The Shepherd's Journal is a mysterious book recounting the events of the shepherd Aziz's journey to the lost city of Atlantis (alternatively known as the "Scrolls of Aziz"), functioning as a sort of map. As the scrolls traded hands through the passing of civilizations, it was stolen by a band of Vikings. They used it to guide them to the city's location only to be subsequently killed by the Leviathan, leaving it to wash up on the coast of Iceland. In the modern era of 1911 AD, an archaeological expedition led by Lyle Tiberius Rourke and Thaddeus Thatch found the book, preparing arrangements to seek the city, with Thaddeus' grandson Milo Thatch leading the expedition team in his place. Unbeknownst to the other excavators and mercenaries, Rourke tore out the page containing information about the Heart of Atlantis as a means to hide his real plot to sell the secrets of the lost city to the highest bidder, with both the Galactic Empire and the Hellfire Organization among the interested bidders.