"American Colony Mysteries?" Topic

related thread:
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Not specifically 'Colonial', but a very short story that I find (I can write it, it's not mine!) athmospheric and exemplary: link

Very recent relevant thread: TMP link

Animated Scarecrows?
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This seems peculiar to the USA -and an idea I'm specially not at ease with, given my preference for 'rationalist' explanations (re. my Dec.1O comment above).

I'm perfectly at ease with a 'flesh golem' such as Frankenstein's creature: a complete body with brain, heart, lugs… 'reanimated' with the electricity of the thunderbolt; nothing 'supernatural', typical Sci-Fi using 19th C. science in the same way as VSF players use 'Aether Wind' or anti-gravitational 'Cavorite' to travel from Earth to Mars.

But a 'twigs and straw' animated golem… this indeed *requires* a supernatural intervention; and a rather powerful 'sorcery', the 'puppet-master' having to 'tape' energy somewhere (twigs and straw require kilocalories to move), to provide the sensory input, to 'delegate' some minimal form of 'intelligence' to coordinate the actions, even if only reflexes and stereotyped behavioral sequences, to play the part of the general nervous system to have the limbs obey the orders of the (micro-)brain….
The simplest explication (and the one, I think, complying best to Ockham's Law ['Razor]) is to suppose that the scarecrow is 'inhabited' and animated by a captive ghost, spirit, imp, immaterial extra-terrestrial… (in the same ways as the statue of a deity can move -to crush sacrilegious intruders- when the deity embodies him/her/itself in the sculpture).

Wargaming-wise, scarecrows are probably harder to 'kill' than ghouls or zombies (the 'spirits' embodied in them being probably 'diffuse', not concentrated in a peculiar point that would become specially vulnerable?), but easier to disable -they are not *that* solid- so the overall effect may be identical?

[ Btw, all the 'creatures of flesh' -'ghouls' or 'zombies'- CAN be killed: if beheaded, the body falls and is immobile; they will not survive for long a severe wound in the heart / lugs area, &c… What gives the impression of quasi-invulnerability / immortality is that they ignore pain and have lost any reflex of self-preservation: when such a creature, after you deprived it of its arms and legs (yes, like the Black Knight in 'Holy Grail'!) keeps crawling toward you on its four stumps to bite and eat you, you cannot but panic and wonder if and how you could get rid of it!]

A peculiar problem with scarecrows is their potential flammability: of course their creator may have tried to make them, if not fireproof, at least less flammable? On the other hand the captive, enslaved, immaterial being inhabiting and animating a scarecrow can hope to be free if its material jail is reduced to ashes, so may fight this 'fireproofing' at the opportune moment?

An interesting question is: 'What becomes of his various 'controlled' creatures, ghouls, zombies, scarecrows… when their controller is killed? -or simply disabled / unconscious? (You'll ask: and when he sleeps? Well, either he has colleagues / apprentices to maintain the control, or he carefully put his creatures "off" before going to bed).

The answer varies with the type of controlled creature:
- with relatively fast and smart "ghouls" (I use the Hellsing nomenclature, as in my Dec. 1O comment above) they simply become more feral, attacking / biting / eating any human within reach, friend or foe; they may even attack ghouls of other 'packs' (a *great* idea in '30 days of night' was to give vampires the social structure and behavior of a pack of wolves);
- for "traditional /'true' zombies" -slow and moronic, clumsy flesh automatons- it can be diced individually: most will carry on what they were doing (if it was 'fighting', now it's at random, see the ghouls above); a few will move at random, scaring horses and disordering units they interpenetrate, but not fighting, except -but probably not, even in self-defense; a few will fall in total apathy.
- for scarecrows inhabited by immaterial captives, it's simple, their prisoners escape and each scarecrow is now a very ordinary, normal, immobile scarecrow.

An ancillary question: what happens if the 'controller' is severely distracted -stunned for an instant by the physiological shock of a severe wound, engaged in personal hand-to-hand combat, in rout with pursuers still in contact or still within, say, pistol range? I think he is at risk to losing control of some of his 'creatures': dice for each of them, for those now out of control see above. When the 'controller' regains his nerves and his mo longer disturbed, he can try to regain control -again dice, probably easy with zombies than with ghouls, impossible for scarecrows the evaded 'spirit' will not get back to its jail.

Twohour Wargames has a free scenario booklet claled 'Muskets and Zombies'. A nice little encounter type scenario.

Lenape indian legends & folklore:
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Munsee indian legends & folklore:
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this might be good:
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Conquest is about to release Eastern Woodland Indian zombies in 28mm…

Darkoath

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

Ginger Snaps? 1 & 2 are contemporary but the 3 ('Ginger Snaps Back') is set by Napoleonic times – but could as well be set during the FIW or AWI.

Abdul666lw,

LOL, maybe you aren't cut out to play games with logic defying zombies. Not a put down (I, myself, don't play zombie games for completely different personal reasons,) just an observation about "willing suspension of disbelief" – a tool often way overused indeed.

Gracias,

Glenn

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.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
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Abdul666lw, LOL, maybe you aren't cut out to play games with logic defying zombies.

*In my head* (regardless of the 'official' background / explanations of the game) I can easily make them 'logically acceptable' as brain-washed victims of voodoo witch-doctors: first a drug inducing apparent death (and with insufficient oxygenation for some time, the brain suffers irreversible damages), then a counter-poison and a seance of mesmerism / suggestion. The cannot be but very low and clumsy, and very, very single-minded.
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Well, I can easily make them 'logically acceptable' *provided* the minis depicting them are not in an advanced stage of decay…: link : then, I simply *cannot* believe they can stumble forward more than 3 paces before dying for good -would it be from terminal dehydration, without skin to protect their tissues….

As you read above, I'm even willing to 'rationalize' -will an additional dose of good will- *animated scarecrows*! And as an afterthought, they don't even require a 'supernatural' explanation. If, like the 'talos', the androids in Keyes' 'Age of Unreason', they are animated by a captive immaterial 'spirit', this last can well be an extra-terrestrial or even, like the 'Vitons' in E.F. Russell's 'Sinister Barrier' link be of terrestrial origin, so we get back to the Sci-Fi genre, easier -for me!- to 'rationalize'.

Btw, the 'Age of Unreason' series has much to commend, but the problem wargaming-wise is that, with the increasing intervention of the 'angels', you start with almost historical early 18th C. warfare and end in extravagant VSF; in the same way as in the 'Belisarius' series you start with quasi-historical 6th C. Byzantine and Indian armies and end with ACW ones….

Absolutely do Jersey Devil, It's been a long time (school days) but there is an account of troops shooting cannon at the damned thing. As I say it's a long time since I heard the tail but a general was involved in hunting it down.

link
check this out about Jersey Devil

'The Dog Soldiers' movie link could easily be transposed in FIW / AWI North America.

Read The Scarecrow Walks At Midnight and the Fear Street and Fear Street Sagas series by R.L. Stine. The Fear Street Sagas run from colonial times to the present.

Beat me to the Jersey Devil, but I'm surprised it took so long to get to.

There's Champie, or whatever they're calling the beastie in Lake Champlain nowadays.

And there's the Wendigo along with lots of other Native American folklore each tribe will have its own variations on the theme.

Will-o'-the-Wisps (swamp gas, supposedly, but then again, maybe not!)