From the ESS files.

As it says right over there in my profile, I put in time over at the Eldritch Studies Society as one of their field researchers and catalogers.  I went through some of the archives and found some of the illustrations Dr. H.P. Jones (founder of the NY branch) had me do when I started interning with them two years ago.

Most of the information about the organization places the initial idea for it in about 1835 by none-other than the genius, poet and author: Edgar Allen Poe.  Poe was interested in collecting the macabre from around the world, as clearly demonstrated by his writing.

The ESS officially got started in 1912 by the godfather of modern horror Howard Philip Lovecraft.  He ran the society until his death in 1938 (reports of his death in 1937 are horribly misconstrued and lack a sense of the…metaphysical).  The society's records and finds stayed in a locked steamer trunk (with a false-bottom) in Lovecraft's flat in Providence, Rhode Island.  Coincidentally the same place the Dr. H.P. Jones grew up.  It works out very nicely, really.  Dr. Jones came across the trunk in an antique shop and was a changed man.

her Majesty's Royal Eliminators of the Loathsome Undead.

We actually have records from a pair of self-titled "chronambulists" (time travelers) called Vladimir and Kraus who were enlisted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1886 to steam the tide of zombies in England.  Dr. Jones like to speak about the pair as if they started the ESS in 1912 with HP Lovecraft, and helped him in 1975 when he found Lovecraft's trunk.  I suppose time-travel has its perks.

Cross-man

On one of his many trips to Boston, Dr. Jones spent a long while in an abandoned hospital in Taunton.  It's a reasonably well known ghost hot-spot and he went there to do his usual poking about.  He spotted the specter he called "The Cross-Man."  I've never asked if the cross part was specifically about the literal crosses or the fact that it was very angry to see Dr. Jones.  As of this post, the thing was not dealt with and is still inhabiting the hospital.

 

Needle-back

Yet another hostile specter Dr. Jones found.  This one in Cleveland, Ohio.  Specifically, the Flats.  Needle-back wanders around the waterfront and by the river.  Its arms and back are swollen and infected looking, its bony fingers are so destroyed from its constant scratching.  Dr. Jones very specifically warned me to never come in contact with this one should it appear in New York.  I can only assume it rides the boarder between ghost and demon.

The scarred man.

Dr. Jones spotted this one in January, in Tokyo, Japan.  When he sent me the description, he specified that it was very moist and warned me to avoid the subways for a while.  This one scares the crap out of me.

On a side note: Bioshock 2 comes out today...I look forward to wasting some time with that...