You’re just an ordinary 1930s inhabitant of the ordinary town of Arkham, Massachusetts—a plain New England place where nothing unusual ever happens. Well, except for that one infestation of hood-wearing cultists hoping to usher an angry Elder God into our world. Or that little problem with the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. Or those 17th-century witches who don’t seem to be quite dead yet. Or that matter of the snake god Yig.

When occult trouble threatens, Miskatonic University’s aging librarian, Professor Henry Armitage—the kind of man who runs a “restricted section” featuring books like the human-skin-covered Necromomicon—beckons you to his office. In his kindly way, he asks if you would be so good as to poke around Arkham, ask some questions, visit a few locations—in other words, clear this whole mystery up. Of course, it’s probably nothing…