There are creatures lurking in our world. Obscure creatures long relegated to myth and legend. They have been sighted by a lucky-or unlucky-few, some have even been photographed, but their existence remains unproven and unrecognized by the scientific community.

These creatures, long thought gone, have somehow survived; creatures from our nightmares haunting the dark places. They swim in our lakes and bays, they soar the night skies, they hunt in the woods. Some are from our past, and some from other worlds, and others have always been with us-watching us, fearing us, hunting us.

These are the cryptids, and Systema Paradoxa tells their tales.

***

Despite a childhood plagued by death, Daniel Smith has built a good life for himself, though no one would believe it if he told them.

Working for the Watchers-a covert organization tasked with keeping cryptids a secret from the common man-everything he has accomplished threatens to crumble when his charge goes rogue, leaving a trail of death and blood and cryptid sightings in his wake.

When the rogue invades another cryptid's turf, Daniel must confront his past to save his future, but will any of them survive the encounter?