As technology has evolved, so has evil. Where once a person would make a simple deal with an infernal, exchanging their soul for fame and fortune, now it’s a complex web of agreements, default clauses, distribution rights, and numerous conditions that provide an option for _either_ party to render the contract null and void.

The RIAA is one of the tools that’s used in an effort to ensure people don’t have an ability to slip out of the contract. Many contracts are tied to distribution numbers and sales, with an artist/group able to activate an escape clause if it can be shown that the infernals haven’t been directly responsible for distribution above a certain threshhold.

This is complicated by the fact that some of the file sharing that goes on is not just a matter of an artist or group seeding and sharing, in an attempt to slip the contract, but rival infernals can be behind it as well. They stand to either pick up the contract in some cases, or weaken a rival; the chance of a soul truly being lost to the infernals isn’t actually much of a concern. Plenty of research and market data indicates that 83.7% of people that engage in soul contract and successfully escape it, will engage in another soul contract.

While the RIAA has been infiltrated by infernals, they’re careful to ensure that they influence, suggest, etc. Direct control is something they avoid, as once direct control is initiated by one side, it allows the other (the so-called “light” or “higher power”) side to take direct action.

Infernals also have ties into various DRM considerations as well. Along with the usual contract enforcement considerations, DRM provides an avenue for infernals to track their target market, as well as collecting information on the side in order to further focus their marketing approach.

A close friend, relative, or other relation of one of the Player Characters’ disappears abruptly. Investigation will eventually reveal that they had been fighting with their homeowners’ association for several months. Further investigation or research will reveal that an alarmingly high number of people with homes in the neighborhood have disappeared over the last several years.

A sinister cult has taken up residence in the neighborhood. Its inner circle consists of only about a dozen members but they have forced many of the neighborhood’s residents into service through bribery, blackmail, and threats. Even more residents strongly suspect that something is going on, but are too afraid for themselves and their families to say anything.

The cult may just be obsessed with creating their image of a perfect, safe neighborhood in which to live and raise their children, or they may be using the seemingly normal neighborhood as a hidden base of operations for something far, far more sinister. Perhaps they’re building, or searching for, something in the nearby forest?

However, despite the clunkiness of his writing, I think the ideas still hold some power for me, especially when put into context. Humanity experienced some rather major revelations when he was writing, such as the discover that the universe was far larger than the milky way galaxy, and the theory of relativity. Moreover, the United States was going through a major social revolution, destroying many of the 19th century traditions and replacing them with progressive ideas that seemed very foreign.

So, Lovecraft touched on these ideas in very palpable ways, finding fear in the death of tradition, man’s insignificance on a cosmic level, and how everything we presume could prove to be false. Ultimately, his best stories show how our lives and struggles have little meaning in the face of a godless universe that couldn’t give a damn about us either way.

In the case of At the Mountains of Madness…

SPOILERS

He actually subverts his own fears of the foreign “other” through the revelation that the Elder Things are just as ‘human’ as mankind, and the narrator finds a way to sympathize with their fallen civilization. Although this can be viewed as a simple cautionary tale of science gone amok, I think the real horror (for Lovecraft) was the inability for different cultures to open a dialogue due to reactionary taboos. This reflects his deepening understanding of a multicultural world from his later explorations and correspondence with a variety of people, as he became less racist and close-minded as he got older.

/SPOILERS

By the way, I hope you have fun with Beyond the Mountains of Madness. It’s supposed to be a great campaign, even if it starts off slowly. Certainly a game that I’ve always wanted to play in or run. Let us know how it turns out!