11-27-2016, 05:04 PM | #21 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
That's in the intriguing field of things that are profoundly wrong but also entirely possible to not notice at all.
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11-27-2016, 05:21 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
In my Fantasy setting, a MistDay with clear skies would be deemed a horrible portent.
(MistDay is the first day of the week, and as the name implies there is always mist all day long). For some options: -Sheep trample the sheepdogs. -Shepherd found mangled and eaten on. Sheep have blood on faces, but no visible wounds. -Ice floating down the river in the middle of Summer, or an unfrozen section of the river during the dead of Winter. -River found to be flowing the wrong way. -Many (or worse, all) headstones in the local cemetery found upside down. -All plantlife in the cemetery dies. -Morning dew/frost tinged red. -Morning dew/frost vanishes in sudden flash of flame; plants unaffected. -Moon follows abnormal path. -Moon rises in the west. |
11-27-2016, 07:29 PM | #23 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
Quote:
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11-27-2016, 09:25 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
Quote:
EDIT: OK, went back and edited the OP. Thanks.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. Last edited by Prince Charon; 11-27-2016 at 09:29 PM. |
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11-28-2016, 05:09 AM | #25 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
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As noted, the sudden staling of bread, spoiling of ale, souring of milk or curdling of butter of cheese can all be symptoms of magic at work. For more spookiness: general unexpected behaviour by animals, becoming unnaturally fearless or fearful ... or aggressive. All of the villages dogs bark at nothing, or hide indoors refusing to go out, rats and mice go abroad openly in daylight and attack those who interfere with them. Livestock in the fields tries to run away and goes wild, battering itself against fences if penned - sheep attack their shepherds. All the local songbirds vanish. Plants blooming at the wrong time or season, dying off or growing with unnatural vigour (as per The Colour out of Space). As already noted, deformed births were often seen as omens as well... |
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11-28-2016, 09:44 AM | #26 | |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
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In winter, deformed babies were often exposed, left to die in the cold. In particularly harsh Scandinavian winters, unwanted infants, even if healthy, might be given this treatment as well, giving rise to stories of vengeful little ghosts called mylings or utburds.
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Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life. "The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates." -- Tacitus Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted. |
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11-28-2016, 01:57 PM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
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Good undead though - I can imagine one of those cropping up in "that RPG": "Aagh! Get it off my back." <successful attack> "Oops, it's incorporeal. My bad." "Never mind, I've still got 150hp left, try again" etc. [/silly] Actually, something like that could be a good cause of trouble - hidden shame is always quite good for horror plots, especially in a small, rural community: during the winter a poor peasant family killed their newborn out of want, pretending that it died of natural causes. Denied burial on sacred ground it now haunts the village - finding out the truth will go a long way towards laying the ghost (if the parents can be persuaded to confess and do penance, a simple grave blessing by the village priest may end the haunting). A PC landlord might be tempted to some more practical action as well. If you could carry off a secret pregnancy in a medieval village (likely to be tricky) then the plot could be even thicker - perhaps involving adultery, incest or some other capital matter... |
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11-28-2016, 02:08 PM | #28 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
I was thinking, there could be benificial effects that are really creepy, and seem to be indicative of a 'soft corruption'.
IE- Hearth's in the town light with ease if blood is dripped into them (likely found by accident), if you actually soak the hearth with blood it will light on its own. Human blood works better. Blood of a person you dislike works best. Labor (human or animal) can be brought on by willing it during the full moon, it is always painless and very rarely results in complications. Babies/animals born via such method are startlingly clever and tend to associate with one another without complaint (A moonborn goose can happily lay with a moonborn cat). Every single household finds an exquisite set of dressing tools one morning (IE- for slaughtering animals)- they are all midnight black in colour and seem to absorb light. They slide effortlessly into flesh, and any animal butchered with them produces more useable cuts of meat then seems possible. One morning all of the dogs and cats in the town are found slaughtered. They bear marks from some sort of large (lynx sized) beast with 6 claws on each paw and a triple row fanged maw. There jaws are cracked open, and there hearts are missing (not torn free, missing if anyone takes the time to cut one apart and see what happened). Despite the lack of service animals sheep still get herded in at the end of each day, rodents basically no longer exist, foxes, wolves, rampaging bulls, even a horsethief or two are found quickly dispatched in the same manner as as the dogs and cats soon as they were out of anyone's sight. The villagers can count on seeing a blue-glowing set of six eyes from rafters, lofts, and around corners wherever they go, watching over them, always too far into the dark or too far away to see more than the eyes. |
11-28-2016, 02:19 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
A pack of wolves walks into town and roll over before the startled townsfolk. They growl and snarl even as they lay on their backs and expose their necks.
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11-28-2016, 03:59 PM | #30 | |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Horror] [Low-Tech] Hearthfires going cold and other Low-Tech spookiness
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I could easily imagine a Tell-Tale Heart mystery. Someone, usually a poor woman but perhaps a man instead or in addition, hear a soft baby cry in the distance. It's driving them crazy as they ask, then demand others to find the source. Human nature being what it is, eventually those unaffiliated start to hear it too. And bam, you got yourself a full blown mass hysteria.
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