Author Topic: Game Fodder / Story Fodder  (Read 724272 times)

Gorkamorka

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #870 on: May 01, 2016, 10:38:15 AM »
So here is one that just showed up in the Icelandic media

It turns out that the "Hidden Treasure of the Templar Knights"TM is hidden in the Icelandic highlands...
...Well at least that is the opinion of the Italian cryptographer Giancarlo Gianazza.  And he's not just talking about it.  He's been mounting digs since 2004 and is coming back this summer.

I can imagine  at least 5 different ways to use this in game.

Some articles:
http://www.historicmysteries.com/the-holy-grail-in-iceland/
http://stuckiniceland.com/icelandic-culture-and-people/finding-the-holy-grail-in-iceland/

Some great images to use in the game:
http://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/g145/photos-of-giancarlo-gianazza-iceland-expedition/?slide=12

A kickstarter for a documentary about the dig (Finished)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1388145683/finding-thule/description

Example of "Evidence"


EDIT: Some more decoding of the painting above. including how they are spelling out 14/3/1319
https://web.archive.org/web/20110303231822/http://www.gopfrettir.net/GiancarloGianazza/200611HeraMag.htm



« Last Edit: May 02, 2016, 04:24:45 AM by Gorkamorka »
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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #871 on: May 01, 2016, 04:32:53 PM »
those lines don't match up to anything in the paintings at all.

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #872 on: May 01, 2016, 04:38:26 PM »
This looks like the kind of shit I would toss in front of my players in a conspiracy game to throw them completely off the scent of the real mystery.

Gorkamorka

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #873 on: May 01, 2016, 05:02:31 PM »
those lines don't match up to anything in the paintings at all.

Can't you see where the angel is pointing? You're just in denial. :-)
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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #874 on: May 01, 2016, 05:36:35 PM »
"It's all there!  Can't you see?!  I am the chosen!  I have been shown the way!" 

Shicheng, "Lion City" the rediscovered flooded city lost in 1959.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140711-chinas-atlantis-of-the-east] [url]http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140711-chinas-atlantis-of-the-east[/url]

Also, this German forklift safety video because goddamn.  Makes Coronet look downright pleasant.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7lYmr2fPs

Radiodurans, the bacteria that can survive in the slagged remains of Reactor Number 4. 

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/07_02/deinococcus.shtml
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balhaza

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #875 on: May 02, 2016, 01:47:38 AM »
God I love this thread.  I need to like the source but this is something of a CoC idea.

In 1946, two scientists in France, Nancy investigated the family history of a certain Madame B. Their findings were published in a scientific journal. They found that throughout all of Madame B's extended family, they only ever had girls, never boys. Madame B's mother had 10+ girls, and her grandmother too only bore girls. Her relatives, cousins and aunts, only had girls. Despite the expected probability of male vs female = 50%, Madame B's family was 100% female.

In certain animals and plants, there exist a mechanism colloquially called the male killer gene. It is posited that this gene is expressed so strong within Madame B's lineage that all sperm carrying the Y chromosome are either arrested in early development or killed outright. Many animals with such male killer genes also experience parthenogenesis, aka virgin birth, a female giving birth/laying eggs to females. Sadly, Madame B's eldest sister, a celebrate nun for most of her life, did not give birth to a daughter.

Source to come.


Chris

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #876 on: May 03, 2016, 12:22:04 AM »
God I love this thread.  I need to like the source but this is something of a CoC idea.

In 1946, two scientists in France, Nancy investigated the family history of a certain Madame B. Their findings were published in a scientific journal. They found that throughout all of Madame B's extended family, they only ever had girls, never boys. Madame B's mother had 10+ girls, and her grandmother too only bore girls. Her relatives, cousins and aunts, only had girls. Despite the expected probability of male vs female = 50%, Madame B's family was 100% female.

In certain animals and plants, there exist a mechanism colloquially called the male killer gene. It is posited that this gene is expressed so strong within Madame B's lineage that all sperm carrying the Y chromosome are either arrested in early development or killed outright. Many animals with such male killer genes also experience parthenogenesis, aka virgin birth, a female giving birth/laying eggs to females. Sadly, Madame B's eldest sister, a celebrate nun for most of her life, did not give birth to a daughter.

Source to come.


Chris

Didn't find anything on Madame B with a five second pubmed search but these links might be helpful

PLOS  Intergenomic Arms Races: Detection of a Nuclear Rescue Gene of Male-Killing in a Ladybird

http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1000987

The abstract states that some proteobacterium infection of ladybirds (Cheilomenes sexmaculata) can lead to male-killing. Authors suggest that they have presented evidence that the genome of the ladybird host has adapted by maintaining a mutant gene that suppresses the proteobacterium induced male-killing phenotype.


Here is a PNAS review on "Selfish genetic elements, genetic conflict, and evolutionary innovation." (2011)

http://www.pnas.org/content/108/Supplement_2/10863.full.pdf


In a slightly more macro view, there is a very good scifi-horror short story "The Screwfly Solution" written in 1977 by Alice Sheldon.

The genesis of the story was the concept of the "sterile insect technique" in which eradication of a species of pests (screwflies) was attempted by introducing a large number of infertile males to a breeding population of screwflies.  Essentially the scientists are hoping to reduce the pest population by flooding the market with dominant negative males and expecting that in the short generation time of screwflies not enough viable progeny will be born, thus causing a population crash.


Alice Sheldon applies this idea to humanity. It's a gripping and visceral story. Also won a Nebula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution. 




trinite

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #877 on: May 08, 2016, 05:21:59 PM »
As has been mentioned on other threads, a huge wildfire has just destroyed a whole bunch of the Canadian city of Fort McMurray: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36224767

So let's say a fire like that threatens a Delta Green containment site. The agents have to try their best to either move or protect the target as the fire rapidly encroaches.

So basically, Lover in the Ice but with fire. And on a consequently very fast time table.
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balhaza

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #878 on: May 08, 2016, 06:12:49 PM »
Just throwing this here for Ithaqua lovers. I'm sure some of you would have known of this incident already but I love the 'science' part that perhaps tries to justify the bizarre deaths at Dyatlov

https://m.curiosity.com/memes/the-horrifying-mystery-of-the-dyatlov-pass-incident-curiosity/?utm_source=facebookScA&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016q2xxfbk03ScAldyatlovincident

Perhaps a recording studio had a strange blizzard indoors. And no one knows wtf happened. Perhaps it's the infrasound recording the folk band recorded when they went to record live in the Alaskan wilds. Perhaps that infrasound was the voice of Ithaqua.


Chris

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #879 on: May 11, 2016, 04:50:19 AM »
More CoC/Delta Green ideas ripped from the headlines.

An unfortunate tragic accident on a festival day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/world/asia/india-temple-fire-kerala-fireworks.html

APRIL 10, 2016  Paravur, India; Kollam district

Fireworks Disaster at Kerala Temple Kills 106 in South India

Quote
MUMBAI, India — A series of explosions early Sunday caused by a fireworks display during a religious festival at a temple left 106 people dead and hundreds more injured in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the local authorities said.

P. T. Chacko, a spokesman for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of Kerala, said that the fireworks display had been specifically forbidden by officials in the coastal district of Kollam but that the Puttingal temple had gone ahead anyway.

One of the devices landed in the building where the fireworks were being stored, setting off explosions that leveled several buildings, killing and injuring people, K.Hari Kumar, a fire officer at the scene, said in a telephone interview.

“Fragments of the building with huge pieces of burnt crackers were flying all over,” said Rajendran, 36, a mason who goes by one name. He had traveled with friends from his village 20 miles away to attend the festivities, which marked the start of the new year on the Hindu calendar.

“We all started scrambling for a safe place,” Mr. Rajendran said by telephone from his bed in an intensive care unit at the nearby Holy Cross Super Specialty Hospital, where he was taken with broken bones in his face and in one arm. His friends were so badly burned, he said, that he did not know if they would survive.

Public safety is a huge problem in India, where weak governance frequently results in the flouting of safety rules, leading to large numbers of fatalities. At least 26 people died and 89 were injured when an elevated highway under construction collapsed in late March in a crowded neighborhood in Kolkata.

K. M. Singh, a former member of the National Disaster Management Authority and a retired government official, said public safety was not treated as a top priority. Punishments for violating safety rules are not a sufficient deterrent, he added, because cases drag on for years in the overcrowded courts, and in the end the accused often are not penalized.

“It needs a total mind-set change from top to bottom,” Mr. Singh said. “The situation will not change unless the government enforces the norms in a very undiluted manner and takes serious punitive action wherever there are violations.”

Fireworks have become increasingly popular at religious festivals in India, set off by children and adults in streets and in parking lots, as well as on temple grounds. Religious groups and temples, flush with donations, compete to create the loudest, brightest displays. Accidents are common, though the scale of devastation on Sunday was unusual.

Hours after the explosions on Sunday, the police in Kerala opened an official criminal investigation of two top temple officials, Mr. Chacko said. The two officials, P. S. Jayalal, the temple president, and J. KrishnanKutty Pillai, the temple secretary, could not be reached immediately for comment.

S. Chandrakumar, a police inspector in the temple town, said the police had begun investigations of 17 people, including the temple leadership, on allegations ranging from culpable homicide to violating the orders of a local authority.

Also on Sunday, the Kerala government ordered a judicial inquiry into the temple deaths, which must be completed within six months.

Mr. Chacko said 106 people had died and 383 others were hospitalized and being treated for burns. The medical officer of Kollam, Dr. C. R. Jaysankar, said many of the deaths occurred when pieces of concrete, knocked loose by the explosions, fell on members of the crowd.

Some of the dead were burned so badly that they were unrecognizable, according to a statement from Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, which received some of the first victims.

The explosions began around 3 a.m., and rescue operations were still underway as of 9:30 a.m., with some people still trapped, Mr. Kumar, the fire officer, said. The force of the explosions caused buildings and electrical lines to collapse as far as 50 feet away, he said.

Neethu Reghukumar, a CNN-IBN television reporter at the scene, said by telephone that the fireworks were being set off in a small area next to the temple, less than 300 feet away from houses, when high-intensity fireworks being stored in a concrete building inside the temple premises caught fire after one of the devices landed there. A huge explosion brought down the building, and an adjacent building also collapsed, Ms. Reghukumar said.

Many houses in the vicinity were damaged, their windows, doors and walls cracked, she said. The explosions also tore apart bodies, witnesses said in television interviews. One woman interviewed on CNN-IBN described finding human remains inside her house and on the roof.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi commented on the episode on Twitter, saying, “Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words.” Television stations showed Mr. Modi arriving in Kerala on Sunday afternoon and heading to visit the vicinity of the temple and victims in hospitals.

The Puttingal temple is about 40 miles from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram. Local residents believe that a goddess appeared on an ant hill that is now the site of the Hindu temple.

According to the the temple website, the temple is devoted to Devi.

At least that is what I understand. I'm not sure if "Devi" refers to "goddesses" in general or a specific Hindu goddess, or the Divine Mother.

http://puttingaltemple.org/
Quote
Puttingal Temple is a Hindu temple in the coastal town of Paravur, India.  The temple was founded after the presence of the goddess was experienced on an ant hill; "Puttu" being the Malayalam word for ant Hill.

The festival of this temple is on the "Bharani" star of Malayalam month Meenam.  Fireworks (Matsara Kambam) and other events associated with the festival (Aswathi vilakku, Kathakali, Kampadikali, Marameduppu) take place along with other cultural events.  Various poojas are performed and offerings are made daily for the fulfillment of desires and redressal of various grievances of devotees.

"Thottampattu", the most important offering in this temple, starts on the 21st day of Vrischikam (a Malayalam month falling in between mid November and mid December) and lasts till the principal festival of the Goddess.

Devi the Divine Mother

https://www.asia.si.edu/devi/whoisdevi.htm

Quote
Who Is Devi
The Great Goddess, known in India as Devi (literally "goddess"), has many guises. She is "Ma" the gentle and approachable mother. As Jaganmata, or Mother of the universe, she assumes cosmic proportions, destroying evil and addressing herself to the creation and dissolution of the worlds. She is worshiped by thousands of names that often reflect local customs and legends. She is one and she is many. She is celebrated in songs and poems.

Devi is all-important in Hinduism, but there are also forms of female divinity in Buddhism and Jainism. Today millions of Hindu men and women conduct regular pujas to Devi through one of her many manifestations. For some she is their primary deity while for others she is part of a greater pantheon. All Hindu goddesses may be viewed as different manifestations of Devi. In some forms she is benign and gentle, while in other forms she is dynamic and ferocious, but in all forms she is helpful to her devotees.

------------------
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 05:54:37 AM by Twisting H »

Twisting H

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #880 on: May 11, 2016, 05:54:55 AM »
Quebec teen discovers ancient Mayan ruins by studying the stars
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/quebec-teen-discovers-ancient-mayan-ruins-by-170620746.html

This young man is a legitimate genius.

Quote
A teenager from Quebec has discovered an ancient Mayan city without leaving his province’s borders.

William Gadoury is a 15-year-old student from Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, Quebec. The precocious teen has been fascinated by all things Mayan for several years, devouring any information he could find on the topic.

During his research, Gadoury examined 22 Mayan constellations and discovered that if he projected those constellations onto a map, the shapes corresponded perfectly with the locations of 117 Mayan cities. Incredibly, the 15-year-old was the first person to establish this important correlation, reported the Journal de Montreal over the weekend.

Then Gadoury took it one step further. He examined a twenty-third constellation which contained three stars, yet only two corresponded to known cities.

Gadoury’s hypothesis? There had to be a city in the place where that third star fell on the map.

Satellite images later confirmed that, indeed, geometric shapes visible from above imply that an ancient city with a large pyramid and thirty buildings stands exactly where Gadoury said they would be. If the find is confirmed, it would be the fourth largest Mayan city in existence.

“I didn’t understand why the Maya built their cities far away from rivers, in remote areas, or in the mountains,” Gadoury told the Journal de Montreal, explaining how he developed his theory.

Once Gadoury had established where he thought the city should be, the young man reached out to the Canadian Space Agency where staff was able to obtain satellites through NASA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency.

Scientists across the board have been blown away by Gadoury’s discovery.

“What makes William’s project fascinating is the depth of his research,” said Canadian Space Agency liaison officer Daniel de Lisle. “Linking the positions of stars to the location of a lost city along with the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation is quite exceptional.”

Being 15, Gadoury has decided to name the city K'ÀAK ‘CHI, a Mayan phrase which in English means “fire mouth.”

The next step for Gadoury will be seeing the city in person. He’s already presented his findings to two Mexican archaeologists, and has been promised that he’ll join expeditions to the area.

Says Gadoury: “It would be the culmination of three years of work and the dream of lifetime.”

The city hasn't been discovered yet, but in a Delta Green universe, guess who A cell sends along with the academic expedition.  Team Your Sorry Asses.

I'm also reminded of the "Orion correlation theory" regarding the position of the Great Pyramids at Giza.

Orion correlation theory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_correlation_theory

Quote
The Orion correlation theory (or Giza–Orion correlation theory[1]) is a hypothesis in alternative Egyptology. Its central claim is that there is a correlation between the location of the three largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex and Orion's Belt of the constellation Orion, and that this correlation was intended as such by the builders of the pyramids. The stars of Orion were associated with Osiris, the god of rebirth and afterlife, by the ancient Egyptians.[2][3][4] Depending on the version of the theory, additional pyramids can be included to complete the picture of the Orion constellation, and the Nile river can be included to match with the Milky Way galaxy. The theory was first published in 1989 in Discussions in Egyptology, volume 13. It was the subject of a bestseller, The Orion Mystery, in 1994,[5] as well as a BBC documentary, The Great Pyramid: Gateway to the Stars (February 1994), and appears in some new-age books.[6][7]

Anyway back to the main story.

Translated to English from http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2016/05/07/un-ado-decouvre-une-cite-maya

A teenager discovers a Mayan city



Quote
SAINT-JEAN-DE-MATHA | A Quebecers 15 years has discovered a new Mayan city hitherto unknown with his theory that civilization chose the location of its towns in the form of star constellations.

William Gadoury, a teenager from Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, became a small launch to NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency, while his discovery is about to be disseminated in a scientific journal.

Passionate Mayan for several years, he analyzed 22 Mayan constellations and realized that if he connected on a map the stars of the constellations, the shape of each corresponded to position 117 Mayan cities. No scientist had ever found such a correlation between the stars and the location of the Mayan cities.

The genius of William, however, was to analyze a 23rd constellation. It contained three stars and only two cities matched on the card. According to his theory, so it should be a 118th Mayan city in a remote and inaccessible location in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

One of the 5 largest cities

Analyses from satellites in different space agencies have revealed that there was indeed a pyramid and thirty buildings at the precise location identified by the young man.

The Journal had access to satellite images which we see different structures of what may be an ancient city. "Geometric shapes, such as squares or rectangles, appeared on these images, forms that can hardly be attributed to natural phenomena," says remote sensing specialist at the University of New Brunswick, Dr. Armand LaRocque.

Not only he would have discovered a new Mayan city, but it would be one of the five largest.

"When Dr. LaRocque told me in January, we distinguish a pyramid and thirty structures, it was extraordinary," said the young man.
He named this lost city K'ÀAK 'CHI' or 'fire mouth "in French.

"I did not understand why the Maya built their cities away from rivers, on marginal lands and in the mountains, said William Gadoury. He had to have another reason, and as they worshiped the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities. "

He wants to go

For now, no one has yet delivered in the jungle to see the fiery mouth.
William spoke to two Mexican archaeologists to whom he presented his work, but these are not made there.

"It's always about money. An expedition costs horribly expensive, "said Dr. Armand LaRocque.

Archaeologists have promised William to bring in their excavations. This is the greatest wish of the young man.

"It would be the culmination of my three years of work and the dream of my life," he said.
 
The stars gave him the key
 
William Gadoury was interested in the Maya after the publication of the Mayan calendar announcing the end of the world in 2012.

Teen found 22 constellations in a Maya Codex Madrid.

By connecting the stars of the constellations to create forms and applying transparencies with the constellations on a Google Earth map, he found that this corresponds to the Maya cities of the Yucatan Peninsula.

In all, 142 stars to 117 correspond Mayan cities.

The brightest stars are the largest cities.

In addition, the method used by William works with Aztec civilizations, the Incas and Harapa India.

23rd constellation

He found in a Mayan reference book a 23rd constellation that was missing. By linking the three stars, he noticed he was missing a Mayan city on the map.
He shared this discovery with the Canadian Space Agency who provided satellite images from NASA and JAXA Japanese agency.

He also visited a hundred websites distributors of satellite images that allowed him to get hold of images dating from 2005, a year when a great fire devastated the region, which made them more visible vestiges of its lost city.

The impressed scientists

Experts and scientists are unanimous. The discovery of William Gadoury is exceptional.

"What is fascinating about the project of William, is the depth of his research. Linking the position of stars and the location of a lost city and the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation, is quite exceptional! "Has said Daniel de Lisle, the Canadian Space Agency. He also presented a medal of merit to the young man.

The space agency has contributed to the advancement of research the young man by providing satellite images that allowed him to find his lost city.

Not easy

Dr. Armand LaRocque, a remote sensing specialist from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton has played a major role in the analysis of radar images.
"The discovery of hidden human structures in the Yucatan jungle was not easy, but the use of satellite images, as well as the contribution of the digital image processing have helped identify these structures and to confirm their possible existence, although they were forgotten for hundreds of years. "

THE LOST CITY



Name: The Fire Mouth
Pyramid 86 meters
Total area of ​​80 to 120 square km
Location: 17 ° North 90 ° West
large network of alleys and streets
30 visible structures of space
4th largest Mayan city

NEED FUNDS TO GO TO BRAZIL

So far the school pay 100% of costs for the Expos-science (regional and national) William. For attending the International Science Fair Brazil in 2017, the Académie Antoine-Manseau has exhausted its budget allocated to science and can only provide 50% of costs. Therefore missing around $ 1,000 for it to get there.

People wishing to contribute to help William Gadoury to represent Quebec at Fortizina may do so by contacting the young researcher by email at: will_maya@live.ca


Further thoughts

Quote
In all, 142 stars to 117 correspond Mayan cities.

The brightest stars are the largest cities.

In addition, the method used by William works with Aztec civilizations, the Incas and Harapa India.

-Do any of the 25 stars that do not correspond to Mayan city locations correspond to a Mayan constellation that has a negative mythological connotation? Perhaps those "evil constellations" denote taboo pre-human ruins (or Atlantean, Hyborian, or  Lemurian) or even containment areas Mayan sorcerers used to seal away a great evil.

-What are these constellations and cities that are linked in Harapa India? 

-Perhaps a fictionalized version of an archaeological prodigy is actually Randolf Carter reborn (or reincarnated in an different timestream since Carter iirc was lost in time and space).  Perhaps Delta Green has to carry out a clandestine escort mission of the prodigy while trying to sabotage the academic expedition to the newly discovered fifth largest Mayan city WHILE the Fate (Nyarty hates Carter) sends a sorcerorous kill team to assassinate the young prodigy before he does something mystically important.

-Now I'm thinking of Laird Barron's Children of the Old Leech stories and the Outer Dark.

There are large "empty" areas in space where galaxies are statistically few and far between.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2015-04/20/cold-spot-background-radiation-solved-supervoid

Mystery-busting 'supervoid' is largest object in the Universe

Quote
Astronomers in Hawaii may have solved a mystery embedded in the background of the Universe, by identifying the largest single object in existence.
...

Successive temperature maps of this cosmic microwave background (CMB), including those produced by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and the European Space Agency's Planck satellite, have found the unusual spot in the southern galactic hemisphere, in the constellation Eridanus.

Its existence is a problem, because statistically the spot sits far outside the standard fluctuations in temperature in the CMB anticipated by standard physics. Explaining it has been a matter of either starting again with the basic physics of the Big Bang, or finding something very, very large in between Earth and the CMB -- such as a supervoid, which is an empty region of space in which galaxies are much more rare than they are elsewhere.

The myth behind the constellation Eridanus

http://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/eridanus-constellation/

Quote
In Greek mythology, the constellation is associated with the story of Phaëton (or Phaëthon), the son of the Sun god Helios and the Oceanid Clymene. Phaëton wanted to drive his father’s chariot across the sky and kept begging for Helios’ permission to do so until the god agreed, advising Phaëton to follow the beaten track where he saw wheel marks.

Phaëton mounted the chariot and the horses, sensing that the driver was lighter, flew upwards into the sky, leaving the familiar track behind. The inexperienced driver could not control the horses and the reins slipped from his hands. The chariot plunged so close to the Earth that lands caught fire. It is said that this was how Libya became a desert, Ethiopians got dark skin, and the seas dried up. Zeus saw what was going on and had to intervene to prevent further disaster. He struck Phaëton down with a thunderbolt and, when Phaëton’s hair caught on fire, he leapt from the chariot and fell into the Eridanus. His father Helios, stricken with grief, did not drive his chariot for days, leaving the world in darkness.

The Greek poet Aratus called the constellation Eridanus, while a number of other sources including Ptolemy referred to it as Potamos, which means “the river.” Eratosthenes associated the celestial river with the Nile, the only river that runs from south to north. Hyginus, a Latin author, agreed, pointing out that the bright star Canopus in the constellation Carina lay at the end of the river much like the island Canopus lies at the mouth of the great river in Egypt. The actual constellation, however, represents a river that runs from north to south. Later, the river came to be identified as the river Po in Italy by Greek and Latin authors.

The name Eridanus, according to a theory, comes from the name of a Babylonian constellation known as the Star of Eridu (MUL.NUN.KI). Eridu was a Babylonian city held sacred to the god Enki-Ea. Enki-Ea was the ruler of the cosmic domain of the Abyss, usually imagined as a reservoir of fresh water below the Earth’s surface.

This is all too fucking convenient that the location of a constellation related to myths of "darkness" in two cultures contains a supervoid.  Fiction writers, mine this coincidence for ideas please.

Now as I understand it there are other voids in the universe. Perhaps if the location of these voids is charted on the Earth using a civilizations "constellations as city planning locations" as a reference the voids corresponding Earthly locations are places of great evil or great chthonic darkness.

In a Larid Barron's mythos naturally these could be locations detailed by The Black Guide where the Children of the Old Leech gather.

Lots to play with here.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 06:03:56 AM by Twisting H »

trinite

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #881 on: May 11, 2016, 10:25:07 AM »
Cool stuff, Twisting H.

A little closer to home, by which I mean right in the RPPR hometown: A billionaire is digging for hidden caves beneath his golf course.

http://www.topoftherock.com/sinkhole

Quote
"A treasure hunt is underway and we hope to one day discover a new natural wonder lying below,” said Johnny Morris, who has been overseeing the big dig. “It’s been an exciting few months here at Top of the Rock and we hope the best is yet to come.”

The sinkhole’s near-vertical collapse was characteristic of those in close proximity to cave formations. Water from the sinkhole drained out a cave located approximately one mile away that Morris personally discovered 23 years ago leading him to believe the two may potentially be connected by a long cave system.

The excavations may reveal answers to a mystery that has intrigued Morris for many years dating back to the discovery of a small cave decades earlier. Morris' exploits into the cave were documented through family photos and a National Geographic feature story in April 1998.

Morris first discovered the cave – dubbed John L's Cave -  in 1993 on a walk with the property’s former owner Dr. M. Graham Clark when the two came upon a natural spring. Johnny started excavations and five years and several dead ends later, they revealed a cavern home to beautiful rock formations National Geographic magazine described as, “an underground chapel.”

Though John L's Cave extends about one hundred yards before large formations block further passage, Morris always wondered if it was linked to a more comprehensive underground system. After water rushed out from the mouth following the sinkhole implosion his interest was renewed and the treasure hunt was on once more.

Could be a more Dresden Files/Ozark Obelisk-oriented story seed, but of course rich people digging up subterranean secrets is a pretty nice Lovecraftian trope, too.
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Tim

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #882 on: May 11, 2016, 12:02:34 PM »
Could be a more Dresden Files/Ozark Obelisk-oriented story seed, but of course rich people digging up subterranean secrets is a pretty nice Lovecraftian trope, too.

Or batman.

Gorkamorka

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #883 on: May 30, 2016, 12:22:32 PM »
Some retired member of the Baader-Meinhof group have come out of retirement to rob armoured trucks...And failed...Twice.

How can you not make this into an game.  It has Delta Green and/or Fiasco written all over it.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/30/europe/germany-baader-meinhof-robberies/index.html

EDIT: I failed to mention the grenade launcher and the automatic guns.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2016, 02:40:26 PM by Gorkamorka »
Gorkamorka (Fridrik)

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Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« Reply #884 on: May 30, 2016, 02:19:50 PM »
Fuel for thought in an economics/business game that might be applicable to Red Markets, but one of the largest investment firms in Poland has its roots in a bunch of students smuggling used West German electronics into communist Poland on their weekends. The West was updating its tech and wanted rid of the older models, whereas the communist states had barely anything electronic, so the students were running things like Commodore 64's and flogging them in street markets at a 50% profit (and a 10 hour round-trip).

It makes me think of a job for a Recession-based group, where they're getting stock piles of things the Recession aren't using any more (say, Suppressin reaching its use-by date, or old but functional electronics) and heading out into the Loss, in an inversion of the typical game model, to sell to nearby enclaves.