Primary Panic

Ordo Veritatis statisticians have shown a significant increase in Outer Dark manifestations during election campaigns. Politicians’ frequent resort to the psychology of fear to arouse passion in their constituencies increases the supply of that most demon-friendly of emotions. This syndrome most affects partisans, who during this period pay greater attention to views they vehemently disagree with, stoking anxiety and aggression. They act as vectors, pumping cortisol into the bloodstreams of friends, co-workers, and relatives.

(Spawnings of Outer Dark Entities spike at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as politically opposed family members who do not usually spend time together spill jagged cognitive dissonance into the psychic oversphere.)

Social media now allows prolific vectors of political unease an unprecedented reach. Most of these posts originate from sincere individuals terrified of a future where the other side has gained supremacy. A few however emanate from isolated Esoterror trolls planting strategic keywords into the collective discourse.

If you came to this post from a link, chances are that it was nested among posts of one or the other category.

Take a deep breath, focus on a happy memory, and keep Esoterror out of your head.

These factors pertain wherever unpredictable elections occur. However, of all the systems, the one that generates the highest wattage of membrane-thinning energy is the US primary process. With so many candidates vying for support from the most vehement supporters of a single party, the sense of uncertainty and chaos rises markedly whenever the podiums and satellite trucks swarm into town.

One Esoterror cell in an upcoming primary state has decided to piggyback on this dynamic for a planned summoning. Door-to-door canvassing offers the perfect opportunity for a kidnap and kill operation. Cell members plan to lure canvassers to their doors, subdue them, and prepare them for sacrifice. Nabbing a candidate is too much to hope for: they come with reporters and support staff in tow. But grabbing a solitary young campaign worker, especially on doorsteps obscured from outside view, poses no great challenge. It won’t take too many disappeared canvassers before national news attention creates the atmosphere of overwhelming dread that Outer Dark conjurings depend on.

With OV threat matrix computers primed for electoral hijinks, it takes only one missing canvasser incident to dispatch your team of investigators to the site of the first kidnapping. Can they find the victims before they’re turned into ODE fodder? And then veil it out with a reporter staked out at every picturesque diner?

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