Real-Life Weirdness

[Anders]

Apparently, Roger Bacon had a bronze head that would answer questions. Seems like a good magical item to put into a game.

[L.J.Steele]

ASTRONAUT SECRETLY SMUGGLED HUMAN REMAINS TO SPACE STATION

https://futurism.com/the-byte/astron...oi8sC8w_eh7TAo

That's a plot seed if ever I saw it....

[SolemnGolem]

Richard Garriott, the guy who did the ashes smuggling, is also kind of a weird guy himself. Designer of the Ultima games in the 1980-1990s, son of a NASA astronaut, one-time owner of a castle in Texas which featured secret passages. During a burglary when a deranged fan broke into the castle, Richard Garriott held him off with an Uzi submachinegun, firing a warning shot until police arrived.

[Anders]

Brain found on a Lake Michigan Beach.

The brain was wrapped in tin foil held together with a large pink rubber band. The brain was not human, but they're not sure what it is.

Deep Ones brain? Human sacrifice? Aliens? Or does the guy who found it have Weirdness Magnet?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Anders

The brain was not human, but they're not sure what it is.

All this requires is a slaughterhouse employee with a twisted sense of humour.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by johndallman

All this requires is a slaughterhouse employee with a twisted sense of humour.

Yesyesyes. But if you incorporated this into a campaign, would it be that or the brain of a Deep One?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Anders

But if you incorporated this into a campaign, would it be that or the brain of a Deep One?

From me, it could be either.

[Flyndaran]

It may have been an offering to a deep one or one who simply dropped his lunch on the way back home. It doesn't have to have come from the ocean even if the article said that it washed up on shore.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Anders

Apparently, Roger Bacon had a bronze head that would answer questions. Seems like a good magical item to put into a game.

I wrote up the Brazen Head once. My version of it could do basic addition and subtraction on command but its real power was that, when the spoons hidden inside it's base were filled with dirt from five surrounding points, the head would detect the arrival of groups of men with hostile intent at the boundary sketched out by the points. It would rotate to face the direction at which they crossed the boundary and would say how large the group once it crossed.

[William]

This ancient Egyptian spell begins:

"Fundament of the gloomy darkness, jagged-toothed dog, covered with coiling snakes, turning three heads, traveler in the recesses of the Underworld, come, spirit-driver, with the Erinyes, savage with their stinging whips; holy serpents, maenads, frightful maidens, come to my wroth incantations."

This is:

A.) A vengeance curse.
B.) A spell for victory in war.
C.) A love spell.

The correct answer is C! The spell goes on to demand that the spirits being invoked inflame the heart of Gorgonia for the spellcaster Sophia. There are more in the thread but this one is the most ornate, probably written up by a professional and full of arcane otherwise-meaningless magic words you might want your spellcaster to pick up and use -- assuming they are wise enough to understand the forces they are playing with by doing so...

Alalachos allēch Harmachimeneus magimeneus athinembēs astazabathos artazabathos...