History can be fun... chapter 2

[Drifter Bob]

History can be wierder and even creepier than fantasy sometimes...

Here is another wonderfully creepy and odd bit of history. It's the rather famous transcript of the trial of a 16th century German werewolf, a certain stubbe petter. It starts a little slow but as you get past the first page or so, you get a really, really creepy werewolf story which would make a cool D&D adventure. On another level, assuming the guy wasn't actually a werewolf, it makes a scary story of interrogation under torture, followed by more horrible torture (he was sentanced to have his skin ripped of by hot pincers) and death.. either way, fascinating bit of period flavor, IMHO

Here is the transcript
http://www.nd.edu/~dharley/witchcraft/texts/Stubbe-Peter.html

Here is the clift notes version for those with little patience...
http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/werewolf/stubb.html

DB

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

Creepy.

 

[Taneel BrightBlade]

hay can I getthat girtle it would be fun to turn into a wolf

 

[Alzrius]

You don't have to tell me history can be scary. One of the last issues of Polyhedron when it was still it's own magazine detailed H. H. Holmes, America's first serial killer, for a Masque of the Red Death campaign...this guy built a large mansion as a hotel, with deathtraps riddled throughout it.

Another article detailed a mass hysteria in New Delhi about a monkey-like clawed creature that killed people; two people actually died in the panic. The article gave game stats on the (supposedly) fictitious creature.

 

[Drifter Bob]

wow! cool, any links to either story?

db

 

[Drifter Bob]

hay can I getthat girtle it would be fun to turn into a wolf

a lot of old werwolf (and werebear) legends have those belts...

db

 

[Thotas]

I forget the author's name, but there's a book about Holmes; I think the title is "Depraved" ... and it's an apt description. It's one of those deals where if it were fiction, you'd roll your eyes at how unbelievable it is. The book is also written in a very lurid, "guilty pleasure" writing style. Tacky fun if you like "American Justice" or "Forensic Files". Yes, Holmes is a perfect RPG villian!

 

[Alzrius]

wow! cool, any links to either story?

It's not too hard to Google either subject.

Here's an article by a serial killer website on H. H. Holmes. And here's a CNN report on New Delhi's Monkey Man.

 

[Drifter Bob]

I forget the author's name, but there's a book about Holmes; I think the title is "Depraved" ... and it's an apt description. It's one of those deals where if it were fiction, you'd roll your eyes at how unbelievable it is. The book is also written in a very lurid, "guilty pleasure" writing style. Tacky fun if you like "American Justice" or "Forensic Files". Yes, Holmes is a perfect RPG villian!

Yeah, seems like that trapped house would make a real cool adventure, or the basis of one.

I like those lurid true crime books. If you remember that movie the gangs of new york (which was kind of mediocre) it's based on just such a book by this guy herber ashbury, of the same name, written back in the 1930's. He wrote a similar book about crime in New Orleans called "The french quarter". The guy was racist, classist, sexist, and just a horrible elite snob making a mockery of all these poor peoples lives, but it's a hilairous read! Kind of a 'Mister Burns" type, only more intellectual.

DB