Lawnmower Boy

From the Crisis on Christmas game I ran a few years ago:
 
Suddenly, the howling wind dies down, the growls and grunts of Desparia’s minions are silenced, and a single voice booms out.
 
“Ho, ho, HO!” laughs the jolly old elf in the red suit trimmed in white fur. “What have we here? You’ve been a very, very bad, sad girl Heather. Do you want to ruin Christmas for all the boys and girls out there?”
 
“Why not?” Desparia cries out, face twisted with anger. “It was ruined for me! Why did my mommy and daddy have to die? Why?”
 
Desparia’s tall, pale form seems to shrink in on itself, becoming more like a thin little girl with a tear-streaked face. In a burst of black smoke smelling of brimstone, a dapper man dressed in a dark suit appears, one eyebrow raised in a sardonic expression.
 
Infamy – “Because life isn’t fair, my dear,” he says. “Not for you, any way, so why should it be for anyone?” 
“Dearest Heather, the truth is obvious. There is no Christmas. This red clad clown is a fake, a fantasy of inanity. You have felt the reality of Christmas. It’s just a day like any other when accidents can happen and parents of an eleven-year-old girl can die. There is NO Santa Clause, no Christmas, no joy…. Only despare.
 
 
Santa’s speech:
 
“HEATHER, your friend is wrong. He’s been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. He does not believe except what he sees. He thinks that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by his little mind. All minds, Heather, whether they be men’s or children’s, or other, are little. In this great multiverse of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
 
Yes, HEATHER, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no HEATHERS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
 
The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
 
You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world, which not the strongest woman, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond…
 
Is it all real? Ah, HEATHER, in all this world there is nothing else more real and abiding. Look here, upon ME and see if you must. But better, look outward and embrace the love of those around you, right now. Use your magical might, search their beings, They stand before you ready to help, to give up their very selves — to think only of others — they seek to bring the greatest happiness to you — that is the true meaning of Christmas, Heather. That is the embodiment of Santa Clause.

Mrs. Clause walks up to embrace Santa and stand beside him.
 
Heather: Why did you come here?

Infamy: The truth is simple, Heather – They come to destroy you!

That escalated quickly.

23 minutes in, Arthur mentions filled-in mineshafts as giveaways of pre-human civilizations. Others too, which would require fairly baroque scenarios to remove from geological evidence.
 
I too thought of banded iron deposits; also fossil fuels, which we are ripping through at a tremendous rate and which are not replenished at all quickly -- or at all, since Earth is unlikely to see another Carboniferous Period. A pre-human civilization that maintained comparable-to-current technology for very long should have used them up. Except... Earth's surface has seen an awful lot of erosion and deposition. It might be interesting to ask a geologist how accessible the Minnesota banded iron deposits were 50 or 100 million years ago. Or conversely, an estimate of banded iron deposits that could have been accessible long ago but were eroded away and lost. Or on the third hand, there might be deposits that are now deeply buried, but that might be easier to mine in another 50 million years (thought this total reserve must inevitably go down over time).
 
IIRC the recent NOVA series "Ancient Earth" mentioned that eroded coal deposits put a lot of carbon into sea ooze, which eventually got cooked into petroleum. The coal fields under the Soberian Traps also got cooked away by thoat series of massive eruptions, helping to bring about the Great Dying. So there might be major coal deposits that were accessible once and whose fate is now impossible to guess. Again, I think one would need to ask a geologist.
 
As Arthur says, it's still all a bit contrived. But a clever writer might be able to manage an illusion of plausibility.
 
(When I ran my Planetary Romance campaign, I went the other direction and made the extinct aliens of 40 Eridani impossible to miss. Not only did their towering cities of age-defying crystal still standing, needing only new plumbing and wiring for humans to inhabit, they knew they were doomed by a companion star's transition from red giant to white dwarf and left records of their culture in vaults filled with neon for preservation, surrounded by huge bullseyes of concrete salted with long-lived radioisotopes as "Dig Here" signs that could last a billion years, in case their attempts at submarine and subterranean cities failed. They were people who knew how to rage against the dying of the light. But humans also found a planet so mined-out that heavy industry could not flourish, which is why so many people still ride around on domesticated animals, use sailing ships, and fight with glass swords instead of heavy artillery...)
 
Dean Shomshak

On the Biblical front, there are a couple of short novels by sci-fi author James Blish, Black Easter and The Day After Judgment, later published together in a single volume called The Devil's Day, involving the release of all the demons in Hell upon the Earth. The war between Heaven and Hell was fought, and apparently Hell won, and God is reputedly dead. The first novel graphically describes many of the grotesque denizens of Hell, while the second includes a detailed description of an assault by remaining American military upon the infernal city of Dis, which has translocated to Death Valley, California. IMO it's a great depiction of modern military weapons and tactics against traditional demonic forces, with some analysis of those forces from the perspective of science. The presentation of the aftermath of demonic invasion is also not what most would expect.
 
The novels deal with the entities and the rituals from grimoire demonology as real and effective, while the city of Dis and the further reaches of Hell are taken straight from Dante's Inferno.

Svengali Servo
 
It's origin's are a bit of a mystery, but this robot appeared suddenly at a charity gala and used it's Hypnotronic Eye to hold sway over the wealthy attendees. It would go on to operate as a gentleman thief speaking with a posh English accent and eschewing violence and barbarism in it's various heists and schemes. Servo clashed with the likes of  Captain Dare and her Sky Sirens, Herc Stronghold and most famously, Doc Copper. Recently he has joined forces with Golden Scorpion and his organization to help kidnap scientists and engineers for Project Scorpio Giganteus.

Steel-Claw
Steel-Claw serves the glorious Golden Scorpion! Steel-Claw uses Steel-claw's mighty steelclaw, which Golden Scorpion gave Steel-claw to replace Steel-Claw's old left hand which was mangled! Steel-Claw prefers the Steelclaw! The hand was puny and weak. The Steel-claw is strong and snappy! Steel-Claw is strong! Steel-Claw is deadly at hand to hand..er hand to claw! Steel-Claw would die for Golden Scorpion! Steel-Claw does not use pronouns! Steel-Claw talks too loudly!!  Most find Steel-Claw tiring because of this!

Did one last year with the Youth group-  it was part of an on-going campaign that had gotten a bit derailed by a Hunted roll, leading to a Foxbat arc that proved popular enough that we just kept rolling with it.
 
Short version:  FB (one of only 2- Technically 3) published characters I have ever used, ever (I think I mentioned that enemies books aren't really useful to me)) and Leroy (in my universe, Leroy is the only thing that makes FB competent.  Without Leroy, FB is a run-of-the-mill whacko with irritating personal traits) have succesfully stolen the oldest gemstone in the universe, a boring dun-coloured not-quite-transuscent thing with a couple of elements found nowhere else on earth and rumored to be magical (maybe it is; maybe it isn't).  He needed it as a cap for his walking stick so he could complete his Evangelist costume for The Church of Everyone Else is Going to Die.
 
At the climax, the stone was lost.  It resurfaced a couple of months later when, while decorating the record-holdingly-massive pine tree in front of Campaign City Hall, it was found lodged in the higher branches right about the time they workers were done decorating the tree for Christmas.  Having struck most of their equipment, they just left it, planning to "discover" it when undecorating.
 
And once the lights were flipped on to show off the tree--
 
Well, the adventure was called  "Versus the Christmas Treant," if that helps.
 
 
 
Best part (for me) was when Kinetica (whose player decided she was native to the city because none of the other characters were, allowing her periodic grabs of inventing things as a "tour guide" of sorts) felt the ground rumbling and intoned in terror "oh God!  Not _again_!"
 
Which made for some hilarious role playing when the treant ripped free of it's earthly fetters....

FWIW I used the Monster as a tool of the Dreamzone entity Demoiselle Nocturne, one of DEMON's inner Circle. Nocturne materialized the Monster out of the murderous dreams and fantasies of a psychopathic child named Henry Francis Krueger , whose psyche she uses as her "sanctum" in the Dreamzone. Demoiselle Nocturne employs the creature as an enforcer, or sometimes just turns it loose to spread the chaos and terror she enjoys.
 
That leaves the option open for encounters with the Monster to lead to further stories with D.N., the Dreamzone, and/or DEMON.

What he's not telling you is, this is his phone.
 

And another new one!
https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1293.html

I lived through this a few years ago.  Honestly there wasn't much time for anarchy to break out even though everyone got the same text message.  Yeah there were some people speeding around in their cars and/or shoving their children into storm drains.  And there were some people who quit their jobs or (supposedly) had sex with people they shouldn't have.  But 20-30 minutes is not much time to get any real anarching done.
 
Then again, I'm in the civilized state--perhaps I am underestimating the latent savagery of mainland Ur Murrikans.

Let's see, with the wife, I've been watching The Gilmore Girls. Just started season 7. We watched it for about four seasons when it was originally on, but work schedules and life made us lose track. Wouldn't make it past the PC police today, and the characters are so flawed as to be downright unlikable at times (but rounded humans, who also have their good sides). It's one of those love it or hate it shows. 
 
Been watching some K-dramas and Anime also.
 
Uncanny Counter: Recently finished Season 3, which may be the final one. The show chronicles the adventures of a team of humans, empowered by higher powers to hunt down evil souls escaped from the underworld. These souls possess and empower their human hosts. The method of exorcism involves beating the possessed human to a pulp, then extracting the possessing spirit. Mostly lighthearted adventure that doesn't veer as much into darker subplots as a lot of Korean shows, though it has its moments. (Thinking of all the cute K-drama romcoms with scary a** serial killer subplots.)
 
Sweet Home: An apocalypse where people are suddenly monsterizing. Just finished Season 2, which was much different from Season 1. Season 1 was OK, but took a hit from its brevity, as it mostly ignored the psychological angle of the monsterizations. Season 2 was a confusing mess, adding a ton of new characters without much time put into giving them any distinctiveness, odd time jumps, a lot of lack of spotty plotting. Season 3 is coming, and Season 2 did end up with a reasonable launch point for it after much zig-zagging. Hopefully, Season 3 will return to the somewhat serviceable storytelling of Season 1. Overall, thin fare. 
 
Alchemy of Souls: Brings over the actor from Uncanny Counter who played the gruff but lovable middle aged guy, reprising  his stock character. (I can't recall the name, but I like the actor. Must watch with subtitles, b/c the American dub actor does not at all capture his vibe.) It's a world of kung-fu wizards, turned upside down by the forbidden sorcery of the Alchemy of Souls (body snatching by soul swapping, and other dastardly soul manipulations). Season one was decent, with a great female lead and great supporting cast. Season 2 diverges quite a bit from Season 1, and is pretty lacking in internal consistency, but was serviceable. It's a romance with some decent humor and some fairly dark subplots. (Still not as dark as those serial killers in the Park Bo Young romcoms -- and I recommend anything with her in it, though the quality varies a little. She's great as a romcom lead.)
 
Good Night World: Anime based on a manga that was apparently much better executed. Virtual reality game shenanigans, with plot points that are all over the place and zero internal consistency and poorly realized tech elements. (As in, the writers no bupkiss about tech and online gaming.) The worst thing about it is that it was short. It tried to cram 52 issues of a manga into 12 episodes of anime. The best thing about it is that it was short, so your suffering will also be short if you watch it.
 
Neon Genesis Evangelion: Just started watching this classic, which I haven't seen before. I'm about 8 episodes in and liking it. Watching the dub, because the dialog flows better than the subtitles. Voice acting quality seems good. Netflix has re-voiced this edition, apparently.
 
Barbie: We laughed all the way through this one. Another win for Margot Robbie's production company, IMO. You'll probably like it if you're not a member of

 
 
 
 

Time to ketchup on the latest from space:
 

It's worth reading Catherine Lucille Moore's Jirel of Joiry stories.

Contemporary with Howard, Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, (as in, the same issues of Weird Tales), the Jirel stories were mostly about her dealing with supernatural threats. Her actual butt kicking scenes were minimal, or happened before the proper stories began.

So to build her, you would include lots of Ego, OMCV, DMCV and so on. And, yes, she can ride at the head of her soldiers cutting her way through mooks in a perfectly Conan-ish manner.

Despite Margaret Brundage's covers, she wore perfectly functional armour too.

Frickin' finally!
 
Sen. Tommy Tuberville drops his hold on hundreds of military nominees (msn.com)

New one up and it's not even Christmas!
https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1292.html

There's something suspicious here. Didn't he just have one last year about this time?

There's something suspicious here. Didn't he just have one last year about this time?