Adventure Hooks
AX.GHW.14.05 - Adventure Hooks
This file compiles all adventure hooks from across the Hidden World catalog. Hooks are organized in two sections: organization-generated hooks from the profession dossiers (AX.GHW.07), and threat-generated hooks from the Threats section (AX.GHW.13).
Organization hooks assume at least one party member has a relationship with the relevant organization. Threat hooks are self-contained situations that can arise in any campaign structure. Both types are designed to interconnect — the Vanguard hook about a rogue operator and the Shapeshifter hook about a pack in distress may be the same situation approached from opposite directions.
For a complete starter scenario with full mechanical support, see AX.GHW.14.04 (Old Business).
Organization Hooks
Government and Military
Bureau of Unusual Affairs
Source: AX.GHW.07.02
A BUA case from 1984 that was officially closed with cause of death listed as "accidental" has begun producing anomalous readings at its original site. The file is flagged. The analyst who originally closed it is still employed by the Bureau.
An agent is assigned to investigate a series of incidents that bear the signature of a specific supernatural entity — one the Bureau's records indicate was neutralized in 2009 by a team that no longer exists.
A mid-level BUA supervisor has been quietly funneling case files to a third party. The third party is not another government agency.
The Bureau has received a request, through channels that officially don't exist, to discuss Annex D with a representative of an entity that has never previously sought federal recognition. The meeting location is somewhere the Bureau would prefer not to go.
Vanguard Unit
Source: AX.GHW.07.03
A Vanguard team has gone dark on a mission. The Operations Chief wants the situation resolved before anyone outside the program notices. The resolution may require finding out what the team found.
An operator has filed an abort report citing "bystander assessment inconsistent with threat designation." The Operations Chief's review of the abort report is currently pending. The operator is not currently assigned to active missions.
The Vanguard's doctrine section has flagged an emerging pattern: three separate incidents in the past six months share a signature that matches no existing threat category. The targeting package hasn't been built yet because the category doesn't exist in the system.
A retired Vanguard operator has begun providing tactical support to a hidden-world community the Vanguard has classified as organizationally monitored. The operator took classified knowledge with them. The Vanguard has noticed.
Civilian and Independent
The Network
Source: AX.GHW.07.04
A piece of Network intelligence has proven to be wrong — specifically, the destruction method on file for a threat category the characters are currently dealing with. Someone put that information into the network intentionally. The question is who and why.
A lore keeper has gone quiet. Their node contact asks the characters to check in. The archive exists. The lore keeper does not.
A hunter using Network verification protocols has made contact claiming to be someone the characters know. The characters have recently confirmed that person is dead.
The oldest physical archive in the Network has surfaced on the open market. The seller knows what it is. The buyer pool includes at least one party the Network would consider catastrophically inappropriate.
Safe Harbor
Source: AX.GHW.07.05
A client Safe Harbor placed in a new location eighteen months ago has been found. They did not want to be found. The party that found them is not the one that originally threatened them.
Safe Harbor has received an unusual request: advocacy services for an entity that does not fit any lineage category in the organization's working knowledge. The entity's situation is genuine. What it is, exactly, is unclear.
A chapter coordinator has made a decision to use a last-resort safe house for a case that doesn't, by standard assessment, justify it. They haven't explained why to anyone. The national coordinating body wants an explanation.
The public-facing nonprofit is under audit. The auditing party is not the IRS.
The Threshold Society
Source: AX.GHW.07.13
A threshold site in the Warden's region has shifted from stressed to fractured overnight. The cause is not natural thinning. The Society's assessment suggests deliberate application — which is what the Meridian Breach archive describes, and which the Standing Circle is not ready to acknowledge publicly.
A faction has requested Society mediation for a dispute, but the other party to the dispute has not. The requesting faction claims the other party is bound by an existing Accord agreement that obligates them to accept mediation. The other party denies the agreement applies. The Mediator has to determine who is right before the situation escalates past the point where mediation is possible.
One of the three Anchor Case subjects has made contact with a Warden outside normal channels. They are not in distress. They have information about what they are anchoring that was not in the archive documentation — information that changes the Society's understanding of the Meridian Breach.
An Accord agreement between two parties has been invoked by a third party that claims successor status to a dissolved faction. The claim is legally arguable. If the agreement applies, it commits both original parties to obligations they have spent decades assuming were moot. The Mediator has to assess the claim before either party decides to resolve the uncertainty through other means.
Religious and Mystical
Order of the Warden's Flame
Source: AX.GHW.07.06
An exorcism the Order conducted six months ago has produced anomalous follow-up: the subject is reporting that the possessing entity did not leave, it just went quiet. The Warden who conducted the exorcism is now in formation review.
The Order has received a formation request from a Light-Bound Marked individual whose covenant description doesn't match any Illuminated entity in the Order's records. The Formation Master wants external consultation before proceeding.
A contested entry in the restricted archive has become operationally relevant: the historical account of the shadow compact negotiation contains specific methodology that appears to apply to the current situation. The Chapter doesn't know the record exists. The Archivist does.
A religious institution that recognizes the Order has begun asking questions about the Order's operational activities that are more specific than recognition relationships normally produce. Someone inside the institution has received information about what the Order actually does.
The Grimoire Compact
Source: AX.GHW.07.07
The Compact's archive has received a donation — a private collection from an estate, legally transferred — that contains materials the donor should not have had access to. Several items are from the Order's restricted archive. Several more are from sources that don't exist in any of the Compact's cross-reference records.
A field researcher has gone outside sanctioned protocols. The research they were conducting was genuine and the findings are significant. The manner in which they obtained access to the phenomenon being studied is a problem.
The Compact's anomalous category working group has produced a preliminary finding. The finding has implications for the threat classification framework that, if published, would require significant revisions to how the hidden world understands a category of phenomenon it has been dealing with for decades. The Director of Research wants more evidence. The group lead thinks they have enough.
An outside party — identity unclear, approach made through unusual channels — has offered the Compact access to a primary source archive of significant size in exchange for the Compact's assistance with a research question the party cannot pursue through its own resources. The question itself is not dangerous. The identity of the party asking it may be.
Corporate and Academic
Aldersham Institute
Source: AX.GHW.07.08
An Aldersham assessment delivered to a government client has produced a response that the research team didn't anticipate — the client acted on the findings in a way that the team, had they known the intended use, would have flagged to the Ethics Board. The client is now asking for a follow-up assessment.
A field investigation has returned evidence that contradicts the findings of a previous Aldersham study that was used to justify a significant operational decision. The previous study's lead researcher is still at the Institute.
The Haunt researcher whose employment arrangement has persisted for twelve years has produced findings that are directly relevant to the current situation. Presenting those findings requires explaining how the researcher is still employed.
An Aldersham training program graduate has been using Institute credentials to conduct unauthorized investigations. The investigations are genuine and the findings are significant. The methodology involves an information source the Ethics Board would not have approved.
Obsidian Solutions
Source: AX.GHW.07.09
A containment contract has produced a finding that the client specifically requested not appear in the after-action report. The operative is deciding what to do with that instruction.
An artifact the brokerage division placed eighteen months ago has surfaced in connection with a current incident. The broker knows who the buyer was. The buyer was a current client.
Obsidian's intelligence database contains information about a hidden-world actor that would be directly useful to the party, and that the firm has not shared with any client — suggesting either that no client has paid for it or that someone at the firm has decided it shouldn't move. The broker or operative has access to the database and has to decide what to do with what they find.
A personal security client has disclosed, in the course of a threat assessment, information about their own activities that changes the firm's risk calculus for the engagement. The Operations Director wants to continue; the operative on the detail is not certain that's the right call.
Underground and Criminal
The Bloodline Courts
Source: AX.GHW.07.10
A community member has disappeared. The Court has opened an internal investigation. The investigation has produced findings that implicate a party — individual or organizational — that the Court's standard channels cannot address. The Court is deciding whether to bring in external assistance and, if so, who.
A Registry entry that has been incomplete for three generations has become relevant — a lineage claim that depends on the missing information has been filed. The First Blood of the relevant Court is managing the situation in ways that the filing party finds unsatisfactory.
The Assembly has convened on an unusual matter: a Dhampir community member has entered into a relationship with an external organization that the Courts have not recognized and that several Courts consider potentially harmful to community interests. The member in question disagrees with that assessment.
The Courts have received evidence that the Hollow Market is operating within a Court community — not at the margins, but with the active participation of a community member with standing. The Court is handling the matter internally and is discovering that the internal handling is more complicated than the initial evidence suggested.
The Hollow Market
Source: AX.GHW.07.11
A transaction the party was involved with — as buyer, seller, or bystander — has created a liability in the Market's accounting. The Fixer assigned to resolve it is not interested in whether the party's involvement was intentional.
A broker has been approached by a buyer whose requirements are specific enough that fulfilling them would require accessing materials or services that even the Market has not previously moved. The broker is trying to decide whether the transaction is worth the new ground it breaks.
An information consolidator has sent a message to a party — possibly the characters — with a price tag attached. The message contains a proof-of-concept: one piece of information from the consolidator's larger picture. The proof is accurate and significant. The full picture is for sale.
A Shadow-Bound Marked practitioner who has been working within the Market's shadow compact brokerage practice has realized that the compacts being brokered are not commercially neutral — the Hollow entity's involvement is more directed than the surface terms indicate. They are trying to decide who to tell about this, if anyone, and what telling someone would cost them.
The Sovereign Circle
Source: AX.GHW.07.14
A practitioner not affiliated with the Circle has been operating in the party's area conducting bindings without following any recognizable standards. The outcome of one of those bindings is now the party's problem. The Circle wants to know who authorized the practitioner to represent themselves as Circle-adjacent when they clearly are not.
The Inner Circle has requested the party's assistance with an assessment they cannot conduct internally — the Senior Member managing the undisclosed creditor situation has missed a scheduled check-in, and the Inner Circle needs someone who can investigate without it looking like an internal review.
A Hollow Market operation has identified and is actively pursuing a practitioner the Circle has been protecting. The practitioner has information about a specific Hollow entity that both the Circle and the Market want. The party has to reach them first and make a decision about what happens to the information.
The Order of the Warden's Flame has come to the Circle with a case. The Order doesn't do this casually. The case involves a Shadow entity that the Order cannot eliminate and cannot negotiate with, and someone — not the Order — suggested that the Circle might have a different approach. The Order hates that this might be true.
Compact of Lines
Source: AX.GHW.07.15
A pack in the party's region has applied for Registry recognition and has been in the hold file for eleven years without explanation. The pack has asked a Pack Advocate to find out why. The Line Keeper who manages that file is not returning communications.
The Conclave has convened to address a territorial dispute between two long-established packs. The Registry records, which should clarify the historical claim, contain a gap exactly where the relevant documentation should be. Both packs have produced their own historical records. They contradict each other. Someone is lying, or someone altered the Registry, or both.
A Line Keeper investigation has surfaced a founding lineage connection between a recognized pack and one of the removed Registry entries — a pack whose records were taken out fifty years ago. Following the connection means finding out what the removed pack was and why it was removed. The Registry Council's restricted notes on the removal are seven words long and reference an authority that no longer exists.
The Compact has received an inquiry from an external organization — not the Vanguard, not Obsidian, someone new — requesting access to territorial records for a specific region on grounds that are technically within the Compact's external relationship terms. The request is legitimate on its face. The region it concerns is one where three packs have gone quiet in the past six months.
Threat Hooks
Aberrations
Source: AX.GHW.13.02
The Basement
A residential building in the city has been producing complaints for two months — unexplained sounds, objects moving, residents leaving without notice. Maintenance found something in the basement that nobody can describe clearly. Investigation reveals a stationary Reality Fracture in the utility sub-level, open for approximately six weeks, currently at Threshold 3 closure difficulty and growing. The building has 47 occupied units. The Veil management challenge: a building full of witnesses who have all been experiencing Ambient Veil Fracture symptoms. The practical challenge: closure requires getting a Mediumship practitioner into Close range of the Fracture while it is actively damaging them.
The Consultant
A research team at the Aldersham Institute has been using experimental equipment to study "dimensional boundary phenomena" — they thought they were doing theoretical physics. Three weeks ago something started following one of the researchers home. The researcher has been sleeping in their office. The Stalker has been in the building for two weeks, feeding on the researcher's isolation. The complication: the researcher's equipment is still running, and it is generating a low-level Breach signal that the Stalker is tethered to. Destroying the equipment closes the Breach but the researcher has three weeks of research they're not willing to lose.
The New Neighbor
A Mind Feeder has been in a medium-density residential neighborhood for four months. Twelve residents are in medically unexplained catatonic states. The Feeder has been careful — spreading its feeding across a large enough population that no individual has been drained to the point of complete coma, maintaining its social integration as a resident. The characters arrive after the twelfth catatonia case draws a Grimoire Compact field researcher's attention. The Feeder is now aware that investigators are present and has begun planning its departure, but it will feed one more time before leaving. The characters have one scene to identify which of thirty-plus residents the Feeder is.
The Countdown
A classified BUA file has been accessed by an unknown party. The file contained documented evidence of a deep Breach in an industrial area outside the city — a Breach that has been partially sealed for forty years, held in check by a standing Mediumship ward that requires renewal every five years. The renewal was due three months ago. The BUA team assigned to renewal disappeared. The characters are either hired to find the team or find the file independently. When they reach the site, the ward is failing and the Breach is expanding. The Hollow has begun to emerge. They have approximately forty minutes before it reaches the surrounding civilian area.
Cryptids
Source: AX.GHW.13.03
The Livestock Circuit
A rural county is experiencing serial livestock deaths — blood-drained, no flesh consumed, small puncture wounds. The county sheriff has called it "coyote activity." Three farms in a 20-mile radius in 10 days. Investigation reveals a Chupacabra pair that has been pushed out of their normal territory by a construction project. The Veil complication: a local farmer has camera footage. The human complication: the construction project is contracted by Obsidian Solutions, who may be aware of the territorial displacement and may have reasons not to stop construction.
Before the Bridge
The Mothman has been sighted at a river crossing for three consecutive nights. Multiple witnesses, phone footage already circulating. The BUA has dispatched a suppression team. The characters are either ahead of the BUA — what disaster is coming, and can it be prevented? — or behind it: the BUA team has gone dark; what happened to them? The disaster resonance is pointing at the bridge structure itself, and there's a city council vote on maintenance funding happening tomorrow.
Old Territory
A Sasquatch has been documented within 2 miles of a small town after 40 years of absence. Network intelligence suggests its forest corridor was severed by a highway expansion. It's not aggressive — it's lost and stressed. The BUA wants it killed and the evidence sanitized. The Network wants it relocated. A Grimoire Compact researcher wants a tissue sample. The characters are in the middle and have maybe 48 hours before the BUA's solution becomes final.
The Black Road
A stretch of rural highway has had 11 vehicle accidents in 6 months, all at night, all at the same curve, all involving drivers who report "a large animal in the road." Three are fatal. Investigation reveals a Black Dog territorial corridor that crosses the road at that curve. The death resonance of the accident site is now attracting more Black Dogs. The cycle is self-reinforcing. The question is whether disrupting the death resonance — a Mediumship undertaking — stops the problem, or whether the road itself needs to be rerouted, which requires involving civilian infrastructure agencies without exposing the actual cause.
Cursed and Possessed
Source: AX.GHW.13.04
The Partner
A BUA Special Agent's longtime partner has been acting strangely for two weeks — missed appointments, wrong reactions to known information, subtle behavioral incongruities. The partner is possessed. The complication: the entity inside the partner is gathering BUA operational intelligence for an unknown third party, and it has nearly completed its collection. The characters have to confirm the possession, plan an exorcism, and do it before the entity transmits what it has — without alerting the partner (who will flee if it suspects detection) or the BUA chain of command (who would classify the partner as a threat and apply Vanguard protocols).
The Bargain's Terms
A young woman approaches the characters for help. She made a deal three years ago — wealth and success in exchange for something she didn't fully understand. The Bound mechanic is in full activation; she's being directed to facilitate something that will harm people, and she can't refuse without triggering her compact's penalty clauses. A Hollow Pact practitioner is needed. The complication: the Shadow entity who holds her compact is not a Crossroads Shadow operating independently — it's a Greater Shadow Entity intermediary, meaning the compact is more sophisticated than standard and the negotiation will require leverage the characters don't currently have.
The Inheritance
An elderly man in a small town has died and left his house to a distant relative — one of the characters, or someone they know. The house has been in the family for 150 years. The relative arrives to find the property is full of hexed objects, sealed rooms, and a Witch's workshop that has been active for generations. The previous owner was a Witch who spent his life maintaining a curse that kept something contained beneath the property. Now that he's dead and the containment hexes are degrading, whatever is in the basement is beginning to get loose, and the characters need to understand the old man's system before it fully fails.
The Reclamation
A Necromancer has been operating out of a decommissioned industrial site on the edge of a city for six months. The characters have been building toward confronting them. When they finally move, they find the Necromancer gone — deliberately cleared out, leaving the undead retinue active and a message. The message contains an offer: the Necromancer knows something about a threat the characters are not aware of, something their compact source has told them is coming. They will trade information for protection from whoever is hunting them. The characters have to decide whether to accept the meeting, and trust a Necromancer, before what's coming arrives.
Fae
Source: AX.GHW.13.05
The Replacement
Multiple people report that a mutual friend has been "off" — forgetting things they should know, behaving slightly wrong. Investigation reveals a Fetch has replaced the friend, but the real person isn't dead; they're being held somewhere in the Liminal while the Fetch gathers information. Rescue requires locating the liminal pocket (Lore + Mediumship research) and extracting the real person before the Fetch completes whatever its principal needs.
The Crying at Night
A neighborhood reports wailing sounds on three consecutive nights. Two people have died nearby — one elderly, one an accident. A Banshee is attached to a family bloodline in the area; she's crying for a third death that hasn't happened yet. If the characters can communicate with her, she can name the intended victim and even describe what she sensed about how they'll die. The question becomes: can they prevent the death, or is the Banshee mourning something inevitable?
The Beautiful Horse
A rural community near a reservoir is reporting a missing teenager. Investigation reveals the teenager was the fourth drowning death in three years, all near the same stretch of water, all on warm days. A Kelpie has been hunting the reservoir. The added complication: the reservoir is also near a Bureau of Unusual Affairs monitoring station, and a Special Agent has been assigned — but the Agent's mandate is containment and classification, not destruction, and the Agent believes the Kelpie can be bridled and used as an intelligence asset.
The Deal
A Trickster Fae has been systematically disrupting Veil maintenance in the city — not threatening the Veil itself, but making investigators' lives difficult with mischief that draws attention without quite crossing into exposure. The Trickster approaches the characters directly: it wants a bargain. In exchange for stopping the disruption, it wants the characters to retrieve something that was taken from it by a Fae Lord's court forty years ago. The object is currently in a Grimoire Compact archive and is classified as a research artifact.
Infernal
Source: AX.GHW.13.06
A Crossroads Demon has been operating in a mid-sized city for eighteen months. The Network has identified six deals it's made. Two of those people are now dead. Two more are about to reach the end of their contract terms. The Demon is fully aware that hunters are looking for it and has taken steps.
A Shadow Warden has appeared and its designated target is a Light-Bound Marked member of the Order of the Warden's Flame. The Order's position is that this is impossible — Light-Bound Marked cannot have shadow compact obligations. Someone in the hidden world's Shadow-adjacent community knows why the Warden is there.
A Greater Shadow Entity has been living as a human in a suburban neighborhood for approximately four years. It has a job, a house, and apparent relationships with its neighbors. It has not, as far as anyone can determine, harmed anyone. The question of what it's waiting for is more urgent than anything it has done.
The party's investigation has led to the conclusion that something in the hidden world's current situation is a consequence of a Named Shadow entity's direct involvement. Finding the evidence that confirms this, and then deciding what to do about it, is the start of the campaign's second act.
Shapeshifters
Source: AX.GHW.13.07
A series of disappearances in a rural county has produced no bodies and no evidence — until one victim's family member, who has been quietly searching, finds something in the treeline that suggests the Wendigo has been there far longer than the current string of disappearances.
The Alpha Werewolf the Network has been monitoring for three years has apparently gone rogue — pack members are reporting erratic behavior and one pack member is dead. The Alpha was, by all accounts, a stable and careful pack leader. Something changed, and finding out what changed is more important than the threat assessment response.
A Doppelganger has been living as a BUA analyst for fourteen months. The analyst's original fate is unknown. The Doppelganger has been in access to a significant volume of classified supernatural incident records. The question is whether it was placed deliberately or acting independently.
A Skinwalker has been moving through a small indigenous community for months, studying residents. Network hunters are aware of it but have been asked by community leadership not to intervene with outside methods — they have their own approach. The hunters are trying to decide whether to respect that request, and whether their threat assessment timeline allows it.
Undead
Source: AX.GHW.13.08
A Bloodline Court has contacted the party through Safe Harbor intermediaries. One of their Court-recognized Vampires has disappeared. The last known contact was with a Vanguard-adjacent operative whose current assignment is not public.
A forensics report has come through Network channels: a body in a small-town morgue has bite marks consistent with Vampire feeding, but the victim's blood work shows something no Vampire victim has ever shown before. The Aldersham researcher who flagged it is now not answering messages.
The Poltergeist in an apartment building has been building in intensity for three months. The building's management company has been aggressively suppressing reports. The reason they're suppressing reports is more interesting than the Poltergeist.
A Revenant is walking toward a specific address in a residential neighborhood, ignoring everything in its way. The person at that address is a retired BUA agent. The Revenant's face matches a photo in a sealed BUA file from 1987.
Full Starter Adventure
Old Business (AX.GHW.14.04) is a complete two-to-three session introductory scenario for Regional (9D) parties. A Revenant with unfinished business draws characters into a multi-thread investigation with a Veil-management clock — the longer they take, the harder the evidence problem becomes. Includes non-violent and combat resolution paths, Mediumship as investigation tool, and seeds for a Sovereign Circle / Shadow entity site thread in later play. Scales for 6D and 12D parties.