Kolchak does the best with what he has.
Carl Kolchak’s solutions were so haphazard. Manufactured, non-canonical examples include:
- A mallet he cadged from the janitor and a splintered chair leg to fight a vampire.
- Herbs that a book he bought at the five and dime claimed would protect from witchcraft.
- Tinfoil folded in proportions cited in sacred architecture as defending against psychic intrusion.
In short, there must have been any number of times that Kolchak’s spit and baling wire efforts didn’t pan out. But the man in the seersucker suit lived to report another day, so there must have been some resolution to the supernatural threats that didn’t include a hibernation or migratory component.
Reminds me of the set-up for Eternal Lies, the Trail of Cthulhu campaign where the player characters are drawn into the consequences of a ritual that another group of investigators failed to prevent some years prior.
N.B. I would be remiss in not acknowledging “ham-fisted bun vendor” as first being uttered by Jon Pertwee in the Doctor Who serial “Terror of the Autons.” So possibly Robert Holmes’ creation, Terrence Dicks’, or Pertwee’s own.
Held Action 