Mister X

I need a way to bring the characters into the plot and in a good, old-fashioned Call of Cthulhu tradion I will use an NPC who is an old acquaintance of the PCs. This Mister X will serve as a starting point for the adventure, and as the investigators sort through clues and uncover the true nature of his esoteric reasearch they will be lead to the actual gist of the adventure - the Unnamed Mask.

However, to make this Mister X more mysterious and multifaceted each PC knows him from different circumstances and is familiar to a different aspect of him. The goal here is to give the players an image of a man who has many different sides to him and has only revealed one aspect of him to any given person. This will give him an aura of mystery and emphasize the fact that he is a man of many secrets.


This multifaceted approach also gives the players an opportunity to participate in creating their connection to this man (and this adventure) as a part of creating their own backstory. I have instructed each player to think what is their connection to Mister X. Pretty much the only piece of information I gave them was that Mister X is in New Orleans and has been living there for a few years. I will also encourage them to narrate new facts or rumors about Mister X via their investigative spends.

In addition to what the players will come up with, Mister X already has a backstory that I will then adjust to accomodate their ideas. In the 1920s he was professor in the new field of quamtum physics at the Miskatonic University in Arkham (of course). Especially, the Theory of All was his area of interest to point of bordering on being an obsession. Then, in 1926 when the stars are right and R'lyeh rises (as per The Call of Cthulhu) he among many other sensitive people, artists, dreamers and the like, falls into a delirium and haunted dreamstate. His wife, and her family, have him committed to the Arkham Asylum where he suddenly comes to his senses in early April. After a brief monitoring period he is released from the asylum.

Driven by his recollection of feverish visions of cyclopean cities, impossible angles, and antediluvian truths our Mister X buries himself in the Miskatonic University's Rare Books Collection spending countless hours reading through ancient tomes and manuscripts, even glimpsing the dreaded Necronomicon by the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred. In 1927, he attends the Solvay Conference in Brussels to discuss the newly formulated quantum theory with the world's most notable physicists like Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr. His wild theories on multiverses and other dimensions are widely dismissed.

Back home his singleminded obsession with his research leaves him married in name only, and the university is forced to address him for neglecting his other duties. In early 1932, he asks to be transferred to Tulane University in New Orleans. It is believe it is because of his failed marriage and his strenuous relationship with Miskatonic faculty. In fact, he relocates to Louisiana because his research into the Mythos has relieved something called the Cthulhu cult and several items (some of them on loan from Miskatonic) and locations of interest to him are in New Orleans. In late 1932 he moves to New Orleans where he starts teaching physics at the Tulane University. His research into the occult and esoteric history of the region takes him to local voodoo priests, into the Louisina swamps, shady jazz clubs, and Oriental gansters. And he finally gets his hands on an item, an unnamed mask of unknown origin, he first learned about in Arkham and that has been stashed away in the NOPD evidence room ever since Inspector Legrasse's Cthulhu cult task force was terminated...