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[Thecard]

Thecard: No, it's not, but language has changed since then. "Automatisches Gewehr" (automatic gun) might have been in use then, giving the "Frau mit Automat" her name.

This is what most Germans today would think of when hearing the word Automat:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Okay, that thing with boons would give me nightmares too.
I think I understand how those soldiers felt about the automa'am.

[alway]

Mostly just the mundane common stuff around here.

Horseshoe Bend Road - A few children were playing hide-and-seek in the woods along the road one night. When the children went to look for the boy who was hiding, they found him hanging from a tree. It is said that if one goes on this road at night, stops their car on the bridge, and looks over the edge of the bridge, they will see the apparition of the boy come out of the water towards them.

Some typical Crybaby Bridges, suicide bridges (because, let's be honest here, it's Ohio; no one wants to live here), vague hauntings, AH SAW FUNNY LIEGHTS OVER MAH CORN FIELDS sort of things.

There's a bit of interesting stuff near Dayton though, particularly related to Wright Patterson AFB (with Hangar 18 being part of the Roswell mythos) and a variety of haunted museum displays in the Air Force Museum.

Ohio: where even our ghost stories put you to sleep.

[RedKing]

Where I grew up, we had the classic "haunted bridge" where a teenage girl would request a ride home in the rain, and when the person finally got to her house, they'd look over and she was gone. They'd go to the house, and the parents would sadly explain that she was killed years before in a car wreck/hit and run/etc. and that this happens every so often.

With the history that we have, NC is full of pirate ghosts on the coast, weird lights in the mountains, and a blasted circle of barren ground in the middle of the woods, where strange things would happen....until it became so popular that tons of people went and stayed there overnight and now the most unexplainable thing there is figuring out how teenagers get their hands on that much weed, malt liquor and condoms. 

[EagleV]

There was a guy in a nearby city, called "De Herbakker", literally "The Re-baker" that you could visit if you weren't content with your head. He'd cut it off, temporarily replace it with a cabbage, and then he would re-mold your head, paint it, and bake it in a large baker's oven. Then he'd take off the cabbage and put on your new head, and you'd have a remodeled head.
There's also a spooky chariot roaming around some farm. No-one seems to know any details.
And there was a willow tree (called "The Shivering Hazel" for some reason), growing over the grave of some very devote prince. One day a statuette of Virgin Mary was standing under the tree, nobody knew where it came from, or whose it was, so it was brought to the church. That night, it disappeared from the church and reappeared under the tree. This happened a few times, so in the end they just decided to build a chapel around the statue... A few years back, the tree died, and it was removed because the dead branches could break off and fall down. Nobody dared to touch the statue or the chapel, so they just planted a new willow. I guess this will go on for a while...

[hops]

Some old families in our province still have stone/metal/gold statues of infants in royal ornament, their name translate roughly to "Golden Sons" and they are infants that have died before their time, which can be taken to the witch doctors where they will burn the corpse and enchant them with knowledge or something, making them reincarnate as mischievous, but omniscient and dutiful ghosts.

These families are sometimes rumored to actually be able to order the ghosts around, some treating them like slaves while some treating them like a family member. Burning infants have been outlawed ages ago, but these relics still survive.

[Owlbread]

Back in something like the 1600s or 1500s, there was a wealthy family around here called the Fergusons, members of the greater Ferguson clan. The patriarch of the family was a baronet or something like that. One day, his son went missing and was nowhere to be found. The general consensus became that the Fairies had taken him. The Fergusons then went to the local wizard who, for some form of payment, agreed to find and retrieve their son.

The wizard then went to the local fairy fortress of "Dun Dhia" or something like that, "The Fort of God". There he found the child amongst the fairies during a dance, unable to leave their circle. The wizard threw an apple on a string into the middle of the dance to entice the child, who reached for it, only for the wizard to pull it away. The child was eventually led out of the circle and into the arms of the wizard. The fairies suddenly realised that they had lost the child and became wild and monstrous, chasing the wizard with the intention of catching him and doing god know's what. The wizard reached into his bag and threw a strange powder onto the ground that forced the fairies to pick up every grain of it. This provided enough of a distraction for him to take the child across running water, something the fairies could not cross. The child was returned to the family who were forever grateful.

Another story was one I've heard about the Baobhan Sidh. Three men were travelling and stopped for the night near a stone circle and set up camp. As they sat around the campfire some beautiful women approached them. The magnetism they had was irresistable, and two of the men agreed to dance with them. One of the men declined, sensing something was amiss. The women danced with the men throughout the night while the third man watched. As the night wore on, the dance became wilder and rougher. More physical. Eventually the women started to scratch the men, who were unable to stop dancing. Though they screamed as their blood poured out of them through the deep cuts made by the women's razor sharp claws, they could not stop dancing. The third man, unable to save his friends, hid amongst the horses as he realised what the women were. The baobhanan could not touch him amongst horses, so he hid there until morning. Then, as he approached the fireplace where the men and the fairies had been dancing, he saw their corpses completely drained of blood. The baobhanan had had their fill.

There are more stories, like one about three fairy workers who would work indefinitely for you until you thanked them, then you'd never see them again. Others involved a witch carrying a huge boulder across a glen when a minister below her began to pray, making the rock heavier and heavier, thus forcing her to drop it. Another involved a man who was turned into a horse by a witch and ridden to France and back in a night, hence the expression "hag ridden". One of the most important from this area involved another monster called the "baobh", so perhaps there's a link with the baobhan sidh (bavanshee). She was a mermaid or something who used to steal sheep and kill them, and torment the local village. The villagers could not see her for she was invisible, but then the village tailor saw her through the holes in his scissors. They used that to chase her up to a loch where they subsequently buried her under an enormous cairn of stones, one for every sheep she stole. She died horribly.

[alway]

Actually, the expression "hag-ridden" along with "nightmare" comes from sleep paralysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis#Folklore

[Owlbread]

Actually, the expression "hag-ridden" along with "nightmare" comes from sleep paralysis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis#Folklore

I can only tell you what I read in a book about that sort of thing, and besides, they're not my stories. It was part of a native Gaelic story, recorded in its original form and shown in the book "Tales from Highland Perthshire" by Lady Evelyn Murray and Anthony Dilworth. I can give you a link to the book if you would like.

[Loud Whispers]

*Unless you are a fervent worshipper of a dictionary.

[Mattk50]

there are gators in the sewers.

[Karzul]

In Chiloé, an island west of Chile, they have their own version of the european witchery: the Brujos. The Brujos or warlocks make deals with the Devil in exchange for magic powers, and form a secret society, the "Recta Provincia", directed by the Mayoría, that controls most of  Chilote society. A warlock can fly with his macuñ, a human skin vest, or transforming himself into a Chon-chon, a flying head with power over diseases. The asassin of the Arte is called Flechero, and can kill his enemies with magical arrows. They have their unholy reunions and aquelarres in the Quicaví Cave, protected by the Invunche, a misshapen, cannibalistic child. The travel in a haunted ship, the Caleuche or Barcoche that appears as a rotten log to the untrained eye, and in the gigantic Sea Horse. The can transform cow hides into Cueros, marine predators that envelope their victims and drag to the bottom of the sea; and potatoes into Vilpoñis, aggresive lizards used for protection rackets.

The also have the Trauco, who is an evil dwarf that hypnotizes young women with his magic staff, "pahueldún", and then has relations with them (this myth was often used to explain unmarried pregnancies). The Camahueto is a beautiful but destructive calf with a single horn. When it reaches adulthood, it carves a path of destruction to the sea. It's pulverized horn can be used both to cure and to cause madness. The Viuda is the vengeful spirit of an old witch that haunts lone roads during the night and kills lone riders.

And the (current) world was created when two gods in the form of snakes, Cai-cai vilu (the sea serpent, that hated humanity) and Ten-ten vilu (the earth serpent, that protected humanity) collided in an ancient battle. Cai-cai raised the seas, and Ten-ten raised the mountains thus allowing humanity to escape; those who died were transformed into sea creatures.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chilote_mythology

[Scoops Novel]

Thank you. Tyrion would be proud.

[Detonate]

Not too far from where I live, there's a story about a schoolmaster named Peter Stuart Ney.The story goes that he was born in France, came to Charleston and then went to Rowan County, where he became the schoolmaster of what's now Mecklenburg, Rowan, Lincoln, Iredell, and Davie counties. He was a master swordsman, great rider, and a mathematical genius. Ney was very knowledgable about the Napoleonic wars and he corrected textbooks and writings that he thought were wrong. He had an extraordinary knowledge of warfare, court intrigues, and political scrambles. Ney read voraciously every book on the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars he could find. He was sometimes visited by Frenchmen and they stayed for quite a long time. Many times, he was recognized by people who claimed to be his former soldiers. When he teaching he learned of Napoleon's death from a newspaper and fainted. That night, he tried to kill himself with a knife, but it broke. The people in the community knew that he wanted the Bonaparte dynasty to be restored, and Ney said it was so that he could return to France. He said that he could never return again and he drank often. Once, he claimed that he was Michel Ney, one of the Marshals of France. He said that his executors were his former soldiers, and also fellow Masons.They were ordered to shoot over his head and he opened a sack of red liquid in his shirt and threw himself on the ground when they fired. His "body" was taken to a hospital and he was disguised there, and he rode to the coast. He boarded a ship for America and was apparently recognized by one of the sailors, who had once served under him in the army. Ney had a trunk full of documents that he guarded closely, and they were in his own shorthand. Ney's best student, Lucius Butler, was the only other person who could read his shorthand. Ney told Lucius that "In that trunk are papers that will shock and surprise the world. You are the only one who can read them all. When I am dead I want you to have them." When Lucius heard about Ney's death on November 15th, 1846, he went to the home where he lived shortly before dying, but the trunk was gone. Two men from Philadelphia had taken the chest and they were gone. About an hour before Ney had died, his physician and friend Matthew Locke asked him "Mr. Ney, there is something that has been puzzling us for years. Now we want to have the truth from you. We want to know who you are." Acoording to the two other people at his bed, Ney told him "I will not die with a lie on my lips. I am Marshal Ney of France." An hour later he died, and his last words were "The Old Guard is defeated. Now let me die."

[Loud Whispers]

Cai-cai raised the seas, and Ten-ten raised the mountains thus allowing humanity to escape; those who died were transformed into sea creatures.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Chilote_mythology

Can we appease Cai-Cai before climate change annihilates human civilization and replaces it with hideous crustaceans?

[SalmonGod]

Cool thread.  Wish I had anything interesting to contribute.  Might come up with something if I think about it enough.  I'm sure I know some...

Indiana has a lot of haunted places, but few have any interesting history to them.  It's mostly old/abandoned house + someone died there = haunted.  A couple are quite famous haunted places.  I think it was a library that was visited by Ghost Hunters, and there's an old insane asylum (of the classic victorian-era humanitarian nightmare variety) in Indianapolis that's been de-commissioned for decades and is supposed to be very haunted.  Almost everyone I know has had experiences.  Supposedly the state just has a very active "energy" and it's attributed to our limestone.  People who claim to be sensitive and believe in the limestone thing also say that they feel different when they travel far out of state, like they feel disoriented and have no sense of direction.

There are a lot of myths in relation to the KKK, especially in rural areas, because they used to headquarter in this state and dominate local politics.  It wasn't too long ago that Indiana's governor was openly a high-ranking KKK member.  The only specific one I know that was close to me is there's a cemetery close to where I used to live where local kids said they would occasionally congregate, especially on Halloween.