Introduction to Unseen Masters

Who is among us? Who? I cannot utter a blessing while he is here. I cannot feel one. Where he treads, the earth is parched! Where he breathes, the air is fire! Where he feeds, the food is poison! Where he turns, his glance is lightning! Who is among us? Who?

—Melmoth the Wanderer

Dark forces have existed from before the coming of man, and shall exist long after mankind is but dust. These forces are here now, but are unseen. Invisible, yet coexisting with our world, They have watched and waited.

Abdul Alhazrad warned us of these unseen masters in his terrible forbidden book, the Necronomicon:

Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen.
As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold.

It is now the present. Mankind is beset with all forms of disasters. The horrors range from genocidal wars, epidemics of incurable diseases, to poverty and famine. From the chaos, self-proclaimed messiahs and prophets of oblivion appear, spreading the word that the Apocalypse is upon us. They are dismissed as madmen.

Worse, the Unseen forces are no longer quiescent. Ancient evils no longer hide in forgotten tombs, blasted heaths, and fabled cities… no, they have come into the hearts of our cities, in through the walls of our homes, and invaded our very minds.

Why?

The madmen are right. The End Times are upon us. The Unseen Masters no longer wait. They have come to take what was theirs.

The adventures in this book pit investigators against deadly foes who are 'unseen' masters of Evil Incarnate. They have lurked off-stage in separate invisible realms, spinning diabolical designs for Earth.

New York, an Arena of Urban Menace

The settings for the adventures within this book are not forgotten tombs, crumbling mansions, or decaying backwoods towns. The horrors showcased mostly occur in the heart of one of the most famous metropolitan cities in North America—New York.

Keepers are encouraged to add in the dark texture of decay and rot that lies under the city's glitzy appearance. The scenario themes underscore that outward appearance and simple truths are but the surface of secrets filled with madness and despair.

Although the horrors of the Mythos outweigh the mundane terrors of humanity, that is not a reason to avoid presenting the evil that humans do.

Contrast the false safety of the bright lights of the city to its shadowy dangerous alleys. The concrete jungle exists, filled with its own predators, such as robbers, rapists and racists. Scattered in the dark are the homeless, young and old, trying to find solace through begging, drugs, and criminal activities. The sex trade exploits many of the helpless into becoming flesh for freaks in exchange for a needle of chemical dreams. Sickness and hunger loom in the night. Youths return to ancient tribal ways, forming gangs that are answerable only to themselves.

With the horrors of death, hunger, hate, and sickness, one would think the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse had arrived. Indeed, in a sense, they have. But there are more heralds of doom; the dreariness of suburbia, the mass consumerism engendered by sex-tinged media, the confusion of numerous cultures and generations clashing, the heaps of pollution swept into the corners of the globe... and more.

Keepers that weave in the mentioned thematic elements in their game can induce a mounting sense of a spectral presence rotting away the foundations of humanity.

The terror and demonic punch line the investigators will uncover is that the Unseen Masters are catalysts for the End, but humanity has itself to blame for beating a pathway to Hell.