Encyclopedia of Nightmares

The Inventors

## History

Our story begins with an author named Arcadia Darell. Brimming with ambition but lacking in anything resembling actual talent, she was for a long time best known for producing formulaic genre fiction. Every attempt she made, whether in thrillers or romance or horror, always led to results that were at best lacking in originality, at worst playing the genre so straight as to become self-parody.

That changed when she saw something she could not explain: while traveling, she watched as a flying saucer lifted a car from on the road beside where she was staying and returned it an hour later. When mentioning the event to some of her acquaintances (disguising it as "a story idea"), she heard that they had had their own encounters with the inexplicable: strange clockwork mechanisms that moved city blocks, oddly seductive bloodsuckers in alleyways, and men who hunted copies of themselves.

Compiling these ideas, and some of the stranger things she found on distant corners of the Internet, Arcadia wrote a short story collection called *Encyclopedia of Nightmares*: a collection of weird fiction inspired by the things she had found. The book had a small but devoted fanbase, and she proceeded to write further "volumes", novels, and eventually created a wiki for the entire series, on which she welcomed fan contributions.

This would not normally have become any kind of hunter organization, aside from possibly a sibling group to Network Zero, if not for the circumstances of Arcadia's death.

The official report said "unknown drug overdose", but the most devoted of fans know that that isn't the entire story. For a month prior to her death, there was a sudden increase in activity in the board's Crank Theories section: normally used for discussing writing guidelines, a seeming troll appeared discussing the series as though it were real. Despite frequent admin bans, Arcadia herself would lift the ban in minutes. More "unbannable" trolls joined in, starting a flame war with the first but never disagreeing that the events of the books had actually happened. They started creating theories that seemed to be in the strangest form of competition; they would accept places where they contradicted each other, while saving their most furious invective for when they agreed.

Eventually, the changes stopped, and Crank Theories was blanked and later reverted to something sensible. Several hours later, it was announced that Arcadia had died. Later investigation revealed that all of the "trolls" were actually none other than Arcadia herself, though no one has come up with an explanation for *why* other than the month-long God-knows-what bender the coroner suspected. But that wasn't the end.

The Crank Theories page itself became a subject of fascination. Archived copies of Arcadia's last "unfinished work" began circulating around the Internet, eventually gaining a wiki of their own after the Encyclopedia Wiki cracked down on attempts to host or discuss it there.

And then things started getting *weird.* Occasionally, one of the more prolific contributors to the Encyclopedia would, upon encountering the Crank Theories Wiki, begin designing strange contraptions that included components taken from supernatural beings: sometimes magical or technological tools, but more often harvested organs.

In truth, the Encyclopedia of Nightmares community is falling victim to a two-part memetic attack: the Encyclopedia itself and the Crank Theories page are individually harmless, but when combined produce psychological effects such as a fascination with machinery, a focus on finding unusual things, and dreams of outer space. These can be controlled easily, but a third part fully activates the attack: observing a supernatural being using its abilities. At this point, the new hunter becomes obsessed with replicating the power technologically, and finds that the tools or anatomy used in it are necessary.

## The Enemy

Simply put, the Enemy is anything that the Encyclopedia finds interesting. Any supernatural being can be used as part of their machines. Individual hunters focus on their own interests: an Editor might work with those powers that seem easiest to replicate without organic components, while a Field Researcher might go for the powers that seem to be most useful and a Fan might focus on powers that seem to have a psychological or infectious component.

Of particular note, though, is that Wonders of Tomorrow are most easily built using technological powers. Powers that are machines in themselves are easiest to interface with, followed by powers that are designed for use on machines. This leads to a tendency in all factions to prefer demons and aliens over other kinds of prey.

## Hunters

You were always a fantasy fan. You grew up on stories of knights and wizards, and as your tastes developed you could read even the most awful romance novels as long as they were about hot vampires. It didn't take long for you to find the Encyclopedia, and now you've got a completely different interest in the supernatural.

The idea of memetics fascinated you. You studied a thousand different religions, looking for a general theory about how they formed, propagated, and eventually fell. You heard about a meme that seemed to be creating serial killers, and none of your precautions kept you from getting exposed.

You got thrown out of your former Cell for your Slasher tendencies. Right now, the memes are keeping them at bay by keeping your urges focused on supernatural beings, and you're desperately searching for something that can keep them restrained further.

You were originally from Utopia Now, following a lead about an alternative to taking apart demons. You're still trying to figure out how this stuff works, and you've got a few ideas about how to build a better tomorrow without killing every monster you see.

### **Fascinating trick. How do you do it?**

[Image: A woman wearing what appears to be a werewolf paw as a glove, with blinking electronics protruding from it and going up her forearm. She stands in a relaxed posture. In the background is the symbol of the Encyclopedia of Nightmares: an eye in a circle, rotated 35 degrees, in the center of a circular sawtooth wave that gives it the appearance of being a gear.]

## Factions

The **Fandom** focus on the memes themselves: who is behind them, why it results in such strange behavior, and the effects of altering different parts of the Crank Theories page before exposing a new recruit. This has resulted in little success, and has drawn the ire of hunters who would much rather *not* expose people to slightly-maddening texts.

Free Specialty: Academics (Psychology)

**Field Research** pays attention to the supernatural world, seeking inspiration and components. They're the largest faction by far, especially because new members tend to be among them by default until they learn how to *not* go carving up monsters for the retina they need for their super-camera.

Free Specialty: Stealth (Ambushes)

The **Editors** specialize in trying to understand the devices the Encyclopedia build: how they work, why they work, how to fit them into the context of existing science, and how to make them more efficient or build a cloaking field that isn't made from bits of vampire. Most of them have some sort of STEM background, but this isn't a requirement; knowing how machines *should* be put together is of surprisingly little use when dealing with a non-Euclidean arrangement of transistors and eyes.

Free Specialty: Occult (Magical Devices)

## Status

O: You've either been deliberately exposed to both the Encyclopedia and Crank Theories, or you've stumbled across them by accident and been discovered by the group. You may purchase the Wonders of Tomorrow Endowment.

OOO: You've posted enough of your designs for someone to actually duplicate one of them and have it work. Gain a free specialty of your choice, which (if appropriate) gains the benefits of the Interdisciplinary Specialty Merit for purposes of Wonders of Tomorrow.

OOOOO: Either you were a founding member, or you've managed to make an improvement to Crank Theories. Once per story, you may make a roll related to any of the following twice and take the better result: machines, memetics, anatomy, invention, one specific type of supernatural phenomenon (chosen now).