01-17-2019, 03:33 AM | #111 | ||||
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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Various traditional remedies were also common. There was a man in my village who sold traditional medicines who would walk around with scorpions crawling on his face. Unsurprisingly, one of the cures he sold was a remedy for scorpion stings. He also sold a length of string which if tied around the waist kept you from becoming pregnant. In Ghana there were at least two witch villages, people from other villages accused of witchcraft could move there. My feeling was a lot of traditions of witchcraft were remnants of older traditional religions. Nearly everyone would say that they were Muslim or Christian, but that didn't necessarily mean that they didn't also believe in various older beliefs. And if things were really important you might visit the Ju-ju man for help, or to curse an enemy. I think to a large part that is true in much of the world, a lot of European witchcraft was probably remnants of pre-Christian beliefs * Disclaimer: Specifically, my personal experience concerning witchcraft is specific to rural northern Ghana 10 years ago. Although my personal experience is limited, my understanding that most of the following is true in other parts of Africa as well, but I'm sure there are some significant differences. Quote:
** Disclaimer #2: I don't believe in witchcraft, although I try to be as respectful as I can when it comes to others religious beliefs. Quote:
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Finally, I meant to say that there are other similar organizations to Peace Corps. In my (limited) experience, these groups are typically smaller, tend to live in less rural locations, don't stay in country as long, and don't have as much language training as Peace Corps***. But they take non-Americans, and those volunteers could easily become part of the Peace Corps network. *** Not intended to slight those other organizations at all, and they have a lot of other advantages in the real world, but they are maybe not as interesting from a hidden magic perspective. |
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01-17-2019, 04:19 AM | #112 | |||||
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Peace Corps and the Supernatural
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Suffice it to say that I regard any theories of the survival of any kind of organised witchcraft in Europe from pre-Christian times until the founding of Gardnerian Wicca as a religious belief without convincing evidence. Anthropologists proposing it are generally not practicing a science or doing scholarly research, they are expounding a personal belief and cherry-picking examples in an unscientific manner to support it. Ironically, my setting features supernatural phenomena and magic, but is extremely skeptical about anthropological and sociological phenomena which seem to fly in the face of observed evidence, where allegedly ancient traditions are often more or less invented out of whole cloth by one or more people for nationalistic, political or religious purposes. There will be plenty of magical traditions in my setting which work and which are based on rituals and lore from people who lived while magic was apparently active in the world before, so in the 19th century and earlier. However, a lot of these traditions will either be fairly recent inventions and syncretizations, in that they date to founders in the historical records, or they will be modern reconstructions from ancient sources, not something which has survived uninterrupted at all. The important exceptions are real-world religions which include mystical traditions and ritual magic as part of its teachings and demonstrably have been passed on in recognizable form from a time when magic appeared to work and are still practiced in that way in the modern world. Even then, many traditions will have seen changes and apparently minor alterations to languages or ceremonies from those current centuries ago to those used today, so even once magic started working in the 1980s, magical practitioners in these traditions may have had to work at reconstructing working rituals from altered forms that evolved during the 20th century. Quote:
In the year 2018, when my game is set, the Vile Vortices, their environs and many smaller hot spots around the world are so dangerous to humans that it doesn't seem possible that the supernatural is still secret. But, with the existence of the Facade, the overwhelming majority of secular, materialistic people can manage to find a 'mundane' explanation for any statistical anomaly and mostly do not regard the testimony of people from developing countries as any kind of evidence of witchcraft or supernatural phenomena. Even other Westerners who've lived in such areas are regarded as suspect witnesses, unless they have physical evidence to back up their claims, which they inevitably never do. It seems that the supernatural itself and/or the mysterious effect of the Facade somehow resists scientific analysis and incontrovertible evidence. Video and photos have technical issues and are invariably ruled fakes by experts (influenced by the Facade) when someone manages to get any footage at all. Remains of monsters and humans with supernatural abilities are ruled animal carcasses (with various diseases as appropriate) and normal human bodies. Magical effects either do not happen in the presence of skeptics with technological measuring devices or they interfere with the devices if they do. Quote:
Are you active in any formal or informal way with the Peace Corps or with groups of people who have reunions or other social events, now that it's a decade since you volunteered? Are many other people? I'm looking for how much people stay in touch and remain close to other Peace Corps volunteers once they've finished their volunteer service and started a life where they probably have careers and families that may not connect to their experiences with the Peace Corps. If there are some form of alumni social groups and networks, proposing that former Peace Corps volunteers can be classed as a cohesive, if informal, group of occult-aware people becomes much more plausible. Otherwise, former Peace Corps volunteers who've seen something that convinced them of the reality of the paranormal might be equally or more likely to turn to family, friends, their local priest, mental health professionals or any of the sources of support and advice that an ordinary person who experienced the same thing (albeit possibly at home, rather than abroad) might speak with about it. Quote:
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01-17-2019, 05:06 AM | #113 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2017
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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There also exists a national returned Peace Corps volunteer organization and many places have a local organization as well. My local group organizes volunteer activities, occasional light political action, a Christmas party, sells calendars, etc. I've also worked with Peace Corps itself a couple times to talk to school groups. In the real world, there is significant culture shock when returning back to the US, and many people have problems reintegrating into the US. Returned volunteers often turn to each other for support. If there are also issues of dealing with seeing hostile supernatural forces that nobody else believes, then I would think there would be even stronger forces pushing groups returned volunteers together for support. |
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01-17-2019, 06:25 AM | #114 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Peace Corps and the Supernatural
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That sounds like either the national organisation of returned Peace Corps volunteers (which I discover is named the National Peace Corps Association) or any number of the local ones could be the nucleus of people who have became aware of the supernatural.
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01-17-2019, 09:12 AM | #115 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
I like the idea of the Peace Corps as a source of mostly well-meaning, defensive-minded actors.
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So you avoid the tackiness of suggesting that the Holocaust was anything but senseless, and you create a break in the tension when after a failed ritual the Outsiders devour a bunch of street thugs and their backers in suits instead of a well-meaning church choir-cum-Austin chapter, Texas Syriac Club.
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01-18-2019, 04:46 AM | #116 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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The fact that my players became highly excited upon learning that 'Janus Eremus', the Man With the Unfortunate Look who kidnapped Alice Talbot (PC), apparently for the purposes of ritual sacrifice, had been present at Vostok Station in Antarctica during the first time any humans reached Lake Vostok, which had been sealed in ice for as much as 25 million years, is surely a coincidence. Surely. It's not as if the PCs are going on some kind of Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath at the Mountains of Madness, just because they are going on a vision quest / dream projection into the mind of a sorceress who apparently opened a gate to Something terrible, cold and inexorable into her very being. I guess the players might worry more if they'd found out that the sorceress using the name Gwen Delvano was born Gisella Ester Cortés Rojas... in Antarctica.
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01-18-2019, 02:19 PM | #117 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
Are any of your players veterans of the Jade Serenity campaign? We've got to know some of those characters quite well.
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01-18-2019, 03:37 PM | #118 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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Very different PCs, though I guess you could say O'Toole's player is still playing a deeply flawed and messed up person whom the other PCs should ditch at the first opportunity. This time, though, it's not because he's a selfish, spineless paper pusher with no capacity for loyalty or friendship. It's just because he's Impulsive, Overconfident and On the Edge. The plan was originally for 'Nonc' Morel to induce a dream state in himself and learn where the minor cold daemon was from and/or maybe take a careful peek into the dreams of the Girl With the Kaleidoscope Eyes. In themselves, still risky endeavours, as they were aware that her mind had touched Something truly horrible, but something that Morel genuinely (and probably accurately) felt he could handle without risking anyobe else. The mission creep of using all the 34 cursed diamonds of Awful Nasty Badness to power an untested, poorly understood ritual that would allow the PCs to fight whatever possessed the incautious sorceress, as well as making use of at least one potential Chosen One / Omen / Destiny Magnet and the demonic-looking artifact athame she'd locked in a warded vault with three separate locks (none openable by the same person), well, that came after Lacoste found out that there was a theoretical way to do more than just gather some information. The thought of righteously beating up some analogue of Cthulhu in a Dreamland version of Lake Vostok, no doubt located on the frozen plateu of Leng, was just too tempting to pass up. So, he became the loud and assertive champion of Plan Ragnarök (We'll Totally Stop It). Morel eventually agreed because it's the only chance, however slim, of saving the mortal girl 'Gwen Delvano' must have been at one point. Teddy Smith apparently agreed because he suspects that this is finally it, the time when the Outsiders come for Earth too and he'd do anything to close the gates before the Earth becomes their playground. Also, if the other PCs were going to do such a spectacularly stupid thing anyway, he probably had a greater chance of survival with them, where he could try to contribute (most likely in vain), than waiting at ground zero, helpless to prevent the apocalypse. Alice Talbot seems to be operating with some kind of Prophecy /Destiny logic, though she hasn't been able to tell anyone else why she believes that. Somehow, inexorably, the iron certainty of the absolutely mad won everyone over... or at least made them give up arguing. It may have helped that Lacoste had already started the ritual and drunk the hallicinogenic mushroom brew before telling them his plans for a slightly more ambitious 'look-see'. Stopping without inviting some sort of magical catastrophe didn't seem like an option any more. Granted, a much smaller disaster than going through with his Captain Crazypants stunt and failing, but it's amazing how little difference the size of the 'blast radius' makes to people standing at ground zero. So I guess now they're hunting Cthulhu. Or whatever frozen cousin of his lives in a dreamscape version of the Antarctic, deep within a fantastic analogue of Lake Vostok.
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01-19-2019, 02:44 AM | #119 | |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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01-19-2019, 03:14 AM | #120 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: [MH] Vile Vortices and Supernatural Threats
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Working in the PCs favour is the fact that Alice Talbot, who acted as the lead caster, has Ridiculous Luck and Serendipity.* And the PCs might have other, unknown allies, as Something must have informed Ms. Talbot (who was sleeping when the other PCs started to prepare their ritual) of the intention to visit the dreamscape of 'Gwen Delvano'. For that matter, for someone who just yesterday knew nothing at all about Ms. Delvano and her fellow cultist/kidnapper, 'Janus Eremus', the Man With the Unfortunate Look, Ms. Talbot suddenly has a lot of unexplained information about the Lords of the Last Waste. At the bare minimum, Ms. Talbot must have prophetic dreams or receive visions of some sort. Which means that the unwise ritual and their extremely hazardous journey might be somehow Meant. Which is no doubt a source of great comfort to the other three PCs, all of whom are somewhat subject to a sense of Destiny, being, after all, Heroes of (soon to be) legendary proportions. The fact that Ms. Talbot initially tried to stop the ritual and was only reluctantly convinced that it was too late, whereupon she suddenly agreed to participate, is less comforting. As is the fact that she does not project the serene calm of the Prophet or Chosen One secure in the woven patterns of Wyrd. She seems terrified, in fact. *Why, yes, she is in fact suspected of some portentous origin and probably is the subject of any number of prophecies. Not that the PCs have had time to check and she has been very unforthcoming about reasons why anyone would think she is special, but the players recognise the signs, not the least of which is that the other players are happy to show each other their character sheets, but Ms. Talbot's player is keeping his GCA sheet a dark secret. Mousy, Hollywood-homely assistant librarian is sought for unclear reasons by more than one cult? It's either a Chosen One situation or an Omen one. The Girl Who Lived or the Antichrist. In either case, we're talking Destiny.
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! Last edited by Icelander; 01-19-2019 at 05:00 AM. |
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ken hite, modern, monster hunters, suppressed transmission, vile vortices |
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