What do Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, Greys, Mokole-Mmembe, and Black Helecopters have in common?

You’ve heard about them all your life. They live in the places you were always warned about. They come for you–but only when you’re alone.
Ancient map-makers knew about them, and marked where they lived with pictures of monsters or simple warnings such as “Here There Be Dragones!” Aleister Crowley summoned one on the shores of Loch Ness and although he bragged about it for his entire life, he never tried it twice.

We made them whenever an intrepid explorer failed to come back. Did said explorer fall prey to a snakebite, bad food or a hostile tribe? It doesn’t matter–we really know monsters got him. What are they?

They’re the manifestation of our fear of the unknown. Every age and every people gives them a new shape. You’d think that the Communication Age would have finally killed them–the map is just about filled in and it’s now very hard for people to truly dissapear without explanation.

This isn’t true, of course. They’re alive and well, living in the realm of mutual mistrust and urban legend. For example: were the strange-looking wounds found on those dead cattle in Montana really caused by scavengers and decay, or were they caused by laser cutting tools hauled around in black, unmarked government helecopters for what reason we’re not entirely clear on (but it probably has something to do with the secret government treaty with space aliens)? I think we both know the answer to that one!

And so on and so on.

Adepts and Authentic Thaumaturges can sometimes call them up, but only with a Significant ritual. These creatures always take the form of whatever monster, alien or strange rumor exists in the area. Someone using this ritual on the shores of Loch Ness would call Nessie forth from the watery depths–whereas someone doing the exact same ritual in rural Montana would summon forth the earily silent Black Helecopters.
Exact capabilities will vary, of course, but are all roughly the same. Seeing one of these things is a Level 6 Unnatural challenge.

Black Helecopters