Ever get the feeling that something strange is happening in town? Is there a weird fishy smell? Are all the locals wearing oversized clothing and manipulating objects even though you can see that their hands aren’t moving? I guess it’s time we look closer at another faction for Mythos, our forthcoming 1920’s horror skirmish game…

Servants of the Sunken Pantheon (Dread Father Dagon, Deep Mother Hydra, and their progeny), the Hidden Ones make their home in coastal towns and villages around the world. Through corruption and interbreeding, the Hidden Ones irrevocably link their community to the sea and to the ancient deities that they worship.

Typical of such tainted communities are the fair (but fishy) folk of Dunsmouth, Rhode Island. The authority on almost anything in town is The Dunsmouth Witch (as depicted below). Steeped in ancient wisdom, none know of her true origin, but the Witch has certainly lived in Dunsmouth for over a century. Popular gossip has that a century earlier, a much younger and fairer looking woman, mourning her stillborn son, walked into the sea in the hope of swift oblivion. She returned carrying a crying baby boy, a gift from the Sunken Pantheon. That son grew up tall and strong, the blessings of the deep apparent beneath his rain soaked sou’wester. Any threat to the Hidden Ones is sure to find The Dunsmouth Witch or her son, The Fisherman, close at hand. The Fisherman is a gruff and violent man. Never seen in town except when the tide is high and death is at hand. All too often the spectre of The Fisherman is the last thing a victim sees before a gore-encrusted boat hook sweeps down to serve them to their doom.

The Angler is both a child of Dunsmouth and progenitor from the deep. Those who are steadfast in their devotion to the Sunken Pantheon are often blessed with offspring touched by the abyss below. These hybrids pass for human except when confronted with fire or certain words of power. There are some children of the Hidden Ones who are not of such mixed heritage. The Angler is one such creature, born to a human mother but with no trace of mankind in its flesh. A true Deep One.

Click-Clack is a fearsome creature born from the dark caverns of the deep. An immense crustacean, it is often found clung to the underside of the town’s fishing boats, journeying out to their hunting grounds and feasting on its tithe of the catch before returning to the town each night to answer the call of the Dread Father and Deep Mother. Often tasked to bring the titanic crab to serve The Hidden Ones, Molly Malone, is honoured to find such favour. The Malone family have served the Sunken Pantheon for generations. Youngest of twelve siblings, Molly feared that there would not be a way in which she herself could bring further honour to her lineage. She thanked the stars for that night that the Witch sought her out and gave her this important duty. Click Clack must be lured out from the harbour each night he is needed. The pails of human offal that Molly must acquire for such a purpose is her privilege to collect from the sleeping homeless and itinerant visitors to their fair town.

Grim as they are, there is more coming for the Hidden Ones as their shadowy schemes play out in the wider Mythos setting. Stay tuned for more before the tabletop skirmish horror hits stores in early 2020.

Until next time.

Stuart