Suzerain of the Earth Part One

 CW: This part involves an in-depth description of a particularly violent suicide.

Briefing

Your agents' cell is activated by A-Cell on 1 June 1998. They're contacted late in the day with orders to fly to LeGuardia in New York City that night to receive their mission briefing by the morning of 2 June 1998, Delta Green has made arrangements with the Agents employers and tickets have already been purchased in their names. 

In the early morning of the 2nd, the agents arrive and are received by their cell leader. They're escorted in the back of an unmarked van, once they're in it begins driving. Their cell leader explains that yesterday, a Friendly of the conspiracy got in touch with their contact and reported a whole lot of weirdness concerning a recent death under investigation by the NYPD and now by the FBI. 

The victim is Wayne Klinger, an IRS CID Agent. On the night of May 31st, Klinger booked a room at the King Motel in South Brooklyn and that night, around midnight, he killed himself. The suicide was notably violent, with neighboring rooms believing he was being murdered. NYPD arrived and discovered Klinger, who was promptly pronounced dead at the scene by responding paramedics.

Klinger was quickly identified and the FBI and IRS were both notified. A Friendly in the FBI happened to be have seen the notes on Klinger's death and noted an odd detail - a sign or symbol cut into Klinger's flesh. When asked about it, NYPD homicide detectives were uncertain of the signs meaning or significance, but had determined Klinger had carved it himself using a shard of the bathroom mirror, which he had broken just before. 

The Friendly forwarded the details to their contact in Delta Green, then on to A-Cell. A-Cell's analysis is still underway, but what's been revealed thus far is that the symbol likely derives from Oeuth, a language commonly affiliated with the Gath of Central Asia and certain myths pertaining to the land of "Leng" and "Yian-Ho". A-Cell has decided to activate the Agents to investigate the mark and what connection it has to Klinger's untimely demise. Officially, the Agents have been assigned to investigation the "suspicious circumstances" of Special Agent Klinger's death. Delta Green expects the cover story to be simple and easily accepted, that stress from work combined with a toxic combination of alcohol and prescription medication caused Klinger to endure a psychotic break that ended in suicide. Delta Green knows the truth is deeper than this.

Their cell leader takes a few questions, hands them a dossier on Klinger and keys to a sedan, then the van slows to a stop and the back doors open to the King Motel, the scene of the crime. A black sedan in a parking space is theirs for the operation. With that, their cell leader tells them "Be seeing you", salutes them, and closes the van doors as they leave. 

The King Motel

2586 Stillwell Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11223, United States.

The King Motel is a single story motel in Brooklyn. From the parking lot you can see the MTA railyard to the East and Coney Island to the South. The Coney Island Creek is less than a quarter mile South. 

Crime scene tape bars the door to Klinger's motel room. CSI technicians mill about the room, taking DNA samples and photographing things. Klinger's body has since been relocated from the room and is at the New York City Chief Medical Examiner's Office. 

Room 12

Klinger's motel room looks like it was struck by a torpedo. There are holes in the walls, broken and scratched furniture, the television is broken and the innards of the clock-radio and the telephone are sprawled across the floor. 

Agenst with adequate skill in Forensics can tell that almost all of the damage was done by someone in the room using hands and feet (blood stains on the glass of the TV and the mirror in the bathroom, as well as blood smears on the floor and on the walls near where holes were punched). It was all done relatively quick. It started on the bed, Klinger destroyed the telephone and radios near the bedside first, as they were closest to him, then destroyed the television. It appears the television was hurled downwards multiple times. CSI investigation indicates that Klinger likely broke his foot by dropping the tv on it, though whether this was intentional or accidental has yet to be determined. 

After destroying the television, Klinger walked barefoot to the bathroom and tore it apart, culminating in him smashing the mirror and taking one of the shards in his hands. He then returned to the bedroom and began cutting himself with the mirror before turning it to his scalp and etching the symbol into it. The entire ordeal was very frantic and likely took no longer than five minutes.

Agents with any amount in psychotherapy can tell that for a man with no history of suicidal ideation, self-harm, or affiliated mental disorders, this sudden and violent act of self-mutilation and suicide is extremely uncharacteristic. It is possible Klinger experienced a sudden and severe psychotic episode, but nothing in his history indicates that he would be at risk of developing psychosis. Agents who have psychotherapy at 60% or higher, or who succeed a roll at -20%, could tell that a possible explanation for this could be a poison, namely, a deliriant (like the petals of the datura flower), though you would need to run a toxicology exam on Klinger to determine the presence of drugs in his blood. If the agents take the time to do this, tests come back negative for everything except melatonin.

CSI investigators have already bagged most of the items of interest they could find. Agents that insist on a search check find nothing else, it looks like CSI did their jobs. They find a binder with ripped pages inside (the pages are all there, just in torn pieces), a half-carton of cigarettes, a zippo lighter, and a pill bottle of melatonin, a sleeping medication. 

The binder appears to be where he had collected most of his notes on his investigation. The label reads "Case File 712: Coney Island Carpets". Most of the pages have been torn, a few look like Klinger chewed on them in the moments before his death and smeared his bloodied hands across some pages. Reconstructing it will require a Forensics of >60%, or a successful roll, and will takes multiple hours, days if the agents fail their roll or are insufficiently trained in Forensics. Of course, bringing a friendly on or handing it to the FBI is always a possibility, though it will be up to the agents whether they want to risk potentially exposing outsiders to unnatural events that may or may nto be detailed in the file. One of the only notes on the back says "Dr. Wu, AMNH". (For what agents can find in the reconstructed notes, see "Case File 712: Coney Island Carpets")

Klinger's Remains

Special Agent Klinger's remains are currently stored at the New York Chief Medical Examiner's office in Brooklyn. One of the pathologists employed at the office, Dr. Mariette Monpierre, is a longtime Delta Green friendly who works nights. Agents can turn to her specifically, if they feel the need to keep extra secret about the investigation, but as they are on an official assignment inquiring into Klinger's suicide, they're able to be seen by other staff at the office, who can show them Klinger's remains and give their opinion. 

The Cadaver

Klinger's remains have been on ice for two days by the time the scenario begins. It was left in the room for approximately three hours before it was moved to the morgue and refrigerated. Klinger's body appears to be decomposing at a normal rate given the cirumstances of his demise and storage post-mortem. 

Agents interested in pursuing a drug angle might request a toxicology exam. If they have Bureaucracy >50% or succeed a roll, it only takes one day, otherwise it takes 1D3 days to process and for the results to reach the Agents. They learn that Klinger's toxicology report comes back negative for most illegal street drugs and most medications except for aspirin and melatonin. Additionally his blood-alcohol level appears heightened, as if he had been drinking regularly in the days prior, but hadn't drank for at least two hours before his death.

The medical examiner's office has concluded the cause of death to be suicide, specifically massive bleeding caused by self-inflicted lacerations and blunt-force trauma leading to shock and organ failure. The major sources of bleeding were self-inflicted stab wounds made with a broken shard of the bathroom mirror to the arms, chest, and head. It appears that the last major injury Klinger gave himself was to cut his own scalp with the mirror shard in a deliberate pattern. None of the examiners or pathologists can identify the symbol, the best they can do is that it looks like Chinese, but more "mathematical". 

Of particular note is that the coroner notes all of the lacerations were done by Klinger holding the broken piece of mirror in his right hand, which is peculiar seeing that he was left-handed. A prison attempting to deliberately inflict injuries with a blade are more likely going to use their dominant hand. 

The Glyph on the Scalp

The Glyph on Klinger's scalp appears is not of any langauge the Agents have heard of or seen in their day-to-day lives. Any agent with Science (Linguistics), an INTx5 score over 75, or who has >40% in Chinese or Japanese can identify that the symbol isn't a single symbol, but a series of interconnected symbols. The highly detailed characters and other details indicate the script the symbols belong to is logographic.

The glyph exudes no particular effect when viewed or touched. Casting 'the Voorish Sign' on it only reveals that it glows. (0/1 SAN from unnatural). Any agent that somehow knows Aklo (or who succeeds an unnatural roll) can spot the likeness from this character to characters found in the Aklo script, though it appears to be of a distinct script, and is not Aklo. The symbol roughly translates to "House of Exalted / Heavenly Torturers", though they will have no idea what that means or its context. 

The Internal Revenue Service

Agents wanting to get more information on Klinger and his investigation could try to piece together Klinger's notes, but they also might think to inquire with Klinger's superiors in the IRS. 

ASAC Rebecca Stafford

Special Agent Klinger reported to Assistant-Special-Agent-in-Charge Rebecca Stafford at the IRS CID New York Field Office. With their official cover with the FBI investigating the cirucmstances of Klinger's death, Stafford is forthcoming with answers and will share his latest report on his investigation. 

If asked, Stafford is baffled at Klinger's suicide, and says that while he may have been under high stress, that's common given their field of work. Until recently, he showed little to no signs of any sort of chronic stress disorders, or over-stress. She remarks that it was only after he had been working his current case that he began complaining of insomnia, night terrors, and his workflow began to suffer. She suspected he had relapsed into drinking, but didn't believe the issue had escalated enough to warrant intervening until it was too late. She frankly finds his death difficult to understand.

If asked about what he was investigating at the time of his death, she explains he had been investigating a potential money laundering racket involving a business called "Coney Island Carpets". C.I.C is a small, locally owned contractor business run out of Coney Island. Its owner and manager, Taras Dzubenko, is known to have had affiliations with the Brother's Circle (The Russian Mafia) in New York City, and the IRS suspects the business is a front used to launder cash, materials, and potentially even offer "criminal cleanings". Klinger was probing C.I.C's finances regarding a recent contract awarded to CIC by Guidelight Holdings, an English real estate firm believed by Scotland Yard and MI-5 to also be affiliated with the Russian mafia. The contract was to renovate a run-down apartment building in Coney Island known as the "Nedelko House". 

Case File 220712: Coney Island Carpets

If asked, Stafford can provide the agents with the case file concerning Klinger's investigation of Coney Island Carpets, Guidelight Holdings, and the Nedelko House. 

Klinger's investigation involved lengthy review of project cost reports, tax returns, invoices, and a litany of tax documentation searching for discrepancy in project expenses and spending pointing to disappearing / laundered cash or fraudulent receipts for building materials. An agent with >20% in Accounting can review Klinger's investigation notes and see his reasoning and find it sound: that thus far, he hadn't found reason to suspect that besides payroll made out to absentee workers, Coney Island Carpets' operation was being run legitimately. An agent with >60% in Accounting (or who makes a roll) can spend 2D8 hours studying the documentation collected by Klinger themselves. An agent that makes the time commitment (and succeeds the skill test) can learn that Coney Island Carpets has made two notable, unusual "business expenses". The first was booking a hotel and flight from London, England, to New York City for a "Ronald Poole", a "supervisor" from Guidelight Holdings, the second is a deposit in a self-storage space in Red Hook, paid for my Coney Island Carpets but signed to "R. Poole" for four months. The documentation provides the name of the storage company and the unit number for the rented space. 

Among Klinger's files is an exhaustive report on the personnel of Coney Island Carpets and persons pertaining to the investigation, accompanied by color photographs. The list is as follows:

CONEY ISLAND CARPETS - PERSONNEL

• Taras Dzubenko - Owner, Ukrainian Immigrant. former Brothers Circle mob affiliate.
• Emma Rogers - Receptionist, American Citizen
• Rodya Proskurkin - Contractor, Russian Immigrant, former Russian Police
• Leonid Poltorak - Contractor, Russian Immigrant
• Mili Poltorak - Contractor, Russian Immigrant, younger sibling to Leonid Poltorak
• Trokhym Kostenko - Contractor, Ukrainian Immigrant
• Valerij Denysyuk - Contractor, Ukrainian Immigrant
• Iosif Oborin - Contractor, Ukrainian Immigrant
• Peter Siyannin - Contractor, Second-Generation Russian Immigrant
• Krasimir Pryjmak - Contractor, Third-Generation Ukrainian Immigrant

All personnel above are suspected affiliates of the Brothers Circle organized crime group with the exception of Emma Rogers. 

GUIDELIGHT HOLDINGS - PERSONNEL

• Fedor Bell-Platonov - CEO, Russian Immigrant, UK citizen, resides in London. 
• Ronald Poole - Supervisor, in New York City to oversee Nedelko House renovations. Background unclear. 

Note to self: Follow-up with Scotland Yard.

All of the above people have photos. A few isolated photos from previous investigation depict several Coney Island Carpets personnel, namely Iosif Oborin, Leonid Poltorak, and Rodya Proskurkin, of wearing Russian prison tattoos denoting them as members of the Russian Mafia. A professional headshot of Fedor Bell-Platonov and Ronald Poole are also shown, with no such tattoos. 

An agent investigating the photos with >50% in criminology, or with a relevant special training or background in surveillance, can spot that in at least two photos, Ronald Poole is looking directly at the camera. Klinger might not have known it, but he was made early on. 

An agent investigating the photos with >50% in Forensics or a relevant special training or art skill can detect that "Ronald Poole" is wearing a heavy concealer on his face. 

Researching the Symbol

The symbol carved into Klinger's scalp is what drew Delta Green to the operation. A-Cell's preliminary investigation ties it to "Oeuth" an obscure logographic script used by the Gath people of Central Asia, and affiliated with early occult myths and theories about the "Plateau of Leng" and "Yian-Ho". A-Cell's investigation of the symbol is ongoing, though the agents are wise to do their own legwork to find out the providence of the symbol. They have a few places they can look. 

The Internet

The internet at this point doesn't have much in the way of information on Oeuth or its associated myths, but articles and blog posts dug up there can point the agents towards other, more informative sources.

New York Central Library

Researching Oeuth at the New York Central Library can find meaningful answers with an Occult >50% (or if they succed a roll at +20%), or a history of >60% (or a successful roll with no modifiers). 

Oeuth is a logographic script that is relatively obscure, with few artifacts and records existing in academic archives. It is used by the "Gath" people of Northeastern Afghanistan and is considered a language isolate, meaning that it has no distinguishible relation to any regionally spoken languages. 

Gath history is sparse, and there has been little dedicated research on their culture and history in the past. What has been recorded, from relics attributed to the Gath in Afghanistan and sparse interviews with Gath elders, paints a vague picture of their history: The Gath claim to have migrated to Afghanistan from a land of great mountains, which in Oeuth they refer to as "Leung", it is unclear whether "Leung" is somewhere in the Himalayas or the Ural mountains. Relics with Oeuth etchings have been located in both locales, indicating that at some point, the Gath migrated from one to the other somewhere in their ancient history.

Gath populations exist outside Afghanistan, primarily in Russia, the United States, and in migrant worker communities in Qatar and Bahrain. 

In the 1960s, a group of linguists from Stanford University briefly interviewed and recorded conversations with the Gath and with Afghani locals about them.  The Gath are said to be shunned and discriminated against by local Afghanis, and have a reputation as "backwards inbreds" and "demon worshippers".The result of this study was published in 1966, including a rough dictionary of Oeuth. With an INTx5 over 60% or a successful roll, an agent can follow the rules of the Oeuth language and spend a day translating the symbol. A failed roll results in the process taking 1D3 days, though knowing this, agents might get gassed out and quit. 

Translating the symbol on your own is a time-consuming effort, as Oeuth is a peculiar language with oblique grammar and awkward syntax to English speakers. An agent with an INTx5 score of >75%, or who succeeds an INTx5 roll at -20% can spend 6 hours devising a translation. Should an agent fail their roll, they have other options. They can either dedicate another 6 six hours to study, and guarantee a success at the expense of valuable time, or try to delegate the task to an expert, though locating and convincing one to do this might be a challenge. Wu is able and somewhat willing, though Handlers should note that Wu will expect a favor in kind if the agents ask him to produce a quality translation. I guess there's your next scenario hook or downtime action. 

The symbol roughly translates to "EXALTED TORTURER OF THE HIGH MOUNTAIN". Notably, the world "Exalted" typically denotes the subject as belonging to a noble house or clan. "Torturer" is a compound word made up of "Man" and "Cattle Driver". "High" is interchangeable with "Heavenly", and "Mountain" can alternately translated as "plateau", "summit", or "peak". 

The American Museum of Natural History

One man among the faculty at New York's American Museum of Natural History has a history of collaborating with Delta Green, the agents might be tempted to approach him. His name is Dr. Jensen Wu, he's a valuable ally of Delta Green. The agents might get the idea to approach him and ask for a favor. 

Connecting with Dr. Wu

Of course, there comes the question, do the agents even know who Dr. Wu is? New players won't, and old players will sometimes be hesitant to say they are, afraid of metagaming. There are a variety of ways you can avoid stopping the game to clarify whether the agents even know this guy. 

• In the agent's briefing, include Dr. Wu's contact information as a trusted friendly at the AMNH who might be able to offer insight into the weird symbol..
• In your session zero prep, introduce Dr. Wu as an ally of the cell who they've encountered and worked beside on missions in the past. 
• Suggest your agent bring the matter of the Cell Leader, who references them to Wu.
• There is a reference to Wu among Agent Klinger's destroyed notes in the motel room. 
• A member of the NYPD or FBI might know Wu from help rendered in a previous investigation and reference him to the agents. 

What Dr. Wu Can Offer

Wu has a breadth of occult and unnatural knowledge at his finger tips, both within the shelves at the D-Stacks, but also what he's gathered from his unnatural research. Delta Green: Countdown has him rocking a cool 22% in 'Cthulhu Mythos'. When the agents bring the symbol to him and describe the circumstances of where it was found and how it was made, you may have him roll his unnatural at 22% (if the agents remark that Klinger was suffering night terrors in the days and weeks leading up to his death, and that the symbol was self-inflicted, he rolls at +20%). 

On a success: Wu's memory serves him. He races to a catalogue of old books and retrieves one and brings it to the agents. The cover reads "De Vermis Mysteriis" and he flips through to a specific passage and points the agents to it. The passage describes the author's meeting with "Turkic sages from far Asia" in Egypt, recounting the strange language the men claimed was their native tongue "Oi-Uth". He recounts that the men claimed to have travelled to egypt from a remote region of Afghanistan to pray at sites sacred to "The Hidden God". 

Prinn's descriptions include a brief summary (with recreations) of some of the symbols the sages sported on their clothing and during rituals. Agents will notice that one of the symbols matches the symbol etched into Klinger's scalp. Prinn's account claims that the Sages wore a scarified version of the symbol on their inner arm. The sages claimed it marked them as emissaries, under the protection of a caste of slave-driving nobles from a far-off nation called "Leng". The sages spoke of their masters in such a way that made them seem capricious, capable of both great charity and astounding cruelty. They advise Prinn that their masters are capable of scrying on them through the marks, and capable of bombarding them with "terrible dreams of unspeakable horror" as a punishment. Prinn is told that he is safe from the wrath of the sage's masters, as the spells they use to torture their subordinates require the masters to have a drop of their blood or a lock of their hair to direct the spell to its target. On a critical success, the agent may also add +1D4% to the Occult and History skills. 

On a failure: Wu's memory doesn't serve him. He knows he's heard of Oeuth, but can't remember in what book. Agents can persuade him to help find the passage, (-20% if they refuse to help him, +20% if they offer the help of multiple agents). The search for the passage takes 1D4 days of dedicated research -1 for each Agent that agrees to help Wu. 

On a fumble: Wu's mistakenly identifies the symbol as pertaining to the Cthulhu myth cycle. He reviews his research and halfheartedly claims that the symbol marks its wearer as a slave of the Lloigor.

The Gath

The Gath are an exceptionally obscure people, while possible, locating one will be very challenging. Agents with connections in Immigrations Enforcement or the CIA would have a leg up. 

Immigrations Enforcement would have a record of one "Musa Yogda", an Afghani Gath immigrant who migrated to the United States in 1988 and who lives in Baltimore, Maryland, as a taxi driver. The CIA would be able to connect the agent to a former case officer that liaised with the Gath during the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan in an aborted attempt to muster them against the Russians. 

Musa Yogda would be able to read the symbol and speak about its meaning, telling them that the "Men from Leng" were legends in his village, a bogeyman of sorts, that the Elders performed rituals to stave off. If pressed, he knows nothing to indicate who might have done it. He says that Gath immigrants are few and far between, and that leaving the village effectively marks them as exiles, never to return. If asked about how he left his village, he claims the village was visited by Russians who interrogated locals on alleged Mujahideen caches in the hills, and that while he doesn't remember much, he knows there was bloodshed and worse. Greedy agents that try to press him for more are rewarded by causing Yogda to have a PTSD flashback. 

The CIA case officer the agents might be pointed to (only if they have strong connections in the company) is one Rochester "Chester" Manning. Manning can recall the failed "diplomatic" mission to the Gath valley and can lend is very rusty knowledge of their language and customs to discern the meaning of the symbol. His takeaway is similar to Yogda's. 

A-Cell's Research

Should the agents neglect to pursue research in favor of hard evidence, then in five days, they receive a couriered packet sent by A-Cell containing A-Cell's findings. 

A-Cell's research is sourced from ALPHONSE's copy of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan. It contains a translation of the word and denotes its origins in Afghanistan. If the agents have reported back to A-Cell on their progress, including reports on the Russian connection to Klinger's death, A-Cell includes a heavily redacted transcript of an NSA/CIA report on Russian troop movements in Afghanistan in the 1980s, including reports of a major operation searching for Mujahideen hideouts in a region of Afghanistan overlapping with Gath Valley.