"American Colony Mysteries?" Topic

I am adding some horror flavor to my AWI/F&IW games…
But I need some new 'ideas' or 'inspiration' for them for scenario ideas.

Are there any good mysteries/horror/monster stories from that era?

I am aware of the Witch Trials of Salem and of the Roanoke Colony.

Any other good ones out there?
Thanks!

The Headless Horseman is slightly after Independence but might serve.

Well there's the back story to every Lovecraft tale that is set in New England. Then there's Native American myth and legend.

Supposedly lots of ghosts around Williamsburg, and the whole headless horseman tale is a good one.

lets not forget the Jersey Devil!

Any other "missing" colonies? Or "missing" groups of people (explorers/armies/missionaries/etc…)?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "House of the Seven Gables": just backdate it a few decades.

Many E.A. Poe stories likewise, except that they'll be too familiar.

The backstories of H.P. Lovecraft's, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "The Picture in the House", "The Shunned House", and other stories, as tobermoray says.

Allen

Presumably you've seen this?

PDF link

It's the free first chapter of the "Colonial Gothic" RPG, panned here:

link

Allen

Read Stephen King's "Jerusalem's Lot", not the vampire novel "Salem's Lot". Jeruasalem's lot is a short story "pre-quel" to the novel from the Night Shift collection of his short stories. It has nothing to do with vampires, but it's excellent. I am planning on gaming something based on this at some point.
link
Mongo.
PS-That witch hunter figure I traded you may figure in nicely with this in some way.

Gosh I wish I could remember the link but there was a series of Gothic type movies along those lines with story line begining in the era.
VR
James Mattes

Take the Solomon Kane stories and move them up in time a bit.

I used to have collections of folk tales from New England--full of spooky stuff. Check online or the library.

BTW Cuthulhu was here back then as well. :-)

Lovecraft indeed: "The Lurking Fear" link can easily be antedated enough and Copplestone 'yetis' would do good 'Martense' picture .

Crocodile Games have ‘Lovecraftian' {'Pickman's Model'} Ghouls link , doubtful (beastmen-looking, with weapons) Wendigos but a great 'Snow beast' picture .

The short-lived comic 'Revere' had the American hero turned into a kind of Van Helsing / Integra Hellsing: armchairgeneral.com/3549.htm : could esily be pushed backward in time to the FIW.

The TV series 'Wolf Lake' is set in contemporary times, but…
(vaguely remembering a rather similar story where a small, isolated village was exclusively inhabited by werecougars?)

Bigfoot? A whole tribe of? With a leader / 'deity' *almost* King Kong sized?

As a kind of joke: we know from the second movie that Predators were already visting North America by the mid 18th C….

Then one may find amusing 'observations' in Charles Fort's 'Book of the Damned' link that could be used as intriguing starting points for a 'mission'.

Related thread: recent:
TMP link
older but dealing with the FIW:
TMP link
TMP link

a series of Gothic type movies along those lines with story line begining in the era.

Hellraiser?

You should read the Patriot Witch trilogy set during the RevWar:

"From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. This spellbinding historical fantasy, first of a series, takes Proctor Brown, ready minuteman and reluctant witch, through the opening battles of the American Revolution. Caught between the demands of a loyalist girlfriend and the needs of his aged parents, Proctor is eager to join the American cause and put his hidden abilities to good use. As he learns more about witchcraft, he finds it employed by both rebels and Royal Marines, and he struggles to master his talents without being exposed. Finlay (The Prodigal Troll) provides enough well-researched minutiae of daily life in colonial America to make this a fine historical novel, while offering a magic-tinged view of the happenings at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill that impressively restores suspense and uncertainty to long-settled events."

link

Or you can be inspired by any of the eastern seaboard cryptids. link

The Gloucester Sea Serpent has possibilities. link

And I thought cavcrazy was making a hockey reference, but there is a Jersey Devil that sounds very good. link

The soap opera Dark Shadows had dozens of stories that happened back in colonial times (including Barnabus Collins being turned into a vampire).

May I suggest an area about 20 minutes from me called Dudleytown? Its not a lost colony but it has a failry dark rep starting in the 1700s here in Connecticut

I made a Cthulhu scenario years ago from its legend where the "Great Furnace" was actually a sacrificial altar to one of Nyarlthoteps many forms, etc etc. I mean how can you go wrong when the real name of the main road into the community is called The Dark Entry ROad? and the local legends are just fantastic

link

Google Dudleytown for further interesting legends and ideas.

Well, there was the Lee Major's movie where he and Vikings came to North America…

Probably a bit too far north, but "The Terror" by Dan Simmons about the ill-fated Franklin expedition, has certainly got some good ideas.
link
Robert Neill wrote some decent novels set in 17th century Stuart England about witches, such as "Mist over Pendle".
link

Washington Irving's Knickerbocker Tales cover more than the Headless Horseman. Try Rip van Winkle for starters, then mine out the rest of them.

Just what did happen to all those Indians who were living in New England, shortly before the Pilgrims arrived to find empty villages and piles of bones? Was no trace left behind?

I remember I think the series but can't find the posting. "Ginger Snaps Back: The Begining" set in 1815 Canada but easily adapted to F&I War. Here is a link:
link

VR
James Mattes

"Just what did happen to all those Indians who were living in New England, shortly before the Pilgrims arrived to find empty villages and piles of bones? Was no trace left behind?"

The un-spooky version is they caught measles, smallpox and such from fishermen off the coast. But you can say it was something supernatural if that floats your boat.

But you can say it was something supernatural if that floats your boat.

Dracula (or his cousin Nosferatu)… *extremely* fond of the taste of this new blood (precisely because it was not spoiled by anti-measles, anti-smallpox &c… antibodies). If you follow the 'logics' of 'Hellsing', any non-virgin human bitten turns only to a cannibal ghoul ('contagious' "I'm a legend" fashion, but not creating rival vampires)…

Then, what about the 'Mary-Celeste' link on Lake Champlain or one of the Great Lakes?
(who said the 'Deep Ones' of Innsmouth fame cannnot live in fresh water?)

For French and Indian war there are the tales of werewolves in Ontario and Northern Michigan (beasties were called the "Loup garou").

Then you can re-enact the Bete du Gevaudan / Brotherhood of the Wolf link in Canada (but instead of a Native American in France Oumpah-pah fashion, what will you bring in? A Senegalese from Goree?).

Native controlled wild animals like beastmasters and their packs.The earlier Bigfoot troop/colony suggestion sounds really cool.
oh and Zombies.

West Wind and a bunch of others make Scarecrows with which to terrorize fledgling farmers on the frontier ..I'm actually working on militia now to vanquish the Pumpkin King and his nocturnal minions, heroes from existing Sleepy Hollow ranges, rules from Vampire Wars I guess.

Werewolves and Will O'whisps (or rather Loups Garous and Feux Follets) and spirits of dead First Nation women are a refreshing break from the New England traditions.

"Ginger Snaps Back" is a hoot. Well worth looking for.

Allen

There was the Lost Colony of Roanake

There was the Lost Colony of Roanake

. . . which the OP mentioned.

Not strictly Colonial, but certainly adaptable, are the Silver John stories by Manly Wade Wellman. Set in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina, the stories feature many myths and legends that would be equally at home in Colonial America. These include:

o The Behinder, which no one has ever seen because it always attacks, fatally, from behind.

o The Gardinel, a Venus flytrap that resembles a log cabin.

o The Shonokin, a cat-eyed race of "people" who predate Indians in North America.

o The Raven Mockers, short dark old men wrapped in ragged wing-like black cloaks, who swoop down out of the sky to suck the life out of sick people.

o Various witches, warlocks, giants, ghosts, and other evil creatures.

Best of all, the Silver John stories are beautifully written. They really give a feel for the mountains of NC, and the people who lived there in the first half of the last century.

I found a Wellman bestiary online: link

Other NC mountain folklore that could be used in Colonial games include the Brown Mountain Lights, the Devil's Tramping Ground (or Stamping Ground or Stomping Ground), and Blowing Rock.

Some spooky Cherokee myths, including Blowing Rock, are discussed on this site: link

A *fact*: Cthulhu cultists did live in the colonies! link

Zombies? Of course: there were exchanges between the Colonies (British as well as French) and the possessions in the Carribean, thus a zombie-making Voodoo witch-doctor from Haiti or Jamaica is a possibility -and he would constantly be in a very, very bad mood because of the cold…

How about something mixed in with the Spanish? There was a Spanish mission down the road from Jamestown. It predated Jamestown as well.
Or the missing Spanish forts in North Carolina that were recently discovered. Predated the English settlements and could make for some fun.

richarDISNEY,
There are monsters similar to Bigfoot in the East, I believe the Pine Barrens in New Jersey is home to one such. Try googling up Pine Barrens Monster or just Bigfoot, narrowing your search to the Colonies.
Count Natokina.

Again richar,
You might do something with the place the Vikings called Hvitramannasland [not sure of the spelling]. Literally it means White Man's Land. It is mentioned twice IIRC in the Sagas as a place where the Skraelings are ruled by whites, presumably from the descriptions in the sagas, Irish monks who arrived centuries before the Norsemen. It could be located anywhere from New Jersey/New York [It was coastal] up to Newfoundland.
Count Natokina.

Rick James,
Where did you get that info???

Nathaniel Hawthorne featured a fictitious Witch-trial curse in HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES.

The biggest horror in Salem is you have to look very hard, from experience back in '93, to find any other beer than Budweiser. And Budweiser is definitely of no human shape.

Richard, if you are looking for a few touches of Indian mythology to add some flavor then perhaps these might help:

Jogah…little nature spirits, usually without human considerations, small forces of nature with intelligence and intent…Odhows (keepers of the restless dead…if they fail then the spirits come out of the ground to seek out the living), Gandayah (earth and growth spirits, help plants grow true and strong), Gahonga (water, river, and the rock spirits, dealing with the life within water)

Arendi wane…shaman of the Hurons, known for high magic

Hahgwehdaetgan…the destroyer in Iroquois mythology…brother of the creator god…I could see the shadows of this god being elements of curses and misfortune…let us say the shaman curses the white men for one reason or another and the tribe's men (or even creepier the kids :) are possessed by the shadows…black skin, eyes, they breathe out black smoke, and their touch steals life in measure (one second of grip/bite steals a year of life…permanently), if a person touched lives then there are common elements of whitened hair, grayed teeth, and blacked finger/toe nails left to show the effects of the touch.

Ya-o-gah and Gah-oh…Iroquois/Huron mythology…the great wind bear and the sleeper (Gah-oh is usually noted as the keeper of the wind bear, keeping him from freezing the world in an endless winter, in a great cave), the sleeper is usually noted as a young girl…the wind bear breathes winter.

Fastachee…small dwarfs that inhabit groves/fields…they are responsible for fermentation…known to be grumpy.

and the like :)

What about New England vampire plagues:
PDF link

Foundry just made available a whole regiment of anmated scrarecrows: TMP link
Btw the whole idea seems peculiar to English-speaking North America?

Deerwoman:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer_Woman

From the John Landis movie:

picture

While not actually contemporary, there's a film called "Eyes of Fire" about a small group of settlers led by an errant minister (and the wife of a trapper, who trails the group to reclaim his wife from the unsavory influences of the preacher) who make their place in a valley that is the sink of the spirits of man and beast that are disturbed or vengeful for wrongs done to them. It has some very unique images and an interesting resolution. The only recognizable actor is Fran Ryan ("Sister") who was Bill Murray's last cab fare in "Stripes" and has done thousands of other character parts. Check it out!

Speaking of Lake Champlain, don't forget about Champy:

link

Would largely require the same 'cast' of miniatures as TMP link , btw.

Colons for sure brought with them the European tales about the 'Chasse Gallery / Mesnie Hellequin / Wild Hunt' en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Hunt (attested in Quebec by the 17th C. link ) though they survived later only about a canoe link . The well known song 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' YouTube link partly reminds that same stor, -though without direr consequences than being submitted to a preaching!

Re. the deerwoman, we have in France a *very* old song about 'the white doe': a girl was doomed by the Fays to change to a white doe every night, she is tracked down, killed and eaten by her brother and his hunt of barons and princes… YouTube link
YouTube link

And of course, tales of 'magical' girls who do a swan skin to fly, or a seal skin to swim, and that you can try to seduce (?) by taking this skin away while they bathe / romp about in their 'pure' human form, are rather universal.

A song about the Chasse Gallery YouTube link (modern rendition: the song proper starts après 1".22 of 'Wild Hunt' sounds.

richar,
I don't know where RickJames got his info, but it was in either AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY or ARCHAEOLOGY magazine maybe three or four months ago.
Count Natokina.

I second Dudley town. I was there a few decades past. Not scary, just odd. The scary stuff is the nonsense lore that surrounded it. There is also the deamons who terrorized the town of Willimantic (dying frogs) The town uses frogs as their symbol. Newgate prison (then) might make an interesting locale as well.

Related game report: link
Note that if your zombies / ghouls / 'diseased' are highly 'contagious' 'I'm a legend / Resident Evil' fashion, some of your 'own' troops can be zombified / ghoulified / contaminated during a game; if their precious paint is protected by a good varnish, a few drops of blood-red water paint / child washable gouache (easily washed away afterward) at the throat and mouth can 'tag' them as 'transformed'.

the deamons who terrorized the town of Willimantic (dying frogs)

: very 'Fortean' link

Troops turning into zombies is more fitting in a zombocalyptic 18th century campaign. One does not become a zombie instantly you know ;)

One does not become a zombie instantly you know.

Sorry but I'm unfamiliar with the 'real' zombies (Voodoo –
link ?
With a tricorn or a straw slouch hat this one would be perfect: link ).

Anyway, while any gaming requires 'a willing suspension of disbelief', I have the greatest difficulties with the so-called 'undeads'. To be able to move and attack (otherwise, where would be the fun?) they need functional muscles, thus a functional circulatory system and heart, lungs to re-oxygenate the blood, a digestive system ans a liver to feed the muscles; a nervous system to command the muscles, a sensory system to spot and follow the preys, a central nervous system -decaying maybe, but still operational to coordinate the whole… The whole in rather bad state (specially for the 'slow moving / clumpsy' "undeads" of the Romero school) and probably wearing away -no hope of a very long survival). So, sorry, their 'humanity' may be dead, but their body is still alive, NOT a *corpse*. That's why I favor the 'Matheson model': a highly contagious disease transmitted by the bite. Once bitten the victim turns to a 'ghoul' (Hellsing OVA), 'zombie' (?) (Resident Evil), 'possessed' ([REC]) or 'vampire' (I'm a legend), name this as you will according to your cultural background, but it's all the same. The incubation period may vary with the importance of the bite and maybe the infectious strain, but is generally short enough for the 'transformation' to appear during an average game session.

Even for 'real' zombies I simply cannot think of 'animated corpses' but of victims of a death-simulating drug combined with suggestion / mesmerism / brainwashing…

Possible source of 'zombies': TMP link
turn round hats into tricornes, paint the eyes as 'traditional' zombies minis, add blood red at the mouth and throat..