Night comes early now as October covers the sun-scorched plains of Oklahoma. An intensely hot summer is slowly fading away. Evening walks under the stars are bearable once more and the cool breezes are a welcome relief from the sweat soaking humidity of recent nights. And with the arrival of October comes the annual Grumble Jones Halloween scenario. These are scenarios that have covered time travel, dinosaurs, crocodiles, Golems and mysterious German technology. They started out as lark, but gained traction as readers took to them and looked forward to what would follow. Now mind you...the grognards of the Kingdom of Ohio are not likely fans of such heresy, but there are about 80 of you out there who enjoy these crazy, screwball scenarios. And it is with you in mind, that I happily put these out each year.
This year's scenario will be a bit of a departure from zombies and undead alien beings. No, this year will be much more mundane as it were. The horror is found in Trichinellosis, sometimes called trichinellosis (trik-ih-nuh-LOW-sis), is a type of roundworm infection. These roundworm parasites (trichinella) use a host body to live and reproduce. These parasites infect animals such as bears, cougars, walruses, foxes, wild boars and domestic pigs. People acquire Trichinellosis by consuming raw or undercooked meat infected with the Trichinella parasite, particularly wild game meat or pork. Even tasting very small amounts of undercooked meat during preparation or cooking puts you at risk for infection. Outbreaks occur in settings where multiple people consume the same Trichinella-infected meat.
The first symptoms of Trichinellosis are gastrointestinal, usually occurring 1–2 days after a person consumes raw or undercooked meat from a Trichinella-infected animal. These symptoms include the following: Nausea, Diarrhea, Vomiting, & Abdominal pain'
The following classic symptoms of Trichinellosis often occur within 2 weeks after eating contaminated meat, and can last up to 8 weeks: Muscle pain, Fever, Swelling of the face, particularly the eyes, Weakness or fatigue, Headache, Chills, Itchy skin or rash, Cough, Diarrhea, & Constipation.
Symptoms may range from very mild to severe and relate to the number of infectious worms consumed in the meat. Many mild cases of trichinellosis are never specifically diagnosed because they are assumed to be the flu or other common illnesses. Furthermore, many people with trichinellosis do not experience any symptoms at all.
If the infection is heavy, persons may have trouble coordinating movements and have heart and breathing problems. Although rare, death can occur in severe cases. For mild to moderate infections, most symptoms go away within a few months.
All of this is of course a leadup to the unfortunate tail of a German Arctic Weather Station on Alexandra Land. Predicting the weather had become of great importance to the German war effort and particularly when trying to determine such things as the best time for Allied Landings in Northern Europe. The Germans needed accurate weather forecasts to know when they might expect an invasion of France, Holland or even Norway.
These isolated Arctic Stations were sparsely manned and resupplied sporadically by U-Boat or by air. Their locations were naturally quite secret in order to protect them.
Once such base, known as Schaetzgraeber was located on Alexandra Land. This base would gain fame for an unfortunate occurrence.
As you might expect, duty on such isolated stations could be consumed with boredom. To break up the boredom and to supplement their meager rations, the weather teams would hunt the abundant seals and other wildlife on the island.
These would usually be the only shots fired in anger during their time on station. And generally speaking, they enjoyed the culinary spoils of their daily expeditions.
But, they were not the only predators interested in seal meat. Polar Bears would frequently visit the island to hunt. This would lead to the inevitable collision between the Germans and the Polar Bears. The Germans would prevail and add Polar Bear to the menu.
And while the Germans were successful in taking out the Polar Bears...they were less successful in consuming the Polar Bear meat. Turns out, you need to cook it thoroughly to avoid Trichinellosis. And guess what...the Germans didn't do that and had themselves some tasty Polar Bear Tartar. Within days, they were all seriously ill, all except the vegetarian Medic. He quickly radioed the Fatherland to call for an immediate evacuation of the team. Eventually, a Focke-Wulf Kondor would arrive and take the team to Germany for treatment. The Schaetzgraeber Station was left unmanned until its ruins were discovered again in 2016.
Credit for this Halloween Scenario idea goes to my good friend and opponent, Dan Best. Dan suggested the idea and really put the scenario together. This is a fast play scenario where Germans and Polar Bears fight it out on the bleak landscape of Alexndra Land. Just remember...don't eat the meat!!
As always, these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.
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All Grumble Jones scenarios are available from the ASL Archive website.
(Just search on Grumble Jones)
Happy Halloween from Grumble Jones!!
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?
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