lara makes her way up through the Tibetan foothills to the Barkhang monastery where she finds new allies. Inside, she places the seraph, granting her passage to the inner catacombs and ice palace where the talion (the key to the dagger's vault) is located.
Lara now has what she needs to enter the vault and take the dagger. Once again in China, she finds the altar which holds the dagger is booby-trapped, dropping her into the Temple of Xian with all of its defenders and obstacles. Just as she is about to recapture the dagger, Marco Bartoli enters with an armed guard and takes it. Marco grasps the dagger and, chanting loudly, drives the blade into his heart. As a shocked Lara watches, Marco's henchmen carry their apparently dead leader our of the room. Lara pursues them.
Suddenly, Lara finds herself in a magical land of floating islands, perhaps once inhabited by the people who crafted the blade. To survive, Lara must fight the magical guardians who were left to guard the islands. One by one, Lara eliminate's Bartoli's henchmen and finds her way into the Dragon's Lair.
As she enters the enormous chamber, Lara spots Marco in the center of a platform with the dagger protuding from his chest. When she approaches him to remove the dragon, a glow erupts in the air around Bartoli. Lara is thrown back, having been temporarily blinded. As the blinding light fades, a huge dragon is looming over Lara, breathing fire and chasing her. Remembering the lesson of the ancient monk, Lara kills the dragon and flees the temple with the dagger as the walls and ceiling collapse around her.
Lara escapes narrowly from the exploding wall. Suffering a concussion, Lara collapses unconscious on the ground. When she wakes up, she stands and surveys the damage around her, knowing that the dagger is hers.
Back at home, Lara studies her newly-found treasure. Suddenly, her security alarm sounds, letting her know that her house is being invaded. The Fiama Nera has returned, and they're not too happy that they've lost their leader. Lara must access her weapons closet and defend her home. Once the mansion's peace has been restored to the Croft estate, Lara longs for a refreshing shower. It turns out that there's some places you can't follow her, after all.
This symbol is often spotted in the game. It is the symbol of the Temple of Xian.
Tomb Raider III
On a voyage of exploration in centuries past, British sailors discovered a meteor buried deep in the earth. Unwittingly, they looted four artifacts placed with the meteor. One of these sailors kept a journal as they headed back to England. He was the only one to make it home alive.
Present Day, Antarctica
A research company begins to excavate something buried deep in the ice. Readings taken from the rock indicate traces of a previously unknown material. The material appears to have the potential to multiply and alter hock genes - the genes which determine the make-up of living organisms. These alterations are capable of evolving a greater diversity of life. Within the rock are the next most important findings in genetics and evolution since Darwin.
On their dig, the researchers discover the body of a European, perfectly preserved in the ice. Scratched on his tombstone is the name of the boat he sailed on. Following this information, they locate a shipmate's journal and set about searching for the artifacts lost by the sailors?
Meanwhile, Lara is in India searching for one of these artifacts. Unaware of its true history, she only knows that in local beliefs it was supposed to hold great powers and has been revered by tribes there throughout the years.
