[UA] Lake, Blasts

[Gaston Phillips]

on 6/18/01 2:51 AM, Dylan Craig at wytchfynder at hotmail.com wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> I had an adventure set on Lake Mead scheduled for this weekend, seeing as how
> my
> campaign is based in Vegas, but my players have gone off on a wild tangent and
> find themselves in New York. So, now, I need a large body of recreational
> water
> within easy driving distance of NY. Any suggestions? My atlas shows a big lake
> called (?) Candle-something Lake in Connecticut; that's about the right
> distance
> away, does anyone have any more info on it?
> 

Manhattan Island is between the East River and the Hudson River.  To the
East is Long Island, which divides the Long Island Sound (On the north) from
the Atlantic Ocean (on the south).  South of Long Island is the long and
narrow barrier beach called Fire Island.  Which is a rich summer
destination, with a large homosexual population in many places - by
reputation, at least.

Lake Ronkonkoma, on Long Island, is a kettle lake, formed by glaciers.
There are legends about indian princesses drowning in it, told by teenagers.
They involve lost loves and stuff like that.  I can't remember because I've
been stoned whenever I've heard the stories.  But the fact is that one
teenager drowns in that lake every year.  The currents, underwater, are
really serious, and the water stays /cold/, all year.


I found this on a local teen's homepage.  I'll include the link, but I warn
you:  There's areally fucking annoying audio file that plays automatically.
Ahem.


"Now I'll tell you some about my town. Notice the weird name? There's a
reason for that. The lake that's in my town is named after a Native American
princess named Ronkonkoma. There's also a legend that goes along with it.

A long time ago, before the settlers pushed all of the Natives onto
reservations, different tribes lived around the lake. Ronkonkoma's tribe was
one of them. One day, she met a prince from the other side of the lake, and
fell in love with him. But Ronkonkoma's parents soon found out that the
prince was from another tribe, so she was forbidden to see him. But nothing
would stop Ronkonkoma from seeing her prince. Late one night, her prince
tried to swim across the lake to get to her. On the way over, he drowned in
the middle of the lake. Ronkonkoma went out after him, but she, too,
drowned. Neither of them were ever seen again. It is said that, each year,
Ronkonkoma comes back and takes the live of one teenage boy, since she's
still looking for her lost love . . . . . . . Isn't that sweet? So far, the
legend has been true. Each year, one teenage boy does get drowned!

Or.... something like that, anyway.

Lake Ronkonkoma (the lake) is bottomless. They've never found the bottom to
it! (I think) It was formed by the glaciers back in the last ice age. It's
fed by an underground stream."
(http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Cottage/8355/town.html)

The following site seems a bit more reputable:

"Legends swirl about Lake Ronkonoma. A pamphlet, "Nesaquake Tales," at the
Smithtown Public Library, written by the late Huntington town historian
Rufus B. Langhans, tells the story of an Indian maiden who was sacrificed to
appease the Great Spirit, Manitou. "Heather Flower and Other Indian Stories
of Long Island" by Verne Dyson, contains another legend, "The Troubled
Spirit of the Lake." In this version, a broken-hearted Indian princess tied
weights around her ankles, rowed out to the middle of the lake, slipped over
the side and was never seen again. Her remorseful lover dived into the lake
and searched for her body. He failed but as the story goes, her body was
found floating in a Connecticut river some weeks later. Her grieving parents
brought her back to Long Island and she was buried with honors at Montauk
Point. But Indians believed that her spirit haunted the lake and caused
whirlpools, waves, moaning sounds and other mysterious events. "Three Waves:
The Story of Lake Ronkonkoma" by Ann Farnum Curtis, also tells about legends
surrounding the lake. "Heather Flower" and "Three Waves" are both available
in many of our public libraries. " (http://www.lihistory.com/3/hs369a.htm)

And, from the same site,

"Q. There is an American Indian legend regarding a curse on Lake Ronkonkoma
put there by one of two warring Indian tribes living on opposite sides of
the lake, the curse being that a male child would drown in the lake every
year until eternity. Do you have any information about this legend?
- Ginny Hedlund, Northport

A. A number of years ago, a Newsday investigative reporter, seeking to test
this legend, spent hours looking at old clippings in the Newsday library.
Sure enough, for the several years that he studied, at least one young boy
had drowned in Lake Ronkonkoma every summer. This may make you want to
believe the legend, but to me it means that the lake can be a dangerous
place for young swimmers. The lake, the largest on Long Island, is called a
kettle lake, having been formed millions of years ago by a glacier. It has
been the subject of many legends, all of them seemingly told by American
Indians. Another one is that of a young Indian chief who fell in love with a
pretty maiden who failed to requite his love. Despondent, he paddled out to
the middle of the lake, dove deeply and never surfaced, giving rise to a
belief that the lake had no bottom. Later, the story goes, the chief's body
was found in Great South Bay. We know, however, that the spring-fed lake has
no outlets, so this story is a conundrum."
(http://www.lihistory.com/histpast/past0309.htm)

Ronkonkoma is maybe an hour or two outside of manhattan in moderate traffic.
Two and a half to three hours if you're driving during rush hour.  And,
right now, the Long Island Expressway seems prepetually under construction.
They keep closing parts of it for no apparent reason.  It took me an hour
and a half to drive to Queens tonight, in bumper to bumper traffic for,
like, three quarters of the trip.  And I left at ten PM.  So, if you're
running any kind of scene involving New York City -> Long Island transport,
you are hereby obbligated to include a "World's Slowest Car Chase, Ever."
scene.

gaston
...hope this helps.


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua