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Lately I've found myself very fascinated with supernatural Americana. Not just Native American myth, but all sorts of folklore. Hill witches in the Appalachians, Old Scratch wandering New England and picking fights with respected lawyers, ghost trains, Joe Magarac the steel golem of Pittsburgh, Old Raridan and the Wolf Rock in Ohio, the Weird West.

So, I want to do a thread about that. ITT post any good US folktales or ghost stories you've heard, talk about any Weird West games you've played, anything you feel is relevant.
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Since this doesn't seem to immediately be getting anybody's interest, I'll try jumpstarting it with a few contributions of my own:

There are a number of recurring legends of lost ships in the deserts of California, ranging from Spanish galleons to ferry boats to viking longships. Just how they got there is never certain, but the idea of a hidden ship graveyard in the middle of the desert (and the idea that some of those ships might still sail the sands) is one I find that tickles the fancy.
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lurkin' in extreme interest
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Skinwalkers was a great American Supernatural read
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In the Ozarks and Appalachians, amongst the Canadian lumberjacks and woodsmen of the northern US, there was once a belief in bloodstoppers, men who could stop bleeding in humans and animals by supernatural means. The most common method was to walk east and recite Ezekiel 16:6, a Bible passage which reads:

>And when I passed by thee, and saw thee wallowing in thy blood, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee: In thy blood, live.
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>>23223077
In Wisconsin, we drink more alcohol than in any other place on the planet, and we sometimes have fits where we take off our clothes and wander out into the snowbanks, looking for places to die. It is during these alcoholic fits that we sometimes see some ghosts. Ghosts is scary as hell. I'm afraid of some ghosts. Bless me Favre for I have sinned.
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>>23223625
The usage of the bible or biblical-type incantations is similar to pow-wow magic and the Pennsylvania witch doctors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pow-wow_(folk_magic)
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>>23223676
>we sometimes have fits where we take off our clothes and wander out into the snowbanks
That's just a symptom of hypothermia.
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>>23223735
No, we crawl out of our warm homes and trailer parks to seek the softest snow to sleep in.
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Awwww shit, just found my book of Midwest ghost stories. Buckle in.
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http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/BoaWin.shtml
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>In southern Ohio, somewhere between Pike and Jackson counties, there is a high, flat-topped hill of granite. It was originally called "Great Buzzard's Rock" or, later on, simply "Big Rock." And it was the graveyard of wolves.

>Bones of hundreds of the animals law strewn on the hill's surface, and it earned its original name from the great flocks of buzzards floating in the skies above, waiting for fresh arrivals. Before the Revolutionary War, wolves in the region were of little concern to man. There were few people, and the occasional explorer shot a wolf only when it posed a threat. All that changed, however, as civilization edged into the fertile Ohio River Valley, bringing livestock and villages with it. Wolves had no place in the frontier settlements.

>The wolves of Ohio began to prey upon the livestock as pioneers killed deer for meat, diminishing the herds the gray beats had once depended on. In retaliation, the settlers started slaughtering wolves in great numbers. Every settlement pushed the the animals farther west.

>In about 1796 settlers began to notice one pack of several dozen wolves that followed a great shaggy beast who they came to call Old Raridan. How he got his name isn't known, only that he was larger and more powerful than his brethren, and was often seen prowling in the distance after his pack had killed a farm animal. He knew what guns could do, and always kept just out of range. He was a king among wolves.

>To avenge the increasingly frequent raids from Raridan's pack, groups of a dozen or so pioneers would set out after him, their hounds baying in pursuit. Although many hounds and wolves were slain, Old Raridan always eluded capture. His fatally wounded comrades sought out Great Buzzard Rock to lay their bones to rest; not even the bravest farmer dared follow a dying wolf to that place, nor would any tracking hound approach it.
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>>23224264

>As the fame of Old Raridan grew, so did the number of hunters seeking him out. Over time, the pack was whittled down to a few tough survivors, Raridan, and his mate. By 1801, it was rumored only Raridan and his mate remained.Vastly outnumbered, the cunning old wolf found even his skills and instincts were no longer enough.

>The hunters finally cornered the king and his mate in the low hills near the Ohio River. The wolves killed several hounds, but the she-wolf was wounded. Old Raridan would not leave her. The two turned in the direction of Great Buzzard Rock.The hounds held to the trail as the day-long hunt wore on. For every wound the dogs inflicted, one of their number lost his life.

>Finally, in the last skirmish, one of the hunters scored a good shot. The she-wolf dropped, a bullet in her heart, and the second shot destroyed Old Raridan's right hip in a shower of blood and bone. Great Buzzard Rock was visible in the distance. Old Raridan raised his ragged grey head, once majestic and unbowed, now a mass of bloody fur, and howled. The hunters could have had him, but they stopped in their tracks.

>From the top of Great Buzzard Rock floated an answer, the howls of a hundred dead wolves echoing from the bleached skulls that coated the Rock. It seemd to give Old raridan strength. He fastend his jaws on his mate's nape, and dragged her corpse into the bush, heading towards the hill.

>What is known of this final battle is based purely on legend. No hunters who were there that day ever spoke on the record. It is doubtful their tale would have been believed; something beyond human understanding had taken place in the wilderness.Old Raridan, though, is more than a folktale to those who have seen his specter prowling his old forest kingdom, though. When the moon is full his awesome cry still drifts on the wind across Great Buzzard Rock, and on its summit the shadowy form of the giant beast stand proud against the darkening sky.
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OP keep the stories coming, I'm highly interested
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A bit of music to set the mood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDA708XlFIo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx6FV2qR2TY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mynzbmrtp9I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4aaScgdXSQ
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>There was an old man who lived alone, in the middle of the forest. He had three loyal hunting dogs to keep him company on the long lonely nights. Nobody knew his real name, but most folks just called him Smitty. He loved hunting, fishing and the great outdoors.

>Years ago, Smitty had quit his job, packed his belongings and moved out to a a nice little cabin he had built himself way back in the woods. It wasn’t very big, but it was just enough for him. The cabin only had two rooms. One he used for a bedroom, and the other was a kitchen. He had built himself a nice big open fireplace where he could cook his food and warm his body on the chilly Winter nights.

>He planted himself a nice little vegetable garden by the side of the house and he would go out every day and hunt rabbits and fish. During the warm months, Smitty had no problem catching as much small game as he needed. But in the colder months, it became a little more difficult to keep his stomach full.

>One cold Winter night, the old man went out to his storage shed to see what he could find for dinner. All he found was a small piece of fatty meat and a handful of moldy potatoes. He had to make do with what was there so he cooked it and gobbled it down.
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>>23224588

>Smitty was still a little hungry, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. So despite the protests of his grumbling stomach, Smitty stoked the fire in the fireplace to keep the cabin warm and he went to bed.

>He was just about to fall asleep, when he heard something in the room. He opened his eyes and saw a shadow creeping across the wall. He slipped quietly out of bed and tiptoed into the other room. There, he saw the oddest looking creature he had ever seen. It was short and stubby, with pointed ears and short fat feet with long claws, and it had a long bushy tail.

>There were no open doors or windows, so Smitty was confused as to how the funny looking thing had gotten in. He quietly picked up his axe and, creeping silently over to the odd critter, he brought it down squarely on its big tail. The creature let out a loud screech and escaped through a big hole in the wall. The old man was left standing there with this long bushy tail and a bloody axe clutched in his hand.

>Smitty was about to throw the old tail out the door, when his growling stomach reminded him of how hungry he still was. So he took that tail, cleaned it, cooked it and ate it. the taste was fairly agreeable, and with his stomach finally full, Smitty got back into his warm cozy bed.
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>>23224632

>Smitty had just drifted off into a deep sleep when a strange sound awakened him. It sounded like something trying to scratch its way into the cabin. The old man knew that if he stayed real quiet it would probably go away. So he stayed as quiet as he could, but then he heard a strange, otherworldy voice hissing outisde.

>“TailyPo, Tailypo, I want my TailyPo!”

>Smitty thought he must be imaining things, but he heard it again.

>“TailyPo, TailyPo, I want my TailyPo!”

>Smitty jumped out of bed, flung open the door and called out to his dogs. They came running, barking and sniffing around, but they didn’t find anything at all. So Smitty put the dogs back outside and went back to bed.

>Sleep had just eased itself into Smitty’s body when he heard the voice again. This time, the scratching sounded like it was at the window. Whatever it was, it really, really wanted to get in! But the scratching seemed to be on two walls at one time. Smitty called out, “Hey, hey, hey, who’s that at my door? Get on away from heyeah!” Then he heard the strange voice again, only this time a little louder:

>“TailyPo, TailyPo, Where is my TailyPo?”

>Old Smitty, who wasn’t one to frighten easily, was getting a little shaky. He eased to the window and called to his dogs again. The three hounds bounded up to the porch and they sniffed around and barked, barked and sniffed, but they never found anything at all.
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this thread is already better than any thread /x/ has had for YEARS.
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>>23224684

>Smitty decided to stay up for the rest of the night to protect himself, his dogs and his little cabin. So he pulled a chair next to the fireplace, grabbed a blanket from his bed and settled in for the rest of the wind-chilled, wintry night. Sleep soon overtook him, and once again he dozed off.

>It was almost dawn when Smitty woke with a start. The sound of scratching seemed to reverberate from every area of the cabin. Smitty searched frantically for his ax, his rifle, or something to defend himself with, but he was so frightened he couldn’t find anything. The scratching grew louder and louder and louder.

>“TailyPo, Tailypo, Give me back my TailyPo!”

>Smitty yelled back, “Leave me alone, I ain’t got your TailyPo!” Then he called his dogs, but this time, the dogs didn’t come. He waited and waited, but still not one dog came running. Smitty had never been so scared in his life. He ran to his bed and jumped in. The scratching and the voice grew louder and louder and louder.

>“TailyPo, Tailypo, Give me back my TailyPo!”

>Smitty yelled back as loud as he could, “I ain’t got no Taily-Po, so why don’t you leave me alone and go on about your business? I ain’t never hurt nobody or nothing, just leave me alone!”

>The scratching seemed to be inside the house now and the voice was so loud it was deafening.

>“Tailypo! Tailypo! You took my TailyPo. Give it to me NOW!”
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>>23224762

>Smitty pulled the cover up over his head and stayed as quiet as he could, but the scratching was now in his room.

>“TailyPo, Tailypo, you better give me back my TailyPo!”

>Smitty then felt the thing scratching up the bottom of the bed and onto the cover. Smitty eased the cover down to see what was steadily approaching. Then he saw it – long as a man was tall, with pointed ears, fat feet with long claws and yellow eyes that gleamed in the dark. Before he could pull the cover over his head again, the thing pounced on his chest, looked straight down at him and said:

>“You got my TailyPo, and you better give it back to me NOW!”

>Smitty yelled, “I ate it! I ate your TailyPo, it’s gone!” And that thing started to scratch and claw and tear away at poor old Smitty, trying to get that TailyPo back. Smitty tried to fight back, but that thing was too strong and those claws were too sharp. Smitty’s screams echoed throughout the dark mountains, then stopped, leaving a chilling silence.

>After a month or two without hearing from Smitty, the folks who owned the store at the base of the mountain went up to his cabin to make sure everything was alright. When they got there, they found his cabin torn to shreds, but no sign of Smitty or the dogs. They searched the woods and called for them, “Smitty, Iknow, Youknow, Comptiko Callico!” But they never found a thing.

>As the search party was heading down the mountain, the winter wind began to blow and a strange voice could be heard saying, “TailyPo, TailyPo. Now I’ve got my TailyPo!”
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If I ever flesh out a wild cards setting I'm including these stories
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Joe Magarac's an outright fabrication, y'know. Polite sage.
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This might be cool for a roadtripping Unknown Armies game. The PCs are just a group of normal people with a van who are way over their heads.
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>>23224264
So is this place real because I live 20 minutes away from Jackson county.
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>>23225088

So are Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan. Who cares?
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Why don't you play the dead lands rpg, OP?
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>>23225402

This is a matter of some debate. There is a location known as Big Rock, and supposedly there's a rock formation there that, when the wind goes through it, makes a sound like a wolf howl. However, it is notably not covered in wolf bones.
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I always thought Centralia would make a good location for an urban fantasy setting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

It's a mining town, with a history of being home to a violent, pro-Irish secret society. In 1962 a fire started in a mine that ran under the town, causing sinkholes to open up the swallowed parts of it. The fire is still burning today, half a century later, letting of poisonous fumes. the town is abandoned save for a few holdouts.

I can totally see it in an old timey setting as well, as a location cursed by a witch, a forgotten hill town inhabited by mutants.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_runestone

And a related tidbit:

>Hjalmar Holand had proposed that interbreeding with Norse survivors might explain the "blond" Indians among the Mandan on the Upper Missouri River,[25] but in a multidisciplinary study of the stone, anthropologist Alice Beck Kehoe dismissed, as "tangential" to the Runestone issue, this and other historical references suggesting pre-Columbian contacts with 'outsiders', such as the Hochunk (Winnebago) story about an ancestral hero "Red Horn" and his encounter with "red-haired giants".

I live in Ho-chunk territory, so I know a little about the red-haired giants mythology.

>Red Horn
>The legend of Red Horn (also known as 'He Who Wears Human Heads as Earrings') is found in the oral traditions of the Pawnee (?), Ioway, and Ho-Chunk people (recorded by anthropologist Paul Radin around 1900). The saga of Red Horn depicts his adventure with Turtle and Storms-As-He-Walks (a thunderbird) who fight a race of red haired giants that have been killing Red Horn's people. Red Horn eventually took one of the giant women as a wife. Red Horn has been identified by archaeologists as one of the major mythic figures in Mississipian art, with numerous representations on Southeastern Ceremonial Complex artifacts. The mythic cycle of Red Horn and his sons has certain analogies with the Hero Twins mythic cycle of Mesoamerica.
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>>23223077
In North Carolina we had the Maco light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maco_light

Long story short, a car came lose from a train and was going to be hit by another one coming up the track. This conductor grabbed his signaling lantern and tried to warn the one that was coming. The other train didn't stop in time, so the poor bastard ended up decapitated in the crash. Ever since, his ghost would wander the track looking for his missing head by lantern light.

Also, the USS North Carolina in Wilmington is supposedly haunted as shit. I mean, just lousy with ghosts.
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>>23225973

Speaking of giants, one thing I find interesting about American folktales (especially the "Jack" tales) is that they often incorporate a lot of old world mythical creatures like giants, goblins, witches, trolls, dwarves, and even sometimes dragons, but they're all more earthy, rustic versions of the creatures. There's one American version of Jack and the Beanstalks where the the beanstalk is replaced by a giant cornstalk.

At the same time, you pretty much never see elves, fairies, nymphs, or any other beautiful and otherworldy beings. It's always the more "solid" creatures, often ones that live underground or have some association with hills and rocks.
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>>23226019

Ah, ghost trains and headless signalman ghosts. Those are Americana classics.
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>>23226019
My grandfather saw the light with his parents when he was around 10 years old. Unfortunately, you can't see it anymore because the railroad company tore the track up in the 70's or something.

He also told me about a road he used to take girls down. Something would tap, tap, tap away on the top of the car. You could stick your head out and look and there wouldn't be anything there but the tapping would continue.
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>>23223077
Is Mothman relevant?

Big, flying, silent as a ghost, red eyed thing that terrorized a town in West Virgina for a few days that just evaporated.
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>>23226330

I guess, though I generally associate him more with UFOlogy.
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>>23226234
Well, we do have our "fairy" stories. We've just re-flavored them into aliens. I've always been curious, is any country as alien crazy as the U.S.? Do they have their own equivalent of Area 51 or the Men In Black?
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>>23226394

Yeah, but they crop up way, way later. the stories about knockerman dwarves in coal mines or hill trolls in the Appalachians have been around for generations, but UFO stories didn't become really prominent til the space race.
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>>23226330
Don't forget how some people think he was an omen to the Silver Bridge disaster or maybe even caused it.
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>>23223552
>Skinwalkers
by who?
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>>23223077
I grew up my whole life in Pittsburgh and love my city but I have never heard of any steel golem.

>mfw when imagining some steel robot man walking around a smog covered Pittsburgh
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>>23226484
No, Anon. Skinwalkers are really sadistic Native American witches. The way it was told to me, they are the worst of the worst. They can control your mind and take any form they wish and all kinds of other shit.
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I live in New Mexico. Roswell, more specifically. Does that count?
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>>23226560
I know what Skinwalkers are, the sentence:
>Skinwalkers was a great American Supernatural read
Implies a book is being talked about, and there are multiple books named that. I'm looking for the author.
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We have some pretty cool mysterious creatures where I am from. Like the the Lizard Man and Boo Hags. I have always wanted to run a Delta Green adventure set here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizard_Man_of_Scape_Ore_Swamp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo_Hag
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>A preacher was riding to one of the churches on his circuit when darkness fell. It was about to storm, and the only house nearby was an old mansion which was reputed to be haunted. The preacher clutched his Bible and said: "The Lawd will take care o' me".

>He went into the mansion just as the storm broke. He put his horse into the barn and made his way into the house. The door was unlocked. He went into a large room which contained a fireplace that filled one wall. There was wood laid for a fire. He laid a match to it. Then the preacher sat down to read his Bible.

>Gradually, the fire burnt down to a heap of coals as the storm howled around the mansion. The preacher was roused from his reading by a sound. He looked up from his Bible. A very large, black cat was stretching itself. Then it walked to the fire and sat down among the red hot coals. It picked a coal up in its paw and licked it slowly. The cat got up, shook off the ashes, and walked to the foot of the preacher's chair. It fixed blazing yellow eyes upon him, black tail lashing and said quietly: "Wait until Emmet comes".
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>>23226714

>The preacher jumped from Genesis to Matthew in shock. He had never heard of a cat talking before. Nervously he kept reading his Bible, muttering to himself, "The Lawd will take care o' me."

>Two minutes later, another cat came into the room. It was black as midnight, as large as the biggest dog, and its ears were ragged and torn. It lay down among the red-hot coals, lazily batting them with enormous paws. Then it walked over to the other cat and said: "What shall we do with him?"

>The first cat replied: "We should not do anything until Emmet comes".
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>>23226731

>The two cats, black as midnight, sat watching the preacher, who read through the Gospels at top speed, aware of blazing yellow eyes watching him.

>A third cat, big as a tiger and missing an eye, entered the room. It went to the fire full of red-hot coals and rolled among them, chewing them and spitting them out. Then it came to the other two cats facing the preacher in the chair.

>"What shall we do with him?" it growled to the others.

>"We should not do anything until Emmet comes," the other cats replied together.

>The preacher flipped to Revelation, looking furtively around the room. Sweat beaded on his brow but he kept his eyes locked on the Bible's page.

>There was a loud creak from the other room, and then a crash. A fourth cat, big as an elephant, forced its way through the parlor doors, the frame splintering and cracking. It loomed over the others, and a jagged scar crossed its face.

>"Has Emmet come?" it rumbled.

>At this the preacher closed his bible Bible and stood up.

>"Goo'night cats. I is glad of yo' company, but when Emmet comes, you done tell him I been heah and went."
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>>23226695
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The Michigan Wolfman has always terrified me. I don't even live in the States, I'm in British Columbia. But just the idea of a wolf dude freaks me out.

Also Sasquatch, of which the highest concentration of sightings worldwide is an hour away from me.
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>>23226856
Damn, that is pretty creepy.
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>>23226519

>As the story goes, he was a sort of patron saint for steel workers. He lived at Mrs. Horkey's boarding house and was physically made of steel. He supposedly rose out of an ore mine, having allegedly been born inside—or on the outside of—an ore mountain, to help steelworkers, and he won the beautiful Mary Mestrovich's hand in marriage in a weight-lifting contest. But he allowed her to marry her true love Pete Pussick.

>He would appear out of nowhere at critical moments to protect the steel workers. One story goes that he showed up to stop the falling of a 50-ton crucible, set to fall on a group of steelworkers. His fate is debated as well. While one version of the tale states that he melted himself down in a Bessemer furnace for material to build a new mill, another states that he is still alive. The second version suggests that he is waiting at an abandoned mill, waiting for the day that the furnace burns again.
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>>23224588
>>23224632
>>23224684
>>23224762
>>23224941

I always wondered if there was any connection between the Tailypo story and the old legend of the Wampus Cat.

Man, what is it with the Southern US and creep-ass cats?
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>>23226714
>>23226731
>>23226815
I don't even want to imagine what Emmet was.

Then again, how dangerous could something named Emmet be?
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>>23226904
That story is retarded. Is this what the Iron giant was based off?
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>>23226966
That's the twist. Emmet was a dude with some whiskey and pizza, and he loves having houseguests, because his demon firecats get boring after a while.
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>>23226979

Have you never heard a Tall Tale before? they're all retarded. That's part of their charm. Pecos Bill used a rattlesnake as a lasso and rode on a mountain lion. Paul Bunyan had a huge fucking baby-blue ox as his pal.
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>>23226952
>Man, what is it with the Southern US and creep-ass cats?

I'm guessing it has something to do with cats being Witch Familiars.
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>>23227005
And a tornado, don't forget that.

Don't know why he bothered, considering his horse was strong enough to buck you to the moon.
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Here's an old one from northern Arizona:
http://arizonaoddities.com/2010/03/the-legend-of-red-ghost/

Basically we had a crazy demon camel that carried its dead rider while it killed people
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It's funny. Of all the Tall Tale characters I can think of, only two are based on actual folklore: Johnny Appleseed (who was also a real person) and John Henry. All the others, Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, Joe Magarac, have no such history, or there's clear evidence they were invented by particular writers.
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>>23227099

Camels? In Arizona?
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>>23227138

Really? That's the part of the story you're having trouble with?
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>>23227138

Yeah, it was a military experiment in the 1800's. The logic was camels worked well in the middle east, so they should work just as well in the south west.
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>>23227114

Don't forget Alfred Stormalong. He seems to have been the genuine article.
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all of this reminds me that I really should start reading American Gods; got it for Christmas but got busy
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Have you ever noticed how most RPG characters are sort of tall tale figures in their own right?

Think about it. You start off with some meager abilities, but as you level your stats, powers, feats, all of them become exponentially more ludicrous, until you're punching out demons and laying waste to armies. Your advancement is often completely out of proportion to the NPCs in the rest of the setting. At the same time, your legend/reputation grows, until people a couple of countries over are probably hearing tell of your deeds, and they're not sure which parts are made up.
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>>23226891
Nelson, BC reporting, yet another, Sasquatch sighting. Wolfman's got nothing on the 'Squatch.
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So, tall tales. You've got:

>Pecos Bill: Greatest cowboy

>Paul Bunyan: Greatest lumberjack

>John Henry: Greatest railroad worker

>Alfed Stormalong: Greatest sailor

>Joe Magarac: Greatest steelworker

>Johnny Appleseed: Greatest gardener

Are there any others in this vein? Is there a greatest farmer, or a greatest woodsman?
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>>23227372

In New York in the 1800s there was Old Mose, the greatest streetbrawler/gangster. Ripped a lamp post out of the ground and used it as a club.
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>>23227335

Just south of Duncan here.

I've been blaming most sightings of Sasquatch on drunk natives for years. Though I did see one once when I was at my buddy's cabin on Lake Shawnigan.
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So, if Old Scratch offers to play a game for your soul with you, and you pick a tabletop game, what game will it be?
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>>23227503
Black Jack
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Anybody ever heard of Nain Rouge, the red dwarf of Detroit? Supposedly he only appears in or near the city before events of great misfortune, and has been around since the city was settled.
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>>23227372
Man, that would be an awesome party.
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>>23227503

GURPS. Not because GURPS is inherently evil, but because it has so many rules and books a crafty DM could exploit. Man, the devil as your DM. Would he just throw you into scenarios you couldn't possibly survive, or would he find ways for you to fuck yourself up?

Also, what happens if your character in the game challenges a demon to a game of chance?
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>>23227503

Heh.

Played a man in Deadlands once who was a damn good musician. By which I mean, he'd got hisself damned to be that good. He could work tricks like a Huckster, but with a guitar, not cards. An' he couldn't be hurt by the "soul blast" power, cause his was elsewhere.
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>>23227540
Like a mythological dwarf or the ghost of a midget?
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>>23227554

Hmm. Who would be the mage? Johnny Appleseed? I guess he could function a bit like a druid.
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The rainbow crow is pretty cool.
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/09/rainbow_crow.html
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>>23227591
And John Henry is the Barbarian.
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>>23227586

Mythological. He appears as a small childlike creature with red or black fur boots and "blazing red eyes and rotten teeth." supposedly he attacked the very first settler of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who soon after lost his fortune.
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>>23227554

But who would they fight?
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>>23227625
>John Henry
>barbarian
>not Ranger with species enemy: machines
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>>23227586

Supposedly a red babboon looking motherfucker. So probably mythological.
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>>23227372
>greatest woodsman

Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett.
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>>23227625
>>23227685

No, no, no. Paul Bunyan is clearly the ranger. Dude's even got an animal companion.
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Here's an idea: Joe Magarac is Rabbi Loeb's Golem, having emigrated from the Old Country along with so many others and going from protecting them from Cossacks to protecting them from the Klan and the Black Legion.

Or, alternatively: Joe Magarac was discovered by two writers from New York, who brought him back and said he was from Kansas instead of Pittsburgh (its all the Midwest to New Yorkers) and gave him one of those fancy new science-fictional backstories in order to sell copy.
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>>23227752

Oh shit, NO WONDER the Nazis didn't find him!
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Also, the same way Britain has the LXG, whatever the American equivalent has gone through generations. Before Pecos Bill and Daniel Appleseed were Natty Bumpo and the Reverend Dr. Syn (the greatest hunter and pirate, respectively). Also Ichabod Crane.
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>>23227752
>>23227776

I'm now picturing him appearing one night on a Pittsburgh assembly line during WWII and building a hundred tanks and planes by himself. The other people there don't question it, and by morning, when he disappears, they wonder if he was real, only all the vehicles he built are still there.
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>>23227807

Ichabod Crane kinda sucked, though.
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>>23227591

In combat, Johnny Appleseed throws apples at people. En route, in mid air, the flesh falls off and the seeds grow into an entire apple tree, which then hits his target at about 90 miles per hour.
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>>23227776
Also, keeping in mind the Hebrew word used to animate the Golem in the first place, I'm pretty sure the Golem is Emmet >>23226714

>>23227843
Losing your head tends to give one a unique perspective on things. Also genderswap into a schoolmarm and consider a certain Dullahan from a certain animated series, and it might seem more feasible.
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>>23227843
Bullshit! He fought Christopher Walken and won.
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>>23226592
Hello New Mexibro. I've only been to Roswell once when I was a kid, for the UFO festival of course.
Las Cruces here.

Speaking of New Mexico we, and a good chuck of Texas along the Rio Grande, Have La Llorona, the weeping woman.
At least the local version of the tale is that a woman's children drowned in the Rio Grande, so she wander the shores at night, weeping. If you hear her cries and investigate, or if you see her and get too close, she drags you into the river and drowns you.
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>>23227591

Swedenbourgian magic.
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Hellboy is great for this kind of stuff- I recommend the story of the Crooked Man
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>>23225804
That's what Silent Hill is. They just couldn't use the name.
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>>23227138
There are still camels in Texas.
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>>23228191
I thought it was a different mining town.
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>>23227306
So folklore characters are just PCs?
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Im just pulling this from memory, but didnt early New England settlers encounter and kill the Amphisabena?

Also, do the Jersey Devil, Chessie and the ?Frogman of Loveland Ohio count.
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>>23228271
Nah, you know the smoggy mist in Silent Hill in the games? It's inspired by that town, at least if my memory serves me correctly.
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>>23228340
I thought it was just to hide the shitty drawing distance.
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>>23228340
Eh. I'm not sure. The movie certainly was inspired by Centralia but I don't think the it has any relation to the game Silent Hill.
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I saw a copy of this in a restaurant and i loved it.
Sadly, i think i only know about 8 of these.
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>>23228329

I don't recall the Amphisabena, but I do recall the hoop snake.
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>>23228283

Exactly.
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>>23228625
Do tell...
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>>23228684

It's exactly what it sounds like. the snake grabs its tail in its mouth and rolls along like a wheel. In one version of the myth, the snake straightens out at the last second, skewering its victim with its venomous tail. The only escape is to hide behind a tree, which receives the deadly blow instead and promptly dies from the poison.
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>>23227578

His soul was in the guitar, wasn't it?
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This thread seemed worth an archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/23223077/
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There's a legend that Blackbeard is swimming around Chesapeak bay, looking for his head
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I don't know if this counts exactly, but I've been in one game, kinda Weird West feel, that had a lot of references pulled from older country songs, the most interesting was a cigar-store indian that would come to life at night. The main story was actually inspired by a Concrete Blonde song (Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man)
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I can't remember the names of some of the stories or monsters, sorry.

There's a southern (AZ or NM; I remember it having a Spanish name) tale about a demon hitchhiker. It appears as a beautiful young lady around bars, asking anyone trying to leave on a horse to take her with to the nearest ranch. Sit her behind you in the saddle (not in front, this is important later). She will grow cold and claw at your chest, digging her nails in like knives. If you turn around and look into her now burning-coal-red eyes, you are stunned. Her head then turns into a skeletal horse's head with fangs in front as she bites your throat out, and murders you brutally. If you had sat her in front of you, she'll turn around midway through your journey and do it anyways. So long as you keep your eyes in front of you, and the demon behind you, you'll end up with scratches. Otherwise, you are never heard from again and the horse continues to the ranch and drops dead once it's there.
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>>23229210

Huh. New one by me. Where'd you hear it?
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>>23229278
When I was a kid down in AZ, I went to my library and got books on folklore for school. IIRC, the book I got had Tailypo, The Lovers of the Great Dismal Swamp, and a few other stories including dancing zombies from the Confederate side of the Civil war and a witch who stole the life from young girls to maintain her youth by transforming into a black cat and sleeping on their pillow.
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This thread is the internet equivalent of a bunch of weary cowpokes swapping stories around the campfire, and I love it.

>Captcha: the Usubal.
/tg/ is awesome indeed.
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>>23229210
I've heard a similar one. I believe it was from Ireland actually.
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>>23229210
Heard one like that in Tennesee.
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>>23226714
>>23226731
>>23226815

Hey, didn't they do that story in a Thursday Next novel?
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>>23229408
I'm pretty sure it was from the southern part of the US if not Mexico. I remember when I had the book I was 10 or so years old and had to look up what 'tequila' was. The book also had a few illustrations and the female demon looked like it was wearing a Mexican-style dress.
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>>23229408
Your thinking of the Kelpie, a horse that if you ride, takes you into the river and then drowns/kills you.
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>>23229492
Fuck your right I know exactly what your talking about and I have that book somewhere.
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>>23229408
I think your thnking of the Kelipe or Nuclavee
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Hey /tg/, haven't been following the thread, just popped in to say that if you like supernatural Americana, you should totally check out Manly Wade Wellman's "John the Balladeer" stories. Awesome series about a modern day bard confronting various haints and spooks in the Appalachian hills. Cool stories written well, and if that's not enough for you, the author's name was fucking "Manly". You won't be disappointed.
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>>23229519
>>23229531
Yeah I was getting them mixed up.
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>>23229450
Yeah. I always had to stop and rack my brain at what that was, because I was sure I had heard it in a fairy tale or some such, but I never knew where it came from 'till now.
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>>23229521
Are we talking about the same book with the Midnight Mass of the Dead, The Ghost's Cap, The Golem, and the Waterfall of Ghosts?
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>>23224264
I live in that area and i've never heard this story. Great thread OP.
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Jackalope. Jack Rabbits with antlers who can perfectly mimic human sounds.
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>>23229589
Yes! I know that I have it around somewhere I'd have to look for it though.
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>>23229547

I shall look into it. I've also heard the John silver books are quite good, and are in a similar vein.
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I've heard a few stories of the Donnor Party turning into a Wendigo.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo

>>23229663
Excellent! What was the title of that? I'm trying every Google trick I know.
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>>23229547

Duly noted. I'm also planning to look into the John Silver books, which I hear are in a similar vein.
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>>23229677
Do you mean Silver John? Because that is John the Balladeer.
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>>23229697
My google fu is superior to yours it seems
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>>23229060
> In 1718, Blackbeard had gone aground in the ship at Beaufort Inlet, Carteret County, North Carolina, in the present-day United States.[2] In late 1996, Intersal, the private contractor working for the state of North Carolina in marine recovery, discovered the remains of a vessel likely to be the Queen Anne's Revenge.

He also supposedly buried his treacher somewhere on an Outer Banks island off the coast of N. Carolina, where locals maintain he lived under a civilian cover identity.
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>>23229720
Huh, I might actually have that book too. God, it must be in the garage somewhere.
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>İn comics; Hellboy creator Mike Mignola makes a deliberate homage to [Silver] John [The Balladeer] in his story The Crooked Man.
We've come full circle.
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>>23229720
Dammit I was literally about to post that. Duplicate image error and everything.

Thanks though. That's a great book.

>>23229210
Cegua was the name of it.
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Holy shit, a new copy of the first John the Balladeer book is $223 dollars. I know what I'm buying used.
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Here is Joe Magarac constructing himself from steel and pure will.
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>>23229751
I actually think mine may be in the basement somewhere but it's to spooky to go down there now. Actually I'm reasonably certain I gave it away when I moved.
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There's this band that I remember listening to a while back, some sort of Texan rockabilly band, and they had this song about a man who needs to out-drink a corpse, who was a bastard of a gunslinger in live, will draw his gun and duel him.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
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How about the tailypo? The dog like creature that has it's tail chopped off and eaten and then comes back to "retrieve" it.
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>>23229720
Hoo!

I had that one, too!
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I have a small fantasy that Joe Magarac, Paul Bunion, Old Stormalong, John Henry and Johnny Appleseed are all the same, an immortal giant with supernatural strength and skill who has lived in America for centuries making legends.
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>>23229919
Dude, we covered that towards the beginning of the thread.
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>>23229875
I know exactly what you are talking about, it has a sort of painted animated video to go along with it.

Can't remember the name of it at all.
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>>23229998
Yeah, same issue.

The music video was a really intricate cartoon.
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I am taking notes for my Deadlands game
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>>23229967

A Thunderbird lifted up his beak/mask to walk the earth as a man, and hooked up with Joan of America, the daughter of High John the Conqueror and Molly Pitcher.
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>>23229919

I've generally seen it depicted as cat like, a mix of bobcat and puma.
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>>23230084
The only version I've seen has it as a sort of amorphous black mass of hair withlegs.
This shit gave me nightmares as a kid.
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>>23230154
forgot pic
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>>23230229
That's the one I remember.
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>>23228269
>There are still camels in Texas.
And Australia.
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>>23230260
There is camel all throughout world...if you really need them.....
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Please read Stephen King's dark tower series.
Please.
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>>23229210
Sounds like a yarn made to explain getting caught with a prostitute.
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>>23229714
This. As far as I know, John the Balladeer is the closest thing to an official name for the series. Fans often call them the Silver John stories, as his guitar is strung with silver strings.
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>>23230332
Not that Roland and Co. aren't good, but it doesn't have a lot to do with the specific context of this thread (American folklore).
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>>23229919
>>23230229
>>23224588
Alright... if he was the only one and he didn't survive, how do we know what happened?
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>>23230424
Tailypo told somebody.
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>>23230424
Diary. If your dogs are disappearing and you're being stalked by something that might very well kill you, I imagine he wrote it down somewhere as a warning. Of course, we wouldn't know the end bit, but there are different versions of the story where he dies by having his intestines ripped out and open. The rest is assumption.
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>Changeling thread
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>>23230479

Yeah, when I was reading it I was sure the end was going to have people finding his corpse with its stomach ripped open like the fucking alien just burst out of his chest.

I'm still bugged his first instinct was to eat the fucking tail though.
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>>23230481
I'm really enjoying my Steadfast Tin Soldier/Pinocchio character, but an Americana Folklore character would have been exceedingly bitching too. And have more opportunity to be more well versed in guns.
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>>23226904

A Promethean that finished his road and became human, now remembered fondly by history.
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>>23227294

Do it, anon. It's my favorite book of all time.
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>>23230517
I imagine he didn't have much of a choice. He only caught one rabbit for the whole day, no telling when he'd find another. What else were you going to do with the tail? Meat is meat, and he was hungry.
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Does SoCal have any urban legends?

I've lived here forever and I don't think we have any, other than the ghosts at the Whaley House and that one bit of road with the ghost headlights.
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>>23228329

More people should bring up the Jersey Devil. The Pine Barrens is an interesting place.
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>>23230662

See: >>23223501
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>>23230594

But still. Strange animal you can't identify in your house, escapes via dubious means. And you're gonna eat its tail.
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>>23230787

There are some versions where he shoots the creature while out hunting, and blasts the tail off.
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Have any of you heard of a grunch?
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>>23230721
I've never been but from what ive seen they look awesome.

> A storm was raging that night in 1735, when Mother Leeds was brought to bed in childbirth. The room was full of woman folk gathered to help her, more out of curiosity than good will. They had all heard the rumors that Mother Leeds was involved in witchcraft, and had sworn she would give birth to a devil.

Tension mounted when at last the baby arrived. It was a relief (and to some a disappointment), when the baby was born completely normal. But a few moments later, before their terrified eyes, the child began to change. The room erupted with screams as the child grew at an enormous rate, becoming taller than a man and changing into a beast which resembled a dragon, with a head like a horse, a snake-like body and bat's wings.

As soon as it was full-grown, the monster began beating all the woman (including his mother) with its thick, forked tail. With a harsh cry, it flew through the chimney and vanished into the storm.

The Monster of Leeds, or the Jersey Devil as he was later called, still haunts the pines of New Jersey, wrecking havoc upon farmer's crops and livestock, poisoning pools and creeks, and appearing on the New Jersey shore just before a ship wreck.
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>>23229875
Ghoultown - Drink with the living dead. I was actually listening to that song when I foud this thread...
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>>23230830
> I was actually listening to that song when I foud this thread...

That is a fantastic coincidence and exceedingly fortunate since I couldn't find the song at all.
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>>23230721
Been there before, I have to say, it's creepy as hell. Especially since it rained hard the day before we came and it was hot so there was fog everywhere.
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>>23230830

I can only think of Dead Man's Party, by Oingo Boingo.

Isn't that also based on folklore? "I hear the chauffeur coming to my door/He says there's room for maybe just one more" is from some story, I think.
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This really isn't supernatural and I'm not sure whether it counts as folklore, but my mother told me about it and apparently a lot of people would say that it's nonsense so I think it counts. She grew up on Long Island, where there is a lake called Lake Ronkonkoma. Everyone knew not to swim past a certain point in that lake because multiple people who had done so had disappeared, only for their corpses to show up weeks later in the Great South Bay. She says that there must have been some underground connection between the lake and the bay which caused strange currents and could suck a swimmer down underwater and underground and eventually emptying into the ocean where they would be found in the bay. The people who moved out to there from New York City in the mid to late twentieth century will all tell you that this is nonsense, but at least one such disappearance was documented in a newspaper in the late 1920s.
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Don't have the time to contribute, but the Deep South is one of the main places that is lousy with ghosts and tall tales. Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana especially.
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>>23230860
Not muh of a coincidence really, I listen to them quite often. Helps my creative juices flow when I'm working on a Western adventure.

>>23230878
I dunno about that line, but I do know the part about "a shiny silver dollar on either eye" is a reference to Charon, boatman of the River Styx.
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>>23231067

Dead Man's Party was a direct inspiration for my group's Geist: the Sin-Eaters game. So much fun.
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>>23231102
I feel ya. It inspired a sort of Goth/Victorian Mystery game I ran, as well as a monthly tradition my friends and I have. We even call it the Dead Mans Party. Sort of a party, wake, and seance all rolled into one. Good times.
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>>23231102
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>>23231193
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Guess I'll dump some stories.
>Frozen Faces of Mt. Nebo Cemetery
>Alabama
An isolated dirt lane in the woods of Clarke County, Alabama, leads to a tiny, picturesque white church. Nearby is the burial site of late members of the church, some of whom stare blankly back at visitors through concrete eyes molded into grave markers. Four graves in Mt. Nebo Cemetery are marked with death mask headstones crafted by Isaac Nettles Sr, an inventor born in the 1880s. The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, because in an odd twist, he is buried in an unmarked grave.

No one is sure why or how Nettles created the stones, though local lore says he made impressions by pressing their faces into wet sand and used concrete and wire to create the masks. Sadly, only two of the four markers are intact, and even those are eroding. One marker has three faces on it and is marked with the word “mother.” There is a legend that the woman died while giving birth to twins, but Kerry Reid with the Clarke County museum said the marker bears the faces of Nettles’ three daughters—Pauline, Marie and Clara—and that the stone marks the burial site of his wife, Korea Nettles.
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Oh, and there's also the cabbit. Both my mother and I have seen an animal on separate occasions. We call it the cabbit, because it looked like a (biologically impossible) cross-breeding of a cat and a rabbit. Not very long after moving to rural central North Carolina in late 2004, I saw a creature, about the size of a housecat, with greyish fur and a strangely intelligent look on it's face. It stared at me for a few seconds and then turned around and hopped away. Its manner of hopping was more like what you'd expect from a lagomorph than from a feline, despite its face and ears looking nothing like a rabbit's, but I also did not notice it having a prominent tail like a cat has. A few months later, my mother saw a creature which she believes was probably the same as what I saw, as she described it the same as I did, especially emphasizing the strangely intelligent look on it's face. We haven't seen it since and I have no idea what it was.
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>>23231258
>THE FUCK AM I SEEING
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>>23231273
And that's a folktale everybody.
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>>23231200
I live in Upstate New York which has a few good ones
>Tesla Car
>Cardiff Giant
>Sleepy Hollow
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>>23231299
Tell us the Cardiff Giant, i've never heard that one.
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>>23231273
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>>23226610
I think he means reading up on Skinwalkers, like researching them.
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>>23231329
>>23231273
Sorry. Thumbnail.
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>>23231309
Oh it was a "giant" statue commissioned by an Atheist after he got in an argument with a Methodist over whether biblical giants existed. He "excavated" it and charged 25 cents to look at it. Nothing supernatural or spooky but it was one of the biggest hoaxes of all time. Although with some imagination you could make it pretty spooky.
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>>23231371
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant
That was just from memory the Wikipedia page is probably more accurate if you're interested. It's a pretty funny story.
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>>23231023

Speak of deadly waters, here's an interesting one.

The largest wave ever witnessed by humanity was a 1,720 foot monster that washed across Lituya Bay, Alaska, in 1958. It was the result of an avalanche caused by a localized earthquake. You see, Lituya bay is essentially the perfect wave generator. A local fault like causes these avalanches, and the bay is shaped in a way that funnels any resulting waves into it, increasing their power.

The bay has always had an evil reputation amongst natives. There are numerous myths about villages washed away overnight. Local native American tradition has it that a great god lives at the bottom of the ocean, just outside the mouth of the bay. As you can see from the picture, the bay has two spurs that just out near its mouth. Supposedly, when he is displeased, this god's massive hands rise up out of the deep, grasp these two spurs, and then shake them, causing the waves. Any man or woman killed by the waters returns as a bear who haunts the local forests, spying on any humans for the sunken god, and reporting the misdeeds of humanity to him.
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>>23227005
Paul Bunyon is not the same as all these, he was part of an advertisement campaign.
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>>23231455
That's prime Call of Cthulhu material.
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>>23227114
Does anyone want to know the story about the real Johnny Appleseed?
His name was Jonathan Chapman btw. I'm related to him.
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>>23231456
Yes, but that's not his origin. Santa's in the same boat, with his modern image being given to us by Coca-cola.
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>>23231455

Derp, forgot my picture.
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>>23227554
What monster couldn't they beat?
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>>23231518
That's a pretty spooky bay.
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>>23231456

And Joe Magarac was invented by Owen Francis, and Pecos Bill was invented by Edward S. O'Reilly. It doesn't matter. The stories persist, and everyone knows a tall tale is in the tellin'.
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>>23231493

I've heard the story before, but it's neat you're related to him. Feel free to tell it if you like.
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>>23231547

Just picture these two massive hands surging up through the water to grab the bay mouth and start shaking. You stare, unable to comprehend what you're seeing, not believing. As the hands slowly sink back down you start to hear a distant roaring...
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>>23227503
Dnd
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This is your new party.
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Anyone else remember the Sidehill Gouger?
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>>23231702
No, care to remind us?
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The Mad Gasser of Mattoon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Gasser_of_Mattoon
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>>23231702
It was a folk tale about a half bobcat half wolf monster that could only move in one direction up mountains. It was pretty silly and I always thought it was a Catskills thing but I may be mistaken.
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>>23231571
Jonathan Chapman was a traveling salesman. He made his living peddling wares all across America in a suit and slacks. He wasn't rich, but he never allowed his fiancee to want for anything (aside from her betrothed of course). They were in love with each other the way mothers sigh and tell their children about at the crib.
On the day of their wedding, the unthinkable happened. The young beautiful bride-to-be died before she could marry Jonathan.
He did not remarry, he continued traveling America planting apple trees in memory of his Love.
Her favorite flower was the apple blossom.
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>>23231528
Emmett probably.
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>>23231780

Sounds like one of the Fearsome Critters. There's a whole host of them. The Hoop Snake and the Jackalope are sometimes counted amongst their number, but there's all the Hidebehind, the Splintercat and, of course, the Snipe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters

They originate from lumberjack and woodsmen folklore, the result of a bunch of bored guys sitting around a campfire, seeing who can tell the biggest pile of bullshit.
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>>23231893
This makes me want to play a lumberjack campaign where we fight these things for the right to cut down the forest.
Imagine, being stalked by Tailypos as we lash with our axes and rattlesnake-lassos at a Sasquatch. Emmet may be the final critter, and maybe we will stop around Lituya Bay.
>>
>>23231893
Damn I love stuff like that. A setting across North America could be pretty rad. It could be all the folklore and bullshit legends magically come into existence. Stuff like Black Helicopters, Fearsome Critters, Native American monsters, Lovecraftian monsters, etc... .It would be like American Gods/Supernatural.
>>
Is the less magic-y and more conspiracy theory sort of stuff okay in this thread?

I want UFO or MIB stories. Weird nuclear stuff. Got anything like that?
>>
>>23231774
Fucking creepy.

People really ought to post the juicy bits here instead of just linking wikipedia though.
>>
>>23231996

Ehhh, I think that's a slightly different topic.
>>
>>23232086
If anyone wants to see more backwoods monsters, check out this.
http://www.lumberwoods.com/contents.htm
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>>23231996
I saw a 'ufo'
>California
>Living near a decommissioned air base
>Laying on top of a chicken coop looking up at the stars
>Sky is as clear as could be
>A 'black' craft distorts the light of stars in a clear path, not visible against the darkness.
>Stayed out for hours till I got too cold trying to see it again
>was shaped like pic related
Pretty sure I saw a military stealth craft going to a decommed base.
>>
Tommyknockers, either gnome-ish magical creatures that live in small tunnels near established mines and warn human miners of cave-ins by knocking, the ghosts of dead miners that do the same, or vengeful spirits knocking loose the support timbers holding up the mineshaft.

I also recommend that you read .22 Swift, an awesome short story that fits very well with what you're going for here.
>>
>>23231258
Damn, if only Citronelle wasn't a long boring drive from where I am. I wish I had know about this the few times I've had to drive through it.

There is also the Face in the Window at the historic Pickens County Courthouse in Carrollton, Alabama. Unfortunately, Alabama tends towards ghosts over mythic creatures, and most of the supposedly haunted places or just cool abandoned places are either destroyed or renovated.
>>
California has its fair share of creepy stories. Winchester mansion. Sliding stones. The experimental crafts near the 99. Camels in Death Valley. In legened we used to be an island ruled by a black queen named kalifa who had an army of griffens.
>>
>>23232365
Please elaborate on that last one.
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Ah, Mothman.

Point Pleasant is such a boring ass little town. It's lucky to have it.
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>>23232365
>experimental crafts near the 99

San Diego here, what? Only military shenanigans I have are the lasers they used to shoot by Pendleton in the late 90s and early 00s.
>>
>>23232275
You got a link? Can't find the story for the life of me.
>>
http://www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com/b/bridgewater-triangle

The bridgewater triangle. Slaughtered animals, cult activity, a vast swamp, will-o-the-wisps, ufos, ghosts. It's crazy.
>>
>>23226234

We're Dorf Country, essentially.
>>
>>23232365
>The experimental crafts near the 99. Camels in Death Valley. In legened we used to be an island ruled by a black queen named kalifa who had an army of griffens.

I've been in Fresno my whole life, and never heard any of these.
>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harbour_Mille_incident

Yes, Canada, I know. But still.

It was Russians.
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>Thread on American folklore
>No mention of the Headless Horseman
>implying you can reason with a headless man
>>
>>23232527
Ichabod Crane was mentioned repeatedly further up there, bro.
>>
>>23232493
no, closer to bakersfield. we ocasionally have planes flying from fresno, lemore and various other airstrips. We caught (two parties saw the same thing from different angles. They, from the 99 saw shimmering lights flying along the roadway, we on the other side a few miles away saw a low flying plane coasting along the highway. We suspect it could have been usuing some sort of under camoflage on the other guys.
>>
>>23232382
Its an old legend about california (alta and baja) that came from the spanish around the 1200-1400? they had a maps of baja california, which is a penisulia, and assumed that i was the south part of an island to alta california. The story goes about the king of spain used the monks and adventures to befriend the queen, Kalifia, a black woman, to help fight against the moors. They stopped when the griffens under her command couldn't differentiate between spaniards and moors. You can find some stories of her on the internet and some cool fan art.
>>
I've got some folktales from Newfoundland if anyone wants to hear them. We are one of the oldest settled places in North America, so we have quite a few ghosts.
>>
>>23232763
Please do
>>
>>23232784
Like many Newfoundland communities today, the small place near Torbay known as Tapper's Cove once had a different name. Originally called Treasure Cove, the stream found there was allegedly built by pirates. The stream had a wooden bottom which hid the gold that the pirates had stolen form other pirates who plundered it from a Spanish galleon in the 17th century The pirates who had originally stolen the gold were attacked and driven into the hills of Torbay by the second lot, who then built the stream to hid the gold. To protect their treasure, the pirates kidnapped a young boy and his Newfoundland dog from Torbay and killed them, believing their ghosts would guard their hidden treasure. To this day, people steer clear of Tapper's Cove after dark, afraid of meeting the ghosts of the headless boy and his spectral Newfoundland dog who restlessly guard their charges.
>>
>>23232763
Please, go ahead
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>>23232758
sorry, my facts were off. 1500s. and califia.
>>
>>23232815
wow, i was really off. remebered that story from when i was a tiny kid. I got the story backwards, fighting christians at constantinople, had amazons with her griffons, etc
>>
>>23227138

There's sightings of Camels all over the fucking place in the southwest. Most of it is literally trackless desert, so there could be a sizable population of camels roaming about with only a few uncredited sightings.
>>
>>23232874
Yeah, it's cool. They (army) built a small statue/tribute to the camal corps.
>>
>>23229547

Shit, I have a book with a short story about that dude in it. Most Excellent read.
>>
>>23232799
There be many tales of Pirates and their treasure here, one of the more well known ones is a place called "Kelly's Island".

Legend has it a Notorious pirate by the name of Peter Easton set up a base of sorts on Kelly's island, and buried his treasure there, along with 47 members of his crew.

To this day, Kelly's island remains uninhabited, many people have gone over looking for the rumored pirate treasure, only to flee in the face of the wraiths that now haunt the island. Some people have swam back, across the bay, and those that do venture there refuse to speak of anything they saw.
>>
I can't name specifics or sources, but I've heard several stories about railroad workers and miners digging into caverns or other tunnels and thinking they'd broken through into hell.
They usually include unexplained accidents, unnatural heat, and even hearing the screams of the damned.

Subterranean environments and dangerous working conditions are a pretty good combination for producing creepy shit.
>>
>>23232918
The British gunboat, the Mallard, found the Resolven floating on the open sea near Catalina, Newfoundland in 1884. The Resolven had left Harbour Grace, Newfoundland bound for labrador with a cargo of salt and four Newfoundland passengers only a few days earlier, on August 27, 1884. When the crew of the Mallard signaled the other boat, they received no response and so proceeded to board her. What the British sailors found there was a complete mystery. The Resolven held no passengers. Clothing and other personal items were found undisturbed on the ship and there was absolutely no sign of trouble. The galley held a set table ready for a meal and a fire still burned in the stove. The surrounding water was searched but no sign of the crew or passengers was ever to be found.
>>
>>23232956
During one cold dark winter night, the guests of Foran's Hotel in downtown St. John's were awakened to a incessant knocking coming from an upstairs room. Upon entering the room, the loud knocking suddenly ceased and although two men searched the room, they could find no explanation for the noise. The noise resumed each night and would continue until someone entered the room. Word of the strange knocking spread quickly through the community and people believed the old hotel to be haunted. This occurred until six months after the initial event when a stranger came one night and was given the haunted room.
>>
There is the story of cuy cuy (koo kuiy?) a mexican werewolf/troll boggieman who would kidnapped misbehaving girls. We were told that story as kids all the time to not go out at night. Chupacabra from texas, the dogs. or from central america who were lizard men. The demonic midgets from corn fields in mexico.
>>
>>23232979
Not knowing of the strange knocking, the stranger entered the room and all was quiet until midnight when the noise began again, louder and more horrifying than before. The knocking filled the building until the door to the room was finally opened, only to reveal the stranger lying dead on the floor, a look of total terror covering his face. The knocking occurred for the last time while the body was being removed from the room. The old Foran's Hotel has been torn down since then, being replaced by the General Post Office on Water Street but people are still wary of being alone there after dark, afraid the knocking may once more be heard...
>>
>>23233006
Being a culture that is surrounded by, and arguably dependent upon, the sea, Newfoundland abounds with stories of monsters of the deep. On August 11th, 1888, one of these monsters attacked the schooner Augusta off the southeast coast of the island. Six dories were sent out from the schooner and one of them was chased back to the Augusta by a huge, monstrous creature that emerged from the water and chased the dory to the schooner, only to the submerge again. The monster undulated through the water at great speeds, not unlike an eel or snake, and was close to 100 feet long. Its head, which raised above the water for 15 to 20 feet, was huge and lizard-like with immense eyes. Its body was brown with stripes, about 20 feet thick with a huge fin.
>>
There is this one town in the south that had a minieng incident so that the whole town was evacuated. aparently the natural gasses were set ablaze and have been burning for years in all parts of the town.
>>
>>23233045
The creature reappeared later as the dories went out to get their trawls and chased another of the six dories. It attempted to wrap itself into coils around the boat but lost its speed, only to later catch up and smash at the dory with its deadly tail. The schooner captain shot at the beast as it sank into the sea. The Augustareturned to St. John's where the story appeared in local papers. Some believe that the creature was a giant squid, similar to ones seen in various places around the world but the experienced fishermen of Newfoundland know it was a sea serpent, and is still out there, hidden deep in the waters, waiting...


On an unrelated note, we have a lot of giant squid sitings around here.
>>
>>23233063
Speak of the devil:

in July of 1874, a giant squid attacked the 150-ton schooner, the Peril, south of Newfoundland. The monster attacked the schooner after the captain fired at it. It wrapped its huge tentacles around themasts, pulled its immense body aboard, then slipped over the side,\capsizing the schooner with its strength. The story was told throughout varius American newspapers in 1874, warning the world to watch the seas.
>>
>>23233045
Is that the story of the devilfish?
>>
>>23233074
We CoC now

Chance Cove, on the southern shore of Newfoundland, is infamous in Newfoundland history as a place where many ships were wrecked and hundreds of lives were lost. In 1869, the Anglo Saxon, suffered the same fate, with all souls aboard losing their lives. Within 5 years of the disaster, stories spread of unearthly screams and terrifying apparitions experienced in the town. A sudden exodus occurred one night, on the anniversary of the disaster, and Chance Cove became a ghost town.
>>
>>23233103
The ghostly cries and spectral noises erupted in the silence of the night and as the men ran to the beach to see if another boat had suffered the fate of the Anglo Saxon, the noises stopped, only to resume with terrifying intensity when the beach was once again quiet. All inhabitants inexplicably left, leaving homes and farms suddenly deserted. Twenty-five years later, a group of fishermen used the town for shelter one night, taking refuge in the vacant homes. They, too, left quickly, but not before burning the frightening community to the ground.

>>23233090
It might be, I'm not sure.
>>
>>23233074
A few years ago a mass amount of squid washed up on southern californias shores.

Was it any wonder how H.P lovecraft was inspired by his own backyard.
>>
its a fictatious tale, but I always liked the story of Yig. a H.P.L. collabration about a mid west pioneer family and snake babies.
>>
>>23233057

It's been mentioned in the thread, already.
>>
Indian Legend. Devil's Tower. A massive monolith of some uncommon stone. The story goes that a giant grizzly ber tried to eat a bunch of Indian girls, they prayed for the gods to save them. So the ground under them rose up into a tower. The bear though was determined to get them, tried ascending the sides leaving massive claw marks all alomg the walls of this rock.
>>
Has anyone mentioned the Salam Witch Trials yet? there is alot of creepy stuff that has happend before and currently in that region of America. Do any eastcoaster from that region have any fun stories to tell?
>>
Tonight's storytime is quite relevant to this thread:
>>23229707
>>23229755
>>23229787
>>
There's the legend of Starved Rock, which is more than liberally sprinkled with fact given that the place is now a state park. Basically there were two Native American tribes in southern Illinois which went to war over some long forgotten issue and one of the tribes ended up dominating on the field of battle. The tribe that was getting slaughtered fled to a high bluff surrounded on all sides by water where the aggressor tribe proceeded to keep them bottled up. This stalemate continued for a good couple of weeks with any people from the trapped tribe who tried to get water or food getting shot or run down until eventually they resorted to cannibalism on the bluff.
The trapped tribe eventually either all starved or died in a last attack on the surrounding one ending their entire tribe. That bluff though was held as a sacred ground by the surviving tribe both for their great victory and the fact that on nights when the moon hangs low over the rock you can still hear the wailing and the screams of the dying tribe as they starved in their refuge.
>>
Man I haven't heard Taily-po in forever.

I am from WV and while it is very solidly at least nominally christian there are a bunch of weird superstitions that have to he hold overs. For example my grandfather was a waterwitch (dowser).

Bunch of other stuff, as well but bed, If this thread is still up tomorrow I may see what I can remember.

Also the snarly yow, though I think that is an MD thing.
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>>23227675
Communism
>>
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>>23232275
That phrase fills me with terror and I don't know why. I just know that I've heard it before. A brief flash of sneakers and a snippet of a rhyme I barely remember before I am too filled with fear to go on. Haven't thought about it in years . Had actually completely forgotten about it until I read your post. Don't remember where I first heard it but I know I was a kid and it terrified me.

Tommyknockers
Tommyknockers
Knocking on your door ...
>>
Wow America, way to have shitty mythology.

It is to be expected though. I live in a house older than your country for god's sake.
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Gonna dump a couple of related pictures, bump the thread some for yer troubles
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>>23235395
>230 year old house

Either that shit has been repaired and remodeled to the point where your claim is meaningless, or you live in a goddamn castle.

Either way, please present a superior mythology and explain why it's better.
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>>23223077
here's some skinwalkin pasta from x.
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Was collecting these for a horror-themed western which fell through
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>>23235395
Does it bug you that I don't even have to know what country you're from to correctly claim we're more powerful than you?
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>>23223077

Saw this in a thread once.

A cool urban legend from the Midwest.
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>>23235478
>>
>>23235441
How about basically all of celtic mythology? Everhear of Cú Chulainn motherfucker? And that's not even getting into the sheer ballsy manliness of our history.

We held all of INDIA, most of Africa, a certain continent known as Australia, and you fucks can barely hold on to Iraq (Oh yeah, one of ours too) before running off with your tail between your legs in less than a decade.

You haven't even won a war on your own EVER in history, and your storied and vaunted culture is a bunch of strip malls and suburbs. You are shit tier.
>>
>>23235522
>Oh, look at me, I used to be the hegemon and now I'm not, but at least that's something I can cling helplessly to as I'm dragged into irrelevance, right?
>>
>>23235522
Settle down, Mohammed. I know you thought the sun would never set but it's been midnight over there for a while now.
>>
>>23235522

Listen you fuck! My great grandfather didn't die in a horrible oven accident so you could not accept your fate.

It's over.
>>
>>23235546
>Oh look at me, crowning king of OBESITY and shortest lived empire!
>>
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>>23235478
>>23235521
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melonhead
>>
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>>23235522
>We held all of INDIA, most of Africa, a certain continent known as Australia.
>And now we can't hold onto a butter knife unless we're 18.

I've got another image where you have to be 18 to buy a toy gun if you'd like to see that as well.
>>
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>>23235590
You'll have to speak up. It's hard to hear you from the bottom of your pit of irrelevance.
>>
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>>23235522
>Cú Chulainn
Yeah, polytheism was pretty cool. As it happens, though, it's relatively limited these days.

>We held all of INDIA
Who had cooler mythology than you by FAR.

>Most of Africa
Again.

>A certain continent known as Australia
How many of these do you hold now? Really, huh?

>and you fucks can barley hold on to Iraq (Oh yeah, one of ours too) before running off with your tail between your legs in less than a decade
This is another one of those things where you pretend your cool for having owned it, right? Sure. Yeah, we're having a hell of a time holding on to Iraq in a few ways, but the kind of opposition we face didn't exist when you held it. After all, we can exactly gather up all the Dutch- I mean Iraqis, herd them all into concentration camps, and then starve the country out.

>haven't even won a war on your own ever

Perhaps that would be because unlike physics problems, nations do not interact in a friction-less vacuum. If I may counter, you couldn't even conquer France when you already owned half the country and had Burgundy on your side. We have never lost a war with you.

Picture unrelated
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>>23232874
Camels yes?
They are slightly used?
May I say "gently used" nobles sirs.
A bargain ant any price but my price is a bargain.
>>
>>23235682
Joke's on you amerifat. Your thread is autosaging with you butthurt.
>>
>>23235872
Golly, I sure got told.
>>
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>>23223077

Sorry that your thread was autosaged by morons. You may want to check out Carnivale the series as an interesting milieu choice for the Dust Bowl, and of course Deadlands will get you somewhere. There are plenty of books on American folklore/mythology, just look at your local library.
>>
>>23225402
http://www.mountainzone.com/mountains/detail.asp?fid=1814256
>>
>>23228747
What happens if you hide behind a rock?
>>
I live in California, we've got a story here about the White Eyes. Miners, but when they were in there the entrance to the mine caved in. The company that owned it gave them up for dead and just left them there, so they were stuck in the dark. Well, they got to digging their way out as best they could like anyone would. But it was slow work because there was so much stone, and since it was dark black they couldn't see a thing. So it took them a while, they realized they wouldn't be out for a long time. At first they could catch some rocks to eat, and they drank water that trickled down from the ceiling. But eventually there were no more rats, and as they began to waste away, one of them caught up to another as he went deeper into the tunnels to take a piss, and bashed his head against a rock. He bashed and he bashed until the man died, and then he tore him open and feasted. Now, he knew that the other guys wouldn't approve of killing, they were all good men like he had been before he got in that hole, but he also knew they were hungry, so he took some meat back to share with them. And sure enough, it worked, they let him get away with it in exchange for the food since they were so starved. So for a while longer, the miners survived catching each other unaware and they ate and lived, except for the ones that didn't. Then eventually, they opened up a hole to the outside. Daylight came streaming in, but it had been months since any of them had seen it and it was too bright for any of them, so they were driven back until nightfall. As night rolled around, they tried again, it was dark enough for them and they went out in search of food, plumper and more filling than their gaunt comrades. They look like any other person except for one difference: Their blank white eyes that can only see in the dark of night. Some say they still range up and down in the Sierra Nevadas, eating anyone foolish enough to wander alone after dark.
>>
>>23231893
>Teakettler
But, that's real. It's related to a marten or something. They only walk backward when they're spooked though.
>>
>>23232365
>Winchester mansion. Sliding stones.
Those are true though.
>>
>>23231412

I'm more interested in the tangential part about the pop-cultural phenomena of petrified men at the time:
>The idea of a petrified man did not originate with Hull, however. In 1858 the newspaper Alta California had published a bogus letter claiming that a prospector had been petrified when he had drunk a liquid within a geode. Some other newspapers also had published stories of supposedly petrified people.[2]

You know who tried prospecting for silver in Colorado for a while after getting out of the military in '34 but before working on Upton Sinclair's gubernatorial campaign in California in 38? Robert Heinlein.

So let's say Bob drank the liquid from the geode and became the astounding Petrified Man!
>>
>>23236415

It explodes.
>>
I'm a' bumpin' this here thread from last night in the hopes we might get a few more good yarns outta people in the day time.
>>
>>23235623
Shit, I'm English and that picture just makes me sad. I had my first machete at 14 though, so it's not like anyone really enforces it.
>>
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>The Crenshaw House (also known as the Crenshaw Mansion, Hickory Hill or, most commonly, The Old Slave House) is a historic former residence and alleged haunted house located in Gallatin County, Illinois. The house was constructed in the 1830s. It was the main residence of John Crenshaw, his wife, and their five children.

>The Crenshaw House was a "station" on the Reverse Underground Railroad that transported escaped slaves and kidnapped free blacks back to servitude in slave states. The home’s third floor attic contains 12 rooms long believed to be where Crenshaw operated a secret slave jail for kidnapped free black and captured runaway slaves. A hidden staircase int he back of the building runs up to the attic, bypassing the other floors. A grand jury indicted Crenshaw for kidnapping, once in the mid-1820s (the outcome unknown) and again in 1842 when a trial jury acquitted him. The case’s victims, Maria Adams and her seven or eight children, ended up as slaves in Texas. Stories of strange noises upstairs coming from victims, date to 1851. Legend has it that Crenshaw ran his own captive breeding program in the house,

>The house is notoriously haunted, especially in the attic, and is supposedly subject to strange whisperings, supernatural chills, unexplained tremors, screams, and a voice calling out "Janice! Janice!"

>The building has been restored and is a tourist attraction.
>>
>>23238816
If you really want more stories like these, this book (>>23229720
) is the first of a series of 2-3, and each book has somewhere around 30-40 stories. I highly recommend it.



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