Misty Paths: A D&D Next Modern Campaign setting.

The basic rules: Anything goes. If you can imagine it, make it work. Incorporate your favorite TV
show, book, comic, etc.
All in all, have fun.
The World:
There is more than one world, even in our own normal, everyday reality. There is the normal
world: a world of cities, automobiles, the Internet, mortgages, fast food, reality shows, etc. - for good or
for ill, everything that we know and can see is here.
There is the criminal world, which is to a greater extent part of the normal world, but it is a side of
society that many do not readily become a part of. There are other societies that hover on the edge of
the everyday world like the poor, foreign districts like Chinatown, the mentally ill, etc. For the most
part, these are very much part of the normal world and while many may or may not try not to tread to
heavily into these places, people can and often do turn a blind eye to these different and strange places,
they are as every bit normal as the sun rise in the mornings.
Then there is the hidden world, the secret world, that exists beside and underneath the everyday world.
It is in this world that the strange, wondrous and terrifying beyond the ken of normal man can be found.
A world that is filled with monsters from fairy tale and fantasy, magic the likes of which is written
about in mythology and legend, a world where computers are intelligent and faster than light space
travel isn't just a theory. It is within this hidden world, or the Dim, that anything is possibility. Alien
worlds outside of our known solar system, lance wielding knights who battle dragons on mist shrouded
bridges, an under-city of strange and fearsome creatures straight out of nightmares and mythology
accessible only through magic routes or handsomely paid guides. Whispers among those who know of
the Dim even say that far stranger worlds exist beyond our reality.
The Fog:
How these things came to be no one can really say perhaps it has always been here, or maybe
it is something relatively new. If anyone knows, no one is saying and the citizens of the normal world
don't even realize these things exist because of the Fog. Sometimes called the Haze, the Fog represses
events that the mundane world usually has no privy to. Sometimes though, through special
circumstances, the Fog doesn't quite work. It is from these events that the tabloids and internet
conspiracy sites get their most outlandish stories. 99.9999% of the world usually dismisses these events
as hoaxes, or strange but explainable natural phenomena. However, there are those special people
among the mundanes that sometimes just know that these things are real.
Monsters and the like tend to not come out during the day because they instinctively know that while
the Fog will alter memories, it's best not to leave witnesses. The more humanoid type monsters can
sometimes pass as particularly ugly, hairy brutish people, but even they tend to stick to the cover of
night to help them pass themselves off as a normalish person.

The People:
There are three types of people in the world. The Blind, the Seeing, and the Awakened.
The Blind are people who are completely mundane in regards to the hidden world. They may be the
average Joe, or a brilliant scientist, but they all have the same thing in common they are affected by
the Fog. Anytime they see something that should not exist, while they may react to it appropriately, the
Fog changes their memory of the event into something more explainable. Some famous examples of
group hysteria are where the Fog did not work on many in the same place at the same time, but still was
dismissed by people in general.
The Seeing are people that may know about the hidden world. They may not know everything, but
they know anything is possible. Other times, they know nothing at all about the Dim, but they can still
interact with it at times like with Objects. Sometimes people are just born Seeing, other times they have
something traumatic or wondrous happen in their lives that shakes off the Fog. In any case, the Fog
does not affect them the same way it does the Blind of the world from that point on. This is not to say
they are granted any special powers, like magic, or super science, or psychic mental powers only that
they can see through the Fog to what really lurks in the world.
The Awakened are like the Seeing, only they are a part of the hidden world more fundamentally. They
may be wizards, able to conjure fire from nothing or alter reality in strange ways. They might be a
devout servant of some deity or philosophy gaining power from their devotion. They could be the
strange builders of super technology that seems as much magical as it does science. They may or may
not have magic at their disposal through their own skills, but they can generally use Objects if they
know how.
Player characters are usually either Seeing or Awakened, though not always.
The Objects:
Objects exist as part of the world. Objects are imbued with some supernatural, magical, or
technological superiority that sets them apart from normal items. Famous historical pieces tend to be at
least minor Objects, but not always.
The Blind cannot use any special properties of an Object, even if wearing or using it properly like a
knife or suit of armor. The Fog acts as a magical buffer that keeps them from being able to tap that
potential of something special about it.
If a Seeing tries to utilize an Objects, there is a danger that it could turn on them in unexpected ways.
This may or may not be beneficial to the user, but it is always interesting.
Awakened have a slightly better grasp of the Objects, and can overall interact with them in a
somewhat safer manner, but this is no guarantee. The safest way to use an Object is to know what it
does, but sometimes even knowing what it does can still leave the user in peril especially for powerful
or cursed Objects.
The Fog prohibits the Blind from truly comprehending what the Seeing or Awakened is doing with an
Object.
Objects can be broken and destroyed, but not by the Blind. Mundane people just do not have the
connection to the Dim the way the Seeing or Awakened do, so while they may attempt to destroy these
things, they cannot. They may think the Object was destroyed, but generally it emerges unscathed
somewhere else at another time.
Some Objects cannot be broken even by Awakened or Seeing, they defy most if not all forms of
damage that can be thought of. The Vault of the Holder is one such Object. Only two ways are known
to gain entrance to the Vault, and mere physical damage is not one of them.
While the Blind cannot break Objects they can however order them locked away quite readily, and it is
rumored that at least one group with ties to various world governments does such a thing as their agents
are Seeing, and they go after these troublesome Objects. Shadowy, hidden government warehouses are
said to hold endless wonders that the normal world will never see because of the actions of these
agents.

Those Who Watch:

There is a hazard though associated with the Dim. As was stated earlier, the Fog doesn't always
guarantee that things will remain hidden, likewise, other parties have Seeing and Awakened of their
own that are vigilant to the happenings in both worlds. These could be ancient cults, or special
employees of shadowy government agencies, or individuals with an agenda. Any which way, secrecy
and discretion are advised unless you want to have unwanted attention potentially looking towards why
you felt the need to shoot lasers or throw fireballs at a downtown club.
There are known groups of paid special contractors who work for various governments that will
readily hunt down and kill such disruptions to normal society. They are all made up of Seeing or
Awakened mercenaries, and they will gladly permanently stop any problem to society for the bounties
paid by the government to keep their streets free of magical or supernatural fire fights between the
Seeing and/or Awakened and the monsters out in the world. It is said this perpetual bounty is available
to any who are capable and willing to do the fighting.
The Monsters:
In the Dim, there are monsters that lurk in shadows or openly, depending on where they make
their homes. These are called Denizens. While they all have various names from myth and folklore,
they dwell within and as a part of the Dim. Orcs, goblins, aliens, and far stranger things can be found
almost anywhere, and often they have their own agendas they are working on from taking over prime
real estate for their love of money, to simply hunting down and eating tasty looking pets and people.
These Denizens may or may not permanently reside in this reality, as there are hidden routes to far
flung other realities beyond our own world.
Other Worlds:
Sometimes when chasing down a Denizen who snatched a child who is intent on eating that kid,
a Seeing or Awakened may find themselves in a completely new world. Sometimes just curiosity or
luck on someone's part takes hold, and the Awakened or Seeing can find themselves in some other
reality. Fantasy worlds, alien societies, the dangerous and hard to understand lands of the Fae, or even
dark mirrors of famous cities lit only by a never setting full moon can all be found if one knows
where and how to look for those doorways and paths. In those places the known laws of man's science
may not apply, so tread carefully.