Real-Life Weirdness

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by Anders

Mural of a spider-god wielding knife unearthed in Peru.

I see nothing bad happening from thi... oh my God! THE SPIDERS! THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

Paging J. Michael Straczyski - Mr. Straczynski, please come to the white courtesy telephone. We have a call holding from a Mr. Ezekial.

[William]

Poveglia, Italy - a small island in the Venice lagoon, with a few partially-standing but decrepit structures, and absolutely brilliant for your horror/supernatural game.

*) Abandoned in the 1300s due to war, and mostly unrepopulated when the existing buildings were reduced to ruins.

*) Used as a plague island -- basically a death sentence to be sent there. Hundreds of people a day were said to die there, cremated and the ashes scattered.

*) Site of battles during the Napoleonic era after it was used as a weapons depot.

*) And of course after all of this a mental hospital was opened there in 1922. The poor inhabitants would frequently insist that they were seeing the ghosts of the plague victims. Supposedly medical experiments were performed there -- lobotomies and the like -- and the head doctor threw himself from the bell tower of the old church there, claiming the patients had driven him mad.

The mental hospital closed after this event, in 1968, and since then the island has been completely deserted. The locals regard it as haunted and evil beyond description, and even fishermen avoid the surrounding waters.

Good gaming to you...

[Michele]

Originally Posted by William

*) Used as a plague island -- basically a death sentence to be sent there. Hundreds of people a day were said to die there, cremated and the ashes scattered.

Heh, maybe a part of them. On the Western end of the island, there was (is?) a tombstone dated 1793, with "Do not dig. Infected in life and dead rest [here]". Probably the buried are one and the same: first infected while alive, then dead. One hopes.

Interestingly, notwithstanding the high potential for tourism, two development projects are currently stopped dead in their tracks by bureaucracy and lawsuits (or something else).

[L.J.Steele]

Rise of professionalized grave robbing in China. Really, the adventure practically writes itself.

https://www.economist.com/china/2021...e-professional

[cptbutton]

Asteroids that smash directly into Earth’s surface can cause extensive damage, but, as new evidence uncovered in east Antarctica suggests, asteroids that explode on entry can be equally devastating.

Antarctica Got Blasted by a Powerful ‘Airburst’ Event 430,000 Years Ago

Obviously this was when the Ancient Atlantean Civilization was destroyed.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Antarctica Got Blasted by a Powerful ‘Airburst’ Event 430,000 Years Ago

Obviously this was when the Ancient Atlantean Civilization was destroyed.

Guess that answers the Tunguska question once and for all too.

[Fred Brackin]

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/ma...l-perfect-game

"Illinois man puts dad's ashes into bowling ball and rolls perfect game."

No mention of the Shoveler, the Blue Rajah and Mr Furious were watching.

[L.J.Steele]

5,000 year old fingerprint found in Scotland.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...and-180977602/

I'm trying to persuade someone to run it thru AFIS to see if there's a Highlander out there.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

I'm trying to persuade someone to run it thru AFIS to see if there's a Highlander out there.

Wouldn't it be a lot faster just to hang out in Madison Square Garden until you sense him in the parking deck?

[Anaraxes]

In Southern California, there's a bubbling mud pot which is apparently unique in that it moves, leaving a trail of devastated terrain in its wake. It also emits toxic and suffocating gases. It began to menace a road, train track, natural gas pipeline, but engineers were unable to stop it. No one really knows why it behaves so oddly, or when it might stop.

Which is, of course, why you want to use the details in your game, wrapped around a setting-appropriate cause. Perhaps a natural hazard for a new colony (space or historical) that doesn't have a lot of engineering resources. Or a fantasy game has an immediate option for appeasing earth elementals or contacting kobolds (not the D&D sort, the earthy kind) to barter for their aid in saving the village. Is it a mad scientist run amok in your Weird West game -- or worse, the remains from the old Indian burial ground have begun their march for revenge?

YouTube video, ~11 minutes for pictures, background, etc.