Backstory and Sidekicks

FS: Can you give us some background on the Spookhouse agency? Why do they exist and what's their motivation to do what they do?

TR: Spookhouse was founded during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Roosevelt encountered a werewolf during the Spanish American war, and since that day he knew that the mysterious underworld of myth and fantasy was not relegated to the realm of fiction. Someone had to investigate and contain the forces of evil which walk the world at night. He founded an agency, the Domestic Supernatural Defense [sic] and Research League, to perform those duties. Since its conception, the Agency, codenamed Spookhouse, has secretly investigated reports of the supernatural, always keeping their actions and movements unseen by normal men. In their history they have performed numerous horucides (from the Latin horum meaning "monster") in which they have eradicated entire groups of monsters. Such actions are rare. More commonly they investigate singular incidents reported by civilians to local authorities. Only the president and a few representatives from the armed forces know of Spookhouse's existence. Secrecy is second only to their primary tasks of investigating and containing threats posed by the supernatural. Their office is tucked away in the sub-basement of the Phillip Howard Federal Building in Washington, DC under the guise of the Department of Biological and Wildlife Research.

FS: Does the stranger have any partners to help him? What sorts of monsters/nasties is the player going up against?

TR: Spookhouse is a team of agents. Without question the most lethal-and mysterious-is the man known only as "Stranger". But he is just one man. He cannot take on all the forces of darkness, regardless of what he might think. His fellow operatives prove invaluable when they assist him. Among their ranks are:

• Elspeth "Doc" Holliday, a crafty young inventor.
• Hiram Mottra, a fidgety, nervous biologist.
• Colonel Cedric Feldspar Hapscomb, Assistant Director of Spookhouse.
• Sammy "Haystack" Kayo, a gypsy-trained boxer.
• Svetlana Lupescu, the feisty young Dhampir.
• Scat Dazzle, the voodoo Houngan / Jazz musician.
• "Icepick" Gasparro, the result of a mad scientists experimentation in reanimating the dead.
• Khen Rigzin, a century-old Tibetan monk and martial artist.
• Moloch, cast forth from heaven and subsequently hell, Spookhouse's only demon agent.