Scenario Outline: Crescendo

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Crescendo - Operation DRAW

On August 2nd, 2002, Kurtis Cameron Boyd, a record producer for Conqueror Worm Records, enters the Record label's office armed with a pump-action shotgun and a jerry can of gasoline. He kills three people with close-range shotgun blasts before he enters the recording studio where Charnel Dreams have been recording their latest album, The Goddess of the Black Fan, where he douses recording equipment, instruments, and master recordings in gasoline and sets it alight in an attempt to destroy the music and the entire recording studio. By the time he exits the burning recording studio, police and the fire department are on their way. He proceeds to his office and pours himself a large whiskey, downs it, and turns the gun on himself. 

Conqueror Worm Records is a known property of Robert Hubert, known in the occult underground as Belial, also the manager of Club Apocalypse and its house band, Charnel Dreams. Belial is a deadly, violent man and a member of The Fate, a shadowy council that leads the sorcerous criminal cabal known as The Network. The Fate and its network are, combined, the most powerful cult in the world. So it comes as some surprise when Belial sends a missive to a random Delta Green agent discretely requesting that Delta Green investigate Boyd's suicide.

He argues that it obviously wasn't his idea to have the record producer he paid millions to move to NYC and work for him full-time go into his own record studio and destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own instruments and recording equipment in a display of insane violence that would get him on the news. He flatly rejects the idea that Boyd endured a generic psychological "break", and thinks that if not due to a conspiracy, someone acted with indiscretion and caused Boyd to break. If it's a conspiracy, then whoever's idea it was didn't clear it with Belial, and that isn't going to go unpunished. If it's the result of neglect or indisretion, his reaction isn't going to be any lighter. He has turned to Delta Green for this, as he suspects the culprit to be o

A-Cell chafes at the notion of helping Belial keep his house in order, but Belial's offer is...tempting. They will be under his protection against any retalliation should it be someone from within The Network acting against Belial, and they will have license to prosecute any targets they can prove are responsible for this embarassment. But more sweet than that, he offers the agents names, account numbers, information on anyone they want. Flight dates for Tiger Transit, names of Exalted Circle members, addresses of DeMonte Clan hideouts, anything.

INVESTIGATION
  • Investigating Boyd's home finds a list of names, dates, and a business card from Dr. Jensen Wu at the American Museum of Natural History. With some digging, the names and dates correlate to missing person cases for young girls throughout America. Further digging reveals that the girls' disappearances occurred after having attended concerts hosted by Charnel Dreams in years past. 
  • Boyd seems to have become obsessed with esoteric passages from the music, claiming that the music reverberated in his mind. Speaking with Dr. Jensen Wu, the Agents can learn that Wu believes an unnatural element in the music is capable of generating "Tulpas". 
  • Agents that investigate the families of the missing girls find them oddly placid, seemingly lulled by a recording of a man signing over beautiful acoustic guitar that seems to fill them with awe and wonder before placing them in a trance. The singing is human but in an alien tongue, and as they listen, ghost lights dance about their heads - and in their trance, horrific, half-dreamed alien horrors manifest. Tulpas.
  • Charnel Dreams has gone on tour, set to announce their hotly anticipated new record at the culmination of the tour at Club Apocalypse. Agents that trace their tour dates and their activities across the country might discover Anton Merriweather's unsettling addiction to blood and violence. Reliving old memories, Merriweather is liable to travel out to some of the "holy grounds" where he sacrificed his victims. If asked, Belial or another source in Club Apocalypse could, for a price, point out that the area correlates with "consecrated grounds" that are thought by some occultists to be "places of power". 
  • Research into the "Goddess of the Black Fan" can reveal that it's inspired by a tome recently acquired by Merriweather. Investigations can point to the book being linked to a profane mystery cult that festered in Shanghai and Hong Kong known as the Cult of the Bloated Woman. 
THREATS
  • The agents find themselves the target of harassment by Charnel Dreams' listeners and by The Spahn, a gang of drifter, runaways, and occultists obsessed with the saga of the Manson Family. Asking around at Club Apocalypse might confirm the agent's suspicions, that while not "inked" members of the Network, the Spahn are totally beholden to Charnel Dreams and its leader singer, Anton Merriweather, who has promised them positions in the Network in exchange for their obedience. 
  • Alternatively, they may encounter minions of the Kokuryukai, the Black Dragon Society that conducted stateside espionage for the Japanese occult secret society and one-time nemesis of Delta Green, the Genyosha. A remnant of the Kokuryukai may have been the one to sell Anton Merriweather the tome of the Bloated Woman, confident that Merriweather could unlock its potential and guarantee both men greater favor in the eyes of Nyarlathotep. Of course, age hasn't dulled the old remnant's instincts, and hitmen and summoned horrors will greet attempts by Delta Green to disturb his plan.
  • Revisiting the esoteric venues for Charnel Dreams' music, they have a chance of encountering the ghostly impressions of Merriweather's victims, their tulpas replaying the evening's events in piecemeal. Caution is advised, as sometimes the tulpas might go off-script, and attack the Agents in desperate attempts to become more "real". 
  • Staking out a Charnel Dreams concert, or the nearest "place of power", the agents have an opportunity to catch Merriweather and his entourage escorting a young, drugged groupie to their sacrificial death. They have an opportunity to save the young woman and disrupt Merriweather's plan. 
  • Should their attempt fail, Merriweather cancels the tour and returns to home territory, performing for Club Apocalypse in a bid to gain favor with the Bloated Woman and Nyarlathotep. Belial suspects the maneuver is intended to be a power-play, aimed at increasing Merriweather's status as a rival to Belial. Delta Green, stuck on the dancefloors at Club Apocalypse, will be right in the middle of it when the sorcerous shit hits the fan. 

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