TEXT: by  Robin D  Laws
  
  $19.95
  PELG016
  The Tearing of the Veil Is Nigh
  An Appalling Summoning…
  Demons of the Depths, Awakened…
  Slaughter on Your Mapping App…
  Ebola Insurgency…
  …and, of Course, Murder Clowns
  For decades, the Ordo Veritatis has fought the occult operations of the 
  Esoterrorists, occult operatives bent on ripping apart the membrane between our 
  reality and the demonic vortex of the Outer Dark.
  Now that threat directly looms. A barbaric ritual in an underground club 
  touches off a series of coordinated assaults designed to break our world forever.
  In this world-spanning campaign of interlocking scenarios, your agents 
  conduct the high-stakes investigations required to stop them.
  Until now, Esoterror,s cosmic endgame has been described in background
  material but never taken center stage in adventures your agents can take part in.
  They,ve read the training manuals. They,ve attended the briefings. Now it,s
  time to deploy their knowledge in the field, staking life, limb and mental stability 
  against those who would destroy everything we know.
  After a gore-spattered prologue, Worldbreaker gives your players the choice 
  of four harrowing scenarios they can tackle in any order.
  From caverns deep below Belize to an arm,s dealers warehouse in Transnistria,
  from Silicon Valley offices to haunted, rebel-held forests of Nigeria, your 
  agents unravel the schemes of monsters both metaphorical and literal. Battle 
  deconstructed animals, opportunistic demons, body-stealing parasites and 
  otherworldly PR agents.
  Put together the pieces leading to the climactic intervention against the 
  conspiracy,s mastermind and the mightiest, most destructive Outer Dark Entity
  to ever squeeze through a hole between realms.
  All adventures written by Robin D. Laws, creator of GUMSHOE and the 
  Esoterror setting.
  Can you keep the world unbroken? 
  And how many agents will you lose along the way?
  
  worldbreaker
  by robin d. laws
  
  worldbreaker
  2
  publishers: Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin
  written by: Robin D. Laws
  layout: Chris Huth
  art direction: Chris Huth
  cover art: Chris Huth
  interior art: Chris Huth
  copyediting: Christopher Smith Adair
  playtesters: Gilbert Isla, Richard Gillingham, Sharon Jackson, Stephen Haluska, Marcus Cope, 
  Bryant Durrell, Lisa Padol, Joshua Kronengold, Gareth Anderson, Gaylord Tang, Cat Ramen
  ©2016 Pelgrane Press Ltd. 
  The Esoterrorists and Ordo Veritatis are trademarks of Pelgrane Press Ltd. 
  Pelgrane Press is co-owned by Simon Rogers and Cathriona Tobin.
  credits
  
  3
  BREAKING THE WORLD 
  4
  Timelines, or the Absence Thereof 
  4
  PROLOGUE: INTO THE BASEMENT 5
  Meet at the Luggage Carousel 
  5
  The Horror at the Foot of the Stairs 
  6
  Back at the Lab 
  9
  Perfect Family 
  10
  Capturing a Symp
  12
  Handouts
  13
  Into the Basement Handout #1 
  13
  Into the Basement Handout #2 
  14
  COULROPHOBIA
  15
  Sinister Conspiracy 
  15
  Trail of Clues 
  15
  Antagonist Reactions 
  15
  Scenes
  16
  Clown Sightings
  16
  Pursuing Damgaard
  16
  Symps 
  17
  Zach Moreno
  18
  One-Car Murders
  19
  Giggler 
  21
  Leicester Outbreak
  23
  Des Watson
  24
  Declan’s Metal Shop
  25
  Leicester Murders
  25
  Pordenone Incidents
  26
  Running Into Damgaard
  27
  Giggler Crucible
  27
  Handouts
  28
  Coulrophobia Handout #1
  29
  Coulrophobia Handout #2
  30
  Coulrophobia Handout #3
  31
  Coulrophobia Handout #4
  32
  GEOSLASHERS
  33
  Sinister Conspiracy 
  33
  Trail of Clues 
  33
  Antagonist Reactions 
  34
  Scenes
  34
  Folder Two
  34
  Grand Forks
  34
  Lexington
  35
  Evergreen
  36
  Capturing a Symp
  39
  Capturing a Host
  39
  Parasitized
  39
  Luisa in the Trunk
  40
  Luisa on the Bleachers
  40
  Mohan’s Badge
  41
  What Mohan Left Behind
  41
  Hoist on His Own Streetcam
  42
  Red Bait
  43
  Killwave
  43
  Monster Garage
  45
  Glitches
  46
  Ending the Wave
  47
  The Lehi Server
  47
  Handouts
  49
  Geoslashers Handout #1
  49
  Geoslashers Handout #2
  50
  NEW CRYSTAL MAIDEN 
  51
  Sinister Conspiracy 
  51
  Trail of Clues 
  51
  Antagonist Reactions 
  52
  Scenes
  52
  Preliminary Research
  52
  Arrival in Belize
  52
  The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow 
  53
  Oscar Chang
  53
  Itamar Cruz
  54
  Toxic Fauna
  54
  TV Crew
  54
  Cavelings
  55
  Down in the Hole
  56
  Crystal Skeleton
  56
  Stele
  56
  Cave-In
  57
  Caveling Attacks
  58
  Olm Pool
  58
  Cave Painting
  59
  Hornet Chamber
  59
  Veil-Out
  60
  Actun X Map 
  60
  HEART OF OUTER DARKNESS 
  61
  Sinister Conspiracy 
  61
  Trail of Clues 
  61
  Antagonist Reactions 
  61
  Scenes
  62
  Moldova
  62
  Transnistria
  63
  Hotel Bolot
  63
  Wolf’s Den
  64
  Arms Emporium
  66
  Going at the Bodyguard
  66
  Dragged Before Enteo
  68
  Blight Wolves
  68
  The Blight
  67
  Monrovia
  68
  Voinjama
  69
  Clermont’s Lab
  69
  Gwoza
  71
  Ellis Sherman
  72
  Insurgent Attack
  73
  Dirty Bomb
  73
  The Colonel
  74
  Assault on Gwoza
  76
  Send in the Drones
  76
  SWALLOWED
  77
  Sinister Conspiracy 
  77
  Trail of Clues 
  77
  Antagonist Reactions 
  77
  Scenes
  78
  Pilot Flashback
  78
  Wallace Cherry
  78
  Assembling the Picture
  79
  Flight Simulators
  80
  Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung
  80
  Vera Hampton
  83
  Vortex Wraith
  82
  Thirsty World
  84
  Jerrod Peeples
  85
  Vial Behavior
  85
  Tattoo Hunt
  87
  Ellis Sherman
  87
  Bangkok Chop Shop
  89
  The Island
  90
  Copter Assault
  90
  Undercover Entry
  91
  Celebrants Attack
  92
  Fuselage Bacchanal
  92
  The Eater and the Eaten
  93
  Veil-Out
  94
  APPENDIX:  
  NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS HACK 
  95
  contents
  
  worldbreaker
  4
  Previous scenarios for The esoTerrorisTs have functioned as 
  standalones. Worldbreaker presents our first globe-spanning 
  series of linked adventures, in which the team pieces together 
  a conspiracy poised to rip open the membrane in a single 
  worldwide panic event.
  It kicks off with Into the Basement. This prologue, below, 
  introduces the global plot and allows players to choose which of 
  four episodes they investigate first.
  Those four episodes are:
  Coulrophobia: A global fad in which pranksters pose as 
  sinister clowns takes on an Esoterror cast when unlucky drivers 
  who see them start losing control and crashing. With incidents 
  popping up all over, how does the team find and destroy the cell 
  at the root of the scheme?
  Geoslashers: The camera vehicles used to create street 
  views for the Internet’s top mapping site happen upon a series 
  of murder scenes. Though apparently unconnected at first, the 
  incidents spark international unease as the string of supposed 
  coincidences wears on. Can the team suss out the hidden unity 
  behind the killings?
  New Crystal Maiden: Worldwide exposure to Outer Dark 
  phenomena threatens when a reality TV show decides to send 
  spelunkers into a newly discovered deep complex near Belize’s 
  famed Actun Tunichil Muknal caves. Agents infiltrate the cast 
  and crew to squelch whatever lurks below.
  Heart of Outer Darkness: The team follows the trail of 
  a woman possessed by a parasitic ODE to the unrecognized 
  Eastern European nation of Transnistria. Her deal to purchase 
  arms from a local weapons magnate takes them to Liberia, and 
  then to Nigeria, and finally into the maddening grip of a Mystery 
  Man. Stakes don’t get higher than an Esoterror effort to equip 
  the fanatic terrorist sect of Boko Haram with Ebola grenades.
  These four scenarios lay the groundwork for the  
  ultimate threat:
  Swallowed: The disappearance of a jumbo jet over the 
  Pacific becomes international news, inspiring all sorts of nutjob 
  conspiracy theories. The team must take what it’s learned from 
  the previous scenarios to locate the uncharted island where an 
  enormous Outer Dark Entity is aborning. When its spawning 
  is complete, its birth will destroy the membrane forever. Can 
  they destroy it before it consumes the last of the passengers, 
  becoming unstoppable and ending life as we know it?
  Each of the first four mysteries includes not only the clues 
  needed to solve the immediate case, but also pipe clues affecting 
  the outcome of the final mystery in Swallowed. We’ll call them 
  out in greater detail as we go along, but for ease of reference the 
  table below contains point-form versions.
  Timelines, or  
  the Absence Thereof
  To allow the players to choose which chapters they tackle and 
  in which order, only one of them, “Coulrophobia,” has them 
  racing against the clock of a specific antagonist timeline. The 
  others adjust themselves to player choices in the time-honored 
  fashion of serialized horror procedurals. You never see Mulder 
  and Scully or the Winchester brothers arrive too late to do 
  anything but mop up the carnage of a long-completed villain 
  plot, and that doesn’t happen here, either. For this reason there 
  is no universal way for the background actions of the antagonists 
  of the four middle chapters and the climax to interlock. The 
  order of their machinations will vary from one run of this series 
  to the next.
  episode
  pipe clue for “swallowed”
  Coulrophobia
  Identity protocols allowing the team to pose as members of an allied cell expected on the island
  Geoslashers
  ODE-attracting crystals that can be used to dispatch the scenario’s big bad entity 
  New Crystal Maiden
  Evidence that the Esoterrorists are gathering blood of ODE victims
  Heart of Outer Darkness
  Opportunity to meet Ellis Sherman, chief antagonist of “Swallowed”
  breaking world
  the
  
   
  a walk-and-talk briefing and an initial scene of horror usher 
  the unsuspecting team into the biggest case they’ve ever tackled.
  Meet at the Luggage Carousel
  scene type: Intro
  lead-out: The Horror at the Foot of the Stairs
  The action starts in the baggage area of San Francisco 
  International Airport. They’ve been summoned on particularly 
  short notice, a sign that they can be expected to be inserted into 
  a situation already in progress. Bleary travelers stagger about 
  the lounge like zombies with carry-on. Team members, arriving 
  from their disparate home locations, have been instructed to 
  gather at a particular luggage carousel, where flyers on a red-eye 
  from Washington, DC, await their checked suitcases.
  If this is the first session of your series, have the 
  players describe their characters and make in-
  dialogue introductions.
  The buzzer sounds. Luggage starts to flow along the conveyor 
  belt. The team has been briefed to look for a person pulling a 
  green suitcase with an X of yellow duct tape from the carousel. 
  This will be their Mr. Verity. A harried-looking, middle-aged 
  African American woman who also happens to be a dwarf grabs 
  the case matching this description and makes a beeline for them. 
  Play her as nervous, talking in a clipped rapid fire. Consider 
  using a handkerchief as a prop, mopping your brow as you speak 
  her dialogue.
  Depending on what you find more natural, either paraphrase 
  the following or deliver it as written:
  f
  “We got a hot scene on our hands, people. Our local assets 
  ID-ed it as Esoterror soon as first responders showed up. 
  We have it locked down but won’t be able to hold off 
  civilian law enforcement indefinitely. Our job is to assess 
  the scene, neutralize lingering threats if any, extract 
  information, then veil the sucker out.”
  f
  She provides the team initial cover identifying them as 
  FBI agents. Should they need to switch cover as they 
  enter other jurisdictions, they need merely specify how 
  they want to be accredited and head office will make the 
  necessary arrangements.
  Mr. Verity then directs the group toward the pick-up area 
  outside, where a black SUV awaits. In response to specific 
  queries she supplies the following. (Reword to fit the questions.)
  f
  The crime scene is a kink club called The Basement.
  f
  She doesn’t want to prejudice their forensic assessments by 
  describing what they can expect to see there in any detail. 
  into the
  basement
  prologue:
  
  worldbreaker
  prologue: into the basement
  6
  f
  The scene has been held pending their arrival. It took a 
  day to assemble the team and get them here. (A normal 
  criminal investigation wouldn’t leave bodies that long but a 
  normal criminal investigation this isn’t.)
  f
  A Veil-Out plan has already been chosen, and will be 
  revealed to them in the fullness of time.
  f
  The scene was discovered yesterday afternoon (about 
  twenty-four hours ago) by a beer delivery man named 
  Wendell Sanders. He kept it together long enough to dial 
  911. By the time cops arrived, they found him babbling 
  incoherently. Sanders has been moved to the psych ward 
  of San Francisco General Hospital. The team can debrief 
  him if it wants. However, it doesn’t look like he could give 
  up anything of interest even if he was capable of stringing 
  sentences together.
  If any of the characters make stupid remarks about her dwarfism, 
  Mr. Verity shoots them your very best withering look.
  The Horror at the Foot of the Stairs
  scene type: Core
  lead-in: Meet at the Luggage Carousel
  lead-outs: Back at the Lab, Perfect Family
  The SUV sweeps the characters, with Mr. Verity along for the 
  ride, from the airport to the city’s Dogpatch district.
  Forensic Accounting: Like its more famous counterpart, 
  the Tenderloin, this formerly skeezy neighborhood has gentrified 
  considerably in recent years.
  Still the driver manages to find a desolate stretch of 
  dilapidated warehouses. He parks outside the most anonymous 
  of them. Only a small hand-painted wooden sign over a back 
  entrance reveals it as The Basement.
  The building has been crime-taped off. SFPD officers stand 
  guard outside. Their knowing postures suggest that they’re local 
  assets, or Ordo support cleared to pose as San Francisco cops.
  Mr. Verity tells them to get out their flashlights. They’ve left 
  the scene as pristine as possible for their investigation, and so 
  have not yet located the light switch for the wooden set of stairs 
  leading below the main building.
  (At this point you might want to find the cover image for the 
  game’s first edition and hold it up for the group on a laptop or 
  tablet. Yes, they’re re-enacting this iconic image.)
  Red lightbulbs bathe a scene of appalling carnage. Gore 
  drenches the bare concrete walls of a BDSM playroom. 
  Dismembered bodies of several dozen naked or leather-clad 
  victims lie in a heap in the middle of the floor. Suspended 
  above them are six sets of chains dangling from a ceiling beam 
  overhead. Each holds a severed head, impaled on a hook.
  Evidence Collection: Except for the copious blood on them, 
  the hooks look newer than the chains, as if freshly purchased for 
  the occasion. This suggests that the assailants brought their own 
  hooks and attached them to the club’s already hanging chains.
  Street clothes lie in a pile off in a corner. Wallets and purses sit 
  jumbled among them, partially emptied of their contents. They 
  still contain money and credit cards, ruling out theft as a motive.
  Along one wall sits an old couch. On it, also dead, froth 
  flecking their lips and throats, a very different group of people 
  huddle together. All are fully clothed, in the generic outfits of 
  
  7
  the horror at the foot of the stairs
  straight-arrow suburbia. The man in the center of the huddle, 
  about forty years old, sandy of hair and square of jaw, wears a 
  pastel yellow polo shirt with a company logo on it, along with 
  khaki pants, Dockers shoes, and white sport socks. The woman 
  beside him, around his age, wears a frilly white blouse and high-
  waisted acid-wash mom jeans. A skinny boy in his late teens 
  also wears jeans, along with a Taylor Swift T-shirt. A blonde 
  girl a couple of years younger than him wears a pink top and 
  striped skirt. Off to one side slumps a bespectacled, white-
  haired woman in her early sixties, in a cotton blouse and blue 
  polyester slacks. Blood covers all of them from head to toe. At 
  the presumed grandmother’s feet, a vacuum flask lies on its side, 
  spilling a liquid that looks like a brightly colored sports drink.
  Forensic Anthropology estimates time of death for all 
  victims as approximately 36 hours ago.
  Chemistry: It is a popular sports drink, all right — 
  heavily laced with diazepam (a sedative, best known as Valium)  
  and strychnine.
  A freshly purchased rucksack lies beside the couch. Inside 
  it the team finds an assortment of knives and saws, a pair of 
  pistols, and three assault rifles.
  (alternate core) Evidence Collection: Tucked away into a 
  rucksack pocket is a smartphone in a pink plastic case with cat ears.
  Forensic Psychology: Looks like the daughter couldn’t 
  bear to be separated from her phone, even on the day of her 
  family’s suicidal kill-spree.
  Though passcoded, Data Retrieval allows access to the 
  phone’s contents. There’s nothing on it that wouldn’t be found 
  on the phone of a popular high school girl. However, after some 
  basic searches, it does allow the team to identify the family as 
  the Powells, of Irvine, CA: Robert (dad), Donna (mom), Gloria 
  Barnes (Donna’s mother), Marshall (son) and Emily (daughter).
  Ballistics: The long guns are civilian grade AR-15 assault 
  rifles. Later Research shows that all of the firearms present 
  were legally purchased in Arizona and New Mexico by Powell 
  over a period of years. A member in good standing of the NRA, 
  his credit card history indicates a lifelong interest in guns. 
  Ballistics: Guns require more effort to procure in California 
  than in other nearby states. It could be that the Outer Dark 
  targeted the Powells for indoctrination partly on the basis of 
  Dad’s existing munitions supply.
  This murder scene staggers even seasoned homicide 
  detectives. Seeing it calls for Stability tests: Difficulty 4, 
  potential loss 5.
  Now that the group has surveyed the scene, Mr. Verity 
  reveals the Veil-Out, which will be taken care of by others. The 
  scene will be rejiggered to cast it as an ordinary murder spree 
  by the husband alone. They’ll locate the family home and make 
  it seem as if he annihilated his relatives before leaving for San 
  Francisco to complete his campaign against sex perverts. The 
  cover story will still be horrible enough to receive international 
  media coverage and thin the membrane. But with so many dead, 
  it’s the best they can do. Letting the full facts get out would do 
  far worse damage.
  card reader
  The Basement issued exclusive ID key cards to its clients. The 
  smashed and melted remains of a portable card reader, along 
  with a pile of melted plastic cards, lie burned in a pile on the 
  floor, along with paper ash.
  Document Analysis: The burned paper, some of it 
  plasticized, indicates that these are destroyed passports.
  smartphones
  In the club office near the computer the investigators find a 
  small lock box. 
  Ballistics: Its lock has been shot off by a pistol. Smartphones 
  spill from it. Anthropology suggests that the club probably 
  required all participants to surrender their phones for the 
  duration of the party. It contains five fewer phones than victims.
  One phone can be found on the body of the apparent proprietor, 
  which unlike that of the party-goers remains semi-clothed. It 
  identifies him as Byron Pierce, 45. Among its contacts app an 
  investigator finds the numbers of many clients listed by code 
  name only: Flower, Mystic, King Henry, Super Fly and the like.
  It also contains the number of Elite Limo Services. Its 
  owner, a polished sort named Lindsey Stevens, resists efforts to 
  reveal anything about her clients, who insist on confidentiality. 
  Bureaucracy or Reassurance prompts her to confirm that 
  the club uses her fleet of vehicles to ferry people from local 
  hotels to the club. This explains the lack of client vehicles in 
  nearby lots: cars were hired to bring them here. Stevens confirms 
  that she was expecting Pierce to call her for a fleet of limos to 
  pick up his guests, expressing annoyance over the lost business.
  The phone supplies Pierce’s home address on nearby Missouri 
  Street. A search of his home turns up nothing useful to the case.
  the footage
  f
  (core) Electronic Surveillance: Carefully hidden 
  pinhead cameras can be found embedded in two of the 
  walls. Wires connect them to a computer and hard drive in 
  the adjoining room.
  This next room is an office, like that of any small business, unless 
  you count the hardcore images displayed on the walls.
  h
  Forensic Accounting: Hardcopy release forms, 
  indicating that the clients consented to be filmed, lie 
  strewn around the office. There are five fewer release 
  forms present than victims.
  A check of the computer shows that the videos were not publicly 
  distributed. Instead the proprietors provided them to clients as 
  souvenirs, in exchange for a modest fee.
  The cameras captured the carnage in its entirety.
  The group may decide to take the footage and watch it back 
  at the lab; in that case, adjust this description as needed.
  
  worldbreaker
  prologue: into the basement
  8
  h
  Forensic Psychology: Before everyone watches the 
  footage, it might be best to divide the job into shifts, 
  so no one investigator sees more than a portion of it. 
  Otherwise everyone faces maximum risk of PTSD — 
  which given what they’ve already seen, could well 
  prove considerable.
  If the players choose to do this, you might emphasize this by 
  bringing each of them into a separate room to supply a single 
  chunk of the description given below. This requires the players 
  to compare notes, just like the characters would. Do this not to 
  conceal information, which they’ll share immediately anyway, 
  but to drive home the horrific gravity of the video’s contents.
  Watching all of the footage requires a Difficulty 6 Stability 
  test, possible loss 6.
  Watching a share of it knocks that down to Difficulty 4, loss 5.
  The footage depicts the following:
  f
  The clients, about two dozen of them, arrive in street 
  clothes. They leave the play room for an adjoining room, 
  then filter back in various stages of leathery undress.
  f
  Awkwardly at first but then with increasing fervor, they get 
  down to sex club business. Investigators unversed in the scene 
  may be surprised by the lighthearted, almost giggly mood 
  as the floggings commence and the restraints come out.
  f
  A pounding comes from the upstairs door. The apparent 
  club proprietor, in leather but fully clad, tries to ignore 
  it but eventually disappears up the stairs. He’s a portly, 
  middle-aged man sporting a well-groomed beard, a peaked 
  leather cap placed atop his shaved head.
  f
  Sunlight floods the room. The proprietor reappears, held at 
  gunpoint by the man from the couch.
  f
  The other family members walk into frame, all of them 
  armed: the adults with identical assault rifles, the teenage 
  boy and girl with automatic pistols. They go about their 
  tasks automatically, their expressions neutral, their voices 
  calmly monotone.
  h
  Forensic Psychology: Though not hypnotized or 
  sleepwalking, the family’s emotional affect appears 
  dulled. They’re in control of their actions but barely 
  respond to stimuli.
  f
  The intruders point their guns at the clients, corralling 
  them into a line against the wall. The clients’ pleas for 
  mercy register not at all on the family members’ faces.
  f
  They order the clients to go in pairs into the adjoining 
  room and bring out their clothes and personal effects.
  f
  The son and daughter find IDs for each client. They take 
  special interest in the eight clients with foreign passports. 
  (Apparently The Basement attracts visitors from all over 
  the first world.)
  f
  They also compare a photograph of a woman, printed out 
  on a color inkjet, to the various female prisoners. Though 
  it’s hard to tell, they seem to be looking for the prisoner 
  who most resembles the image.
  f
  Having finished their screening process, they order four of 
  the swingers into the office.
  f
  They then gather up all the club ID cards plus all remaining 
  passports. The son takes the portable card reader and 
  smashes it. The family piles up the passports and cards and 
  burns them, using a book of matches and a can of lighter 
  fluid they get out of one of their rucksacks.
  f
  The son heads into the office, taking a USB stick out of  
  his pocket.
  f
  The family then opens a rucksack full of knives and saws. The 
  mother and daughter begin stabbing the remaining clients 
  while the father and grandmother keep their weapons 
  trained on the others. Realizing that they have little to lose, 
  some of the remaining clients try to rush them. The father 
  and grandmother mow them down until the rebellion 
  stops. Then the others return to their stabbings.
  f
  Once they’ve murdered all the clients in the room, the 
  family dismembers them, piling the body parts in a circle. 
  They decapitate six of the clients, attach hooks to the 
  chains, and hang the heads on the hooks.
  f
  The kids bring out the survivors they segregated in the 
  office. Again they plead for mercy and are ignored. The 
  family orders them to stand in the middle of the circle. 
  With the grandmother keeping her rifle trained on the 
  prisoners, the others strike up an eerie, guttural chant.
  f
  The video stutters and drops out as a weird distortion 
  appears in the circle, around the surviving clients.
  h
  Occult Studies: This is unprecedented: a fissure in 
  the membrane, caught on video! Long term, it offers 
  the Ordo untold potential for research. Short term, 
  it’s bone chilling.
  f
  From the distortion, four slug-like shapes coalesce. They 
  plop down onto the blood-slicked floor. Before crawling 
  up the legs of the survivors, one apiece, they pause to lick 
  at the blood.
  f
  They slither up the prisoners’ bodies, disappearing into 
  their mouths.
  f
  The posture of the prisoners shifts, to a stiff, puppeted gait.
  f
  The teenage boy gives each prisoner a folder. The prisoners, 
  who do seem hypnotized or otherwise stripped of volition, 
  calmly read the contents, which include documents and images.
  h
  Data Retrieval: Freeze-framing and enhancement 
  should reveal some of the contents of the folders.
  f
  Once they’re finished reading, the prisoners step out of 
  the circle. The family makes no move to stop them. They 
  coolly get dressed. Then each of them in turn hugs each of  
  the intruders.
  f
  The released prisoners head toward the stairs and out of frame.
  f
  The family then gets the vacuum flask out of the rucksack. 
  They sit together on the couch as if blissfully watching 
  television together, passing and drinking from the flask. 
  Almost immediately they slump together, pass out, and die, 
  froth pouring from their lips.
  
  9
  back at the lab
  f
  The video continues for hours, with nothing happening, 
  until the beer delivery man arrives. He tentatively pokes his 
  head into the room, falls against the wall, manages to call 
  911, drops the phone, and curls into a near-fetal position in 
  one of the few unbloodied bits of concrete flooring.
  f
  Then the video ends, as the file reaches its maximum size.
  The adjoining room the clients went into is easily located. It 
  contains banks of small lockers, their doors swinging wide, their 
  shelves empty.
  The agents may hope to find the names of the four missing 
  clients on the computer’s hard drive. Data Retrieval lets 
  the team’s keyboard jockey call up the interface program 
  that logged IDs from the portable card reader. Unfortunately 
  four of the names have been scrambled into a weird alphabet. 
  Cryptography indicates that these come from a work by 
  pioneering Renaissance cryptographer Johannes Trithemius. 
  However, they appear to have been assigned at random, as an 
  occult-inflected “up yours” to Ordo investigators attempting to 
  find the names of the possession subjects. If players can think of 
  other places on the hard drive where the names ought to appear, 
  they find them likewise scrambled. A font called Trithemius has 
  been freshly installed in the computer. Any attempt to crack 
  the font’s code triggers a fearsome image of an unidentified 
  ODE torturing a victim. The character seeing this must make a 
  Difficulty 4 Stability test against a possible loss of 2 points.
  A USB stick still juts from a port on the front of the computer. 
  When opened it contains not circuitry but fibrous, warty tissue. 
  Pathology finds it to be of unearthly origin, matching other 
  samples of undifferentiated ODE biological material on file 
  in various Ordo labs. This is the Outer Dark’s version of a 
  computer virus.
  Astute players may reason that, if the kid knew about the 
  videos at all, he chose to leave them in order to mess with 
  investigators’ heads.
  Speaking of which…
  mr. verity loses it
  As their investigation of the crime scene starts to wind down, 
  Mr. Verity wanders over to the bag containing the family’s 
  weapons. She picks up one of the pistols and puts the barrel in 
  her mouth.
  A Difficulty 4 Athletics test allows a character to get to her 
  and wrestle the gun away. If no one tries or the first test fails, she 
  blows the back of her head off.
  On a success, the team can arrange for an Ordo psychiatric 
  services team to extract her to its long term care facility, code-
  named Installation Spaniard.
  blood corpses?
  If you feel while playing this scene that it could do with an 
  infusion of direct menace, the heaped body parts twitch, gain 
  animation, and assemble themselves into blood corpses. The 
  number of blood corpses equals the size of the team.
  These zombie-like entities rampage insatiably for human 
  blood, consuming it through hollow claws, which function as 
  both rending weapon and feeding tubule. Stability loss from 
  seeing them is 4, Difficulty 4.
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 8, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: +1 (talons)
  armor: +2 vs. Shooting
  Back at the Lab
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Horror at the Foot of the Stairs, Perfect Family
  lead-outs: Perfect Family; Coulrophobia, Geoslashers, New 
  Crystal Maiden, Heart of Outer Darkness
  The team can use its impeccably falsified Ordo-supplied 
  credentials to gain access to the SFPD’s fully equipped forensic 
  video lab.
  Data Retrieval allows them to grab and enhance frames 
  from the moments where the slug-possessed victims study the 
  contents of their folders.
  f
  (core clue for “Coulrophobia”) Folder one, perused by 
  a tall man in his fifties with Nordic features. It included 
  instructions listing a series of flights the recipient is 
  presumably expected to book. The only one that can be 
  made out goes from San Francisco to Newark airport in 
  New Jersey. Also visible: a photograph of a man in a clown 
  costume, at night, standing next to a highway exit sign for 
  Bayonne, New Jersey.
  f
  (core clue for “Geoslashers”) Folder two, held by a broad-
  shouldered woman in her mid-thirties, contains a corporate-
  looking ID access badge (company logo unfortunately 
  vehicle canvass
  In addition to Emily’s cellphone, the group can also identify 
  the Powells by canvassing area parking lots for unclaimed 
  vehicles. They locate a seven-year-old champagne-colored 
  Chevy Suburban registered to Robert Powell, with 
  address information leading to their Irvine home. At your 
  discretion the car may provide alternate ways of conveying 
  information found in this scene or in “Perfect Family,” p. 10.
  They also find a customized hearse belonging to the 
  club proprietor, Byron Pierce. Agents can ID him from the 
  car if they don’t locate his phone (described below).
  Investigators find none of the victims’ vehicles nearby. 
  As explained below, clients used a limo service sourced by 
  Byron to get to the club.
  
  worldbreaker
  prologue: into the basement
  10
  irretrievable), part of the newspaper article appearing as 
  Geoslashers Handout #1, on p. 49, and a plastic baggie 
  full of a red material resembling crystal meth. The woman’s 
  dark hair and olive complexion would allow her to pass as 
  a citizen of many nations, from the Latin world to Italy, the 
  Middle East and beyond. This is the victim the attackers 
  chose by comparing her to a printed-out photo.
  f
  (core clue for “New Crystal Maiden”) Folder three, in the 
  hands of a bald man of Chinese extraction in his late 
  thirties, contains a picture of a crystallized skeleton.
  f
  (core clue for “Heart of Outer Darkness”) Folder four, 
  studied by a slim, pale-skinned young woman who wears 
  her hair in a ponytail, includes a business card for a car 
  service located in Chisinau, Moldova, and a black vape 
  pen with a logo and some writing on it. Magnified, the 
  pen can be seen to contain a wolf’s head logo, and the 
  words волк ден.
  h
  Languages (Russian): This translates as “Wolf’s Den.”
  Attempts to use facial recognition software to identify the 
  possession victims garner zero hits. From this they can conclude 
  that none of them were in the database.
  h
  Cop Talk: The four subjects must have clean 
  records, never having come to the attention of 
  any law enforcement or intelligence agency. As 
  jet-setting kinksters, they are no doubt used to 
  presenting themselves to border officials as bland  
  and uninteresting.
  Enough time has passed since the killings that the four will have 
  cleared the San Francisco airport and most likely their final 
  destinations as well.
  Mr. Verity asks the investigators which of the four leads 
  they want to follow next. She indicates that teams will be 
  dispatched to hunt down the other three leads. However, in 
  the interest of maintaining investigative continuity, they’ll 
  hang back and take a passive information-gathering role. Only 
  if the situation escalates into an immediate threat will these 
  support teams intervene.
  In other words, GMCs aren’t going to finish all of the other 
  scenarios before the players can get to them.
  Break the fourth wall, if necessary, to make it clear to players 
  that the four folders lead to separate investigations. Though they 
  connect into a larger whole, mixing them into one sprawling 
  investigation will be too confusing to manage.
  Later, whenever they start another of the scenarios and 
  check in to see what the backup teams have found, they 
  discover that nothing has turned up and they’re basically 
  starting from scratch.
  If Mr. Verity has already killed herself or been carted off 
  for psychiatric treatment, a new Mr. Verity shows up to pick 
  up where she left off. This Mr. Verity is a rumpled man near 
  retirement age who gives off the tweedy air of academia. 
  Depending on where the conversation goes, he may indicate that 
  he was pulled from inactive duty for this sudden substitution.
  Perfect Family
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Horror at the Foot of the Stairs, Back at the Lab
  lead-outs: Back at the Lab; Coulrophobia, Geoslashers, 
  New Crystal Maiden, Heart of Outer Darkness
  The Powells live at 62 Copernicus Lane in the ultra-suburban 
  Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine, CA, a day’s drive from the 
  site of the murders.
  Architecture: The neighborhood gets its name from 
  winding streets designed to resemble a turtle shell in map view.
  Trivia: This placid, upscale area delivers a solid Republican 
  vote in any election.
  The Powells locked their home up tight before departing. 
  Search warrant in hand, the team can easily circumvent the 
  consumer-grade locks with police-issue lock picks.
  The family left the house in eerily tidy condition.  
  Its pleasantly appointed interior betrays no overt sign of 
  Esoterror interests.
  After a search, only two things stand out as bizarre.
  One, the Powells have filled their freezer and refrigerator 
  with inexpertly skinned and butchered animal parts. Natural 
  History: These include multiple house cats, a German 
  shepherd, a Pomeranian, a bag of chipmunks, and a coyote.
  Two, young Marshall’s computer oozes with formless 
  biological matter. Pink fleshy cilia dangle from its vents, ports, 
  and CD tray. The creature inside the tower case hisses and 
  trembles if the appendages are handled.
  computer crud creature
  Later, in a lab with a sample of tendril tissue, Pathology reveals 
  it as not of this earth — entirely different amino acids comprise 
  its equivalent of DNA. The cells lack mitochondria.
  Needless to say, the creature inside is an Outer Dark Entity. 
  Opening the case enrages it, prompting it to spray a toxic 
  goo at the closest team member. It then attempts to scuttle 
  on multiple scorpion-like legs into the house’s central air  
  conditioning system.
  The target investigator tests Athletics (Difficulty 4) to 
  avoid being hit by the goo. If hit, the victim loses 3 Health and 1 
  Stability at the beginning of each of the next three scenes.
  The other team members can make an attempt apiece to 
  catch the creature before it reaches the vent. Any Athletics/
  Scuffling result of 5 or more with a suitable weapon reduces it 
  to paste. Any credibly described capture attempt catches it alive. 
  A player may spend a mix of Athletics or Scuffling on the 
  test. Every time a team member looks closely at the captured, 
  living creature requires a Stability test: Difficulty 3, potential 
  loss 3. Protocol tells them to call in a containment team to 
  remove it to an Ordo facility for study.
  
  11
  perfect family
  Players may wonder why this bit short-hands the combat rules. 
  If so, explain that it doesn’t rise to the level of a full-on fight. 
  Taking it out is more like killing a skunk or other small animal.
  The 
  creature 
  cannot 
  directly 
  communicate 
  with  
  team members.
  Certain of its orifices resemble USB ports. If a USB–USB 
  cable is inserted into it and into a laptop, the creature can take 
  over the computer and flash disturbing images on the monitor. 
  If interrogated in this way, it tries to create the impression that 
  it will reveal something useful. Really it just wants to drive the 
  team insane. Asking it questions and looking at the images it 
  flashes costs Stability as follows:
  1st image: Difficulty 3, loss 2
  3rd image: Difficulty 4, loss 4
  6th image: Difficulty 5, loss 6
  … and so on.
  hard drive contents
  1-point Data Retrieval spend: Prolonged contact with the 
  creature has scrambled the drive, but the information on it can 
  be partially reassembled with heroic restoration methods. Its 
  contents allow the group to piece together the following narrative:
  f
  Marshall became the vector of Esoterror influence on the 
  household as his Internet searches took him first from 
  harmless UFO and paranormal research, down the rabbit 
  hole of conspiracy theory, into fringe racism, and finally 
  into Darknet forums allowing communication across the 
  membrane with actual ODEs.
  f
  The ODEs convinced him that he and his family had a 
  destiny to change the world.
  f
  They gave him links to slideshows that would bring the rest 
  of his family around to the mission. (Perhaps fortunately 
  the mind-altering slideshows are irretrievable.)
  f
  They then taught the family the ritual for summoning 
  symps, slug-like parasitic ODEs who take over human 
  bodies and can then proceed to perform complex tasks.
  f
  (pipe clue for “Coulrophobia”) An intriguing fragment of 
  text in an otherwise scrambled Word document entitled 
  ClownOp.docx reads as follows:
  drawback of using gigglers: cack one as it materializes 
  and all others get banished
  f
  (pipe clue for “Geoslashers”) The following journal entry:
  Holy shit I gotta find a new place to synthesize the red!!! OMFG 
  last night SOMETHING broke into the chem lab and turned the 
  custodian into paste. That what the poor bastard gets for letting 
  me steal and copy the keys off of him, I guess. I nearly slipped 
  in a puddle of blood and teeth on the way in. GROSS!! I should 
  not have to deal with this!! It took me all night to clean up the 
  pulped remains and every scrap of clothing I was wearing had to 
  be burnt up. A couple of months ago Dad woulda grounded me 
  but now he understands and helped me bleach out the spatters 
  I dropped in the garage.
  What I’m afraid to tell him is on the way back, after I 
  gathered up what was left of Mr. Santiago and had him in tubs, 
  I naturally also cleared out the rest of the red. And as I was 
  getting in the car, I felt this, like presence on the back of my 
  neck. Like breath, but cold. And not like cold temperature cold 
  but cold spiritually, like a world that didn’t belong here was 
  intruding on me. And I turned around and there glaring at me 
  snot and drool coming out of this enormous lamprey mouth 
  was this giant creature. I didn’t have to be a brain surgeon to 
  figure out it was the thing that killed Mr. Santiago. Standing there 
  snurfling and hungry and looking at me like I was every item on 
  the menu at Applebee’s.
  Now in the front of my brain, all I was thinking was that 
  that thing was going to eat me. And I tried to mentally talk 
  to it. Like “hey we’re on the same side I’m working with you 
  guys.” And maybe I kind a got through to it because it hesitated. 
  Then I looked down into my hand at the Ziploc baggie and see 
  the red. In the back of my brain I’m apparently still capable of 
  thinking and so I throw the Baggie. It flies up into the air and 
  gets caught on the top of the chain-link fence on the spiky part. 
  And the demon creature thing runs up and tries to jump up on 
  the fence and knocks the fence down. And that gives me the 
  time I need to jump in the car and tool and out of there. I don’t 
  know whether it got anybody else. I guess I’ll have to watch the 
  news ha ha.
  Document Analysis: comparing this with other innocuous 
  documents on the hard drive which are clearly written by 
  Marshall Powell show his authorship of this fragment.
  A trip to the fence finds a damaged section of chain-link 
  fence. Chemistry shows that it has been corroded by a powerful 
  acid. Pathology finds traces of unearthly DNA confirming 
  the presence of an ODE. It matches no DNA samples from 
  identified ODEs in the Ordo database, but that’s not surprising 
  — the organization has very few of these on file.
  
  worldbreaker
  prologue: into the basement
  12
  other clues
  An erased whiteboard stands on an easel in the family rec room. 
  Chemistry allows some of the text to be recovered. Along 
  with shopping lists and innocuous scheduling notes for family 
  activities, it includes the following point form notes:
  f
  Need worldwide victims
  f
  Frequent travelers
  f
  Low suspicion
  f
  Travel on down low, not quickly missed
  f
  Sex tourists
  f
  SAN FRANCISCO — THE BASEMENT
  Robert keeps a home office. A search plus Forensic 
  Accounting reveal that he owned a number of car dealerships 
  and several franchised chain restaurant locations, and that he sold 
  all of them for cash over the past few months. He then laundered 
  this perfectly legal money into a profusion of off-shore accounts 
  — suggesting that he’s making it available to confederates, 
  possibly unknown to him. Forensic Accounting can identify 
  some but not all of these accounts. The team can alert Ordo HQ, 
  flagging the accounts so that anyone trying to access them can be 
  apprehended and brought in for questioning.
  (Further into this cycle of scenarios, when the team needs a 
  boost, inform them that the Ordo has intercepted a suspect in 
  Ankara withdrawing money from one of the accounts. Searching 
  his apartment, a team dispatched to Turkey found the makings of 
  a dirty bomb in his apartment.)
  Capturing a Symp
  The team’s likeliest occasion to capture a symp happens during 
  “Geoslashers.” Accordingly, notes on how to deal with this are 
  found there, on p. 39. Refer to that section if players surprise 
  you by steering the story there at another point in the series.
  Research: Eusebio Santiago, 63, a custodian at Marshall 
  Powell’s high school, has been listed as a missing person for the 
  last seven weeks. He was last seen leaving home for his night 
  shift at the school. That night at the school, vandals tore some of 
  the fencing down. The newspaper account of his disappearance 
  treats this as a lead of unspecified import, implying that a run-in 
  with vandals might have led to foul play.
  f
  (pipe clue for “New Crystal Maiden”) The following text 
  from a book, as found in a digital photograph:
  Padre Juan Saldivar, in writings suppressed by the Vatican, 
  recorded the testimony of Mayans who claimed that their 
  ancestors sacrificed not only to the beings they recognized 
  as gods, but to cruel spirits who dwelt in caves. His primary 
  informant was a woman named Ixtab, who said she knew the 
  true stories the priests feared to recount. In the common 
  Creation Myths of the Mayans, seven gods, including the Sky 
  Heart and the Feathered Serpent, need beings who can keep 
  the time and feed the universe the blood energy needed to fuel 
  itself. To this end, after repeated failed attempts, they fashion 
  heroic twins, who they send down into the Underworld to 
  battle the lords of death. Emerging triumphant, they become 
  the sun and the moon.
  Ixtab (with whom he was later accused of having relations, 
  breaking his priestly vows) told Saldivar that in reality the gods 
  made three beings of light, Heroic Triplets, one of whom burned 
  even brighter than the others. It was his very brightness that 
  led to his demise, for when he entered the Underworld, his 
  light entered the cave spirits, granting them strength. His fear 
  fed them, becoming the sperm that fertilized them, and the eggs 
  from which they hatched. The younger brothers, Hunahpu and 
  Xbalanque, gave their elder brother to the cave beings and fled. 
  In their terror they never told the gods what had happened to 
  the brightest brother. Nor did the gods, sore afraid themselves, 
  closely inquire. Instead they let Hunahpu and Xbalanque foster 
  the race of humans and retreat to the sky. Never did they 
  suspect that they made them as food for the cave spirits, or 
  that the third brother to this day remains beneath the earth, 
  suffering tortures unimaginable, new cave spirits born daily 
  from his viscera.
  As this story appears nowhere else in the annals, one must 
  be cautious in imputing to it any
  (pipe clue for “Heart of Outer Darkness”) A portion of a 3-D 
  schematic for a strange device that looks like an asymmetrical 
  grenade covered in weird, creepy decorative elements, like 
  spikes, nails, and what look like lizard vertebrae. Explosive 
  Devices: It’s a gas grenade, designed to aerosolize and disperse 
  a small packet of material. That material could, for example, be 
  a biological agent.
  
  13
  handouts
  into the basement / handout 1
  Holy shit I gotta find a new 
  place to synthesize the red!!! 
  OMFG last night SOMETHING 
  broke into the chem lab and 
  turned the custodian into 
  paste. That what the poor 
  bastard gets for letting me 
  steal and copy the keys off of 
  him, I guess. I nearly slipped in 
  a puddle of blood and teeth on 
  the way in. GROSS!! I should 
  not have to deal with this!! 
  It took me all night to clean 
  up the pulped remains and 
  every scrap of clothing I was 
  wearing had to be burnt up. 
  A couple of months ago Dad 
  woulda grounded me but now 
  he understands and helped 
  me bleach out the spatters I 
  dropped in the garage.
  What I’m afraid to tell 
  him is on the way back, after I 
  gathered up what was left of Mr. 
  Santiago and had him in tubs, I 
  naturally also cleared out the 
  rest of the red. And as I was 
  getting in the car, I felt this, like 
  presence on the back of my 
  neck. Like breath, but cold. And 
  not like cold temperature cold 
  but cold spiritually, like a world 
  that didn’t belong here was 
  intruding on me. And I turned 
  around and there glaring at me 
  snot and drool coming out of 
  this enormous lamprey mouth 
  was this giant creature. I didn’t 
  have to be a brain surgeon to 
  figure out it was the thing that 
  killed Mr. Santiago. Standing 
  there snurfling and hungry 
  and looking at me like I was 
  every item on the menu at 
  Applebee’s.
  Now in the front of my brain, all I was thinking was that that thing was going to eat me. And I tried to mentally talk to it. Like “hey 
  we’re on the same side I’m working with you guys.” And maybe I kind a got through to it because it hesitated. Then I looked down 
  into my hand at the Ziploc baggie and see the red. In the back of my brain I’m apparently still capable of thinking and so I throw the 
  Baggie. It flies up into the air and gets caught on the top of the chain-link fence on the spiky part. And the demon creature thing runs 
  up and tries to jump up on the fence and knocks the fence down. And that gives me the time I need to jump in the car and tool and 
  out of there. I don’t know whether it got anybody else. I guess I’ll have to watch the news ha ha.
  
  worldbreaker
  prologue: into the basement
  14
  into the basement / handout 2
  Padre Juan Saldivar, in writings 
  suppressed by the Vatican, recorded 
  the testimony of Mayans who claimed 
  that their ancestors sacrificed not 
  only to the beings they recognized as 
  gods, but to cruel spirits who dwelt 
  in caves. His primary informant was 
  a woman named Ixtab, who said she 
  knew the true stories the priests 
  feared to recount. In the common 
  Creation Myths of the Mayans, seven 
  gods, including the Sky Heart and 
  the Feathered Serpent, need beings 
  who can keep the time and feed the 
  universe the blood energy needed to 
  fuel itself. To this end, after repeated 
  failed attempts, they fashion heroic 
  twins, who they send down into the 
  Underworld to battle the lords of 
  death. Emerging triumphant, they 
  become the sun and the moon.
  Ixtab (with whom he was later 
  accused of having relations, breaking 
  his priestly vows) told Saldivar 
  that in reality the gods made three 
  beings of light, Heroic Triplets, one 
  of whom burned even brighter than 
  the others. It was his very brightness 
  that led to his demise, for when he 
  entered the Underworld, his light 
  entered the cave spirits, granting 
  them strength. His fear fed them, 
  becoming the sperm that fertilized 
  them, and the eggs from which they 
  hatched. The younger brothers, 
  Hunahpu and Xbalanque, gave their 
  elder brother to the cave beings 
  and fled. In their terror they never 
  told the gods what had happened to 
  the brightest brother. Nor did the 
  gods, sore afraid themselves, closely 
  inquire. Instead they let Hunahpu and 
  Xbalanque foster the race of humans 
  and retreat to the sky. Never did 
  they suspect that they made them 
  as food for the cave spirits, or that 
  the third brother to this day remains 
  beneath the earth, suffering tortures 
  unimaginable, new cave spirits born 
  daily from his viscera.
  
   
  under the influence of its symP, the first of the Parasitized, 
  unwilling Esoterror assets turns a sinister clown-themed prank 
  into a global story set to metastasize into violence and madness. 
  The team must catch the victim and end the scheme before it 
  pokes a permanent hole in the membrane.
  Sinister Conspiracy
  The ultimate authors of the conspiracy are Outer Dark Entities 
  who reached across the membrane to contact the Powell family 
  and set a globe-spanning scheme in motion.
  Prime mover is the symp, inhabiting the body of Nikolaj 
  Damgaard, a Copenhagen lobbyist. Symps don’t have names, so 
  we’ll call this SympOne. It takes a loosely affiliated group of 
  would-be pranksters and encourages them in their campaign of 
  creepy clown stunts. SympOne starts with their instigator, Zach 
  Moreno, of Bayonne, NJ, then draws in Des Watson of Leicester, 
  UK, and Dario Fratelli of Pordenone, Italy. It intends to recruit 
  them to provide menial assistance in the tearing of the membrane 
  set to take place during the events of “Swallowed.” The unease 
  generated by their more immediate efforts allow ODEs called 
  gigglers to leak into the world and wreak murderous havoc.
  Trail of Clues
  The team starts either by trying to find the person responsible 
  for a previous wave of Clown Sightings or engaging in the 
  much harder task of Pursuing Damgaard. They discover 
  that Zach Moreno is behind the New Jersey incidents, then 
  learn of the Leicester Outbreak. By finding Des Watson, 
  they can discover an Esoterror cell ready to jump in to escalate 
  incidents initiated by others, or head off to stop the Pordenone 
  Incidents in their tracks. There they might have the chance to 
  interrupt a Giggler Crucible and put an end to the global 
  pattern before it replicates elsewhere.
  Antagonist Reactions
  While the team is still in New Jersey, gigglers appear and cause 
  the first of a series of One-Car Murders. Later incidents 
  might include parallel Leicester Murders and Pordenone 
  Murders. Under certain circumstances gigglers might try to 
  make the team their next victims.
  coulrophobia
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  16
  Scenes
  Clown Sightings
  scene type: Intro
  lead-outs: Pursuing Damgaard, Zach Moreno,  
  One-Car Murders
  Research reveals the source of the clown costume photo 
  freeze-framed in the video footage of folder one (“Back in the 
  Lab,” p. 9). It ran in the newspaper the New Jersey Leader and 
  on its website last May, on the 30th. The accompanying article 
  appears as Coulrophobia Handout #1, p. 29.
  A second article follows on June 7; this is Coulrophobia 
  Handout #2.
  The team gets these articles as soon as they look for them. 
  During the team’s flight to Newark, the Examiner posts a fresh 
  article, Coulrophobia Handout #3.
  Using the articles as a springboard, agents can begin their 
  hunt for the people behind the clown sightings. These will 
  unfold as a series of short interview scenes separated in space 
  and time, which we’ll place under a single umbrella heading, to 
  keep the focus clear.
  julie chin
  An alert, put-together and ambitious young reporter who views 
  the Bayonne beat as a mere apprenticeship, Julie quickly seizes 
  on any chance that this clown story might take on a bigger 
  profile than she initially assumed. When team members ask her 
  questions, she turns it around on them and tries to find out who 
  they are, what they know, and why they care. Negotiation, 
  in which the team offers her information she can parlay into 
  a juicy story, prompts her to open up. (Of course any scoops 
  they eventually feed her will have to be false.) She doesn’t know 
  who the clowns are. However, yesterday she spoke to Nikolaj 
  Damgaard and can inform them that at least one other person is 
  interested in the case. If shown a screencap from the video she 
  confirms the match with the holder of folder one. Damgaard 
  introduced himself to her using his real name. He wanted to 
  know if she could tell him anything about the activity of the 
  mystery clowns. Damgaard hinted that he was working for a 
  viral marketing firm, but would not say which one, or for which 
  client. Julie asks the PCs if they believe that story or if it is 
  a cover for something bigger. Depending on their interactions 
  with her, she might become a minor impediment, or ally, during 
  the Bayonne segment of the investigation.
  phil gonzaga
  (core) Gruff Jersey guy Phil Gonzaga has worked in the liquor 
  industry long enough to shy from attention from authority 
  figures. That’s why he refused to identify Zach Moreno even 
  though he knows full well that’s who he kicked out of his bar 
  last year. Cop Talk allows a team member to flash official 
  credentials and make him more scared of not talking then 
  attracting undue attention. He gives up Zach’s name, which 
  combined with Research snags his home address.
  melissa kent
  (core) Cute blonde hairdressing student Melissa Kent didn’t 
  know who the clowns were when she was interviewed for the 
  article last spring. But many months later, Zach tried to pick 
  her up at the Mud Pit, confessing his role in the pranks in a 
  bootless attempt to impress her. Although she feels no particular 
  affection for him, she’s reluctant to talk, being a sensible minder 
  of her own beeswax. Flirting changes her tune. She reveals that 
  he told her the clown event was meant to promote a poetry 
  slam night. It got out of hand and just turned into an exercise in 
  scaring people for fun. He gave it up after Phil threatened to bar 
  him from the Mud Pit for life. Since that’s the only interesting 
  club in town, Zach chose to knock it off. If he’s started up again 
  maybe he’s planning to move or something. Melissa still has 
  Zach’s address and contact info in her phone — not that she’s 
  even felt the urge to use it.
  Asked if she’s seen anyone matching Damgaard’s description, 
  Melissa blushes bright red and says no. The agent speaking to 
  her doesn’t need Bullshit Detector to see that she’s not being 
  truthful. Given Reassurance that no one cares about her 
  personal life, she admits to hooking up with a man matching 
  that description who found her on Tinder. Well actually come 
  to think of it he said he found her on Tinder but, well she was 
  a little wasted and can’t remember swiping his profile. She 
  doesn’t remember telling him about Zach or clowns, but wait a 
  minute. No, now she remembers. He did ask her about clowns, 
  and she told him about Zach.
  stephanie bates
  Police spokesperson Stephanie Bates, a harried redhead in her 
  mid-40s, can add nothing useful to the team’s notes. She and 
  her superiors view the whole clown business as a ridiculous 
  nuisance. If the team isn’t careful they might alert her to the 
  fact that something important is going on. Should that happen, 
  Cop Talk gets her to write off any concerns as being above her 
  pay grade.
  Pursuing Damgaard
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Clown Sightings, Zach Moreno, One-Car Murders
  lead-outs: Zach Moreno, One-Car Murders,  
  Leicester Outbreak
  Once they know that the Esoterror op seems to be centered in 
  Bayonne, the investigators may canvass hotels looking for him. 
  As you would for any investigative dead end, describe this as 
  taking a lot of time for the characters, while spending next to 
  no session time on it.
  
  17
  clown sightings
  We found Agent [[REDACTED]] in the men’s room of a Shell 
  station in Sylacauga, Alabama, propped up between two urinals. 
  Her breathing was shallow, her pupils dilated. Despite the morning 
  cold she perspired heavily. In her hand she still held the Glock, its 
  chamber empty, she’d used to fire indiscriminately into the Walmart 
  parking lot the night before. Though apparently conscious Agent 
  [[REDACTED]] did not respond to queries — or to any other stimuli. 
  She allowed herself to be led to the ambulance. It was not until Agent 
  [[REDACTED]] performed a medical examination that we became 
  aware of the organism — or rather, husk of a dead organism — 
  attached by cartilaginous fibers to her ribcage.
  — excerpt from Agent Loss Report 89W8,  
  OPERATION PERISH CARTON
  Symps serve as couriers to more powerful Outer Dark 
  Entities who take a direct interest in piercing the membrane 
  and invading our world. These minor consciousnesses take 
  perverse delight in servitude to mightier demons, and in literally 
  manipulating humans. Summoned by mass murder rituals of 
  shocking violence, they leak through pores in the membrane as 
  fist-sized masses of slick tissue outwardly resembling oversized 
  slugs. The victims chosen as hosts by the ritualists may not be 
  willing participants. To thrive, symps must override and destroy 
  the minds of horrified, resisting subjects. The symp crawls into 
  its victim’s mouth, slides down the esophagus, and starts to 
  grow, becoming a mass one-and-a-half times the size of the 
  host’s heart. The symp sends out thick fibers to anchor itself 
  to the subject’s internal organs, and microscopic filaments to 
  wire itself into the nervous system. It uses these to control the 
  victim’s actions. Taking command of speech and motor centers, 
  it exercises a high degree of control over the host body. It can 
  pull visual, verbal, and emotional memories from the victim’s 
  brain as needed, using them to successfully pose as the original 
  person. Even a trained observer may spot no indications that 
  the subject acts at the behest of an alien intelligence. The sole 
  flaw in a symp’s portrayal may be the inability to accurately 
  mimic vulnerability. Symps regard human emotion with a 
  mocking contempt that makes them poor actors when called 
  upon to exhibit weakness.
  A symp carries out a complex mission on Earth, the details 
  of which are provided to it by either its ODE superiors or 
  the human Esoterrorists responsible for summoning it. Once 
  its initial goals are accomplished, it releases itself back to the 
  Outer Dark. The tissue mass regresses into a benign tumor, 
  which is over a period of months reabsorbed into the host’s 
  body. Hosts retain no recollection of their time spent under 
  the symp’s domination. Hypnotic regression can retrieve these 
  latent memories but at the risk of grave psychological damage.
  Ordo Veritatis researchers think they might be able to 
  communicate with a live symp held within a captive and sedated 
  host. The invasive experimental apparatus they have devised 
  to attempt this remains in the prototype stage and yet to be 
  tested. Symps abandon their host bodies when it seems that 
  they are likely to be killed or rendered unconscious, rendering 
  live capture a challenge. They may stand their ground and fight, 
  risking fatal self-sacrifice, if they determine that they have a solid 
  chance of achieving their mission objectives. They can boost 
  their hosts’ gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination, but 
  can’t make them stronger or more resistant to harm. Symp 
  infestation reduces the victim’s overall physical well-being.
  If a host dies with the symp still active in its body, the symp 
  consciousness dies as well.
  game statistics
  Are those of the host, with +2 to Athletics, +4 Driving, −4 
  Health, +4 Scuffling, +4 Shooting.
  Symps
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  18
  Once they have Damgaard’s name (from the previous or next 
  scenes), they may use this to try to hunt him down. The conspiracy 
  wanted Damgaard and the others for their passports and valid 
  identities. Even so, the symps take measures to minimize their 
  brushes with the grid. Damgaard travels under his own name, 
  but avoids using credit cards. Instead he uses cash withdrawn at 
  intervals from ATMs, accessing multiple dummy accounts set up 
  by Robert Powell. He and the others have ditched their mobile 
  phones in favor of untraceable prepaids. Rather than register at 
  chain hotels, which would get credit card approval numbers and 
  thus reveal his location, he stays at no-tell motels happy to take 
  cash deposits from potentially skeezy customers.
  Depending on how they time their legwork and the parallel 
  hunt for Zach Moreno, their attempts to find Damgaard may be 
  interrupted by the events of “One-Car Murders.”
  Players might come up with a brilliant way of learning where 
  he’s staying that we haven’t anticipated, and you can’t see a way 
  of averting. However, by that time he’s already gone.
  Electronic Surveillance or Law: Once they learn his 
  name, they can send a request to Ordo headquarters to have 
  it tracked. To protect the deep secret of the organization’s 
  existence, requests to the global security network must be made 
  in a circuitous manner and therefore take a while to process.
  Twenty-four hours after their arrival in Bayonne, Damgaard’s 
  passport shows up in the system, when he goes through passport 
  control at Heathrow. The Ordo can’t intervene on the spot 
  without exposing itself, but at least knows that Damgaard has 
  moved on to the UK.
  (core) Another day later, Research alerts the group to 
  a similar clown mob story from Leicester. See “Leicester 
  Outbreak,” p. 23.
  Research into Nikolaj Damgaard reveals that he is a lobbyist 
  with ties as a fundraiser to the current Danish governing party. 
  His specialties include energy and housing policy. His firm works 
  for a committee putting together a bid for an upcoming Winter 
  Olympics. A divorced father of two, Damgaard has succeeded 
  in keeping his swinger activities quiet. (Not that they’d cause 
  much of a scandal in relatively liberal Denmark, where he is not 
  a public official but a behind-the-scenes type.)
  Spin out more of this irrelevant detail as needed. Except for 
  their ability to move discreetly around the world, the résumés of 
  the hosts don’t have much of a bearing on the conspiracy.
  Zach Moreno
  scene type: Alternate/Pipe
  lead-ins: Clown Sightings, Pursuing Damgaard,  
  One-Car Murders
  lead-outs: Pursuing Damgaard, One-Car Murders, 
  Leicester Outbreak
  No matter what time of day it is when the team meets up with 
  him, Zach Moreno answers the door of his basement apartment 
  in pajama bottoms and a threadbare T-shirt. In his late twenties 
  yet still baby-faced, Zach plans to be famous but hasn’t quite 
  figured out what art form he’s good at. He organizes poetry 
  events and creativity workshops, works as assistant manager at a 
  Starbucks, and takes care of his ailing mother, who lives upstairs. 
  She owns the house.
  At first Zach denies any knowledge of the clown situation. 
  He persists in his denials when told that Phil or Melissa led the 
  group here.
  Bullshit Detector: He’s lying through his teeth.
  Zach is no match for a fit and trained Ordo agent; by spending 
  2 Athletics any character can restrain him long enough for the 
  others to toss his apartment. There they find the telltale clown 
  costumes and makeup. They also locate a leather document 
  holder, contents described below.
  Yesterday morning SympOne came to him, wearing Nikolaj 
  Damgaard’s body. Rapidly noting his loser existence and 
  suppressed ambitions, it subjected him to a rapid conversion 
  experience. It convinced Zach that Nikolaj and his international 
  group of multimedia artists represented his ticket out of aimless 
  obscurity. Zach agreed to resume his clown activities, recruiting 
  a friend and fellow wannabe poet, Reggie Folsom, to also don the 
  makeup. After token objections, Zach agreed to make the clowns 
  more overtly sinister than before — hence the knife-waving.
  Intimidation gets him to give up the story, though only the 
  bits of it the team specifically asks about. From his point of view, 
  it sounds like this:
  f
  This rich German dude, Nikolai Damgaard, heard of his 
  clown project and it inspired this cool international viral 
  marketing campaign. [Damgaard is actually Danish.]
  f
  The campaign is for an awesome new kind of vodka that 
  through a new chemical process looks as black as ink.
  f
  The vodka’s brand name is Outbreak. Don’t spread that 
  around, or Zach will get in trouble with his new boss.
  f
  Evil clowns will feature prominently in the commercials 
  for Outbreak.
  f
  It might include “found footage” of his own sinister  
  clown stunts.
  The document holder contains several unmarked plastic vials 
  containing a black liquid.
  Chemistry: It’s tattoo ink, imprinted with chemicals that 
  will glow under UV light. The effect will probably fade after the 
  tattoo undergoes a few years of wear.
  A sheet of paper depicting a complex sigil of intertwining 
  teeth and thorns accompanies the ink.
  (pipe clue for “Swallowed”) Zach really doesn’t want to talk 
  about these items. On a 2-point Intimidation spend he says 
  Nikolai gave them to him to get himself and any of his clown 
  accomplices tattooed. Only people bearing this tattoo, with this 
  particular ink, will score VIP invites to a super-exclusive EDM 
  event celebrating the launch of Outbreak — date and location 
  to be announced. If the team looks like it’s going to confiscate 
  it, he begs and wheedles to be allowed to keep it. What’s so 
  
  19
  zach moreno and one-car murders
  wrong about wanting to go to the best party in the history of 
  civilization? Anyway, this seemed to be a whole different business 
  than the clown thing, something he would get to do later.
  He’s not admitting it to himself, but, on an instinctive 
  level, Zach understands that there’s something really evil and 
  transformative about that tattoo and the party, more than just a 
  marketing bash. Whatever it is, whatever it turns him into, he’s 
  on board for that, one hundred percent. Play Zach’s responses 
  to questions about the ink and design with this subtext in mind.
  Forensic Psychology hints at some of this — he associates 
  these items with the power and assurance he has always strived 
  for, but never achieved.
  Zach has every intention of continuing his clown antics. 
  Expect the players to debate several options in deciding what to 
  do about this. They might:
  f
  turn him over to the Ordo, which sweeps him off to a black 
  site for debriefing and deprogramming.
  f
  let him continue, hoping to smoke out Damgaard.
  f
  Intimidate him into stopping. (Requires another  
  2-point spend.)
  Zach asks them not to cause trouble for his pal Reggie Folsom. 
  If they find him at his crummy apartment or while working his 
  job as a cable installer, they encounter an affable party hound 
  without a moral compass. He finds it hilarious to scare people 
  as a knife-wielding clown, and can’t wait to go to that Outbreak 
  bash. Reggie never met Damgaard and has zero clue about the 
  scheme’s wider significance.
  Forensic Psychology: Pliable, none too bright, and up for 
  whatever, Reggie fits the profile of Esoterror dupe to a T.
  One-Car Murders
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Clown Sightings, Pursuing Damgaard, Zach Moreno
  lead-outs: Clown Sightings, Pursuing Damgaard, Zach Moreno,  
  Leicester Outbreak
  Late on their second night in Bayonne, after their first full day of 
  legwork, the team learns of a horrific murder tied to the case. 
  To the local police it merely looks like an awful traffic accident, 
  but they know better.
  The victim is someone they spoke to earlier in the day 
  about the case. This might be Julie Chin, Phil Gonzaga, Melissa 
  Kent, Stephanie Bates, or another minor witness you created 
  while improvising responses to investigator actions. As their 
  summoners and useful future Esoterror lackeys, Zach Moreno 
  and Reggie Folsom enjoy immunity from clown attacks.
  Given a choice of potential victims, pick the one the players 
  seemed to like the best, or whose gruesome death will otherwise 
  play as maximally distressing.
  If the team liaised with local police using phony official 
  credentials, they get a call from Stephanie Bates letting them 
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  20
  know that someone associated with the case has been accidentally 
  killed. Unless it’s Stephanie Bates who was killed, in which case 
  her audibly shaken superior, Lieutenant Lester Pittman, makes 
  the courtesy call.
  Otherwise a character with Cop Talk hears the report on 
  police scanners.
  Arriving at the scene, they see and discover the following.
  The accident scene matches one of the earlier clown 
  sightings, on a grassy area next to a highway off-ramp into the 
  city. Though desolate, and ill lit at night, it is surprisingly close 
  to downtown.
  (Adjust this scene accordingly if the team declines for some 
  reason to visit the scene and instead relies on after-the-fact 
  information gathered by police and the local medical examiner.)
  The victim’s vehicle hit a traffic sign head on. No other 
  vehicle seems to be involved with the crash.
  Evidence Collection: Tire marks confirm this as a single 
  vehicle accident. Further, they show that the car sped up toward 
  the traffic sign, as if the driver panicked, tried to hit the brakes, 
  but instead hit the accelerator. It crushed the sign and smashed 
  into a barrier behind it.
  Mechanics: (as Investigative ability) The car is totaled; the 
  impact cut the engine in two.
  The victim is still in the vehicle when the team arrives. 
  Though the condition of the body does not seem to match a 
  collision, local officials are attributing it to a freakish accident. 
  “When a body bounces around in a car after a hard impact, all 
  kinds of crazy stuff can happen,” one of them says, shrugging.
  The victim lies back in the driver’s seat, head lolling back, 
  neck broken. The skin covering the mouth and lower jaw has 
  been pulled away. The jaws and teeth lie stripped to the bone, 
  exposing the grinning position of a skeletal mouth. As you’d 
  expect, the torn flesh around the wound is red with gore. The 
  combined effect, then, is of a victim frozen in a hideous laughing 
  rictus. Blood has drained out of the face, leaving it unusually 
  pale. Should one already be thinking about evil clowns, it calls to 
  mind the whitened features created by pancake makeup.
  The car’s air bag did not deploy. Mechanics: (Investigative) It 
  is in proper working condition and should absolutely have done so.
  Forensic Anthropology: The broken neck was the result 
  of the crash, which did kill the victim. But the smile wound 
  was inflicted post-mortem, probably immediately so. (1-point 
  spend) The flesh appears to have been torn off with two sets of 
  fingers — which would require an inhuman strength no human 
  hands can muster.
  Fingerprinting: A partial print can be lifted from the 
  shattered windshield. Checked later, it is human. Almost.
  Evidence Collection: A patch of mud on the crumpled 
  hood, which the locals also ignore, can be reconstructed as a 
  foot, boot, or shoe print — about sixteen inches long.
  A drive around that night turns up no killer clown encounters. 
  If the team already knows that Zach and Reggie are behind the 
  recent sightings, they might find them on the other side of town 
  in clown regalia.
  A similar accident, involving another GMC peripherally 
  connected to the investigation, occurs the next night, in a like 
  location. A pattern emerges:
  1 
  the victim suddenly accelerated toward a barrier
  2 
  the air bag didn’t work
  3 
  the corpse bears the same post-mortem mutilation, 
  grinning and pale-faced
  Although they can now point to something definitely eerie, 
  the team of course won’t want to deprive local cops of their 
  comfortable, if absurd, belief that nothing weird is happening. 
  No point making the Veil-Out harder than it has to be!
  Approached about this, Zach and Reggie deny any 
  involvement with these incidents. Zach tries to argue that they 
  have nothing whatsoever to do with clowns. Bullshit Detector 
  indicates that his denials of involvement in the deaths are honest, 
  even if he knows he’s on shaky grounds when he dismisses any 
  connection to clowns. He refuses at first to desist from his viral 
  marketing, but a point of Intimidation or Interrogation 
  gets him to stop.
  If the team remains in town the third night (as it likely will, 
  given that clown murders are in progress), they can either wait 
  for something to happen or go out on a hunt themselves.
  reactive mode
  Another GMC connected to the case (which by now might 
  include an investigating officer from the previous incidents) 
  comes to them reporting a terrifying near miss.
  They report driving around Bayonne’s periphery, then seeing 
  a clown standing by an obstacle or barrier at the side of the 
  road. At first they assumed it was a person in a costume. Then 
  the figure’s eyes glowed. The clown-like being leapt onto the 
  road and charged right at the car. The driver tried to hit the 
  brakes but instead felt his or her foot hitting the accelerator, as 
  if grabbed by an unseen hand. The figure jumped up onto the 
  hood of the car, crouching and drooling, with clawlike hands. 
  The car beelined for the obstacle when a miracle happened — 
  the car suddenly spun out, knocking the creature from the hood 
  into the grassy area beside the highway. Instead of hitting the 
  obstacle headlong, the car fishtailed, with the trunk or back 
  hatch clipping it sideways. The clown figure hunched in the 
  grass for a moment, as if deciding what to do, then loped off, 
  disappearing into the gloom.
  hunt mode
  If the team drives around the sorts of spots where Zach 
  was staging clown sightings, they eventually confront the  
  giggler themselves.
  They see a white-faced lurking figure by the side of the road. 
  Its eyes flash inhumanly, as described above. Then the driver 
  feels his or her foot smashing down on the accelerator, sending 
  the car zooming toward the obstacle or barrier the clown capers 
  in front of.
  
  21
  one-car murders
  I always loved clowns when I was a kid. So when I took Jennifer to 
  the fair and she freaked completely out at the sight of one, I admit 
  I didn’t react good. I told her she had to get over it, and be a tough 
  little girl, because the world sure as hell has worse waiting for her 
  than someone trying to make her laugh with a dachshund balloon. 
  She cried and cried and cried that night and like a fool I told her we 
  were going back the next day, to see there was nothing scary about 
  clowns. It was just a man in makeup with a foam rubber nose, trying 
  to amuse her.
  Jennifer’s room is right above the living room. When that night I 
  heard her window opening, I rushed right up the stairs. But I got to 
  her just in time to see the clown taking her away, grinning at me, 
  its eyes glowing. It leapt out the window, laughing. Jennifer screamed. 
  She lay dead in the grass by the swing set. The clown thing was 
  already gone. The next night, another child in the next town was 
  thrown from her second-story window too.
  How will I ever forgive myself?
  — testimony of witness Tracy Sutton, Gregwood Springs, 
  CO, case file 32D098, OPERATION HAZY CHAIN
  Gigglers slip through the membrane wherever the disjunction 
  between the supposed jollity of clowns and their primal 
  creepiness reaches a fever pitch. From the beginnings of culture 
  tricksters have always played a contradictory role, at the same 
  time joyful and sinister. The modern blindness to their dark side 
  creates the cognitive dissonance Outer Dark Entities thrive on. 
  They rely on, provoke, and feed upon coulrophobia, the fear of 
  clowns, which strikes children and adults alike.
  A giggler appears as a monstrous clown, with glowing 
  headlight-like eyes, a loping gait, elongated feet, ash-white faces, 
  and hungry smiles. They may wear traditional colorful clown 
  costumes or merely a collection of hobo-style rags. Gigglers 
  always emit a high-pitched, grating laugh when carrying out 
  their acts of carnage.
  The details of a giggler killing differ from case to case. Once 
  established, though, the giggler must repeat them, with minimal 
  variation. The giggler of the Gregwood Springs event could only 
  crawl through second-story windows, snatch children, and jump 
  with them onto the lawn below. The specimens in this case can 
  only charge at drivers. Gigglers can suppress human reflexes, 
  preventing witnesses or victims from reacting properly to their 
  presence. Having established its MO during a first encounter, 
  however, it cannot later suppress reflexes in other ways.
  Gigglers kill through stealth and surprise. If physically 
  confronted outside of their routine, they rank on the lower 
  end of the ODE formidability scale. Once under attack they can 
  defend themselves, however far this takes them from their usual 
  pattern. Wherever possible they strike living opponents in the 
  face with their clawlike hands and try to rip the lower parts of 
  their faces off.
  A single inciting coulrophobic event brings a solitary giggler 
  across the membrane. It then tries to terrify and kill as many 
  people as it can before it is itself caught and destroyed. A day 
  or so after each event, it collects a trophy connected with each 
  slaying. Evidence removed to another location can be stolen 
  from there, saving the giggler from returning to the scene of the 
  crime. Once it has assembled items from at least five killings, it 
  can then create a crib or crucible containing these items, and 
  perform a ritual bringing more gigglers across. An uninterrupted 
  ritual summons a number of gigglers equal to the number of 
  killings connected to the crucible.
  If the ritual is stopped midway through, and any of the 
  gigglers slain, all of the gigglers are destroyed. A giggler brought 
  into the world by an Esoterror operation is connected in this 
  way to all others summoned by the same human accomplice. 
  Stopping one ritual kills all the gigglers associated with that 
  accomplice, no matter how far apart they might be.
  game statistics
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 12, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: +2
  weapon: +1 (rending fingers)
  armor: None
  Giggler
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  22
  When the driver loses control of the car, the clown runs 
  toward it.
  Two successful tests allow the driver to regain control:
  f
  Athletics (Difficulty 4) to free the foot from the 
  accelerator and hit the brakes. This also dislodges the 
  giggler from the hood.
  f
  Driving (Difficulty 7) to regain control of the speeding 
  vehicle and avert a crash. Tell the player that this is a 
  high Difficulty, and an extra bonus is granted for an 
  especially high result. On a result of 9 or more, the 
  driver is even able to hit the clown while regaining control, 
  costing it 6 Health.
  If the car crashes, all PCs inside take + x damage; x is 7 minus 
  the result of the Driving test. After a crash investigators must 
  make Difficulty 4 Athletics tests or spend their first round of 
  combat dazed and in shock.
  Some groups might strong-arm Zach into coming along for 
  the ride. If so, you might contrive a way for him to meet a bone-
  shattering end here. Give the players a chance, if not a great one, 
  to save him, should they be so motivated.
  Killing this giggler ends the danger in Bayonne, allowing  
  the team to move on to Leicester knowing that their work  
  here is done.
  Does the giggler survive their first encounter with 
  it? Expect the group to plan a new way of finding and killing it. 
  Throw in obstacles to keep this suspenseful but not prohibitively 
  tough. If they waste what feels like undue time hunting this 
  giggler, advance the English and Italian giggler infestations 
  accordingly. This shows that the cost of concentrating on this 
  phase is to worsen the later ones.
  This scenario triggers some events from player actions, 
  even without a direct cause and effect. It also has a ticking 
  clock element; the faster the team wraps up in Bayonne, the 
  fewer people die in Leicester.
  Keep track of how many days the group spends on each 
  phase of the investigation. Adjust the timing as desired. You 
  may choose to ease up on a floundering group, or to maintain 
  a modicum of challenge for surprisingly efficient ones.
  Even if the group decides to go directly from the sex club 
  to Newark airport without tackling the key clues found in 
  “Perfect Family,” Damgaard has more than a day’s head start 
  on them.
  f
  X Days: An indeterminate period depending on the 
  order the team chooses to tackle the folders in. Can be 
  as little as 1 day, or considerably longer. 
  f
  Day 1: Damgaard arrives in Bayonne and contacts Zach 
  Moreno. That night Zach resumes clown activities. The 
  team is assembled and arrives in San Francisco.
  f
  Day 2: Team travels to Bayonne. Article from 
  Coulrophobia Handout #3 released. Damgaard departs 
  for UK.
  f
  Day 3: Damgaard arrives at Heathrow, travels to 
  Leicester. Meets Des Watson. Watson starts up  
  clown activities.
  First Bayonne clown murder.
  f
  Day 4: Damgaard travels from Leicester to the channel 
  tunnel and across to France, where he purchases a used 
  car. He drives to a small privately owned hotel near Lyon 
  where he pays in advance in cash and stays the night.
  Second Bayonne clown murder.
  Watson and accomplices fan clown panic in 
  Leicester with #LeicesterClowns hashtag. Article from 
  Coulrophobia Handout #4 appears.
  f
  Day 5: Skirting Switzerland to avoid passport control, 
  Damgaard continues on from Lyon to Pordenone.
  Another Bayonne clown murder or investigators 
  instigate giggler encounter.
  Morning: Anti-clown meetup announced on Twitter. 
  Evening: Meetup occurs at the Red Pony Pub.
  f
  Day 6: Damgaard meets Enrico Falomi.
  Earliest date of first Leicester clown murder.
  f
  Day 7: Another Leicester clown murder?
  First clown sighting in Pordenone.
  f
  Day 8: Another Leicester clown murder, if giggler is 
  still active.
  Second Pordenone clown sighting.
  f
  Day 9: One clown murder apiece in Leicester and 
  Pordenone, if their respective gigglers remain at large. 
  Copycat clown sightings begin in another city.
  f
  Day 10: One clown murder apiece in any city with 
  previous clown sightings, if their respective gigglers 
  remain at large. Copycat clown sightings begin in two 
  other cities.
  New cities for copycat incidents, in order of appearance: 
  Johannesburg; Panama City; Haparanda (Sweden); Rochester, 
  NY; Kraków. After Pordenone, they generate spontaneously 
  based on news reports, and no longer need Damgaard to 
  instigate them.
  The scenario concludes when the team destroys gigglers 
  as they are summoned in a crucible.
  In the event of a long initial period before Day 1, players 
  may wonder what Damgaard was up to before his arrival in 
  Bayonne. Establish that he was elsewhere trying to get clown 
  panics started, but without much impact. Bring this in only if 
  players ask.
  antagonist timeline
  
  23
  leicester outbreak
  Leicester Outbreak
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Pursuing Damgaard, Zach Moreno, One-Car 
  Murders
  lead-outs: Des Watson, Leicester Murders
  Shortly after they learn that Nikolaj Damgaard is in England, 
  Research turns up a fresh news story, dated yesterday: see 
  Coulrophobia Handout #4.
  By this point the team may realize that speaking to people 
  about the case puts them in danger of being killed, as per the 
  incidents of “One-Car Murders.” Still, even if they minimize 
  contacts with locals, they’ll probably have to talk to someone to 
  find the Leicester equivalent of Zach Moreno.
  Leicester, in central England, is best known for an eponymous 
  university and the car park where Richard III was recently 
  dug up. Aside from its ODE epidemic, the team may find it a 
  pleasant enough place. Its sole good restaurant is a mid-range 
  Indian place.
  The team may start with the Twitter hashtag mentioned 
  in the article, #LeicesterClowns. Reversing the order of its 
  associated search result to make it chronological, they see a few 
  key posters talking about the sightings a lot, with more local 
  residents joining in over the first day or so. One particularly 
  angry Twitterer, @foyobs, calls for a community meeting. 
  Others set a time and place for it in a pub called the Red Pony. 
  Use the timeline in the sidebar to determine how long ago the 
  meeting took place relative to the team’s activities.
  If the players barreled through or dropped the Bayonne 
  investigation to pursue Damgaard, you may need to adjust events 
  described here or collapse the timeline. Ideally the meetup has 
  already occurred when they arrive in Leicester, but you could 
  reconfigure things so that they’re present for it, improvising 
  adjustments as you go.
  Anthropology: If you want to ask questions at a pub, the 
  best time for it is late afternoon, when a few regulars have 
  drifted in, but it’s not so busy yet that you won’t be able to strike 
  up a collective conversation.
  Regulars they might find at this time include:
  f
  Harley Robinson, a lanky, prematurely balding lorry driver 
  in his late twenties.
  f
  Mason Lord, a weatherbeaten former industrial engineer 
  in his mid-sixties.
  f
  Lola Simmons, a stout, pugnacious cafeteria worker in her 
  early fifties.
  f
  Matthew Collins, a University of Leicester management 
  student taking a semester off to intensify his drinking 
  problem. He dresses like Dr. Who — not a specific Dr. 
  Who, but like a Dr. Who in general.
  Anthropology: British people aren’t as gregarious as their 
  American counterparts. Strangers will want to put them at their 
  ease before launching into questions about their neighbors — 
  even the ones they don’t much like. Skip this, of course, if your 
  players and their characters are British.
  Reassurance gets some or all of the above to say  
  the following:
  f
  About a dozen people showed up the other night to worry 
  about the yobs in the clown outfits.
  f
  (core) The ringleader was Des Watson, who has some kind 
  of computer job with the Royal Mail and is always in a 
  lather about something.
  f
  His father, Oliver, was there too, saying that the clowns 
  were a distraction from the real problem. Des shouted 
  him down before he said what that was, but it was 
  probably foreigners.
  f
  Des’ friend Julian Barber was egging him on. He got quite 
  drunk, as usual, and had to be carried home by his mates.
  f
  The clowns are most likely just youngsters with nothing 
  better to do.
  f
  Youngsters with nothing better to do are dangerous! The 
  police should round them up and put them away as a 
  precautionary measure.
  Use the above as a template, adjusting as necessary, if the group 
  seeks information about the meeting or attitudes toward the 
  clown incidents in some other way.
  If the group goes to the Leicestershire police, they speak to 
  Officer Harriet Campbell, a white-haired woman who looks 
  rather frail for her line of work and must be nearing retirement 
  age. (Cop Talk: If she’s this old and still an officer, she isn’t very 
  good, or completely unambitious. Obviously she’s the officer 
  who gets the nonsense cases dumped on her.)
  f
  The superintendent isn’t happy to see a story like this 
  making Leicester look foolish.
  f
  He sent around patrols, but, naturally, pranksters would 
  duck out of the way if they saw officers coming.
  f
  She spoke to concerned citizens after their meeting and 
  explained that getting all flustered about it was exactly 
  what they should do if they want the pranks to continue.
  f
  A few years ago the force investigated a similar incident, in 
  which an unidentified man dressed up in a bat-like creature 
  costume on stilts and drifted past CCTV cameras late at 
  night. At the time they assumed someone at the uni was 
  making an anti-surveillance protest. It could be the same 
  person behind the clown nonsense. No laws were broken, 
  so they had no cause to launch an investigation.
  f
  Complaints to police are confidential, so naturally she can’t 
  reveal the identities of the people who reported being 
  menaced. (2-point Cop Talk spend) “Now that you’ve 
  promised absolute discretion…” They were Alisha Bolton, 
  Ruby Connolly, and Naoimh Owen.
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  24
  the witnesses
  The witnesses all reiterate the basic story from the news article. 
  In each case a couple of people dressed as clowns leapt out 
  at them from behind a hedge or other barrier. They growled, 
  hissed or stamped their feet, chasing the victims a short distance 
  when they started to run.
  Teenaged Alisha Bolton was returning from babysitting when 
  she encountered the clowns.
  Pensioner Ruby Connolly had just purchased groceries and 
  had to take extra heart medication afterward.
  Naoimh Owen, a retired electrical engineer, regrets that he 
  wasn’t ten years younger, in which case he would have given 
  them a thorough thrashing.
  None of them attended the pub meet. They just want to forget 
  the whole thing. Niamh in particular has been ribbed mercilessly 
  by his friends ever since he mentioned it. He reckons there are 
  others who saw the clowns and have not come forward for fear 
  of ridicule.
  Des Watson
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Leicester Outbreak, Leicester Murders
  lead-outs: Declan’s Metal Shop, Leicester Murders, 
  Pordenone Incidents
  Heavy-set, in his late thirties and sporting an auburn neck-beard, 
  Des Watson works an IT job he hates and dreams of something 
  more. Three years and two and a half stones ago, he dressed 
  up as a bat creature and paraded past CCTV cameras on the 
  high street as a sort of situationist prank. Though police never 
  bothered to find out who he was, Esoterror sympathizers in the 
  UK reached out to him and began to groom him for possible 
  use. The group trying to recruit him got rolled up in an Ordo 
  operation last year, but not before the ODEs they were in league 
  with made note of his location. When Damgaard came to him, 
  he barked out an enthusiastic “yeah, mate.” Unlike Zach Moreno 
  he knows perfectly well who he’s aiding and looks forward to 
  receiving his reward for services rendered during the big Pacific 
  Island event. He uses the vodka viral marketing story, knowing 
  it to be a cover for something else. What else, he looks forward 
  to learning, when his superiors deem it fit. He has no idea that 
  when speaking to Damgaard he was dealing directly with an 
  extra-dimensional entity.
  When not working four days a week at the Royal Mail 
  Delivery Office on Campbell Street, Des can be found drinking 
  on the backyard patio of the small home he shares with his racist 
  dad. His buddies, all in on the clown prank, imbibe alongside 
  him. These loutish, underemployed malcontents are:
  f
  Mike Shepherd, a janitor who hates it that he can’t get into 
  bar fights anymore after he damaged his left retina.
  f
  Muhammad Fuller, a roofer who un-converted to Islam a 
  couple of years back but is too skint to change his legal 
  name back to Reg. Goes by “Mad” for short.
  f
  Kieran Taylor, Des’ young assistant, who looks up to the 
  older man because he encourages his misogyny.
  f
  Self-employed welder and former drug dealer Declan 
  Reed, the only one of the group Des trusts with the truth 
  about Esoterror and Outer Dark Entities.
  Cranky pensioner Oliver Watson drinks with them, trying to 
  cadge as many of their beers as possible. He tries to steer any 
  conversation he is present for into a condemnation of the fucking 
  Romanians who are coming to take good British jobs and why 
  shouldn’t an old man have the right to be with his own kind?
  Des hotly denies responsibility for the clown incidents, 
  with an offended vehemence that pings even the most ill-tuned 
  Bullshit Detector. The rest, except for Oliver, seem similarly 
  shifty when the topic comes up. Bullshit Detector also paints 
  Des as a liar when he denies being the bat-suit man from years ago.
  After a suitable period of chatting-slash-observation, 
  Forensic Psychology identifies Declan and Des as the group 
  ringleaders, both displaying pronounced antisocial tendencies. 
  It marks Kieran as being especially malleable and in search of an 
  authority figure. And Mad is obviously the dumbest of the lot.
  If a player asks, Des and Declan both have recent, identical 
  tattoos. These match the design they may have found on Zach 
  Moreno, and grant admission to the big future event.
  Forensic Anthropology: There’s something wrong with 
  Mike’s right eye.
  If a team member braces Kieran elsewhere, acts in a paternal 
  fashion, and gives him the Flattery of basic respect, he admits 
  that Des is behind the clown incidents. He’s been hired by a 
  Danish advert fellow to be in a teaser campaign for a vodka 
  brand. It involves Declan building something in his metal shop, 
  but the two of them are keeping that secret.
  The same information can be gotten from Mad with 
  Reassurance and a cock-and-bull story explaining how the 
  team is working with Des on the clown project, and so it’s okay 
  to tell them what they already know.
  Or from Mike, with Intimidation and a threat to hit him in 
  the eye and blind him.
  If players make it apparent that they’re going to talk to more 
  than one of the cronies, split up the two bits of information 
  between two of them.
  If they talk to all three, the last one says that Des was the 
  bat-suit man, and that a bunch of muppets with daft occult ideas 
  contacted him to get them to join their club. Of course he didn’t 
  because what a lot of rot, yes?
  Oliver’s house isn’t exactly well secured. Infiltration (as 
  an Investigative ability) grants them access if they wait until 
  everyone is away. This happens when Des goes to work and 
  Oliver trots down to the Red Pony.
  
  25
  des watson, declan’s metal shop, leicester murders
  For that matter, Negotiation and a hundred quid persuades 
  Oliver to let them search his son’s room. Drink doesn’t grow 
  on trees, does it?
  The search turns up:
  f
  clown costumes, makeup, and Twitter accounts tied to the 
  telltale hashtag on his current computer
  f
  Data Retrieval: The smashed hard drive from an old 
  computer. Bits of scrambled files from several years 
  indicate that a local Esoterror cell tried to contact him.
  h
  Textual Analysis: Recovered snippets match emails 
  written by members of a defunct cell the Ordo swept 
  up last year.
  Des is always fiddling with his smartphone. Filch (as 
  Investigative) gets it off him long enough to dump its contents 
  (via Electronic Surveillance) onto a drive. 1 point of Filch 
  allows the return of the phone unsuspected. Otherwise Des 
  catches them at it and realizes that they might be the enemy 
  agents Damgaard warned him against.
  (core) Contrary to instructions, the phone number 
  corresponding to Damgaard’s new European SIM card appears 
  in the contacts, under the not-so-concealing name Vodka Man. 
  Electronic Surveillance locates the phone in Pordenone, Italy.
  des
  abilities: Athletics 4, Health 6, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: −1
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: −2 (fists)
  declan
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 10, Scuffling 6
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: −1
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: +1 (spanner)
  Declan’s Metal Shop
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Des Watson, Leicester Murders
  lead-outs: Leicester Murders, Pordenone Incidents
  Declan has basic security measures in place in his metal shop, a 
  garage beside his ill-kept home. Difficulty 4 Infiltration gets 
  the group through them.
  Document Analysis: Of the stacks of plans and schematics 
  lying around his shop, the best way to narrow the search is to 
  identify those on relatively fresh paper. One of these stands 
  out from the innocuous others. A title slug identifies it as a 
  crucible. It appears to be a gigantic cradle made out of car parts. 
  A scrawled note on the bottom reads “Concept design — will 
  depend on makes, salvageable parts.” Another penciled question 
  reads: “Ask what % can be from unrelated vehicles.”
  (These plans, made from Damgaard’s verbal description, 
  show him how to make a crucible, the device in which more 
  than one giggler can be summoned during a single ritual.)
  The team finds the crucible already in progress if they enter 
  the shop after the evidence lot robbery described below.
  Leicester Murders
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Pursuing Damgaard, Zach Moreno, One-Car 
  Murders, Leicester Outbreak, Des Watson,  
  Declan’s Metal Shop
  lead-outs: Des Watson, Declan’s Metal Shop,  
  Pordenone Incidents
  If the team arrives after Day Six (see “Timeline,” p. 22), the 
  giggler summoned by Des’ activities may have committed one 
  or more murders. These exactly follow the MO of the Bayonne 
  incidents and target people peripherally touched by the case. For 
  murders prior to the team’s arrival, choose people who attended 
  the Red Pony meeting but are not otherwise referred to here, 
  or witnesses to the sightings themselves (see “The Witnesses,” 
  opposite). Quick profiles for other meeting attendees:
  f
  Middle-aged pipe-fitter William Saunders, who hates 
  troublemakers of all stripes
  f
  Philosophy student Ethan Dobson, who attended the clown 
  meeting as a laugh
  f
  Aspiring politician Mia Fowler, who attended the meetup 
  to network with future constituents
  f
  Pensioner Leo Begum, always ready to be frightened  
  by something
  wrapping up leicester
  The team may consider it safe to move on to Pordenone if 
  they have killed the giggler. They may decide to leave Des 
  and Declan in place, or to apprehend them and turn them 
  over to the Ordo for interrogation and likely incarceration.
  Alternately, if they have the pipe clue from the Prologue 
  scene “Perfect Family” (p. 10), they may realize that they 
  can kill whatever gigglers currently prowl Italy or elsewhere 
  by allowing Des and Declan to perform the crucible 
  ritual here, then busting in and slaying the creatures as 
  they begin to coalesce. This wraps up the scenario, leaving 
  only Damgaard as a loose end. They can then travel to 
  Pordenone and find his body, which dies when the symp 
  abandons it.
  A third possibility has the team moving on to Pordenone 
  without killing the giggler, figuring they can destroy it by 
  interrupting a crucible ceremony there.
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  26
  Murders occurring after the team has begun to investigate 
  victimize characters who have made an impression on the group. 
  Even a member of Des’ group, other than Declan, might be 
  targeted. The giggler doesn’t care about its human enablers.
  The team can’t find the giggler until they establish a psychic 
  connection to it by interacting with others in Leicester whose 
  lives it has affected. Before that, a new victim dies each night, 
  somewhere they’re not, no matter how much they drive around 
  looking for evil clowns.
  Once they’ve established the connection, roll a die at the 
  start of each nightly hunt. On an odd result, the giggler strikes 
  someone else. On an even result, it comes after them, exposing 
  itself to their gunfire. The encounter reprises their confrontation 
  in Bayonne — except now the Athletics and Driving test 
  Difficulties are reduced by 1. 
  After three or more murders have been committed, if the 
  giggler remains at large, a curious nighttime incident occurs at the 
  police evidence lot where the cars have been taken. A skulking 
  clownish figure with glowing eyes leaps over the fence, rips 
  sections off of various vehicles, then leaps back over the fence. 
  Security camera footage records the event from a single angle.
  If the team has already spoken with Harriet Campbell, she 
  disobeys her superintendent’s orders to share it with them. 
  Clearly the recording shows something beyond the reach of 
  ordinary policing. Less of a dim bulb than she may have at first 
  appeared, she suspects that the truth lies more within the team’s 
  jurisdiction. Like any British authority figure, she believes the 
  public should be protected from unpleasant information, and 
  proves a reliable accomplice to any Veil-Out.
  Otherwise the group gets a secure transmission from the 
  Ordo’s signals intelligence unit, which has grabbed the footage 
  from the infosphere.
  If the giggler has already been killed but Des and Declan 
  remain at large, figures matching their respective silhouettes are 
  seen to break into the evidence lot and steal the car parts.
  After this happens, the team can find the beginnings of a 
  crucible by entering Declan’s metal shop.
  Pordenone Incidents
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Des Watson, Declan’s Metal Shop, Leicester 
  Murders
  lead-outs: Running Into Damgaard, Giggler Crucible
  Pordenone is a small city of around fifty thousand people in 
  northern Italy, to the east of the “boot.” It holds an annual silent 
  film festival and boasts a requisite assortment of Gothic and 
  Renaissance churches and palazzos, along with the ruins of a 
  Roman villa.
  If none of the PCs speak Italian, pick the option you think 
  your players will most enjoy:
  f
  Ask them to justify which one might speak it and award 1 
  point in Languages (Italian) to the player with the most fun 
  or plausible explanation. That character is then assumed 
  to be translating for the others when speaking to locals. 
  You probably want to avoid acting this out, unless you do 
  happen to know Italian.
  f
  The PCs meet an Italian Ordo operative, Raffaela Baroni, 
  upon arrival in town. She dresses like a chic university 
  professor. White streaks run through her raven hair. As 
  soon as she can, Raffaela mentions that she hasn’t taken a 
  field assignment in nearly a decade. (What’s that you say? You 
  might try to arrange for her to meet a terrible end at a pivotal 
  moment? Wow, that simply never occurred to us.)
  Check how many days have elapsed on the timeline (p. 22). 
  This tells you how far Damgaard’s Pordenone recruit, Enrico 
  Falomi, has gotten into his phase of the operation. He may be 
  yet to start, have initiated sightings, or have summoned a giggler 
  that is now killing people, as per Bayonne and Leicester.
  Enrico Falomi is a teenage Communist turned twenty-
  something supporter of the far right Fiamma Tricolore party, 
  turned thirty-something nihilist and would-be occultist. 
  Unemployed for most of his life, he earns an occasional buck 
  as a street performer. During the film festival, he dresses up 
  as Charlie Chaplin. He attracted the attention of ODEs when 
  he stabbed a tourist while in full Chaplin garb. They found rich 
  potential in the discordant irony of this juxtaposition. The victim 
  recovered, and Enrico’s case remains before the notoriously 
  glacial Italian court system. Demonic presences have been 
  whispering to him ever since, priming him for the arrival of a 
  master ritualist.
  In person, Enrico comes across as sullen and reluctant to 
  speak. While playing him, avoid making eye contact. He denies 
  involvement in any clown hoaxing, but Bullshit Detector 
  isn’t buying that.
  Anyone bothering Enrico soon has to deal with his protective 
  older brother Giustino. Burly and blustering, he warns Enrico 
  against talking to anyone, for fear of jeopardizing his court 
  case. Giustino works as a civilian employee of the Carabinieri, 
  maintaining their vehicle fleet. He also manages their vehicle 
  impound lot. The agents learn this if they ask around about 
  Enrico, or shadow Giustino. Clever players will see how easy 
  this will make it for Enrico to get access to cars smashed during 
  giggler murders. Asking around about him, they learn that he 
  does help his brother fix cars — indicating that he has the know-
  how to make a crucible from them.
  Friendless except for his brother, Enrico performed the 
  roadside clown interventions by himself. Witnesses, who might 
  have already gone on to become giggler victims, include:
  f
  Gianni de Paulis, a gruff senior known for blowing his top 
  and threatening to beat people who annoy him. Considered 
  a lovable crank who wouldn’t really hurt a fly.
  
  27
  running into damgaard
  f
  Luca Marchesi, thin-faced crooked antique dealer and 
  drunk. Considered a lovable scoundrel.
  f
  Sonia Reggiani, still glamorous retired scuola superiore (high 
  school) teacher. Half the men in town nurse an enormous 
  crush on her.
  f
  Primo Peracino, ruddy-faced journalist who sidelines as 
  a projectionist. Disliked for stirring up controversy, he 
  argues to anyone who will listen that Enrico should be 
  awaiting trial in custody.
  Running Into Damgaard
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Pordenone Incidents
  lead-out: Giggler Crucible
  When, as per the timeline, copycat clown events start sprouting 
  up in other cities without his intervention, Damgaard realizes he 
  can stay in Pordenone to supervise the next stage of summoning. 
  Bringing multiple gigglers into the world in one go will ratchet 
  up the terror, and thus the damage to the membrane.
  Prompt the team with the following info when the multiple 
  incidents occur.
  Research: New first-stage clown sightings, with pranksters 
  posing as clowns by roadways and triggering social media flaps, 
  have occurred in both Johannesburg and Panama City at the 
  same time.
  Occult Studies: Esoterror ops often work like this — at 
  some point, the original instigator is no longer required to 
  spark them. Damgaard probably isn’t in either Johannesburg or 
  Panama City.
  If he’s not there, he may well still be in Pordenone.
  Anthropology: Although the locals will be protective of 
  their own, foreign tourists won’t enjoy that level of protection.
  Forensic Accounting: Damgaard has clearly been staying 
  in places that will take cash deposits in lieu of a credit card. In a 
  city this small, there can’t be that many small, privately owned 
  hotels that fit that criteria.
  If the team canvasses small hotels, they find the place where 
  he is staying, the Gorizia B&B, in a period that varies according 
  to Architecture spend. (Architecture stands in for urban 
  geography here.)
  f
  3 points: 2 hours
  f
  2 points: 6 hours
  f
  1 point: 10 hours
  This not unreasonably assumes your players are emotionally 
  invested in finding him.
  However, at this point, Damgaard is a peripheral figure, an 
  instigator who got things rolling but is no longer necessary to 
  eventuate the final evil. If the players no longer seem to care 
  about him, it will still add coherence to the scenario if he shows 
  up at some point.
  So whenever they move from one location to another in the 
  city, roll a die. On a 2 or lower, they literally bump into him 
  while turning a corner. At this point, his symp is kicking back, 
  enjoying the simple pleasures of human bodily existence before 
  attending the final ritual and then returning to the swirling 
  madness of the Outer Dark. Startled, he drops his gelato al limone 
  and runs as fast as he can in the opposite direction. Pursuit as 
  always plays out as an Athletics contest.
  When caught, the symp inside Damgaard releases its hold 
  and returns to the other side of the membrane. Damgaard’s 
  body suffers a cerebral hemorrhage. A Difficulty 6 Medic test 
  stabilizes him, leaving him in a coma. Without it, he dies. In 
  a hospital, a day or more later, a Difficulty 6 Medic test can 
  return him to consciousness.
  Forensic Psychology: The experience has severely 
  damaged his mental processes.
  Damgaard retains only hazy recollections of what his body 
  did under symp control, as if the last few days have been an awful 
  nightmare, now blessedly receding into memory. However, if 
  loose ends still dangle at the scenario’s conclusion, a bedside 
  debriefing with Damgaard might tie them up.
  As yet a third option, you may prefer the neatness of having 
  Damgaard appear during the final ritual sequence, at which 
  point the team can either kill or attempt to save him, as above.
  Make the choice that feels like it will most satisfy the players.
  sympone / damgaard
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 4, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +2
  stealth modifier: +1
  weapon: −2 (fists)
  Giggler Crucible
  scene type: Conclusion
  lead-ins: Pordenone Incidents, Running Into Damgaard
  If four or more victims have already been killed by the giggler 
  when the team arrives in town, the crucible ritual takes place the 
  first evening after they discover that Enrico’s brother Giustino 
  enjoys access to the vehicles involved in the crashes.
  If fewer than four victims are dead when the team arrives, 
  the ritual occurs the night after the death of the fourth victim.
  By this point the team may have figured out that they can kill 
  all the gigglers spawned by Damgaard’s campaign, no matter 
  where in the world they are, by allowing the ritual to start 
  and then attacking it. Depending on the chronology, this may 
  require them to allow one or more murders to take place before 
  the ritual can happen. Expect this to trigger a harrowing moral 
  debate. For extra points, make an effort to see that Raffaela 
  Baroni winds up as one of the later victims.
  (If your group prefers a horror-lite approach free of awful 
  compromises, you could adjust the number of victims needed, 
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  28
  so that the team doesn’t have to wait for more people to die 
  before acting. Says the author, looking disapprovingly at your 
  players over the rims of his spectacles.)
  Difficulty 4 Surveillance at the police evidence garage 
  eventually spots Enrico using his brother’s keys to sneak off with 
  bits of the subject vehicles in a wheelbarrow. Another Difficulty 
  4 Surveillance test follows him to a stretch of hillside where 
  he intends to perform the ritual. Alternately a Difficulty 5 
  Surveillance test might allow them to track Damgaard there. 
  In both instances, a failed attempt still gets them to the location, 
  but alerts the subject to their presence. Team members may 
  then need to somehow lull the conspirators into a false security 
  sufficient to proceed with the ritual later. If the tracking occurs 
  immediately before the ritual, Enrico and/or Damgaard still 
  proceed, but gain initiative when the team attacks.
  Bureaucracy used for a check of town records also locates 
  the hillside spot as having belonged to Enrico’s great-grandfather 
  before the war.
  If investigators go to the hillside when neither conspirator 
  is present, they find a weird bowl-like structure made from the 
  cars involved in the incidents to date.
  Does the team not have the pipe clue from the prologue? 
  They can still find out that they can kill all gigglers worldwide 
  by killing the spawning ODEs during the ritual. Observing 
  Enrico as he goes about his endless daily business, they note that 
  he frequently stops to scribble with a stubby pencil in a small 
  leather-bound notebook. Filch as an Investigative ability gets it 
  out of his pocket.
  Alternately, Intimidation or Reassurance applied to 
  Giustino, either threatening his brother’s future or assuring him 
  that this is the only way to protect it, convinces him to snag the 
  notebook and turn it over.
  Its densely packed scrawlings mostly concern themselves 
  with bizarre ideological abstractions. As the pages go on they 
  use more and more Esoterror keywords. The last pages consist 
  mostly of indecipherable diagrams, including a rough sketch of 
  what the crucible might look like. Written underneath this in 
  block capital letters are the Italian words for:
  “INTERRUPTION REVERSES EVERYTHING. DIE BEFORE 
  ALLOWING INTERRUPTION!!!”
  Should the investigators show up for the ritual, one giggler per 
  player character manifests from the crucible. By killing all the 
  gigglers they cause the hole in the membrane to seal up. Any 
  gigglers spawned in connection to this particular clown fear 
  flap die, no matter where on earth they happen to be. Clown 
  pranks continue for a while, fizzling out without summoning 
  any more of them. For this confrontation, but not otherwise, 
  Enrico and/or Damgaard have armed themselves with stolen 
  police sidearms.
  One playtest group expressed disappointment when they 
  realized that they had contained this incident but not all future 
  giggler manifestations ever. Respond to similar objections by 
  citing the Ordo Veritatis operations manual. Field agents are 
  like medical teams flown in to tamp down an epidemic. No one 
  expects them to cure the disease, just to suppress this particular 
  outbreak. (The same objection applies to pretty much any Outer 
  Dark infestation, really.)
  Handouts
  Add dates to these handouts relative to the start you assign to 
  your scenario. 
  1 
  May 30, last year. 
  2 
  June 7, this year.
  3 
  day the team arrives in Newark
  4 
  4 days into the Antagonist Timeline, as seen on p. 22.
  
  29
  giggler crucible and handouts
  motorist snaps bizarre clown pic
  Julie Chin for the Examiner
  Greasepaint and a red bulbous nose were no laughing matter for 
  Bayonne residents Sid and Marcia Blackmun, who were startled 
  by the roadside appearance of a man in full clown regalia near 
  Port Terminal Boulevard last night. Marcia, in the passenger’s 
  seat, took a cell phone picture of the figure to turn over to 
  police. “He was definitely adopting a menacing posture,” Marcia 
  said. “Like he might jump out in front of us, even drive us off the 
  road,” added Sid, a retired production engineer.
  The appearance matches several other social media accounts 
  of persons dressed as clowns roaming about at night. On 
  Twitter, user @Salmonjack said “Bolting my door extra hard 
  tonite. Roving clowns freak me out.” Bayonne resident Tanya 
  Evans posted a Facebook status asking if anyone else had seen 
  a “scarcy [sic] clown by the TGIF parking lot.” Contacted for 
  further comment, she reported seeing a man in a yellow clown 
  costume peering into cars from the shrubbery bordering the lot. 
  When confronted by TGI Friday’s staff, the man jumped onto a 
  motorbike and sped off.
  Bayonne Police Department spokesperson Stephanie Bates 
  had this to say: “Anonymous prowling is no laughing matter. 
  Though the individuals involved may think they’re engaged in 
  some kind of harmless prank or flash mob, they should be aware 
  that by making themselves a cause for alarm they endanger 
  both their own safety and that of the general public. Criminal 
  mischief charges could result. So I urge whoever’s doing this to 
  immediately desist in their behavior.”
  coulrophobia handout #1
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  30
  clown brawl breaks out at local 
  rock club
  Julie Chin for the Examiner
  A rash of clown sightings engineered by an unknown group 
  came to a head last night during a tussle at Avenue E rock 
  tavern The Mud Pit. According to witnesses, three persons 
  in clown makeup and costume were forcibly ejected by club 
  bouncers prior to last call. “They were definitely adopting 
  a swaggering, you could say even menacing, posture,” said 
  witness Melissa Kent, 23. “The bartender refused them service 
  and they got rowdy.”
  Mud Pit proprietor Phil Gonzaga minimized the event. “We 
  cater to a party crowd and every Friday and Saturday night 
  someone gets booted. Nobody got hurt and there was nothing 
  interesting about it except what they were wearing. And I 
  don’t even think it was all that interesting.” Asked if police 
  were called to the scene, Gonzaga reiterated “Nope, all in a 
  night’s work.”
  However, other witnesses who declined to be identified 
  for this story indicated that the clowns were perhaps more 
  roughly treated then the owner’s account admits. With any 
  luck, this might well be the end of Bayonne’s clown outbreak.
  coulrophobia handout #2
  
  31
  handouts
  long inactive, bayonne mystery 
  clowns resurface
  Julie Chin for the Examiner
  Absent from the local scene since last June, Bayonne’s mystery 
  clowns are back, racking up a rash of sightings that lit up 
  social media last night. A white-faced, red-nosed man in a 
  yellow costume was spotted by numerous residents near the 
  5th St Connection. Other motorists noted the presence of 
  a blue-clad, dreadlocked clown along Oak Street, and beside 
  Old Hook Road. “Drove past a clown brandishing a big knife 
  SUMBDUDDY CALL 5-o!” tweeted user @Chiscro.
  “While users tweeted their alarm at these events,” responded 
  Bayonne Police Department spokesperson Stephanie Bates, “no 
  one who called police services did so in a timely fashion. As a 
  result officers were unable to locate any sign of the suspects. 
  Again we reiterate to the persons involved that these activities 
  endanger themselves and others and could result in criminal 
  charges. And to the general public, we urge you not to treat 
  social media as a substitute for contacting us directly should an 
  emergency arise.”
  coulrophobia handout #3
  
  worldbreaker
  coulrophobia
  32
  leicester police issue clown caution
  Menacing costumed individuals provoke warning to public
  Press Association
  A wave of intimidating actions by persons dressed as clowns has 
  prompted the police force to warn the public against engaging 
  with unknown persons bent on mischief.
  Multiple members of the public in the Leicester area have 
  reported hostile meetings with people garbed in Halloween-
  style clown costumes. They report being followed, chased, or 
  growled at by these unidentified persons. One described their 
  rubber masks as resembling “horror movie characters.”
  Police superintendent Jeremy Pinnock said that although 
  these pranksters clearly desire attention, they are best countered 
  by ignoring them. He added that no one has been harmed in 
  these incidents. “For their own safety, I would strongly advise 
  them to curtail their activities. In the end the danger they pose 
  may be to themselves.”
  Pranksters should expect increased patrols in the days ahead.
  The clown sightings have elicited much comment on social 
  media, which may well be their goal. Twitter discussion has 
  centred around the hashtag #LeicesterClowns.
  It is not illegal to dress as a clown or to appear masked in 
  public. However, should an attempt to startle passerby escalate 
  in an undesirable direction, perpetrators could face criminal 
  and/or civil sanction.
  coulrophobia handout #4
  
   
  deadly coincidence mars the efforts of the world’s leading 
  Internet search provider to update its street view and satellite 
  map images. Its cameras start finding the bodies of murder 
  victims just as their photo vehicles drive by or their satellites 
  whiz overhead. The first few really are unconnected, until 
  Esoterror agents opportunistically jump into the incident and 
  keep it going with fresh kills. The assignment: find out who’s 
  staging the slayings and stop them, before these arranged 
  coincidences take on a supernatural life of their own.
  This scenario centers around the mapping service of the 
  world’s leading search engine, associating it with murder and 
  mayhem. We refer to it here as Waltz, a mutated acronym for 
  world’s leading search engine. If in the privacy of your own 
  gaming chamber you revert the name and other details to that 
  of the real-world company, nobody’s trademark lawyers are ever 
  going to track you down.
  Sinister Conspiracy
  The symp occupies a body chosen to push the sexual buttons 
  of Vikas Mohan, the executive in charge of Waltz’s mapping 
  app. Getting his attention in the parking lot of the company’s 
  headquarters in Evergreen, CA, she gains an immediate 
  interview with him, during which the symp transfers from her 
  to him. Reserving the previous body to murder later, the symp 
  then uploads a program to Waltz servers, physically locating it 
  in a remote facility in Utah. Then, piggybacking on coincidental 
  incidents elsewhere, “Mohan” sets off three parallel waves 
  of killings designed to be captured either by the company’s 
  street-view camera cars or its satellite imaging sweeps. Some 
  of these the symp commits itself, hopping from body to body 
  on a cross-country spree. Others are performed by otherwise 
  unconnected Esoterror cells, who receive advance warning on 
  the satellite imaging route. Outer Dark Entities, attracted by 
  special red crystals Mohan hides in the wheels of the cars, kill 
  for the benefit of street-view cameras. The plan seeks to weaken 
  the membrane ahead of the great summoning due to occur in 
  the final scenario, “Swallowed.”
  Trail of Clues
  The case starts with Folder Two, as discovered in the prologue. 
  Investigations in Grand Forks or Lexington may establish the 
  ordinary, coincidental nature of the initial incidents inspiring 
  the conspiracy. Going to Evergreen allows investigators to 
  meet with Mohan, triggering various possibilities ranging from 
  an escape and the start of a kill spree, or the capture of the symp. 
  This determines what happens to the original host, who may 
  wind up as Luisa in the Trunk or Luisa on the Bleachers. 
  What Mohan Left Behind points to the nature of the scheme 
  and ways to wind it down. Mohan’s Badge allows the team 
  to decontaminate the cars, ending the creature portion of the 
  multipronged kill wave. Ending the Wave and The Lehi 
  Server let them wrap up the rest.
  geoslashers
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  34
  Antagonist Reactions
  A team member who gets too close to the symp could wind up 
  Parasitized. If the symp remains at large, it discards Mohan’s 
  body in Hoist on His Own Streetcam, with a possible 
  continuing murder spree after that. Red Bait and Killwave 
  detail the numerous subsidiary slayings (or reveals of already 
  stashed bodies) carried out by creatures and cell members. 
  Monster Garage shows what happens if agents’ handling of 
  the crystals in the Waltz car wheels attracts ODE interest.
  Scenes
  Folder Two
  scene type: Intro
  lead-outs: Grand Forks, Lexington, Evergreen
  The video freeze-frame of folder two does not show the news 
  article printout in its entirety. However, a simple search 
  of the visible headline turns up the full piece, as provided in 
  Geoslashers Handout #1 on p. 49.
  Research: Similar search terms also turn up the article seen 
  in the subsequent handout.
  Based on these handouts, investigators might choose to start 
  in Grand Forks, Lexington, or Evergreen.
  Grand Forks
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Folder Two, Lexington, Evergreen
  lead-outs: Lexington, Evergreen, Luisa on the Bleachers
  Grand Forks, ND, is the hub of a greater urban area of about 
  a hundred thousand people, in the flatlands of the Red River 
  Valley. The University of North Dakota lends it a college town 
  vibe. Though condo developments busily transform its historic 
  downtown, rural poverty on its outskirts opens ample gaps for 
  people to fall between.
  By talking to people mentioned in Geoslashers Handout 
  #1, the team can gather information about the events leading 
  up to the satellite image. Mostly they learn that it lacks any 
  obvious sign of supernatural or Esoterror activity. Although 
  each interview unfolds as a separate scene, they occur in rapid 
  succession and all confirm one another, and so for simplicity’s 
  sake appear together under a single umbrella header.
  madeline ankers
  Single mom Madeline Ankers works long hours as a data entry 
  clerk for a nonprofit health care exchange in order to pay the 
  rent on her trailer and raise her two sullen teenagers.
  The additional publicity that came her way after the story 
  about the satellite image broke dumped another shovelful of hurt 
  and bitterness on her. She had no idea that going public about it 
  would give the image wider circulation. So when investigators 
  show up wanting to ask questions about it, she’s tired of talking.
  Cop Talk by characters presenting themselves as law 
  enforcement appeals to her law-and-order values and gets her to 
  reluctantly open up. Or they can use Reassurance to show that 
  the team members hate the Internet and media as much as she does.
  In response to specific questions she provides the following:
  f
  Awful as the incident was, you couldn’t call it weird or 
  strange. Except for that terrible coincidence of the satellite 
  passing by while cops were studying the crime scene, with 
  poor Janis still lying there.
  f
  Of course Underwood done it. Madeline warned her sister 
  Janis a dozen times not to involve herself with that son of a 
  bitch. She could tell he was trouble a mile away.
  f
  The presiding officer on the case is Dale Engelstad. He’s a 
  good guy, and he has all he needs to put Underwood away 
  for life.
  dale engelstad
  Detective Dale Engelstad of the Grand Forks Police Department 
  speaks slowly, with an easy-going manner belying his superlative 
  arrest record. Cop Talk prompts him to treat the investigator 
  using it as a colleague.
  His answers to specific questions go something like this:
  f
  They have Underwood dead to rights. Janis Ankers’ blood 
  was found throughout their shared dwelling, a ramshackle 
  house out by Route 29, and in his clothing.
  f
  A witness saw his truck leaving the sewage treatment 
  facility shortly after the body was dumped.
  f
  Repeated domestic dispute calls brought police out to the 
  house. Janis filed charges once, but didn’t show up to testify 
  against him, leading to the case being dropped.
  f
  The Waltz people maybe talked like a bunch of human press 
  releases, but they were conscientious about taking the 
  image down when they got wind of it.
  f
  Nope, Grand Forks ain’t the kind of place where weird 
  occurrences occur.
  As Dale is no dummy, he’ll ask what interest the team has in the 
  case. Return a slow skeptical nod if the explanation the group 
  gives him comes off as shaky.
  (Dale might make a good replacement PC, after Ordo 
  recruitment, should one of the team fall in the course of this 
  epic campaign. Obviously that can only happen after he appears 
  as a GMC here.)
  willard underwood
  Assuming they don’t arouse Detective Engelstad’s ire, two team 
  members can gain access to Underwood in a jailhouse interview. 
  (Let other players feed questions to the point persons, out  
  of character.)
  
  35
  grand forks and lexington
  The man they see sourly waiting for them is rangy and 
  balding, sporting both ropy muscles and a beer gut.
  Anthropology: His fading tattoos reveal that this isn’t his 
  first stint behind bars.
  Pathology: He shows such physical signs of prolonged 
  alcoholism as redness of the nose and cheeks, and a tendency to 
  clutch at his gut that suggests chronic gastritis.
  Trivia: One tattoo, which might to the uninitiated resemble 
  an occult sign, is actually the logo of an ’80s metal band.
  Underwood starts with a tough front but, like many bullies 
  deprived of his power, crumbles under Interrogation. Despite 
  all the evidence, he continues to insist that he didn’t do it.
  f
  He doesn’t know who did do it, but that’s the cops’ job, 
  not his. As long as they’re railroading him, they sure as hell 
  won’t find out, will they?
  f
  Sure, he was out by the sewage plant the day she went missing. 
  That’s because whoever it was, was trying to frame him.
  f
  Them calls Janis made to 911 were all made up. When she 
  drank she liked to tell lies about him.
  Bullshit Detector: He’s lying out his ass.
  Mean and ignorant but not actually stupid, Underwood listens 
  acutely to the questions he’s given in hope of finding something 
  he can seize on as reasonable doubt. If they start to ask about 
  weird occurrences, cultists, terrorists, or the paranormal, he 
  strings them along, trying to figure out what they really want 
  from him.
  wrapping up grand forks
  After a while the group will hit a wall here and realize that 
  the trail lies elsewhere. (For this reason, pace this alternate 
  sequence, and the similar Lexington one, as briskly as you can.)
  Occult Studies: This is starting to look like a classic 
  Esoterror piggyback operation, leveraging anxiety about a 
  random, mundane event into an operation that only later takes 
  on supernatural resonance.
  Lexington
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Folder Two, Grand Forks, Evergreen
  lead-outs: Grand Forks, Evergreen, Luisa on the Bleachers
  The team can follow up Lexington leads by contacting people 
  mentioned in Geoslashers Handout #2, on p. 50.
  kendall weekes
  Jaded local reporter Kendall Weekes considers the Hopkins 
  murder a dead issue, unless the investigators make it seem 
  otherwise with their interest in the case. His nose for a bigger 
  story may make him an obstacle as they try to pry info from him 
  without giving him cause to follow them around. In response to 
  relevant questions, he reveals the following:
  f
  The investigating officer is Tika Williams of the Lexington 
  Police Force.
  f
  Andre Hopkins left a widow, Elaine. The couple had 
  children, but they live out of state and returned to their 
  respective homes after the funeral.
  f
  The cops are probably right about this being a simple 
  robbery. Hopkins was shot in a bad part of town.
  f
  When they do catch the perp, it will be because someone 
  ratted on him, probably to escape a lesser charge in some 
  unrelated matter.
  f
  Weird occurrences? Something more than coincidental 
  about the StreetWaltz image? Why do you say that? Who 
  are you working for, really?
  tika williams
  Detective Tika Williams, young for her rank, has already settled 
  into the disappointing realities of homicide policing. Cop Talk 
  lowers her reflexive suspicion of outside officials. Depending on 
  what she is asked, she reveals:
  f
  Andre Hopkins left a widow, Elaine. The couple had children 
  but they live out of state and returned to their respective 
  homes after the funeral. (Skip if Weekes already said this.)
  f
  Her department has no suspect in the case and no useful 
  physical evidence. Gunpoint robberies have been quiet in 
  the neighborhood for the last while. Must be somebody new.
  f
  She’s confident she’ll get the guy eventually. Someone will 
  come forward. It’s too bad the photo got taken down from 
  the web right away. If the fuss had gone on longer it might 
  have inspired an informant to pick up the phone.
  f
  Weird occurrences? You mean, other than the precinct 
  coffee tasting drinkable today?
  If given the tip from Cordell Pelant (below) about Andre owing 
  money to bookie Raymond Parkins, she goes off to interview 
  him. It takes 2 points of Cop Talk to get invited along. The 
  scene described in “Raymond Parkins” (below) unfolds, but with 
  her and not the investigators taking the lead.
  elaine hopkins
  Elaine liked that young black detective who came around when 
  her husband was gunned down, but in general doesn’t trust 
  the police. Streetwise allows a team member to show that 
  what she says now won’t get her into trouble. Likely answers 
  to their questions:
  f
  “Andre was a tired old man with diabetes and bad knees. 
  He liked to warm a seat down at the Five Spot and watch 
  his football games. He’s never been involved in anything 
  that’s nobody’s never mind.”
  f
  “We’re good people but in a bad neighborhood, so the 
  police didn’t care very much what happens to us. They 
  figure it’s robbery, and robbery’s hard to solve, so, far as 
  they’re concerned, that’s the end of the story.”
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  36
  f
  “Maybe it was robbery, but I sure would like to see 
  somebody pay for what they done to him.”
  the five spot / cordell pelant
  The Five Spot is a worn-out sports bar catering to retirees and 
  daytime drinkers. Its old man smell repels people under forty. 
  When the investigators go in, they see a man drinking alone 
  at a table by the door, a man drinking alone at the bar, and the 
  bartender. Whichever one of these they approach first turns out 
  to be named Cordell Pelant. He can tell you about everything 
  that happens at the Five Spot, which is not to imply that anything 
  ever happens at the Five Spot.
  f
  Yeah, Andre liked his football all right. What else is there 
  to like?
  f
  Sure, Andre was in hock. In hock up to his eyeballs.
  f
  Nope, if you don’t know who runs the sports book around 
  here, I sure ain’t going to tell you.
  Negotiation: (plus a discreetly palmed Benjamin (at least)) 
  He owed more than three times the value of his house to 
  Raymond Parkins. Ray’s a patient man, but he was talking about 
  making an example of somebody. After Andre got it, the rest 
  of his deadbeat clients paid up right away, you can be damn 
  sure of that. Parkins works out of a diner near the ball park on  
  North Broadway.
  raymond parkins
  Raymond Parkins, found making calls on three separate cheap 
  cell phones, denies so much as knowing Andre Hopkins, 
  setting off Bullshit Detector hard. Under Intimidation or 
  Interrogation he admits to placing bets for a (nonexistent) 
  bookie he declines to name but again denies any connection to 
  Hopkins’ murder. Morbidly obese, Parkins does not match the 
  body type from the image.
  As he’s speaking, a young man who matches the shooter’s 
  build and wears the same basketball jersey, ambles blank-eyed 
  into the diner. He spots the team bracing Raymond, turns tail, 
  and runs.
  Athletics, Difficulty 4, catches up with him. This is 
  Raymond’s nephew, Marcus, age seventeen. If caught he starts 
  to cry. Unless stopped, Raymond tortuously runs toward him, 
  shouting at him to keep his mouth shut. (None too bright, the 
  Parkins clan.)
  Interrogation: Marcus confesses to shooting Andre 
  Hopkins at his uncle’s behest. Having already spilled the beans, 
  he asks to go into witness protection.
  Although the team has found the killer (or watched as Tika 
  Williams did), they’ve discovered that nothing about it smacks 
  of the paranormal or Esoterror.
  jesse freeman
  Eager, bearded blogger Jesse Freeman reacts with enthusiasm 
  to any chance to discuss his image discovery. If contacted by 
  email, he suggests meeting up at the Cup of Kindness, a hipster 
  coffee joint on Mill Street. He happily reveals the following, in 
  response to questions.
  f
  He didn’t know Andre Hopkins.
  f
  After finding the murder picture, he decided not to check 
  out apartments in that neighborhood.
  f
  He got a number of odd messages when he posted the 
  photo. Because, hey, Internet.
  f
  Naturally he drilled down into the analytics for his post, in 
  keeping with his aspirations as a social media consultant. 
  He got hits from all around the world, mostly the US, the 
  UK, Canada, Germany, and Japan.
  f
  Ranking US states in order, Kentucky came first, naturally, 
  then California and New Jersey.
  f
  He got a whole ton of hits from a particular California ISP.
  h
  Data Retrieval: This matches the Powells’ account 
  in Irvine, CA.
  f
  (pipe clue for “Swallowed”) Ever since he posted the image, 
  he’s been having weird dreams. Misshapen animal figures 
  creep into his apartment at night to claw at his flesh. He 
  tries to fight back and bursts one of them open by kicking 
  at it. It explodes, like inside it’s entirely made of some 
  awful-smelling goop. Then later in the same dream, people 
  enter the apartment, sedate him, and extract his blood. 
  They look like they’re Vietnamese or Thai or Cambodian or 
  something like that.
  wrapping up lexington
  The guidance given in “Wrapping up Grand Forks” (p. 35) 
  applies here, too.
  Evergreen
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Folder Two, Lexington, Grand Forks, Luisa on the 
  Bleachers, What Mohan Left Behind
  lead-outs: Lexington, Grand Forks, Capturing a Symp, 
  Capturing a Host, Parasitized, Luisa in the Trunk, Luisa on 
  the Bleachers, Mohan’s Badge, What Mohan Left Behind, 
  Hoist on His Own Streetcam
  If the team came to Waltz’s Evergreen campus straight from 
  “Folder Two,” the symp has jumped from its first host to Vikas 
  Mohan, and is now on the verge of killing original host Luisa 
  Robles. He intends to leave the body out to be photographed 
  by an impending StreetWaltz camera-car run but, until that 
  happens, keeps her heavily sedated in the back of her car.
  If the team arrives after going anywhere else first, Mohan has 
  killed the original host and dumped her in a spot which was then 
  photographed by the StreetWaltz vehicle. The photo will appear 
  on the site within hours, having already been transferred from 
  the car’s hard drive to the main servers. Mohan’s symp then 
  jumped to yet another host.
  
  37
  evergreen
  In either case, the symp has already forced Mohan to add 
  monitoring subroutines to the mapping app.
  Mohan’s responses depend on whether the symp still  
  inhabits him.
  See sidebar for an overview of the scheme, containing 
  background facts that remain true in both situations.
  still symped
  In this story branch, Mohan has Robles sedated in the trunk of 
  his car in the parking lot, suffering dangerous dehydration under 
  the sweltering heat. She lies wrapped in a sheet of plastic. A 
  long, self-sharpening kitchen knife sits beside her, ready to be 
  used to slash her throat.
  At this key moment, SympTwo has no desire to meet unknown 
  visitors. He has instructed his uber-efficient receptionist, Kara 
  Saylor, to keep out anyone seeking an impromptu appointment. 
  However, she relents in the face of credibly described uses of 
  Bureaucracy, Flirting, or Forensic Accounting, letting 
  some or all of the team in to confront him.
  Mohan adjusts to their presence, inviting them to take seats 
  on the long, swanky couch opposite his desk.
  As the investigators are most likely asking background 
  questions about the workings of StreetWaltz, SympTwo attempts 
  to keep its cool and answer as an unaware Mohan would.
  f
  Waltz uses its own fleet of street-level camera cars, 
  but leases the services of a satellite imaging company, 
  AeroMetriks, also of Evergreen. (You can see its glass and 
  steel headquarters from the window of Mohan’s office.)
  h
  (A character with Forensic Accounting knows 
  that Waltz announced its acquisition of AeroMetriks 
  just two days ago. If confronted with this fact, which 
  the real Mohan would be up on, play SympTwo as 
  momentarily baffled and distressed before recovering 
  its composure. “Ah, it’s been a distracting couple of 
  days. It’s, uh, been secret so long I forgot the press 
  release had gone out.”)
  f
  Waltz keeps both the routes of its cars and its scheduled 
  satellite sweeps strictly secret. This prevents pranksters and 
  viral marketers from getting free attention by arranging for 
  their billboards or protests or flash mobs or what-have-you 
  to wind up on WaltzMaps.
  f
  People complain when something inappropriate winds up 
  on the app. The company’s takedown speed falls well within 
  industry standards.
  f
  An actual human eyeball check on every single image would 
  take an absolutely unaffordable number of staff hours, even 
  if outsourced to a developing nation. The company relies on 
  algorithms to protect privacy. Those get better and better 
  Weeks ago: Through paranormal surveillance of Mohan’s 
  Internet activity, the computer-dwelling ODE from the Powell 
  house identifies his weakness for broad-beamed Latinas. It 
  also develops code to drop into the software that manages 
  Waltz’s fleet of camera cars, and its satellite imaging.
  After the massacre: SympTwo goes to Waltz headquarters 
  in the body of sex club attendee Luisa Robles and approaches 
  Vikas Mohan in the parking lot. She’s his type, so he agrees to 
  talk with her in his office about what he thinks is a proposed 
  charity tie-in with the mapping app. SympTwo migrates from 
  Robles to Mohan. Now in Mohan, SympTwo administers 
  a powerful sedative to Luisa Robles and stashes her in 
  Mohan’s office closet. As Mohan, it overrides Waltz security 
  protocols to upload the compromising code developed by 
  the computer-resident ODE. It waits until after hours, then 
  sneaks Robles’ unconscious body out of the building and into 
  his car. He drives her to his apartment, keeping her alive in 
  an induced coma.
  The compromised software begins to broadcast 
  information on the routes for upcoming camera cars and the 
  areas to be targeted for fresh satellite imaging.
  A few days later: As Mohan, SympTwo covertly tampers 
  with the fleet of StreetWaltz cars currently housed at the 
  Evergreen campus. It places quantities of the red crystals 
  from the folder into the wheel wells of the vehicles. These 
  crystals draw ODEs to them, in this case with instructions 
  impelling them to kill or bring victims to leave along 
  their routes, so that they’ll be photographed at the exact  
  right moments.
  Some days later: Mohan puts the still comatose Robles in 
  the trunk of his car. Unless the investigators prevent him, he 
  takes her to a nearby location about to be photographed by 
  a StreetWaltz car, slashes her throat, and leaves her bleeding 
  out on a park bench. The car whizzes by and immortalizes the 
  moment on its automated camera.
  SympTwo returns to Waltz headquarters, then migrates 
  into UPS driver Essie Cummings, taking a laptop containing 
  the program allowing it to track the camera car routes and 
  satellite targeting.
  Thereafter: As Essie Cummings, SympTwo stages more 
  murders to be caught on camera or satellite, sometimes 
  jumping to a new host and making the old host his victim.
  Meanwhile, cars fan out across the US, the crystals in their 
  wheels attracting otherwise unconnected ODEs to commit 
  murders and leave them out to be photographed.
  Also meanwhile, otherwise unconnected Esoterror 
  sleeper cells receive and install the tracking program, along 
  with instructions telling them to kill people and leave them in 
  particular locations at specific times.
  Unlike the creatures, who react only to the cars, these 
  cells place victims out for both the cars and satellite imaging.
  the sinister plan in detail
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  38
  all the time. In the years ahead, they might also be able 
  to identify and hold for screening distressing images, like 
  those found in the Grand Forks and Lexington incidents. 
  But the technology’s not there yet, and whether Waltz is or 
  isn’t working on that is of course proprietary information.
  f
  Mohan has no knowledge of anything unusual, paranormal, 
  or untoward in connection with these incidents, or anything 
  else for that matter.
  All but the last of these statements is true. As for the final one, 
  the dulled responses of a Symp victim do not provide the tells 
  Bullshit Detector depends on.
  However, if a character with Forensic Psychology asks 
  about Mohan’s demeanor, he does seem to be exhibiting some 
  ancillary symptoms of amnesia or dissociative identity disorder.
  If confronted by the investigators in a way that makes the jig 
  seem to be truly up, the symp freaks out. Depending on how the 
  team has positioned itself, he either:
  1 
  attacks them, trying to migrate into one of them (if some 
  are sitting and some standing)
  2 
  tries to flee out his office door (if everyone sat down)
  3 
  rushes out the sliding door onto his balcony and leaps off it 
  (if no one sat down)
  In the first instance, he chooses the character with the lowest 
  Athletics pool. That character makes a Difficulty 4 Athletics test.
  The parasite flies out of Mohan, bursting the lower part of 
  his face open.
  On a success, the targeted character bats away the parasite as it 
  flies from Mohan’s shattered face. See “Capturing a Symp,” opposite.
  On a failure, the slug-like parasite sticks to the investigator’s 
  face long enough to slurp through his or her lips, breaking her teeth 
  and crawling down into her esophagus. See “Parasitized,” opposite.
  Witnessing the face-bursting calls for a Difficulty 4 Stability 
  test against a possible loss of 5 points.
  In cases 2 or 3, the first player to say his character is doing 
  so makes a Difficulty 4 Athletics test to restrain Mohan, 
  preventing his escape. See “Capturing a Host,” opposite.
  If Mohan gets out the office door, SympTwo remains active 
  for the rest of the scenario. It does not possess Essie Cummings 
  but instead finds another host and sacrifices Mohan for a cam 
  car or satellite. Improvise the mayhem it continues to wreak, 
  in keeping with the sinister plan, until the investigators track it 
  down and confront it.
  If Mohan jumps off the balcony, they find his broken body 
  sprawled across the chrome appendages of a large abstract 
  sculpture in the courtyard below. The sculpture’s spike-
  like protrusions pierce it in multiple places. This gory sight 
  requires a Difficulty 4 Stability test against a possible loss of 
  4 points. Should they closely examine the body, the symp 
  leaps out from Mohan’s burst chest cavity to attempt to 
  possess the team member conducting the probe. See above for  
  avoiding parasitization.
  post symp
  If the symp has already jumped from Mohan to UPS driver 
  Essie Cummings, Mohan lingers as a shell of his former self. 
  He mumbles his responses to basic questions as if drunk or 
  lobotomized. Mohan yields passively to medical examination.
  Pathology: He’s dehydrated and seems to have suffered a 
  stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. It might be possible to jump-
  start his awareness with a drug cocktail, but that could kill him.
  If they try this, he at first can only say that everything feels 
  fuzzy and dream-like, like he was living someone else’s life for a 
  while. Trying to remember hurts his head.
  For each point of Medic the team elects to spend, Mohan 
  supplies a single point of relevant information, which must be 
  prompted by a related question.
  Every two questions, have the character who spent the 
  Medic point roll a die. On an odd result, Mohan slumps over 
  and dies of a massive brain hemorrhage.
  Causing Mohan’s death risks a loss of 6 Stability (test Difficulty 
  4). Inspection of the corpse with Forensic Anthropology 
  reveals that there was nothing the group could have done for 
  him: the symp destroyed too much of his brain. If anything, 
  keeping him occupied with questions may have prolonged his 
  life, if only by moments.
  f
  The last thing he remembers, he met a lady in the parking lot.
  f
  There was something inside him, which could see into a 
  terrible world beyond our own.
  f
  That world is coming to this one, and they wanted to use 
  the mapping program to bring that about.
  
  39
  capturing a symp, capturing a host, parasitized
  f
  There were red crystals, and he was supposed to do 
  something with them, or put them somewhere.
  f
  Out there are all kinds of things, waiting to spring into 
  action. Things and then people in league with the things.
  f
  The thing inside him didn’t know the people or the things, 
  but didn’t have to for the plan to work.
  f
  It had him inject the lady with a drug and keep her in  
  his apartment.
  Depending on the current situation, only one of the 
  following is true. Ignore the other.
  f
  She’s wrapped in plastic in the trunk of his car. Alive, he 
  supposes, but probably not for long.
  f
  He slashed her throat and stuck her on a park bench.
  Mohan is in no shape to answer the quotidian questions above 
  about Waltz and its mapping app, but his receptionist, Kara 
  Saylor, can fill all that in — after someone calms her down with 
  Reassurance.
  Capturing a Symp
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Evergreen
  Use this free-floating scene if the group captures a symp in its 
  exposed, slug-like state.
  By itself, a symp can’t communicate or do much but crawl 
  around at a snail’s pace.
  If its overall plan might still be achieved, it remains active 
  on this plane in the hope that some idiot will let it near a host, 
  which it can then possess.
  It can tell when its plan has been conclusively dashed. Its 
  mind migrates back to the Outer Dark, and its body resolves 
  into a rancid protein stew.
  For all the investigators know, it has died, perhaps because 
  it spent too long outside a host. In a long-running series, you 
  could bring the same symp back in a later episode, either 
  executing a different plan or simply seeking revenge for its 
  previous humiliation.
  Agents with a symp in a jar might get the bright idea of 
  putting it in a host so they can interrogate it. If so, see “Capturing 
  a Host,” below. Engaging in this moral hazard entails a Difficulty 
  4 Stability test against a possible loss of 5. 
  A symp placed inside the corpse of a recently dead person 
  can manipulate its vocal apparatus, managing a horrible parody 
  of living speech. Observing this triggers a Difficulty 4/loss 5 
  Stability test. Refer to the interrogation notes below.
  Capturing a Host
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Evergreen
  Use this free-floating scene if the group captures a host with the 
  symp still inside.
  If the host is a) un-sedated and b) able to face one or more 
  captors, it bursts out of its host’s face, trying to inhabit a 
  captor instead. Use the notes on symp attack from “Evergreen,” 
  opposite.
  A Difficulty 4 Medic test sedates the host, and the symp 
  inside, for a number of hours equal to the margin, plus 1.
  The medic can choose between complete unconsciousness 
  and a suppressed, docile state.
  While docile, the symp can be goaded into revealing one 
  piece of information for each point of Interrogation spent.
  It does everything it can to trick its captors into releasing 
  it, or lowering the dosage of sedatives so it can burst out of its 
  current host’s face and attempt to possess someone else.
  If its overall mission has been thwarted, which it can reliably 
  intuit, the symp returns to the Outer Dark. Its slug body 
  remains, dead, in the host. If not removed it metastasizes into a 
  cancerous tumor. As mentioned under the previous header, you 
  might bring this symp back for a sequel later.
  Parasitized
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Evergreen
  A symp taking an investigator as a host sets about doing 
  whatever it can to further its current plan. In this case, it seeks 
  out a murder opportunity coinciding with a satellite sweep or 
  imminent StreetWaltz camera. If it lacks up-do-date information 
  on a suitable location, it tries to get a computer and download 
  the tracking software. This might reveal to the rest of the team 
  the existence of the program, though it’s a risky way to do it.
  They might track a possessed host and find the software that 
  way. Deliberately allowing a person to be taken over in order 
  to follow the symp requires a Difficulty 4/loss 5 Stability test.
  A parasitized character can be restrained and treated as a 
  captured host, above.
  To eject the symp from a host, flood the host with toxic 
  chemotherapy drugs. On a Difficulty 4 Medic test, the symp 
  body dies and the host survives.
  The surviving host is reduced to maximum Health and 
  Athletics pools of 4 for the duration of the Worldbreaker campaign. 
  Give the player the option of creating a substitute character to 
  step in while the main PC convalesces.
  On a failed Medic test, the PC dies.
  You might also decide to have a player play a substitute 
  character while the main PC runs around with a symp inside 
  him, committing Esoterror slayings.
  
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  Luisa in the Trunk
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Evergreen, Mohan’s Badge
  lead-out: What Mohan Left Behind
  If Luisa Robles is alive and still in the trunk of Mohan’s car, 
  the team can locate the vehicle in the parking lot with 
  Bureaucracy, to get permission to access the company parking 
  permit database.
  They find her debilitated and in need of urgent care but 
  still clinging to life. A Difficulty 4 Medic test stabilizes her. 
  Otherwise she expires before paramedics arrive.
  If they revive her on the scene, she has enough time to 
  falteringly answer a few questions, the likely answers being:
  f
  She is Luisa Robles, an American citizen who lives in 
  Monterrey, Mexico.
  f
  She works as a curator at its contemporary art museum.
  f
  (requires Reassurance that no one is here to judge her 
  personal life) Yes, she’s involved in the lifestyle and went to 
  San Francisco for a little fun.
  f
  She remembers nothing clearly after the white people 
  came in with the guns.
  f
  There was something inside her, a fragment of an ancient, 
  terrible intelligence.
  f
  It used her as a puppet and then intended, from the safety 
  of another form, to slash her throat and put her on display.
  f
  It sees itself as an artist, and human flesh and civilization as 
  a canvas to deconstruct.
  f
  It is making a map, and inviting others like it, but also not 
  like it, to collaborate with it.
  Once she’s at the hospital, doctors restrict access to her until 
  she’s out of intensive care.
  Luisa on the Bleachers
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Lexington, Grand Forks, Evergreen, What Mohan 
  Left Behind
  lead-outs: Evergreen, What Mohan Left Behind, Hoist on 
  His Own Streetcam
  If the group becomes stumped or faces delays in Lexington 
  or Grand Forks, Research alerts them to a fresh case fitting  
  the MO.
  Alternately, they might get the alert in the aftermath of their 
  meeting with Mohan. At this point they may not suspect him, 
  might have had his face explode and fire a parasite at one of 
  them, or may be at some point in the middle of that continuum.
  Two days elapse between the murder and the image appearing 
  on the mapping application. If the players previously specified 
  that they used Data Retrieval to create a program to search 
  new Waltz map images for anomalies, they learn of it as soon as 
  it posts. Otherwise another day passes before Lexington blogger 
  Jesse Freeman (p. 36) spots it. He has become an obsessive 
  checker of new map images.
  If the group has already established friendly relations with 
  Jesse, he alerts them and offers to hold the image for a while 
  before posting it.
  If not, he posts it to his site and Research turns it up.
  the image
  Although the face has automatically been blurred, the person 
  propped up on the bleachers next to a ball diamond in a park on 
  San Jose’s Waller Street is clearly drenched in a red liquid. The 
  body has been placed facing the street, and therefore the camera.
  Research finds numerous reports of this gruesome and 
  public body display, in a quiet, upscale suburban area. According 
  to them the victim remains unidentified and police are not 
  talking about any leads. The articles identify the investigating 
  officer as Detective Cesar Lozano.
  detective lozano
  Cop Talk wins the team access to detached but hardworking 
  Detective Lozano, who complains about the kale smoothies his 
  wife makes for him to drink out of his ever-present Thermos. He 
  admits that they have zero leads and are no closer to identifying 
  the victim than when they started. She fits no local missing 
  persons reports. The way the body was left out in public, to be 
  discovered by a girl’s baseball team no less, points to a serial 
  killer. No open cases fit this profile.
  Forensic Psychology: If this is a serial killer without any 
  other known murders, the slaying shows a surprising confidence 
  and efficiency. Normally a first kill occurs close to the serial 
  killer’s home, targets a person known to him, and is carried out 
  hastily. This is probably an ODE or ODE-inspired event bearing 
  only surface resemblances to a serial killer’s MO.
  Lozano grants them access to the autopsy report and the 
  body, which remains in the morgue pending a next of kin 
  coming forward.
  Her face matches the sex club freeze-frame.
  Occult Studies: The parasite must have migrated to 
  another host, then killed her.
  Forensic Anthropology: Her throat was cut open in a 
  single, confident stroke from a self-sharpening kitchen knife.
  the streetwaltz angle
  The team might contact Mohan, who they either don’t suspect or 
  haven’t met yet. If they do, the events described in “Evergreen” 
  occur: he may successfully pass as an ordinary tech exec, or 
  reveal himself as a symp, with several already described plot 
  branches leading out from that.
  If that bit has already happened, the team reaches his 
  receptionist, Kara Saylor, who is taking care of office affairs 
  while the company searches for a replacement (and circles the 
  wagons with a passel of lawyers).
  
  41
  luisa in the trunk, luisa in the bleachers, mohan
  Whoever it is, the contact allows them to talk to the driver 
  of the vehicle that took the shot. That’s Ronnie Nkosi, a soft-
  spoken young man who learned to be nervous around tough-
  seeming people during his early childhood in a South African 
  slum. He’s afraid he’ll somehow be scapegoated for the 
  incident, even though he’s done nothing wrong, and requires 
  Reassurance before revealing anything beyond the basics. Not 
  that he has much to add:
  f
  He keeps his eye on the road. It’s the cameras mounted 
  atop the car that look from side to side.
  f
  If he had seen the dead lady, yes of course he would have 
  stopped and called 911.
  f
  He drives especially carefully in neighborhoods like this.
  f
  You know, neighborhoods where people see a face like his 
  and tense up.
  f
  He doesn’t pick the routes or schedules. He doesn’t even 
  get them more than a day in advance.
  f
  (core) He drove the route that was given to him. The company 
  programs it right into his GPS, so he can’t go wrong. Well, 
  it sometimes goes wrong, but it didn’t on this occasion.
  Saylor, or an unsuspected Mohan, confirms that the mapping 
  software automatically generates routes for the camera car 
  drivers. Even within the company, only a few people can access 
  the route ahead of time, not that they necessarily do. No one 
  accessed Ronnie’s route before it was auto-generated and 
  wirelessly uploaded to his vehicle’s GPS unit.
  (core) Data Retrieval: (free with permission from Kara, 
  1-point spend if hacking Waltz’s system) Mohan accessed the 
  route file, searching all upcoming routes within driving distance. 
  He did this from his personal laptop, not from the office.
  Bureaucracy or Negotiation convinces Kara or the 
  higher-ups at Waltz to reroute the StreetWaltz cars. This 
  prevents any further murders by the symp. However, the red 
  crystals are still in the cars, attracting ODE killings.
  It takes 2 points of Bureaucracy or Negotiation to get 
  Waltz to pull the fleet entirely. Unless they have the clue from 
  “Mohan’s Badge” and know to remove the crystals from the cars, 
  this moves the murder from various random street locations to 
  the Waltz garage; see “Monster Garage.”
  Mohan’s Badge
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Evergreen, Hoist on His Own Streetcam
  lead-outs: What Mohan Left Behind, Luisa in the Trunk, 
  Killwave, Hoist on His Own Streetcam
  Electronic Surveillance: A record of Mohan’s movements 
  into secure points on the Waltz campus ought to be accessible in 
  the company database.
  After they check: But he has erased those records. Even so, they 
  should be recoverable from the chip in his smart ID badge.
  Mohan wears the badge on his person, which can be gained 
  during “Evergreen” in various ways:
  f
  plucking it from his shattered corpse
  f
  taking it from him when the team captures him
  f
  Difficulty 4 Filch test to take it from his person when he 
  is still up and perky
  It is also on him if he winds up dead later, in “Hoist on His Own 
  Streetcam.”
  Data Retrieval: The chip reveals his movements through 
  various secure turnstiles throughout the campus. Conferring 
  with Kara Saylor, none of these seem irregular.
  (core) However, it also shows him physically entering the 
  Waltz garage facility where it stores its fleet of camera cars 
  when not in use.
  This is unusual, Kara confirms.
  The garage is located about an hour’s drive away. If the team 
  travels there, laconic operations manager Luther Drake says 
  that Mohan did show up at closing time x days ago. (Where 
  x coincides with the day Mohan met Luisa.) Luther did not 
  challenge his boss when he said he’d be staying after hours for a 
  spot inspection.
  Electronic Surveillance: The digital files for the security 
  cam footage corresponding to Mohan’s time in the garage have 
  been wiped.
  Data Retrieval: But they can be recovered. They show 
  Mohan spending most of a late night removing the car’s tires 
  and placing red crystals in the wheel wells.
  Shown this evidence, Waltz higher-ups agree to pull all 
  the camera cars Mohan tampered with. Ordering the crystals 
  removed from the cars and frozen ends the ODE part of the 
  “Killwave” (see below.) Recalling them to the garage without 
  neutralizing the crystals leads to the “Monster Garage”scene.
  What Mohan Left Behind
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Evergreen, Luisa in the Trunk, Luisa on the 
  Bleachers, Mohan’s Badge, Hoist on His Own Streetcam, 
  Killwave
  lead-outs: Evergreen, Luisa in the Trunk, Luisa on the 
  Bleachers, Hoist on his Own Streetcam, Red Bait, Killwave, 
  Ending the Wave, The Lehi Server
  Mohan lives in a suburban bungalow near the Waltz campus.
  Forensic Accounting: It may look modest, but the 
  property values around here have skyrocketed due to the 
  presence of tech firms.
  If Mohan isn’t present, 1 point of Infiltration gets the team 
  past his security system. Breaking in without his knowledge 
  when he is home requires a Difficulty 4 Infiltration success.
  Has the symp been inside him for more than a few days? 
  The team finds his house in disarray. Perishable foods in his 
  
  worldbreaker
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  42
  fridge have gone bad. Cereal and rice lie around the floor like 
  a horde of rats got into it. (This particular symp knows that its 
  vessels have to eat but has yet to quite puzzle out the subtleties 
  of ingestion.)
  In his home office they find his laptop.
  Data Retrieval: He uploaded a program to the Waltz 
  servers shortly after his initial encounter with Luisa.
  Cryptography: That program is deeply strange. It looks 
  like its code is encrypted. On closer examination, it’s written in 
  a heretofore unknown language.
  When this code is introduced into that of any program in any 
  language, the otherworldly machine language spreads through 
  it, mutating the host program. It is less a computer virus than 
  computer cancer.
  The code paranormally manifests the madness and sadism of 
  the Outer Dark. Attempting to understand it exposes the mind 
  to destabilizing hallucinations and impulses toward violence 
  and self-harm. A character studying it for more than half an 
  hour makes a Difficulty 4 Stability test against a possible loss 
  of 4. Each hour after the first brings on another test, with both 
  Difficulty and loss escalating by 1 each time.
  (core) Data Retrieval: Mohan placed the code on a 
  particular Waltz server, physically located in Lehi, UT.
  Research: Lehi is a small town on the highway between Salt 
  Lake City and Provo.
  Data Retrieval: The program can be expunged from other 
  servers, but due to its supernatural potency the connection 
  between the Lehi server farm and Waltz’s many other facilities 
  can’t be severed remotely. After a few minutes, it sends new 
  copies of itself to the other servers. That drive will have to be 
  physically unplugged from the server rack.
  Occult Studies: That hazardous computer code can’t 
  be allowed to fall into untrained hands. The team will have to 
  impound the possessed server itself.
  In Mohan’s freezer the team finds the baggie of red crystals 
  seen on the sex club footage. Only a few of the crystals remain. 
  However, the next time they look, they see that the crystals have 
  reproduced themselves. (This explains why the team can still 
  have access to crystals, should they seek it, in “Swallowed.”)
  These crystals attract ODEs already manifest on earth, unless 
  another ODE is already nearby, or the crystals are kept at or 
  below the freezing point. See “Red Bait” if the team lets it thaw 
  out and moves it to another location. (Residual Outer Dark 
  energy at Mohan’s prevents it from triggering attacks here.)
  Hoist on His Own Streetcam
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Evergreen, Luisa on the Bleachers, Mohan’s Badge, 
  What Mohan Left Behind
  lead-outs: Mohan’s Badge, What Mohan Left Behind
  This scene occurs if Mohan gets away from the team in “Evergreen,” 
  allowing the symp to jump to UPS driver Essie Cummings.
  In the body of Cummings, a ponytailed sun-worshipper with 
  a hiker’s physique, the symp grabs a disoriented Mohan and snaps 
  his neck. It then drives in Cummings’ truck for thirteen hours 
  to Idaho Falls. Cummings waits another day, props Mohan’s car 
  against the back of a pick-up truck in a dead-end laneway and 
  departs, just in time for a WaltzStreet car to whiz by.
  This car does not have crystals in its wheel wells. It was 
  scheduled to make this camera pass at this time as of Mohan’s 
  last check of the routes.
  (core) If the team is monitoring all incoming images for 
  murder scenes, they spot Mohan’s body an hour after the shot 
  is taken and can precisely pinpoint its location. “Mohan’s Badge” 
  is on the corpse.
  If the team has already arranged the rerouting or recall of 
  all camera cars (much less likely without the badge), the symp 
  doesn’t know that and dumps the body anyway. The body has 
  Mohan’s ID on it, so the agents can find out about it after local 
  police call their Evergreen counterpart Cesar Lozano about it.
  Forensic Anthropology: Mohan died of a cervical 
  fracture thirteen to twenty-four hours before it was dumped 
  here. Lividity suggests that the body was laid out flat on its back 
  for the intervening period.
  If the team performs an autopsy, no sign remains of the symp, 
  aside from an extra cavity hollowed out in his chest.
  They might have learned enough about symps at this point to 
  realize what this means: that instead of returning to the Outer 
  Dark and leaving a malignant tissue mass behind, it has hopped 
  to another host.
  In this story branch, the symp continues to follow its MO 
  until the camera car routes are altered, at which point it gives 
  up and migrates back to the Outer Dark.
  That modus operandi is:
  1 
  find a new host
  2 
  overwhelm the old host when it is still dazed from  
  the transfer
  3 
  break its neck
  4 
  drive at least half a day to another spot about to be 
  photographed by a camera car
  5 
  dump the body
  6 
  repeat stage 1
  It keeps Essie’s UPS truck, which is so ubiquitous that police 
  never spot it, even when they are told to be on the lookout for one.
  The team will likely focus on the broader kill wave rather than 
  concentrating solely on the manhunt for the symp. Improvise 
  
  43
  hoist on his streetcam, red bait, and killwave
  new symp kills as needed. Catching the symp doesn’t end the 
  crisis, so if the players are dedicated and smart about doing that, 
  see to it that it happens in an exciting way and allows them to 
  quickly get back to the rest of the epidemic.
  Red Bait
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-in: What Mohan Left Behind
  Just as the red crystals in StreetWaltz cars impel nearby ODEs to 
  kill victims and drag them out to be photographed, any crystals 
  the investigators carry around with them do the same. The ODE 
  does not know about the camera cars and so may leave out a 
  corpse even with none of them in sight.
  At a suitable moment, an organ grinder lurches into view and 
  runs toward the team member carrying the crystals. If attacked, 
  it fights back. In the unlikely event that the group lets it run all 
  the way up to the team member in question, the mammoth, 
  devouring creature vomits up the pulverized remains of an 
  entire person, then turns face and thunders away. If attacked 
  while leaving, it fights back.
  The organ grinder appears on p. 66 of The Book of Unremitting 
  Horror. A gargantuan humanoid whose face consists entirely of 
  a devouring maw, and with metallic arms terminating in a nail 
  gun and a circular saw respectively, it embodies the devouring 
  principle. Attraction to the crystals alters its usual habits, as it 
  does with various other ODEs attracted to the StreetWaltz fleet.
  Simply seeing the creature calls for a Difficulty 4 Stability 
  test against a loss of 4. Having it vomit up a victim at one’s feet 
  entails a loss of 5. Fighting it ups the possible loss to 7.
  Organ grinders are extremely tough opponents. Indicate as 
  much to the player whose character background most suggests 
  late nights spent poring through OV threat manuals. This 
  might induce the group to find some less direct way of taking 
  it down. Driving a heavy vehicle into it requires a Difficulty 4 
  Driving test, costs it 12 Health, and ignores its armor. If you 
  tone the creature down for a smaller or less combat-oriented 
  set of agents, the players probably won’t complain. They will, 
  however, likely assume the next organ grinder you throw at 
  them will prove just as easily overcome.
  abilities: Athletics 20, Health 25, Scuffling 20, Shooting 20
  hit threshold: 2
  alertness modifier: +2
  stealth modifier: −4
  weapon: +3 Scuffling (circular saw); +3 Shooting (nail gun)
  armor: +3
  As with many of the creature encounters in this scenario, a fight 
  gone awry might require the replacement of dead agents with 
  new player characters.
  Killwave
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Mohan’s Badge, What Mohan Left Behind
  lead-out: Ending the Wave
  Until the team intervenes, creatures and hitherto dormant 
  Esoterror cells alike go on parallel killing sprees. Human 
  agents of the Outer Dark kill victims and leave them out for 
  satellite photography. Attracted by the crystals in the wheels 
  of StreetWaltz cars, ODEs break from their usual behavioral 
  patterns to head for them and then look for victims to 
  opportunistically kill. Or sometimes they drag out corpses they 
  have already been playing with.
  Because they’re triggered by ground vehicles rather than 
  satellites, the creature killings occur in a smaller zone than the 
  satellite murders. They are presented here in chronological 
  order but without specific times, so you can pace them as 
  desired. Space these incidents out so that the team has time to 
  take each one in, while feeling pressured as they pile up. Going 
  to each scene gives the group scarcely enough time to arrive at 
  one before another killing pops up elsewhere.
  creature killing #1: visalia, ca
  Scaulers (The Esoterrorists 2nd Ed., p. 63) swarm up from a sewer 
  grate to attack postal carrier Ernest Berry, 56. They leave his 
  battered body smeared across a busy street, his blood leaving 
  long skid marks as if he was hit by a motorcycle and dragged. And 
  then hit by another motorbike coming from another direction 
  and dragged further. And then from yet another bike, coming at 
  him from an impossible angle, as if it phased through the side of 
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  44
  the building. Traumatized onlookers report seeing blurry, fast-
  moving creatures coming up from below the sidewalk to attack 
  him. They look like winged, toothy phalluses, recounts witness 
  Shelia Fitzgerald, a marine biologist.
  creature killing #2: elko, nv
  Satellite imagery captures the dismembered bodies of Elko 
  County sheriff’s deputies Caleb Butler and Kelvin Leonard, 
  along with an unidentified third man, lying strewn around their 
  wrecked vehicle. Also totaled at the scene is a carpet-cleaning 
  van containing the bodies of its owners, Dat, Ruth, and Mike 
  Tran. The police vehicle’s dashboard camera shows the van 
  suddenly swerving at it at top speed. In the passenger seat sits 
  another man, who can later be identified as insurance claims 
  adjuster Santos Ortega, holding a pistol to Dat Tran’s head. The 
  van collides with the police vehicle, which flips over. Upside 
  down, the camera then shows a woman leaving the back door of 
  the police vehicle. The woman, bartender Ramona Carr, had just 
  been arrested by Butler and Leonard for vandalizing the home 
  of her former domestic partner. Carr, who lurches stiffly at first 
  but soon recovers her equilibrium, drags Ortega’s body out onto 
  the roadway by its foot. She flips him over, finds a hatchet duct-
  taped to Ortega’s back, removes it, and commences to chop up 
  his body, then the two sheriffs. She is about to do the same to the 
  bodies of the Trans when another sheriff’s vehicle shows up. The 
  deputies can testify to what happened next: Carr brandished her 
  axe, and they shot her down.
  The StreetWaltz car veered through the scene just moments 
  before the second police vehicle arrived, capturing the 
  dismemberment at its apex.
  Subsequent autopsies have been complicated by the 
  mysterious disappearance of medical examiner Dr. Frances 
  Jefferson. She and her team got as far as sorting out the various 
  bodies, and noting that Ortega’s heart did not seem to be among 
  them. Then, while the others were on break, she cracked open 
  Carr’s chest. The examining room camera captures Jefferson 
  lurching back, dropping out of view, then rising and heading 
  briskly for the exit. Carr’s heart is also nowhere to be found.
  If the team cross-references body-controlling ODEs and the 
  word “heart” in the Ordo database, they come up with several 
  case file hits suggesting that this might be the work of a Returner, 
  as seen on p. 62 of The Esoterrorists 2nd Ed.
  creature killing #3: prescott, az
  As a StreetWaltz car approaches, an eighteen wheeler shoots out 
  of its lane and crunches into oncoming traffic. The camera car 
  escapes unharmed but captures a fiery explosion as the truck 
  takes out four other vehicles.
  Forensic Anthropology: Well crisped as his body might 
  be, an autopsy can still determine that truck driver Ted “Big T” 
  Soren died of a heart attack behind the wheel.
  A check of Soren’s schedule, hauling a shipment of chairs to 
  a furniture store in San Bernardino, shows him to have strayed 
  from what would have been the most efficient route that day.
  A search of his seldom-used San Diego apartment turns up a 
  browser history devoted to insomnia cures.
  Electronic Surveillance: Soren’s cloud-stored documents 
  include a detailed dream diary of horrific nightmares, which he is 
  certain are caused by a parasitic entity from another realm of existence.
  Soren was afflicted by a dream tearer (The Book of Unremitting 
  Horror, p. 35), which would have happily gone on tormenting 
  him for weeks or months to come. Instead, beckoned by the red 
  crystals, it sacrificed itself to cause Soren’s cardiac arrest.
  cell killing #1: omaha, nb
  The satellite photographs the body of University of Nebraska 
  Omaha student Susan Lee, left splayed out atop the campus 
  library.
  Fingerprinting: Partial prints on the knife used to stab her, 
  which other techs missed, match a student named Lane Verela.
  Lane turns out to be head of the university’s men’s rights 
  organization, recently defunded by university administrators for 
  encouraging online harassment of the campus feminist group.
  Susan’s roommate, Rebecca Gray, reveals that Lane hit 
  on both of them, ineptly and repeatedly. They made their 
  repugnance for him loud and clear. She needs Reassurance 
  before revealing this, because it could just as easily have been 
  her, and she wants to blot that out.
  Data Retrieval: His Internet search history reveals not 
  only an epic trail of misogynistic trolling, but a recent obsession 
  with sex magick.
  The latter interest appears to have been hampered by the 
  chronic lack of a sexual partner.
  Under Interrogation Verela admits to the crime, then 
  warns the group that they’ll soon be crushed, along with all 
  the other pussy-whipped morons who stupidly let the patriarchy 
  die. On a 1-point spend, he admits to having been in online 
  communication with a network of sorcerers. In exchange for 
  his cooperation when needed, they promised him control over 
  the desires of women, and a harem of slaves when they take over 
  the world. This is about to happen, he assures investigators, eyes 
  insanely gleaming.
  Searches of the dorm rooms of fellow MRA activists Buck 
  Burnham and Seymour Thurman with Evidence Collection 
  turn up Lee’s blood on their clothing as well.
  None of them are aware of other Esoterror cells.
  cell killing #2: grafton, oh
  The satellite photographs an open sleeping bag containing 
  skeletal remains beside a creek.
  Forensic Anthropology: Dental records identify him as 
  missing ex-convict Joseph “Yo Bull” Winters. He served a stretch 
  in the nearby Grafton Correctional Institute for aggravated 
  assault and drug trafficking. He’s been missing for nearly two 
  years, and was last seen after visiting his incarcerated cousin 
  DeShawn Winters in the prison parking lot.
  With little more than six thousand residents, Grafton is small 
  enough to make feasible a global Electronic Surveillance 
  
  45
  killwave and monster garage
  intercept of its Internet activity. This reveals that a small group 
  of people have been searching terms like “murder,” “satellite,” 
  and “skeleton” as if expecting them to pop up in the news. 
  (Presumably the agents have now prevented murder images 
  from hitting the map app. If this is so, the searchers keep looking 
  in vain for their handiwork. If not they instead pull it up again 
  and again, to exult in their grim achievement.)
  This activity points to a coterie of guards at the jail: Morris 
  Purdue, Donald Aguilar, Willie Hogan, and Marlene Buchanan. 
  Searches of their computers turn up the program alerting them 
  to the satellite photography schedule.
  Under Interrogation, the first guard the team chooses 
  to interview reveals that DeShawn Winters blinded one of 
  their colleagues two years ago. So they took out his cousin, 
  who was also a threat while behind bars. They stored the body 
  under the floorboards of Hogan’s fishing shack. It was Purdue’s 
  ex-wife who introduced him, and through him the others, to 
  Esoterror. They claim to have ritually triggered a rash of fatal 
  diseases in current and former inmates, all of whom deserved 
  it. Some feared exposure when an unseen entity contacted them 
  and instructed them to reveal Yo Bull’s remains according to a 
  particular schedule. But then it promised them the power of 
  “death at a glance” if they cooperated, and cancer for all of them 
  if they refused.
  Purdue’s ex-wife Lurene has dropped out of sight. He figures 
  she’s changed her name, probably multiple times, since she took 
  off. She’s a loose thread, but if the team seems really intent on 
  finding her you might be able to weave her in somewhere — 
  perhaps having her surface as one of the addled celebrants at the 
  end of “Swallowed.”
  cell killing #3: cariñena, spain
  The next satellite image appears on the other side of the Atlantic. 
  It’s the headless body of anthropologist Javier Savall, on the roof 
  of the municipal government building for Cariñena, a postcard 
  town near Zaragoza.
  Forensic Anthropology: He’s been dead for months, his 
  remains preserved in brine. Essentially, somebody pickled him.
  Anthropology: Savall lectures at the University of 
  Barcelona and has published several books on the antiquity, or 
  lack thereof, of European goddess worship.
  He was killed by a group of mostly unwitting Esoterror 
  operatives. Senior citizens Isabel Bordo, Anna de Bigas, and 
  Nadia Oros have long covertly practiced folk magic for their 
  contemporaries. Most of their clients are women seeking help 
  with straying husbands, financial difficulties, or an array of 
  ailments. Local men pay little attention to them, but, for Javier 
  Savall, they represented informants to be cultivated for his work.
  Unfortunately for him, a young recent addition to the group, 
  Isabel’s grandniece Maria Alcaine, learned more than animal 
  husbandry when she went away to study at the Swedish Institute 
  of Agricultural Sciences. While in Uppsala she came into contact 
  with an Esoterror cell, bringing the movement back home with 
  her. The elderly ladies of the folk magic circle happily accepted 
  her help and desire to listen. She then turned them subtly, one 
  ritual at a time, to Esoterror. At first they resisted the drift 
  toward vengeful black workings. But once they got thinking 
  about it, their little town was rife with thoughtless, aggressive, 
  and thoroughly nasty people who could do with a curse or two.
  When Savall came creeping around asking questions, Maria 
  killed him with a hypodermic full of horse tranquilizer. Together 
  they dedicated his corpse to the crone aspect of the triple 
  goddess, and set it aside for use in future rituals. That use has 
  now come.
  Chemistry: Asking who in town does a lot of pickling might 
  point in the killer’s direction.
  On a canvass of food stores, Isabel and friends are easily 
  identified as the town’s leading makers of preserves and sauces. 
  Any of them, except for Maria, who immediately makes herself 
  scarce, yields readily to Interrogation, Intimidation, or 
  Reassurance, and confesses all. To this day none of them 
  know about Esoterror or the membrane, but they have seen 
  some pretty strange beings summoned during the rituals Maria 
  taught them. She was the one who told them to leave out the 
  body, because the goddess was going to look down from the  
  sky to see it.
  You might treat Maria as a dangling thread or bring her back 
  in a later episode. She could show up as one of the ritualists  
  in “Swallowed.”
  If the group needs a local translator/facilitator, they’re 
  met on arrival in Spain by Ordo operative Lucia Llanos, a 
  tall, brusque woman. Lucia is a statistician by trade and a 
  karate fighter by vocation.
  and so on…
  Create additional incidents along these lines, as required, until 
  the Waltz servers stop tasking satellite imaging and the fleet of 
  contaminated cars is recalled. An efficient group might do this 
  before you have to invent any.
  Monster Garage
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  This scene occurs if the team has the camera cars recalled to 
  the Waltz garage in Evergreen without having the red crystals 
  removed from the wheel wells.
  If the team stays in the garage as the altered cars arrive, they 
  are present when a swarm of ODEs attacks the place. Torture 
  dogs (see The Esoterrorists 2nd Ed., p. 64) come smashing 
  through the facility’s metal garage door, leaping for the people 
  closest to the vehicles. Depending on how the players have 
  described their actions, these may be investigators or garage 
  personnel. The number of creatures equals the number of 
  players present for the session (whether their characters are 
  on site or not), minus 1.
  
  worldbreaker
  chapter name
  46
  Sara_gulch: Srsly dudes freaking out here!!
  Tr1st^n: What the what go to bed
  Sara_gulch: No I got malware and now they’re in my room.
  Tr1st^n: In UR room?
  Sara_gulch: Shimmering in the corner there. Waiting to 
  pounce. Full of murder.
  Tr1st^n: OK, you fucking with me
  Sara_gulch: No no not kidding help me
  Tr1st^n: Is there really someone in yr place? CALL COPS!
  Sara_gulch: Cops can’t help with this!!! Can U access my 
  laptop remotely, remove the code?
  Tr1st^n: NOT FUNNY
  Sara_gulch: NOT KIDDING OMG IT TOUCHED ME
  Tr1st^n: Jesus!!
  Sara_gulch: Still have that program installed you used to 
  fix registry problem last year right?
  Tr1st^n: GET OUT OF THERE
  New User: Hey Tr1st^n whaddup?
  Tr1st^n: Hey who are U?
  New User: Where du U live Tr1st^n?
  Tr1st^n: How did you get on here this is a private channel
  New User: Tell me where U R you’ll find out
  Tr1st^n: Sara where are you? U afk?
  New User: Sara gone now Tr1st^n tell me where U live
  Tr1st^n: Sara gone? What are you talking about? Who R U?
  New User: I am your dreams, Tristan Murphy of 89 Water 
  Run Drive, Hagerstown Maryland.
  Tr1st^n: What the fuckkkk??
  New User: Coming over. Bringing friends.
  — transcript of Instant Messenger chat, 110215
  Ritualistic subroutines written into malicious code summon 
  glitches from the Outer Dark to earthly computer systems. 
  Once operative in a single operating system, they can jump to 
  other devices connected to the original by a Wi-Fi or ethernet 
  link. They collect fears and anxieties heightened or generated by 
  the Internet and use them as psychic weapons against the users 
  of the devices they infect.
  On their own, glitches pose a limited operational challenge 
  to the Ordo Veritatis. They typically kill every user of a linked set 
  of devices and melt away, leaving agents to perform a Veil-Out 
  and pronounce the case closed. The Ordo liaises with major 
  virus protection companies to keep defenses against copies of 
  glitch-generating software robust and up to date.
  When glitches do endanger investigators, it is when they are 
  used by Esoterrorists or other ODEs to protect computers 
  used in some grander scheme. As in this scenario, they act as 
  secondary antagonists, getting between agents and hardware 
  they need to destroy.
  The creatures can sense when enemies are about to 
  remotely disable devices they reside in, and can teleport to 
  wherever they are to attack them.
  Glitches manifest as insubstantial, distorted humanoid forms. 
  Their surfaces read to the human eye as pixelly and ever shifting. 
  Barely discernible horrific images, always drawn from real life, 
  flit across them. The victim confronted with a glitch might catch 
  near-subliminal flashes of crime scenes, autopsies, war footage, 
  and terrorist executions.
  Glitches lash out with their arm-like appendages. Victims 
  feel their blows psychically, but not physically. When struck by 
  a glitch, the victim experiences a devastating hypnagogic flash 
  of real-world violence taken from the Internet, momentarily 
  overriding conscious vision.
  game statistics
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 8, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 4 (insubstantial)
  alertness modifier: +2
  stealth modifier: +2
  weapon: +0 (psychic swipe)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting, +3 vs. Scuffling
  special ability: When a glitch hits, it reduces the victim’s 
  Stability instead of Health. However, when a hit from a glitch 
  reduces a PC to 0 or less, the character suffers physical, not 
  mental, harm.
  f
  When reduced in this way to 0 to −5 Stability, the victim 
  is hurt (not shaken) and must make a Consciousness roll, 
  but with the Stability as the tested ability and the absolute 
  value of current Stability as the Difficulty.
  f
  When reduced by a glitch hit to anywhere from −6 to −11, 
  the victim is seriously wounded but does not acquire 
  a mental illness.
  f
  When reduced by a glitch hit to a Stability of −12 or less, 
  the victim drops dead from a cerebral hemorrhage.
  Characters can spend Shrink points at a rate of 1 to 1, to regain 
  Stability points lost to glitches (but not pre-existing Stability 
  losses) during a fight with them. This does not cost an action.
  Although GMCs do not normally have Stability pools, assign 
  pools to any who are present in a scene if they’re to be attacked 
  by glitches, with the PCs trying to get in their way. GMCs die 
  when their Stability pools fall to 0.
  special means of dispatch: If a player surmises that 
  creatures that make psychic attacks might be vulnerable to 
  focused willpower, tell them that they can spend Investigative 
  ability points on Scuffling tests against the creatures.
  Glitches
  
  47
  ending the wave and the lehi server
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 7, Scuffling 9
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  weapon: +1 (drill), +3 (mandibles)
  armor: +2 vs. Shooting, +1 vs. Scuffling
  Otherwise the team hears second hand from Kara Saylor that 
  something terrible has happened at the garage. They return to 
  find the pulped remains of Luther Drake and various drivers 
  strewn about the garage. This requires a Difficulty 4 Stability 
  test against a possible loss of 6.
  If they don’t then clear out and freeze the crystals, more 
  attacks occur until they do. They probably will, so what 
  this might look like as an ongoing problem we leave up to  
  you to improvise.
  Ending the Wave
  scene type: Conclusion (part A)
  lead-in: Killwave
  lead-out: The Lehi Server
  Withdrawing the contaminated StreetWaltz cars ends the 
  creature-driven half of the rampage.
  Human cells keep killing until their feeds containing 
  information on the satellite routes go dead. This happens when 
  the team disables the corrupted server, or when they convince 
  the Waltz CEO not only to change the satellite routes, but to 
  suspend mapping altogether.
  CEO Logan Kyung resists calls to shut down the satellite 
  mapping altogether. He restricts his position to vague 
  generalities, which can be hard to counter.
  Forensic Accounting: Waltz has just launched an ad 
  campaign touting the accuracy and currency of the information 
  on its mapping app. He and another Silicon Valley behemoth are 
  engaged in a high-profile struggle over whose maps are best, 
  and shutting down the satellite program will put his company 
  behind, maybe permanently.
  It costs a 4-point spend of Forensic Accounting, 
  Negotiation, or Reassurance (combined spends permissible) 
  to get him to shut down the program after only one of the 
  killings listed in ”Killwave” or “Red Bait.” After each additional 
  slaying, subtract 1 from the spend cost.
  If they don’t already know about the Lehi server, they 
  learn about it here, most likely from Kara Saylor but maybe  
  from Kyung.
  The Lehi Server
  scene type: Conclusion (part B)
  lead-ins: What Mohan Left Behind, Ending the Wave
  An anonymous warehouse in the middle of a bland industrial 
  park shelters Waltz’s servers in Lehi, UT. As befits that spacious 
  state, the park consists of several single-story buildings, all 
  widely separated by a meandering road.
  Other businesses in the same complex are:
  f
  Watson’s Wax, which makes candles
  f
  SideRight, a manufacturer of housing siding
  f
  PurFilter, which rents and services water coolers for home 
  and office use
  f
  Rod Collins’ Workshop, a metalworking shop whose titular 
  craftsman makes custom weathervanes
  Few employees attend to these sleepy small businesses. The 
  biggest, SideRight, employs six people. The various workers and 
  proprietors of the industrial park are nice small-town folks who 
  have been altered by the psychic radiation given off by the ODEs 
  inhabiting the Waltz server array. The team won’t interact with 
  them all (maybe not any of them), so here is an assortment of 
  names and quickie descriptions to assign as need be:
  f
  Becky Young, chubby-cheeked bottle blonde in her mid-
  thirties
  f
  Carol Haggerty, jittery brunette with nicotine-stained fingers
  f
  Jared Lee, freckled ex-linebacker
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  48
  f
  Phil Sinnott, balding, perspiring, middle-aged
  f
  Candi Hunter, sharp-chinned brunette, in her late twenties, 
  wears glasses
  f
  Amberly Clark, frizzy haired, blue eyed
  f
  Andy Fieldsted, slightly bucktoothed redhead, in his thirties
  (Rod Collins is a thin, laconic man with a perpetual squint.)
  None have anything particularly useful to say. They haven’t 
  seen anything weird around here. If asked, they admit to feeling 
  a touch unwell lately. Play them as just slightly off, their speech 
  and wits slowed.
  Forensic Anthropology: The first person the group talks 
  to has tiny brown speckles on his or her top, not inconsistent 
  with blood spatter.
  If the team follows this person home, they find the interior of 
  the house strewn with the partially dismembered body parts of 
  his or her entire family (Stability Difficulty 4 vs. a loss of 4.) When 
  confronted the perpetrator seems at first unaware that anything 
  bad has happened. Under the pressure of Interrogation, the 
  suspect snaps suddenly out of fugue state, realizes the horror of 
  her crimes, and tries immediately to kill herself. After the team 
  restrains the suspect, she says the “fuzzies” got in her head and 
  somehow made her do it.
  “You know. The fuzzies. They’re fuzzy around the edges.”
  The arrestee can’t explain it any better than that.
  Depending on how much time you want to devote to this 
  tangent, which serves only atmospheric purposes, the team 
  might discover that one or two of the other industrial park 
  denizens have annihilated their families as well, and then gone 
  about their routines as if nothing had happened. With the rest, 
  they find indications that they’re planning to do it but haven’t 
  yet: a new gun purchase, poisoned pudding in the fridge, a 
  propane tank being converted into a makeshift bomb out in the 
  work shed, and so on. Players who seem determined to squeeze 
  more information out of this sidelight element get further vague 
  descriptions of the fuzzies:
  f
  “You know, like them pictures and videos on Facebook.”
  f
  “They’re like the things you see in dreams, except you can’t 
  exactly see them.”
  f
  “Like an old television from the ’70s that’s gone out of 
  whack.”
  f
  “They blip in and out and get inside you.”
  Everyone abandons the place around supper time. It remains 
  deserted until morning. Burglar alarms suffice to protect the 
  lonely Waltz servers. But now they’re guarded by glitches, 
  Outer Dark Entities summoned by code the symp uploaded to 
  the servers.
  One glitch per player appears in the server building. As 
  noted above, attempts to destroy the building from afar cause 
  the glitches to appear where the characters are and attack them.
  If the investigators have someone else push the detonator 
  from afar, the glitches attack their surrogates and kill them 
  before they can act, retreating to the server building.
  Once the agents have killed the glitches, they can take the 
  corrupted servers away to be safely dismantled by Ordo Veritatis 
  technical specialists.
  If they’ve already dealt with the contaminated cars, this ends 
  the investigation and neutralization phases; the team can then 
  describe its Veil-Out procedures.
  Otherwise, it must still deal with the monster attacks.
  For an additional note of victory, you might note that tech 
  specialists find data on the corrupted server allowing other 
  teams to identify and apprehend several Esoterror cells around 
  the world. These cells were due to receive orders to perform 
  murders for display to the imaging satellites.
  
  49
  handouts
  Dated three months before the present.
  waltz agrees to remove maps pic of 
  alleged murder scene
  TBZ News, Christy Paul
  The search giant Waltz agreed yesterday to take down a satellite 
  image that, according to a North Dakota woman, shows the 
  body of her murdered sister. Madeline Ankers, 34, of Grand 
  Forks noticed something when she zoomed in on the sewage 
  treatment plant outside the city: a tableau featuring milling 
  police officers and the slain body of her sister, Janis. The photo, 
  posted by a friend of the family on Facebook, made social media 
  rounds before Madeline could formally request the photo’s 
  takedown.
  Vikas Mohan, VP of Cartography Operations at Waltz 
  headquarters in Evergreen, California, said, “We have substituted 
  an image from a past satellite sweep for the one in question.” 
  Although unable to independently confirm Ankers’ claim, 
  Mohan said, “It is Waltz policy to err on the side of caution in 
  these cases. Although we strive to provide the most up-to-date 
  aerial cartographic information, that core value cannot come at 
  the expense of individual privacy.”
  When asked to explain the amount of time it took for Waltz 
  to respond, Mohan added, “We act on requests as we receive 
  them. When this came in, it was green-flagged for expeditious 
  resolution.”
  Madeline Ankers responds that the process for filing a 
  takedown request was hard to understand. “I’m not a computer 
  person, so I just emailed the first address I could find. They sent 
  me a form to fill out, which I did not find for a while and was 
  difficult. I don’t understand why they can’t check these things 
  before they go out. I guess corporate greed matters more than 
  the grief of hurting families.”
  Although the image has been pulled from WaltzMaps, it 
  remains on the Internet on multiple news sites and social media 
  postings.
  “You understand how the Internet works,” Mohan said. 
  “Once an image circulates, it lies beyond the capacity of any one 
  entity to entirely withdraw it.”
  Willard Underwood, 41, Janis Ankers’ common-law partner, 
  has been charged with second degree murder in connection 
  with the case.
  Handouts
  geoslashers handout #1
  
  worldbreaker
  geoslashers
  50
  Dated two and a half months before the present.
  streetwaltz camera car snaps 
  prelude to murder
  Lexington Star, Kendall Weekes
  Local blogger Jesse Freeman got a big surprise when he used 
  Waltz’s mapping service to find a street-level view of an 
  apartment building he was thinking of renting in — a split-
  second snapshot of a recent slaying.
  StreetWaltz images are collected by a vehicle that snaps 
  automated images. The driver does not monitor the photographs 
  in real time. For privacy reasons the StreetWaltz service blurs 
  out any faces captured in the images. But this is done by an 
  automated computer process known as an algorithm, without 
  human supervision.
  The image Freeman found blurred the faces of two men — 
  one unsuspectingly taking a newspaper from a sidewalk vending 
  machine, the other coming up behind him with a pistol.
  Checking the Lexington Star website, Freeman found our 
  report on a shooting death at that spot two weeks ago, and 
  alerted police. He also posted a capture of the shot to his blog.
  Lexington police have been in contact with the Waltz mapping 
  department and have interviewed the driver of the car. They 
  confirmed that the picture was taken on the day of the killing 
  but as of yet has yielded no useful leads regarding the murder 
  of hardware store clerk Andre Hopkins, 57. “The company has 
  turned over the unblurred image, but unfortunately the face in 
  the image is still mostly obscured. The photo does confirm that 
  the shooter, as per our previous description, wore a dark shell 
  jacket, an East Kentucky Miners basketball jersey, and jeans.”
  Hopkins’ wallet was missing when ambulance crews arrived 
  and has not been found. Robbery remains a likely motive.
  “It’s a comment on our modern surveillance society,” 
  Freeman said, “but also a fluke. Because what were the odds a 
  StreetWaltz car would be going past just seconds before one 
  man pulled the trigger on another?”
  geoslashers handout #2
  
   
  another of the folders freeze-framed on the sex club video 
  footage leads the team to a location in Belize, near its Actun 
  Tunichil Muknal caves. Archaeology buffs know them for their 
  evidence of Mayan human sacrifice, including a crystallized 
  skeleton. Spelunkers have just recently found a new, even larger 
  underground complex nearby. Enterprising reality TV show 
  producers prepare to underwrite an expedition, which they 
  hope to cut into a show in the dangerous jobs genre. If the Outer 
  Dark has taken an interest in the area, investigators must assume 
  that they intend for their cameras to capture something truly 
  horrible in bright green nightvision.
  Sinister Conspiracy
  Like Actun Tunichil Muknal, this new unnamed cavern complex 
  was visited by the Mayans hundreds of years ago. There they 
  sacrificed outcasts and captives to the predatory ODEs, called 
  cavelings, dwelling in its depths. Since the fall of the Mayan 
  Empire, the caverns have been forgotten. The cavelings have 
  drifted back to the other side of the membrane.
  The symp instigating this action occupies the body of Oscar 
  Chang. His simple job: to reawaken the cavelings in time to 
  make their television debuts on reality show cameras. Having 
  accomplished this, he hangs back waiting to initiate any necessary 
  countermeasures. To help him in both tasks he has hired a gang 
  of cheap thugs who usually specialize in carjacking tourists.
  Meanwhile, the cavelings, awake and hungry, await a fresh 
  crop of unwitting sacrifices.
  Trail of Clues
  Preliminary Research shows what the group knows 
  about Belize and the Mayan crystal skeleton. On Arrival in 
  Belize, they get their bearings and soak in the agreeable local 
  atmosphere. If they get wind of The Disappearance of 
  Makeva Barrow they learn of the unfortunate victim Oscar 
  Chang used to awaken the cavelings. Contacting the TV Crew 
  gives the group the chance to talk their way into the caves under 
  the pretext of taking part in the show.
  Then they go Down in the Hole, encountering Makeva 
  Barrow as a Crystal Skeleton. A shattered Mayan Stele 
  conveys an implication of just how wise it wouldn’t be to try 
  to wipe out all the cavelings. Deeper in the caves, the Olm 
  Pool provides a hint about caveling predation habits. A Cave 
  Painting, in possibly cryptic sequential art, warns them against 
  multiplying the number of cavelings they face. And a Hornet 
  Chamber points to the way out.
  new 
  crystal 
  maiden
  
  worldbreaker
  new crystal maiden
  52
  Antagonist Reactions
  Oscar Chang or his chief bullyboy, Itamar Cruz, may strike 
  against the investigators if they intrude too far into their 
  business topside. This may include a blind date with a specimen 
  of Belize’s Toxic Fauna.
  Once they go into the subterranean complex the investigators 
  look on in helpless horror as a Cave-In traps them down there. 
  This leaves them open to a series of Caveling Attacks.
  Scenes
  Preliminary Research
  scene type: Alternate Intro
  lead-out: Arrival in Belize
  (core) Archaeology: The crystallized skeleton shown in the 
  image from folder three is quite famous. It comes from Belize’s 
  Actun Tunichil Muknal caves. The skeleton, known as the 
  Crystal Maiden, belongs to a teenage girl who died in Mayan 
  times, most likely as a sacrifice. Calcium-rich water droplets fell 
  onto the skeleton and over a period of many years covered it in 
  eerily beautiful crystals. This same process creates stalagmites, 
  stalactites, and a wide assortment of weird cave formations, 
  collectively called speleothems.
  The players doubtless want to know more about the caves. 
  Supply the following answers on behalf of the character(s) with 
  Archaeology in response to specific questions.
  f
  The caves are located deep in the rainforests of Belize, in its 
  Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve.
  f
  Locals refer to them as Xibalba; archaeologists use the 
  somewhat unfortunate acronym ATM.
  f
  The nearest settlement is Belize’s capital city, Belmopan.
  f
  To prepare the site as an altar for human sacrifice, the 
  Mayans decorated it, carving its rock formations and 
  leaving behind ceramics.
  f
  Though not open to the public on a regular basis, licensed 
  groups can lead occasional tours into it.
  f
  The country’s National Institute of Culture and History, 
  which oversees the site, recently had to clamp down on 
  visits after a tourist dropped a heavy camera on a thousand-
  year-old skull, crushing it.
  f
  A new cave complex was recently discovered a few miles 
  to the north of Actun Tunichil Muknal. As yet unexplored, 
  it has been given the provisional name Actun X. (“Actun” is 
  Mayan for “cave.”)
  f
  Controversy swirls around Actun X because Belizean 
  officials have granted exploration rights to an American 
  television production company. Academic archaeologists 
  are circulating a protest petition. (Bureaucracy: Sounds 
  like the professor types in the NICH got overruled by the 
  tourism promoters higher up in government.)
  Occult Studies: Human sacrifice held an integral role in the 
  culture not only of the Mayans but many other Central American 
  civilizations. It horrifies us now; when events cause interest in 
  it to leak from the staid halls of academia into popular culture, 
  membrane thinning can result.
  Players asking what they know ahead of time about Belize 
  garner the following.
  History: A former part of the British Empire, Belize is the only 
  Central American country with English as an official language.
  Languages: People in this mixing bowl of a nation also 
  speak Spanish and a creole, spelled Kriol.
  Forensic Accounting: Its chief industry is tourism, with 
  its natural vistas the key attraction. Belize bills itself as a pioneer 
  of ecotourism. It welcomes American retirees, whose presence 
  bolsters the service industry.
  Natural History: Belize’s panoply of toxic wildlife 
  encompasses both the black widow and brown recluse spider, 
  eight snakes ranging from the fer-de-lance to the eyelash pit 
  viper, and the dart frog. Crocodiles patrol the rivers, snagging 
  the occasional swimmer.
  Wade out into the ocean to risk brushes with such hazardous 
  marine life as the scorpion fish, Portuguese man-of-war, and stingray.
  Occult: Belief in psychics and occult evil reverberates 
  strongly here. In 2010, a psychic in the southern district of 
  Toledo blamed the disappearances of two children on the 
  American operators of a crocodile sanctuary. Villagers burned 
  the sanctuary, forcing the proprietors to flee.
  Alternately, the investigators can start reeling off what they 
  already know about the Crystal Maiden and Belize on their 
  arrival there.
  Arrival in Belize
  scene type: Intro
  lead-in: Preliminary Research
  lead-outs: The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow, Oscar 
  Chang, TV Crew
  Knowing they’re heading to Belize’s capital, some investigators 
  may be surprised when they get to Belmopan and see how small 
  it is. Fewer than fourteen thousand people live there. It is a place 
  of wide boulevards and open green spaces, whose buildings, 
  often colorfully painted, see no reason to exceed two stories. 
  With its low density and combination of tourist destination and 
  university town, a calm, laidback atmosphere prevails.
  Architecture: The oldest buildings here date back to the 
  late sixties.
  History: Belmopan was a planned city, built to replace 
  Belize City as the nation’s capital. Hurricane Hattie flattened 
  Belize City, a low-lying coastal settlement, in 1961.
  Trivia: It is the country’s center for educational institutions 
  as well as its seat of government.
  
  53
  preliminary research, arrival, barrow, and chang
  The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Arrival in Belize, Oscar Chang, Toxic Fauna, TV 
  Crew
  lead-outs: Oscar Chang, Down in the Hole, Itamar Cruz, 
  Toxic Fauna, TV Crew
  Perhaps inspired by the pipe clue found at the Powell house (p. 
  10), with its talk of Mayan sacrifices to cave creatures, the 
  team may decide to ask around to see if anyone has recently 
  gone missing.
  In fact, a young woman named Makeva Barrow, who worked 
  at the hotel as a maid until her meth problem got her fired, has 
  vanished. No one has bothered to report it to the authorities, 
  but her fellow meth-head boyfriend, an Australian expat named 
  Greg Quirk, has been asking after her in the area’s crummiest 
  cantinas. Belmopan doesn’t have much of a low life, so all of the 
  criminals and skeeves know each other. A few hours trawling 
  tawdry places with Streetwise turns up her name. Her 
  disappearance occurred a couple of days after Oscar Chang’s 
  arrival. (You may need to compress that chronology a bit if the 
  players have chosen this as their first investigation arising from 
  the folder freeze-frames.)
  Like any tweaker, Greg fears contact with anyone vaguely 
  official. Streetwise puts him at his ease. Intimidation 
  or Interrogation turns him into a more obviously  
  reluctant witness.
  He can’t imagine who would want to hurt his lovely Makeva. 
  He did, however, owe money to a local dealer and all-around 
  criminal, Evan Pandy.
  (core) Pandy, a hardened character who curls his fingers 
  as if wielding an unseen machete, can be opened up with 
  Intimidation or Flirting. Under a plausible line of 
  questioning, he admits that someone came around asking for 
  suggestions of a person who wouldn’t be missed if they went 
  away. He suggested Greg, who is never going to pay him that 
  money back. Maybe Greg wasn’t in, and that person found 
  Makeva instead. On a 2-point spend of either ability, he names 
  Itamar Cruz as the man he pointed in Quirk’s direction.
  Oscar Chang
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Arrival in Belize, The Disappearance of Makeva 
  Barrow, Itamar Cruz, Toxic Fauna, TV Crew
  lead-outs: Down in the Hole, The Disappearance of 
  Makeva Barrow, Itamar Cruz, Toxic Fauna, TV Crew
  A Venezuelan mathematician born to a Chinese immigrant 
  family, Oscar Chang crosses cultures with ease, exchanging both 
  academic ideas and fluids. Now the symp borrowing his body 
  uses the remaining semblance of his personality to set horrors in 
  motion and defend against investigators as needed.
  Before the team arrived he found and hired a group of local 
  toughs, led by surly machete wielder Itamar Cruz. His roster 
  of underlings reflects the country’s mixed Anglo-Spanish 
  composition. Names if you need them are: Woodrow Jimenez, 
  Dalton McCaulay, Cristobal Trapp, and Luis Torres.
  On a Difficulty 6 Surveillance test, the team runs across 
  Oscar on the outskirts of town, in a ramshackle residential 
  district. If approached, he denies ever being in San Francisco. 
  He hotly denies suggestions that he might be a swinger, which 
  comes across as absolutely honest to Bullshit Detector because 
  symp hosts don’t betray human signals of deception.
  He claims to be in Belize as an interested ecotourist. Both 
  archaeology and television production intrigue him, which is 
  why he’s hanging around here instead of going off on his planned 
  snorkeling expedition to explore coral reefs.
  If asked about the disappearance of Makeva Barrow, he feigns 
  ignorance.
  When his conversation with agents grows tense, Cruz and 
  the others swagger up to extricate him. Should they ask him 
  about his odd choice of buddies, Chang gives them a faint and 
  humorless smile and heads away with the enforcers.
  At this point, the investigators might decide to:
  f
  do away with Chang and his buddies
  f
  grab him for interrogation and a possible cure
  f
  leave him alone for the moment
  Law: Ordo Veritatis protocols allow agents to apply extreme 
  prejudice to Chang and company, who they have good reason to 
  believe are up to their waists in Esoterror. They do have to do this 
  neatly and discreetly, avoiding the attention of local authorities, 
  or distressing discoveries that might spread membrane-thinning 
  social anxiety.
  Should they take Chang alive, they might Interrogate 
  him. He explains that his job here has already been done, and 
  that their only chance of stopping what he’s set in motion lies 
  in the cave complex. (The symp tells them this assuming that 
  the cavelings will get them.) On a 1-point spend, he admits to 
  ordering Cruz to kidnap Makeva Barrow, and he took her down 
  into the caves as “food for his friends.”
  Attempting to expel the symp from his system works as per 
  the description on p. 17. Like other symp victims, he emerges 
  traumatized and brain-damaged, and with only fuzzy memories 
  of what he did under the being’s influence. He does tearfully 
  recall carrying a sedated Makeva Barrow into the caves, where 
  “lurking beings who were rock one minute, pure darkness the 
  next, claws and jaws the next” tore her to shreds before his eyes. 
  He remembers laughing giddily, unafraid of the cave monsters.
  
  worldbreaker
  new crystal maiden
  54
  Itamar Cruz
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow, Oscar 
  Chang, Toxic Fauna, TV Crew
  lead-outs: Oscar Chang, Toxic Fauna, TV Crew, Down in 
  the Hole
  Braced independently of Oscar Chang, Itamar extravagantly 
  swears that he’s never so much as heard of Evan Pandy, Greg 
  Quirk, or Makeva Barrow. Bullshit Detector says otherwise.
  So does Greg’s nosy neighbor, Shirley Bolon, who after 
  Negotiation and a wad of greenbacks asserts that she saw 
  Itamar Cruz prowling around their shack an hour after she 
  saw Makeva alive for the last time. For another hundred bucks, 
  Shirley offers to give them a psychic reading. Should they pay 
  up, she throws her head back and shows only the whites of her 
  eyes. She shakes and groans, then faints dead at the investigators’ 
  feet. Brought back to consciousness, she whispers: “In the dark. 
  She died alone in the dark. And so will all of you.”
  Toxic Fauna
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow, Oscar 
  Chang, Itamar Cruz, TV Crew
  lead-outs: The Disappearance of Makeva Barrow, Oscar 
  Chang, Itamar Cruz, TV Crew, Down in the Hole
  Need a hint of creepy menace as the investigators methodically 
  poke for clues above the surface, away from this scenario’s 
  featured ODEs? Itamar or one of his thugs could drop any of the 
  aforementioned poisonous wildlife species into a car seat, hotel 
  bed, or other unexpected spot.
  Avoiding a bite requires a Difficulty 6 Athletics test. The 
  character falls into an unconscious or quasi-conscious state, 
  loses 6 Health immediately, and must then make a Difficulty 4 
  Health test to avoid losing another die of Health.
  Quick hospitalization, or a Difficulty 6 Medic test, keeps 
  the character alive. After a day, the bite victim regains half the 
  Health points lost to the venom.
  TV Crew
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Arrival in Belize, The Disappearance of Makeva 
  Barrow, Oscar Chang, Itamar Cruz, Toxic Fauna
  lead-outs: Down in the Hole, The Disappearance of 
  Makeva Barrow, Oscar Chang, Itamar Cruz, Toxic Fauna
  A crew from the US-based production company Altimeter 
  readies itself to shoot the first season of its new reality show, 
  Cave Divers.
  Trivia: Altimeter produces shows about people working 
  difficult jobs in visually arresting environments, including 
  Arctic Choppers, about helicopter pilots in Alaska, and Red Claws, 
  featuring lobster fishermen off the coast of Maine. Though 
  formulaic and obviously partially staged, their shows occupy the 
  classier end of the reality TV spectrum.
  Key personnel are:
  f
  Creator and producer Diana Russell, a redhead in her early 
  forties with a perpetually furrowed brow. She believes in 
  the quality of her shows and bristles when anyone slams 
  reality television.
  f
  Curly-headed, long-bearded camera operator Duff Bell. 
  He’ll be going down into the cave to film the spelunkers’ 
  adventures. This manly granola dude shows equal comfort 
  bragging about his past dangerous exploits or discoursing 
  on New Age philosophy.
  f
  Diminutive, determined sound technician Charlotte 
  McCormack. She wants to be respected for the quality 
  of her work and is about this close to clocking Duff, who 
  spends much of his time either condescending to her or 
  coming on to her. She too will be joining the spelunkers 
  and takes pride in her recent crash course in cave training.
  f
  Erica Alvarado, Brooklyn-born assistant director of Belize’s 
  National Institute of Culture and History. As government 
  liaison to Altimeter, she’s been instructed to protect any 
  historic treasures found in the cave while also turning the 
  show into a tourism promotion opportunity.
  TV shows don’t get made by teams this small. Feel free to mention 
  that other crew members are milling around performing tasks in 
  the background as the investigators meet them.
  Forensic Accounting: The trade papers say that Altimeter 
  faces a cash crunch after the Swedish co-producer that helps 
  finance several of its other shows went into bankruptcy protection.
  Unlike other Altimeter shows, this one follows the reality 
  show formula of putting a disparate group of strangers together 
  in a high-pressure situation. No one gets voted out of the cave, 
  but it is meant to generate conflict within a volatile cast of 
  characters. The real spelunkers they’ve cast to exaggerate their 
  real responses are:
  f
  Delia Adkins, the spitfire. Young, hot, blonde, and 
  argumentative. Willing to seem flirtatious when the 
  cameras are rolling.
  f
  Jake Lawson, the crusty veteran. Gets his back up when 
  someone questions his authority.
  f
  Jeffrey Nguyen, cocky young hotshot.
  f
  Marianne Willis, inspirational figure. The show marks her 
  return to spelunking after a bout with breast cancer.
  f
  Zayne Lawson, prodigal son. Jake’s boy, now in his 
  twenties, grew up with his mom, resents everything about 
  his dad, including the spelunking hobby. The producers 
  want a story arc about him and Jake trying to reconnect. 
  Hunky Zayne hopes the show will land him an acting 
  career in TV and movies.
  
  55
  cruz, toxic fauna, and tv crew
  With wonder I beheld the cave paintings. Here I beheld a message of 
  impossible age, a signal of common humanity across an unimaginable 
  chasm of time.
  Then in the dark, I heard a scurry. I looked around, and saw nothing.
  Yet the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I knew I was in 
  the presence of something else. Something far older. And deadlier. A 
  primal intelligence that hunted us long before we were human.
  — from the unpublished field notes of Benjamin Frost, 
  adjunct professor of anthropology, Penn State 
  University, Sergeac Expedition, 07-12-1954
  Cavelings were perhaps the first Outer Dark Entities to 
  encounter mankind. Evidence suggests that they predate Homo 
  sapiens and crossed the membrane to torment our hominid 
  predecessors. They personify our purest fears — of the dark, of 
  predation in the dark.
  Depending on whether they seek to camouflage themselves, 
  move, or attack, they shift between three forms: stone, darkness, 
  and animalistic.
  They can reshape themselves to resemble rock formations 
  clinging to the surrounding cavern wall nearly indistinguishably. 
  They wait until victims stand within mere inches of them. Then 
  their luminescent green eyes snap open, revealing themselves 
  when already within reach of their prey.
  They can also turn the outer surfaces of their misshapen 
  humanoid forms inky black, merging completely with the 
  surrounding darkness. Cavelings enter this mode to rush from 
  place to place. In this form they can vertically scale any rock 
  surface, exercising spider-like speed and agility.
  Finally, when illuminated by any light source, they appear as 
  rolling masses of claws, fur, muscle, and un-pigmented, scaly skin, 
  topped by a narrow head with radiant green eyes.
  More instinctive than intelligent, they hiss and shriek but 
  never talk. Like many Outer Dark Entities, they seek to inflict 
  maximum emotional damage before finally physically killing 
  their victims. They use human terror to breed more cavelings. 
  Whenever an investigator loses 3 or more Stability points in 
  a single go, an additional caveling pops into being. Though not 
  tracked with Stability pools, GMC fear can also trigger caveling 
  spawnings. (The scenario notes point at when this might happen.)
  Caveling hunting patterns rely on enclosed spaces and seem  
  to toy with their victims. Keyed to generate as many new creatures 
  as possible, they strike, inflict distressing damage, and then 
  retreat again. This yields more offspring than a single quick kill.
  Although incapable of abstract thought, they exhibit insidious 
  cleverness in obstructing exits or herding victims deeper into 
  cave complexes.
  When a set of caverns loses its terrifying position in the 
  imaginations of the people who live near it, cavelings struggle 
  to remain in our world. When a complex becomes a safe, well-
  lit, and accessible tourist attraction, its cavelings dissipate back 
  across the membrane. When people simply leave without fully 
  domesticating a cave complex, its ODEs instead go dormant, 
  ready to be called back with a revivifying sacrifice.
  The Mayans were not the only culture to encounter the 
  cavelings. Many cultures retain mythic memories of this 
  subterranean apex predator.
  game statistics
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 8, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 4 (hard to see)
  alertness modifier: +2
  stealth modifier: +2
  weapon: +3 (claws)
  armor: none
  cavelings
  
  worldbreaker
  new crystal maiden
  56
  Law: Both Zayne and Delia have minor criminal convictions (for 
  drug possession and assault respectively) they did not disclose to 
  Belizean border officials. This could justify the pulling of their 
  work permits.
  If the investigators moot the possibility of sneaking into Actun 
  X by themselves, a character with Occult Studies remembers 
  that the Esoterrorists MO seeks attention. If they’re planning 
  something awful, it will happen when the cameras are rolling.
  To get to the figurative and literal bottom of this, the team has 
  to attach itself to the Altimeter crew. Any plausible way they set 
  out to do this eventually works. What seems plausible depends 
  on character backgrounds. Example approaches include:
  Negotiation: An offer to replace lost production funding 
  they were hoping to get from their Swedish co-producers.  
  (See above.)
  Bureaucracy: Causing trouble through the Belizean 
  government, then promising to resolve it. For example, they 
  could make immigration trouble for Zayne and Delia (see the 
  “Law” entry above). Alternately, they might have the government 
  directly insist on their involvement.
  Flirting: A character might display the sex appeal needed to 
  be chosen as a late addition to the cast.
  Intimidation: Without giving away too much, but perhaps 
  mentioning the disappearance of Makeva Barrow, scare cast 
  members off so that they need to be replaced.
  Pathology + Infiltration: One or more cast members 
  might be dosed with a substance mimicking the effects of food 
  poisoning, requiring their replacement.
  Down in the Hole
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Oscar Chang, Itamar Cruz, Toxic Fauna, TV Crew
  lead-outs: Crystal Skeleton, Stele
  This is a horror cave complex, not a fantasy game underground 
  environment. Instead of a series of rooms to explore, each of 
  which presents the group with a separate situation, it acts as a dark, 
  enclosed, dangerous space where they confront predatory forces.
  Scattered through the physical space are a number of clues 
  that assist the team as they try to survive in it, and a final clue 
  enabling their escape. Unlike a typical GUMSHOE investigation, 
  it’s not the clues that lead the investigators from one scene 
  to another. Instead their movement from one section of the 
  complex to another allows them to collect the clues. One of 
  the clues is not keyed to a specific location, but to the aftermath 
  of an event. Because the players will want to experience them, 
  we’ve labeled these as core clues, even though they somewhat 
  bend the usual definition.
  Crystal Skeleton
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Down in the Hole, Cave-In, Stele, Caveling Attacks
  lead-outs: Cave-In, Stele, Caveling Attacks
  At the quickest of first glances it appears that the center of this 
  chamber contains another ancient crystallized skeleton.
  Forensic Anthropology: Actually, this skeleton is fresh.
  It lies in a bed of crystals, some of them dislodged by recent 
  activity and covering the bones. Hence the initial false impression.
  Forensic Anthropology: The skeleton has suffered 
  extensive damage, as if mauled by predators.
  Natural History: The attack pattern matches no  
  known animal.
  (pipe clue for “Swallowed) Evidence Collection: In a hard 
  to spot location behind a crystal outcrop, the investigator finds 
  a smashed blood sample vial. Blood residue remains inside it.
  For implications of this clue that can be followed up later, 
  see sidebar.
  Stele
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Down in the Hole, Crystal Skeleton, Cave-In, 
  Caveling Attacks
  lead-outs: Cave-In, Crystal Skeleton, Caveling Attacks
  Propped up against the cavern wall is the top third of an 
  otherwise shattered Maya stele.
  Archaeology: These statues, prevalent during the classic 
  Maya period, which ended around 900 CE, dot Central 
  America. Though early examples depict mythological scenes, 
  most celebrate the accomplishments of kings. This one, carved 
  in low relief, fits the latter pattern. The statue portion remains 
  blood vial follow-up
  Upon return to the surface, investigators can match this 
  blood with DNA from hair samples of Makeva Barrow.
  Forensic Anthropology: The blood sample is 
  high in cortisol, suggesting that it was taken from her in a 
  moment of utmost stress.
  Fingerprinting: A partial print from Oscar Chang 
  can be found on the vial. (This assumes that they have 
  access to Chang’s fingerprint.)
  Belmopan has few enough post offices that they can 
  be canvassed by a small team over a period of a few days. 
  If they do, they discover that a man matching Oscar’s 
  description shipped a small cooler to an address in 
  Nonthaburi, Thailand.
  Attempts by a Thai Ordo team to track down the 
  package at the other end fail. However, this does hint that 
  groups of Esoterrorists are coordinating to gather blood 
  from people victimized by Outer Dark Entities.
  
  57
  down in the hole, crystal skeleton, stele, cave-in
  in pristine condition, except for the face. It has been incised 
  away by a primitive chisel or similar implement. 
  Natural History: That’s no chisel, those are claw marks! 
  Not from any known animal, but claw marks all the same.
  The non-figurative parts of the stele have been smashed.
  Archaeology: The 
  smashed 
  bits 
  contain 
  Mayan 
  hieroglyphics. They’re sufficiently intact to assemble them like 
  a 3-D puzzle.
  That’s a laborious process, taking enough time for the 
  cavelings to attack twice (see below).
  When assembled, Languages (Classical Mayan) or a 
  1-point Archaeology spend provides the following translation. 
  Highly provisional, you understand.
  All celebrate and bow down before the power of King K’inich Kan 
  B’alam, the snake jaguar. He has claimed as his birthright all the 
  fertile lands and the places of great wealth. All the former enemies who 
  surround us have bowed their heads to him. Their hearts feed the gods 
  and keep the sky moving.
  Now King K’inich Kan B’alam the snake jaguar declares that he will 
  expand his territory in the only directions possible. Two realms yet escape 
  his conquest. One, the realm underground, the place of darkness, where 
  the tadpoles of dragons dwell. Two, the realm beyond the realm, the place 
  of madness and demons. In this foul place those realms intertwine. And so 
  here with the placement of this monument, the conquest of both shall begin.
  History: Two Mayan kings in Palenque were named K’inich 
  Kan B’alam, the snake jaguar. This sounds like the second of 
  them, who ruled from 684 to 702. He presided over an era of 
  prosperity and infrastructure building.
  Archaeology: From the wear pattern on the fragments, 
  this monument was broken in ancient times.
  Cave-In
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Crystal Skeleton, Stele, Caveling Attacks
  lead-outs: Crystal Skeleton, Stele, Caveling Attacks
  After the team moves into the cave network and plays out one 
  scene, the hole they came down through collapses in on itself.
  If Oscar Chang or any of his underlings remain at large, one 
  of them triggers this by throwing down a stick of dynamite.
  Otherwise you can attribute it to the cavelings, who know a 
  weak spot in the cliff and have the uncanny strength to jar it just 
  so. Their preternatural agility allows them to bound out of the 
  way before the rocks fall on them.
  You might have one of the supporting players injured in the 
  cave-in, making them a burden to others. Camera operator Duff 
  Bell makes a likely candidate. He might separate himself from 
  the group while shooting some B-roll of the cavern opening 
  from below. Or choose the member of the supporting cast the 
  players seem to care about most.
  As soon as a player says, “So we’re trapped,” or the equivalent, 
  all make Difficulty 4 Stability tests, to stave off a loss of 4. Add 
  2 to both Difficulty and potential loss for a character who has 
  demonstrated claustrophobia or achluophobia (fear of the dark.)
  In the unlikely event that a player contrives to be under 
  the hole when it caves in, the character takes 1 instance of +3 
  damage on a Difficulty 4 Athletics test, 2 instances on a failure.
  
  worldbreaker
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  58
  Caveling Attacks
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Crystal Skeleton, Stele, Cave-In, Olm Pool, Cave 
  Painting
  lead-outs: Crystal Skeleton, Stele, Olm Pool, Cave Painting, 
  Hornet Chamber
  The first caveling attack occurs after the cave-in, as soon as you 
  feel the session needs a jeopardy injection. This might happen 
  after the players have emotionally recovered from the cave-in 
  and have started to investigate something else, most likely in the 
  “Crystal Skeleton” or “Stele” scenes. Judge whether you’ll scare 
  the group most by staging the attack before or after they have 
  gathered the information in those scenes.
  What exactly happens during each attack depends on the 
  size of the supporting cast. When an investigator strikes up a 
  vivid relationship, either negative or positive, with any of the 
  supporting characters, emphasize them, ignoring any advice 
  to the contrary below. So, for example, if a player makes Zelia 
  important by interacting with her a great deal, make sure she 
  takes a central part in the attack scenes and/or their aftermaths. 
  You probably want to make the first kill a character no one has 
  engaged with much, saving the others to be hurt or killed deeper 
  into the storyline. On the other hand, you might need to grab 
  attention by staging the most shocking possible demise first.
  The cavelings intend their first attack as an appetizer of 
  terror. At first, there are three of them. They scuttle along the 
  walls overhead, then down to slash at a story-appropriate victim 
  or victims. Attacks occur no matter how narrow the passageways 
  separating them from the humans. Cavelings can skitter up the 
  high walls over the party, overrunning them from above.
  Describe wounds to supporting characters in as unnerving a 
  manner as possible. A cast member doesn’t just get hit in the leg; 
  she suffers a severed artery or has her Achilles tendon torn out.
  Nightvision equipment doesn’t easily pick out cavelings in 
  their camouflaged, stone-like forms. The explorers can hear 
  their scuttling but can’t really see them. Only by using a light 
  source can they distinguish them from the surrounding walls. 
  Exposure to light switches the entities to their predatory forms 
  and also lets them increase their numbers for later attacks.
  For each separate scene in which they make an attack, a 
  caveling exposed to a light source and not immediately killed 
  returns the next time as two cavelings.
  Between attacks, the civilians freak out, making stupid, fear-
  driven choices. The investigators must ride herd on them as they lose it.
  1 point of Reassurance or Intimidation can calm 
  down one supporting character until the next attack occurs. 
  Intimidation never works twice on the same character.
  Because team members are trapped in a hostile environment 
  with no clear means of exit, creature attacks incur possible 
  Stability losses each time they repeat.
  In fact, these escalate with each new event. The first attack 
  carries a potential loss of 4 points and a Difficulty of 4. Add 1 
  to both potential loss and Difficulty for each subsequent attack.
  As per usual, don’t track Stability for supporting characters. 
  They go crazier faster than the main heroes, purely as a matter 
  of your dramatic description.
  Try to space at least ten to fifteen minutes of session time 
  between each attack. If the players are proactive, these will 
  consist of scenes devoted to cavern exploration and clue-finding. 
  If they go into turtle mode, the supporting characters generate 
  problems forcing them to act.
  If the PCs do not provoke character interactions 
  spontaneously, here are some ideas to draw inspiration from. 
  Use only as many as you actually need. Don’t feel that you have 
  to wring the juice out of all of these in order to feel you’ve 
  completed the scenario properly.
  f
  Camera operator Duff Russell breaks his leg in the cave-in, 
  or a subsequent fall. Or he has his kneecap ripped off by 
  a caveling. Afterwards he spends all of his time telling the 
  heroes how he would be solving the problem, if only he 
  weren’t disabled.
  f
  Sound technician Charlotte McCormack takes a foolish 
  risk to prove her toughness under pressure.
  f
  Team archaeologist Erica Alvarado throws a wobbly and 
  starts smashing Mayan artifacts, scolding herself for wasting 
  her life studying a culture of savagery and death.
  f
  Delia Adkins tells everyone they’re doing it wrong.  
  Or a couple of the macho men, with zero encouragement 
  from her, butt heads trying to establish themselves as her 
  protectors.
  f
  Hotshot Jeffrey Nguyen expresses complete confidence in 
  himself just before he ventures ahead and gets dragged off. 
  Or falls backwards, decapitated. Later the cavelings bowl 
  his head at the others.
  f
  Veteran caver Jake Lawson tries to appoint himself head of 
  the team now that emergency conditions apply.
  f
  His son decides this is the moment to air all of his filial grievances.
  f
  A beatific smile crosses the face of cancer survivor Marianne 
  Willis, who reveals that her disease has come back and that 
  she was hoping to die here. As horrible as this may be, she 
  says it beats a hospital bed.
  Caveling attacks continue until a TPK results, or the survivors 
  get out of the cave network; see “Hornet Chamber.”
  Olm Pool
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: second (or later) Caveling Attacks, Cave Painting
  lead-outs: third (or later) Caveling Attacks, Cave Painting, 
  Hornet Chamber
  Aside from its outer edges, which may be precariously skirted 
  to pass through into the next chamber, this cavern is taken up 
  by a subterranean pool. In it swim huge numbers of olms, white 
  aquatic amphibians that eerily retain larval features as adults.
  
  59
  caveling attacks, pool, painting, hornet chamber
  Natural History: This is a new olm species, and the first 
  found in the New World.
  Occult Studies: Also known as the proteus, this animal was 
  once believed to be the juvenile form of dragons.
  Natural History: These animals eat snails and insects. They 
  can radically slow their metabolisms to survive for long periods 
  without food. The profusion in which they appear here suggests 
  that nothing is preying on them.
  From this a player might surmise that the cavelings are 
  indifferent to these creatures as a potential food source, because 
  they don’t experience fear.
  Cave Painting
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: second (or later) Caveling Attacks, Olm Pool
  lead-outs: third (or later) Caveling Attacks, Olm Pool, 
  Hornet Chamber
  Nightvision equipment picks up a faint glimmer of something 
  painted onto a rare stretch of relatively smooth cavern wall. A 
  light source must be used to see the images clearly.
  The painting consists of several rows of figures.
  Archaeology: Mayan codices often use sequential art, telling 
  stories in a sequence of pictures, as later found in comic books.
  The first row depicts two men in Mayan headgear approaching 
  what looks to be a hole in the ground.
  The next shows them facing a figure of inhuman proportions, 
  seemingly made of stone.
  In row three, the first of the Mayan figures holds aloft a 
  torch. Instead of the stone figure, they face a monstrous being 
  of claws and teeth.
  Row four depicts the two Mayan figures facing two of the 
  stone creatures.
  In row five the two figures lie dead and bleeding, with neither 
  monster type anywhere to be seen.
  The final row shows two men in distinctly different Mayan 
  headgear wearing blindfolds. They present a bound and supine 
  captive to the stone figure.
  The torch appears only in the third row. Note this only if 
  asked to confirm it.
  Astute players will decode the sequential narrative as follows:
  1 
  Mayan warriors enter the cave.
  2 
  They encounter one caveling in its stony form.
  3 
  They expose it to torchlight, revealing its eating form.
  4 
  Having exposed it to light they have spawned another caveling.
  5 
  The cavelings have killed the Mayan warriors.
  6 
  Having given up on fighting them, the Mayans now 
  propitiate them with a captive sacrifice.
  (core) The key takeaway: exposing cavelings to light makes  
  more cavelings.
  Chemistry: The images are drawn in a pigment made of 
  soot and blood. Though it’s impossible to date them outside of a 
  laboratory environment, they do look very old.
  Archaeology: These depictions show less sophistication 
  than you’d expect from a Mayan codex. These images were made 
  under emergency conditions, by people making do with what 
  they had.
  Forensic Anthropology: Stuck in the crystalline surface 
  of the cavern floor are shards of bone. These show signs of 
  snapping, gnawing, and chewing.
  Archaeology: From the degree of crystal deposition, 
  these are probably between seven to eight centuries old. Older, 
  though not by much, than the original Crystal Maiden at Actun 
  Tunichil Muknal. Are these the remains of the people who made 
  this painting?
  Hornet Chamber
  scene type: Conclusion
  lead-ins: second (or later) Caveling Attacks, Olm Pool, Cave 
  Painting
  lead-out: third (or later) Caveling Attacks, Veil-Out
  A swarm of hornets crawls across folds in the rock here, building 
  a nest.
  (core) Natural History or Forensic Entomology: 
  Hornets will only nest so far from their sources of food. There 
  must be an exit to the surface nearby.
  Moving further into the chamber, the group sees a glimmer 
  of light overhead. A Difficulty 4 Athletics test gets a character 
  up to the fissure. From there the investigator can call to the 
  outside world for help. If the Oscar Chang symp has not yet 
  been dealt with, he, Itamar Cruz, and his goons have this one 
  known remaining exit staked out. (Or maybe they took out 
  Itamar and not Oscar, in which case Oscar has a new crew of 
  hired thugs with him.)
  Itamar pours acid down into the hole onto the climbing 
  investigator. This does damage +3.
  How the team neutralizes them and succeeds in attracting 
  rescuer attention is left as an exercise in player ingenuity. Maybe 
  after all the suffering they don’t get out after all, and die in the 
  dark. This game is not, you will note, entitled The Esofriendliness.
  If they have already removed the symp from the equation, 
  a distant news crew hears their shouts. A frenzy ensues as 
  camera crew and onlookers rush over to see what’s up. In time 
  jackhammers are able to open the fissure wide enough to allow 
  the team and any other survivors to escape. This occasions the 
  same kind of worldwide coverage seen in the Chilean miners case 
  of 2010. Naturally when it submits to interviews, the team will 
  want to shade their miraculous survival as part of the Veil-Out.
  Alternately the team may want to attempt to get out 
  unassisted. This too we leave up to clever player scheming, 
  probably involving a Preparedness roll or three.
  
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  60
  Veil-Out
  From the boasts made on the stele and how well they worked 
  out, investigators may deduce that attempting to invade and 
  conquer the cave world is a mug’s game. All they have to do to 
  satisfy the Ordo is to conclusively seal it off from the surface 
  and make sure that it never becomes a locus of fear or cognitive 
  dissonance. A quickly described application of dynamite and 
  cement ought to do the trick.
  Some leaning on Belize’s NICH may be required to accomplish 
  this. A 1-point Bureaucracy spend or the testimony of a 
  terrified Erica Alvarado (should she still be alive) accomplishes 
  this handily.
  a
  0m
  15m
  
   
  from a hub of former soviet black-market activity and arms 
  dealing to Ebola-infested Liberia, and then on to a Nigerian 
  province overrun by the hyper-violent Boko Haram insurgency-
  slash-cult, the agents chase a plot to take two sources of global 
  fear and multiply them together.
  Sinister Conspiracy
  Outer Dark Entities look with favor on Nigeria’s Boko Haram 
  movement, which combines the hallmarks of African insurgency, 
  Islamic extremism, and magical cult into a toxic stew of mass-
  homicidal craziness. Its past depredations have gone viral and 
  caused widespread distress. Now one of the symps seeks to 
  maximize its ability to spread global cognitive dissonance by 
  arming it with weaponized Ebola. That mission requires a stop-
  off in the disputed post-Soviet quasi-state of Transnistria, before 
  heading to Monrovia, Liberia, then on to the Liberian hot zone 
  of Voinjama, and finally to the Nigerian state of Yobe. There a 
  Mystery Man has been cultivating a covert Esoterror wing of 
  Boko Haram.
  Trail of Clues
  The team follows SympFour to Moldova, then on to 
  Transnistria. Once there they may try to pick up her trail at the 
  Hotel Bolot, or follow the pumping sounds of Russian techno 
  to a club called the Wolf’s Den. There they gain access to Yuri 
  Enteo and his Arms Emporium, leading them to the Liberian 
  capital of Monrovia and from there to the devastated, Ebola-
  ridden town of Voinjama. In Clermont’s Lab, they discover 
  that a corrupted aid worker has been shipping weaponized 
  samples of the virus to be inserted into special grenades sold to 
  the conspiracy by Enteo. This takes them to Gwoza, Nigeria, 
  hotspot of Boko Haram activity. There they might meet supposed 
  American aid worker Ellis Sherman, uncover a plot to add a 
  Dirty Bomb to the mix, and finally encounter The Colonel, 
  the reality-bending ODE mastermind behind the operation.
  Antagonist Reactions
  In Transnistria, Blight Wolves might attack a party otherwise 
  lacking in supernatural adversaries. Once in Africa similarly 
  blighted animals might charge out of the jungle at them. In 
  Gwoza they have to worry about an Insurgent Attack.
  heart OF 
  outer 
  darkness
  
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  62
  Scenes
  Moldova
  scene type: Intro
  lead-out: Transnistria
  Folder four contained a business card for a car service located in 
  Chisinau, Moldova, and a black vape pen with a logo and some 
  writing on it.
  (pipe clue for “Transnistria”) Data Retrieval: Magnified, 
  the pen can be seen to contain a wolf’s head logo, and the words 
  волк ден.
  Languages (Russian): This translates as “Wolf’s Den.”
  History: Moldova emerged as an autonomous republic after 
  the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
  f
  Located between Ukraine and Russia, it has a ringside seat 
  for the tensions and shifting borders characterizing the 
  relationship of those much larger neighboring powers.
  f
  Two thirds of it is culturally and linguistically Romanian.
  f
  The other third, the unrecognized breakaway state of 
  Transnistria (aka Trans-Dniester or Dniester), is inhabited 
  mostly by Russian speakers. Locals call the place 
  Pridnestrovie.
  f
  Moldova’s total population is about 3.5 million.
  Research: Its capital, Chisinau, is a commercial and 
  administrative center of nearly seven hundred thousand. 
  Transnistria lacks an airport, so, if that’s the ultimate destination, 
  the team will have to come through here.
  Chisinau’s modest, low-slung air terminal boasts a modern 
  interior and is far from the most frightening in Eastern Europe.
  If the group wants a local translator, he’s waiting for them at 
  baggage claim. Ion Branescu, a rumpled man with an enlarged 
  nose and extravagant sideburns, looks about sixty years old.
  Forensic Anthropology: He’s fifteen years younger than 
  his appearance suggests. And he’s drunk, though holding it well.
  Confronted about his state of inebriation, Ion assures them 
  that he is “utterly functional alcoholic.” Pressed further, he leans 
  close to his interrogator and says, “If you have seen what they 
  have made me to see, you would be drunk off ass, too.”
  Fluent in both Romanian (which he calls “Moldovan”) and 
  Russian, Ion worked as a propagandist before 1990 and then 
  switched to journalism. He does his best to paint his homeland 
  as a place of horrors naïve Westerners just aren’t prepared for, 
  with dialogue like:
  “You think membrane is thin in your Walmart McDonald’s 
  world? Brothers, membrane here is so thin, you expect to see 
  blood corpses staggering down the Stefan cel Mare.”
  The players will probably assume that, when rubber hits 
  road, he’s either going to get them in trouble, or die horribly 
  himself. Decide whether they’ll find it more gratifying to see 
  their genre assumptions met or defied. Ion might turn out to 
  be a hardened survivor who emerges bloodied from smoking 
  wreckage to pull a fifth of vodka from his smoldering pocket and 
  ask the team for a light.
  The car service card lists no address, just a phone number.
  Forensic Accounting: It’s a mobile number, indicating 
  that this is probably a one-operator service. Oh, and Moldovan 
  taxi drivers don’t give change.
  If they call the number, a battered minibus, painted a bright 
  pink and in bad need of washing, drives up. It already has 
  passengers, a palpably annoyed older couple who look like locals.
  Forensic Accounting: (or Ion explaining) Minibuses 
  don’t follow a set route or schedule. They go from destination to 
  destination, veering away to pick up customers as calls come in.
  If Ion is present, he gives the driver a thick wad of Ordo 
  Veritatis cash to throw out his current passengers so they can 
  converse with him privately. The driver, an acne-scarred tank of 
  a man named Rolan Konovov, complies. (On a 1-point Forensic 
  Accounting spend, the player knows this is an option.)
  Anthropology: The driver is an ethnic Russian of Siberian 
  descent. His tattoos indicate criminal affiliations and a likely 
  prison stint.
  Shown a frame grab of the symp host from the sex club 
  video, Rolan pauses to consider before saying that he took her 
  from the airport to the Megapolis shopping mall. Because she 
  had a card ahead of time, he charged her a special rate, without 
  the usual fees. He did not get her name and did not ask why she 
  had his card if she had never been to Moldova before. She spoke 
  Russian with a Moscow accent.
  Bullshit Detector suggests that much of this is deceptive.
  (core) Streetwise or Negotiation: Actually, now that he 
  thinks about it, he drove her to Pridnestrovie. He dropped her 
  off at a hotel in Tiraspol, the Bolot. Rolan offers to drive the 
  team there.
  History: Tiraspol is the capital of Transnistria.
  Ion, if present, advises the group to hire a different minibus.
  Rolan wants a juicy fare more than he wants trouble. But 
  if he feels threatened by the investigators, he uses a specialty 
  smartphone app used by Moldovan taxi drivers to summon 
  assistance. Within a few minutes, five vehicles, from cabs to 
  minibuses, many of them with confused passengers still aboard, 
  roar up to back him up.
  ripped from the headlines
  As of this writing in July of 2014, the horror of Boko 
  Haram has not yet crested. If you’re running this after 
  the organization has been defeated — a consummation 
  devoutly to be wished for — adapt the scenario by 
  fictionalizing the details or finding another appalling African 
  insurgency as its basis. Or set your campaign in the recent 
  past. This last option gives you the chance to portray the 
  team members as putting in motion the events that lead to 
  the movement’s undoing.
  
  63
  moldova, transnistria, and hotel bolot
  pissed-off moldovan cabbies
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 7, Scuffling 6
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: +0
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: −1 (tire iron)
  Use the above stats for Rolan as well, adding Shooting 4 and a 
  small pistol (damage +0).
  Escalating to a fight with the city’s top cabbies makes it 
  harder to find alternate transportation to Tiraspol. A 2-point 
  Negotiation or Reassurance spend smooths the waters 
  enough to arrange a ride.
  Should you need an alternate driver character, use Stefan 
  Namasco, a blasé man with a scraggly half-beard who plays 
  Romanian pop ballads really loud and keeps hitting and easing 
  off on the accelerator.
  Whoever’s behind the wheel, the minibus rockets along 
  highway R2 from Chisinau to Tiraspol at heart-stopping speed, 
  with multiple near-misses while passing other vehicles. They 
  arrive in under an hour, which seems shorter than the usual.
  Transnistria
  scene type: Branch Point
  lead-in: Moldova
  lead-outs: Hotel Bolot, Wolf’s Den
  Grim-faced Transnistrian officials stop the vehicle at the border. 
  1-point Bureaucracy or Negotiation spends whisk the group 
  across the border swiftly and without repercussion. Otherwise 
  the group faces a series of hostile questions about who they are 
  and what business they have in Pridnestrovie. The Ordo exerts 
  no pull here, so they’ll have to talk convincingly. Should the 
  interaction start to go south, they’ll have to pony up 2 point 
  spends of any plausible Interpersonal ability to talk themselves 
  out of an incident.
  After putting local border guards in the rearview mirror, the 
  team sees bored Russian soldiers standing by. They show zero 
  interest in the minibus.
  History: Transnistria split off in a 1990 conflict in which 
  hundreds lost their lives. Russian peacekeepers now patrol 
  its border with Moldova. On paper they keep fighting from 
  resuming. In practice they cement Russian control, keeping the 
  area warm for the mother country, whose leadership intends 
  to reclaim any sliver of territory where Russian speakers 
  predominate. Locals appear to desire this; Moldova and the 
  international community don’t.
  Forensic Accounting: Siberians forcibly relocated to 
  Moldova during the Stalin era dominate organized crime here. 
  They’re incredibly hardcore even by Eastern European criminal 
  standards, which is saying a lot.
  For the capital city of a post-Soviet quasi-state, Tiraspol 
  boasts a surprisingly contemporary infrastructure, prettified 
  by abundant trees and green space. Pull some cityscape images 
  from the Net if you have a tablet to pass around or another non-
  disruptive way to share them with players.
  They may want their characters dropped off at the hotel 
  Rolan mentioned, or to go to the Wolf’s Den.
  If Rolan is the driver, he makes the team an offer as he 
  approaches the drop-off point. For $2000 US, he will not warn 
  the people Irina was meeting with of their arrival. No amount of 
  money can induce him to reveal what he knows about these people. 
  “Is not in my interests to be tortured to death and fed to dogs.”
  (And yes, Rolan just let slip that he knows the passenger’s 
  first name, Irina.)
  Galling as this might be, the Ordo can afford two grand to 
  buy off Rolan. A Difficulty 4 Preparedness success means 
  that the team has the cash safely on hand; otherwise they can 
  get it by going to a bank in Tiraspol and wasting time making 
  suitably circuitous arrangements. (Don’t actually waste the play 
  group’s time; just describe the characters’ time as having been 
  irritatingly wasted.)
  If a player asks to use Bullshit Detector on Rolan as he 
  proposes his shakedown, it reveals him as deceptive. Rolan is 
  bluffing. He has a good guess who Irina was meeting, because 
  she asked about the location of the Wolf’s Den, but isn’t sure. 
  And he’s afraid to mess with those guys, even if there might be 
  a payout in it.
  Alternate cabbie Stefan, on the other hand, lacks Rolan’s 
  organized crime connections and knows little of Tiraspol. He 
  can find out where the Wolf’s Den is. Stefan won’t try the 
  shakedown. He can get them to the Hotel Bolot, though the 
  team won’t know to ask to go there unless they got that info 
  from Rolan before deciding not to use his services.
  Hotel Bolot
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Transnistria, Wolf’s Den, Arms Emporium
  lead-out: Wolf’s Den
  The Hotel Bolot is a 3-star hotel on Tiraspol’s Strada Karl 
  Liebknecht, near its pastel green market district, the Zeleny.
  Trivia: Karl Liebknecht, co-founder of the German 
  Communist Party, was summarily executed by government-
  aligned paramilitary forces after taking part in the 1919 
  Spartacist uprising.
  branch point scenes
  Sometimes you may wish to flag a scene as a branch point. 
  This is one in which the players make a decision affecting 
  the direction of the scenario, without picking up a new 
  core clue. Branch point scenes can be transitional, as in 
  this case, marking the shift between Chisinau and Tiraspol.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  64
  (Many of Tiraspol’s main arteries still take their names from 
  icons of Communism. Strada Karl Marx runs in parallel to it, 
  one block south, with Strada Rosa Luxemburg another block 
  south of that.)
  Barely manning the desk at the Bolot is narcoleptic concierge 
  Vlad Khabensky. If the team tries to show him the photo of the 
  symp host, he waves it away without even looking at it. He seeks 
  no trouble from police or security forces or self-evident foreign 
  spies. Bureaucracy or Negotiation ensures what little 
  cooperation he can actually give. He confirms that he saw her a 
  few days ago. A Chisinau minibus dropped her off. She entered 
  the lobby, but didn’t check in. Instead she switched the SIM card 
  in her mobile phone and waited for another car, a black sedan, 
  to come and pick her up.
  Cop Talk: Getting dropped off at a hotel you’re not intending 
  to stay at is classic tradecraft for fugitives and operatives who 
  don’t want their movements traced. She meant to lead the Ordo 
  on a goose chase.
  The concierge has certainly heard of the Wolf’s Den, the 
  city’s craziest nightclub. “You do not want to go there,” he says, 
  shaking his head.
  Wolf’s Den
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Transnistria, Hotel Bolot, Arms Emporium, Blight 
  Wolves
  lead-outs: Hotel Bolot, Arms Emporium, Going at the 
  Bodyguard, Dragged Before Enteo, Blight Wolves, Monrovia
  A few hours with Streetwise locates the lowlife cafés where 
  people can speak with personal authority on the Wolf’s Den and 
  its habitués.
  f
  It belongs to the growing empire of arms dealer Yuri Enteo.
  f
  Enteo grew up among the Siberian gangs here and moved 
  to Russia one step ahead of the cops.
  f
  He came back as a big time arms dealer and started buying 
  up legal businesses.
  f
  He draws on the muscle of his clan but otherwise takes 
  little interest in the local mob scene. His affairs are more 
  global in scope.
  Research: Interpol and the FBI want Enteo for alleged illicit 
  arms sales to clients in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast 
  Asia. The West doesn’t even recognize Transnistria, and sure 
  doesn’t have an extradition treaty with it. Interpol spiked a 
  recent scheme to infiltrate his organization because of the risk it 
  would pose to the undercover agent.
  The Wolf’s Den, a converted warehouse on the city’s 
  industrial outskirts, opens at 10 Pm and closes at dawn. 
  Gargantuan Siberian bouncers stand guard at the door to 
  intimidate anyone who looks like they’re here to make trouble. 
  Impersonate or Streetwise allows a team member to assert 
  the necessary connections to get a group of foreigners who 
  look like they might be affiliated with Western law enforcement 
  through the door.
  Here are the numbers you need if relations with the bouncers 
  go awry:
  abilities: Athletics 12, Health 12, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +2
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: −2 (fists)
  Alternately, the group can try to Infiltrate its way in through 
  another door, avoiding the gatekeepers, with a Difficulty of 4.
  If the group fights the bouncers and loses, go to “Dragged 
  Before Enteo.”
  During the fight, a character with Streetwise realizes that if 
  they let themselves be beaten, they stand a good chance of being 
  taken to someone deeper in Enteo’s organization. (The players 
  won’t need you to tell them that that this is risky. But then 
  they’ve already blown their attempt at the hurt-free way in.)
  Peak crazy at the Wolf’s Den doesn’t hit until around 1 am. 
  At that point the Russian techno starts to pound, vaporized 
  sweat fills the air, and the serious drunkenness and drug intake 
  commences. The clientele looks like the extras from a werewolf 
  movie before the transformations begin. Dealers and prostitutes 
  openly conduct transactions with customers. Bouncers rove the 
  aisles, wading into fights just as they erupt, beating wayward 
  patrons bloody. Over the very long bar, a row of cages inset 
  into the walls holds a pack of mangy wolves. Though most seem 
  
  65
  wolf’s den
  deadened by the sound (Natural History: not to mention 
  probably drugged) they come to snarling life whenever anyone 
  pitches a beer bottle at the cage mesh.
  To find the back office, team members need merely scan 
  the room for the most enormous bouncers of all. They form a 
  quartet of guardians around a reinforced steel door.
  Streetwise: One group stands out from the other patrons 
  — a knot of men (and perhaps one woman) dressed not unlike 
  the investigative team.
  Cop Talk: Their bearing suggests police or military training. 
  But their nervous vibe clocks as shady.
  These South African mercenaries work as middle men for 
  an extremist Hindu nationalist faction in India. Or maybe a 
  Pakistani front operation masquerading as Hindu extremists. 
  They don’t really care, so long as they get their commission. 
  They’re here for a preliminary meet with Enteo, hoping to set 
  up a supply line for munitions, assault rifles, and surface-to-
  surface missiles.
  If the team gets them outside the club long enough to deliver 
  them a beatdown, they can pose as these mercs and gain access 
  to Enteo’s office.
  abilities: Athletics 3, Health 3, Scuffling 6, Shooting 6
  hit threshold: 3
  weapon: −1 (combat baton), +0 (pistol)
  The South Africans can provide no information relevant to 
  the case. They would rather take a beating than appear weak. 
  Their senior member, grizzled, gruff-voiced demolitions expert 
  Bryce Malan, speaks for the others if interrogated. Other names 
  if needed: Darren Moon, Dean van Heerden, Matty Fransman, 
  Natalie Sumner, Senzo Zwane. All but the last are Afrikaaners.
  Players might think of another plausible way of scoring a sit-
  down with Enteo. If it seems passably credible, it works.
  If the team instead tries to avoid a meeting with Enteo and 
  decides to deal with the bodyguards, skip down to “Going at 
  the Bodyguard.”
  As a prelude to face time with Enteo, the team must submit 
  to a full frisk, including temporary confiscation of all weapons.
  (core A) During the pat-down, Enteo’s bouncers take the 
  investigators’ wallets, purses, and laptop bags and methodically 
  study their contents.
  A hawk-faced, gray-bearded man in his mid-sixties, Yuri 
  Enteo conducts business with maximum smarts and minimum 
  bluster. Completely without ideology, he makes the deals that 
  profit him and declines the ones that invite too much risk or 
  promise too thin a margin.
  Enteo requires serious convincing to double-cross Irina 
  and squeal to the investigators. He hasn’t failed to notice that 
  these new clients represent a new and bizarre development in 
  globalized terrorism. A hardened rationalist, he assumes they 
  just want to use occult imagery as a psy-ops weapon. Genuine 
  supernatural activity lies well outside his frame of reference.
  Ordo protocol requires the team to leave the paranormal out 
  of it, but the group might choose to set the rulebook aside here, 
  because player characters. If they do a really amazing job of it, 
  they might succeed.
  More likely, they can Cop Talk him into deciding that these 
  crazies will bring too much heat on him, or Reassure him that 
  the Esoterrorists will never discover that he sold them out.
  In response to specific questions, Enteo reveals the following:
  f
  Shown the picture of the symp host, he identifies her as 
  Irina Maklokova.
  f
  He has been in contact with representatives of this group, 
  who called themselves the August 9th Movement, for 
  months, via the Darknet.
  f
  They didn’t tell him what A9M’s objectives are, and he 
  didn’t ask.
  f
  Yuri does not do business with people he does not meet 
  in person. You have to look a client in the eye to tell if 
  they’re going to burn you. So although A9M wanted to 
  do everything remotely, he insisted on meeting with 
   a representative.
  f
  Sometimes the communications seemed strange, like they 
  were written by a kid. Definitely in American English. He 
  thought it was a hoax, until the money started appearing 
  in his account. Maybe it is just that all Americans seem like 
  children when they write on the Internet.
  f
  They paid him in installments with untraceable money. And 
  believe him when he says this, Yuri knows how rare truly 
  untraceable money is.
  f
  Yes, the style of the emails did definitely change recently. 
  [At a time coinciding with the symp summoning and 
  Marshall Powell’s sex club suicide.] For one thing, they 
  switched to Russian.
  f
  When a Russian woman showed up to meet him, he assumed 
  that responsibility for the sale had been transferred to her 
  from the American first contact.
  f
  A9M purchased several cargo planes full of small arms, 
  ammunition, plastic explosives, and rocket-propelled 
  grenades, and paid for the materiel to be flown to a jungle 
  landing strip in the Sambisa jungle, Nigeria.
  f
  They have reserved another shipment for next month but 
  not finalized the transaction.
  f
  The weirdest thing they asked for was for the fabrication 
  of bizarre hand grenades. Though impractical in design, 
  with skulls and bones on the outer casing, Enteo found 
  metalworkers to do the job. These too have all been shipped out.
  f
  (pipe clue for “Swallowed”) Irina also inquired into his 
  ability to acquire commercial flight simulators. He told her 
  he didn’t stock that sort of thing but had connections to 
  place a special order, if desired.
  f
  (core B) Why, yes, of course, Yuri’s men examined the 
  contents of her handbag, just as they did with the agents. 
  They noticed a flight booking for what must have been her 
  next destination: Monrovia, Liberia.
  
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  Trivia: August 9 was the date of the Manson family’s  
  Tate murders.
  History: The Sambisa jungle serves as primary hideout for 
  the notorious Boko Haram insurgent group, responsible for a 
  wave of bombings and militia attacks. In 2014 they gained global 
  notoriety by kidnapping over two hundred school girls and 
  announcing that they would be sold as slaves.
  Arms Emporium
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Wolf’s Den, Dragged Before Enteo, Blight Wolves
  lead-outs: Hotel Bolot, Wolf’s Den, Dragged Before Enteo, 
  Blight Wolves
  Enteo lets no one who doesn’t work for him enter his warehouse 
  complex-slash–private airport, in a repurposed factory complex 
  a few km outside Tiraspol. The team might decide to infiltrate 
  it anyway, despite the obvious presence of highly armed and 
  clearly disciplined security personnel.
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 8, Scuffling 8, Shooting 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +2
  weapon: −1 (baton), +1 (shotgun), +1 (submachine gun)
  Making it through the perimeter entails a Difficulty 6 
  Infiltration success — as does getting back out again 
  undetected. Enteo’s security force has been instructed to 
  capture intruders alive to be “Dragged Before Enteo,” below.
  Mostly the team finds warehouses full of black-market 
  military materiel. In a secured office area (requires another 
  Difficulty 4 Infiltration success) they find an office. Data 
  Retrieval allows a copy of its computer’s hard drive, with 
  the progress bar counting down in agonizingly slow fashion as 
  security personnel boots crunch loudly just outside.
  Presumably later, in the comfort and safety of the team’s 
  local accommodations, a 2-point Cryptography spend 
  decodes the drive’s contents. These allow the team to glean 
  certain of the same basic points as Enteo might give in “Wolf’s 
  Den,” specifically items 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The raw 
  documents lack the interpretive spin they might have gotten (or 
  might yet get) from Enteo himself.
  However, the hard drive contents reveal one crucial 
  fact Enteo will never admit to: he also sold Irina a quantity 
  of radioactive waste recovered from the quarantined  
  Chernobyl site.
  Explosive Devices: If put into a dirty bomb, that’s enough 
  to cover a small city.
  Agents looking for a metal shop find it: a standalone 
  structure secured by an easily broken rusty padlock. Pinned 
  to a wall inside they see schematics of the weird grenades, 
  which they might have seen in 3-D form on Marshall Powell’s 
  recovered hard drive or heard about from Enteo. They also 
  find enough discarded pieces to mostly fit one of them 
  together. Once assembled, the distinctive biological decorative 
  filigrees definitely recall the surface morphology of various  
  Outer Dark Entities.
  Going at the Bodyguard
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Wolf’s Den
  lead-outs: Dragged Before Enteo, Monrovia
  Though the most obvious way to get the core clue leading to 
  Monrovia is to engage with Enteo himself, players might blow 
  that interaction or decide to go at the problem sideways.
  Watching the bodyguards at the door to Enteo’s office, the 
  team can see that one of them takes evident command over the 
  others. This is Sergey Dronov, a towering figure memorable for 
  his cropped blond hair and extensive burn scarring across the 
  right side of his face.
  If the team holds back to see how the South Africans (as 
  described in “Wolf’s Den”) make their entry, they see the 
  bodyguards frisk them and relieve them of their weaponry. They 
  also observe Dronov going through all of their wallets, studying 
  the contents.
  Streetwise: If they do this with everyone, Dronov may have 
  gone through Irina’s wallet, and learned something about her 
  the team might need to know.
  Highly devoted to his self-image as tough and professional, 
  Dronov won’t yield to bribery offers (Negotiation) or threats 
  (Intimidation).
  If agents approach him the wrong way he may order his men 
  to deliver a head-cracking, followed by their being “Dragged 
  Before Enteo,” below.
  Forensic Psychology: Though focused on his duties, 
  his eyes also clock all of the good-looking men in the room, 
  especially the hustlers.
  Dronov prefers men but is open to Flirting from any team 
  member willing to go home to his depressing apartment with 
  him after his shift is done. After foreplay and copious coke 
  ingestion, he lapses into indiscretion, provided the questioner 
  credibly masks the inquiries as casual small talk from a danger 
  groupie. Declining the drugs without spoiling the mood calls for 
  a 1-point Flirting or Streetwise spend.
  Sufficiently lulled, Dronov reveals that he did rifle through 
  Irina Maklokova’s wallet and that she’s headed to Monrovia, 
  Liberia, next.
  As always, if players come up with some other unexpected yet 
  credible alternative way of getting this information, let it happen.
  
  67
  arms emporium and going at the bodyguard
  The Blight
  cow, ox,  
  water buffalo
  abilities: Athletics 8,  
  Health 8, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 2
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −2
  weapon: +2 (gore/trample)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  hippo
  abilities: Athletics 12, 
  Health 12, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 2
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +3 (gore/trample)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  elephant
  abilities: Athletics 12, 
  Health 15, Scuffling 12
  hit threshold: 2
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +4 (gore/trample)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  lion, tiger, jaguar, 
  bear, ape
  abilities: Athletics 12, 
  Health 8, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +1 (bite)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  dog, wolf, baboon, 
  badger, large snake
  abilities: Athletics 8,  
  Health 3, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +0 (bite)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  chimpanzee
  abilities: Athletics 8,  
  Health 7, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +1 (bite)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  gorilla
  abilities: Athletics 12, 
  Health 13, Scuffling 10
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +2 (bite),  
  +0 (slam)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  alligator, crocodile
  abilities: Athletics 8,  
  Health 3, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +1 (bite)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  Investigators damaged by blighted animals can’t refresh Health 
  beyond their pool level as of the end of the fight for the next 
  two intervals, and lose 2 Athletics at the end of the fight.
  Cutting open a blighted creature causes a Difficulty 4 
  Stability test, to prevent a loss of 4 points.
  We thought we were in the wind-down phase when the death dogs 
  came. We’d zeroed the suspects and were dismantling the scaffolding 
  that made up their improvised altar when the howling started. From 
  a distance we figured them for a pack of strays. But of course not 
  even rabid dogs come at you in packs. We opened fire but the bullets 
  went straight through them, spattering the scene with green-yellow 
  slime. It took blades to carve useful wounds into them. Once you 
  opened them up, you saw that they had nothing under their skins but 
  this putrid gel that somehow animated their bodies. It had that stink, 
  the nauseating fetor of the Outer Dark. Jenkins caught a bad bite in 
  the leg and we feared she was ripe to go zombie on us or whatnot. 
  She felt off for weeks afterwards but luckily that was the extent of it.
  — after action report, OPERATION ABADDON, Agent 
  Luke Morrison, 04/18/2013
  The blight occurs in areas where the membrane has thinned. 
  Two schools of thought divide Ordo researchers on its ultimate 
  source. One says that it arises independently of agent actions. 
  The other posits that blight appears as a response to knowing 
  attempts to reverse damage to the membrane. In other words, 
  it might be the Outer Dark’s immune response to Ordo 
  Veritatis activity.
  Whatever triggers it, the blight takes the form of spores, 
  invisible to the naked eye, that drift from the demon dimension 
  into our world. They seek out large animals and infest them 
  via airborne infection. Claws, teeth, horns, or other external 
  natural weapons remain intact. The animals die from the inside 
  out, their flesh and bones replaced by a foul gelatinous material 
  granting the skins not only animation but fearsome strength. 
  This substance can be seen leaking from the animals’ eyes and 
  mouths as they attack.
  Game statistics vary by host animal.
  
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  68
  Dragged Before Enteo
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Wolf’s Den, Arms Emporium, Going at the Bodyguard
  lead-outs: Arms Emporium, Monrovia
  Team members can wind up bloodied and hauled in front of 
  Enteo in several situations:
  f
  on a failed infiltration of the club
  f
  on a failed infiltration of the arms depot
  f
  by antagonizing the club bouncers
  f
  by seeming hinky to Dronov or the bodyguards  
  under his command
  Their best play when put in this position has them establishing to 
  Enteo that they’re not investigators looking into his business, but 
  just random idiots in over their heads. This proves easier in some 
  circumstances than others. Getting out alive requires a credible 
  line of talk and a 2-point spend of Flattery, Impersonate, 
  Negotiation, Reassurance, or Streetwise.
  On a 3-point spend, he might also tell them where Irina is 
  headed, though he won’t be as expansive with the other nuggets 
  of information presented in “Wolf’s Den.”
  In almost any case he releases them with the warning that 
  they must immediately leave Pridnestrovie and never come back.
  If the team appears to be floundering and appears unlikely to 
  gather the core clue or do anything plausible to keep themselves 
  breathing, Ion might appear with an Ordo backup team to haul 
  their bacon out of the fire. He threatens Enteo with the loss of 
  his business and orders him to answer the team’s questions.
  Afterwards, he reams them out for forcing him to 
  compromise local organizational security. This allows them to 
  move forward while still retaining the emotional downbeat that 
  ought to accompany a major screwup.
  If events have already led Ion to a horrible demise, an Ordo 
  Special Suppression squad performs the rescue. Its squad leader 
  also dresses down the agents afterwards.
  Blight Wolves
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Wolf’s Den, Arms Emporium
  lead-outs: Wolf’s Den, Arms Emporium
  Has the team spent enough time in Transnistria that the absence 
  of overtly supernatural menace seems like an oversight?
  Solve that problem by confronting the group with a pack of wolves 
  turned into paranormal weapons by an Outer Darkness parasite.
  Monrovia
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Wolf’s Den, Going at the Bodyguard, Dragged 
  Before Enteo
  lead-out: Voinjama
  History: The West African nation of Liberia was colonized starting 
  in the 1920s by African Americans, many of them freed slaves.
  Languages: Its official language is English; a creole is also spoken.
  History: A 1980 coup set off a twenty-five-year cycle of 
  misgovernment, insurrection, and civil war. In the wake of a 
  2005 democratic election, it has begun to turn around. Current 
  president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was co-winner of the 2011 
  Nobel Peace Prize.
  Pathology: Lately Liberia has become a hotbed of Ebola 
  infection, particularly in a county called Lofa.
  Monrovia, home to just under a million, blasts the team with 
  wilting tropical heat. Although the city and country are on the 
  upswing, that’s from a very low point. Poverty and corruption 
  remain basic facts of existence here.
  Its sleepy, developing-world airport receives few inbound 
  flights. Bored drivers milling at the cab stand perk up when the 
  team and other passengers disembark. (They had to go from 
  Chisinau to either Brussels, Paris, or London to catch one of 
  the infrequent international flights here. Drop in this logistical 
  detail only if a player seems to care.)
  Cabbie names: Abraham Kollie, Mohammed Jones, Blama Jetto.
  Asked if any of them recently gave a ride to a blonde young 
  Russian woman, the cabbies shake their heads. They recognize 
  her from the photo, all right — but she wanted to go to Lofa, 
  where the Ebola is. One by one the cabbies refused to take her, 
  and warned her against it, but she just kept asking. Finally, poor 
  old Friday Bestman, who took a bullet to the skull during the 
  insurrection, agreed to take her. Usually he gets no fares at all, 
  because you can see he’s not right just by looking at him.
  History: He could have been shot in any number  
  of insurrections.
  If asked, one of the cabbies explains that Friday took his 
  bullet in the final 2003 uprising. He fought for Charles Taylor.
  History: President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, Taylor 
  became one of the continent’s most notorious warlords. He is 
  now imprisoned in England, serving a fifty-year sentence for 
  crimes against humanity.
  Lofa lies to the north and east, about a five-hour drive away. 
  Negotiation allows the group to tempt a cabbie into Ebola 
  territory with a huge chunk of cash. For less money they can buy 
  a jeep and drive through the jungle themselves.
  (core) One of the cabbies volunteers that he heard the 
  Russian lady say something about a clinic, and that she wanted 
  to go to Voinjama. That’s Lofa’s main city.
  Pathology: The World Health Organization maintains a 
  clinic in Voinjama.
  
  69
  enteo, blight wolves, monrovia, voinjama, and lab
  Voinjama
  scene type: Core
  lead-in: Monrovia
  lead-out: Clermont’s Lab
  The trip from Monrovia to Voinjama entails a rugged drive 
  through barely extant hilly roads. Sometimes a bridge over a 
  river or ravine consists of nothing more than some old boards 
  laid out between the two sides.
  The debilitating trek costs the agents a number of General 
  ability points. Multiply the number of PCs by 4. The players 
  then decide how to distribute these point losses between them. 
  They can spread the loss evenly but aren’t obliged to. Players can 
  subtract points from Athletics, Health, Preparedness, or Stability.
  For each separate pool loss, invite the player to describe 
  something bad happening that reduces the pool. For example:
  f
  Athletics: “I tear a muscle while getting the jeep unstuck 
  from the mud.”
  f
  Health: “I think I’m getting a little feverish.”
  f
  Preparedness: “One of my duffel bags drops into the gorge!”
  f
  Stability: “A trip across a rickety bridge reawakens my 
  childhood fear of heights.”
  Home to a little more than twenty-five thousand people, Voinjama 
  is a crossroads city not only of nations and cultures but of 
  religions. Markets bustle. Mosques tower alongside church spires.
  Architecture: A significant chunk of the buildings are 
  uninhabited or underused.
  History: This city suffered badly during the various civil 
  conflicts and has been seriously depopulated.
  Anyone on the street can give directions to the WHO clinic.
  Its administrator, Dr. Margit Raab, places a low priority on 
  fielding inquiries from outsiders of unclear agenda. She deflects 
  the agents with polite but German firmness, until shown by 
  Bureaucracy that they have some official standing to nose 
  around in her clinic. She affirms that Ebola has flared up again in 
  the area. The stats are as bad as they’ve been since the outbreak 
  that began in the summer of 2014. She does not recognize 
  the picture of Irina Maklokova, but does recall seeing a man 
  matching Friday Bestman’s description waiting in a car outside 
  the facility several days ago.
  Pathology: WHO is one of the best known of the United 
  Nations’ dedicated agencies. Because Ebola rages across borders 
  of nations that lack the wherewithal to deal with it, WHO takes 
  a leadership role in combating it.
  f
  Ebola hemorrhagic fever is communicable from blood or 
  fluid contact.
  f
  New outbreaks often begin when someone comes into 
  contact with an infected monkey or fruit bats. Bats carry 
  the disease without being susceptible to it themselves.
  f
  Symptoms start two days to three weeks after first contact, 
  starting with a low-level fever indistinguishable from mild 
  influenza. The mid-stage brings on nausea, vomiting, and 
  diarrhea. Then comes the kidney and liver failure.
  f
  The most terrifying symptom strikes some but not all 
  infected individuals. In the late stage, they bleed out from 
  every orifice. This of course creates ample opportunities 
  for others to be infected by their blood.
  f
  If you’re infected your chance of survival could be as high 
  as fifty or as low as ten percent.
  f
  However, as seen in the 2014 wave of infections, an airlift 
  to a modern first world hospital hugely betters those odds.
  Anthropology: You’d think people in Ebola threat zones 
  would stop eating monkeys and fruit bats, but when you’re 
  hungry, you’re hungry.
  As you might expect from an international aid organization, 
  most of the top clinic staff come from the developed world. 
  Locals are more likely to be junior or menial workers.
  Dr. Raab strongly discourages visitors, no matter how heavily 
  credentialed, from entering the actual sick wards.
  Pathology: She’s absolutely right to do so.
  However, the team can see other staffers coming and going 
  even if they stick to the safer administrative areas.
  If they choose to check out the staff for signs of hinkiness, 
  Forensic Anthropology notes that one young man has had a 
  tattoo on his forearm removed recently.
  (core) Trivia: Though its traces are hard to see, and its owner 
  has covered it up with a layer of foundation makeup, this is the 
  logo of defunct Norwegian death metal band Døderektum.
  Occult Studies: It disbanded after its lead singer gutted its 
  former bass player as a sacrifice to Satan. Døderektum fandom 
  acts as a gateway subculture for Esoterror recruitment.
  The owner of the removed tattoo is Sebastien Clermont, a 
  pasty man in his late twenties who dies his sandy hair dark black.
  Sebastien says he put himself forward to work for WHO 
  because he comes from a family of doctors. All of them put in 
  time with NGOs like Médecins Sans Frontières before settling 
  into lucrative practices back in France. Though a lab tech, not a 
  doctor, Sebastien felt the family call. (He makes this statement 
  with a bit of an eye roll, as if indicating that he bowed to pressure 
  and regrets ever coming to this awful place.) He denies any 
  connection to Esoterror, the occult, Irina Maklokova, or Friday 
  Bestman. His nervousness as he makes this last statement sends 
  Bullshit Detector pinging big time.
  Clermont’s Lab
  scene type: Core
  lead-in: Voinjama
  lead-out: Gwoza
  Following Sebastien after he leaves the clinic for the day 
  requires a Difficulty 6 Surveillance test. It’s harder to shadow 
  someone unnoticed in a place whose rules you’re not used to, 
  especially if you stand out in a crowd. Reduce Difficulty by 1 
  
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  heart of outer darkness
  70
  if the character’s background suggests a prior familiarity with 
  African cities. Reduce Difficulty by 1 if the character can pass 
  for African. These bonuses stack.
  Whether it succeeds or fails, the test leads to a shuttered, 
  abandoned-looking building.
  Architecture: This looks like a former medical facility.
  If the test fails, Sebastien realizes that the group is after 
  him. His anxiety attracts a group of rampaging, blighted 
  chimpanzees. They’ve been stalking the outskirts of the city ever 
  since he arrived, ready to strike any enemies of the Outer Dark 
  who might show up to disrupt his activities. They lope down the 
  streets and launch themselves at the investigators.
  Pathology: Chimpanzees sometimes carry the Ebola virus!
  (This is a false alarm; the virus can’t live in the bodies of 
  blighted creatures. Nonetheless, the thought increases the 
  potential Stability loss of the encounter to 5 from the usual 4.)
  Like regular chimps, these monstrous versions attack by 
  trying to bite their targets’ faces off.
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 7, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −3
  weapon: +1 (bite)
  armor: +6 vs. Shooting
  Sebastien isn’t summoning the blight chimps consciously. If he 
  sees them, he faints from terror. After they’re dispensed with (if 
  they show up at all) he has no physical defense to offer against 
  whatever treatment the agents dish out to him.
  He folds under Interrogation. None of this matters, he 
  declares: soon the world will change forever. The membrane 
  will tear and all of the mortal servants of the Outer Dark will 
  be harrowed from their graves to rule the world eternally. 
  (Nonsense, but Bullshit Detector shows that Sebastien 
  believes it.)
  Part of his prior story is true: he felt pressured to risk his life 
  in some hellhole or another to live up to his siblings and impress 
  his domineering parents. Once here, he realized that he had to 
  kick back at a world that had turned him into a coward and a 
  weakling. So he started trawling the Net for hints of a movement 
  he first heard about through his death metal interests. Those 
  idiots, he eventually discovered, knew nothing, but by then 
  he’d contacted Marshall Powell, a great wizard from California. 
  Marshall told him to stockpile a large supply of the Ebola virus 
  and wait for someone to show up and give him the password — 
  “Pacific dawn.” Not long ago, a hot Russian chick arrived and 
  said just those words to him. Sebastien can take them to see her, 
  if they promise to be very, very nice.
  He leads them to a small room containing a freezer. Inside 
  lies the frozen corpse of Irina Maklokova, in a body bag, stacked 
  on top of several others.
  Pathology: Irina died from the Ebola virus. No one should 
  handle the body without a hazmat suit.
  Any agent handling her body with anything less than rigorous 
  concern for the biohazard involved must pass a Difficulty 6 
  Medic test or become infected by the virus.
  A character infected by Ebola makes a Difficulty 4 + x 
  Health test each day, where x is the number of previous tests 
  taken for Ebola exposure. On a failed test the character loses 
  6 Health every four hours, and can refresh Health only when 
  an attending physician passes a Difficulty 12 Medic test. 
  (Difficulty 6 in a state-of-the-art first world hospital.)
  Forensic Anthropology: Investigators taking the risk of 
  performing an autopsy on Maklokova’s body find a hollowed spot 
  in the upper chest cavity. If they’ve already subjected a previous 
  symp host to an autopsy, they recognize this from before.
  The other bodies belong to Voinjama locals, all of whom died 
  of Ebola infections. None of them present with unusual chest 
  cavities.
  Teams who have already run through “Geoslashers” ought 
  to immediately suspect that the symp has changed hosts. Other 
  groups may take longer. Or maybe not; it’s a familiar horror 
  trope and the characters shouldn’t have to act dumber than the 
  players on this.
  Also in the freezer, the team finds vials of frozen blood. 
  Pathology (and a test using proper equipment) confirms that 
  these are contaminated with the virus.
  An examination of the contents of Sebastien’s lab quickly 
  zeroes in on a particular workstation. Lying on the lab table are 
  disassembled parts of the weird grenade the group may have 
  found the specs for on Marshall’s computer, or rejected spare 
  parts for in Enteo’s arms depot.
  Ballistics: If you reassemble them, you can see that they’re 
  gas grenades. A small rectangular payload, about the size of a 
  watch battery, is suspended inside a bubble of propellant and 
  then sealed. When the grenade is thrown, the impact of landing 
  causes the housing to fall apart. The propellant breaks apart the 
  contents of the payload, dispersing it over a wide area.
  Chemistry: Other nearby equipment freeze-dries and 
  dehydrates a quantity of liquid, forming it into the rectangular 
  payloads.
  From these details the group probably doesn’t need Sebastien 
  to confirm that the payloads weaponize tainted blood. These are 
  Ebola grenades.
  If asked, Sebastien further reveals:
  f
  that Friday Bestman took the payloads with him and headed 
  off for parts unknown
  f
  that he seemed kind of dull-witted and sluggish until the 
  Russian chick got sick. Then he suddenly seemed dynamic 
  and alert
  f
  that Friday asked to use his laptop
  (core) Data Retrieval: Bestman used the WaltzMaps app 
  to plot a car route from Voinjama to Gwoza, Nigeria. The 
  app returned a forty-six-hour trip taking him to the Gulf of 
  Guinea coast, through Abidjan, Accra, and Lagos, and then in 
  
  71
  clermont’s lab and gwoza
  a southeasterly direction deeper into Nigeria. It also supplied 
  two alternate routes, each an hour longer. One alternate route 
  takes a slightly more northerly route into Nigeria from Lagos. 
  Another moves through the hearts of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and 
  Togo before heading into Nigeria.
  If the team hasn’t completely secured Sebastien (a condition 
  he does his best to avoid), he lunges for one of them as the clue-
  gathering portion of the scene subsides. He tries to jab one of 
  them with a hypo full of Ebola-tainted blood. If the players took 
  pains to establish where they are in relationship to him, he goes 
  for the closest target. Otherwise he tries to jab the agent who 
  gave him the roughest time, emotionally or physically.
  A Difficulty 4 Scuffling test allows the target to evade the 
  attack. On a margin of 2 or more, the defender can elect to 
  instead jab Sebastien with his own hypo. The team might then 
  debate what to do with him. An Ordo custody team can’t sweep 
  in and extract him if he instead needs to be quarantined. They 
  can take him to the WHO clinic, where he will as likely as 
  not die. Or they can leave him restrained in his lab, where he 
  will certainly excruciatingly die. This last coldblooded choice 
  requires a Difficulty 4 Stability test against a possible loss of 5.
  If they don’t infect him, the agents can call for an Ordo 
  support unit to transport Sebastien to a secure facility. With 
  the PC team needing to move on to Gwoza, this Africa-based 
  support group can take on the task of removing biohazardous 
  material to the safety of the WHO clinic and then burning 
  the rest to the ground. Depending on timing the PCs may 
  see the smoke column as they leave town on their way deeper  
  into the continent.
  Gwoza
  scene type: Core
  lead-in: Clermont’s Lab
  lead-outs: Ellis Sherman, Dirty Bomb
  If the group takes the comparatively urban coastal route, they 
  lose only 2 General ability points from the overland journey. 
  Players decide for themselves whether to subtract these from 
  Athletics, Health, Preparedness, Scuffling, Shooting, or Stability.
  By taking the interior route, they have to ding themselves  
  5 points each.
  As they enter the insurgent-riddled province of Yobe, a 
  government patrol confronts them. These less than dedicated 
  exponents of official authority want either a bribe, a bullying 
  opportunity, or both. On a 1-point Bureaucracy spend, or 
  if the group has already asked if they have a local contact and 
  therefore can throw Charles Kelani’s name at them (see below), 
  the soldiers can be persuaded that the agents have too much 
  pull to mess with. A 1-point Intimidation spend makes the 
  agents seem too dangerous to confront. 1 point of Negotiation 
  represents a sufficient bribe to let the soldiers happily go about 
  their way. Agents unwilling or unable to de-escalate must submit 
  to a search which costs them 4 points of Preparedness as the 
  soldiers commandeer key bits of gear. Players decide between 
  them who loses the points.
  Failing that, the soldiers open fire. These opportunists retreat 
  into the bush as soon as two of them are hit.
  local forces
  abilities: Athletics 4, Health 12, Scuffling 4, Shooting 4
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: −2
  weapon: +0 (machete), +2 (assault rifle)
  +2 damage during first round of fight. Entire group flees after 
  two of them take damage.
  There are as many soldiers as player characters.
  Natural History: The village of Gwoza lies near the 
  Sambisa jungle. This former game preserve was once stocked 
  with wild animals in an effort to promote safari tourism, but 
  that all went to pot years ago.
  (repeated from above) History: The Sambisa jungle is 
  the hideout of the notorious Boko Haram insurgent group, 
  responsible for a wave of bombings and militia attacks. In 2014 
  they gained global notoriety by kidnapping over two hundred 
  school girls and announcing that they would be sold as slaves.
  Additional info, as players plumb their History knowledge 
  for more on Boko Haram. Provide these in response to  
  specific questions.
  f
  The group’s official name is Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna 
  Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, or People Committed to the 
  Teaching of the Prophet and to Jihad.
  f
  Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in 
  the local Hausa tongue, and was applied to the group by 
  townsfolk of the city of Maiduguri, which the group has 
  attacked in the past.
  f
  The group takes a line in the Koran classing all nonbelievers 
  as transgressors to murderous extremes. As far as they’re 
  concerned, it’s not enough to be Muslim — if you’re not 
  their kind of extremist Muslim, you become a legit target 
  for murder.
  f
  In fact, among their chief assassination targets are the 
  region’s emirs, traditional Muslim leaders whose mere 
  existence calls Boko Haram’s authority into question.
  f
  They forbid not only associating with the government and 
  getting a Western education as crimes — they also decry 
  voting, trousers, and dress shirts.
  f
  They fight to create their brand of Islamic state.
  f
  Founded in 2002, they started military operations in 2009.
  f
  Its present leader is Abubakar Shekau, who periodically 
  takes to social media to gloat over his shocking operations or 
  proclaim the joy he takes in fulfilling God’s demands to slay.
  f
  Supposedly killed by security forces in 2009, he popped up 
  a year later, very much alive.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  72
  f
  He took over from the group’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf, 
  killed while in government custody, also in 2009.
  f
  Or was he? Every so often, someone reports seeing Yusuf 
  still at large.
  These real-life rumors may act as a red herring if the team 
  concludes that members of the leadership possess uncanny 
  death-defying powers.
  Forensic Anthropology: Boko Haram members believe 
  in the everyday manifestation of supernatural forces. Its rank 
  and file members take great pains to avoid being haunted by their 
  victims’ ghosts. In the early summer of 2014, a large contingent 
  of them fled Sambisa, ostensibly from bees and snakes possessed 
  by vengeful ghosts.
  Once in Boko Haram territory, investigators might contact a 
  local expert, like Ordo-affiliated Nigerian special forces squad 
  leader Charles Kelani — see sidebar. His take skews toward the 
  practical over the scholarly.
  The village of Gwoza sits on a plain between rocky, arid 
  hills. A few of its one-story structures boast terracotta roof 
  tiles. Residents regard strangers with apprehension, but visibly 
  relax as soon as they see that team members are clad in Western 
  garb and are therefore not murderous guerrillas. Boko Haram 
  regularly raids settlements around here, attacking people and 
  burning down buildings. Foreigners with guns must be here to 
  fight the insurgents. At this time, in this place, the devil they 
  don’t know has to be better than the one they do.
  However, they remain circumspect if asked to give assistance, as 
  they know that some of their neighbors are secretly in league with 
  Boko Haram. People might briefly talk with the agents, but always 
  out of sight, and never to the point of revealing their own name.
  (core) Anthropology: The emir of the mosque, already a 
  Boko Haram target, might be willing to talk. Naturally he must 
  be shown the proper deference.
  Alhaji Umar ibn Usman Askirama (Alhaji is his title) greets 
  the group with wary dignity. At thirty years old, he’s young for 
  the job. All of the elders who ought to hold it have been shot 
  or driven away. He softly asks his attendant, a mute young man 
  with shrapnel wounds on his arms and face, to bring tea. Before 
  inviting questions, he deplores the fact that Nigerian forces 
  cannot stop these killers, and that it is necessary to invite the 
  assistance of random strangers.
  Much of the trouble in the last few months has been stirred 
  up by Babuji Bako, a former bicycle repairman turned terrorist. 
  Some say he is in line to replace Abubakar Shekau, if anything 
  happens to him. He disappeared into the jungle a year ago. His 
  neighbors describe him as an intense, quietly angry man.
  Not long ago a witness Askirama declines to identify saw 
  several transport planes circling for a landing. Based on their 
  position, there must be a landing strip out in the jungle. Until 
  now the rebels have equipped themselves from the limitless 
  supply of rifles and explosives floating around central Africa. 
  The thought that someone from the outside now helps them 
  inspires great worry. The emir can’t think who would be mad 
  enough to do so — some syphilitic Gulf prince with more 
  money than scruples, perhaps?
  Askirama points to a likely spot on the map where the jungle 
  airstrip might be. He says he reported this to government forces, 
  who so far have done nothing about it.
  If present for this meeting, Kelani ruefully shrugs. It is 
  entirely possible that his superiors already know about the 
  airstrip, and are planning to act. Or they’re dragging their feet, 
  due to internal rivalries within the military.
  (alternate core) A frightened townsman might, with enough 
  Reassurance, point to the landing strip. He’s the one who 
  saw the circling plane and reported it to the emir. A lifelong 
  logger and hunter, he has always been very good at estimating 
  distances. Just don’t ask for his name.
  Ellis Sherman
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Gwoza, Insurgent Attack
  lead-out: Insurgent Attack
  The investigators might ask if any Westerners have been seen 
  in the area. Their interlocutors direct them to Ellis Sherman, a 
  rugged, square-shouldered man who looks capable of kicking all 
  manner of ass even though he’s well into his forties. He casually 
  wears a sidearm holster containing a Glock 14. Ellis presents 
  a business card identifying himself as a project coordinator for 
  Thirsty World, an NGO specializing in bringing clean water to 
  developing nations.
  Trivia: Thirsty World was started by prominent celebrity 
  [fill in an appropriate real name].
  Forensic Accounting: Thirsty World deserves its 
  reputation for spending donor money well.
  charles kelani
  If asked, Kelani can explain to the team the difficulties of 
  being an Ordo asset in an ill-governed developing nation. 
  He can’t call on the resources they in the first world 
  typically command. Here the government works more as a 
  bribe extraction operation than a functional bureaucracy. 
  Charles can keep an eye on problems and report when 
  the membrane seems more than usually threatened. But 
  he can’t assemble even a handful of people he can trust 
  to be honest and competent at the same time. Kelani had 
  some possible recruits lined up, but they all departed for 
  richer nations to be educated. Charles doesn’t count on 
  too many of them returning.
  Occult Studies: Widespread belief in occult forces 
  paradoxically offers a margin of error here. In a place where 
  people accept the existence of the supernatural, weird 
  occurrences don’t spark as much cognitive dissonance as 
  they might in Des Moines or Milton Keynes.
  
  73
  ellis sherman, insurgent attack, and dirty bomb
  Languages: Ellis’ accent places him as a native Oklahoman.
  Anthropology: Everything about his bearing and manner 
  suggest a military background.
  A team member might ask him if water is really the first 
  thing this war-torn region needs. He shakes his head and says 
  something like:
  “Every human needs water. But you make a point, I’m sorry 
  to say. I came here to evaluate whether it would be safe for an 
  NGO to operate here. And the answer I’m gonna have to give 
  the higher-ups is negatory.”
  If asked about airstrips, he says he heard rumors of one but 
  could never pin them down. He always looks into air cargo 
  possibilities when evaluating the feasibility of a proposed 
  project. His best guess places it a few miles to the northwest, 
  but that could be wrong. (And is.)
  Bullshit Detector says that Sherman is lying about something.
  In fact, he’s here to meet the Colonel, who will instruct him 
  in the rituals needed to bring about the operation in the final 
  scenario, “Swallowed.”
  He clocks the team as OV as soon as he lays eyes on them. 
  When they meet up with him, he has already accomplished what 
  he came here to do and is preparing to leave. He has no plans to 
  be in town when the Colonel’s dupes set off their dirty bomb. 
  If the team shadows him, he does his best to waste their time 
  without tipping his hand.
  If the team doesn’t look for Westerners, he might make 
  his cameo in other ways. He could show up to shoot back at 
  Boko Haram insurgents during either their optional preliminary 
  attack on Gwoza or the doomed final one. Or he might just sidle 
  up to a canteen when an agent buys food for the team. Sherman 
  wants to find out if they’re here for him. As soon as he confirms 
  that they’re working the Ebola grenade angle, he stops making 
  inquiries that might arouse their suspicions.
  Ellis Sherman returns in “Swallowed.”
  Insurgent Attack
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction / Alternate
  lead-ins: Gwoza, Ellis Sherman
  lead-outs: Ellis Sherman, Dirty Bomb
  Boko Haram members walk among the townsfolk of Gwoza 
  as their friends and neighbors — until they reveal their true 
  allegiances by taking part in a raid or assassination.
  You might include a firefight with insurgents if:
  f
  agents spend too much time dithering in the village without 
  getting any nearer to the core clue
  f
  agents go about their investigation too obviously
  f
  players don’t seem scared enough
  f
  players seem hungry for action
  insurgents
  abilities: Athletics 4, Health 6, Scuffling 2, Shooting 8
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: −1
  stealth modifier: +2
  weapon: −2 (knife), +2 (assault rifle)
  In an initial fight, two more insurgents than agents appear.
  Describe the first insurgent to make a failed attack as having 
  thrown a weird grenade covered with bony bits. It lands in 
  the middle of the agent group… but then (you might roll an 
  additional die here for dramatic effect, if your players dig that 
  sort of thing)… it fails to go off.
  After the battle, they can confirm that this is one of the 
  grenades they’ve seen before, as specs on Marshall Powell’s 
  computer, discarded fragments in Enteo’s weapons depot, or 
  disassembled in Clermont’s lab.
  Ballistics: It wasn’t put together quite right, so the impact 
  pin didn’t burst the propellant sac. Otherwise it would have 
  dispersed its payload over everyone — agents and insurgents 
  alike. The difference was a matter of millimeters.
  Pathology: That payload brick is full of live Ebola virus, all right.
  Players can declare that any downed insurgent is not dead 
  but incapacitated. The youngest of the captured yields to 
  Interrogation, providing the location of the airstrip, as an 
  alternate means to the core clue from “Gwoza.”
  Dirty Bomb
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Gwoza, Insurgent Attack
  lead-out: The Colonel
  Babuji Bako built his airstrip in a dense patch of forest to 
  Gwoza’s northeast. No roads lead there; the group will have to 
  rough it overland. As they move toward it, a sense of indefinable 
  dread pervades. Ask for Stability tests (Difficulty 4), specifying 
  to players that they do not stand to lose points from their pools. 
  For those who fail, ask them to describe a flashback scene to the 
  worst thing their character ever did. (You may recognize this as 
  a trick we’re borrowing from the first edition of The Esoterrorists’ 
  sister game, Fear Itself.)
  A character with Forensic Psychology who isn’t having 
  a flashback senses the distress of any investigators who are. 
  Symptoms include flushing, sweating, and contracting pupils.
  Flashbackers can see no obvious reason why all of a sudden 
  their minds would rush back to those terrible moments, 
  whatever they might be.
  As the team draws nearer to the airstrip, they’ll either take 
  precautions to arrive unannounced or charge in, letting their 
  assault rifles do the talking. In the latter case, the players clearly 
  want a fight, in which case they get one. The insurgents guarding 
  the airstrip, and the hastily constructed shack alongside it, 
  constitute the hardest of the local Boko Haram hardcore.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  74
  hardcore insurgents
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 9, Scuffling 6, Shooting 6
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: +1
  weapon: +0 (machete), +2 (assault rifle)
  This fight includes as many hardcore insurgents as team members. 
  One of these is Babuji Bako, recognizable as leader from the orders 
  he barks at the others. Unless your players are completely asleep at 
  the switch, they’ll choose to keep him alive for later interrogation.
  If on the other hand the group decides to stealth its way in, 
  a Difficulty 5 Infiltration test gets them alone with Bako in 
  his shack. To do this players must describe a way of drawing 
  away the other guards that plays as credible. Don’t make them 
  overthink this: any classic diversion technique suffices.
  The other insurgents may return to shootingly interrupt the 
  team’s confab with Bako if:
  f
  they make a tactical mistake that would logically lead to this
  f
  the players seem disappointed by what feels like an anticlimax
  Bako doesn’t want to give away any information, but sure loves 
  to talk. Like any megalomaniac, he brooks no Intimidation. 
  But Interrogation or Flattery inspires him to rant. Once in 
  full rhetorical flower, he drops his reserve, allowing the group 
  to coax the following from him:
  (core) He takes his orders not from Abubakar Shekau, but 
  from the Colonel, who dwells deeper in the bush.
  f
  The Colonel is a holy djinn, sent by Allah to exterminate 
  that which is forbidden.
  f
  The Colonel used his divine wiles to entice stupid infidels 
  to supply Boko Haram with devastating weapons.
  f
  Some of the weapons were flown in by foreign arms dealers.
  f
  That’s why Bako built an airstrip, to receive these shipments.
  f
  With these, Bako will use the weapons of the West against 
  it, and against those who embrace its evil doctrines.
  f
  Bako will proudly bathe in the blood of a thousand infidels.
  f
  Only through death on an unprecedented scale can the 
  world be purified, and the perfect Caliphate restored.
  History: Like many of his power-tripping ilk, Bako justifies his 
  rampages with a call to the past that is actually quite modern.
  It doesn’t even take a cursory search of the shack to turn up 
  more Ebola grenades, and something even more terrifying — 
  the nearly completely assembled components for a radiological 
  weapon, plutonium payload included.
  Confronted about these, Bako happily confirms that these are 
  the weapons of the West he has been talking about.
  Explosive Devices: The bomb would certainly work. Its 
  fallout would immediately kill or fatally sicken everyone in 
  Gwoza. Detonated in a more populous area, it could kill tens of 
  thousands, maybe more.
  (1-point spend) The payload was scavenged from the ruins of 
  Chernobyl. No other technician in the world could determine 
  this, but fortunately the character has been working on a genius 
  experimental method for detecting trace isotopes.
  the fate of friday bestman
  As soon as Friday Bestman and his symp arrived with the Ebola 
  payloads and showed him how to install them in the grenades, 
  Bako shot him six times in the chest. Bako has enough trouble 
  having to take orders from the Colonel. He sure wasn’t about 
  to let another supernatural entity start bossing him around. He 
  buried Bestman in the same nearby shallow grave containing 
  subordinates who displeased him or questioned his authority. 
  This can be found with a cursory inspection of the airstrip and 
  Evidence Collection.
  Forensic Anthropology shows that the bullets killed both 
  host and symp.
  The Colonel
  scene type: Climax
  lead-in: Dirty Bomb
  lead-out: Assault on Gwoza
  Entering the area of the Sambisa where Bako says the Colonel 
  dwells, agents feel a growing sense of anchorless dread. The 
  jungle causes a Difficulty 4 Stability test vs. a possible loss of 3,  
  just because of the way it feels. You know: the way it makes you 
  think there’s something at the edge of your vision, but, when 
  you look at it, it’s gone already.
  Soon afterwards, the sky darkens. Compasses go crazy. GPS 
  devices conk out. Radios and other communications devices 
  lose power. The smoke that comes out of them smells of rotting 
  meat. Attempts to turn around, if anyone is so cowardly as to 
  try, cause the group to go in circles.
  Ahead of them, they feel a malign presence. Whichever way 
  they try to head, they wind up moving toward it.
  Then they start to see visions. Bloodied, burned, or otherwise 
  ruined figures peep out from behind tree trunks.
  If the group has already completed other scenarios in this 
  book, they see the people they killed, or saw killed, along the way.
  Or they see the Powells, and the various sex club victims.
  Or others horribly killed either in previous scenarios in your 
  series or in various PC backstories.
  Or scenes from their Worst Things They Ever Did flashbacks, 
  which they can interact with but never change for the better. 
  Only for the worse.
  Visions occur to only one person at a time. No one else can see 
  anything; the agent appears to be reacting to empty air, up in the distance.
  Each vision requires a Difficulty 4 Stability test, against a 
  possible loss of 5. Increase the loss to 6 or 7 in the case of a 
  particularly devastating ghost encounter — an agent’s murdered 
  sister causes more trauma than an insurgent who got deservedly 
  shot in the head last session.
  
  75
  the colonel
  (pipe clue for “Swallowed”) Then the entire group sees an 
  airline pilot stumble out of the brush, covered in blood. This 
  vision doesn’t correspond to any event in anyone’s past.
  Trivia: That’s a Singapore Jetways uniform.
  The pilot screams, as if being gnashed by great, invisible teeth.
  If an agent rushes to try to save the pilot, he turns out  
  to be insubstantial.
  The teeth do not: Difficulty 6 Athletics, or take +2 damage.
  With or without a rescue attempt, the pilot is torn to shreds 
  in front of the team’s eyes. Gobbets of flesh fly toward them, 
  then disappear on contact.
  Difficulty 5 Stability, vs. a possible loss of 5.
  After the group moves on, the jungle becomes increasingly 
  strange and hostile. Pungent ichors sweat from the trees. 
  Deformed albino bush pigs storm from the underbrush, as if 
  fleeing something terrible, then die at the group’s feet, reeking 
  of formaldehyde.
  A fog rolls in; its tendrils poke and prod at the agents, wetly 
  trying to get inside their clothes. Difficulty 4 Stability vs. a 
  possible loss of 3.
  Treated wounds open up and start to weep pus. Anyone with 
  less than a full Health pool loses 2 Health.
  After yet more circular trudging, the shrieking of unseen 
  apes resolves into recognizable speech: “Ocean Game! Ocean 
  Game! Ocean Game!”
  Occult Studies: The Ocean Game is a psychomagical fugue 
  state induced by one of the most powerful and intelligent classes 
  of Outer Dark Entity, the Mystery Man. Mystery Men usually 
  target a single individual and over a period of weeks and months 
  draw them into a hostile environment. In this unreality zone, 
  subjective fear takes on palpable physical substance. Until now, 
  Mystery Men have behaved as deliverers of personal horror. 
  Never before has one been known to undermine an entire 
  culture, or take an interest in insurgency or politics.
  Give the players time to draw the inference: if a Mystery 
  Man controls this Boko Haram faction, that represents a bone-
  chilling new escalation of their interference in human affairs.
  As soon as the group has had this anagnorisis, or it’s clear 
  that they’re not going to make the leap, they come to the edge 
  of a pool of gore. Hacked-up bodies float in it. Visible from the 
  bottom of the nose up is the oversized, pulsing, bald skull of the 
  Mystery Man.
  “Welcome to the beginning of the end of the world,” he tells them.
  They now have the chance to enter into a dialogue with an 
  intelligent ODE who is not intending to kill them. Instead, he 
  wants them to take reports of its existence and scheme back to 
  headquarters, to spread fear through the OV hierarchy. Anyone 
  aware of him can later be visited and pulled into an Ocean Game 
  — if there is a later, as far as the world of humanity is concerned. 
  The Colonel does not volunteer this aspect of its scheme. But 
  you might let it slip in the face of extremely tricky questioning.
  The Mystery Man won’t just monologue information at them. 
  For what he reveals, he wants juicy, greasy thoughts in return. 
  For each question he answers, he demands one awful revelation 
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  76
  from a team member. He has been feeling their thoughts since 
  they approached the airstrip and knows enough about them to 
  ask leading questions. It might want to hear about a character’s:
  f
  moment of greatest fear
  f
  greatest dread for the future
  f
  worst regret
  f
  most appalling thought, not acted on
  f
  most heinous crime
  f
  most hated fellow teammate, and why
  The Colonel wants to prolong the game. Mystery Men are all 
  about games. So he gives a solid bit of information when an agent 
  coughs up a true confession. On the other hand, his own Bullshit 
  Detector can’t be fooled. He rejects proffers of fact that clearly 
  seem to you to be withholding, deceptive, or vaguely sketched.
  The nuggets of information it trades them could include:
  f
  awful facts about their own lives
  f
  tying up loose ends in this scenario, or the other 
  Worldbreaker cases they have already investigated. (It 
  reveals nothing about upcoming cases, except for the hints 
  about “Swallowed,” below.)
  f
  any unanswered questions about the Powells and the lead-
  up to the sex club slayings
  f
  If the agents find a way to destroy him, they merely dissipate 
  his form temporarily on this meager gray reality.
  f
  He’ll find his way back. Human fear and need always draws 
  him back here. Even when he doesn’t want to come.
  f
  Moles, enslaved to the Outer Dark, infest the Ordo 
  Veritatis. They render all the efforts of the honest dupes, 
  like the agents, useless. (This is the one untrue thing the 
  Mystery Man says.)
  f
  The Outer Dark didn’t make Boko Haram or any of the 
  other maniacs who run riot over the earth killing in the 
  name of god or justice. That’s a human thing.
  f
  Yes, the agents foiled this one excursion, with the grenades 
  of pestilence and the bomb of slow devouring. But their 
  victory will be short lived, for they have extended the days 
  until the final working only slightly.
  f
  If asked about the symp’s attempt to get flight simulators 
  from Enteo, the Mystery Man smiles, revealing a row of 
  razor-sharp teeth.
  f
  It’s not the Outer Dark that makes the world evil. It’s humanity, 
  with its collective cesspool of anxiety, greed, dominance and hate, 
  that makes the beings of the Outer Dark. (To the extent that you 
  can, delay this revelation to serve as capper to the scene. It 
  occasions a Difficulty 6 Stability test against a possible loss 
  of 4 to all who hear it.)
  Once the energy seems to drain out of the scene and the players 
  strain to think up new questions, the Mystery Man sinks into 
  the pool of blood and body parts, vanishing from sight. Diving 
  into the pool requires a Difficulty 4 Stability test against a 
  possible loss of 6. It does not bring the character any closer to 
  the Mystery Man. He is hiding in a membrane fissure, because, 
  again, he doesn’t want to fight them. He wants them to infect 
  the Ordo with paranoia.
  Assault on Gwoza
  scene type: Coda
  lead-in: The Colonel
  As the team returns to town, remaining Boko Haram forces 
  attack it. Assuming that the team has done something to set 
  them back, for example by killing or capturing Bako, taking out 
  other insurgents, or confiscating their Ebola grenades and dirty 
  bomb, the attack plays out as a damp squib. A volunteer militia 
  roused by Charles Kelani confronts the last few dead-enders 
  and, taking only a few casualties, finishes them off.
  If however the agents have so utterly failed that only a 
  horrifying result seems apt, the insurgents release the dirty 
  bomb. Agents test Health against a Difficulty of 8. Those who 
  fail die of radiation poisoning during the break between this 
  scenario and the next, and must be replaced by fresh PCs. A 
  new wave of terror-driven fear grips the world, significantly 
  thinning the membrane. Difficulties of directly opposing 
  ODEs, including Hit Thresholds, increase by 1 for the rest of 
  this campaign.
  Send in the Drones
  scene type: Denouement
  For all its potential for destabilizing awfulness, this case hands 
  one advantage to the team. Its supernatural element occurs only 
  behind the scenes, requiring little or no veiling out.
  What it could use, however, is a drone strike aimed right at 
  the Mystery Man’s pool of blood. Like he already explained, it 
  won’t destroy him. But leaving him in place would surely be 
  worse. OV assets in the unofficial NATO targeting division send 
  the group the trademark black and white kill-cam footage of the 
  strike, for whatever consolation that grants.
  Until he comes back in a later scenario of your devising, 
  haunting one of the Ordo functionaries who read their report…
  
   
  swallowed
  a Passenger airliner disaPPears without a trace over the Pacific. 
  When Esoterror keywords start showing up in the ensuing wall-
  to-wall news coverage, agents spot dangling threads from the 
  various conspiracies arising from the San Francisco sex club 
  murders. They realize they’re the team best positioned to figure 
  out what really happened to flight SJ713.
  Sinister Conspiracy
  Former CIA agent Ellis Sherman has assembled the pieces 
  necessary to finally and utterly destroy the membrane, ushering 
  in the end of humanity as we know it. Esoterror operatives 
  trained under his auspices have hijacked SJ713 and flown it 
  to an island. On this Pacific atoll, newly created by fear and 
  anxiety generated during the previous cases, the passengers 
  will be slowly fed to the Emerging One, the most enormous 
  Outer Dark Entity to ever break through the membrane. When 
  it reaches its full size, it will burst forth, tearing apart the 
  membrane worldwide.
  Trail of Clues
  A Pilot Flashback tips the agents to a relationship between 
  the plane’s disappearance and a premonition they endured 
  during “Heart of Outer Darkness.” They check out cable 
  anchor Wallace Cherry, who has been framing the story in 
  supernatural terms. Assembling the Picture lets them turn 
  prior pipe clues into leads to follow now. They might probe into 
  the black-market Flight Simulators Yuri Enteo was involved 
  with, find clues in the Zurich offices of a shell company called 
  Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, or brace Washington, 
  DC, viral marketer Vera Hampton. Looking into an NGO 
  called Thirsty World, also a dangling thread from “Heart of 
  Outer Darkness,” leads them to mastermind Ellis Sherman, 
  or at least the bloody trail he left behind. Following up on the 
  weird tattoos previously encountered in “Coulrophobia” leads 
  to Jerrod Peeples, who stands in for the many malcontents 
  seeking a new life by attending the sinister bacchanal Vera’s 
  company sponsors. Vial Behavior, picking up a thread from 
  “New Crystal Maiden,” leads to a Bangkok suburb. Elsewhere 
  in that great urban sprawl, a Bangkok Chop Shop holds the 
  location of The Island where all this will soon go down.
  Once on the island, the team must choose between a recon 
  of the Fuselage Bacchanal or charging headlong into an 
  encounter with the Emerging One, in The Eater and the Eaten.
  Antagonist Reactions
  The Emerging One fights back if the team tries a frontal assault 
  along with SSF jarheads in Copter Assault. Vera Hampton, the 
  island’s guards, and celebrants, and of course the Emerging One 
  itself all offer potentially lethal resistance.
  
  worldbreaker
  Swallowed
  78
  Scenes
  Pilot Flashback
  scene type: Intro
  lead-outs: Wallace Cherry, Assembling the Picture
  Have each player in turn briefly describe what their agents 
  might be doing on a typical, unremarkable day in their ordinary 
  lives. Ask them to wrap each brief description by checking the 
  news. Inventive players will describe their agents doing this in a 
  variety of ways that reflect their characters’ age and occupation: 
  checking an RSS feed, looking at Twitter, passing a newspaper 
  box, having cable news blared at them from an airport lounge 
  TV monitor, and so on.
  Then a news story catches their attention: Singapore Jetways 
  flight 713 from Phnom Penh to Taipei has lost contact with air 
  traffic control. Multiple passenger mobile phones made contact 
  with cell towers since the last radio signal from the cockpit. 
  Singapore air force and coast guard have scrambled to search 
  for wreckage. However, the possible radius in which the plane 
  could have gone down is massive. They are now seeking aid from 
  neighboring nations in widening the search.
  Supply these facts about the flight, as provided in the news 
  report, in response to player questions:
  f
  It was supposed to take fifteen hours.
  f
  Most of the passengers were Taiwanese nationals returning 
  home after a Cambodian vacation.
  f
  A delegation of clean energy experts headed for a 
  symposium in Taipei also traveled on board.
  f
  Some family members report receiving calls from passenger 
  cell phones. What they hear varies: nothing, electronic 
  interference, or eerie, unintelligible yowling.
  Tell the players that learning of a missing Singapore Jetways 
  flight gives them chills. Depending on how recently you played 
  “Heart of Outer Darkness,” a player might without prompting 
  remember the hallucination of the injured pilot in the SJ 
  uniform (p. 74). Give the group a few seconds to bring it to 
  mind. Otherwise, fill in the memory gap by describing a likely 
  agent having a vivid, sweaty flashback to that scene.
  At this point the players will likely think to call in to their 
  handlers and warn them that this event may have an Esoterror 
  connection. Suggest that the characters would do this as standard 
  procedure if it doesn’t occur to the players.
  If the pilot hallucination from “Heart of Outer Darkness” did 
  not occur in your version of the scenario, or if no agent who 
  had it still survives, start instead with “Wallace Cherry,” below.
  Wallace Cherry
  scene type: Intro
  lead-ins: Pilot Flashback, Assembling the Picture
  lead-outs: Assembling the Picture, Eichhorn Hunold 
  Verwaltung, Vera Hampton
  If you played the previous scene, the action now jumps ahead 
  a couple of days. SJ713 is still missing. The media, particularly 
  cable news networks, have gone into full frenzy mode over this 
  one. With a constant stream of unreliable reports and wide 
  leeway for speculation from deskbound anchors and their expert 
  guests, it hits their sweet spot of high drama and low budget.
  Interest in the story spans the globe. Early sensor readings 
  by OV research teams show the membrane thinning worldwide. 
  Damage reaches a dangerous peak throughout the Pacific Rim.
  It is now Sunday morning. Last night, on top cable news 
  network W24, second-string anchor Wallace Cherry actually 
  asked a guest the following:
  “We’ve been looking for rational explanations for this. And 
  that’s probably where we’ll find them, in fact and logic. But as the 
  story goes on, with so many weird details we can’t account for, 
  isn’t it time to start wondering if some truly unexplainable force 
  took that plane? Every Sunday we go to church and consider the 
  supernatural. Why are we ruling it out when talking about a 
  truly puzzling disaster like this one?”
  As the team’s current Mr. Verity explains, Cherry’s words 
  could spring from one of two sources: stupidity, or malice. 
  Esoterror regularly spreads information, some of it true, 
  through their media flunkies, intended to stoke fear and degrade 
  the membrane. Verity assigns the team to determine which 
  profile Wallace Cherry matches: buffoon or Esoterrorist?
  Verity’s briefing book gives them Cherry’s address in a posh 
  residential district of Washington, DC. The team can intercept 
  him on his 6 am jog, before he gets into his car to go to the 
  studio, or in the coffee shop on the retail floor of the office 
  structure where W24 headquarters its DC bureau.
  Cherry has taken part in enough tough interviews to put up 
  a strong front under pressure. At first he defends his comments 
  as a legitimate avenue for exploration. When a team member 
  goes at him hard, he falls back to a second position: hey, when 
  you’re live on air, you have to keep talking, and sometimes you 
  hear yourself saying something you maybe wouldn’t if you sat 
  down to write it out.
  If the players make him say this by accusing him of being up 
  to something, the response triggers Bullshit Detector.
  (core) Forensic Accounting allows an agent to access 
  his private financial records. They reveal a series of payments, 
  putatively for speaking fees. The checks were written on the 
  corporate account of a firm called Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung.
  Research shows that Cherry’s rare paid speaking 
  engagements in no way correspond to the dates of the payments. 
  Also, he just netted his biggest payment of all, hours after his 
  remarks about the missing flight and the supernatural.
  
  79
  pilot flashback, wallace cherry, assembling the picture
  On a 1-point spend for both of the above abilities, the 
  relevant players may specify in mid-interview that this legwork 
  already happened. (Other options: 1) The players actually 
  already thought to check his financials before bracing him. 2) 
  They go away, do the digging, and come at him a second time.)
  Armed with this information, the team can get him to spill by 
  either offering not to tell his bosses (Negotiation) or pressing 
  his head very hard against the hood of a car (Intimidation).
  Well, any form of Intimidation will do, really. We don’t 
  mean to be over specific.
  In response to pertinent questions, Cherry reveals the following:
  f
  His mortgage has been underwater since the financial crisis. 
  You need to look flush to rise at the network. So sure, he 
  took an opportunity for a little extra cash when it came his 
  way. But he never compromised his integrity as a newsman.
  f
  (alternate core) The arrangement was set up by a woman 
  named Vera Hampton.
  f
  He met her at a cocktail party thrown by the big agribusiness 
  conglomerate, Archer Daniels Midland.
  f
  She represented a viral marketing firm called Vivonics.
  f
  All he had to do was insert certain keywords she supplied 
  into his off-the-cuff banter and interview segments.
  f
  These were never brand names, so his bosses could never 
  come at him for inserting unauthorized ads into his copy.
  f
  After a while Vivonics started requesting that keywords 
  appear in relation to certain news stories.
  f
  The news stories they chose kind of surprised him. Typically 
  sponsors don’t want to be associated with disasters, 
  murders, and political crises.
  f
  Over time the words grew darker in tone, and harder to fit 
  into his remarks. Words like despair, suicide, madness, fear, 
  and surrender.
  f
  But the checks grew steadily larger, so he got creative.
  f
  This latest time, with the downed jet story, he was given 
  more detailed instructions than ever before. He had to not 
  only work in the word “supernatural” but suggest that the 
  disappearance maybe had an unearthly cause.
  f
  He knew he’d catch flack for saying something so ridiculous 
  but they threatened to expose him if he balked now.
  f
  And, yes, they upped his fee even more: a cool twenty 
  grand just for saying one bonehead thing.
  f
  It wasn’t even the stupidest thing a cable anchor said that day.
  The team can decide what to do about Cherry. They might bust 
  him to W24 executives, demand that he warn them of any future 
  contact from Vivonics, or hold what they have on him to turn 
  him into an unwilling OV asset.
  Alternate takes: If this is your intro, start the action in the 
  same place, but update the players on the basic facts of the 
  story as given above. In this instance the OV called them and 
  put them into action as part of a broad effort to determine 
  whether Esoterror provoked the incident, has been stoking 
  fears according to its usual opportunistic MO, or is uninvolved. 
  In doing so they are following their standard protocol in the 
  wake of a high-profile catastrophe. The agents have taken part in 
  these broad investigative efforts before, though it never came to 
  anything and so did not happen onstage in your series.
  In yet another version, you might describe each agent 
  separately tracking down a different possible lead, with only 
  the Wallace Cherry angle panning out. These might reflect their 
  specialties or backgrounds:
  f
  The agent with the best Shrink rating interviews an 
  institutionalized schizophrenic patient who tried to stab 
  her nurse. The patient believed the nurse to be one of the 
  “monsters” who downed the flight. (The patient, Anabelle 
  Jefferson, is a sensitive picking up on evil intentions leaking 
  through the membrane. But she has no useful information 
  to supply beyond vague intuition.)
  f
  An agent with Forensic Accounting tracks down rumors 
  of curious movements in Singapore Jetways’ stock prior to 
  the crash. (Totally groundless — the stock took a big dip, 
  but as part of a general haircut to the airline sector.)
  f
  An agent with Pathology checks out a report that one of 
  the passengers showed symptoms of bubonic plague in the 
  Phnom Penh departure lounge. (A false report based on a 
  mistranslation of an unremarkable interview with a witness 
  in Phnom Penh.)
  f
  The team’s Ballistics expert works on a computer model 
  figuring out where the plane could have been shot down 
  from, were it hit by a surface-to-air missile. (Which turns 
  out not to be the case.)
  Create similar scenes specifically keyed to various agents’ most 
  notable traits.
  This shows the Cherry lead as just one among many — the 
  one that happens to go somewhere. Some players may feel 
  sidelined if relegated to a quickly narrated color scene at the 
  outset. If you use this approach, put the Cherry scene at the end.
  Assembling the Picture
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Pilot Flashback, Wallace Cherry
  lead-outs: Wallace Cherry, Flight Simulators, Tattoo Hunt, 
  Ellis Sherman, Vial Behavior
  In the early going, either before or after the Wallace Cherry 
  sequence, describe the team members as having one of those 
  ultra-cinematic deduction sequences in which flashback shots 
  swirl around on CGI vapor trails and the sound track makes the 
  whooshing noises we all hear when we think really hard.
  Tell them that their subconscious deductive minds are sorting 
  through the huge mass of data and experience they accumulated 
  over the course of the symp cases and picking out the key points 
  that somehow feed into the plane disappearance.
  
  worldbreaker
  Swallowed
  80
  These elements include:
  f
  a clue or image from the investigation of the Powells
  f
  the sex club crime scene
  f
  the video image of the symp-possessed quartet leaving the club
  However, the scene only occurs if the group noted, uncovered, 
  or participated in at least one of the following:
  f
  Zach’s tattoo (p. 18; core for “Tattoo Hunt”)
  f
  Blood vials (p. 56; core for “Vial Behavior”)
  f
  Flight simulators (p. 64; core for scene of the same name)
  f
  meeting Ellis Sherman (p. 72; core for “Ellis Sherman”)
  f
  the chat with the Colonel (p. 74)
  Somehow, the group realizes, all of these things fit together. But how?
  Time for more legwork.
  Flight Simulators
  scene type: Core
  lead-in: Assembling the Picture 
  lead-outs: Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, Jerrod Peeples
  Law: Since 9/11 intelligence agencies have kept watch on who 
  buys flight simulators for commercial aircraft. Regulations 
  in various jurisdictions require that they be sold by licensed 
  operators with impeccable security credentials, and only to 
  legitimate aviation entities, from airlines to training schools.
  Cop Talk: A check of international law enforcement 
  databases reveals that the leading seller of illicit flight simulators 
  is Roel Govaerts, a Belgian national.
  According to the dossier, he banks in Zurich, where he was 
  last seen, four months ago.
  He travels often to East Asia and the former Soviet bloc, living 
  out of hotels. If he maintains a permanent place of residence, 
  Interpol doesn’t know it.
  At one point he was photographed with Transnistrian arms 
  dealer Yuri Enteo.
  If the group is on non-shooting terms with Enteo after the 
  events of “Heart of Outer Darkness,” they might return to 
  the Wolf’s Den in Tiraspol (p. 64) to quiz him about this. 
  Govaerts has vanished without paying him in full, leaving Enteo 
  looking for payback. He cheerily supplies it, by telling the team 
  what he knows:
  f
  He sold Govaerts a number of damaged, obsolete, or 
  gray-market flight simulators over the years, which he had 
  refurbished somewhere in Thailand.
  f
  Govaerts took possession of them in Transnistria and 
  shipped them himself, so Enteo doesn’t know exactly 
  where in Thailand.
  f
  The Belgian’s credit was good until four months ago, when 
  he disappeared.
  f
  Hoping to cut out the middleman, Enteo had one of his 
  men leech the data from Govaerts’ phone when he was 
  occupied with a hooker.
  f
  (core for “Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung”) From this he 
  concluded the client was a shell company out of Zurich 
  called Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung. He has yet to follow 
  up on this, since he hasn’t come into possession of another 
  flight simulator since.
  If agents can’t or don’t want to talk with Enteo again, they can 
  go to Zurich, or talk via phone to Interpol liaison Mirjam Egger.
  (alternate core) Should they go to Zurich, you can stop 
  it from being a dead end by having Egger show them a photo 
  of Govaerts coming out of the building housing the Eichhorn 
  Hunold Verwaltung office. She tried to reach someone there but 
  never did, eventually letting the detail slide.
  Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Wallace Cherry, Flight Simulators, Vera Hampton, 
  Ellis Sherman
  lead-outs: Vera Hampton, Thirsty World, Jerrod Peeples, 
  Ellis Sherman, Bangkok Chop Shop
  Forensic Accounting: Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung belongs 
  to the countless legion of obscure shell companies incorporated 
  in Switzerland. Its incorporation papers list a physical address 
  on Zurich’s Zähringerstrasse. That could easily turn out to be 
  a post office box operation or some other umbrella service to 
  give the illusion of physicality to an entirely notional company.
  The agents may debate whether to travel to Zurich or to 
  depute a local OV team to check it out.
  If they delegate, they soon get word that a bomb detonated in 
  the office during the infiltration, killing two agents, permanently 
  incapacitating another, and leaving another two temporarily 
  sidelined. Agents who argued for delegating make Difficulty 4 
  Stability tests against a possible loss of 3. They also get a plastic 
  bag containing a shattered hard drive recovered from the ashes.
  If they go themselves, they find that the Zähringerstrasse 
  belongs to the city’s Kreis (neighborhood) 1. If plump and 
  prosperous Zurich had a low-rent district, this would be it. The 
  office is a second-floor walk-up atop a hair salon.
  Once on the scene, a Difficulty 6 Infiltration test 
  determines whether a bomb goes off when agents enter the 
  premises. Anyone present for the explosion tests Athletics 
  against a Difficulty of 4. Characters who succeed lose 2 Health. 
  Those who fail lose a die of damage +4. The explosion destroys 
  the contents of the office, including the hard drive containing 
  all the core clues.
  Absent an explosion, the office on first glance appears cheap, 
  spare, and uncommunicative. A pile of unopened junk mail lies 
  beneath the mail slot.
  
  81
  flight simulators, eichhorn hunold verwaltung
  Evidence Collection: From the postmarks, it’s clear that 
  no one has sorted through the mail in the last four months.
  Battered furniture that looks like it was picked up at 
  a police auction sits next to an empty water cooler and an 
  emptier filing cabinet.
  Natural History: Mouse droppings lie under the 
  baseboards; cockroach eggs, along the windowsill.
  Forensic Anthropology: That stain on the floor under the 
  throw rug might be blood. But it’s been scrubbed, making an 
  uncontaminated DNA sample unlikely.
  Evidence Collection: However, the severed finger behind 
  the filing cabinet might be worth looking into.
  Fingerprinting (and a check of the Interpol database) IDs 
  the amputated digit as belonging to Roel Govaerts, a Belgian 
  national wanted for the illicit purchase and resale of commercial 
  flight simulators.
  Cop Talk and a visit or call to Interpol leads to a conversation 
  with Mirjam Egger, an officer of the Federal police on loan to 
  Interpol. She shares the following:
  f
  Govaerts was in the business of buying and refurbishing 
  commercial flight simulators, mostly from the developing 
  world. Some of his clients might have been hardscrabble 
  third world airlines hoping to save money by circumventing 
  security procedures. However, a disgruntled ex-
  accomplice pleading out on unrelated charges accused him 
  of meeting with al-Qaeda splinter groups. As goes without 
  saying, they would not have a benign reason for wanting to 
  own flight simulators.
  f
  He employed technicians to upgrade the simulators and 
  then resold them. They apparently worked out of a shop in 
  Bangkok. Thai police have not prioritized requests to track 
  it down from this sketchy description. They might have 
  been bribed, or simply unconcerned with a crime unlikely 
  to affect Thai citizens.
  f
  Born in Belgium but constantly on the move, Govaerts did 
  his banking here, in Zurich.
  f
  Efforts to apprehend him stalled when he dropped 
  completely off the grid four months ago.
  hard drive
  In the explosion-free scenario, the hard drive has been encrypted 
  and then wiped. Accessing the data requires Cryptography 
  and Data Retrieval.
  Also, if the device remains intact it becomes apparent why 
  its owner risked leaving it behind: Forensic Anthropology 
  shows that it’s spattered in human blood. It would be 
  more incriminating on its owner’s person than in a hastily  
  abandoned hideout.
  A player might not reconstruct events to understand that 
  whoever left this place had to have had a bomb sitting around, to 
  use in the event of an emergency. From here one might surmise 
  that its owner wanted to take out any investigators who might 
  be poking into his affairs.
  Occult Studies: This spiteful tradecraft typifies the highly 
  trained contingent of Esoterror operatives.
  If the laptop was blown up, none of this can be divined 
  without also spending 1 point of Data Retrieval.
  Either way, the team recovers only a portion of the hard 
  drive’s contents. However, they do get a big chunk of email 
  downloaded from a private server. It consists of terse messages 
  from the laptop’s apparent user, who identifies himself only as ES.
  The emails stop four months ago, the last time the computer 
  was used.
  f
  (core for “Ellis Sherman”) Some consist of apparently 
  legitimate communications with a Los Angeles–based 
  NGO called Thirsty World, which brings clean water to 
  the developing world. (If the team met Ellis Sherman in 
  “Heart of Outer Darkness” and heard him claim to work 
  for Thirsty World, players may remember this detail on 
  their own. If not, let them grope to recall until it becomes 
  tedious — which will be quickly — and then remind them. 
  Their characters would remember, even if they don’t.) Ellis 
  Sherman owned this laptop.
  f
  (core for “Bangkok Chop Shop”) Document Analysis: 
  A much more cryptic set of communications connects 
  the laptop’s user to someone with the initials RG. In the 
  early exchanges, RG is illegally selling ES refurbished, 
  upgraded flight simulators. RG suggests that ES send his 
  trainees to Bangkok, where the simulators are. ES finds this 
  convenient, as he has other business in Thailand. Later RG 
  starts to extort ES for hush money. The last message finds 
  ES inviting RG to pick up his USB drive full of Bitcoin at 
  this address.
  f
  With the initials RG and the mention of illicit flight simulators, 
  plus Cop Talk, the team can get the Interpol information on 
  Govaerts, as above.
  f
  (core for “Vera Hampton”) ES also communicated 
  extensively with Vera Hampton, of the Washington, DC–
  based viral marketing firm Vivonics. The most fragmentary 
  of the interesting sections of email, these exchanges reveal 
  little of the nature of their business. However, Forensic 
  Psychology points to something weird. ES frequently 
  explains basic concepts that anyone older than five would 
  know, for example what a passport is, why people need 
  food and water, and why attendees at a party might expect 
  music. It’s as if he’s explaining to a quick learner how to 
  successfully pose as a human being.
  
  worldbreaker
  chapter name
  82
  I came to in a chilly room with corrugated metal walls. Running 
  through my mental list of obscure businesses the Glendenning family 
  kept up as part of their cloak of normalcy, I pegged it for an emptied-
  out utility closet in their ice factory. I tried to get out of the metal 
  chair I was slumped in but no dice. They’d zip-cuffed me by the wrists 
  behind the chair. Each of my ankles was duct-taped to one of its legs.
  Not so long later I heard the door unbolting. Harry Glendenning, 
  the one who didn’t look, sound, or act like any of the others, came 
  through the door. You’d expect your ordinary sadist to grin, or walk 
  with exaggerated slowness, or tut-tut, or whatever move a maniac 
  uses to gloat over his dominance when he has you over a barrel. 
  Still nothing — his expression and manner were just as dead and 
  unrevealing as ever.
  He asked me in that barely inflected monotone to identify the 
  other members of my Ordo Veritatis cell. I asked him if he was 
  adopted. I’d done a records check on him, I said, and the earliest 
  documentary proof of his existence dates back to 2009. Harry 
  didn’t blink. He repeated the question. So this time I told him to 
  piss up a rope.
  vortex wraith
  Carelessly, I thought, he had left the door open. This would be my 
  opening, somehow, to escape. That’s what I told myself.
  Harry’s body folded in on itself, becoming a set of floating blood 
  vessels wrapped around a twisting, hypnotic null-space, encased in 
  a blur of utter darkness. Briefly he reassumed humanoid shape, 
  leaping onto the ceiling like an insect. Then he leapt on me as a 
  shower of pain. My flesh tore; my bones broke. The chair crumpled 
  beneath me; I leapt to my feet, limping, wincing in agony. I ran down 
  a dark and unfamiliar corridor.
  I felt a whooshing of air over my head. Now the creature Harry 
  had turned into stood in front of me. It thrust a shard of nothingness 
  into my gut, pulled out my intestines, and shoved them in my face.
  It did a lot else, too, before I finally died. Now my stolen 
  consciousness occupies a triangle of pulsing anti-matter, afloat in the 
  howls of the Outer Dark. They’ve extracted everything I know about 
  you. Ripped from my body, my mind could not resist their commands. 
  Now they’ve forced me to record this message.
  They want you to know they’re coming.
  — transcript of an .AIFF audio file found on the hard 
  drive of Mr. Verity 820, 24/12/2014. Voice analysis identifies 
  it as a skillful but not exact mimicry of the voice of agent 
  Galen Hobbs, missing since 07/11/2014.
  Vortex wraiths arise when needed from the turbulent energy 
  of the Outer Dark. They leak through the membrane in order 
  to express its will to invade our world. Once through the 
  membrane, they adopt human form. Exactly how they select 
  their bodily appearance remains a matter of controversy among 
  the Ordo Veritatis’ ODE researchers. The current default 
  theory is that a newly arrived, formless vortex wraith scans the 
  unconscious mind of the first person it encounters, searching 
  for physical traits this random bystander associates with 
  persuasiveness, power, or status. The human shells of vortex 
  wraiths always seem in some way attractive or charismatic. 
  These visual cues enable them to prosper in society despite 
  their initial lack of familiarity with it.
  Even when they’ve been here a while and picked up the 
  basics, they retain a cipher-like quality. Beings of pure intellect 
  and intention, they lack personality or individual identity. That 
  their fundamental detachment does not impede them much 
  speaks to our tendency to react to people according to what 
  they look like, and to project emotional qualities we desire 
  onto others. Unlike the bulk of ODEs, vortex wraiths derive 
  no apparent pleasure from inflicting torment on humankind. 
  Nor do they feed on us. They pursue missions meant to pierce 
  the membrane with soulless, algorithmic efficiency. They act as 
  effective instruments of a force that happens to be evil and 
  destructive. Though capable of abstract thought, they can no 
  more evaluate their actions on moral or ethical grounds than a 
  virus can consider the impact of its replication on its host.
  
  vera hampton
  Vera Hampton
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Wallace Cherry, Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, 
  Thirsty World, Tattoo Hunt, Vial Behavior
  lead-outs: Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, Tattoo Hunt,  
  Vial Behavior
  Research: Vivonics’ street address places it in an anonymously 
  modern highrise on Washington’s Wisconsin Avenue.
  Attempts to contact her ahead of time for an appointment 
  stop at her receptionist, Brad Heathman. He puts them off with 
  perfect bored professionalism. Vera is too slammed managing an 
  upcoming event to take on any new clients at this time, he tells 
  them. When the team shows up in person to breeze past him, 
  they may feel that his ear gauges and hipster mustache contrast 
  oddly with his expensive business suit. A civilian with no 
  knowledge of Vera’s true nature or agenda, Brad has no reason 
  to disbelieve her and reads as honest to any Bullshit Detector.
  Maybe the team waits to buttonhole Vera when she leaves 
  her office, or circumvents Brad’s entirely mundane interference 
  techniques in some other way.
  With her upswept red hair, cat’s eye glasses, and fashionable 
  business wear, Vera looks like a manic pixie dream girl grown 
  up and gone corporate. For a social media marketing guru, she 
  comes across as strangely detached, as rehearsed or robotic.
  Her initial cover stories depend on what direction the team 
  comes at her from.
  If asked about supplying keywords to Wallace Cherry, she 
  claims to have been hired by a client whose identity she cannot 
  reveal. Off the record, though, she can tell them the media 
  keyword scheme is part of a study by a market research firm. The 
  firm wants to determine the impact, if any, of negative trigger 
  words on responses to the advertising that appears around it. 
  Were this revealed, it would skew the data, so she asks the team 
  to respect the importance of this psychosocial research and keep 
  this story to themselves. If players question the ethics of this 
  study, she appears baffled, as if unfamiliar with the concept.
  If asked about her connection to Eichhorn Hunold 
  Verwaltung, she says that it hired her to find a bottled water 
  company willing to partner with Thirsty World. Thirsty World, 
  she says, is an NGO that digs clean wells in places that don’t 
  have them. She names the real-world famous person who  
  helped found it.
  On a specific mention of Ellis Sherman, she identifies him 
  as her contact at Thirsty World. If told that the NGO disclaims 
  all association with him, she attempts to express shock  
  and confusion.
  Her reaction to any suggestion that she has a peculiar manner, 
  or that the email exchanges between her and Sherman are in 
  some way odd, elicits a complete non-reaction.
  Characters trying to get a sense of her with Bullshit 
  Detector realize that she lacks all standard behavioral tells. She 
  seems neither obviously truthful nor clearly deceptive. It’s as if 
  she’s voicing lines fed to her on an invisible headset.
  What Vera does next depends on the degree to which the 
  agents tip their collective hand. Should they truly manage to 
  come off as bored investigators into some utterly routine matter, 
  she senses trouble but decides not to risk drawing attention to 
  Vortex wraiths collaborate with human Esoterrorist assets, 
  arriving to help particular individuals accomplish their specific, 
  current goals. When destroyed, or when the mission concludes, 
  they dissipate. Perhaps their energies return through the 
  membrane; perhaps not. If the Outer Dark does reabsorb them, 
  no evidence yet exists of a vortex wraith preserving memories, 
  goals, or other identity remnants over successive incarnations.
  Vortex wraiths attack only when completion of their 
  mission leaves them no better option. To do this they must 
  revert to their energy-being states. In this mode they flit back 
  and forth between a roughly humanoid shape composed of 
  roiling blacks with fuzzy gray edges, and a completely formless 
  mass surrounded by floating red manifestations that look like 
  blood vessels. They can grow appendages and shape them into 
  weapons to fit the needs of the situation. These might range 
  from saw-like arms to spike-covered hammers.
  Only at the moment of the killing strike do they show a 
  momentary hint of the Outer Dark’s passion for sadism, 
  dispatching their victims in as shocking a manner as the 
  situation allows.
  Vortex wraiths always work alone.
  Use vortex wraiths when you need ODEs capable of cooperating with 
  Esoterrorists. They grant you some variety when you need a servitor 
  creature in human guise but have already used symps recently.
  game statistics
  abilities: Athletics 14, Health 18, Scuffling 18
  hit threshold: 7 vs. Shooting, 5 vs. Scuffling
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: +4
  weapon: +4 (anti-matter tendril)
  armor: None
  When a vortex wraith hits an opponent, every other opponent 
  that has damaged it during the current fight also takes this 
  damage. A vortex wraith always attacks the opponent that most 
  recently damaged it. If it has not yet taken damage, it attacks 
  the opponent with the highest Scuffling pool; break ties with a 
  random die roll.
  Visualize this for players by describing its floating red vessels 
  sprouting from the body of the opponent it hits and zipping out, 
  Taser-wire style, to pierce the victim’s allies. The tendrils wrap 
  around or phase through any solid barriers between victims.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  84
  the mission by going after them. More likely they’ll come on 
  strong, like typical PC investigators, making it plain that they 
  suspect her of Esoterror links. In this case, she uses her inhuman 
  powers to find them alone and attack them. She might invite 
  Brad to head home for the day, stall until he heads out the door, 
  and then try to murder the team right in her office. Chances are 
  she’ll have to get them sometime later.
  Vera can be destroyed but not captured. Under no condition 
  does she supply useful information to the investigators. Her 
  mere existence does confirm that they’re on the right track.
  Brad the receptionist has no clue as to Vera’s true identity 
  but fears her all the same, as an intimidating and demanding 
  employer. Unless they can somehow establish that she’s gone 
  for good, without revealing information that shouldn’t fall into 
  civilian hands, he clams up.
  After they dispatch Vera, getting into her office and accessing 
  her computers poses little difficulty. However, the contents have 
  been secured to minimize exposure to Sherman’s operation.
  (core) Data Retrieval: Aside from the attempt to seed 
  media reports with keywords enhancing the Esoterror value 
  of the airliner story, Vivonics’ main activity appears to have 
  been the organization of a big promotional event. For months 
  now it’s been placing heavy ad buys on websites geared to a 
  twenty-something, primarily male demographic. Sites run the 
  gamut from car culture to gun bunnyism to death metal. A 
  program also scours the Internet for trolling activity and targets 
  advertising at the angriest, most antisocial posters. When users 
  click through to the ads, they see one for an all-expenses-paid 
  party vacation to an undisclosed exotic locale. To enter they 
  must fill in a questionnaire. Although the ads don’t specify the 
  product they’re promoting, hints indicate that it might be a new 
  brand of extreme energy drink. Subjects who post a lot about 
  drinking and partying receive a variant approach from a bogus 
  vodka brand. The vodka supposedly looks like black ink in the 
  bottle, turning clear when poured.
  Players may remember a similar recruitment modus 
  operandi from “Coulrophobia.” If not, further ability use points 
  in the same direction.
  Forensic Accounting: Though it seems to be calculated 
  to extract demographic data, the questions asked for that 
  purpose are actually garble. They must be a smokescreen for 
  something else.
  Forensic Psychology: Many of the seemingly innocuous 
  questions instead check for psychopathic and/or sociopathic 
  tendencies. They also test how easily led the form-filler  
  might be.
  Apparently those respondents meeting certain criteria 
  received invitations to the event, including free airfare from 
  wherever they were in the world.
  (core clue for “Tattoo Hunt”) However, they had to fill an 
  onerous condition: getting a large tattoo on their forearms, 
  with the design supplied to them in the invitation. The image 
  looks like a series of intertwined appendages, like tentacles with 
  serrated saw blades on the end. Squinted at from a distance, 
  it also looks like a baleful visage. (1-point Data Retrieval) 
  Invitees were supposed to use a special photo-active ink that 
  glows under UV light. But from the recoverable fragments it 
  seems that many had trouble following the secretive instructions 
  to pick up their vials of ink, or finding tattoo parlors prepared to 
  use ink from an outside source.
  Occult Studies: The tattoo’s overall design recalls markings 
  made by Outer Dark Entities and the Esoterror magicians who 
  summon them.
  A separate list of flight bookings suggests that hundreds of 
  contestants were selected. Brad booked them all on separate 
  flights, all of which have taken off by now. Nor is there a single 
  destination: flights terminate throughout the Pacific Rim.
  Forensic Accounting: A series of leasing agreements 
  suggests that the winners were collected in various cities by 
  private transportation companies. The Vivonics laptops lack 
  information on what the final destination might be. (Cop Talk: 
  This likely represents tradecraft. Vera may not have known 
  herself, with another party contacting the transpo companies 
  with coordinates to the party site.)
  Based on the departure times listed for the flights, winning 
  contestants will all have departed by now. Invitations list a start 
  time for the event beginning in less than forty-eight hours.
  The closest respondent with a flight ticket is Jerrod Peeples 
  of Seven Corners, Virginia. See “Jerrod Peeples.”
  Data Retrieval reveals the email exchange with ES and his 
  company “Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung.” See that scene for a 
  description of its contents.
  A 2-point spend also recovers the following text fragment, 
  which appears in an email from Vera to ES.
  “[fragment begins] essential that Emerging One remains 
  encocooned in [unrecoverable] until fully manifest. It will know 
  not to venture from the safety of the fissure. But if lured out, 
  failure [fragment ends]”
  This puzzle piece may lead a clever group to take a supply of the 
  ODE-luring crystals from “Geoslashers” to the final encounter.
  Thirsty World
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Ellis Sherman, Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung,  
  Vera Hampton
  lead-outs: Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, Vera Hampton, 
  Ellis Sherman
  Thirsty World maintains offices in a plush skyscraper near 
  Beverley Hills, CA. Its spokesperson, fast-speaking fundraising 
  veteran Zoe Meredith, can be reached by phone, or, if the 
  investigators feel they have the time for a cross-country flight, 
  in person. Either way, she tells them that the group has never 
  heard of Vera Hampton, let alone employed her. Nor does it have 
  any knowledge of, or dealings with, an entity called Eichhorn 
  Hunold Verwaltung. Scammers often pretend to represent 
  real charities in order to bilk people. So if those people were 
  
  85
  Thirsty World, Jerrod Peeples, Vial Behavior
  claiming a connection to Thirsty World, they were obviously 
  running some kind of con.
  Ellis Sherman they have heard of: two years ago, they found 
  out he was falsely representing himself as a Thirsty World 
  projects manager. They hired a private detective to track him 
  down and amass enough information on him to lodge a fraud 
  complaint. Soon afterwards a government official who declined 
  to identify herself showed up in the office to ask the Thirsty 
  World CEO to drop the entire matter.
  (core for “Ellis Sherman”) This woman heavily implied that she 
  was from the CIA, and that Ellis Sherman was an asset of theirs.
  This did not end Ellis Sherman’s use of their name. Thirsty 
  World execs found this extremely troubling. Their legit 
  project people could easily be endangered in any number of 
  the developing nations they work in if they were mistaken for 
  CIA agents. The last report of Sherman presenting himself with 
  Thirsty World credentials occurred over a year ago.
  Forensic Accounting: Thirsty World does appear to be on 
  the up and up.
  In person, agents can use Bullshit Detector and see that 
  Zoe answers their questions truthfully. They can also pick up 
  a signed photo of the real-life celebrity you’ve chosen as the 
  founder of Thirsty World, posing with happy children in front of 
  a high-tech well in Bolivia.
  Jerrod Peeples
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: Vera Hampton
  lead-outs: Flight Simulators, Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, 
  Tattoo Hunt, Ellis Sherman, Vial Behavior,  
  Bangkok Chop Shop
  Jerrod Peeples lives in a middle-class subdivision in Seven 
  Corners, a tranquil outer exurb of Washington, DC.
  When the investigators show up asking questions about him, 
  his mother, a drawn woman in her late fifties drinking coffee 
  from a super-sized convenience store cup, wilts. “What has he 
  gotten himself into now?” asks Brenda Peeples.
  She knows nothing about Jerrod’s whereabouts, but senses 
  that it can’t be good. Shown the tattoo design, she affirms that 
  he just got that hideous thing put on his arm.
  Brenda tells a tale of a son who was never quite right. He’s 
  been troubled since kindergarten. Now verging on his thirties, 
  he’s never held down a job for more than six months. He gets 
  into physical altercations with anyone who disrespects him. 
  However grandiose his schemes, he never works toward them. 
  Over the past few months Jerrod gained a sense of direction 
  and became quieter and more focused. Brenda hoped this would 
  lead to something, but then he up and vanished. She’s been 
  hoping that maybe he enlisted in the military, as unlikely as that 
  sounds, problems with authority and all.
  A few days before he left, they had a huge fight over his refusal 
  to help out with even the most basic household chores. He told 
  her he was about to be one of the world’s most important figures, 
  then went to his room to crank up his ear-blistering music.
  Jerrod took his laptop with him.
  Vial Behavior
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Assembling the Picture, Ellis Sherman,  
  Bangkok Chop Shop
  lead-outs: Vera Hampton, Jerrod Peeples,  
  Bangkok Chop Shop
  During “New Crystal Maiden,” the team may have discovered 
  that its bad guys were shipping the blood of ODE victims to 
  Nonthaburi, Thailand. At that point, the trail went cold. But in 
  the intervening period, Thailand’s thinly stretched Ordo Veritatis 
  assets have found a few new leads. Mr. Verity contacts the team 
  to tell them this if it doesn’t occur to players to follow up.
  A secure call placed to Thai colleague Thanapat Kulhong 
  reveals the following:
  f
  Several months ago [after the events of “New Crystal 
  Maiden”], several truckers were killed in hijackings of 
  refrigerated vehicles. The official investigation assumed that 
  they were taken for their contents by particularly ruthless 
  small-time criminals. Knowing to be on the lookout for an 
  Esoterror cell or cells shipping blood products, Thanapat 
  accessed the case files. The cops suspected a duo of brothers, 
  Kaeo and Witthaya Pongpas, but couldn’t make the case.
  f
  Or, Thanapat must concede, maybe they took a bribe.
  f
  Barely a crime exists that doesn’t appear somewhere on 
  the rap sheets for Kaeo and Witthaya Pongpas — but only 
  in the arrest column, never as a conviction. Sex trafficking 
  and torture-murder of witnesses stand out in particular. 
  They’ve also been hauled in countless times for alleged 
  smuggling of drugs and other contraband.
  f
  They maintain their supposedly legit business, an 
  embroidery sweatshop, in Nonthaburi, not far from the 
  notorious Big Tiger prison.
  Law: The prison’s official name is Bang Kwang Central Prison. 
  But only officials call it that.
  Thanapat works in the IT department of the Royal Thai 
  Police. Though a civilian, this post allows him covert access to 
  police databases. He’s strictly an OV support operative, without 
  the skills or inclination for field work. If the agents ask, he’ll 
  detail a local fixer, indebted to him when he erased some 
  damning details from his criminal record, to assist them while 
  in Thailand.
  This contact, Sudket Kugasang, is a skinny man with bad 
  teeth in his mid-thirties. He warns the group when he meets 
  them that he will sell them out if his life is threatened or his 
  enemies name a better price. He may owe Thanapat a favor, but 
  he remains a businessman.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  86
  A point of Intimidation or Negotiation, spent as soon 
  as he makes this disclosure, ensures his loyalty. Otherwise, 
  depending on what opportunities the group gives him, he may 
  find a way to turn on them.
  Alternatively, a character with Languages can spend 1 point 
  of it to also speak passable Thai for the duration of this scenario. 
  This is a special case dispensation from the usual Language rules.
  In yet a third option, a character who can justify a stint 
  in Thailand as a backstory element can pay a point of any 
  Investigative ability the player can tie into this newly revealed 
  background element. For example, a character might have spent 
  time here researching classical Thai art, and can spend a point of 
  Art History to speak enough Thai to get by here.
  Trivia: Nonthaburi might have been a separate city from 
  Bangkok once, but it has long since merged into a single sprawl. 
  Though legally its own entity for all practical purposes, everybody 
  treats it as part of the seething conurbation that is Bangkok.
  the bold approach
  Kaeo and Witthaya can be found at their sweatshop.
  Approaching it, the team member with Architecture notes 
  that the area’s power lines have been tampered with, to draw 
  way more power into the building than any structure around 
  it. Less surprisingly, the meters have been gimmicked to report 
  falsely low electricity use to Bangkok’s power utility.
  Once inside, the group sees a couple of dozen elderly women 
  hand sewing fashion and sports logos onto baseball caps and 
  other clothing items.
  f
  Forensic Accounting: Clearly, these products are knockoffs.
  The burliness of both Pongpas brothers makes them look more 
  Samoan than Thai. They wear loud shirts open halfway to the 
  navel, with cascades of cheap gold necklaces dripping down 
  onto their chests. Both keep their hair in long, unwashed 
  ponytails. Kaeo can be distinguished from Witthaya because, as 
  the younger of the two, his doesn’t have gray streaks in it.
  f
  Forensic Anthropology: They are on either meth or 
  coke. A lot of it.
  They do display one odd common feature though: both have 
  circular rashes around their mouths.
  f
  Pathology: They suffer from ringworm infections. This 
  fungal infection passes from host to host through bodily 
  contact — for example, kissing.
  Adopting postures suggesting a familiarity with the violent arts, 
  they deny any knowledge of any blood smuggling operation.
  f
  Architecture: The low vibration of the shop’s wooden 
  floorboards indicates a large bank of refrigeration  
  units below.
  If an agent accuses the two of having a sexual relationship (as the 
  communicable ringworm scars indicate), Kaeo attacks Witthaya, 
  accusing him of having a big mouth. This allows the group to 
  overpower them both without having to resort to full-on combat 
  fight. Two team members pay 1 Scuffling apiece to make this 
  happen. Otherwise, they prove surprisingly difficult to handle.
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 24, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +2 (+1 if they haven’t met the agents yet)
  weapon: +0 (machete)
  the stealthy approach
  Alternately, the group can try to sneak in, bypassing a 
  confrontation with the brothers. The best time to try this occurs 
  when the surprisingly inseparable brothers leave the shop. It 
  hums twenty-four hours a day, with workers pulling one of two 
  twelve-hour shifts. The brothers have Alertness Modifiers of 
  +2 (+1 if the team has yet to meet them, because they’re not 
  yet on their guard). For their part, the embroiderers dutifully 
  never see what else happens in the factory, and have Alertness 
  Modifiers of −2. Even if the team fails its Infiltration test, 
  workers note but ignore their presence.
  The brothers don’t keep regular hours. Wired on cocaine, 
  they can show up to bully and terrorize their workers in the 
  deep of the night or the heat of the day. To be sure they’ve gone, 
  the group must stake out the factory. This requires a Difficulty 
  4 Infiltration test; on a failure, local toughs show up to shake 
  them down, threatening to alert the Pongpases. Convincing the 
  shakedown artists to beat it requires a 1-point Negotiation 
  or 2-point Intimidation spend. Though more bark than bite, 
  getting into a fight with them tips off the brothers, who come 
  out to apply their superior game statistics to the situation. The 
  number of toughs equals the size of the group, plus one.
  neighborhood toughs
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 4, Scuffling 8
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: −2
  stealth modifier: −2
  weapon: −1 (brass knuckles)
  inside the sweatshop
  Whether they get in by stealth or by going through the brothers, 
  the team finds the shop’s basement level given over to a series of 
  jury-rigged refrigeration units.
  f
  Architecture: Whoever turned the contents of several 
  hijacked refrigerated vehicles into this makeshift cooling 
  room was a crazy genius. Genius because it works, 
  crazy because none of the individual units can be turned  
  off separately.
  
  87
  tattoo hunt and ellis sherman
  Only about a twentieth of the room’s capacity is now being 
  used. A few racks of blood vials still sit near one wall.
  f
  Evidence Collection: But from the tiny droplets of 
  blood, and the rust marks where other racks once stood, 
  it used to be full. The bulk of the unit’s contents must have 
  already shipped.
  Outside the sweatshop stands a rusted-out oil drum about one-
  quarter full of paper ash. This is where the brothers dutifully 
  burned all of their packing slips and other documentation 
  related to the Esoterror operation.
  (core for “Vera Hampton”) Chemistry: One fragment 
  in particular might be recoverable after some time spent in a 
  hastily jury-rigged lab back at the hotel. If treated, it turns out 
  to be a bank transfer from Vera Hampton, giving her name and 
  the address of her Washington-area office.
  Both brothers would sooner take a beating than 
  expose themselves to the retribution of the conspiracy by  
  admitting anything.
  (core for “Bangkok Chop Shop”) Evidence Collection: 
  However, by subduing elder brother Witthaya, agents can check 
  out the contents of his bulging wallet. Along with a condom, a 
  packet of coke, and a thick wad of 100 and 500 baht bills, they 
  find a business card.
  A bloody fingerprint marks the card, suggesting that Witthaya 
  was handling it at the same time as the cargo he was gathering 
  and storing. The card gives an address and phone number for 
  a junkyard and automotive repair shop in Patpong, listing its 
  proprietor as Catchai Chantawong. On the back of the card, in 
  Thai script, Witthaya made a note to himself that translates as 
  “only deal with Chantawong.”
  The group could well grab Witthaya’s wallet by other means. 
  Let any plausible method work.
  Tattoo Hunt
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Assembling the Picture, Jerrod Peeples,  
  Vera Hampton
  lead-out: Vera Hampton
  With a copy of the tattoo design on hand, the team can begin the 
  grinding legwork of contacting various ink parlors throughout 
  North America — or beyond, for that matter. They have to 
  search for tattoo parlors and call them to describe the design 
  and the sort of person who might have gotten it. After following 
  up with emailed images of the tattoo, they can get the parlors 
  to pull credit card information. Some clients paid cash, but 
  others are traceable. Describe this process as laborious to the 
  characters without dragging it out so it actually becomes so to 
  the players.
  If asked, a couple of tattoo artists say that the recipients 
  claimed they were getting them as part of the admission to a 
  super-exclusive party they won in a contest. At least one of 
  them expresses misgivings about that story: “It felt like the guy 
  was bullshitting me.”
  After many days, they get a few hits, for such tattoo 
  customers as:
  f
  Tony Carr, Glendale, AZ
  f
  Sabrina Cohen, Ann Arbor, MI
  f
  Retha Hedges, Newark, NJ
  f
  Virgilio Blanco, San Antonio, TX
  f
  Dante Berg, Los Angeles, CA
  f
  Ronny Wisniewski, North Gulf Beach, FL
  f
  Xan Yung, Portland, OR
  f
  Kimberlee Clem, Charlotte, NC
  Further legwork pulls up information about these people. 
  With Forensic Psychology, patterns emerge. All are heavy 
  Internet users with disposable income, or access to money they 
  could steal or embezzle. Their online trail includes classic signs 
  of misanthropy, aggression, and stunted empathy. Their postings 
  and comments betray both an alienation from society and a 
  desire to be led. Almost all are in their twenties. Frequently 
  occurring common interests include the occult, the military, 
  guns, music, drugs, and fringe culture. Many had brushes with 
  the law, though not enough to restrict their movements.
  In other words, perfect low-level Esoterror recruits.
  Forensic Accounting: Because these individuals were 
  found via their credit cards, their later movements can be 
  tracked — but only to a point. All of them booked flights to 
  various Pacific Rim cities at different times, with their arrivals 
  occurring just days before the disappearance of flight SJ713. 
  But after those arrivals, every single person’s money trail goes 
  completely cold.
  A visit to a tattoo recipient’s home leads to an encounter with 
  an indifferent, bored, or worried family member — whatever 
  you think offers the most unexpected or compelling interaction. 
  A search of the person’s apartment, house, or room in the family 
  abode leads to a scrubbed computer. Data Retrieval allows 
  the recovery of some but not all communications regarding the 
  contest, including the tattoo design.
  (core clue for “Vera Hampton”) Although the email address 
  has been spoofed, it can be traced to Vera Hampton’s office.
  Ellis Sherman
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Assembling the Picture, Eichhorn Hunold 
  Verwaltung, Thirsty World, Jerrod Peeples
  lead-outs: Vera Hampton, Thirsty World, Vial Behavior, 
  Bangkok Chop Shop, The Island
  If they’re following up the Ellis Sherman thread of the 
  investigation after “Thirsty World,” the team already suspects 
  that his name somehow connects to the CIA.
  
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  Otherwise, Research turns up references to his name in 
  such Global War on Terror hotspots as Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, 
  Somalia, and Pakistan. That sure smells like the CIA.
  A character might have an intelligence background in her 
  day job. If so, she can make the contacts necessary to arrange a 
  meeting at Langley with the CIA officer responsible for covering 
  Ellis’ tracks. Otherwise the Ordo pulls the necessary strings, 
  warning them that the person they’ll be speaking to has not 
  been cleared for any supernatural truths.
  This is Jan Melfi, a smartly attired woman in her late thirties 
  who declines to describe her exact role at Langley. Although 
  her superiors have ordered her to cooperate with the team, that 
  doesn’t extend to supplying more information than the team 
  asks her for:
  f
  When she learned that a private detective hired by Thirsty 
  World was looking for Ellis Sherman, she intervened to 
  ensure that they dropped the matter.
  f
  Ellis was a CIA operative until about four years ago.
  f
  She assumed that Thirsty World was looking into operations 
  that occurred before then.
  f
  If she’d been alerted to the fact that he was still out in the 
  third world using that name and claiming to be from an NGO, 
  she’d instead have initiated an inquiry into whatever loose 
  cannon activities he’d been drawn into since his retirement.
  f
  She has no idea what he was up to, but it wasn’t agency business.
  f
  Ellis was a sharp, dedicated agent with exactly the ruthless 
  streak needed to perform certain unpleasant duties.
  f
  Jan can’t believe that he’d go to the dark side. He might go 
  off the reservation, but he wouldn’t aid terrorists.
  f
  He did however take it hard when his father died, leaving 
  the care of his disabled brother, Gary, in his hands.
  f
  At least he had the money to hire in-home care for poor Gary.
  f
  Gary has cerebral palsy.
  f
  Of course, “Ellis Sherman” was a cover identity.
  f
  If he’s still using that name, he’s taking a calculated risk. 
  He’ll have plenty of IDs and field resources tied to it.
  f
  In real life “Ellis Sherman” was Drew Watkins of Wolf Trap, VA.
  For clarity, we’re going to keep calling this character Ellis Sherman.
  Known for the well-known performing arts venue of the 
  same name, the capitol-region bedroom community of Wolf 
  Trap radiates all the calm money can buy. The Watkins abode 
  stands next to a wooded area at the end of a cul-de-sac.
  No one answers the door. Its lock offers no impediment to 
  the seasoned investigator.
  Electronic Surveillance: The alarm system has been  
  left unengaged.
  Once inside, calls to any occupants go unanswered.
  Forensic Psychology: Tasteful but anonymous décor 
  suggests an orderly mind with limited emotional attachment to 
  this place or its contents.
  Two exceptions break the home’s general neatness: a ground 
  floor bedroom and a den beside it. Clothes and books litter the 
  bedroom floor. Pop culture memorabilia stuffs the shelving 
  lining its walls.
  Forensic Psychology: Though of adult size, the ultracasual 
  clothing items still project a teenage style.
  Game consoles and cartridges lie strewn on the floor of 
  the den. A large TV dominates the room. More shelves contain 
  more action figures and collectibles. A bowl of cheese doodles, 
  crumpled packaging lying beside it, has spilled in the middle 
  of the floor.
  On a worn leather couch, a knitted afghan blanket covers a 
  prone, immobile figure.
  Forensic Pathology: The knotted musculature and bone 
  structure of the dead man indicates that he had cerebral palsy.
  This must be Gary.
  Forensic Pathology: Bruising at the throat shows that 
  the killer attempted to strangle the victim. Broken fingernails 
  attest to Gary’s struggle for life. Partway through, the murderer, 
  clearly bigger and stronger than Gary, gave up his attempt at 
  strangulation and then beat him to death. The killing wound 
  was a blow to the back of the head. Its configuration matches 
  the couch’s wooden armrest. The killer must have held his head 
  and bashed him into it. Blood spatter on the armrest affirms  
  this reconstruction.
  Forensic Psychology: The use of a blanket to cover the 
  body signals a regretful murderer who still cares for the victim. 
  It is most often seen in murders of family members. (1-point 
  spend) If Ellis did this, which seems likely, he might have been 
  trying to spare his brother from some much worse fate. This 
  seems like an act of departure, which raises the questions: why 
  was Ellis going away? And what coming event could he be trying 
  to shield Gary from?
  An un-ignited incendiary device has been stuck to the wall 
  with hastily torn duct tape.
  Explosive Devices: If it had gone off, the device would 
  have burned down the house, likely obscuring the cause of 
  Gary’s death. The flawed installation of its timer points to 
  someone trained in bomb construction, but rusty at the job and 
  working in haste.
  Cop Talk: As a CIA field operative, Ellis might have been 
  taught bomb-making long ago, but probably relied on other 
  specialists if he ever needed a bomb.
  Evidence Collection: In the den’s wastepaper basket, the 
  investigator finds the remains of a shattered smartphone.
  Forensic Anthropology: That’s blood on the phone parts. 
  (After a DNA test of the blood) It belongs to Gary.
  Ballistics: The phone shattered when it hit the floor, then 
  was further damaged by a hammer.
  From this the group might infer that Gary dislodged Ellis’ 
  phone from his pocket during the struggle. When Ellis switched 
  from strangling to beating, he got Gary’s blood on the phone 
  fragments. Well aware that it contained damning information, 
  Ellis then further destroyed it.
  Explosive Devices: No doubt he was counting on the fire 
  from the incendiary to finish the job.
  
  89
  bangkok chop shop
  Data Retrieval gets some of the contents back. The team 
  can tell that:
  f
  (core for “Vera Hampton”) he had extensive email contacts 
  with Vera Hampton, head of a viral marketing firm from 
  Washington called Vivonics
  f
  (core for “Bangkok Chop Shop”) he regularly phoned a man 
  named Catchai Chantawong, proprietor of a garage and 
  junkyard in Patpong
  f
  (core for “Vial Behavior”) he was arranging for unidentified 
  persons 
  to 
  smuggle 
  biohazardous 
  material 
  into  
  Nonthaburi, Thailand
  f
  2-point spend: (alternate for “The Island”) the phone’s 
  photo folder contains multiple shots of a flat, largely 
  featureless atoll in what look like tropical waters
  Bangkok Chop Shop
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Flight Simulators, Eichhorn Hunold Verwaltung, 
  Jerrod Peeples, Ellis Sherman, Vial Behavior
  lead-out: The Island
  Catchai Chantawong’s auto junkyard and repair garage occupies 
  a borderland at the edge of Bankgok’s Patpong red light district. 
  A desiccated man in his late sixties who breathes with the aid of 
  a portable oxygen tank, Chantawong tolerates no foolishness. 
  He has survived as a Thai criminal for decades, with all the savvy 
  and payoffs to cops that entails.
  Only since the mid-2000s has he branched into black-market 
  flight simulators. He doesn’t understand the tech, but sees the 
  positive impact on his bottom line. His adult daughters, Ploy, 
  Noon, and Sai, handle the computer and electronics end of 
  things. Their tautly muscled, machete-wielding male cousins 
  take apart cars, or people, as Catchai commands.
  Semi-feral dogs wander the junkyard, ready to attack 
  intruders. Include one more of them than there are investigators.
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 3, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: +1
  stealth modifier: +1
  weapon: −1 (bite)
  A 2-point Natural History spend and a credible explanation 
  of what the agents are doing allow them to neutralize the threat 
  of the dogs without having to fight and kill them.
  A fight with the dogs alerts the Chantawong cousins. There 
  are one fewer of them than there are investigators.
  abilities: Athletics 6, Health 7, Scuffling 6
  hit threshold: 3
  stealth modifier: −1
  weapon: +0 (machete)
  If engaged in conversation, Catchai tries to portray himself to 
  the team as simply an honest seller of stolen vehicles.
  Cop Talk: He probably hasn’t paid off the cops to look the 
  other way on charges of abetting international terrorism. If the 
  team assures him that they’re not looking to jam him up on that, he 
  might decide that it will cost him less to cooperate than to resist.
  Reassurance, in a situation in which the agents have some 
  sort of upper hand over him, does indeed prompt him to give 
  them access to the flight simulators, and to provide the following 
  information in response to questions:
  f
  He worked with a Belgian, Roel Govaerts. Govaerts 
  sourced obsolete flight simulators and shipped them to 
  Catchai’s shop.
  f
  Catchai then refurbished them to modern standards, or 
  modern enough. In every previous case, he then arranged 
  for them to be shipped out of Thailand. Govaerts then 
  took over again, getting them the rest of the way to his 
  clients. Catchai told him that he never wanted to know 
  who the clients were, and Govaerts never exposed him to  
  unwanted information.
  f
  Recently though Catchai took an extra risk. He wanted to throw 
  his youngest daughter, Sai, a lavish wedding, and got greedy.
  f
  So he agreed to let a group come to his garage to train on 
  the simulators.
  f
  He did this only after being assured that they wouldn’t look 
  like terrorists. They weren’t Arabs, Persians, or Pakistanis; 
  they were Singaporeans.
  
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  f
  The man making the arrangements was an American, 
  Ellis Sherman. He gave Catchai the impression he 
  was CIA, which gave him further confidence that 
  this wouldn’t blow back on him. It was some kind of  
  counter-terrorism operation.
  f
  So for several months, a group of Singaporeans has been 
  coming here and using his black-market flight simulator.
  f
  They left about a week ago. No one said where they were 
  going, and Catchai certainly didn’t ask.
  f
  One of the Singaporeans asked Ploy to scrub sample routes 
  from the simulator’s memory. So he assumes they did that.
  (core for “The Island”) Data Retrieval: Although the route 
  was erased from memory, the agent recovers it. The route they 
  practiced took them from Phnom Penh to a set of coordinates in 
  the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
  The Island
  scene type: Core
  lead-ins: Ellis Sherman, Bangkok Chop Shop
  lead-outs: Copter Assault, Undercover Entry
  If the team has the coordinates (either from “Bangkok Chop 
  Shop” or an event you improvised):
  A character with Natural History recalls no island or anything 
  at that spot. A check of the map confirms it.
  But if they call in recent satellite imaging for that spot, they 
  see that a tiny atoll has suddenly appeared there.
  Natural History: But there’s something not right about 
  this atoll. Normally they form when changing ocean levels 
  expose a coral reef above the waterline. A regular atoll would 
  have formed very slowly; this one came suddenly into being. 
  And there seems to be some other material along with the coral, 
  giving it a greater surface area than it would ordinarily have. 
  Also, there’s a strange smudge in the satellite image, near the 
  atoll’s northernmost jutting point.
  The latest satellite imaging of this spot occurred before flight 
  SJ713 disappeared.
  Given the attention the vanished plane has received, the 
  Ordo can’t immediately arrange a new satellite sweep without 
  tipping off the uninitiated.
  If the team has Ellis Sherman’s photos of the tropical atoll 
  (either from “Ellis Sherman” or an event you improvised):
  Natural History: This looks like an atoll, but with some  
  odd features.
  f
  Normally they form when changing ocean levels expose 
  a coral reef above the waterline. Some strange, black 
  material fills in the surface in what otherwise would be a 
  lagoon encircled by coral.
  f
  The most useful shot is taken at night, and shows the 
  surface of the atoll lit up by a row of generator-powered 
  lights arranged on a rig like you might see at an outdoor 
  performance.
  f
  The moon and the stars in the background allow the agent to 
  consult a historical celestial cartography tool to pinpoint a 
  large area of the Pacific Ocean as the likely site of the photo.
  The team can then call HQ for recent satellite sweeps of the 
  area, pinpointing the atoll, as above.
  The Ordo scrambles a jet to the agents to pick them up and 
  take them, along with an SSF squad, to the island. If they go 
  along with this suggestion, go to “Copter Assault.” Alternately, 
  if they have the tattoo design, the team might instead propose a 
  stealth infiltration, in which they get their arms suitably inked 
  and seek to join the other Esoterror recruits. Mr. Verity approves 
  this plan if they propose it. Go to “Undercover Entry.”
  2-point Occult Studies spend: This gathering of Esoterror 
  recruits from around the world suggests an enormous 
  summoning underway on the island. During a summoning, 
  creatures from the Outer Dark take on earthly substance as they 
  cross the membrane. If they come through the membrane too 
  quickly, they fail to fully form. The ODE-attracting crystals from 
  that WaltzMaps case (“Geoslashers”) could be useful in forcing 
  it through the membrane too soon, and could kill whatever it is.
  Getting the substance shipped to their present location delays 
  the operation by half a day. During the mop-up phase, they learn 
  that this cost the lives of an additional four passengers. They 
  may, however, wind up deciding that it allowed them to save the 
  other passengers.
  Copter Assault
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-in: The Island
  lead-outs: Celebrants Attack, Fuselage Bacchanal,  
  The Eater and the Eaten
  Special Suppression Forces squad leader Paige Brotherson briefs 
  the group at a commandeered base on the French Polynesian 
  island of Uturoa. She projects a steroidal, more-macho-than-
  the-boys persona. Three copters will be going in — two SSF 
  teams in the forward force, and the agents in a third copter. Their 
  chopper will land once the jarheads have secured the scene.
  Brotherson reacts with a drill sergeant’s unamused authority 
  if investigators balk at this plan. Though she strongly resists any 
  efforts to change it, players may argue with sufficient tenacity or 
  logic to require you to give in.
  Suggest that one of the agents might want to pilot the 
  copter. If no one has experience piloting a whirlybird, a 
  1-point Driving expenditure now means that they have had it 
  all along. It never came up before, that’s all. As a reward for 
  keeping things moving, the character gets to keep the piloting  
  experience permanently.
  
  91
  the island, copter assault, and undercover entry
  As the copters near the island, the agents feel an overpowering 
  sense of anxiety. They must make Difficulty 4 Stability tests, 
  against a possible loss of 4, merely for nearing it. The Emerging 
  One senses them coming at it in such an obvious fashion and 
  batters them with waves of inchoate fear.
  Further, each agent must make a Difficulty 6 Health test 
  or suffer a demoralizing physical reaction to the fear waves. On 
  a failure with an even-numbered result, the character vomits 
  uncontrollably. On an odd-numbered failure, characters lose 
  control of their bowels.
  Up ahead, gunfire flashes from within the copter squad 
  leader Brotherson is riding in. (The team probably has no way 
  of figuring this out, but one of her men has completely lost it 
  and is shooting everyone inside, hallucinating that they’re blood 
  corpses.) The chopper spirals into the sea, falling to pieces on 
  impact. Sharks converge on the wreckage.
  Ballistics: The pilot must have taken a hit.
  The second chopper remains in the air long enough to circle 
  over the ocean. Then a strange cloud-like mass rises from the 
  atoll to briefly envelop it. The chopper drops from the sky, crash 
  landing on the atoll in a plume of flaming smoke.
  If the agents got the plan changed, find a way of having the 
  creature on the island immediately wipe out the SSF officers 
  that better fits the circumstances.
  Then another cloud-mass rises from the island to swat at 
  their copter.
  Ask the players whether their characters look into the mass 
  or avert their eyes. Those looking at it see inside the mass to 
  a collection of roiling demon faces tearing each other apart, 
  reforming, and then tearing each other apart again.
  If the pilot is a GMC, the agents see her bleeding from her 
  eyes, screaming inarticulately.
  A Difficulty 6 Driving test determines whether the team’s 
  copter also crashes into the atoll.
  Add 1 to the Difficulty for each of the following factors that apply:
  f
  The pilot’s seat is presently occupied by a blinded, 
  screaming GMC.
  f
  The agent making the attempt hasn’t been established as 
  having copter experience.
  f
  The agent making the attempt is trying not to look  
  at the cloud.
  On a success, the agent brings the copter in for a safe landing. 
  Although many of the Esoterror celebrants gathered on the 
  island remain in a dissociated state and pay no attention to 
  them, some rouse themselves from their mental fog and attack 
  the intruders. See the “Celebrants Attack” Antagonist Reaction 
  scene, coming up.
  On a failure, the copter makes a crash landing but remains 
  intact. Each character aboard makes an Athletics test with a 
  base Difficulty of 4. Add the difference between Difficulty and 
  result on the previous Driving test to this Difficulty. Those 
  failing take a die of damage +1. Those succeeding lose 1 Health.
  Crashing the copter brings one consoling side benefit: the 
  still-intact whirling blades give the group cover to fan out and 
  momentarily escape the Esoterrorists who would otherwise be 
  converging on them.
  Nonetheless, this entrance blows their cover. They probably 
  initiate the events of “The Eater and the Eaten” without much 
  further investigation.
  Undercover Entry
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-in: The Island
  lead-outs: Celebrants Attack, Fuselage Bacchanal, The Eater 
  and the Eaten
  This scene occurs if the agents decide to try to get on the island 
  quietly, posing as Esoterrorists. For this to have any chance of 
  working, they must all get the tattoo (p. 87) inked onto their 
  arms. If they use the special photo-active ink they might have 
  acquired from Zach Moreno during “Coulrophobia,” they gain 
  an advantage.
  They have to decide what vehicle to use to get to the atoll. 
  The less prepossessing, the better. They might show up in a 
  motorized dinghy, some other small watercraft, or on a small 
  plane or helicopter. Aerial vehicles have to look shabby enough 
  to pass muster as something Esoterror wannabes could have 
  scrounged up after missing a planned rendezvous. The sleek 
  copters fielded by the SSF give the game away.
  When the agents arrive, a pair of Esoterror guards approaches 
  them to ask to see their credentials. The agents must show their 
  tattoos, and explain why they showed up here alone.
  The guards carry UV lights, under which the tattoos are 
  supposed to fluoresce. However, if they don’t, these gatekeepers 
  sigh in annoyance. Several of the other celebrants screwed up 
  and did not follow the instructions needed to get the ink. 
  Though the guards call the agents typical careless idiots, this 
  omission alone does not arouse their suspicions.
  On the other hand, if the tattoos do light up, they immediately 
  accept the team without further questioning.
  Forensic Psychology: Some force has impaired the 
  guards’ brain function, putting them in a semi-trance state.
  Impersonate or a 1-point Reassurance spend convinces 
  the guards that any halfway credible explanation for the team’s 
  late arrival makes sense. They urge the group to report to the 
  fuselage for briefing, and watch to make sure they go. This takes 
  them to “Fuselage Bacchanal.”
  On a Difficulty 4 Infiltration test, group members can 
  edge away from the guards to immediately confront the horrors 
  of “The Eater and the Eaten.”
  If this test fails, and the group’s tattoos didn’t glow under 
  UV light, the guards pull their Glocks and open fire. Attacking 
  celebrants (immediately below) show up as reinforcements, 
  unless the investigators succeed in dropping the guards silently 
  and in a single round.
  
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  Having physically overcome the guards, the team can 
  then move on to either “Fuselage Bacchanal” or “The Eater  
  and the Eaten.”
  guards
  abilities: Athletics 8, Health 8, Scuffling 8, Shooting 8
  hit threshold: 4
  alertness modifier: −1
  stealth modifier: −2
  weapon: −1 (combat baton), +0 (pistol)
  If a later scene requires extra bad guy firepower, the guards 
  might show up to start blasting away. Even if they take out these 
  guys, you can rationalize the appearance of additional well-
  armed guardians. Keep them as a supplemental threat, though.
  Celebrants Attack
  scene type: Antagonist Reaction
  lead-ins: Copter Assault, Undercover Entry,  
  Fuselage Bacchanal
  lead-outs: Fuselage Bacchanal, The Eater and the Eaten
  When they see the agents doing things that seem counter to 
  the spirit of their summoning, the recruits lured to the island 
  by the Vivonics viral marketing campaign react variously. Most 
  remain in their ecstatic state, watching in dazed, psychotropic 
  fascination as if they’re watching performance art at Burning 
  Man. Others successfully identify the team as disruptive to their 
  party, but can’t muster the will or motor control to attack. A 
  small fraction summon the wherewithal to pick up rocks or 
  draw knives they brought with them to the island. They swarm 
  at the agents, intent on murdering them. Sometimes, when 
  one goes down, a dazed celebrant jolts from reverie to join the 
  attacking mob.
  celebrants
  abilities: Athletics 4, Health 1, Scuffling 4
  hit threshold: 3
  alertness modifier: −2
  stealth modifier: −2
  weapon: −1 (rock)
  Start with two more celebrants than there are agents. When an 
  agent takes out a celebrant, roll a die. On an odd result, another 
  celebrant watching from the sidelines lights up, achieves clarity, 
  and rushes over to join the fray. Otherwise no one replaces him.
  A safe landing in “Copter Assault” sets off the celebrants. 
  Otherwise, use them when the agents give themselves away or 
  make their first aggressive move.
  If story logic demands it, agents may provoke more than one 
  celebrant attack. Look for a way to make the second one distinct 
  from the first, and not just a boring rehash.
  Fuselage Bacchanal
  scene type: Alternate
  lead-ins: Copter Attack, Undercover Entry,  
  Celebrants Attack
  lead-outs: Celebrants Attack, The Eater and the Eaten
  In this scene the group can gain the information putting the 
  climax in context.
  The Esoterror recruits from all around the world gather either 
  inside the fuselage or party alongside it. Speaker towers near the 
  wings blast pumping electronic dance music. Celebrants dip red 
  fiesta cups into a nasty-looking oil drum full of crimson punch.
  Forensic Pathology: Their jagged gait and gross motor 
  impairment suggest something else working on them other than 
  mere alcohol.
  Chemistry: The punch itself consists of grain alcohol plus 
  a powdered drink mix. Circumstances aside, there’s nothing 
  weird about it.
  Unless the team does something egregious to seem like the 
  cops, the celebrants here assume they’re supposed to be here. 
  They may appear momentarily inquisitive if the agents lack 
  tattoos, but accept pretty much any explanation the PCs supply.
  Here the group might meet surviving Esoterror affiliates 
  from past cases, for example Maria Alcaine (p. 45) or Zach 
  Moreno (p. 18). Absent a reminder, the baleful psychic 
  radiation of the Emerging One dulls their recollections; they 
  fail to place the team members. Here agents could otherwise 
  (or also) meet tattoo recipients whose names they uncovered in 
  “Tattoo Hunt.”
  Some of the celebrants seem more sober and attentive 
  than others. An agent might choose to approach one to get 
  instructions. A broad-shouldered woman with dirty blonde 
  dreadlocks, Lorena Aanderaa, serves as apparent traffic captain. 
  In response to questions, she supplies the following information:
  f
  Organization has gone to hell, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
  f
  The Emerging One gets into your head, makes it hard to think.
  f
  But all you have to do, when you hear the Trumpet Blast 
  From Beyond, is go into the fuselage, untie one of the 
  passengers, and drag them down to the end of the island 
  where the Great Manifestation is occurring.
  f
  Be sure to inject them with numinous blood at the  
  injection station.
  f
  The syringes in this collection of generator-powered small 
  refrigeration units contain blood harvested from victims of 
  past ODE encounters. It shows the Emerging One who the 
  sacrifices are, so it doesn’t eat its servants.
  f
  Those who prove worthy will become Elder Demons of the 
  new order. (Lorena clearly assumes she falls into that category.)
  f
  Those who are judged useless will eventually be devoured, 
  even if they’re free of numinous blood. But that won’t 
  happen until the supply of passengers runs out.
  f
  If you see passengers trying to escape, round them up again 
  and retie them to their seats.
  
  93
  attack, bacchanal, the eater and the eaten 
  f
  If you see someone else has already started taking a hostage 
  to the Great Manifestation, wait your turn till next time.
  f
  Like a normal organism, the Emerging One can only digest 
  so much at one time. It can’t consume more than one or 
  two passengers per Trumpet Blast.
  f
  When you take a passenger to it, the Emerging One leaves 
  bits of the victim behind. Feel free to wear these on your 
  person as signals of your worthiness.
  f
  You can do whatever you want to the passengers, so long as 
  you don’t lower their nutrient value.
  Other celebrants wander about as if enjoying a good party. Some 
  filter in and out of the fuselage. Ropes hanging from the front 
  entry doors behind the cockpit allow them to get in and out.
  Inside the fuselage, the team sees a hundred or so terrified 
  passengers duct-taped or tied to their seats. The many empty 
  seats suggest that the others have already been sacrificed. 
  Assuming that they’re with the Esoterrorists, the passengers 
  flinch from team members.
  Depending on how graphic you want this scene to be, you 
  might describe celebrants in the fuselage as actively performing 
  vile acts on their captives. For many groups you’ll want to leave 
  this to the imagination. However you depict their depredations, 
  their presence prevents the team from openly reassuring 
  passengers that they’re here to help.
  When the players run out of stuff they want their characters 
  to do in this scene, a horrible screeching sound shudders the 
  island. Hearing it requires a Difficulty 7 Stability test against a 
  possible loss of 4.
  If a player immediately reacts to this by untying a passenger 
  to lead him or her away, the group can head to “The Eater and 
  the Eaten” with a reason to enter the area.
  Otherwise another celebrant leaps into action, cutting up 
  the duct tape that traps a trembling Vietnamese man in his late 
  sixties, and hauls him to the fuselage door. He tosses the man 
  out and then shinnies down the rope.
  The agents might follow him, or hang back and continue to 
  poke around.
  The Eater and the Eaten
  scene type: Climax
  lead-ins: Copter Assault, Undercover Entry,  
  Celebrants Attack, Fuselage Bacchanal
  Either on their own, or posing as Esoterror recruits with a 
  trembling, screaming prisoner in tow, the agents start to make 
  out a giant rent in reality at the end of the island. Through it they 
  can glimpse what can only be the Outer Dark. Seeing it requires 
  a Difficulty 8 Stability test against a possible loss of 6.
  Inside the tear in space, an amorphous, rippling entity forms. 
  About the size of the jetliner, it sprouts and then reabsorbs 
  various appendages: tentacles, tendrils, saw-toothed insect 
  arms, flowing polyps. Dozens of gigantic, distorted faces, 
  each expressing a different flavor of agony, appear like buboes 
  along its shapeless bulk. Each reminds the team of a person, 
  evil or innocent, who died at some point during the entire 
  Worldbreaker investigation.
  This is the Emerging One.
  
  worldbreaker
  heart of outer darkness
  94
  Having done this, the Emerging One seems to lapse into a 
  torpor, as if digesting devoured life energy. This less active state 
  lasts for 15 minutes for each of the slain character’s Health 
  points, or until the team attacks it again.
  Otherwise, the creature pays them no heed.
  Of the possible plans the team might come up with to end 
  the threat, ones that will definitely work include:
  f
  Using the crystals from “Geoslashers” to draw the Emerging 
  One from the rent in the membrane, causing it to dissipate 
  prematurely, because it hasn’t eaten enough passengers 
  to yet gain full form. By “dissipate,” naturally we mean 
  “explode in a shower of ichor.”
  f
  Calling in a drone strike. This kills everyone on the island, 
  including all the investigators. But this enormous sacrifice 
  saves the world.
  f
  Call in more SSF copters to extract the remaining 
  passengers, while distracting the creature’s attention so it 
  doesn’t knock them out of the sky on approach. Distracting 
  its attention means attacking it and getting destroyed, as 
  above. But if timed and coordinated just so, the sacrifice 
  gives the SSF teams exactly the time they need, leaving one 
  PC survivor left to attend the debriefing.
  Plans that we haven’t thought of, but seem to you like they ought 
  to work, do. Extend them with suspenseful moments in which 
  the fate of all hangs in the balance.
  Veil-Out
  scene type: Denouement
  With such a high-profile incident, a specialist team from Ordo 
  HQ takes over, relieving any survivors of Veil-Out planning 
  duty. All the passengers have gone irretrievably insane and are 
  installed in a luxurious psychiatric facility to while away the rest 
  of their days. Esoterror recruits fit the same bill but get sent to a 
  barebones institution. Aviation officials stage a press conference 
  announcing the sighting of the jet’s wreckage in the deep ocean. 
  Everyone aboard, they say, clearly died on impact.
  Between them and it stands Ellis Sherman, his flak jacket 
  festooned with the discarded body parts of passengers the 
  Emerging One has already devoured. He has ears and noses 
  on his bandanna, strips of flesh hanging from his pockets, and 
  eyeballs stuck with small stainless steel cooking skewers to his 
  floppy canvas sun hat.
  Whether or not they met him back in “Heart of Outer 
  Darkness,” he clocks them immediately as Ordo operatives. 
  Confident of ultimate victory, he’s happy to insanely tell the 
  team exactly why their efforts will prove fruitless. In addition to 
  any answers they might otherwise have gotten from Lorena, he 
  reveals the following.
  f
  The Emerging One is the largest Outer Dark Entity ever 
  to form on Earth.
  f
  When it completes its birthing cycle, this already gigantic 
  tear in the membrane will rip right open, allowing every 
  demon within to flood the world. The wall between 
  realities will become a thing of the past.
  f
  Ellis tells the other fools that they’ll be kings or some such 
  nonsense. Really they’ll just all be eaten, and so will he. 
  The world is shit, and it’s time it was destroyed. He’s ready 
  to die, so long as he can take everyone else with him.
  f
  The island is itself an extrusion of Outer Darkness energy 
  into the ordinary world. The anxiety caused by the previous 
  four cases helped to bring it into solid being.
  f
  It was the Emerging One who first contacted Marshall 
  Powell. It started the plan; Ellis can only claim to be its 
  final servitor.
  Ellis doesn’t fear for the Emerging One’s safety. He does nothing 
  to stop the team from approaching the manifestation. Nor does 
  he defend himself against them. If they take him prisoner, he 
  laughs maniacally. If they shoot him, he dies giggling that he’s 
  already won.
  Immediately attacking the Emerging One directly proves 
  useless. If attacked, the creature juts out an appendage, which 
  impales the investigator with the lowest Athletics pool. The 
  agent then explodes in a shower of blood, bone, and muscle. 
  Seeing this happen requires the survivors to make Difficulty 5 
  Stability tests against a possible loss of 7.
  
  with extensive adaPtation you could use Worldbreaker as the 
  basis for a Night’s Black Agents campaign. Although a raft of details 
  require modification, the main changes you’ll need to make are:
  a) 
  more chasing
  b) new goals for the villains
  Your NBA agents stumble across the video of the sex club 
  murders, or the murder scene itself. This happens as part of the 
  instigating event in which they get burned in the first place, or 
  during a series already in progress. The vampires behind it all 
  immediately discover that the agents possess both this evidence 
  and the wherewithal to eventually understand it. So they send 
  waves of strike teams to zero them out. This introduces the 
  pursuit thriller element that NBA thrives on.
  Because Night’s Black Agents lets you pick the traits of your 
  key vampires, no one set of replacement goals will work for all 
  GMs. Our example assumes supernatural vampires capable of 
  working ritual magic and who fear sunlight, as per tradition. 
  If you’ve chosen alien vampires who explode in freezing 
  temperatures, you’ll need an alternate take.
  In this version, the ritual on the island in “Swallowed” seeks 
  to bring on an eternal cloud cover across the globe. Once 
  conjured, it will allow vampires to move about at will during 
  the daytime, changing everything.
  As wet-working field assets, you could stick with the symps, 
  portraying them as manifestations of vampiric necromancy. 
  Alternately, the Powells might inject their chosen pawns with 
  blood-filled syringes. This specially charged blood allows distant 
  vampires to puppet the hosts from afar.
  Over the course of the four preliminary cases, the PCs 
  discover preparations for a new nocturnal order. They uncover:
  f
  hydroponic facilities in which food will be grown to sustain 
  the prey population.
  f
  protocols to officialize the new worldwide vampirocracy.
  f
  a secret security apparatus, ready to spring into action to 
  enforce it.
  To work the big magic of “Swallowed,” the vampires must first 
  conduct preliminary summonings, bringing rare or expunged 
  bloodsucker types back into the world.
  The gigglers of “Coulrophobia” are vampires formed from 
  the fears of children, and those who still retain their childhood 
  terrors.
  The cavelings of “New Crystal Maiden” become nosferatu-
  style vamps with a Mayan twist.
  In “Heart of Outer Darkness,” Ellis Sherman tries to summon 
  a forgotten strain of plague vampires. Here the Ebola grenades 
  and dirty bombs are meant to turn the people of Gwoza into a 
  mass sacrifice. Portray the Colonel as an ancient vampire lord, 
  capable of world-spanning sorceries.
  Breaking somewhat from the pattern, the murders of 
  “Geoslashers” gather necromantic energy needed for the big 
  working. They signal to isolated vampires and their Renfields 
  that the time of the great change draws near.
  Appendix: Night’s Black 
  Agents Hack
  
  Fear Itself 2nd Edition 
  plunges ordinary 
  people into a disturbing 
  contemporary world of 
  madness and violence — and 
  inexorably draws them into 
  confrontation with creatures of the 
  Outer Black, a realm of alien menace. GMs 
  can re-create all the shudders and shocks of the horror 
  genre at their table, whether they use the game’s 
  distinctive mythology or one of their own choosing.
   Powered by the GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying 
  system, Fear Itself is ideal for one-shot horror games 
  (where few, if any, of the protagonists are expected to 
  survive), or ongoing campaigns in which the characters 
  gradually 
  discover 
  more 
  about 
  the 
  disturbing 
  supernatural reality that hides in the shadows of the 
  ordinary world. Will they learn how to combat the 
  darkness? Or spiral tragically into insanity and death?
  This expanded edition supports multiple different 
  types of play, from bloody one-shots to extended 
  investigative campaigns. Its updated rules draw from 
  more than ten years of GUMSHOE development and 
  play experience, to deliver the ultimate in personal 
  horror roleplaying.
  Fear Itself 2nd Ed. 
  includes three sample 
  scenarios, from a one-
  night adventure through a 
  mini-series, to a full campaign:
  The Circle: An experimental drug trial goes horribly 
  wrong when one of your fellow participants 
  disappears. Figure out what happened to him, or 
  you’re next.
  Glass Beach Summer: The storm changed everything. We 
  went home, one by one. And then we started to see 
  them. We saw the monsters. At first, we thought the 
  storm had brought them. It was only later that we 
  learned the truth. The storm changed only us. The 
  monsters were always there.
  The Dispatchers: No backup. No assistance. Just a voice 
  on the radio in the night, asking you for help. In 
  this campaign, unlikely monster hunters are drawn 
  together by the mysterious signal. Can they survive 
  their missions long enough to save themselves?
  pelgf01
  The Roleplaying Game of Personal Horror
  www.pelgranepress.com
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Esoterrorists/Worldbreaker.pdf