Real-Life Weirdness

[William]

Natural Trap Cave is a limestone sinkhole in the Wyoming mountains. Its opening is a hole about 15 feet wide at the top, leading down 80-ish feet to a cave about 120 feet wide. This makes it almost impossible for an animal that falls in to (a) survive the fall or, if it does, (b) climb out. There is a pile of bones about 30 feet high at the bottom, a rich trove for paleontologists. Water drains out, so it doesn't fill up.

Nice site if you need some natural necromantic energy, or a place sacred to the the morally defensible side of death powers. Throne room of the Vulture King? Or maybe you just need a few hundred cubic feet of ancient (and some extinct) animal bones in a hurry, from rabbits to cheetahs to mammoths.

[Polydamas]

A wealthy collected in Kiel has kept a Panther tank in his cellar since at least the 1970s. In our world the cannon is disabled and the police found it first, but in a game world neither of those has to be true.

He also had an 88mm FlAK on its wheeled carriage just in case he had to shoot down some really big pidgeons.

[Anders]

Have you seen the cult movie "Nosferatu" from the early 20th century? Someone broke into the director's grave and stole his head.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Anders

Have you seen the cult movie "Nosferatu" from the early 20th century?

Yes, I'm one of I think the relatively few. Truly creepy, and far closer to actual vampire lore than the 'romantic' version.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

Yes, I'm one of I think the relatively few. Truly creepy, and far closer to actual vampire lore than the 'romantic' version.

Other than inventing that whole burst into ash when exposed to sunlight that all future vampires (sparkly vampiric fey not included) seem to have.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

sparkly vampiric fey not included

(Emphasis Mine)

... you've just turned my whole mental picture of Twilight on its head. Boom. Just like that.

[Flyndaran]

Tragic, pretty, humanoids that take unhealthy interest in, and feed off, living people is quite classic for vampiric fey. Sparkling is just so Victorian pixy it's hard not to make comparisons.

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Other than inventing that whole burst into ash when exposed to sunlight that all future vampires (sparkly vampiric fey not included) seem to have.

Not all. Saberhagen's vampires take damage from sunlight, but the old, tough ones like Dracula can stand direct sunlight for a while and overcast winter daylight practically forever.


Hans

[William]

Crime at sea is a classic plot, of course, but the second half of this article is an interesting setting: piracy in some regions has become so rampant that it is profitable for private entities to anchor ships stocked with weapons, armor, and mercenaries willing to provide security or respond to threats. The mercenaries are self-employed contractors; they pay the armory for lodging and transport to and from client ships.

The mercenaries often go weeks between jobs, which are high-risk and pay well; lodging is about $25 per night, but transport to a client ship can run into the thousands (you need it to get paid, don't you?). The lodging conditions are minimal and can be miserable: dirty, cramped, and full of aggressive men with little to do, competing for dangerous job opportunities. You're a long way from help, out of any country's jurisdiction, making ruthless pirate enemies with every life-or-death mission.

It strikes me that this is almost a dungeon-dive setting: figure your group of mercs leans toward the more corporatized, profit-sharing, less internal competition side. You get a call every now and then to rush off to a dangerous situation where you're expected to defend innocent life by violence, entering a friendly or enemy structure (ship) you don't know well, to search for and eliminate clear threats to life and/or property. The law is negligible, the authorities are impossibly distant, and the morality is stark. The survivors will get paid handsomely.

[William]

A multimillion-dollar antiquities smuggling ring is a nice plot hook for modern-day games, of course. This guy might not even have needed to smuggle if he were dealing in the years when empires looted their colonies before antiquities laws were passed.

An interesting side note: India is apparently full of older, smaller rural temples that are a bit shabby and are visited mostly on the bigger local holidays, guarded by maybe a fence and a lock on a chain, containing a few old stone and bronze idols...

...old, that is, as in a thousand years old or more, worth five and six figures on the international art market for someone who can pay a thief to pick them up on a day when no one is looking, smuggle them out of the country and falsify a chain of private ownership.

Originally Posted by nytimes

Today, the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Suthamalli is more or less abandoned. ... Mr. Gurukkal (ed. note: the priest) visits Suthamalli only on the most auspicious days to light small clay oil lamps in the temple’s empty chamber.

When told of the idols’ value on the international art market, his eyes bulged. Could it truly be that just one of the statues he had been visiting so casually was worth many times what he could hope to earn in a lifetime?

“I don’t know whether Kapoor will get punished, but they need to return the idols to us,” said Mr. Gurukkal, overcoming his surprise. “That’s all we’re asking.”